SE residents working to build safer communities and neighborhoods

Residents, business owners and community leaders met at Living Classroom Wednesday night, all in an effort to create a booming and prosperous Southeast District for the future. 

"We need more police coming through.  We have police but you can't see what's going on in the cross streets if you're driving and looking straight ahead," said Mary Disharoom, a community activist in the Southeast area of Baltimore. 

Community leaders and residents want to bridge that gap between what police can do and what they can do on their own.

"Instead of being passive and victims and then feeling like were asking what the city's going to do for us, what the police are going to do for us, step as citizens, work together and do what we can to engage with people that are already making an impact," Fells Point resident and business owner, Sean Brescia, told ABC2 News.

Other residents, like Angela Harris, said "The reason I'm here is to find out how I can help be of assistance in my community and outside my community and other communities."

Wednesday's town hall aimed to give residents, community leaders, and organizations working to better all communities within Canton and Fells Point a safe and open space to share ideas for a better neighborhood for the future.

"We're here so that our voice can be heard," said Korey Perrin, a community leader from the Douglas area. "We want something to be done around the city of Baltimore or anywhere so our kids and seniors can be safe."

The town hall also offered these residents, passionate about safety, change and neighborhood prosperity the opportunity to network with other leaders to create a promising future for both young people and adults that call the Southeast area home.

"One of the things were trying to combat with meetings like tonight is to start to eliminate these silos and these pockets of people who identify with their specific neighborhood and the interest of that neighborhood," said Brescia.

Organizers said collaboration and cooperation with police will force the right kind of change in all areas.