Almost 10 months ago, Baltimore City, in a state of emergency, was besieged by local police forces and the National Guard to control rioters and protesters angered by the death of 25 year old 

It's only March, but Baltimore City Health Commissioner Leana Wen already has an embarrassingly full calendar.

This spring, conversations across our city are focusing on the state of the economy, public safety, and education. These are all essential issues – but there is another critical topic that cuts across all of them: health. In Baltimore, we see that the currency of inequality is years of life, and the opposite of poverty is health and well-being. The average life expectancy in Roland Park, for example, is 84 years; in Downtown/Seton Hill it is 65 years — nearly a 20-yeardifference. For decades, many of our citizens have experienced concentrated poverty and rampant disparities that are glaringly obvious when we compare health outcomes across neighborhoods.