Leadership Development

The primary elections for Baltimore's next mayor might be four months away, but at least one community group has begun building its campaign agenda on two issues it views as critical to the city: better-paying jobs and medical benefits.Four years ago, Baltimoreans United for Leadership Development (BUILD) successfully pushed for the city to adopt a "living wage" bill requiring any business receiving a city contract to pay workers at least $6.10 an hour, well over the $4.25 minimum wage at the time.

A Baltimore citizens group that successfully pushed for the nation's first "living wage" law five years ago said yesterday that it intends to register 6,000 new voters to restore a neighborhood voice to the mayor's race.In addition to the voter registration drive, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) -- whose 2,000 members come from churches, labor unions and community groups -- also issued a six-point program for the next mayor.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is stepping down in December after a 12-year tenure.

The Rev. Vernon Dobson stares through the gray light breaking through his church office window at vacant homes across the street, recalling "The Promise."The Union Baptist Church pastor remembers former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and developer James Rouse touring Baltimore's African-American churches, asking for support to rebuild the Inner Harbor. The prosperity will spread, the ministers were told. Your neighborhoods will flourish.Thirty years later, Dobson is still waiting. As the city heads into its final mayoral election of the century, many Baltimore neighborhoods continue to decompose.

DON'T air mail your trash.Do read to your kids.A list of do's and don'ts for citizens on the first full day of Mayor Martin J. O'Malley's tenure in City Hall could go on at some length. Everyone should make one -- a list of things to do for the neighborhood or the block.Ask not what Martin O'Malley can do for you. Ask what you can do for Baltimore.The people expect great things from their new leader and everyone has advice for him: How to manage his time, what books to read, where to find a police chief.

FOR MORE than a generation, Baltimore's civic leaders have pinned their hopes of a revitalized city on downtown redevelopment.Downtown, like a giant Pac Man, has consumed millions of dollars in public subsidies. The idea is that at some point downtown's prosperity will trickle down into the city's neighborhoods.It didn't work. As the glittering Inner Harbor filled with fancy shops and restaurants, the city's neighborhoods went into a decline that many experts predict won't be reversed in our lifetimes, if ever.

More than 1,000 members of Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development -- a citywide coalition of churches, workers' groups and neighborhood associations -- hammered out their platform for the fall election yesterday and enlisted 663 volunteers to carry it to citizens."

Where there were once vacant lots, there are homes. Where there were dreams, there is reality. Where there was little hope, there is pride.Residents of the Nehemiah Homes project in Sandtown-Winchester will be celebrating their sixth anniversary Saturday, and for the people who live there it has become an example of how subsidized affordable housing can succeed.For Marlene Brown and her husband, Otha, the six years have shown her a new way of life."My sense is that this is a place that I can do with what I want," she said.

Affirmative action, welfare reform, equal opportunity, poverty: The conversation about race in America seems far more complicated in the 1990s than it was in 1960s.Thirty-five years after the legendary March on Washington, many people are wondering whether the spirit of the '60s has been lost, whether the generation of children who watched the demonstrators on television and studied their messages in classrooms possess the leadership necessary to move social justice forward.President Clinton has become concerned enough about the subject of race to place it high on the national agenda.

Police chased a suspect in two killings into Abel Wolman Municipal Building yesterday and arrested him in a room crowded with people paying parking fines.Police saw a man riding a bicycle on the Fallsway about 3 p.m. and chased him into the building in the 200 block of N. Holliday St., across from City Hall. Police said Shelby Donald Waters, 23, of the 900 block of Druid Park Lake Drive was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder in a shooting Nov. 3 near Lexington Market.

A $5.2 million grant awarded to Baltimore Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will help finance the construction of 300 homes in Sandtown-Winchester, city housing officials said yesterday.The funds will be used to attract $30 million from sources including the city and state governments, financial institutions and foundations. That money will be used to build and renovate houses in a so-called Homeownership Zone to be called Sandtown-Winchester Square, said city housing spokesman Zack Germroth.

About 400 people turned out last night to demand that state lawmakers make education off-limits in budget cuts needed to close the shortfall. The rally at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis drew principals, teachers, parents, children and city schools chief Andr?s Alonso. The rally was organized by the advocacy group Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) and its sister organizations: Action In Montgomery (AIM) and People Acting Together in Howard (PATH). The three groups announced the formation of a new organizing network, the Maryland Industrial Areas Foundation.

Anne Arundel may reduce builders' impact fees In an effort to stimulate the construction business sector, Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold announced yesterday that he will propose an immediate, temporary reduction in economic impact fees on commercial and residential builders. The reduction, which would delay full implementation of proposed increases in impact fees on development in the county until 2010, is scheduled to be voted on Monday night by the County Council. Economic impact fees are designed to help local governments provide services and infrastructure improvements, such as sewer lines and roads.

The Rev. Vernon N. Dobson, who played a pivotal role in the struggle for civil rights in Baltimore during the 1950s and 1960s, first came to historic Union Baptist Church as assistant pastor in 1958, and then was pastor for 39 years, until retiring last year. "I'm doing a little writing now, and I still preach at different churches several times a month," said Dobson, 84, the other day. He said he keeps busy with a number of organizations, including BUILD - Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development - a church-based social action group, of which he was a founder.

A long-planned effort to revitalize Baltimore's Oliver neighborhood got a jump-start last night with a commitment for millions of dollars from the city and private investors. Members of the faith-based nonprofit organization Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) said that the money will help their plans to build affordable homes on what is now vacant property blighting the neighborhood. The group hopes to start construction in February on 40 affordable homes along Preston Street.

Maryland schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick challenged principals yesterday to become leaders - not managers - who can develop and support effective teachers to accelerate student achievement. Speaking to 120 elementary, middle and high school principals at the fifth annual Maryland Principals' Academy, Grasmick emphasized a school leader's role in meeting the learning needs of all children. "Teaching is a science done artfully," she told them. "You are the leaders who will make that happen every day."

MONDAY'S CITY Council hearing on public financing for a $305 million convention center hotel in Baltimore degenerated into an embarrassing and counterproductive display. Exchanges between the Rev. Douglas I. Miles of BUILD (Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development) and council President Sheila Dixon, as reported by The Sun's Jill Rosen, amounted to verbal fisticuffs. Shouts and yelling, microphones cut off, voices raised in defiance - so much for civil discourse. BUILD's anger about public investment in a downtown hotel is understandable, but misplaced.

An influential Baltimore citizens group is asking city officials to use more of the city's budget surplus to promote after-school programs for children. The group, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD), is lobbying for $5.9 million of the surplus to be earmarked for in-school programs and community-based youth programs. So far, city leaders have said they will set aside $3.4 million for in-school programs. Mayor Martin O'Malley has said a large portion of the $59 million surplus needs to be used to cover overspending by some city agencies.

IF EAST BALTIMORE'S ambitious $800 million biotech park is to become a reality, the community's redevelopment must follow the project's agreed-upon plan; money and construction cannot be spread in a scattershot fashion. This is worth repeating because the nonprofit Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) is belatedly trying to muscle its way into the plan now that East Baltimore Development Inc. (EBDI) has more than $30 million in the bank for relocation efforts. Without notifying either EBDI or the city in advance, eight BUILD-affiliated churches have acquired some 200 vacant or run-down properties in Oliver, just northwest of the biotech park area.

Carolyn E. Harris, a retired systems analyst, choir member and longtime community volunteer, died July 27 of bone cancer. The Northwood resident was 52. Born Carolyn Johnson in Phoenix, Baltimore County, she moved to the city with her family as a teen-ager and graduated from Northwestern High School in 1968. She went on to work in the banking industry for 28 years as a systems analyst until illness forced her to leave her job at Bank of America. An active community volunteer for more than two decades, Mrs. Harris served as treasurer of the Perring Loch Community Association for more than 10 years.

Teacher workshops on environment set at Patuxent refuge The Patuxent Research Refuge will offer workshops for teachers June 21-28 at the National Wildlife Visitor Center, Laurel. The workshops will provide interdisciplinary curricula and activities for grades kindergarten through 12. Subjects will include wildlife art, hands-on habitat assessment, ecological concepts and other activities that teachers can use to teach environmental concepts. Some MSDE credits may be available. The cost is $5. The visitor center, a facility of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is off Powder Mill Road, between the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and Route 197. Free workshops will be offered to camp counselors, day care providers and youth leaders to help them plan day trips to the visitor center.