Michael Braverman, the Commissioner of the Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development, joins Tom today.
Any conversation about housing in our city is a conversation about two Baltimores. There’s the Baltimore of downtown and the Inner Harbor, with its strong history of public and private investment, and the stable, majority-white neighborhoods that stretch in a narrow line north from there.
And then there’s what Morgan State University professor Lawrence Brown has dubbed Baltimore’s “black butterfly,” the city’s majority black neighborhoods that stretch out like two large wings on either side. Many of those neighborhoods continue to struggle with poverty, unemployment and a lack of affordable housing on the one hand, and a huge number of vacant buildings on the other.
Late last month, Mayor Catherine Pugh unveiled a new Framework for Community Development: the start of what she calls "a new era of neighborhood investment." Commissioner Braverman is tasked with executing these plans. He has worked with the city for 30 years, in both the Housing Department and the State’s Attorney’s office.
This conversation was livestreamed on the WYPR Facebook page. Click here to see the video.
