One recent study by a pair of Harvard economists found that of the 100 largest cities in the United States, Baltimore is the city where a poor child faces the worst odds of escaping poverty.

The study then found that the single most important factor that determines if a particular city is one where poor children are able to emerge from poverty is commute time. That is, the cities where the most residents have long commutes to work are the cities where families are most likely to find themselves entrenched in poverty from generation to generation.

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Transportation is at once a question of economic mobility and opportunity, of public health and safety, of economic growth, and of civil rights.

Baltimore was once one of the most prosperous cities in America. And it can be that city again. Other cities are successfully turning the page from once thriving manufacturing towns to new, knowledge-based economies. Baltimore has all of the ingredients to capture the potential of this emerging world, one where every worker is able to secure a job with a family-sustaining wage. But it takes a strong leader with a clear vision and the capacity to forge the partnerships and make the investments needed to dismantle barriers to employment, and grow the economic future of the city.

We must move to a different strategy, one that replaces a high arrest policy that burdens entire communities with best practices and proven approaches to target the most dangerous people and places that drive the violence on our streets. We need to rebuild the community’s trust in the responsibility of the police to protect and serve us all. We need to bring an end, at long last, to the misguided and inhumane war on drugs that has criminalized rather than treated addiction, and led to the mass incarceration of Baltimore citizens, fueling for too long the break-up of families and the erosion of entire neighborhoods. We need to provide a network of support for at-risk juveniles while they are young so they do not commit acts of violence once they are older. And we need to offer an open hand to ex-offenders when they leave prison so they do not revert once again to a life of crime.

Voters deserve to know how well Baltimore City government is performing its duties, and that City Hall is taking steps to address problem areas as they emerge. The Embry administration will:

• Publish a Baltimore City Performance Scorecard ...
• Launch an Overhaul of Ethics in City Hall, Including Expanded Ethical Guidelines for Mayor Staff and Agency Heads ...
• Improve Transparency Through Technology and Open Data Initiatives

Public education is of critical importance to our City, to our nation, and most of all, to our children. And yet, far too many of our students do not receive a top notch, or even a decent, education in this city. Every one of Baltimore’s young people deserves a strong school, a true choice, and a fair chance. Today, we fall far short of those goals. And as a consequence, so many in our city are ensnared in cycles of concentrated poverty and segregation. This is Elizabeth Embry’s blueprint for closing the opportunity gaps for our children and ensuring that every student has a strong school, a true choice and a fair chance.

The arts are part of the DNA of Baltimore. We have a remarkable cultural legacy, and a more robust arts community now than at any other time in our history. To be a world leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, we need the arts to contribute to a creative economy. To educate our youth and strengthen our communities, we need the arts to know and value one another, and to heal and unite us. As Mayor, Elizabeth will value the arts and integrate them across city government, and she will engage the arts community in strategic planning to support and build on what is already working, and create new opportunities to extend access to the arts throughout our city.

The health - physical, financial, and emotional - ­of women in Baltimore is central to our future as a City. All women of the City benefit from policies and programs that support equal rights. And all residents of the City benefit from women’s economic growth and security. Elizabeth Embry will fight to make sure women, their families, and communities thrive.

While the status of women touches on all aspects of city government, Elizabeth Embry will focus in particular on three key priorities where the needs of women are particularly acute. She will support and promote women’s economic empowerment. She will uphold women’s rights to reproductive health and choice. She will support children and families through education and health services.

Baltimore is a proud city of neighborhoods. And yet, too many of these neighborhoods have been hollowed by the ravages of job loss and population loss, crime and gang violence, drug addiction and disease. Our neighborhoods are a reflection of the entrenched disparities that continue to plague the city. And our neighborhoods been left behind by a city government that has been unable to develop the investments and policies to promote the renewal and growth we deserve. A city of neighborhoods deserves a comprehensive policy to grow and heal our neighborhoods. This is Elizabeth Embry’s blueprint to do just that.