Mayor Talks with Students Occupying City Hall Plaza
Fri., May. 16, 2008 Filed in: Baltimore
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On May, 15, 2008 at about six p.m. on the third day of a student encampment in front of City Hall to get $3 million funding for Peer-to-Peer youth programs, Mayor Sheila Dixon, accompanied by an entourage, engaged the students in an impromptu, often heated meeting for about half an hour. At the outset the mayor insisted that the conversation not be video taped or she would leave. Dixon claimed that she had already provided $13.5 million for youth programs and that they needed to go through the Family League of Baltimore City for funding. The students explained that their Peer-to-Peer Youth Enterprises initiative is fundamentally different than other programs in that it is youth-led and would provide many knowledge-based jobs. Earlier the students were told they must leave before dark and that their permit for the following day had been revoked.