510 leaders from 39 BUILD member & 8 visiting institutions attended the BUILD Mayoral Accountability Action on Tuesday, May 7th at St. Francis Academy in East Baltimore.   

BUILD is at center of and setting the agenda for Baltimore politics.  Rev Brent Brown, Pastor Greater Harvest Baptist, brought great tension at the outset of the action with his frame about decades of failed trickle down investment in stadiums, waterfront entertainment & office districts at the expense of neighborhoods bringing the crowd to its feet.  It set the tone for the whole action.  

BUILD called for and got commitments from the Mayoral candidates to implement BUILD’s $3.5 Billion plan to end redlining in Baltimore by transforming 33,000 vacant properties and lots into Nehemiah Homes.  After an 18 month campaign of relentless, hard hitting action, BUILD secured this spring a $1 billion downpayment on its $3.5 billion goal: $300 million from the City of Baltimore and $750 million from the State of Maryland, passed in the recent state budget.  BUILD organized Baltimore’s corporate community and state delegation to support this vision in City Hall and Annapolis.   

Naysayers said 18 months ago that BUILD’s plan to end the scourge of 33,000 vacants and replace them with new homes to transform neighborhoods at scale was “pie in the sky and would never happen”.  Well, BUILD, as it has always done for 45 years, organized and will continue to organize the power to make the impossible possible.  See www.buildonebaltimorenow.org

Both Mayoral candidates pictured with key BUILD leaders