Youth Voter Guide: Candidate Survey

If elected, what is the most important thing you can do to improve the lives of youth?

As a Baltimore City Public School Teacher with 10 years I can improve the lives of the youth by improving the school system and opportunities for our youth. The first thing to help out youth is to get them back to school. Fifty-eight percent of our youth are chronically absent. We have to address the reasons they are not going to school: transportation, only one uniform, may issues to address. I will be working to help their family and lack of opportunities.

* Increase internship programs/trade schools so students can earn money, credits, and learn skills in middle and high school.

* Enforce the State of Maryland’s attendance laws (add truant officers or social workers).

* End Safe Street and use the money to open 64 Police Athletic Leagues (PAL).

* Improve transportation to and from schools for students and improve our schools!

I will stop the “school-to-prison pipeline.” Under my administration, there will be two teachers or paraprofessionals in every classroom from K-2. I will make sure that every student entering third grade is at grade level for math and reading. If a second grader is not able to do grade-level math and grade-level reading they will be offered the opportunity to get to summer school. 

Despite a massive budget of $1.7 billion, 40% of Baltimore City Public Schools don’t have a single math-proficient student, according to the National Review. Currently, 164 principals of Baltimore City Public Schools have total control of their budgets down to the payroll.

Give principals their jobs back. Instead of budgeting, allow them to increase attendance by meeting students and parents, supporting teachers, building community partnerships, and fostering positive parent relationships.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

The U.S. housing crisis is four decades in the making. There is no developed country in the world besides the United States where the very ill, mothers who have just given birth, elderly people who worked all their lives, and veterans who fought for their country are unhoused.

Below are some ideas I have to address the affordable housing crisis.

Container homes. Baltimore [is] one of largest importers of cars and trucks. We have an abundance of shipping containers we can use to build affordable housing. Let’s copy the Corpus Christi approach. They are using shipping containers for affordable housing. The concept proposed by developer Bryan Johnson would employ steel shipping containers to construct new additional living units. Hope Village, located in the Oliver neighborhood in Baltimore, will feature 13 single-family homes that are constructed out of converted shipping containers. This effort needs to be increased.

Turn vacant schools and vacant office spaces into condos and apartments.

Reestablish “dollar homes” to tackle the vacant homes crisis and allow Baltimore residents to build generational wealth. Provide low-cost rehab loans and classes on homeownership. 

Start the path to homeownership for people on rental assistance. Instead of using funds to give support to “landlords” who provide horrible housing, let’s help our citizens get a mortgage and purchase a home.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

“I would create universal basic mobility, giving everyone in the city access to safe, reliable, frequent transportation as a human right. In addition to guaranteeing a train or bus arrives on time, feels safe and looks clean, the city would be obligated to create transportation choices that treat people with dignity. If we get our priorities straight, big disruptions in transportation create an opportunity to more dynamically provide quality transportation choices that also bring happiness to our communities.”

— Seleta Reynolds, Los Angeles Department of Transportation general manager, Los Angeles

“When transit is free and driving costs money, many more people will ride. Along with that increased ridership will come a public desire for higher quality transit service. Just as drivers want pothole-free roads and accessible sidewalks in good repair, so will transit riders want more comfortable and convenient transit service in good repair, and they will vote to fund the maintenance and improvement.”

— Robin Gold, bus operations analyst at Sound Transit, Seattle

“Update all traffic signals to include a 21st-century traffic signal architecture. The system would allow for traffic lights to be coordinated to keep traffic flows moving, reduce idling, eliminate car pollution from idling and additional commute times and allow for a system that can use artificial intelligence to adjust signals based on real-time data.”

— Mike Cunnington, constituent services rep for Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, Strongsville, Ohio

“Designate streets for each mode of transportation. This would include moving cars to the major arteries, creating transit spines on the busiest streets and providing a dense network of streets for the most efficient mode: bikes and scooters.” — Willa Ng, director of mobility for Sidewalk Labs, New York

Encourage scooter and motorcycle use instead of cars.

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions about education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

Increase internship programs/trade schools so students can earn money, credits and learn skills in middle and high school. Work with city agencies to provide internships with DPW, the fire department, and the police department. Also partner with Baltimore City Community College, the hospitality industry, and construction companies.

Open 64 Police Athletic Leagues. Youth violence was at its lowest and more young people entered the police academy.

Improve transportation to and from schools for students and improve our schools.

I don’t believe I can solve all the problems facing our city, but bringing together those at the grassroots level of the issues — students, hospitals, churches, community leaders, and representatives of the city — together, we can solve the problems facing Baltimore. I’ll create “think tanks,” where your problems can be heard.

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

I will follow the CDC gridlines (cdc.gov/healthyyouth/mental-health-action-guide/index.html) to increase students’ mental health literacy.

Deliver classroom-based mental health education curricula

Use peer-led modeling programs

Promote mindfulness

Deliver classroom-based mindfulness education

Dedicate time for students to independently practice mindfulness

Offer small-group mindfulness activities

Promote social, emotional, and behavioral learning

Provide classroom instruction focused on building social skills and emotional development

Offer targeted education focused on teaching social skills and emotional development

Enhance connectedness among students, staff and families

Provide relationship-building programs

Provide psychosocial skills training and cognitive behavioral interventions

Promote acceptance and commitment to change

Provide cognitive behavioral interventions

Engage students in coping skills training groups

Support staff well-being

Offer mindfulness-based training programs

Provide therapeutic resources

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

The conflict in the Middle East has been going on for decades. Officials and aid groups warn of a worsening humanitarian crisis in Israel and Gaza, where escalating violence has already killed thousands of people and wounded and displaced many others.

Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel in October 2023, firing rockets from Gaza and infiltrating the country by paraglider, motorbike and boat. They gunned down Israelis in multiple locations, including residential communities and a techno music festival, in the deadliest day for Jewish civilians since the Holocaust.

Israel retaliated immediately, including by putting Gaza — which is home to 2.3 million Palestinians — under full siege, cutting off its supply of fuel, electricity and food. It has also unleashed heavy bombardments, reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble. Officials say about one-tenth of its total population is internally displaced.

Baltimore should not have a direct response to the global conflict. It can play a part in protecting the safety of Jewish students and Muslim students who have felt threatened during this conflict.  

If elected, what is the most important thing you can do to improve the lives of youth?

I have been working and mentoring young adults, children, and pre-teen kids for almost 30 years. I want to build programs that help our young adults get ready for life. I want to see more of our youth interested in owning and building their own communities. Knowing they can achieve whatever their hearts desire through hard work and patience.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

We have too many landlords that do not provide safe and affordable housing. Many of these landlords are not being held accountable for the situations they put tenants in. Not only am I going to hold them accountable, but there will be hefty fines and consequences of losing your priorities if the standards are not improved. Families deserve a better style of life. As someone who is currently homeless in this city, we have to be diligent in making real changes.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

Baltimore is working on more access to all parts of Baltimore via the Red Line. And hopefully, better bus routes that address all stagnant areas that make it difficult. I am going to continue to advocate for more and better opportunities for everyone to have access. Also there will no longer be a time restraint on bus passes for the youth if you are working or taking any extra classes after school or night.

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions about education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

We need to rebuild our entire education system. A system that affords our students a real opportunity to learn what they can be without prejudice. To learn how to function in today’s society. Education is not just books. Education is comprised of learning from your environment, work ethics, and being able [to] use critical-thinking skills.

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

The youth in this city are hungry for real opportunities and real changes within their families and communities. Their mental health will improve as they feel better about their lives!

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

Constant conflict in the Middle East is not really my concern, especially for countries that cannot return the favor. We have wasted trillions in conflicts that have nothing to do with us.  Right now, the citizens and youth of Baltimore feel they are currently living in their own Middle East situation. The City of Baltimore has to come first.

If elected, what is the most important thing you can do to improve the lives of youth?

Truancy is a huge issue in our schools, and I have a multifaceted approach to deal with this. Every semester we will reward public school students with a stipend for not being truant and for having acceptable passing grades and, in addition, high schoolers that graduate on time will receive a monetary reward to continue their education. 

Additionally, I intend to create several wrap-around programs to help combat the structural racism that keeps our city’s children in poverty. I plan to invest heavily in the Rec and Parks Department and the Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Services to help ensure that youth in Baltimore City have clean, safe, well-maintained third places they can congregate without spending money. 

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

The eviction rate in Baltimore City is two times higher than the national average and the underfunding, understaffing, and poor management of the Eviction Prevention Program has completely crippled its ability to actually help the most vulnerable of our citizens. If elected, I would make it a priority to rebuild the EPP so that it can run smoothly and quickly to help citizens before they’re evicted. 

I also have a plan to create housing communities that provide safe housing, health care, job placement, and education opportunities in a safe and comfortable place that allows individuals facing homelessness to successfully integrate back into society. 

We will also create opportunities for developers to build more affordable housing throughout the city to make up for the supply shortage caused by rampant vacant properties and those purchased by wealthy outsiders left to sit and rot or flipped and turned into Airbnbs or luxury homes unaffordable to locals. 

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

I want to create a walkable city that is serviced by electric street cars, fast trains, elevated bike lanes, eco-friendly buses, and more. I want an environmentally friendly, interconnected city where transportation issues are a thing of the past and people can go where they need, when they need, without the burden of long wait times between bus stops or the costs of ride-share apps.

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions about education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

As mentioned above, I believe that simply paying students for their time would go a great distance in ensuring our children have more desire to graduate and reward them for their commitment to their education. I absolutely believe that students and young people should be involved in the decisions that directly affect them and plan to work closely with BCPS to host events that allow our young citizens the opportunity to speak with their leaders and to help ensure they grow into well-informed voters when the time comes. 

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

Mental health support is absolutely a major issue for a large number of our citizens and I intend to create city-run programs that can help incentivize mental health professionals that work with the BCPS and programs to provide assistance and resources to private companies seeking to implement employee-assistance programs. 

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

Genocide is wrong. We, as a city, need to do more than send thoughts and prayers to help. We can use international entities to try to get supplies into the region and open our city to any refugees able to make it to Baltimore. We can also offer help for the families here that are affected by this ongoing conflict. 

If elected, what is the most important thing you can do to improve the lives of youth?

The most important thing I can do when elected mayor is to listen to the youth and provide them with opportunities to appreciate the quality of life, like fixing the school system… but also holding them accountable if they continue down the wrong path.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

As mayor, I will invest $200 million a year into our vacant housing issue and create more affordable housing for low-income families to be able to live comfortably in our city. Affordable housing should be mandatory, not optional, and as mayor we will do both: invest into affordable housing units and fix the vacant homes that the city owns. 

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

As mayor, my top priority is making sure kids have buses to transport them back and forth to school. We are the largest city in Maryland but we are one of the only ones where our kids have to catch public transportation to get to school. Thirty percent of residents don’t have vehicles so we have to make school buses mandatory [and] not optional any longer.

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions about education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

My plan to improve the educational outcomes is to ask the current CEO to resign, and if she doesn’t, work with the school board to get rid of her. Then we will remove and replace the appointed members of the school board. Then we will update the curriculum by making trade, financial literacy, [and] driver’s education mandatory in all schools over a period of time. As mayor I’ll never make a decision about our youth without engaging them in discussions about what they would like to see. 

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

[By] having social workers and mental health workers in every school. We cannot control the home you come from but we can control your education and what type of person you can be. 

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

My role… to respond to global conflicts and issues is critical and important because it shows my residents that what matters to them matters to me. 

If elected, what is the most important thing you can do to improve the lives of youth?

Baltimore’s youth are urgently in need of being better educated. Currently, the educational apparatus isn’t adequately providing Baltimore’s youth with the basic education and skills necessary to experience successful lives. Also, initiatives will be devised to offer counseling to those requiring parenting assistance.  

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

Instead of wholesale disposing of vacant city-owned properties, our administration will make serious efforts to sell houses to first-time Baltimore home buyers, and particularly target public housing residents. And as [has] been implemented within several other states, the Maryland General Assembly should grant local government the authority to create ways to provide financial assistance to gainfully employed, yet lower-income, first-time buyers an opportunity to acquire their housing.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

Our administration will support expeditious building of the Red Line and propose methods to fully fund or subsidize local transportation expenses for youth. 

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions about education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

The current educational establishment must be willing to totally reform itself. Serious efforts will be made to receive necessary input from individuals representing young people or existing students themselves at the high school level.  

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

In being very candid and realistic, one four-year team is not sufficient time to solve current public safety and mental health issues created during several decades of neglect. However, what can be done now is to establish an entity comprising competent and dedicated representatives from the public safety and mental health communities to create effective policies to address and implement programs that will address these issues. 

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

As mayor of Baltimore, there is no official role or responsibility to address the Middle East crisis. In terms of other global conflicts and issues, if in some way they come to affect operations within Baltimore then my views will be made known. However, serious efforts must be made to resolve the terrible Middle East crisis.

If elected, what is the most important thing you can do to improve the lives of youth?

I want our youth themselves to have more of a say before definitively answering this question, and I consistently work to center and elevate youth voices in my work. 

Following a shooting at Frederick Douglass High School, I worked with youth to draft what became the Elijah Cummings Healing City Act, the first trauma-informed care legislation in the country that has become a model for other cities. During the height of the pandemic, I worked with youth to win increased internet speeds from Comcast for low-income residents. When MTA tried to limit the hours of bus passes for students, I worked with students to organize a bake sale fundraiser, and together, we won a legislative campaign to restore the cut service. 

Collaboration with our city’s young people has driven my best decisions as a council member, and it is how I intend to govern as council president. Young people not only deserve a voice in setting priorities in how we improve their lives — their collaboration creates better outcomes.

All of that being said, my vision is that our young people strive to stay in Baltimore rather than being eager to leave, and that we achieve this vision by creating and maintaining safe and affordable housing and strong educational opportunities with pathways to middle-class union jobs.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

I was proud to support Councilmember Ramos’s inclusionary housing legislation to ensure that all buildings that receive city subsidies have some affordable apartments. I will continue to support policies that promote affordability and will lead the council in policies of development without displacement citywide.

I strongly support the mayor’s aggressive plan to combat vacants, and believe that we also need a land bank to ensure block-by-block development and ensure that housing remains an affordable community asset as it redevelops. We also need to effectively ban the business practice of predatory speculators neglecting vacant homes by increasing the property tax rate on vacant homes — legislation just passed in Annapolis to allow this, and I intend to co-sponsor legislation with Councilmember Ramos to implement it in Baltimore. Increasing our housing stock by solving the vacant housing crisis is make-or-break in creating a future for our city that includes affordable housing, and now is the time to make the investments and policy decisions that set us on the right path.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

Mobility for young people is a priority for me, and when I chaired the Education and Youth Committee on the council, I held a hearing on the topic. 

When in 2017 MDOT MTA tried to cut back the hours of student bus passes, I partnered with my colleague Councilmember Kris Burnett, students, and impacted communities to organize a Bake Sale for Buses and raised $100,000. We ultimately took our fight to the General Assembly and secured funding to preserve free bus service until 8 p.m. for students.

Being on time is very important to me, and unfortunately, I cannot rely on our city’s transit to get me where I need to go, even across relatively short distances, quickly or reliably — I drive to most places that are not within walking distance of my home or city hall. Yet, students are held accountable for getting to school on time using transit. I think that is deeply disrespectful. 

As council president, I will lead the council in collaborating with the administration and MTA to improve transit speeds, reliability, and frequency in our city. As a former teacher, I know firsthand how much it impacts our students’ ability to learn and how it impacts the ability of families without cars to meet their basic needs. We need to advocate for more funding for MTA in general, but we also need to build infrastructure in our city, like dedicated bus lanes, and implement priority for buses at traffic signals.

We also need to substantially improve pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure for our youth and make sure that students who live close to their schools have a safe and comfortable route to school.

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions about education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

I unapologetically support the Blueprint — Baltimore’s historic underfunding of its schools has been a crisis for our city. As council president I will partner with our state delegation and advocate for policies to increase state revenue. At the local level, we must grow our tax base and reverse our population decline to improve revenue. Though the city and state face a difficult financial outlook over the coming decade, I will never compromise on funding for our schools, students, and teachers.

I will also support capital investments for new school buildings. I have been proud to work to secure funding for four 21st-century school buildings in the 1st District, and I will not stop my advocacy until every young person in our city has a safe and comfortable learning environment.

I am committed to funding universal pre-K in our schools by the end of my first term. We know that ages 3 and 4 are essential for brain development, and universal pre-K will improve learning outcomes for students citywide.

I will make sure that restorative practices are implemented in every school in Baltimore City. It is essential that students learn from a young age to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence — this is work that saves lives.

Prior to my time as a city council member, I cofounded a nonprofit that trained youth in political organizing. As council president, I will shift from having community liaisons to having an Office of Community Organizing, and a central part of this office will be organizing our young people on the issues that matter to them. I will restore a practice that I employed as chair of the Education and Youth Committee of holding council hearings not just at city hall but in accessible community spaces like schools and churches, and I will strongly encourage youth participation. I will always work in coalition with young people and center the voices of young people in my decision-making.

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

I strongly believe we can implement restorative practices in every school during my first term, and I will prioritize doing so.

By 2028, we will have trained at least six city agencies in trauma-informed care as part of the Healing City Act. We began with the library system, which ended zero-tolerance policies for individuals experiencing addiction and transformed libraries into places of healing with the establishment of the Peer Navigators Program. We are now working with Rec and Parks, and we chose them in part because of the key role this agency plays in interacting with our young people. I am in the process of adding BPD to the list of agencies that must undergo training (local control was not yet finalized when I passed this legislation initially), and I am confident that we can train BPD within the next four years. When agencies understand the trauma that our residents, and particularly our young people, experience, they operate with better policies that promote public safety and mental health.

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

I am a local elected official — I am accountable to Baltimoreans, and my focus is on local issues. However, we live in an increasingly global and interconnected world, and I understand that Baltimore is impacted by state, national, and international politics. And what happens in our city can have a global impact in certain cases.

When I think about the crisis in the Middle East, I think first about how personal of an issue it is for many residents, myself included. I have Israeli family. I have Palestinian constituents and Palestinian-owned businesses in my district. And there are many more residents who do not necessarily have a direct familial connection to Israel and/or Palestine but whose hearts break nonetheless. The loss of over 30,000 people, mostly civilians, many women and children, both Palestinian and Israeli, is unacceptable.

I do not believe that any official action of the Baltimore City Council would meaningfully alter the course of the crisis. Where I believe I can have the greatest impact as a leader is by listening to and supporting my constituents and all our residents in their grief. We should be lifting up local efforts to support humanitarian aid and interfaith dialogue. There are folks doing excellent work in these areas and I want to do more in the coming months to support it and unite our city behind it.

If elected, what is the most important thing you can do to improve the lives of youth?

Ensuring our students have high-quality childhood programs. High-quality programs help equip students to compete with students from wealthier jurisdictions. As the parent of a Baltimore City Public Schools student, I want my precious jewel and all of Baltimore’s precious jewels to get the best education possible. High-quality childhood programs help girls to raise their high school graduation rates, increase their total years of education, and raise their lifetime income. For boys, it lowers their drug use, lower their incarceration rates, and raises their lifetime income. I believe the way to break the school-to-prison pipeline is through the collective action of our village. We need our parents to be involved in their children’s education and development, and if they are lacking in some aspects of parenting then let’s work to get them the help they need. We need to supply our teachers and paraprofessionals with the resources they need.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

I would like like to add community land trusts and fund the plan to address affordable housing. I would definitely support restoring the 38% allocation for land trusts. Based on what I see across the city, land trusts are on the front lines on development without displacement. We need our land trusts to have all the resources they need and support from the city council president. I would also like to see representatives from land trusts be appointed to leadership roles on commissions and work groups so that they can hold us accountable. Too often, land trusts and housing justice advocates are on the sidelines fighting for what is right and not treated as resources. I would love the opportunity to change the culture of how we work with external partners.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth?

I am dependent on public transportation to get around the city, unlike my opponents. My husband and I are a single-car family. We coordinate our schedules to make sure we can take our daughter to school and from after-school activities. Transportation is personal for me and my family.

The one thing we are missing in mass transit is a reliable east-west option. In a classic case of penny-wise and pound-foolish, then-governor Hogan turned away federal money in 2015 that so many of our congressional leaders worked to get the necessary federal assistance. I supported the Red Line then and now.

Having regional transportation authority, much like D.C. has with their Metro, would allow all local jurisdictions to have an input into our transportation needs. It also would probably have prevented Hogan from making such a catastrophic and unilateral decision to Baltimore’s detriment. As a former staffer to U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, I will work with our congressional colleagues to advance a coordinated transportation plan for Baltimore and our neighbors.

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions about education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

As I wrote in your opening question, education is the key to everything we do in Baltimore. The state passed a transformative education plan called the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future (aka the Kirwan Commission). It would require additional education spending by each county and city.  Spending money on early childhood development and improving the parenting skills of moms and dads will go a long way to making Baltimore a better city. Around 90% of a child’s brain development happens between the ages of 0 to 5. It’s a period of unparalleled opportunity.

Children need role models who can be strong, positive influences in their lives. We can lower crime by having more parents present in their children’s lives and involved in their education. We can offer parents classes and develop special spaces where they can complete their high school education or find jobs that allow them to move to a better neighborhood. It takes some families multiple generations to break the vicious cycle of poverty, creating both mental and physical strain.

Many parents want to do better. They want to thrive and succeed, but they do not have the tools or resources to do so. My goal as the next city council president is to increase parental involvement in schools by 20%. We can do this by creating education hubs that provide a number of services in one setting with resources to help the entire family. We need job centers that also include child care and classrooms where parents can earn their GEDs and increase the likelihood of employment. Again, it takes a lot of work to break the cycle of poverty, but we can absolutely do it if we make a commitment and work together to lift up families and ultimately keep our young people from falling victim to a life of drugs, crime, and violence.

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

I hate to sound like a broken record, but focusing on education and having education centers is how we improve public safety. That way students with mental health illness can be identified through resources at school and get the help that is required. Getting illegal guns off the street is another path to improve public safety, but that would mean our federal elected officials stepping up to the plate to make a change. Nearly 75% of all homicides in Maryland are committed with a gun. 

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

I think it’s OK to acknowledge and pray for any country going through armed conflicts and the human misery it brings on civilians and military alike. As a mother, the loss of a single life is horrible. To be a mother and receive the news that your child has died unnecessarily is the worst news any parent could hear. So I pray for those men and women who have lost loved ones during the latest conflict. Many U.S. legislative branches have taken public positions on what is going on in the Middle East. While I feel the loss of life in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, I am far more concerned about the loss of life that happens all over Baltimore City. At the same time, I am willing to listen to other Baltimoreans on their opinion on this terrible conflict. 

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

Specific to Baltimore’s youth, the most important thing a member of the city council can do is stand up and support programs designed to help our next generation lead healthy, successful lives where they feel supported. We must do this while encouraging Baltimore’s youth to be civically engaged because Baltimore is ultimately their city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is one of the most vibrant and stable economies in the United States and we must ensure our children and young adults have unfettered access to the opportunities available across the region.  

For the younger ages, this means ensuring our public school system is fully funded, staffed with teachers who are compensated comparable to surrounding counties, with top-notch curriculum that covers a wide range of focus areas. We must ensure that our arts, athletics and extracurricular activities are free and accessible to all.  

As our children mature into adolescence, I envision the establishment of a school-to-public-service pipeline, where we teach and train the next generation skills necessary to be impactful public servants. Every student who graduates from Baltimore City Public Schools should have the opportunity to serve in their local government. This targeted program will provide our young adults the opportunity to secure stable employment with solid benefits with the added bonus of Baltimore City government agencies fully staffing up, leading to better services across the board to the general public. Everyone wins.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

Ensuring our residents have safe, livable, quality, affordable housing is of critical importance. I intend to closely monitor the rollout of Councilwoman Ramos’s Inclusionary Housing Bill. I think a more aggressive approach to building more affordable units, coupled with fostering an environment where more market-rate units can be built simultaneously, is critical to stabilizing and eventually lowering housing costs in Baltimore City.  

As a Baltimore City native, anti-displacement policy is also of particular interest to me. There’s no doubt in my mind that the city’s roughly 70-year period of economic decline is, at minimum, winding down. We’re seeing increased investment beyond the long-gentrified waterfront communities, which is why I think displacement will increasingly become a bigger issue. We must learn from cities that have experienced advanced stages of gentrification compared to Baltimore. We must be intentional towards advancing policy that not only helps reduce displacement, but also helps our longtime residents benefit from the city’s pending economic recovery.  

I would like to establish a $10,000 forgivable loan program to help cover down payments and closing costs for city residents who graduated from Baltimore City Public Schools. This will help us retain local residents, incentivize families sending their children to Baltimore City Public Schools, and ultimately help participants build equity and wealth through purchasing a home. Five hundred loans each year would cost $5 million annually. I have full confidence that those dollars can be found within a city budget that is roughly $4 billion per year. I think this is a program we can afford that would have a tremendously positive impact in terms of making homeownership more accessible.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

Over the course of my career, especially my time as legislative affairs manager of the Baltimore City Department of Transportation (DOT), I have worked on numerous legislative and policy efforts aimed at improving Baltimore City’s transportation network. I also served from 2017 through 2019 as chair of the MTA Citizens Advisory Committee, serving as a principal advocate for riders who depend on public transportation in the Baltimore region. At the end of the day, this really boils down to leadership, accountability, and political will. I bring to the table all three.

We have roughly 27,000 Baltimore City Public School students who depend on public transit to get to and from school during the school year. The current state of transit operations in Baltimore is deplorable and our region has undeniably been short-changed for decades by the State of Maryland, while the D.C. suburbs have been having their cake and eating it too. I am concerned that the growing disparity is a glaring violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and as councilmember I would call on the Baltimore City administration to pursue legal action to ensure Baltimore transit service is adequately funded.  

During my time at City DOT, I have worked very hard with various colleagues and advocates to help secure more state Highway User Revenue (HUR) dollars to fund much-needed infrastructure improvements to our public corridors. These HUR dollars can be used to resurface our crumbling streets, fix our cracked sidewalks, work to bring the city into full ADA compliance, remove impervious surfaces, and implement Complete Streets design standards that make our public corridors safer and more accessible to all road users, including our youth.  I also intend to work collaboratively with City DOT to revamp and reopen Druid Hill Park’s Safety City — a critical educational resource for our kids to learn beneficial safety skills and advice.  

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions about education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

As discussed above, I pledge to vote favorably every budget cycle to make sure Baltimore City appropriates necessary local dollars towards Baltimore City Public Schools to meet Blueprint for Maryland’s Future funding standards. Appropriating more local dollars towards Baltimore City Public Schools will help right our ship in terms of fiscal priorities. For far too long, local investments towards our public schools, parks, recreational facilities and youth programing has been undervalued and underfunded. We need our schools adequately filled with teachers and support staff so that our class sizes aren’t overwhelming. Students should be provided free access to field trips at locations that inspire the next generation of leaders. And of most importance to me personally, in terms of an educational policy goal, is the establishment of a schools-to-public-service pipeline, where Baltimore City government gets reformed from the ground up, with talented, motivated, local young adults who truly care about making a positive impact on their city.

I would like to see the Baltimore City Youth Commission play a participatory role in terms of identifying youth programming priorities. As much as I like to think of myself as being a young candidate at the ripe age of 34, the reality is that youth truly know more of what they want than a middle-aged city council candidate. Let’s bring the Youth Commission before the city council on a quarterly basis, ask them to share their thoughts on what we should fund in terms of youth focused programing. Participatory budgeting should not just be limited to adults, especially when it comes to programing that is youth-focused.

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

Realistically I think a lot can be done. Specific to public safety, funding free and accessible youth programing (sports, arts and culture, video games), investing in major capital projects (similar to the recently completed Cherry Hill Recreation Center) serve to provide our youth safe places to socialize and simply enjoy being a kid. Simultaneous programming could be offered to parents so that they’re learning skills at the same time their kids are enjoying themselves.

Widening our sidewalks, making sure our corridors have ample lighting, and increasing tree canopy can encourage healthier lifestyles where youth, adults and seniors can interact safely together. Traffic calming will make it safer for children to walk to and from school or the local park.  

In terms of youth mental health, an important factor in terms of funding Baltimore City Public Schools to meeting Blueprint for Maryland’s Future standards means our school system can hire more support staff, including counselors and social workers trained to work with children and identify mental health issues. Lets listen to our kids. What’s on their mind? How can we help? This should be the attitude of anyone looking to get into public service.  

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

My priority as a city councilmember will be to work on solving issues impacting Baltimore City residents specifically. This generally means focusing on domestic issues and not international conflicts. That being said, there is precedent of Baltimore City divesting from entities with ties to violent, inequitable practices. Most notable to my knowledge are targeted divestments during the 1980s to currencies and businesses with ties to apartheid South Africa. The situation in the Middle East is dire and my hope is that our federal leaders work with all parties to negotiate a cease-fire, establish a sustainable path towards peaceful relations, and find a way to live amongst each other despite differences. This has happened in Northern Ireland, where Irish Nationalists and the United Kingdom had been embroiled in violence for several centuries. Peace for many seemed like a pipe dream, but for most of my life, both sides have essentially found a way to live amongst each other despite their cultural and religious differences. 

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

I want to implement policy to increase parental involvement to support our youth. I have served as a rec council president and treasurer, and run soccer programs. In other jurisdictions, rec councils are the nonprofit arm to Rec and Parks, which also has joint use agreements with schools. We now have four rec councils and over 30 stewards of parks in Baltimore City, but this is dwarfed by the number in other Maryland counties. Churches and PALs (police [athletic] leagues) used to fulfill this role in the city. I will work to expand the number of rec councils throughout our 275 neighborhoods and increase parental involvement throughout the city. It is parents who serve on rec council boards. It is parents who run the leagues and programs. It is parents who coach their kids. And, as we increase parental involvement with rec councils, we should expand the Judy Center model at our schools, utilizing the current infrastructure to serve as community centers and providing wrap-around services where needed. Baltimore City has 11 Judy Centers, but we can have more. We can hire parents to work at these locations, offer free daycare and tutor services, and provide additional learning and program opportunities.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

I want to implement policy to increase parental involvement to support our youth. I have served as a Rec Council President and Treasurer, and run soccer programs. In other jurisdictions, Rec Councils are the nonprofit arm to Rec & Parks, which also has joint use agreements with Schools. We now have four Rec Councils and over thirty Stewards of Parks in Baltimore City, but this is dwarfed by the number in other Maryland Counties. Churches and PALS (police sports league) used to fulfill this role in the City. I will work to expand the number of Rec Councils throughout our 275 neighborhoods and increase parental involvement throughout the City. It is parents who serve on Rec Council Boards. It is parents who run the leagues and programs. It is parents who coach their kids. And, as we increase parental involvement with Rec Councils, we should expand the Judy Center model at our schools, utilizing the current infrastructure to serve as community centers and providing wrap-around services where needed. Baltimore City has 11 Judy Centers, but we can have more. We can hire parents to work at these locations, offer free daycare and tutor services, and provide additional learning and program opportunities.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

First, we should be focusing on improving the infrastructure we have instead of allowing for a $3 billion state cut to transportation that will adversely impact Baltimore, and we need the revenue to hire more bus drivers with more reliable routes and expand the Charm City Circulator. I also want to prioritize the Greenway Trails Network to get it done and Complete Streets to improve the walkability and transportation throughout the city.

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

Work with local employers to help reverse-engineer education and training that leads to jobs. Allow for students to have more options for classes that will be of interest to them and help foster creativity and innovation at earlier ages. Work with organizations like Living Classrooms and the St. Francis Neighborhood Center to have more after-school programming and expand Judy Centers and Rec programming. As an Eagle Scout, I would love to see an expansion of the Scouting program throughout the city. Scouts for me was like an education outside of school that taught more life skills, and I want to see our youth to be better prepared for adulthood in general.

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

I plan on hiring a social worker to be on my staff. He or she and I will be out on the street every day when we’re not making policy at city hall and when I am not focusing on better accountability within city government. We will be engaging the youth, working on tackling truancy while also seeking program enrollment for everyone. We will also be engaging with the homeless, those suffering from addiction and/or mental health issues to make sure that they are getting the care they need. I want to expand the partnerships with our local health and hospital systems and make sure we have enough beds for mental health and psych units.

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

I am able to advocate for issues and conflicts outside of the city. As an Eagle Scout, I learned the importance of being a citizen of the community, nation, and world. In addition to being a CPA, I also have degrees in international business and government and politics with a focus on economics and international relations. I was on the board for the International Economics and Finance Society at University of Maryland. Specifically, I support an end to the violence in the Middle East that was heightened by the reaction of Iran (and proxies Hamas, Houthis, and Hezbollah) to the proposed peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia last fall coupled by underlying tensions between the U.S. and Iran. I also support what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer advocated for: Israel’s removal of Prime Minister Netanyahu and end to the conflict within Israel. Netanyahu “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.” From October through January 2024, Iran-backed factions launched over 160 attacks on multiple U.S. sites in Syria and Iraq and 30 on targets in the Red Sea. A drone attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan resulted in the death of three American soldiers and more than 40 were injured. So, our focus should be not just creating stability in Israel and Palestine but also Lebanon while neutralizing Iran and their proxies throughout the region and strengthening alliances with the rest of the region.

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

We need to open more businesses by encouraging entrepreneurs to invest and then supporting those new businesses. We won’t have a place where youth can thrive until we become a place where new and exciting businesses want to be in our district.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

I think giving tax incentives to landlords who are willing to lower their rent is a good idea. I am not for rent controls. But there are ways we can get rent lower. We need more construction of rental properties. This is a top priority.  

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

My district needs more MTA bus access. I want to create new bus routes.

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

We need more accountability on school administrators who run our schools. We need to come up with youth committees in each school and let them give feedback on improvements.

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

We need to improve access to mental health treatment. People who get quality treatment have great outcomes.  

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

We need everyone to feel safe in our district by condemning hate. Theres been a lot of antisemitic hate recently. Global conflicts also affect our local communities.  

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

Housing production and transportation improvements are the most impactful ways to improve social determinacy for young people. Nearly 100,000 people ages 15-24 make up roughly one-sixth the city’s population, a 30% poverty rate among them. At scale, programming can never make up an opportunity gap created by centuries of adverse public policy. Fewer than 6,000 people worked under the Youthworks program in 2023, for example. The best thing we can do is ensure greater opportunity to live in neighborhoods of opportunity, and to improve mobility options to reach schools, jobs, and other engagements.

Seventy percent of the city’s residential-zoned land is exclusionary by nature, prohibiting everything except single-family dwellings, excluding nearly every household that can’t afford or doesn’t need such large dwellings, however much these families would benefit from living there. This perpetuates concentration of poverty in neighborhoods that allow more flexible and modest-size housing. In turn, this means higher-income neighborhoods have too little density, and lower-income neighborhoods too low a median income, to attract businesses and create jobs. And while sprawling neighborhoods add the challenge of car dependency, disinvested Black neighborhoods provide less safe conditions for vulnerable road users, both types of neighborhoods making affordable and active transportation less safe and viable.

The most important thing we could do for young people is to reform our zoning code to allow for multifamily dwelling in all neighborhoods, and rapidly build out the city’s planned bicycle network, allowing more housing to be constructed and affording more choices and affordability of housing, and creating viable transportation opportunities for those without the luxury of a private automobile. This will result in more job creation and access, deconcentration of poverty, and an increased tax base from which to produce revenue needed for city services and programming.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

We need to dramatically increase housing production, and residential zoning reform is necessary to allow it. Rents and home sale prices, and resulting property tax assessments and tax bills, are rising at an untenable rate. The primary reason is that for over 30 years we have failed to produce housing at a rate sufficient to meet market demand. So there’s not enough housing, and what exists is in too high a demand.

Significant increases in housing production in places like Salt Lake City, Austin, and Minneapolis have resulted in sharp drops in rents, or significant reductions of year-over-year rent increases, largely as a result of zoning changes that allow for more multifamily housing in areas long designated as allowing only single-family dwellings. While 10% of units in larger developments will be set aside as affordable units, when enough units are being produced, mandates of income-based affordability are not necessary to improve overall affordability at all income levels.

Not only do we have too few units, but our existing supply and demand are completely mismatched. Housing choice voucher demand for one-bedroom units is three times as great as that of three-bedroom units. But our housing stock is three times as many three-bedroom units as one-bedrooms. Allowing large structures to convert from one unit into multiple smaller units is the most logical solution, and we prohibit it at over 70% of residential-zoned properties. Specifically, we allow for such a change in many rowhome neighborhoods, perpetuating segregation, concentrating poverty in disinvested neighborhoods and opportunity in less affordable south and southeast Baltimore. The 70% of the neighborhoods that prohibit multifamily outright is where we have so much to gain in opportunity if we simply stop prohibiting it, but it’s worth noting that prohibitions are only the most significant barrier zoning creates. Others include minimum lot size, setbacks, height restrictions and minimum parking requirements.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

As already noted above, I hold this as a top priority. Again, building a robust, safe, and interconnected bicycle network is critical to improving transportation options for young people. Doing so not only makes biking a safer and more viable option, one that will yield a cultural shift in transportation for the whole city, but it will make walking safer as well, both for those walking the entire distance to school and elsewhere, and for anybody walking to and from a bus. We also need to better prioritize buses in the right-of-way by designating more bus lanes, if service increases are to become more viable.

In general, with respect to transportation, the same as with housing and jobs, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Youth benefit from the same improvements we need to make for everybody’s sake.

Here’s the plan I wrote in 2019: Region-Centered, People-Centered: A Near-Term Transportation Vision for Baltimore City.

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

Here again, transportation plays a key role. You can’t educate a kid that you can’t reliably get to the building. And shorter commute times improve the quality of life for students such that they are able to better perform. Additionally, children whose schools are located near highways and highway-like conditions perform less well. Making our city less car-dominant can help us improve children’s chances of success.

Also, you can’t educate a kid who’s dead. Motor vehicle crashes have been the leading cause of death for children ages 17 and under in the U.S. for six decades, with gun violence coming in as a closer and closer second in recent years. Making sure our children are safe on their way to and from school and in their everyday travels, with respect to both transportation and gun violence, is an imperative for better youth outcomes. Thankfully Baltimore is improving in both areas as of late, but it’s vital that we recognize the hostility and violence of our transportation environment, and of course gun violence, as traumatizing factors in people’s everyday lives, and that we take a rigorously trauma-informed approach to working with young people, and teaching them to live and work with one another. Baltimore is and will continue to be a national leader on this.

Otherwise, the most significant thing that we can do to improve educational outcomes is to fully fund it. As noted recently by the Legal Defense Fund, “Baltimore City Public Schools have been chronically underfunded for decades. According to Maryland’s own 2017 assessment, BCPS was underfunded by at least $342 million — a figure that does not even include facilities renovation costs, which are estimated to total over $3 billion.”

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

Increasing and stabilizing housing opportunity is attainable, and is critical to mental well-being. Young people also need to understand the attainability of future opportunity for social mobility by seeing job creation and adult employment among their communities. We can achieve these things through means I’ve already discussed here, and by continuing work that’s already being done. Baltimore is at a historic low of unemployment. We can continue the expansion of trauma-informed care as well, and continue to invest in violence-interruption programs.

Additionally, in my district we’re about to begin construction at North Harford Park doing more than $9 million in recreational improvements, including a new playground and splash pad, new football and baseball fields, a walking path, picnic areas, and landscaping. Next year we’ll construct phase two of the project, building the largest skate park in the city. This project is critical to uplifting the surrounding area, which has seen acts of violence year after year, but no public investment in my lifetime. We can significantly improve people’s lives and disrupt patterns of violence by reinvesting in communities with projects like this one.

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

None, except for in ways that local policy change and investment can impact.

Climate change is a global issue, and we can reduce our carbon footprint by building more efficient housing, making more efficient land use, and taking other steps to make the city more walkable. We can stop driving giant trucks around to collect leaves to incinerate every fall, and compost them instead. We can electrify all new buildings, stop installing new gas service, and ban gas-powered leaf blowers.

That said, with respect to the Middle East and elsewhere, I oppose terrorism, war crimes, and fascism. Return all hostages and political prisoners and enact a permanent cease-fire.

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

One of the most important things that I can do for young people in my role as councilmember is to ensure there are positive and engaging activities for [young people] in our neighborhoods. There is so much talent and opportunity missed by our youths because they happen to live in opportunity/activity deserts where there is insufficient or unattractive programming for our young people.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

The affordable housing crisis exists because of lack of supply. Far too much of our housing stock is dilapidated and uninhabitable, driving up the price of the limited acceptable housing. In order to address this we need to build more homes, renovate abandoned and vacant homes, and prevent homes from becoming vacant or abandoned. This will require a comprehensive effort that includes neighborhood investment and investment, neighborhood by neighborhood.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

While the loss of the Red Line was a huge hit to our transit system, one line does not make an effective system and the Red Line was probably still insufficient for the region’s needs. We need a system that can reliably get you to anywhere in the city and to much of the surrounding counties at an affordable rate. Unfortunately our bus system is known to show up late because of traffic or maintenance issues, and our light rail only takes riders from north to south. Baltimore once had a well-integrated trolly system that served most of the city. We can learn from that history. We need a regional transit authority that plans for the transit needs of the Baltimore region and allows students and adults to travel wherever they need to go.

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

While I think there are a number of things that we can do to improve our schools, I think the first and most important step is to improve attendance. There is no amount of instruction or support that schools can provide for students if they are not attending. I will work to improve the coordination between Baltimore City Schools and the Baltimore City government to increase attendance.

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

I think one of the easiest things that we can do is listen to young people and hear directly from them about what they think they need to improve their public safety and mental health. Many of the young people that I have talked to have strong feelings and well-informed ideas about what problems they see around them and what they believe can help them navigate those issues safely. We can and should start there.

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

Generally, I think that we should leave the international relations to our colleagues on the federal level.

(D) What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

Besides the normal answer of making recreation centers accessible, we need to put resources in the community rec centers. Underserved communities operate better if their necessities [are] within walking distance. Rec centers can be training facilities with daycare. We also need to utilize a unit called Family Preservation for families that need more critical care than job training and therapy.

(F) What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

I want to see how I can empower my community to get involved in purchasing the $1 houses. If amendments to the program need to be made to ensure that the money for the rehabilitation of these properties is addressed in this new program, then I will meet with my colleagues to get them on board to address the necessary changes.

(H) How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

I will work with MTA to find out the inconsistency on the reliability of public transportation. I have programs in high school and middle school, and the youth’s constant complaint is how long they wait for the bus and how crowded the buses are. In my recent conversation with MTA staff they are dealing with the same crisis that all big cities are facing: lack of employees. Let’s face facts! Many of our youth are not on the path to college, so why aren’t we exposing them to civil services, public service, or first responders? These careers are rewarding and they are paying a good salary.

(K) What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

My team and I have prepared a program called Project 16. Those students who are not attending school, not passing in school, or no longer have the desire to attend traditional school can withdraw themselves and enroll in GED classes with workforce development. Once they obtain their GED they can proceed to college or work. Those students who have disciplinary issues can enroll in a military school that I have met with to get them back on track and keep them out of the juvenile system. While these students are changing their lives, my team will work with their families so that when they return they won’t come home to the same predicament. Those families beyond our assistance will be referred to the Family Preservation Unit with Protective Services. This unit works to keep the family together while empowering the leaders of the families to get their lives together.

(M) What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

As a retired law enforcement officer, I know how important it is for law enforcement and the community to have a good relationship. The police department is severely understaffed and that’s going to take work to bring qualified officers to the city. I truly believe as Baltimore evolves they will get more officers. Believe it or not, our youth want to be better, but they live in circumstances beyond their control. If we want to have a conversation to help our youth’s mental health, we can’t do that without including their families. It has to go together for it to be effective. Since when are our youth in control of their lives at such an early age? This is the reason why the youth don’t like adults. We never want to take responsibility for anything. It’s always somebody else’s fault or problem. This way of thinking has to stop NOW!

(P) What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

Truthfully, my position with the crisis in the Middle East on a city council level is limited. I can support my fellow constituents and ask for a cease-fire, but really, what can that really do? Does that stop the bombing, shooting and pain? No, but I can pray for them and ask God to have his way. 

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

There are so many things that affect our young people that it’s difficult to just note one thing to improve their lives. However, our campaign is built upon five core principles, one being intentional investment in our young people. One of the first things I’d work on is securing funding for travel abroad opportunities for youth.

Traveling to see how life goes in another country is super transformative; seeing that the world is so much higher than Baltimore, and the things we have come to accept as normal aren’t the norms everywhere, such as violence, etc. 

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

Affordable housing is a human right. We also have to ensure affordable housing is no longer a code word for poverty-stricken, crime-laden places of living either. Affordability shouldn’t mean I have to give up a decent and safe quality of life, and that folks shouldn’t have access to resources and jobs, within walking distance to their communities, just because my housing is “affordable.”. 

Affordable housing should be, as the title suggests, housing that meets the affordability of those who will live there. Even having a cap on how much property owners can charge for rent, etc., are ways to keep housing within reach. 

We don’t have a shortage of housing stock, it’s just taking back those houses which have just sat and decayed, and repurposing them. 

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

Transportation is important when talking about city growth and forward progression. It’s important that our city has multiple methods of getting around, not just in Baltimore, but to our surrounding counties, inclusive of D.C., and even neighboring states, i.e., Virginia. 

These neighboring cities offer additional job opportunities, with access to higher pay scales allowing Baltimore residents to bring that money back to our city, and spend it here, stimulating our local economy. 

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

My goal is to make sure youth have alternative pathways to success. All students are not going to college, and we have to provide a space for those to thrive. Some folks will start their own businesses, some will work for union-based companies requiring skills and trade certifications. 

This requires a partnership with our local education system, our state electeds, and our state-level Department of Education to bring this to fruition. We have to make sure our schools are providing the tools needed for our students to have access to skills, which will allow them to still be successful and take care of their families with living wages, insurance, retirement and other benefits of having a career. 

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

Ensuring young people have access to counseling services, so mental health needs can be addressed. I would commit to bringing these resources to our communities, by partnering with agencies that’s already doing the work in this space, and assist them to help our community. 

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

It’s our job as city elected officials to use our platform to speak out against injustices in all places, not just in Baltimore. This means using [our] local platform to get our state and federal partners to see the needs and respond. No one deserves to live in a war zone, nor do they deserve to be treated in an inhumane fashion.

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

As an elected official, I will prioritize investing in guidance and support rather than resorting to punitive measures for our youth. Central to my public safety strategy is the reevaluation of our approach to community well-being and policing. By directing resources towards mentorship and community organizations, we can provide young individuals with the necessary support to reach their full potential. These groups, with their deep understanding of the youth and families they serve, are key partners in mentorship and crime prevention by offering guidance and fostering positive development among our youth.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

To ensure adequate affordable housing in Baltimore, I would implement various strategies. First, I would safeguard and expand the city’s existing inclusionary housing laws to ensure inclusivity in all publicly funded housing projects. Additionally, exploring alternative housing subsidies for those in need is essential. Securing funding for the affordable housing trust fund and partnering with state and federal entities to enhance support for Baltimore residents would be a priority. And lastly, I would explore ways to strengthen community land trusts to further enhance affordability within communities. Through these measures, I aim to address the housing needs of Baltimore residents effectively and promote equitable access to affordable housing options.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

Many youth don’t meet the age requirements or have the financial means to own a car to achieve economic and social mobility. To address these hurdles, we must reduce commute times, improve accessibility, and establish a sustainable and efficient transportation network for Baltimore. I will advocate for investments in regional transit in Baltimore, with a specific focus on areas like Edmondson Village, where residents face prolonged commute times. As the councilman representing this district, my primary objective is to engage with state and federal leaders to revive and complete the Red Line project, which offers our youth a more efficient and reliable transit choice. We as a city have to involve the youth of Baltimore in shaping a comprehensive transportation plan. Elected officials must create avenues for youth participation to address their specific transit needs. Empowering the youth to contribute to the future of Baltimore transit ensures that the transit system aligns with their needs over the next 15-20 years. 

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

As a city council member, prioritizing the educational success of our youth is paramount. While council members lack the authority to hire or replace BCPS employees, we can influence the make up of the school board. I will advocate for legislation mandating that at least 50% of school board commissioners be elected positions. The school board must mirror the diversity of the community it serves, with candidates chosen based on their commitment to student needs rather than mere appointments. Enhancing transparency in commissioner appointments and increasing accessibility to meetings are vital to ensuring community input. But more importantly, engaging youth voices is essential; council members must actively listen to and collaborate with student groups like the Baltimore Student Union in decision-making processes. By incorporating these measures, we can improve educational outcomes for our youth.

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

To make a tangible impact on improving public safety and youth mental health services, it is essential to enhance and support existing programs like MONSE [Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement] through the utilization of ARPA funds. We can effectively improve public safety and youth mental health services by strategically allocating ARPA funding towards initiatives that directly address these critical areas. I am committed to collaborating with MONSE to ensure that funds are properly allocated, thereby establishing a sustainable infrastructure that will enable us to secure future funding sources to continue and expand these vital initiatives.

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

As a Baltimore City Council member representing the 8th District, my primary responsibility lies with the well-being of our constituents. While I acknowledge the importance of addressing global conflicts and issues through resolutions, I prioritize the pressing needs of our community. I strongly condemn the attacks on October 7th and the subsequent war, which have resulted in tragic casualties among men, women, and children. My ultimate goal is to advocate for peace and pursue diplomatic solutions to bring an end to violence and suffering.

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

We need to create more opportunities for positive activities such as enrichment programs, recreation, and employment.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

I am proud to have sponsored and passed the funding mechanism for Baltimore’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. These resources can be targeted toward affordable rental and homeownership options. Also, inclusionary units in newly constructed projects play a significant role in providing supply. The council must continue to support policies that pursue equitable development without displacement. This includes community land trusts that keep properties permanently affordable and out of the speculative market. We must also work with developers to ensure the creation of both market-rate and subsidized housing units. 

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

A true multimodal system is critical. The proposed Red Line is a significant piece in facilitating east-west travel.

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is designed to improve education in our city and state. To fund the Blueprint, we will need to shift budget priorities. Along with student members of the school board, the Youth Commission could be elevated and expanded in scope to propel a pipeline of new leadership.

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

Project Pneuma focuses [on] the nexus between social/emotional health and law enforcement. Direct contact between young men in our schools and police trainees establishes relationships of trust. This includes meditation, fitness, conflict resolution and mentoring. As a board member, I have seen the positive impact and growth of the program. 

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

My comments on the floor in city hall advocated for a two-state solution, self-determination for all peoples, and an end to conflict. However, the city council does not have significant power over such a complex and long-standing geopolitical situation.

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

The most important thing that I can do to improve the lives of the youth is to first address the voids which encompass their lives. The vacant houses, lots and schools, rec centers, and businesses. The absence of play spaces and, most of all, people, their neighbors. 

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

My advocacy began addressing the equitable and affordable housing crisis. I have worked with neighbors across the city to get the recent inclusionary housing bill signed into law. I also worked with the Southwest Partnership, where I am the [board] president, to establish a relationship with the city to gain the authority of the tax sale properties in the SWP neighborhoods as an investment opportunity for legacy renters to become homeowners and remain in their desired neighborhood. I plan to continue advocating on behalf of the legacy and displaced residents and their families for the first right of occupancy as well as equitable housing for the working class and our retired seniors. I will continue working with HCD [(Housing and Community Development)] on a housing incentive plan for landlords who agree to keep rents affordable without the aid of a subsidy.

Also, I will advocate for putting investments back into the the disadvantaged neighborhoods that were robbed of investments using the infrastructure funding for the “Highway to Nowhere” and the Red Line and by collaborating with community leadership, [and]  bring financial literacy and grant programs such as Buy Back the Block using programs and partnerships like Healthy Neighborhoods, 203(k) Rehabilitation Mortgage, Habitat for Humanity and dollar houses.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

First thing I plan to do to improve the transportation issues for the youth is bring back the MTA direct-to-school-route buses. Also, I would add more buses to the routes during school and working hours and expanding more and later bus routes in areas such as shopping centers and business districts where the youth are employed. Lastly, I would look into a program similar to what we had in the past, “Super Sunday,” which was a reduced fare for all-day ridership that motivated us to meet up with friends to hang out at the movies, arcade, etc. And for everyone else, I would like to restore the original bus names, numbers, routes and stops that complicated and stopped the ridership and add the free Charm City Circulator buses through our disinvested neighborhoods. 

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

One of my campaign pillars are to work with public and private partners to increase opportunities for youth.

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

To improve public safety in the 9th District, it’ll take a collaborative effort with public and private partnerships with a hyperfocus on communication and relationship building with the police and residents. I will work with our neighborhood associations to bridge the gap for both public and private investments into the infrastructure like schools, rec and parks, and youth-training programs along with social-emotional wellness and mental health resources, counseling, and equitable reentry programs that serve homeless and returning citizens alike, including but not limited to advocating for health-care subsidies for mental and physical health services. 

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

As the Baltimore City Council member, I have no direct responsibilities to global conflicts and issues. Global conflicts affects our economy and our quality of life. We have an obligation to put protections on our resources (infrastructure, water, internet, food, power grid, and cell towers).  My thoughts on the crisis in the Middle East is that war is no longer fought on the battlefield but in the city and communities, where civilians live. Therefore, we should be conscious here in the U.S., educating our local governments on emergency response protocols, as well as communities for safe refuge, survival skills-training, and proper safety equipment. 

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

Vocational training. We have plenty of room for growth in preparing more young people for good-paying, often union jobs that provide services needed in Baltimore. This has been on my website platform since Day 1; it’s a talking point when door-knocking; I just recorded an Instagram video about it, and I plan to be the council’s expert on this issue. City Schools has some great programs, and Youthworks plays a key role here, but Baltimore City can be a national leader here. Its impact on our young people — especially those most disadvantaged by our city’s geographically concentrated poverty — is obvious, and it will greatly benefit our neighborhoods, and our economy more broadly. 

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

Three pieces: 

End the city’s vacant housing crisis (through a vacancy tax, land bank, TIFs-for-vacants, and sustained focus as a councilmember); 

Continued support for affordable housing policies like requiring new developments receiving public subsidies to be at least 10% affordable, and removing parking requirements for such developments. 

Loosening unnecessary zoning restrictions that make it unduly hard to build in Baltimore, which would thus allow more housing to be built. Increasing the supply of housing (or anything) lowers the cost of it. 

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

Currently, the multimodal transportation at Baltimore City DOT has six employees — the equivalent office in D.C. has 49 employees, and the equivalent office in Philadelphia has 36 employees. If we want to break our city’s dependence on cars, we need more of the people who will help us break it. A better-staffed office would mean more community engagement, more thorough plans, and more widespread efforts to improve travel for pedestrians, buses, scooters, bikes, etc.

Additionally, we need more designated bus lanes, and traffic lights need to automatically change for buses in these lanes. In the 11th District, North Charles Street and St. Paul Street need this between the Inner Harbor and Penn Station. 

And lastly, use of bikes and scooters has increased in Baltimore by about 60% while traffic fatalities have gone down 9% since our Complete Streets ordinance was passed, and both trends are particularly impactful for youth. So while I think we should have a standardized community engagement process for transparency, the data clearly supports the argument that Complete Streets has improved multimodality and traffic safety (for pedestrians, scooters/bikes, and cars).

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

Vocational training, vocational training, vocational training. 

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

Concerning public safety, I will support the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, which has proven itself to be effective at making neighborhoods safer “the right way,” to quote Mayor Scott. I also think that the citation docket is a good way to encourage lawful behavior while avoiding ruining people’s lives through the legal system. 

Concerning youth mental health, I support trauma-informed care: we need to treat our youth like whole humans, instead of just segmenting their lives into student and non-student categories. If we want our young people to thrive, we can best support them by building relationships and being informed of their school, neighborhood, and home environment.

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

There’s a spectrum between “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” and “I’m a councilmember in Baltimore City — I have plenty to do here and almost no influence over anything in another country.” Where I would fall depends on the issue at hand.

Regarding the Israel-Palestinian crisis, I support efforts to remove Hamas from power — they are a terroristic, extremist group. That said, as someone who spent eight years as a Marine officer, I do not understand why a nation (the U.S.) that usually holds our own military members accountable for ethical failures in wartime has been so lenient towards an ally (Israel) who has caused the death of over 12,000 children in the last four months. Removing Hamas from power neither requires nor justifies the devastation we are seeing in Gaza. 

To be clear, as someone running for city council, my first focus is on my district and my city.

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

The most important thing that I can do if reelected to improve the lives of youth is to give them economic/internship opportunities, a feeling of safety, and expand recreational opportunities. 

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

I believe the answer to the affordable housing crisis lies within the stock of abandoned homes we have in the city. By working with developers that have a vested interest in the city, we are able to revitalize communities in order to develop affordable housing that will attract families back into the city. At the same time I have been an advocate for mixed-income communities in the city when new apartment communities are built, so that the people who live in these neighborhoods can continue to afford to stay in them. I supported the creation of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the new inclusionary housing law and will continue to support other efforts that make living in Baltimore with dignity achievable for any family or person.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

Public transportation in Baltimore can play a major role in one’s social mobility. It can allow more job/career/internship opportunities for individuals by allowing them to travel further. At this point there are programs that allow students to ride the bus to school for free if they meet certain criteria. However this is extremely limited, and doesn’t apply to the weekends or past 8 p.m. I believe this can be expanded to give students opportunities to take part in extracurricular activities or to get to jobs outside their neighborhoods. By using my relationships in state government I’d work to see if this program can be expanded even to the MARC/light rail system, which would expand the options of transportation for youth in the city, not just limiting them to the city limits. 

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

The best way to improve educational outcomes for young people is to include them in the conversation. For many years the conversation has been limited to what is thought to be best for young people without them being asked. This can come in the form of meeting with student and teacher leadership to see what is needed in the classrooms for [the] best possible outcome for both parties. 

My plan is to work even closer with school administration and neighboring communities to develop partnerships between them. This can come in the form of businesses near schools hiring a certain amount of students or holding a certain number of internships for students. 

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

A realistic option to improve both public safety and youth mental health in my term would be work with local law enforcement partners to ensure students feel safe.

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

Even when they’re thousands of miles away, global conflicts affect us here in Baltimore. We have neighbors and communities that feel the pain of the current crisis in the Middle East. I believe it is important to not turn a blind eye to it and act as if this doesn’t not exist. My office is working to connect communities with the proper support and resources during these times of crisis.

What is the most important thing you can do if elected to improve the lives of youth?

If elected, the most important thing I can do to improve the lives of youth is to fight to ensure our city makes them a priority. We need to make funding our school system a top priority, and if that means having to cut in other areas of the budget, then those tough decisions have to be made. The future of our city is our children, and to ensure Baltimore City has a bright future, we need to make the proper investment. Additionally, we must invest in high-quality early childhood education programs and expand access to support services, including counseling, tutoring, and extracurricular activities, to address students’ social, emotional, and academic needs. We must also address health and wellness issues by collaborating with healthcare providers, public health agencies, and community organizations to raise awareness, provide education, and advocate for policies and practices that prioritize and support youth health and wellness. It’s always easier to build stronger children than to heal broken men.

What’s your plan to address the affordable housing crisis? 

To address the affordable housing crisis in Baltimore, we must attack it from many angles, legislatively and financially, and by educating the community. Legislatively, I would like us to strengthen tenant rights and protections against unjust evictions, discrimination, and substandard living conditions and establish an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to provide dedicated funding for affordable housing initiatives. Financially, we must provide tax incentives and offer low-interest loans or grants to developers and nonprofit organizations for affordable housing projects. Lastly, we need to engage and educate the community by going directly into neighborhoods and informing residents of new affordable housing initiatives and protections. When an affordable housing project is proposed, I will ensure tenants and community members are involved in planning and decision-making.

How do you plan on improving transportation options for city youth? 

My plan to improve transportation options for city youth revolves around expanding accessibility and reliability. One of the most frustrating things about utilizing our current transit system is how difficult it is to get from one side of the city to the next. To do this, we must first work with the state to increase bus frequency, extend operating hours, and improve reliability to provide residents with more convenient and efficient transit options. We must also enhance connectivity and accessibility to our subway and light rail systems by improving station infrastructure and investing in projects like the Baltimore Red Line. 

What’s your plan to improve educational outcomes for young people? And when making decisions pertaining to education, what’s your plan to ensure youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process?

Improving education outcomes for young people requires a comprehensive approach that addresses various factors influencing student success, such as school quality, teacher effectiveness, and family engagement. I would start by investing in upgrading and maintaining school facilities and infrastructure to create safe, supportive, and conducive learning environments. We then need to review and revamp our strategies to recruit, train, and retain high-quality teachers while providing ongoing professional development, mentoring, and support for teachers to enhance their effectiveness and job satisfaction. Lastly, I would implement a community school model that integrates academic instruction, health and wellness services, and family and community engagement to address the comprehensive needs of students and families. I would ensure our youth have meaningful participation in the decision-making process by allowing them to sit at the table at every step. 

What do you think realistically can be done to improve public safety and youth mental health during your term? 

We can improve public safety and youth mental health by making more substantial investments in education; we cannot stop advocating for more significant investment in city schools until every student has access to a world-class education. Second, we should expand upon the community schools model, ensuring every community has a community school so we can provide students and families with the health and wellness services they need directly in their community. Lastly, I would use economic development opportunities such as harbor places to create jobs for city residents through community benefits agreements. 

What responsibilities do you have to respond to global conflicts and issues? Specifically, what’s your response to the crisis in the Middle East?

My responsibility to respond to global conflicts and issues is to educate the general public on the facts to the best of my ability and call out any acts of injustice and inhumanity. My response to the crisis in the Middle East is that the loss of innocent lives must stop, and our efforts and focus should be directed toward that whenever necessary.