Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper April 5, 2014

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April 5, 2014 - April 5, 2014, The Afro-American

www.afro.com

Volume 122 No. 35

APRIL 5, 2014 - APRIL 11, 2014

Eastside Organizations Demand Change in Housing Agenda

The Resurrection of State Center

By Jonathan Hunter AFRO Staff Writer

A rendition of the State Center project

Register to Vote! Deadline June 3

INSIDE A4

Mobile Dental Clinics Set Out to Serve Community

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Will We Make it to the Promised Land?

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By Sean Yoes Special to the AFRO

Your History • Your Community • Your News

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After emerging from a prolonged legal limbo supporters of the billion-dollar State Center Project still believe it could be transformative for the chronically struggling neighborhoods that surround it. First in a Series Last week the Maryland Court of Appeals removed what had been an obstinate legal hurdle in the form of a lawsuit by a group of business owners – funded partly by Orioles owner Peter Angelos – which had prevented the $1.5 billion State Center Project from moving forward. The massive Midtown redevelopment of the state government office complex sprawled over 28 acres near Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Eutaw Street, had been stalled since 2010 because plaintiffs claimed – among other things – developers had violated state procurement laws. The court’s ruling clears the way for the reboot of State Center and the promise of thousands of jobs over the next 10 years – many allegedly designated Continued on A3

Photo by Bobbie Padgett

A diverse crowd came to the “speak out” event to voice their displeasure of failed development policies.

Difficulties Faced by Food Stamp Recipients Poorly Understood By Roberto Alejandro Special to the AFRO

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Donald Gresham, a medical technician, never imagined he would be homeless. Gresham, who helped people for a living, needed help himself. He lived on the third floor of a building in very undesirable living conditions where the winters were brutally cold. Gresham said “I learned how if you go to bed at a certain time and wrap yourself in a certain way you would be warm. But, one night I went to bed and literally thought I was going to

die, and I told God don’t let me die in this position.” That comment silenced the crowd and set the tone for many homeowners, renters, and homeless to share their stories on March 29 at St. Wenceslaus Church Hall. A diverse crowd of eastside organizations spearheaded by the United Workers came to the “Speak Out” event to voice their displeasure of failed development policies. They hoped that in coming together they could find a solution. Sharina Johnson of the United

Natalie Hickman

Natalie Hickman, a 23-year-old resident of Baltimore City, makes $8 an hour working at a McDonald’s located in BWI Airport. Only afforded four hours of work a day, Hickman spends as much time commuting to and from her job on public transportation as she does working her shift. She makes less than $480 a month. She receives a food stamps benefit of $347 per month to feed herself and her six-month-old daughter. How far does that monthly benefit stretch? “It never lasts,” says Hickman. For many Baltimore City residents like

Hickman, food stamps provide a vital if inadequate supplement to their monthly income. While economists have found that food stamps do effectively pull people out of poverty, they have also found that the benefits often do not last the month, an indictment of not only how unreasonably low the official poverty line is, but of how inaccurate common perceptions of poverty are. In Baltimore City, 208,000 people receive food stamp benefits, a figure encompassing all members of a household, according to Brian Schleter, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Human Resources. The USDA’s Food and Nutrition

$70M Ambulatory Center Will Serve West Baltimore By Sean Yoes Special to the AFRO

The University of Maryland Medical Center’s Midtown Campus plans to break ground at the end of this month on a new ambulatory care center in West Baltimore. According to officials the $70 million health facility to be built at the corner of Linden Avenue and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard will further the medical mission of the Midtown Campus focused on preventative care to some of the city’s most vulnerable communities. “We are trying to centralize ambulatory services here on this campus,” said Brian Bailey, senior vice president and executive director of the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus. “The midtown campus is frankly more

accessible to this community and this building that we’re putting together will have many of the ambulatory services that will address chronic needs of the community,” he added. Health disparities and challenges in impoverished communities of color have been widely chronicled and Bailey believes the new addition to the Midtown Campus will provide greater service to West Baltimore residents. “What is prevalent in our community are diseases such as diabetes, such as HIV, such as infectious disease…pulmonary issues,” Bailey said. “This building is going to house all of those chronic illnesses that are prevalent in our community so they (patients) can come to this center as their medical home, so you don’t have to travel all around the city to see all these specialists…to have those needs met,” he Continued on A4

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Donnetta Grayson

Trip to Restroom Ends with Black Texas Student’s Arrest, Felony Assaults Charges By Zachary Lester AFRO Staff Writer All Paris High School senior Joquan Wallace wanted was to go to the restroom. He got his teacher’s permission to leave class and decided to go to one some distance away because he wanted more privacy. A school police officer apparently followed him and later questioned Wallace about going to the restroom, authorities said. Wallace told the AFRO that Officer Joey McCarthy told him he had looked under the door to the stall while Wallace went to the restroom and noticed that his feet were

Copyright © 2014 by the Afro-American Company

Joquan Wallace not facing in the direction they would have been if he had been sitting down. The next thing he knew, Wallace, 19, was being Continued on A4


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