BALTIMORE, Md — A second run. It's not lost on Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. In Baltimore, this kind of opportunity doesn't come around that often. A child from Park Heights, living out his dream.
"First I'm just humbled, it's been a long time since Baltimore has had a 2nd term mayor. It's been 20 years, I was a sophomore in college the last time this happened," said Mayor Brandon Scott to WMAR-2 News Randall Newsome, "So, I'm just humbled and thankful to the residents of Baltimore for entrusting me to continue the work that I started.
A lot has happened in the last four years, but what is Mayor Scott most proud of?
"It has to be the reduction of violence in Baltimore."
In a city struggling to see the light in a dark cloud of violence, a cloud that has hovered over the city for more than 30 years, most of the Mayor's life, he can say his administration is seeing those numbers slow down.
"When you think about me stepping out there and saying that we were gonna reduce homicides by 15 percent from one year to the next and then we beat it at 20 and beaten that as you and I are talking right now, that's a lot of progress for us to acknowledge, not celebrate but acknowledge that progress."
"Because those are lives saved and lives not interrupted, communities not dealing with trauma and doing something that's never been done in Baltimore before. Never before have we reduced homicides by 20 percent from one year to the next."
He, and his team, planted the seeds, and now, he believes, his comprehensive violence reduction plan will be in full bloom over the next few years.
Right now, juvenile crime is under the microscope, "No one is more frustrated than me or my police officers on the street that they are arresting anybody, particularly young people for committing the same type of crime on the same day or consistently over and over again. We have to make sure that we're working with our state partners to make sure that the accountability and programs and services that are needed for families and young people are there to make sure that we are doing what we need to do to keep people safe in the city of Baltimore."
But Mayor Scott made it clear in his conversation with Randall, that he's not satisfied with his wins, only what he can do better, "I'm an athlete so I want to improve in every phase of my game, every single day. I want myself and everyone around me to be perfect. It's not good enough for me to throw for five touchdowns if I didn't have the perfect quarterback rating."
So what's the next play for the City's quarterback?
For starters a $3 billion vacant reductions strategy is in the works to give some of the city's biggest eye sores a makeover, and a new purpose.
"I'm going to sign on my last day in my first term, a TIF (tax increment financing), not for downtown, not for Harbor East, but for vacants across the city of Baltimore. That's going to allow us to make neighborhoods like East Baltimore, like West Baltimore, like Park Heights, where I'm from, and take those vacants and turn them into homes and houses for people who grew up there that can move back."
When it's all said and done, the kid from Park Heights wants to be able to say he shed a bigger light on his city.
"I dream of a better Baltimore today, that's it for me. I'm living out my dream every day of being the Mayor of Baltimore and making it better."
Mayor Brandon Scott's inauguration for his second term as the Mayor of Baltimore City is at Noon on December 3rd.
