Community members aid in the clean up at Pennsylvania and North Avenues following the riots. (Photo by J.D. Howard)
Last week I attended the Maryland Business Recovery Workshop on Morgan State University’s campus. The event was ostensibly about connecting small businesses damaged by the riots with state and federal agencies who could help them with loans, grants, insurance questions ,and other such matters.
What it turned into was a searing indictment of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s handling of the riots, accusations that the police did not care about small crimes, and worry that something similar would happen again by a group of close to 100 businesses owners and operators.
Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford opened the event by saying, “A lot of the challenges the city has were not caused overnight or a couple of weeks ago. We’re going to be looking to long term solutions to address some of those challenges. And you’re part of that. Getting you back up and running, and helping you to expand and to be able to do business in the city. To be able to hire. To be able to pay taxes. All of those things. Hopefully we’ll be able to lower the taxes. To be able to be productive is what our objective is.”
What followed were presentations from the Small Business Administration, the Maryland Insurance Commission, the Department Business and Economic Development, the Baltimore Development Corporation, and several others. The entire spiel took several hours and by the time the floor was opened to general questions at the end the mood had shifted from one of expectation to anger.
The main problem seems to have been that many of the talks focused on giving new loans to people who already had massive loans from running their businesses. And while several of the representatives of the various agencies stressed that they did offer forgivable loans – loans that would not have to be paid back if certain conditions were met – much of the audience took issue with having to take on a another loan instead of receiving some form of government assistance.
Otman Damoun, owner of Charles Village Dollar Plus, was one such speaker. “A loan is a sword hanging over your head that takes a piece of you every month. If you’re not going to give us a grant then you may as well tell us to close down,” he said. “We need people to come invest in Baltimore. Just yesterday someone got mugged behind my store and it took the police 30 minutes to get there.”
As a parade of proprietors continued to lambaste what they saw as the city not doing enough to help them, many of the representatives seemed stunned by the vitriol. Kerry DeVilbiss, East Team Director for the Baltimore Development Corporation, said “You’re right. We’re sitting up here on a panel trying to help you all and you’re out there running your businesses. As a Baltimore resident and part of a third generation of businesses owners I know this rocked your world.”
The shadow of more riots hung in the air. Asked by a business owner if more riots would happen if the six police officers indicted in the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray while in police custody were acquitted, DeVilbiss paused and then said, “Will it happen again? I don’t know. I certainly hope it won’t.”
As with many discussions of events in Baltimore, race and class were an undercurrent. Lewis Evans, president of On Demand Labor Baltimore, a temporary worker agency, brought it to the fore when he said, “Many of the people here, they had no problem destroying neighborhoods. They destroyed your business because you destroyed their neighborhood. Many of these businesses don’t deserve to go back into the neighborhood. When I see stores with lines of Black customers but no Black employees, I wonder what they’re doing for the neighborhood.” Evans’ statements were met with an uncomfortable silence and the meeting broke up soon thereafter.
Murders are up. Tourism is down. Drugs from the looted pharmacies have flooded the streets. Summer is here and school is out. The question is what, if anything, can the mayor do to make Baltimore not only safe for tourists but its residents as well?
Kamau High is a journalist living in Baltimore and can be reached at kamauhigh@yahoo.com.