POLITICS BRANDON SCOTT, 37, MAYOR, CITY OF BALTIMORE
Brandon Scott needs little introduction.
The 37-year-old Democrat and son of Baltimore was well known from his days on City Council when he stepped into the spotlight as mayor a little more than a year ago.
Scott’s first year proved as challenging as almost any a Baltimore mayor has faced. The coronavirus pandemic had taken hold months before his swearing in, forcing the new executive to grapple with the implementation of widespread testing, uncomfortable decisions on whether to close businesses and the administration of a vaccination program that remains a challenge for the city.
As Baltimore faced an unfamiliar foe in COVID-19, the city continued to battle a familiar one: unsettling levels of crime. Brutal killings have made headlines during Scott’s tenure, including the slaying of a woman inside a house of worship and the death of a police officer following a brutal shooting.
The year ahead for Scott looks much like the landscape of the year past. Despite his efforts to distribute the coronavirus vaccine to residents in underserved neighborhoods, disparities remain in the vaccination rates for Baltimore’s Black residents. The mayor also faces a decision on whether to implement a vaccine passport, a suggestion that he admits troubles him as he thinks about the potential impact on the city’s already disadvantaged minority residents.
Baltimore’s fight against violent crime, too, looks likely to be a formidable opponent for Scott. The homicide rate topped 300 in the mayor’s first year in office, as it has over the six years prior. Scott introduced a lengthy crime plan, calling for a tripling of violence intervention efforts, among numerous other initiatives. He’s also committed $50 million from the federal American Rescue Plan to the effort.
Thus far, Scott has proved himself as a planner and collaborator, establishing boards, authorities, councils and task forces to address long-recurring city problems, such as returning the city’s police force to local control. He’s rolled out multipronged action plans with the help of those groups and is introducing data-tracking programs to measure his progress.
But the true test for the young mayor will be whether he’s able to transition those plans into results and effectuate changes promised by many of his predecessors and seldom delivered.