By the first day of July, 50 people had been killed by others in the city of Baltimore. That was the fewest number of homicides reported here in the first six months of any year in modern memory. By July 16, Baltimore police reported three more homicides, but that was still 24 fewer than at the sam e point last year. Does the historic decline in violence, combined with the construction of new housing, mean that Baltimore’s population could start to steadily grow instead of decline, as it did over the previous decade? That was my first question in a conversation with Mayor Brandon Scott. DR: Mayor, I get around, not as much as you do, but I see a lot of residential construction in the city. With the development of Baltimore Peninsula, Reservoir Square, more than 300 new apartments at Cross Keys, new housing at Orchard Ridge and near Westport, are we looking at a potential growth spurt in population?  Mayor Scott: We had our first growth [750 more residents in 2024 than in 2023, according to the Census Bureau] in a long time. This is a very unique and important moment, a powerful moment for the city because, for much of my life, and even for the first two a half years that I was mayor, if I was out of town, or if folks were talking about Baltimore online, the only thing that folks talked about was the violence and this and that and this and that. Now it’s totally flipped on its head, where Baltimore now has this vibe where I can go online every single day, onto Threads or Instagram, and there’s swaths of people talking about how they’re moving to Baltimore. It’s really this moment where people are starting to see Baltimore in a very different light. DR: So do you think the decline in homicides, the fact that Baltimore is safer now, contributes to people’s interest in the city? Have you taken some measure of that? Scott: Absolutely. Baltimore is now seen as the example nationwide for how you put together a comprehensive approach to reducing homicides and shootings. I think about it like this — that, in my lifetime, there would be no mayor of the city of Baltimore that every other mayor wanted to talk to about their plans on reducing gun violence. That has happened for us. …It’s not just that we did it; it’s that Baltimore did it, the city of “The Wire,” and we’re doing it at a clip above the national trend. When you look at the decline from 2021 until 2026, we’re down 61 percent. The country’s down 23 percent. I think the decline in violence has been a driver to allow people to see what you and I know, and that there is no place like Baltimore. DR: And what would say the primary factor in the decline in homicides is — the public health approach, violence intervention, a focus on repeat offenders? Scott: It’s all of it.… Folks ask that question all the time: When did the drop start? The drop started in September of 2022, and has dropped continuously since then. September of 2022 is when we fully stood up the Gun Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) and the Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan (CVPP). All the other things [Roca, Safe Streets] that happen individually are great, but when they’re working together simultaneously, that’s what makes it powerful. … The police are making great cases [on gun trafficking] because they are focused. . . . Everything that everyone’s doing is why we have had the reduction, and we just got to keep it going. DR: And the police are not making as many arrests each year as they once did, are they? Scott: If you look even back to 2004, they arrested 91,000 people and we had [276] homicides that year. Last year we had 133; we arrested less than 20,000, because it’s never been about how many, it’s been about who and for what. And with the focus on those very small groups of [violent] folks — we can say to them, ‘Hey, look, this is your chance [to get out of criminality], right?’ And if the folks in the GVRS take that chance, great. Ninety percent of them have not recidivated, and over 90 percent of them have not been revictimized. DR: The Trump administration cut funding for public safety programs. That must not have helped. Scott: It didn’t help, but we saw it coming. We’ve been able to work with our partners in the state to make sure that we’re filling as many of those gaps as possible. I built in that we would ultimately be moving positions off of federal dollars onto city funds for GVRS, so we’ve been able to keep that stuff moving. … And we still have the best federal delegation in the Congress. We just had a big announcement with Senator Chris Van Hollen and Congressman Kweisi Mfume in my childhood home of Park Heights, for them to continue to support the CVPP and GVRS. So we are blessed here to be able to continue that work with our federal delegation. DR: Mayor, just one more thing that relates to housing and population growth and Baltimore’s image, and that’s the Harborplace redevelopment and the financing needed for it. The developer, David Bramble, has said it’s tough because Baltimore still has a reputation for violence and population loss. So, what’s your level of concern that he doesn’t have the financing yet for this very high-profile project? Scott: Harborplace will be done. I know that he will get it done.  DR: You’re confident that Bramble will get the financing? Scott: Yeah.  DR: Well, so would you say —  I guess you have to say it because you’re the mayor —  that the city’s population is primed to grow? Scott: It grew in the last count, right?  DR: Yeah, a little. Scott: We’re going to continue that growth. This interview was edited for clarity and brevity. Dan Rodricks writes weekly for Baltimore Fishbowl. He can be reached via danrodricks.com ...read more read less