Seasonal Rhythms

Recently, on my way home from work, I needed to stop at the gas station in Eastport to fill up. As I turned onto Compromise Street, traffic was backed up for several blocks and I realized that the draw-bridge was up; traffic was at a standstill. It took about 15 minutes before I reached the gas station. All 4 pumps were occupied, 2 of them with a waiting line.

This gridlock is the price we pay for living in a picturesque and quaint community. Eastport and Annapolis take on heightened Spring and Summer seasonal rhythms. The ‘off-season’ is much slower and calmer, full of empty spaces.

Both Eastport and Inner Annapolis have achieved equilibrium, uneasy though it sometimes is, between community scale and the road system. This is no easy accomplishment. Within our Eastport part of the overall community, in approximately a half-mile radius from the drawbridge, there are mostly single family homes, small scale multi-family housing, small businesses and a pocket park or two. On the Annapolis side of the drawbridge, two major facilities, the Academy and State Government, are anchors that have helped to shape the community, helped to limit the feasibility and wisdom of expansion without commensurate infrastructure. Fortunately, there are currently no new large facilities planned that would cause significant additional demands on our road system. A very good  thing, since it is already operating in excess of its capacity.

We’ve all experienced the impact on traffic in the off-season when the drawbridge is infrequently raised, or a delivery truck is stopped for a period of time on any of our side streets, or on Compromise in front of the Marriott, or a trash truck is going about its business slowly moving up Main Street. And in tourist season – April through November – the drawbridge opens every half hour, there are a lot more cars competing for position and the traffic is exponentially heavier and louder.

So I am concerned about a project that will impact traffic patterns near the drawbridge, a proposed sports and support mega-project for the Annapolis Yacht Club. If it is actually of the scale being hinted at, it will result in a huge plug that will block traffic. In turn, the whole community could grind to a halt.  The Yacht Club expansion project, along with other proposed nearby projects, cannot be viewed as single entity projects. That view misses the entire point. All of the projects planned for Eastport are interrelated. They must be considered as a destructive whole since their impacts will certainly be cumulative. Trucks and cars idling in congestion-belching fumes are not the basis for a healthy environment or a healthy community. This will be a year-round scenario, to varying seasonal degrees, if massive projects are permitted to further overwhelm our traffic patterns.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated!

Just a Question

Drove by Crystal Spring Forest today. Anybody know if there’s a reason that heavy excavation equipment is still parked at Spa Road next to Crystal Spring Forest?   Waiting…

Michele

The Best We Can Do?

Read the attached link. Are any of these plans the best we can do?

http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/annapolis/ph-ac-cn-forest-plan-0521-20150520,0,129786.story

We are dealing with extremely complex issues in our community and while forest conservation is critical it is only one piece of a whole. What do we want our whole community to look like? How does the forest conservation plan fit into that comprehensive community-wide view?

If we don’t choose to adopt a systematic, integrated view of our community, as has been argued repeatedly on this site, the results for the environment and all other infrastructure demands will be patchwork at best. We need to make our views known. We need to clearly articulate our end-state.

No, it won’t be easy. It’s not supposed to be. Do we want to do it fast, or do we want to do it right? More to follow.

Give me your thoughts.

Wouldn’t It Be Great?

Wouldn’t it be great if the matters we concern ourselves with proceeded along a straight continuous line? If we could gather supporters, harness the energy, amass the information and then drive the germ of an idea through to a conclusion?

In your experience, how often do events unfold in that fashion?

The more common reality is that all projects are comprised of periods of frantic activity mixed with equally long periods of empty space where we wait interminably on events unfolding. This is clear when looking at Crystal Spring Forest: Periods of heavy activity; periods of inactivity. How about the Reserve at Quiet Waters, Bembe Beach, Milkshake Lane, Hopkins Warehouse, the Annapolis Yacht Club expansion project and the Eastport Plaza Shopping Center to name only those recently in the news.

How do we productively use this space in-between causes, controversies and concerns?

Wouldn’t it be great if we could find the time in our busy lives, which are focused on work, family and the other pursuits that define our days, to just pause. To take a moment to read an eye-catching mailing rather than throwing it away. To write an editorial to the Capital, or to write a post to a community action blog like this one, focused on the welfare of the community we share.  To take a look at what’s there and even make a contribution to a conversation for the betterment of Eastport and all of Annapolis by taking an interest in our community.

Why not fill the empty space between the hot spots of proposed projects and the waiting game while nothing at all seems to be happening? We are calling out to all residents of Eastport, of Annapolis, owners and renters alike. We are each and every one of us invested in our future. Our kids attend the same schools, we get stuck in the same traffic, we vote for those we hope will represent us as they promised in the heat of campaign rhetoric.

If we live here, what happens here matters. All of our voices need to be heard.