While much of the public’s attention has been focused on the recovery of West Baltimore in the aftermath of last month’s rioting, parts of East Baltimore were hard-hit too, including three businesses completely destroyed and others looted.

One recovery effort there took place on Friday in the courtyard of Lanvale Towers, where members of a sorority were organizing donations of food, toiletries and other items and putting them into bags.

“There had been some looting in some of the stores and the stores are located centrally, where people use them everyday,” said Dr. Roshonda Contee-Davis, of the Psi Phi Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, which helped to organize the event.

Contee-Davis said she and other members had heard the stores were shuttered and that it was uncertain when they would re-open, so they rallied their membership.

“We  just wanted to come to make sure the residents of East Baltimore are being served, too,” she said.

The items they were placing in large paper bags were destined for the residents of Lanvale Towers, Harford Commons and Oliver Plaza.

Contee-Davis said many groups and individuals came together to help with the food drive.

“Brothers from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity have been assisting us all day,” she said. “This is an immediate response. But we’re looking at long term efforts.”

Elderly Feel the Pain

Frank Gee, a Lanvale resident, said the loss of the stores hits older residents particularly hard.

“The stores are closed. That’s a bad thing. I’m disabled,” Gee said. “I’m not going to venture out and go out of my way to get my prescriptions.”

However, Gee also noted the limited resources of the neighborhood even before the riots. “The market across the street has been closed for two years,” he said. “That’s too long.”

For Catherine Fisher, 71, the looting and rock-throwing on April 27 brought back memories of the Baltimore riots of 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I’m from the sixties,” Fisher said. “I know what all those riots were about. This was tame compared to the sixties.”

Fisher, like many in Baltimore, seemed to both disapprove of the Baltimore rioting and see its value.

“It got out of hand. The looting should not have happened. If that is a form of expression, I don’t go for it,” she said. “But it did get the city’s attention, and the nation’s and the world’s.”

Rioting Got Results

Jessica Taylor had a conclusion about the rioting that was unambiguous.

“I think it was necessary in order to create change,” said Taylor, 23. “Non-violence really doesn’t create change. [The rioting] got a lot of recognition. If it didn’t happen, I don’t think those officers would have been charged.”

Tony Ellis shared stories of being followed home by police officers and undergoing random ID checks.

“Sometimes at night you look a certain kind of way at the police, they follow you, put a light on you,” Ellis said.

The older Gee, familiar with the experience Ellis described, interrupted to inform him that it has a name.

“That’s called racial profiling,” he said dryly.