At the corner of North and Cecil Avenues in Central Baltimore sits the newly constructed home of Roberta’s House. The building represents a transformational investment designed to bring new life to a vacant block that was previously occupied by rowhomes. This piece tells the story of lessons from the Greenmount Life, Opportunity, and Wellness (GLOW) Initiative, a new effort to concentrate financial and social investment in select neighborhoods that have long experienced underinvestment.

The number of working African American business owners in the United States plummeted more than 40 percent as the coronavirus shut down much of the economy — a far steeper drop than other racial groups experienced, according to an analysis confirming fears the pandemic would deepen inequalities in the business world.