Note: After this week, Audacious Ideas will be on summer hiatus. We’ll return with an exciting new lineup of bloggers after Labor Day. For the past 10 years, as the Executive Director of Wide Angle Youth Media, I, like most nonprofit administrators, have collected thousands of surveys and assessments, from audience feedback at events, to […]
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A mortgage lender license is a privilege not a right
Monday, May 17, 2010Imagine listening to members of Congress making statements like the following: “One look at the current budget will show the large amount of money needed to pay for defaulted loans—about $1.4 billion for just one year alone. The amounts expended over the past 5 years for defaults have risen by 85 percent.” “During the most […]
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In tough times, we need fewer nonprofits
Monday, January 18, 2010Today there are 1,200 more nonprofits in Maryland than there were at the beginning of 2009. You might be thinking, “Great, in this tough economy, I’m glad that all these folks are starting charities to help people.” You may think it is super, but I think quite the opposite. There should be a moratorium on […]
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Turning our ideas into action
Monday, January 04, 2010For 2010, I’d like to challenge my fellow Audacious Ideas presenters with updating us with the progress (or not) towards their ideas’ implementation. We can all learn from what is actually working as well as what didn’t happen and why. I’m always intrigued by the brilliant ideas we often hear and how they either find […]
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Bare it and share it
Monday, August 03, 2009The news that Baltimore City Public School students made a fifth consecutive year of gains on the Maryland School Assessment (MSA) is evidence of many things: that continued progress in public education is possible; that our children can and will succeed given the opportunity; and that we still have a far, far way to go […]
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Encourage young women to run for office
Monday, March 09, 2009The typical woman who runs for office is over the age of 40. Any earlier, and it seems too difficult to pencil in a campaign while new relationships, student loans and a wealth of opportunities beckon. But starting later puts women at a disadvantage. Men don’t shy away from running as early as 25, and […]
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What if we made campaign finance reform a new civil rights movement?
Monday, February 16, 2009We need a new Voting Rights Act that makes private financing of public electoral campaigns illegal. Period. And we need to make it a civil rights issue. Consider: We do not allow private donors, each with his or her own desires regarding police protection, to finance the Baltimore Police Department. We disallow such a system […]
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Big solutions
Monday, January 12, 2009We enter the New Year with startling economic developments that threaten the security of residents throughout the country, including right here in Maryland: soaring levels of unemployment, high rates of foreclosure, and dramatic losses in savings and investments. The scope of the recession—and the time and reinvestment required to recover from it—oddly gives us the […]
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What’s your favorite audacious idea of 2008?
Monday, December 22, 2008What are your three favorite Audacious Ideas for Baltimore? Audaciousideas.org is meant to be a forum for debate about critical ideas and solutions to our city’s most challenging problems. Please let us know which three ideas you think have the most potential for making Baltimore a city where opportunity thrives for all its residents. Just […]
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More splendid ideas for Baltimore
Monday, December 15, 2008As we mentioned last week, because there have been so many great ideas generated on the blog, it was pretty much impossible for our staff to agree on just one—or two, or three. But we are “re-posting” several more this week that we felt deserved a second read. Please take the time, as the year […]
