An interview with Karen Jennings candidate for Ward 2

1. When was the last time you visited Clay Street? Please describe your experience? What did you see? 

The last time I was in that neighborhood was at 9 pm Wednesday on College Creek Terrace. I went there to visit with a resident who was interested in my campaign and had spoken to one of my campaign staff who had knocked on doors there last Saturday. As I drove into the neighborhood along Washington St., I noticed a couple of guys on the street in front of Timothy House and a lot more on Washington Street by the take-out. I presume they are all “entrepreneurs” (as Timm would say). On College Creek Terrace, it was a ghost town – completely silent, not a soul in sight, and mostly dark (particularly at the top of the court) because the street lights are out. When I left the neighborhood later, there were two police cruisers driving down College Creek Terrace. As I followed them out, one turned towards Washington St. and the other turned towards Glenwood. Driving on Clay St., I passed a guy walking in the middle of the road who was obviously not in his right mind. I also want to mention a very different experience I had visiting the Clay Street neighborhood last Sunday (December 9) in the middle of the day. It was a cold day, but I had really good conversations with some new people I hadn’t met before, and enjoyed a hot dog while talking about the old Fourth Ward with folks at Town Pines Court. Of course there were the “entrepreneurs” on Washington St., but I also saw kids out playing basketball and people walking their dogs. What really caught my attention this time around was Pleasant St.  On one side of the street are homes that are well kept where people have lived there for years. The other side of the street, the public housing side, is completely neglected with boarded up windows, broken street lights, and torn down fencing. One of my favorite parts of that day was talking with two little girls my campaign staff and I met on Clay Street at Obery Ct. They were just sitting on the wall by the sidewalk, and were really friendly and wanted to know what we were doing. When we told them we were campaigning for city council the two girls wanted us to explain to them what city council was and what an alderwoman does. Then they asked for a piece of our literature which they were really excited about taking back to their moms. For all the despair that one can see in this neighborhood, you can also run across two beautiful little girls who really represent hope for that community because they are the next generation.

2. With 25% of the murders this year and continuous drug activity, violence, and despair occurring in your Ward what do you think can be done to stop this? What are some ideas that you have to do so? Please be specific?

There are several reasons why the police force is not fully staffed including loss of staff to the war in Iraq, retirement, maternity leave, and difficulty in recruiting new staff to such a high cost-of-living area. There are some efforts being made now by the city council to change that by improving recruitment incentives for police officers. Certainly, having cops stationed at every corner wouldn’t hurt crime fighting efforts in the Clay Street neighborhood. However, I think we also need to recognize the importance of having the police working with residents in order to have the most impact on crime in the neighborhood. By law, a police officer can not stop and frisk someone without probable cause to suspect that the particular individual is involved in illegal behavior. That means that the police officer either has to see the person committing a crime, or they have to have a good description of the suspect and the crime from a resident who witnessed the illegal behavior. Armed with the description from a resident, under the Police officer now has probable cause to pat the suspect down for weapons, and if they feel something that could be contraband (i.e. drugs) when patting down the suspect then the officer can search the suspect’s pockets.  Unfortunately, a comment like “there’s people selling drugs on the corner” is not enough information to provide the police with probable cause to stop an individual. Currently very few residents and police officers are working together to stop crime. Residents are afraid of retribution from the criminals, and also they do not trust the police to help them. Residents in public housing have told me that they are equally afraid of the drug dealers and the police! This has to change if we are ever going to make real progress in the Clay Street neighborhood. There needs to be a dedicated and focused effort to get residents to meet and talk with the police assigned to the neighborhood, and to educate both so that a basis of trust can form and residents are able to feel empowered to call the police and report criminal activity. I would also like to see a multi-component program implemented to reduce violent crime in this neighborhood. I would suggest basing it on the successful CeaseFire program in Chicago (www.ceasefireillinois.org) which included street-level outreach to at-risk youth, public education, community mobilization in response to violence, faith-based leader involvement, and police participation. In targeted neighborhoods, Chicago saw a 67% reduction in the number of shootings the first year CeaseFire was implemented. Baltimore implemented a similar program in two neighborhoods this summer, called Operation Safe Streets. A side benefit of this type of effort is that it brings the community together and builds a sense of pride and ownership of the neighborhood. We also need to work on the little issues to help rebuild pride and safety in the community. We need to make sure that the light fixtures are fixed, fences are repaired, and when spring comes, we definitely need to put together a planting project for Obery Ctand College Creek Terrace. We need to clean up the community both literally and figuratively to help bring back pride to that area.

3. There is a great divide in Annapolis between the people of Clay Street and the rest of the city both in terms of physical divide (the DHR buildings, parking garage, etc) and the digital / education divide? A portion of your constituents are falling behind quickly as a result of these divides both socially and economically what ideas do you want to implement should you be elected?

I would work with the Stanton Center to make sure that current educational and recreation programs for neighborhood children are fully funded, and to look for opportunities to expand current programs or create new ones. I would especially like to find funding to create new environmental education and apprenticeship programs. College Creek was historically occupied by working watermen, and I think there is an excellent opportunity to build on that history. Living Classrooms Foundation has a very successful program in Baltimore that teaches at-risk high school students carpentry and boat building/maintenance skills, which also increases pride and self-reliance. Another example of a program like this is in Oakland, CA where a program teaching at-risk students how to install solar panels has also attracted green energy businesses to relocate to the city to take advantage of the new skilled labor base. I would also like to develop more programs to improve the math, writing and science skills of elementary and middle school children through hands-on activities in the Chesapeake Bay environment. The framework for implementing these types of programs is already in place through organizations like the Chesapeake Ecology Center, the Children’s Maritime Museum, Blacks of the Chesapeake, and the Stanton Center.

It is also important to have programs in place to help strengthen families. It is difficult (if not impossible) to teach a child who is worried about their unstable home life. I would work to implement drug rehabilitation programs, job training and placement programs, and financial responsibility training programs to help families succeed as a support network for their children. 

4. Where do you stand on the proposals that have been brought by the Planning Commission with regard to the revitalization of Obery Ct and College Creek Terrace? 

Obery Ct. and College Creek Terrace do need to be upgraded, and I appreciate the proposals’ effort to try to beautify the neighborhood and bring back a sense of pride to living there. I like the idea of helping people in the neighborhood to purchase their own home, and recognize that the proposals attempt to do that by including affordable housing units. However, I do not want to see the neighborhood gentrified at the expense of current residents, and I would like to see affordable housing units sold (and resold in the future) only to people already living in the neighborhood. I also think it is important that the redevelopment keeps the same number of public housing units. I am very concerned about the possibility that residents will be relocated while the two developments are built. From talking to residents in Obery Ct., it seems that there is a lot of confusion and uncertainly about what will happen to them during the construction. Many residents think that they are going to be relocated out of the city permanently, and that is contributing to local apathy and hopelessness for improving the neighborhood. I think it is very important that residents are not relocated outside of the neighborhood during construction, not even temporarily, and that it is stressed to them that the city understands that this is their neighborhood and that they will be staying here. Let us not forget that it was these types of resident relocations that destroyed the Clay St. neighborhood in the first place, and we should not be repeating past mistakes. How would you feel if you were living on Obery Court, without a car, trying to get a steady job, and you had no idea where you were going to be moved to next year? It is not fair to the residents to be left in the dark about what is going on, and for the most part the residents I’ve talked to when knocking on doors feel that they have no say or power to influence what will happen to them. As an Alderwoman I would make sure that the Obery Ct. and College Creek Terrace residents are aware and involved in redevelopment plans, even if that means going door to door an hour before public meetings to get people to attend, and giving them a ride there and home. I also feel strongly that redevelopment plans are not an excuse to let current buildings fall into disrepair, and stand vacant and boarded up. It is not safe for current residents to be living in that environment, and it is certainly not helping the crime problem. Last, I feel that it is important that the history and heritage of this neighborhood be considered in any revitalization plans. College Creek Terrace was built in 1934 and is the oldest public housing complex in the country. Redevelopment plans should be sensitive to its status as a historic landmark. 

5. The Police department is sorely lacking in officers, the current chief seems to think things are okay, the Mayor hides in Europe, and the Department of Housing doesn’t want to hold the ball, what will you do to hold these people accountable for their lack of attention paid to this neighborhood? How can you get them to see what you saw in your answer in question 1? Further, how can you energize them to come together and spend time solving what is now a multi generational problem? 

I think that is it important to get the Mayor, the Police Chief and the Housing Authority talking and cooperating together with the neighborhood residents to find solutions for the Clay Street area. As an Alderwoman, I would facilitate that discussion by working to develop a constructive relationship with all of those entities. I do not think that pointing fingers, assigning blame, and making demands would be the way to get the Mayor, Police and/or Housing Authority to work together with me on improving this neighborhood. But ultimately, if the Mayor, Police and Housing Authority refuse to come together, I feel that as Alderwoman it would be my responsibility to get in there and take care of things without them. There are a lot of good people in the neighborhood already working to try to change things, largely without any support from the city. It’s the alderperson’s job to make sure those individuals have the tools and support they need to be most effective. For example, if the housing authority is not going to fix broken windows, fences, and street lights, then I would get a city or volunteer work crew in there to do the work. If the city can’t or won’t provide funding for the support programs that residents need to secure a better future for themselves and their children, then I will work with the residents to get grant funding to initiate those programs (and work to ensure continued funding of programs already in place). As a Green Party candidate, I come from an activist perspective, and as Alderwoman I promise that I will be in that community working to change things on the grassroots level rather than wasting time fighting with other public officials.

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Posted in September 2007