This week our community experienced three shootings, two of them fatal. The murder on July 22, earlier this morning, took the life of a 20 year old after a violent shooting. The Ednor Gardens - Lakeside Civic Association and the residents of the 900 Block of East 37th Street thank you for coming out to show your support and love for our neighbors. We not only come together to provide a space for peace and love, we also must demonstrate that as a community, we will not tolerate violence of any kind in our community. We are a diverse, accepting community that seeks to create a safe space for all our residents, neighbors and visitors. We ask for your continued support and efforts as we look to partner with our Mayor, Police Department, State's Attorney and neighboring communities to address systemic issues that feeds violence in our communities.

 

Our community has been partnering with area neighborhoods for years and has been working toward establishing systems and programs that provide an alternative to violence. Tonight, with you all here and those watching online or reading this statement, we provide you with the start of an action plan that you can be part of and we hope the City will join in and see this through:

 

1. Enhance lighting in our community through more adequate street lights as asked for in the Ednor Gardens - Lakeside light survey of   2016.

2. Support quality programming for adolescent youth ages 16 - 24 either through the creation of the Youth Center and/or providing programing in spaces such as the Waverly School, Library of Weinberg Y. 

3. Support comprehensive family engagement and supportive services in our community. 

4. Open up the Waverly School for community programs in the evening and weekends; cut the chains and allow community access to the school yard. 

5. ransparent and open communication with City Agencies, including the Liquor Board and the Police Department. 

6. Create smaller police precincts to allow officers to have a long-term presence in neighborhoods and get to know the people who live there. 

7. Facilitate greater collaboration on the Northern - Northeast Police District Line. 

8. Apply a public health response to crime to ensure social and behavioral needs are addressed. 
    

We offer you and yours peace and love in the days to come. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of the young man who lost his life this morning. Please join us now in taking a moment to reflect on just how precious life really is…

 

Again, we thank you all for coming out and we will continue organizing at the National Night Out event on Tues, Aug 7 from 6 - 8 pm at Thanksgiving Place down by the Weinberg Y.

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Read by Shane Bryan, Ednor Gardens - Lakeside Civic Association President at a gathering of neigbors, elected officials and Baltimore CIty Police on East 37th Street and Ellerslie Road on Sunday, July 22, 2018.