This 6-part blog is about Southern Park Heights, a large, impoverished, African American urban community, which has been neglected for decades. As a result, the community sustains dramatically high rates of vacant houses, unemployment, street violence, drug addiction, incarceration, and HIV. Dr. Beane explores the evidence of neglect as well as the numerous guardian angels, performing artists, teachers, and activists who are committed to equity and revitalization.

During election time, Baltimore mayoral candidates like to blame the city’s decades-long population decline on upward mobility and residents’ relocation to surrounding counties, where schools are higher quality and crime is low. However, Dr. Beane discovered that population decline in the neglected and impoverished communities accounted for a disproportionate share of the citywide decline due to lowered life expectancy caused by health disparities and a gender imbalance caused by mass arrests.

In 2010, Dr. Beane traveled to Cuba with fellow members of the American Public Health Association to explore which elements of the Cuban health care system might account for Cuba’s impressive vital statistics. She also wondered whether these elements might be transferable to underserved communities in the U.S. In this blog, Dr. Beane distills her discoveries into four principles: 1) Humanity and Compassion, 2) Education and Empowerment, 3) Community and Intersectoriality, 4) Resourcefulness and Prevention.