City Councilman Zeke Cohen said the sign is antithetical to “a welcoming city.”

“This bigotry is emboldened by our President who is comfortable ripping families apart,” Cohen said. “I represent and live in a community where you can hear languages from all over the world. It’s beautiful.”

To celebrate his 20th birthday in April, Diamonte Howard planned to show his mother, Tamica, his acceptance letter to Wilberforce University. He would be the first in his family to attend college. He would attain his degree and then come back to Baltimore and start a business. He would lift his family out of poverty. He would make sure everyone in the O’Donnell Heights Housing Project could get a good paying job. He would make sure all of the children in the neighborhood had safe places to play and enough food to eat.

Instead, Diamonte was shot and killed outside of his home, a week before his birthday.

A Baltimore City councilman has kicked off the This is Working summer jobs program in which businesses in his district provide employment for students.

Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen on Wednesday kicked off a second year of the This is Working summer jobs program in which businesses in his Southeast Baltimore district provide employment for students.

"This is Working" is a program endorsed by City Councilman Zeke Cohen for large and small businesses in his 1st District that encompasses southeast Baltimore's communities from Fells Point to Highlandtown. Some of the summer jobs will even be located at City Hall as aides in city council offices.

“Children in Baltimore often face disadvantages beyond their control, and we need to give them every opportunity and resource possible to go to and through college,” said Councilman Zeke Cohen, chairman of the council's Education and Youth Committee. “CollegeBound is a great, evidence-based program that’s moving the ball down the field for our kids.”

Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen plans to introduce a bill that would tighten restrictions on lobbyists

City Councilman Zeke Cohen plans to introduce legislation Monday that would tighten restrictions on lobbyists in Baltimore and require the ethics board to post lobbying disclosure forms online for the public to view.

Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen and Delegate Brooke Lierman say trucks continue to barrel through the southeast district, despite the addition of the cameras and signs.

“They can pay $240 on a first offense,” said Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen. “The message we’re trying to send is these are residential communities and we expect them to be treated as such.”

Instead of letting her grief consume her, Tina decided to use it as fuel. City Councilman Zeke Cohen reached out to see what he could do to help her with her plan to help the at-risk youth in Baltimore. 

“I sat down in his office and went off like a rocket,” she said. “He just sat there and listened to everything I had to say. Afterward, he told me he had someone I needed to meet.”

Baltimore city councilman Zeke Cohen told the Sun that in Southeast Baltimore, the area he represents, a small-business owner, a popular barber and a father dropping off a child at school were among the arrests.

"First, we lost a barber, then a small-business owner. Finally, a father was handcuffed and detained after dropping off his 9-year-old at school. The child's mother is back in Honduras. What kind of a country do we live in that would orphan a child in order to enforce its broken immigration laws?" Cohen said.

Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen backed both families, helping launch the scholarship.

"It's a clarion call to unite along the lines that divide us," he said. 

The event which was organized by Councilman Zeke Cohen we among many others hope to bring a new light of hope in the mist of the violence in Baltimore City.

Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen took the podium to address the crowd, saying city residents have to acknowledge the specific pain being felt here, and that is ending 2017 with 343 murders.

During the rally, Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen spoke of how young residents, though often underestimated, have shown a powerful voice. He said youngsters have helped the council pass legislation this year, including a Styrofoam ban.

“Young people are our moral compass. This is their moment,” he told the crowd.