Carl Jackson Hosts Community Meeting at Gardenvillage

I had the opportunity this week to attend a community meeting called by Carl Jackson, a community activist and resident of Rosedale. The meeting was hosted at the Gardenvillage Community Center by Mrs. Wanetta Thompson, and it was standing room only.

At the meeting, Carl discussed a project that he first brought to my attention about a year ago. Carl Jackson's vision is to build a new community center in Rosedale. In order to do so, Carl called a meeting to set up, "The Rosedale Community Center Committee," whose charge it will be to work with State, County, and Local officials to help plan and design such a center.

Carl invited State and Local leaders who support the idea to the meeting, as well as candidates for local office. Among those present were John Olsziewski Jr., candidate for Baltimore County Executive, Harry Bhandari, also a candidate for the House of Delegates in District 8, and State Delegates Eric Bromwell and Christian Miele.

At the conclusion of the meeting, over a dozen people had signed up to be in the committee, and a lot of excitement had been built around the idea of a new Rosedale Community Center. While a few potential sites for a brand new center were discussed, a representative of Councilwoman Cathy Bevins suggested there are additional options using existing County buildings. But when asked to bring those possible locations forward at the meeting, Councilwoman Bevins representative declined to make them public.

"Regardless of its potential location, this project is near and dear to my heart because having access to a community center when I was a child, has made me the man I am today," said Carl Jackson. "As a child (like many of our children today) there were always opportunities to get involved with the wrong people and wrong activities that could have lead me down a different path. But I had a community center where I received help with my homework after school and took part in projects like: learning how to develop black and white photographs in a dark room, or to shoot video commercials," added Jackson.

Carl Jackson ended the meeting by stating, "making a Rosedale Community Center a reality is a top priority for me, and I want to thank residents from many of our wonderful communities like, Hazelwood Park-East, Holland Hills, Gardenvillage, and Hamiltowne for being here today to show your support for a new Rosedale Community Center."

Carl Jackson is a candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 8.