Mayor Scott discusses lofty goals for eliminating Baltimore's vacant homes, fighting crime, investing in youth

In a sit-down interview with WJZ, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott delved into his plans to improve Baltimore through eliminating vacant homes, pouring into our youth, and improving city services.

On Monday, the mayor delivered his State of the City address with the theme, "Built Different, Building Different."

Mayor Scott highlighted his plans for reducing violent crime, building the economy, eradicating vacant properties, and fulfilling the desperate need for affordable housing in Baltimore.  

Mayor Scott said he expects to be held accountable to his lofty goals for his hometown, but added that not one mayor or term will fix all of Baltimore's problems, but the city is rewriting its comeback story for the world to see.

"Now this is going to be the place where everybody wants to be, a city that is still proud of who it is and the people they have in it, but reminding folks we came from this place and now here we are today," Mayor Scott said. 

Mayor Scott highlights goals

Mayor Scott told WJZ his administration is taking an aggressive approach to protect Baltimore's future by eliminating vacant properties in the next 15 years, reducing violent crime, making historic investments in Baltimore City schools and the youth, and improving city services, such as the Department of Public Works.

"We said that we were going to reduce homicides by 15 %, and we did that, we beat it, that is great progress, but we have a lot more building to do together, Mayor Scott told WJZ.

According to the mayor, Baltimore is seeing a crime reduction in these areas:

• A 40% reduction in murders since 2020.
• Shootings are down 43% over that time.
• Robberies are down 23% since last year.
• Carjackings are down 19%.
• Auto thefts are down 40%.

"We have the fewest amount of homicides and violence that the city has had at this point in a year, in 50 years," Mayor Scott said. "That's historic progress, but we still have far too many."

The crime has seen a decline while the Baltimore Police Department continues to transform itself through a court-ordered consent decree, while repairing a deep mistrust with the community. 

Mayor Scott says the approach to decreasing crime numbers and investing in young people is working despite a shortage of nearly 500 police officers.

"Statistics will show, unless you have something that connects them with something better, they will revert back to something they did before, creating this cycle that we're seeing over and over again," Mayor Scott said. "The way that we operate now is the way we should have been operating forever, not putting everything on the backs of BPD. There are other things for other agencies to handle, and they have to have investment to do that."

Tackling Baltimore's drug problem

 Mayor Scott spoke about a new city agency to tackle Baltimore's drug problem, whether it be opioids or other drugs, plaguing communities, through the Office of Overdose Response.   

"And we have a Restitution Advisory Board that will help push nearly $700 million out into the community, in programs, in the health department, and community-based programs to deal with the overdose crisis in a very robust way," Mayor Scott said.

Work to improve DPW's complaints

Another crisis lies in Baltimore City's Department of Public Works, where Ronald Silver II died on the job last summer from heat exhaustion.

"We will not let his tragic death go in vain," Mayor Scott said.

Silver's death helped further expose conditions inside DPW by way of investigations through the inspector general's report and testimony by current workers. 

DPW worker Timothy Cartwell died in November 2024 after he was trapped between a garbage truck and a light pole.

In response, the mayor has upgraded DPW's fleet. Plans are in the works for new facilities and pay raises during their next contract negotiations. 

"Making sure that we're putting in those safety protocols, all of these things that DPW should have had for many years, and making sure that people follow them, and when folks supervising other folks don't follow them, they will be held accountable," Mayor Scott said.