By Alexis (Jensen) Bond and Ann Jensen
What follows are some thoughts on living in “old” Annapolis, the heart of which is the historic downtown from which the rest has grown. Once, it was a self-sustaining community. Maps tell us the original city is a very small, water-laced peninsula, with no room to grow and only one way out. The “inner city” hasn’t been able to support its growth for decades. As a result, it has grown west creating new neighborhoods, communities, and the shopping districts they need to sustain them. The self-sustaining community that once was Annapolis has become an afterthought, a place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live here. The sad thing is that it’s becoming a place that a lot of people don’t even want to visit—not after their first experience with its traffic and crowds and its frustrating or nonexistent public transportation.
We have enough boats, just look at the state of the water at the city dock. We can't support more but there are more every week it seems-and larger ones. We do not need any new large attractions to bring more people in. They may offer a big income but at what cost? I mean monetary. It costs a great deal to keep up on the damage done with the larger numbers of people already overcrowding a very small town, a town that is in no way built to sustain it. We are already cutting our police and fire personnel as well as our public transportation which was already unreliable-but now it is going to cost people more, people who cannot afford it, if it had issues, it was not their doing. Is it not time to stop assuming that we need the tourists and create a town that supports itself? Maybe it will cost a bit to build up, and will take the whole community to support it, but then the businesses might not need such big ticket sales and services to make ends meet. Make it a town where those who live here can shop all year long, not just to go out to dinner or have an ice cream cone. We don't need to lose what we already have but we do not need more of the same. This will never become a "bustling community hub of diversity" if we continue to focus only on a small segment of the population. All of the things that people come to Annapolis to see are already here, always has been. They will still come.
There are so many sides of Annapolis that are never seen, it has always been that way. I grew up here; my family has been here since before the Revolutionary War and occupied the same house downtown since 1771. We aren’t related to anyone connected with the big brick houses. We are small town Annapolis, with all of its good qualities and its flaws.
I’ll borrow from my mother, the keeper of the family history. She wrote, “While the house had colonial origins, it is not frozen in time. Each generation left its mark, keeping some of the old - a door here, a mantel there - while adding new windows or floors along with fresh paint and plaster. The architecture, which seldom strays far from its humble beginnings, records the relentless flow of time.” Much the same could be said about downtown Annapolis.
Our family has been pretty much ordinary, made up of the sort of people who couldn’t even think of getting a start, much less a home, here in Annapolis now. Our family history includes soldiers, sailors, merchants, government workers and elected officials, church goers, teachers, bookkeepers, and archivists. It’s a history of real people who have always had to struggle to keep their home in Annapolis. We are made up of the most and the least desirable especially by today's standards. There is no real blanket to hide under. We are what we are. And that’s not always who other people want to deal with. We do not see a home as something you keep and then sell for a profit, we consider a home something you invest in for life and pass on from generation to generation. This town is full of homes that are empty because everyone buys hoping to turn a profit instead of building a lasting home and being a part of the community. We need staying power, not outside investors. That is not sustainable, that does not last, that does not create a community.
The people I meet on the streets of downtown Annapolis who seem to greet other people pleasantly and with actual sincerity often are the ones we choose to not “see”. Some are homeless, some, maybe not. I often walk along Clay Street, where most of those you see are minorities; some among the poorest in town. They are also the people who actually say “hello”, they interact with the world right around them. The “beautiful people” I have to weave through every day just to leave my home are not at all so courteous, rarely say “hello” or even acknowledge anyone else exists. I would be run down more than a few times every day if I did not practice defensive walking. Nobody moves.
Among the other people who rebuild my sanity are people who work and own businesses here and have lived here for a long time. In many cases, I don’t even shop in their stores, but if they sell it, and I want/need it, I try to make it a priority to buy from them. They have a vested interest in the survival of downtown. But what about the others? Shouldn’t our city be asking all of us to take more responsibility for our shared space?
The not caring goes beyond big events that are so much a part of the life of this town and is a sad reflection of the quality of the experience too many people find downtown. This is not the hometown it once was. It is a place where people commute to DC and leave the city to the tourists. And when the residents return or come from other communities to downtown, they do what the tourists do and think no more about it because it doesn’t feel like it’s theirs, they don’t treat it like it’s home.
But if they don’t care, whose job is it to step in and tell people to put their trash in the numerous receptacles around town? For the budget conscious, we can’t really complain about the cost of government when we continuously litter whatever space we occupy during events. It will be cleaned up the next day and the cost goes on our tab. Cleaning up your own private mess in a public space is one of the most basic things we make children do in schools. Being courteous is another. Somehow, those lessons don’t seem to extend beyond the schoolroom door these days. So, whose job is it to stop people from running, riding bikes, skateboarding, or simply taking up the entire sidewalk, careless of those they might knock down if those people don’t get out of their way.
To take a broader view, we can’t expect people to care about littering or treating their home with more respect when they don’t even respect each other. Until we recognize the value of other people, even if it’s a chance encounter on the street, we will continue to have no respect for the place we call home. It will take a long time, I guess, to turn that around.
Is this the way we want home to look; the way we want people to act toward us, toward each other? Maybe if those of us who live here decide to do something about it, with some help from the city, we could begin to turn it around. Where is Nanny McPhee when you need her?
For starters, if there were more order in the streets, if people had to pay attention to cross walks, if drivers didn’t have to wait forever for endless streams of pedestrians, tempers might improve and civility return. It would help a lot if there were people directing traffic at Compromise, around the Market House, and at Randall and lower Main Streets. The situation might also be helped by the presence of police officers on the streets, walking the commercial and residential streets at the lower end of town particularly, as long as there are people on them, especially at night. Perhaps something could be done about noise, which is also irritating, and not just to residents. Loud motorcycles, auto exhausts, and radios blaring cannot make a visit pleasant for anyone who enjoys sitting along the waterfront or in an outdoor café.
Downtown is becoming an outdoor mall but the residents shop at the real ones outside of town. Until this again becomes a residential hometown and the balance tips toward the needs of those who live here, no amount of money to entice outsiders to visit will make it better for anyone. Visitors used to like the hometown, small town feel of Annapolis and its waterfront and history. They can still appreciate visiting a town that really is a hometown and celebrates the fact.
What is more hometown than a 4th of July parade, a traditional celebration of who we are? A closer look at what this year’s event reveals a lot about us.
I’m one of the most corny, sentimental people around. Patriotic celebrations can move me to tears. It’s the community spirit, I guess. Being a member of an early American family gives me a unique bond to Annapolis that is stronger, by far, than my distaste for a lot of what it has become. It comes with all of my sorrow for the bad times in history, and believe me my family has enough evidence of the ugly bits as well as the more “honorable.” One of our ancestors died on Long Island in the first real battle of the Revolutionary War. My grandfather graduated from the Academy, fought in World War II, and was wounded in Korea.
I was moved at times by the events of this year’s 4th, but could not help wondering what kind of show this was for a family. Why would kids want to see it? Politicians always make a showing in parades but it was just sad how much they dominated that parade—as campaigners not as representatives. Why didn’t we see our currently elected officials? This is supposed to be a celebration not a political marketing tool. In fact, it was the times the candidates passed that you’d hear jeers and nasty yells, which elicited good and bad responses from the marchers. This is a holiday to celebrate the United States of America. United is one thing we don’t often seem to be.
The parade had its moments but not enough of them. It was good to see our firemen and police, but not at all as you’d expect in a 4th of July parade. And no wonder. They are struggling so hard these days to serve us. I wanted to be cheering them and others who provide the services we really need as a community. The teachers, soldiers, police, firefighters, emergency personnel, librarians, health care workers, and damned if we should not have had a chance to cheer loudly for our trash collectors and street sweepers.
I go out to these events because there are times they touch my soul and bring on the tears, like when the little boy passed wrestling with the American flag he carried to stand taller as the
cheers built when he passed. I could even cheer for political groups whose beliefs and opinions I
can’t support because, ya know, they showed up with spirit.
I have to give credit to the Anne Arundel County Republican Party for showing the most imaginative spirit in the parade, which was generally a campaign free-for-all. They were clearly a community-based organization. They came through for their candidates as I believe we should expect. I just don’t think we deserve to have our holiday parade sold out so completely. I remember 4th of July and other parades that used to be a real show. The Capital City Colonials did a good job with the segways and period costumes. The Paws Doggie marchers had a good turn out. Two small bands were trying. But where were the schools’ marching bands? Where were the kids’ groups marching all dressed up and having a blast in honor of their country? Or their community? And in the end, what are we teaching them about what it means to love America when we pile into our city center for the usual entertainment, a massive amount of food and drink in disposable containers, trash the place, and close out the festivities with a minor brawl?
I understand that it was open for all to create a float or to march but many communities hold their own events. Usually it’s the more affluent ones. The city celebration was one of the only ones where the crowds were lower income residents, it’s not a tourist event. I know that our government cannot make people get involved, the reason that they do not is because this is not a united community. It is splintered into little groups. My own sister specifically chose her neighborhood to be able to experience that kind of community spirit for her kids, but why should you have to live in Hillsmere, West Annapolis, Bay Ridge, or Broadneck.to find that spirit?
Which brings me back to where I started. More or less. Can the government really change how we behave, you and I, in our day-to-day living? No. But, that government can lead the way toward creating an environment that thrives on the plentiful resources we already have in a community that can be supported by its residents. Such a government is also one that supports its residents and the employees who serve them, creating a solid base that puts the real needs of the city and all its residents first, in other words, a sustainable city.
For years, the city has catered to people who do not live here. This is particularly true of downtown, but applies to much of the rest of the city as well. The city has channeled too many of its resources, human and financial, into bringing in the big bucks. In the long term, those big bucks we are trying to capture go into events and structures that ultimately only add to the cost of maintaining adequate police and fire protection, viable streets and other infrastructure. For all those big bucks, the city still can’t pay for well-maintained and up-to-day utilities, including its aged water treatment facility, or for the equipment and funds to meet emergencies, such as hurricanes, floods, and snow.
If you live in the center of town, you cannot walk to an affordable grocer or clothing store; this particular downtown won’t support consignment or thrift stores and many of the other things one finds in a city center. I know this is not a big city, but we seem to think we still need to encourage more people to live here. There are too many empty homes and businesses. Plenty of people would like to move into them, but won’t take the risk because they can’t afford the rent in a town that dies in the winter. The city wouldn’t die if the businesses catered first to the people who live here. Frustrations abound if you live downtown and happen to run out of something. You can’t just make a quick trip. You have to plan ahead because it is very possible that the trip in and out and finding parking could take a couple of hours. Maybe you could walk to Grauls, but it’s quite a trek with bags of groceries, especially if the weather is bad.
I have been troubled by residents’ demands that, in truth, can never be taken care of overnight and certainly never without people making sacrifices to deal with the real problems that face this city. In meeting after meeting of the City Council, by far the loudest public outcry that ultimately got the most attention was a concern for individual profit and gain of one sort or another by a small group of people. Very little was heard about meeting the needs of the majority, who too often feel their voices will not be heard.
Can the government really change how we behave, you and I, in our day-to-day living? No. But, that government can lead the way to creating an environment that thrives on the plentiful resources we already have in a community that can be supported by its residents. Such a government is also one that supports its residents and the employees who serve them to create a solid base that puts the real needs of the city and all its residents first, in other words, a sustainable city.
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