On Monday, Jan.19th, 2012, a.k.a - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, The Indypendent Reader caught up with Lester Spence, at the kick-off action for the Schools Not Jails five-day "pop-up" occupation.
This morning at 3am Baltimore City Riot Police blocked off the roads surrounding McKeldin Square, the site of Occupy Baltimore, and moved in to evict the ten-week old encampment. No arrests nor injuries were reported as the roughly 50 people at the site were quickly forced to pack up their things and leave.
An emergency General Assembly is to be held at McKeldin Square at 10am today.
Indyreader will keep you up to date with developments as they happen.
For thirteen years, the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) has been commemorated both to honor those who have died at the hands of anti-trans hatred and to bring visibility to lives that are so often forgotten. On November 20, Baltimore gathered in memorial for TDOR.
“I think I have some sense of what neighborhoods in Baltimore are like and what they need.”
-M.J. “Jay” Brodie, President, Baltimore Development Corporation
“I think I have some sense of what neighborhoods in Baltimore are like and what they need.” That was, in part, M.J. Brodie’s response to my critique of his agency’s impact on Baltimore’s Black Community. He knows what our neighborhoods are like and he knows what we need. Really?
On the eve of the two month anniversary of Occupy Baltimore, participants and allies of the emerging movement gathered at the 2640 Space to reflect upon the previous two months of an intensive experiment in mass participatory democracy; it's successes, pitfalls, challenges and potential new directions.
Members of the Baltimore City Council held an investigative hearing yesterday regarding allegations of gender discrimination and intimidation at the new City-funded homeless shelter, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Housing and Resource Center (HRC). The hearing comes just ten days after City police forcefully removed over 300 students and advocates from staging an overnight “sleep-out” in front of City Hall to raise awareness about homelessness, despite being allowed to do so in previous years.
This past week the City of Baltimore denied a permit request submitted by Occupy Baltimore to maintain their now two-month-old encampment at McKeldin Square. The denial was sent by letter from Gregory Bayor, director of the Department of Recreation and Parks, prohibiting the request to remain at the inner harbor site legally through to April 2012.
Right off the large main lobby of Healthcare for the Homeless in downtown Baltimore, there is a small, tile-floored room with folding tables and plastic stackable chairs. Offering some small respite from the loud TVs and chatter of dozens of people in the main lobby, the room reminds me of a school classroom—complete with colorful, handmade drawings and paintings covering almost every inch of the walls. However, as around 25 folks make their way into the small room on this Tuesday morning in August, the respite gives way to a bit of claustrophobia as we all try to squeeze in.
On a hot August morning, I sat down with James Crawford at a table in the apartment building where he lives on North Avenue. I had first called him less than 24 hours before, and he had told me to come see him the next morning at eleven. As we sat alone in a large room full of chairs, tables, and couches, in what I guessed was the lobby of the apartment building, I asked him about his work for Bmore Housing For All (BHFA), an activist organization of currently or formerly homeless people and their allies in which he is an active member.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE LETTER
To the Baltimore Development Corporation, We, the undersigned authors and endorsers of this letter, feel that it is time to have a little talk.
