Why I am likely to continue working in the Baltimore region for awhile

My joke is that in DC I am considered a crank, and in the Baltimore region a sage, even though I say absolutely the same things in each place. And I have been saying the same things, over and over, for awhile.

For example, yesterday's papers are full of articles about the ethics report on Marion Barry's improper use of City Council funds and earmarks ("Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is accused of corruption‎" from the Post). From the article:

In July, the council retained Bennett, of Hogan & Hartson, to conduct an investigation into how Barry and other council members use earmarks for programs and projects in the District. ...

Bennett's review of council spending concluded that the members have diverted about $143 million to health, charitable, arts and nonprofit social organizations since 2005 through earmarks that bypass the traditional budgeting process.

Barry directed about $8.5 million to 41 organizations in fiscal 2009, Bennett said. Part of that money, about $450,000, was diverted to six Ward 8 nonprofit organizations that "were conceived by Barry and implemented at his direction by Brenda Richardson, a longtime supporter who managed his Constituent Services Office," the report says.

The report discusses how the earmark program is loose and that this type of funding needs to be significantly restructured and converted into a competitive grant process. From page 11 of the report:

Council Earmark Grants

Special Counsel finds that—notwithstanding the Council’s recent efforts to impose controls on earmark grants, and notwithstanding that many of these grants benefit well run, legitimate organizations—Council earmark grants create substantial opportunities for waste and abuse. Further, as a practical matter, the present procedures for awarding and monitoring Council earmarks substantially undermine grantee accountability.

I have been making the same point for at least 6 years, in writings on various e-lists, in occasional testimonies before City Council, and in the blog since I started blogging.

Now that I am working in the Baltimore area (at least on one particular project), it happens that there are a bunch of things happening in Maryland (safe routes to school programs, planning for the Red Line light rail, state trail planning, transit planning generally) or the county (updating the master plan, universities doing campus planning) that I end up dealing with because of my work leading the development of a pedestrian and bicycle master plan for a portion of the county.

And unlike in DC, they actually listen.

E.g., the State Highway Administration is Maryland is looking to pilot test a cycle track somewhere in the state, because my paper on "Making Cycling Irresistible in DC" has been distributed throughout the agency. (Note that it's time to update the paper. OTOH, you could argue I am updating it, in the context of a pedestrian and bicycle plan for a goodly section of a large county.)

Or, because four of the proposed Baltimore red line light rail stations will be located in my plan's study area, and because the project is still in the pre-engineering phase, we have an opportunity to develop national best practice for integrating bicycling as a mode of transportation into planning for the stations and the line. (Although I hear that MTA is doing good things in this regard for the Purple Line, that Toole Design is working on that part of their planning there.)

Again, they are considering the various recommendations that "we" are making, ranging from incorporating a parallel bicycle trail into the line, at least in the Baltimore County section--which is planned to "emanate" from one of the major entry points to the Gwynn Falls Trail, bicycle sharing, and at least one bike station at the station serving the highest density employment center.

Could Barcelona provide the integrated transportation vision for the red line light rail in Baltimore County? Photo by John Norquist.

Or the points I am making about how to best change school district transportation planning and operations to a more balanced and sustainable paradigm will likely (although getting new legislation takes time) change the state policy (hopefully sooner rather than later), thereby changing practices in every one of the state's 24 school districts.

Or I am shaping two particular policies for the Transportation Element of the county master plan, requiring "complete streets" policies and setting up an overall paradigm of "sustainable transportation" which supports transit, walking, bicycling, and transportation demand management.

(Plus all the things that can touch pedestrian and bicycle planning, from green infrastructure to bicycle sharing to laying down a master network of trails and bicycle routes, etc., well, I get to cram them into the plan... at least before the inter-agency review period.)

It's the absolute craziest thing.

Contrast that to DC where I feel like I am talking into gale force winds.

But I can't say I enjoy the commute. And it means a lot less blogging--I just don't have the time.

(And I understand better why some people don't pitch in and work on issues in their neighborhood. By the time I get home at night, it's 8pm, and the last thing I want to do is run off to a meeting in the city.)