I had a railroader friend, who used to be a DC cop. When ever he disagreed with something I had proposed, he would respond with one word, "Interesting". I believe the Mayor is well intentioned, but is either naive or unwilling to confront the reality of a drug dependent underclass population prone to violence.
Education and even jobs do not prevent people from drug addiction. Worked with this well liked conductor, a good and efficient worker, living in what is considered an affluent suburb, who was found dead, in his truck, with his head smashed in, somewhere in the Bronx, the victim of a drug deal gone bad. No one knew he had a problem. This was before random drug testing was instituted. Point is he was very functional, but his drug use, cost him his life. To this day, it's probably one of the many unsolved and forgotten homicides in NYC.
For what it's worth, neither does decent housing. It's cool to do drugs, and until we figure out how to make it not cool, it will continue to consume lives.
Big part of Baltimore's problem, (or for that matter, any other place), is that for a large segment of the population, there is no future. There is no prospect to climb out of the poverty rut, no escape from the culture of failure. Free tuition to the local college is great, and attaining a degree is wonderful, but if that degree doesn't get you a worthwhile job, what good is the education? Housing, yes, that's important, but if all low income housing is clustered together, we haven't advanced from the "projects", and "vertical slums" of the 1950s, and we all know what happened with that concept.
People living in urban neighborhoods, isolated from other sections, by culture or race, or religion, do not interact well outside of their environment. They attract attention, by being anti social. People from isolated environments, should they find employment, find they don't know how to relate to people of a different race, culture, or religion. They frequently leave the job and retreat to the more comfortable atmosphere of familiar surroundings. These are the issues,that the political leaders should be working on.
Mayor's plan, is "Interesting", but I'm not sure it will work any better than the last mayor's plan.