At a Starbucks in Belvedere Square, the commercial hub of the fourth district, two baristas discuss a pair of armed robberies that have occurred nearby.

City Council candidate Ryan Coleman knows how they feel. The former Marine and congressional aide said he’s heard similar stories as he criss-crosses the district, meeting residents and knocking on doors.

“People are scared,” he said. “Most people are scared to come out of their homes.”

Spanning across much of North-Central Baltimore, the fourth district is a place of disparate identities. York Road, the major artery that cuts through the area, separates the mansions of Guilford from the shacks of Penn Lucy, the flourishing green of Sherwood Gardens from the boarded-up windows of Woodburn-McCabe.

This story continues below
Advertisement

“There are two stories that are told in my district,” said 26-year-old Christopher Jack Hill, a former journalist who calls himself “one of the younger front-runners in the race.”

“Both sides affect each other,” he said. “I have to be able to mediate that, and that takes leadership.”

Along the socioeconomic dividing line that is York Road stretches a billboard for one of Hill’s most formidable opponents, Bill Henry, and a message:

“A full-time councilman for a full-time job.”

It’s an echo of the theme he used four years ago in his upstart campaign to oust Councilman Kenneth Harris Sr. Harris is now bowing out to run for City Council president, and in his wake has left a staggeringly crowded field of veterans and newcomers alike — nine in total. But Henry, with his 25 percent of the vote from 2003 and political endorsements piling high, thinks he might be leading the pack.

“I definitely agree that there’s that perception,” he said. “My campaign is going to be judged by the standards that you would normally use to judge an incumbent.”

But in a political climate shaped by widespread voter dissatisfaction, anger and fear, others are railing against incumbency as fiercely as they can.

“We cannot continue to vote for the same people over and over again,” said Coleman, who believes he is a “top-tier” candidate. He objects to the idea that Henry is the front-runner, pointing out the fact that Henry, despite his 25 percent in 2003, ultimately lost.

Scherod Barnes, a first-time candidate with over 30 years of roots in the community, who has racked up some political endorsements of his own, took a different tack.

“What I’m going to do is build upon what has already been done,” he said. “I’ve been an activist in the trenches of Northeast Baltimore for over 30 years.”

Neil Bernstein has lived in the district that long as well — and doesn’t quite fit the anti-establishment mold either. At 70, he’s running simply “to bring another senior citizen’s perspective to the council,” he said. “The council could also benefit from somebody who doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel.”

Barnes doesn’t either — he wants the city and commercial partners to help reclaim his district, where rows of vacant houses on one side of York Road are often overshadowed by mansions on the other.

“There’s a lot of blight, a lot of neglect, not only by neighbors but from the city,” he said. “We need to give these people hope, and a reason to sustain and not to give up.”

THE CANDIDATES

Scherod Barnes
Neil Bernstein
Ryan Coleman
Monica Gaines
William “Bill” Goodin
Reba Hawkins
Bill Henry
Christopher Jack Hill
Earl Levi Holt III

sgentile@baltimoreexaminer.com