Hiring event for Baltimore youth to be held ahead of tightened squeegee restrictions

BALTIMORE -- Ahead of a new plan set to ban squeegee workers from major Baltimore City intersections, leaders are making an effort to provide another pathway for the city's youth.

Mayor Brandon Scott's Squeegee Collaborative is holding a resource and hiring event Friday evening from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the UA House at Fayette. 

Young people ages 14 to 24 will have access to a career zone, featuring interviews, information about higher education, mental health resources and even free grooming services, the mayor's office said. 

The Squeegee Collaborative Working Action Plan is an 18-point plan that includes increased outreach to underage squeegee workers, more caseworkers, and accountability for drivers who stop cars to engage with the workers. 

A major point of the plan is a pilot program that would create disallowed zones for squeegee work. Those zones go into effect Tuesday. 

Squeegeeing will be banned in several high-traffic areas including President Street MLK Boulevard, Sinclair and Moravia, Northern Parkway, and Wabash Avenue.

The intersection of Light and Conway Streets is also included, where a deadly confrontation happened last July between Timothy Reynolds and a group of squeegee workers.

In those zones, enforcement will include a two-strike warning system before a citation is issued.

"This plan will not immediately stop squeegee work but it will go further and do more than ever has been done," Scott has previously said.