Imagine listening to members of Congress making statements like the following: “One look at the current budget will show the large amount of money needed to pay for defaulted loans—about $1.4 billion for just one year alone. The amounts expended over the past 5 years for defaults have risen by 85 percent.” “During the most […]
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What are we waiting for?
Monday, May 10, 2010Black community, it’s time for some tough decision-making. It’s time to decide the best way to conceptualize, create and configure our communities for optimal socio-economic outcomes. Moreover, it’s time for us to promote and demonstrate by example that “more is not always better,” and that there comes a time when it is necessary to downsize […]
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Every child should experience summer camp
Monday, May 03, 2010I love summer time and everything about it, especially summer camp. Summer camp provides children with a fun, safe environment to learn new activities, experience new friends, and reinforce academic skills. Growing up as a child living with sickle cell disease, summer camp was one of the few activities that made me feel normal. I […]
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Creating a healthier Southwest Baltimore
Monday, April 26, 2010In Southwest Baltimore—as well as in communities across the country—our behaviors have led us to unhealthy lives and lifestyles. The increase of chronic health conditions (e.g. high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and stroke) is affecting younger individuals and not enough people are concerned. In some neighborhoods in Southwest Baltimore, the life expectancy is 10-15 […]
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Let’s get serious about play
Monday, April 19, 2010Here’s my audacious idea: let’s show children just how seriously we take their education by making sure that every school has a least one adult whose job it is to make play happen. Let’s take play seriously. I don’t mean make it boring and regimented. Play is some of children’s most important work. The motivation […]
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Investing in education
Monday, April 12, 2010A lion’s share of the best and the brightest minds devote their energy into designing programs to capture students’ attention in order to improve their performances. The value of teaching facts and history, concepts and theory is understood; the challenge is weaving those elements into a format that imprints on the students, encourages retention, and […]
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Enterprising Green3
Monday, March 29, 2010Green can be a polarizing term. Especially when it brings about images of swimming polar bears, talk of carbon and climate change, or messaging to turn the thermostat down and put on your jumper, like ol’ Jimmy Carter. Environmentalism has typically cast a message about scarcity that only appeals to a relatively small number of […]
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Revitalizing Oldtown
Monday, March 22, 2010If the Oldtown community of East Baltimore is to be revitalized without the gentrification created in other Baltimore neighborhoods, a new form of economic development must be undertaken. Systemic barriers that exclude entire groups must be dealt with realistically. Change4Real, a coalition led by Sojourner-Douglass College consisting of local residents and core community institutions, believes […]
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Maryland can do more to responsibly reduce the prison population
Monday, March 15, 2010Maryland budget analysts had the right idea when they recently told legislators that the state could save money and adequately staff all correctional facilities by reducing the prison population and closing at least one prison. (Analysts recommend reducing Maryland’s prison population, Associated Press, Feb. 26, 2010.) The reality is that Maryland already is reducing its […]
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Baltimore’s case for Google fiberoptic investment is more than just stunts
Monday, March 08, 2010What if Baltimore was a national leader in developing new technologies for the future of the Internet? It’s a real possibility and many of us here in Baltimore are working hard to make it a reality. On February 10, Google announced plans to build out a new, extremely fast fiberoptic Internet service in one or […]
