My Statement from the Democratic Central Committee Appointment Hearing in April: Good Evening Members of the Committee. I’d like to start by thanking Alderman Israel for his service to Ward 1 and to the City of Annapolis. He will be a tough act to follow, but I’m excited to have the opportunity to try. I’ve lived in this area most of my life. I remember going to church with my family at the Naval Academy Chapel on Sundays and going fishing and crabbing off the sea wall and the city dock in the summer. I learned all about bay ecology and historic Annapolis in Anne Arundel County Public Schools and honed my on the water skills on the Chesapeake Bay. In the summers when I was in college, I taught sailing and waited tables in downtown restaurants. After I graduated, I taught English as a long term substitute at Annapolis High School before entering the sailmaking profession – working and living in Eastport. I’m the only candidate who’s owned and operated a small business. I’ve lived on Prince George Street for over 9 years. I currently work for Program Open Space, within the Department of Natural Resources, purchasing public recreation land for state parks, forests, and wildlife management areas. I oversee grants to Counties and local jurisdictions for Conservation Easements focusing on agricultural preservation and water quality. I coordinate our federal budget for land acquisition, and I work with the Chesapeake Bay Program on watershed health and public access issues. I’m frequently asked to speak with community groups and civic organization with interest in our programs; I regularly present our public access projects to the Maryland Board of Public Works; and, as a recognition of my expertise in this field, in 2011 Governor O’Malley appointed me represent him on the Board of Trustees of the Maryland Environmental Trust. I work here, I live here, most of my friends and colleagues live here in town or nearby, and in my time here I’ve interacted with both our most privileged and most underserved citizens. Annapolis is a small town, and it’s impossible to escape the political issues that we face. Parking has been a problem for as long as I can remember. The revolving door of downtown businesses and the need for a revitalization of the city dock area have been apparent for years. Crime and poverty continue to plague our poorest neighborhoods and our environment is struggling to keep pace with development. I have a deep understanding of our challenges, and I’m prepared to work with the Mayor and other city council members to help find some working solutions. In Ward 1, parking is one of the most challenging issues, and I believe that the City Dock Master Plan contains some great long term solutions to move long term parking out of the Dock area, but I think there are some short term options we may want to consider. The circulator is currently underutilized. I think that part of the permitting process for festivals and events downtown should include a plan for how the organizers will advertise using the city’s garages and the Navy stadium lot in order to increase visitors’ use of the circulator. Asking hotels to encourage their guests to use the circulator and increasing its focus on the city’s website will also help ridership from day trippers. These are all good, workable, and inexpensive ideas that can be implemented quickly to reduce pressure on downtown parking. This in turn will help free up parking for storefront customers. Annapolis is losing shoppers to destination venues like the mall, the parole center, the Arundel center, and even the factory stores on the Eastern Shore, and one of the big reasons is the lack of short term parking. In the long term, in order to attract new businesses to fill the empty storefronts we need to do two things: we need to make Annapolis a shopping destination, and we need to attract stores that will make downtown more livable. This means catering to more than just the tourist population. With the loss of Stevens hardware, there are now very few places downtown where residents can satisfy basic shopping needs. I’m interested in working with existing and potential business owners and city planners to determine what new markets we can utilize to attract new shopping clientele and at the same time cater to our residents. I’m very excited to see that Mayor Cohen found some new vendors for the Market House. I know that this project has been a challenge ever since Hurricane Isabel rendered it unusable, and I am very hopeful that this plan will be successful. Looking at the lineup, it seems like the mayor kept the spirit of the old Market House in mind, and I look forward to trying it out soon. Although these issues affect Ward 1 directly, I’m very aware that there is much more to Annapolis than just the downtown area. While I will represent Ward 1 on the council, I hope to work with the rest of the members to ensure that the needs of the entire City and all of our fellow citizens are represented. I’d like to close by saying that I am a Democrat, and I’m a true democrat. I support our party at every level of government. I was manning the phone banks and knocking on doors for the governor, and I have the energy and the drive to campaign and keep this seat in November. I will strive to speak with and fairly represent all of the citizens in Ward 1. In fact, whether I’m appointed into this position this evening or not, I will begin campaigning to win it in the general election.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 18:43:09 +0000
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