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March 19, 2016 - March 25, 2016, The Afro-American
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BALTIMORE-AREA 9 Candidates Discuss Policies at AFRO/Morgan State Mayoral Debate
By Deborah Bailey Special to the AFRO
Voter registration deadline for the April 26 Baltimore Primary Elections is April 5. Race and Politics
Trump May Come to Baltimore, One Year After Freddie Gray As I watched violence erupt at the University of Illinois at Chicago March 11 Sean Yoes between supporters Senior AFRO of Donald Contributor Trump and those protesting his appearance in that city, I wondered if Trump actually had the stones to come to Baltimore pedaling his political vitriol. After all, there are many parallels between Baltimore and Chicago; two great American cities grappling with poverty, prodigious violence and homicides, high profile cases of police brutality and pervasive mistrust of law enforcement in communities of color. As the scenes of pandemonium dominated cable news networks that evening, details of Trump’s future campaign plans began to trickle out. He not only planned to speak in Chicago, where 17-year old LaQuan McDonald was murdered by a Chicago police officer, but also in St. Louis (about eight miles from Ferguson, Missouri where unarmed teen Michael Brown was killed by police), and Cleveland, where 12-year old Tamir Rice was gunned down by Cleveland police.
Mayoral candidates DeRay Mckesson, left, Nick Mosby, Sheila Dixon, Carl Stokes, Catherine E. Pugh, David Warnock, Elizabeth
Embry, Patrick Gutierrez and Calvin Allen Young III on the stage at Morgan State University. Photo by Chanet Wallace
By Akira Kyles Special to the AFRO With less than 50 days until the primary elections in Baltimore, nine of the 29 mayoral candidates participated in a debate March 10 at the Murphy Fine Arts Center on the campus of Morgan State University (MSU) in Baltimore. The debate—the first of the contest to be held at Morgan— was sponsored by the AFRO, WEAA-AM radio, the City Paper, and The MSU Spokesman newspaper. For about two-and-a-half hours, DeRay Mckesson, City Councilman Nick Mosby, former Mayor Sheila Dixon, Councilman Carl Stokes, State Sen. Catherine Pugh, David Warnock, Elizabeth Embry, Patrick Gutierrez, and Calvin Allen Young III, fielded questions from a panel of journalists. Those journalists included, Sean Yoes of the AFRO and WEAA’s “First Edition”; Marc Steiner of WEAA’s “The Marc Steiner Show;” Karen Houppert of The City Paper; and Charles D. Ellison of TheRoot.com and WEAA’s “The Ellison Report.” Marsha Jews of WEAA’s “Keep It Moving with Marsha Jews” served as the forum moderator. The candidates were quizzed mainly on four topics: housing, police policy, education, and economic development. Affordable Housing Policy: The first question of the debate was on housing. It sought each candidate’s strategy on how to address and assist the 40 percent of Baltimore’s citizens that cannot afford housing. Dixon: “Number one: We have to institute our inclusionary housing law,” said Dixon, referring to a 2007 law requiring
Luwanda Jenkins Joins Cordish Companies in Diversity Role By James Bentley AFRO Associate Editor jbentley@afro.com On Feb. 1, Luwanda Jenkins joined the ranks of The Cordish Companies as
the new Vice President of Community Relations and Diversity. In that role, she is primarily responsible for setting the tone and policies for how Cordish, a major developer based in Baltimore
–via social media
Continued on D2
developers to set aside in each of their newly constructed projects, up to 10-20 % of the new units for low income people. She added, “Number two: I am going to triple our training money for the city. Third: I am going to raise the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour.” Pugh: “In terms of immediate relief, I think [the answer is] reducing property tax,” said Pugh. “We have one the highest property tax rates in the state.” Pugh received resounding applause from the audience after her response. Police Policy: The debate then moved onto police policy, asking about what the candidates would do about the divide between Baltimore citizens and the police department. Mckesson: Spoke about reforming the police department to benefit communities by creating an alternate hearing board, mandating that police be drug tested, and making sure that oversight authorities are adequately empowered with tools such as -Sheila Dixon subpoena power. “We need to make sure communities are protected,” said Mckesson. “The reason that the trust is broken is because people do not have faith that there’s integrity and accountability in the police department.” Young: Also spoke about improving the police department and its interaction with residents but his answer focused on implementing certain technologies such as GPS trackers around the city that would alert them when a gun was fired in the city and the direction those bullets had been fired. Young also spoke about a technology that would call for back-up in situations where that was needed by an officer. Continued on D2
“I am going to raise the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour.”
“I believe this timing is no accident...” An insidious pattern emerged; Trump went right to the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement to deliver his sermon of thinly veiled race based hate. Now, it seemed perfectly logical -- at least in the diabolical mind of Trump -- that Baltimore would be a prominent stop on his Make America Hate Again tour (although of course America never stopped hating, just as it never stopped being great).
Lead Paint Leaves Tragic Legacy in Baltimore
Luwanda Jenkins was recently named Vice President of Community Relations and Diversity at The Cordish Companies.
Courtesy Photo
which counts Maryland Live! Casino, Power Plant Live! and Towson Square among its accomplishments, takes their community relations and minority business inclusion efforts to the next level. In an interview with the AFRO Jenkins said “Cordish has had a pretty impressive track record for quite some time of minority business inclusion but as the company has grown, it has grown significantly in recent years to really become a global leader in real estate development. We have operations in other cities and states around the country, so also developing some uniformity and enhancing what we do in terms of consistency.” Jenkins most recent positions were at at Coppin State University and the Maryland Governor’s Office of Minority Affairs The Cordish Companies has grown into a global leader in Real Estate Development, Gaming & Hospitality, Entertainment Management and International Urban Planning & Development. It is one of the largest real estate developers not only in the Baltimore metropolitan area but the entire country with properties like Hopkins
Square, Towson Square, Pier IV, Power Plant Live and Maryland Live. “We are pleased to have Luwanda as a member of our executive team,” said Zed Smith, Chief Operating Officer of The Cordish Companies, in a statement. “Her experience and leadership in the areas of diversity and community relations are unmatched, and her expertise will continue to strengthen a core value of our company.” Luwanda Jenkins is a native of Baltimore and grew up in the northwest part of the city in the Forest Park neighborhood. She attended Western High School before going to Towson State University. She then attended graduate school at Johns Continued on D2
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Past Seven Days
In Flint – it’s in the water. In Baltimore –it’s in the walls. The lead paint legacy of Baltimore’s poor and predominately Black neighborhoods is a long and tragic story unfolding in plain sight before our eyes. “Every single poor child who lives in a rental property in Baltimore is getting a much higher lead exposure than the children in Flint” said Saul Kerpelman, a Baltimore attorney who has exclusively handled lead paint poising cases for the past 30 years. 194 children in Baltimore tested positive for lead poisoning in 2014 and have lead blood levels in excess of 10 micrograms per deciliter, a damaging amount, according to the most recent data from the Maryland Department of the Environment. Almost all of the 194 reported cases represent new reports, meaning new families have either stepped forward to be tested or are now testing with toxic lead levels. African-
“Baltimore has been one of the most aggressive cities in monitoring lead paint exposure…” – Saul Kerpelman American children represent the overwhelming majority of child lead poisoning cases in Baltimore. Since 2012, the Center for Disease Control has determined that no level of lead in the blood is safe. Before 2012, blood levels below 5 micrograms per deciliter were considered non-toxic. It is now known that even microscopic levels of lead can poison children, especially those below the age of six, according to the CDC. Chips from crumbling paint in windows, doors and peeling walls of older homes can cause lead poisoning. But toxic lead can also be breathed in from dust – even that which lingers in the air for days and months after abatement efforts or the mass demolition planned through Governor Larry Hogan’s $700 million removal of old, Continued on D2
44 2016 Total
Data as of March 16