How to fix our cities

I was delighted to read Dan Rodricks’ column (“Trying to see the child amid guns and violence,” May 1). His comments were balanced, without a rush to judgment about either the police or the youngster, Dedric Colvin, who was shot last week. Mr. Rodricks did not pretend, as so many do, to have all the answers, but he did make some very salient points about the kind of police training that would help law enforcement to distinguish between children who possess “fake guns” and those who mean to do harm with the real things.

Not one of our recent mayoral candidates nor Gov. Larry Hogan have much new to say about the myriad issues that lie beneath the surface violence in our city, but at least they all agree that we cannot go on this way for much longer in our beloved Baltimore. What do we do next? It seems certain that none of our presidential candidates, certainly not Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz, has anything useful to say about the national need for a domestic Marshall Plan that might rescue our cities (and other areas) from structural neglect, disinvestment and indifference, including indifference to modern policing techniques that might help both our officers and the communities they exist to serve (and I don’t mean just give them more military hardware).

Our communities are beset by chaotic and calamitous conditions, bereft of major new strategies and investments. As long as this is the case, we will continue to be in our current position, bemoaning the fact that one more youngster has been hurt, that once again community relations are undermined by violence. While we can celebrate that Dedric Colvin is recovering, we need also to blast apart the context that makes such events as happened last week so common and so devastating.

Jon McGill, Baltimore