ADVISORY: At West Baltimore Community Forum Mayor Pugh Shares Plans to Collaborate with Residents for 2018 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebrations and Day of Service

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Amanda Smith
410-215-3909
amanda.rodrigues-smith@baltimorecity.gov

MEDIA ADVISORY

At West Baltimore Community Forum Mayor Pugh Shares Plans to Collaborate with Residents for 2018 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebrations and Day of Service 

TRANSCRIPT:

"What we wanted to do is have a day of service as well as a battle of the bands, but I'm going to tell folks - I'm about pleasing the citizens of Baltimore. This is not us against them this is not one initiative against the other, if people want to march down Martin Luther King Boulevard we’ll make sure that that happens, but we're also going to create a day of service because we've already got these organizations and individuals signed up for the Day of Service. We're going to do Battle of the Bands. We can move that to probably sometime next summer, but again we want to make sure everyone is happy in the City of Baltimore. We've got a lot of things to focus on. Violence reduction, creating [jobs] and reducing unemployment in the City are real top priorities. So a parade is not a big issue for the citizens. If that's what they want we’ll make sure they have it.

But we are going to have a day of service. We're doing an official parade if people want to march down Martin Luther King Boulevard so be it because if that's what the Public wants, as I said, we’ve got to reduce violence in the city. We've added another $190 million dollars to improve education in the city. We've added another $5 million for creating affordable housing in this city, so we've got a lot of work to do. And, having people who want to march down Martin Luther King Boulevard do so, so be it. We look forward to working with them. Thank you." - Mayor Catherine E. Pugh

Video: https://youtu.be/eZOCI9EJ-RE

Location: Carver Vocation Technical High School

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