Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. letter to the editor of the Avenue Newspapers, October 4, 2000

ROBERT L. EHRLICH, JR. COMMERCE COMMITTEE ASSISTANT DEPUTY MAJORITY WHIP Congress of tlie UiiiteO States ftouse of BeptesentatibcS OTatffnngton, 2DC 20515-2002 October 4, 2000 Editor The Avenue Newspapers 442 Eastern Avenue Essex, MD 21221 As you'md' recall, four years ago, Councilman Lou DePazzo and I assembled a number of community meetings on the eastside to discuss the then-proposed ACLU v. HUD housing lawsuit. Our line-by-line discussion and analysis of the eventual consent decree led to the unmistakable conclusion that working class neighborhoods would be placed at-risk by this ill- conceived experiment. The Baltimore establishment, most notably The Sun, took issue with me for standing up to oppose federal Court-ordered relocation of public housing residents to working-class neighborhoods. The plan did not make sense then and it does not make sense now. Mayor O’Malley and City Council President Dixon should be congratulated for finally seeing the potential damage of this plan and calling on the Court to reverse itself. Four years ago, my suggestion to do exactly that was met with derision and skepticism. Hopefully, time has shown us all this is nothing more than a matter of helping stable neighborhoods stay stable. The failures of this country’s public housing policies can be seen all over Baltimore. Now that cooler heads have prevailed, I hope it is time to avoid yet another failure. The American Civil Liberties Union and federal judges telling people where to live, regardless of the consequences to surrounding communities, is one housing policy that should be abandoned immediately. Sincerely, tty Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.