Baltimore’s New Progressive Mayor Is Ready To Tackle The City’s Biggest Problems

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Brandon Scott, Baltimore’s youngest mayor in more than a century, at his election night party last month.

Emily Sullivan /WYPR

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Emily Sullivan /WYPR

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Scott grew up in Park Heights, a once-robust neighborhood that declined after white flight occurred in the late 20th century. There, he witnessed firsthand the violence that plagues Baltimore, seeing his first shooting before his 10th birthday, as well as the disinvestment that predominantly Black neighborhoods still face. He attended schools with no heat or air conditioning and watched zero tolerance policies tear apart families.

In 2011, at the age of 27, Scott was elected to the city council and spent the next decade passing racial equity, public safety and government transparency legislation. He’s called for supervised injection sites and drastic reform to the Baltimore Police Department. He became president of the Baltimore City Council in 2019, after ex-mayor Catherine Pugh resigned amid her self-dealing children’s book scheme scandal.

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Brandon Scott outside his grandmother’s house in Park Heights, Baltimore, after winning the primary in June.

Emily Sullivan/WYPR

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«Baltimore never really wrestled with the demons of segregation, said Lawrence Brown, a visiting sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The legacy of redlining remains painfully present throughout the city today. When Scott steps into the mayor’s office, he inherits deep-rooted health, educational and economic gaps in disinvested Black neighborhoods, Brown said.

The pandemic, which has predominantly killed Black Americans and has shuttered job sites throughout the city, is widening these gaps even further.

Leana Wen, Baltimore’s former health commissioner and visiting professor at George Washington University, said leaders must redouble their efforts to reduce these disparities, especially as the pandemic worsens.

«There needs to be a lot of work done over the medium and long term while we recognize that racism and racial inequity are public health issues, Wen said.

Scott said he will be unafraid to impose stricter pandemic restrictions in majority-Black Baltimore on things like indoor dining and retail than Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.

The progressive is also adamant that he’s not a savior.

«Am I going to wipe away hundreds of years of inequity in Baltimore? No, Scott said. «But someone has to be the person willing to put the bricks at the foundation of a better city.