I say run, Mr. Baker, run! Both of the articles in the June 29, 2017, edition of The Informer, one by D. Kevin McNeir and the other by William J. Ford, laid out some of County Executive Rushern L. Baker’s accomplishments and his failures. His accomplishments far outweigh his failures, such as bringing the MGM casino and its training facilities, the Tanger Outlets, a new hospital in Largo, a new Whole Foods grocery store and numerous other developments all to Prince George’s County. It’s hard to drive anywhere in the county and not see planned new developments. I wish he would continue as county executive, but I know he is a politician, and a new challenge is something hard to turn his back on. I think Rushern Baker would make a great governor for the state of Maryland, because if he does just half of what he has done for Prince George’s County for the state of Maryland he will probably go down as one of the state’s greatest governors. So again, I say run, Mr. Baker, run!
Louise Wayne
Bowie, Md.
Support Mayor’s Battle Against Homelessness
After reading your article, “Mayor Bowser Takes Flack for District’s Affordable Housing Crisis,” by Tatyana Hopkins in the July 6, 2017, edition of The Washington Informer, I felt I needed to write and express my opinion on this issue. Mayor Bower is doing probably the best job on the issue of homelessness of any of the most recent mayors of the District of Columbia. Her drive to close D.C. General as a homeless shelter is long overdue, and her initiative to place a temporary homeless shelter for families in each of the 8 wards in the city will only expedite that closure. We must also remember that Washington, D.C., is the only city in the country that requires that it must provide shelter for all of its homeless residents, so homeless people from all over the area continue to come to D.C. because of that. Homelessness is everyone’s problem, not just the mayor’s. If we are serious about solving this problem, we must not complain when the idea of tax increases are proposed for housing for the homeless. I agree with the idea that in the richest country in the world and the most powerful city in the world, no one should be without a place to live, but that’s just an idea, it’s not yet real.
Sam Ellis
Washington, D.C.