We begin this morning with a conversation about what two of Maryland’s leading institutions are doing to address the longstanding problems in the struggling neighborhoods that bore the brunt of the violence during the riots last April.
At the core of the Baltimore Uprising is the fact that so many residents in neighborhoods like Penn-North and Sandtown Winchester are unemployed or under-employed, with meager prospects for positions that pay a living wage. In August, Morgan State University President David Wilson announced the formation of a task force called "Gray Days, Brighter Tomorrows." Last week, Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Health System announced an initiative they’re calling "Hopkins Local." Both are attempts to address a wide range of problems that have afflicted some of Baltimore’s neighborhoods for decades. Dr. Ray Wimbush joins us in the studio. He's the Director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State, and he serves on the Morgan task force. Natalie Sherman is here as well. She writes about Real Estate and Economic Development for the Baltimore Sun, which published her piece about the Hopkins initiative last Wednesday.