What Will Happen to 1901 West?

The 1901 West development has never quite gone according to plan. Technically referred to as "that monstrosity out there on the Johnson Lumber site", 1901 West had to scrap its initial plans to sell condominium units,

but has enjoyed modest gains in both commercial and residential occupancy.

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In January, a spokesman for the development
predicted that all retail space would be filled in 6 months. Now nearly a year later, plans have just been announced for merely the 3rd retail tenant:

Modern Carpet One Floor and Home, a regional carpet and flooring company
with locations in Prince George's and Calvert counties, plans to open its third
store in February at 1901 West, a mixed-use complex in Annapolis.

The carpet company will be the third business to open in the vacant 1901
West space at the corner of West Street and Chinquapin Round Road in Annapolis. Manpower, a national staffing firm, recently moved its Annapolis office into a
1,653-square-foot space at 1901. Starbucks opened last year.

Residential occupancy, level at 40% at this time last year, has doubled to 80%.

The fate of the residential apartments makes an interesting study. To be honest, I am surprised that the occupancy rate has doubled in the past year. The housing market today heavily favors buyers, with prices being slashed as much as 25%, perhaps even more. Applying the same interest rate that I just got on my mortgage, the cost of monthly rent at 1901 ($1300 or so) would buy you a $225,000 house, which could somewhat easily put a person in a decent townhouse.

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If apartment demand in Annapolis is driven by tenants who do not have permanence in the city, then it would be less affected by the mortgage market. However, if renters are saving money or building credit for a home purchase in the near future, the apartment market may be set to take a hit. And since 1901 represents some of the most expensive apartments in the city, it would be one of the first to go.

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Given a bad rental market, don't be surprised if 1901 switches to Section 8 housing. Any owner can elect to participate in the Section 8 program, which would make the unit(s) affordable to lower income families who would otherwise not qualify. The owner would receive a reduced rent from the tenants, along with a matching payment of some proportion from the government. I would guess that market-rate rent would be higher than rental income from Section 8 properties, but if you can't lease at market-rate, some money is better than nothing.

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This phenomenon can already be seen in the MPDU (Moderately Priced Development Unit) program at 1901. A couple of years ago, the city passed the MPDU ordinance, requiring builders of rental units to avail 6% of all space to moderate pricing parameters. All such units at 1901 are leased, with market-rate units struggling to keep pace.

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The back-of-your-mind question should be: is Annapolis prepared to envelop even more subsidized housing than it already has?

An Interesting Point....

...was made by a letter writer in today's paper. So says she:

I checked the state's online sex offender registry for our 21401 zip code. Eighty percent of the sex offenders listed there still live in public housing in Annapolis. Why is this allowed?

I wrote to the city officials and public housing director about this a year ago. The same people, with the same addresses, are still listed.

Many young children live in public housing. Why have sex offenders live there (sic)? And why should they have the benefit of public housing?
URSULA SCHUBERT, Annapolis

Do you want to pay for this?

Homicide

Tragically, the city witnessed its sixth homicide recently, as reported in today's Capital.

In the most tasteful way possible, I would like to point out the where of the crime and why that matters.

Much has been made of crime in public housing areas, but we must be careful as to the definition of these areas. Much of the data reported concerns the public housing communities of the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis (HACA).

However, this is not the entire picture. There are subsidized communities in Annapolis that are not subsidized by HACA, but instead by the federal government. One such community is Bay Ridge Gardens, where the last 2 homicides have occurred. These communities, as far as I understand, have the same demographics as the HACA communities.

It is AP's belief that for this reason, the 'tale of two cities' (using The Capital's words) crime problem is probably understated, and that the arguments made to hire more police officers and deploy effective community policing is an even stronger one.

It has been reported that last year we saw a record 8 homicides, and this year we are on pace for 9. It is AP's hope that we can be serious about reversing the trend.

The Capital Reports on Mayor's Public Housing Plan

Today The Capital reported on the mayor's HACA crime fighting plan--the same one that AP commented on recently. If you want to read their version, click here. If you want to read my version, click here.

(When I refer to The Capital article in this post, I am referring both to the front page article by Nichole Young and the 'B' section article by Eric Hartley. I have a lot to write about today, and I don't have time to do separate posts. So lay off.....just kidding.)

I actually think The Capital dropped the ball on this one ( which wouldn't be the first time). They alluded to the $200,00 the city gives HACA to fight crime; but, they failed to mention that the mayor wants to take this away AND make HACA share additional costs such as cameras and sub-stations.

On the other hand, I think The Capital did a good job of portraying how un-cooperative and aloof the mayor seems to be. The mayor apparently was a victim of shock and awe:

The first thing I get hit with when I get back in town after meeting with our sister cities is "We've got a crime problem. We've got a crime problem. We've got a crime problem," the mayor said.

You didn't know about this before? Seriously? BE SERIOUS. Did you know about this before? WERE YOU SHOCKED AND PISSED OFF THAT YOUR IMPORTANT SISTER CITY BUSINESS WAS INTERRUPTED BY THE TRIVIAL, MUNDANE ISSUE OF.........FELONY VIOLENT CRIME??!! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST 20 YEARS?!!!!

Ms. Moyer called that charge unfair and said she's been working with residents on crime issues for 20 years, going back to her 14 years as an alderman from Eastport.

Bullshit. The charge is fair.

And let me sum up HACA's reaction to this whole thing:

Capital Reporter: What do you think about this whole thing?
HACA guy: Uhh, this is what we have been saying for, like, many months now.
Capital Reporter: But what do you think about the mayor's ideas?
HACA guy: It's all the same crap.
Capital Reporter: And what if you had a pen pal in a sister city?
HACA guy: Neat-O!!

And now for my favorite part of the article(s), a quote from police chief Johnson:

We already co-op secondary employment to them, but we need more manpower.

What, I ask you, WHAT does this mean? This is horrible. Grammar. That should. Be a better sentence. With logic.

Ever onward!

The Mayor Proposes Changes to HACA Crime Fighting

In perfect coordination with the topics discussed on this blog, the Mayor today unveiled a proposal to change how the city fights crime in public housing (HACA) areas. Although AP is convinced that the mayor did not act as a result of this blog's objections, maybe I will make a post demanding a $1,000,000 discretionary grant from the city, and let the leaves fall where they may!

The issue is that HACA is a somewhat independent agency. The commissioners are appointed by the mayor, but have to operate under federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidelines concerning public housing. Apparently the city gives HACA $200,000 per year, which is to be matched equally by HACA (probably through money collected for rent), to total a $400,000 public safety program.

The mayor wants to city to be able to control this program, and is requesting that the $200,000 grant be terminated, and the city spend its own $200,000 protecting crime. A problem, at least as I see it, is that the city does not have the track record to prove that they can do any better of a job at preventing crime. They should be able to, in theory, because they can raise their own police force.

The grant would have to be terminated within the context of the FY 2009 budget.

The mayor also proposes 4 procedural changes:

1. The Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis and the Annapolis Police Department share to outfit each HACA neighborhood with surveillance cameras.
2. HACA and APD share costs for a sub-station program.

3. APD, if HACA agrees, assign undercover police to the area and enhance neighborhood watch training.

4. HACA to implement the community service program for all residents as required by HUD.

My feeling, and I imagine the feeling of HACA as well, is that if the city takes away their grant, then requires HACA to share costs for cameras and a sub-station, then the city had better do a hell of a job policing these areas.

To do this, almost everyone involved advocates filling the 23 vacancies in the department as a start. And when I say almost everyone, I mean all males and females age 1-100, except the mayor and the police chief.

The mayors next request:

Additionally, I am requesting the City's Community and Housing Board to review successful housing programs in other jurisdictions, research opportunities for home ownership and social service needs, and to recommend changes in our federal housing program required to enhance public safety.

I would be appalled if HACA is not doing this already---I am sure that they have studied other jurisdictions and are trying to figure out how to get people to own their homes. And to do the above:

Money will be allocated for a staff consultant to assist in the task.

I have participated in the budget process for the last 2 years, and I cannot tell you where this money comes from. When the budget is made, all requests for money have to go through committee, and be voted on by the city council. The mayor has some discretionary money, but not enough to hire someone else. If the money comes from the "contract services" portion of the budget, it means that the budget process was secretive enough include enough unspent money to hire this person. Not good, not good.

I believe that the city has more 'teeth' when it comes to enforcing laws and preventing crime than HACA does, which leads me to believe that the mayor's proposal COULD BE a good idea. But we have still not seen a commitment to fill the police vacancies--we still do not know how the mayor's plan will improve the situation. We do not need more consultants, or studies. People already know the solutions, or at least better solutions. The mayor needs to listen to these people, many of whom will help for free (that is, without being paid taxpayer money), and commit to implementing their solutions.

New Ideas Abound From The Mayor's Trip

In what seems to AP to be an attempt to justify the mayor's 6-week absence while touring Europe, The Capital today provides testimony that the mayor has some new ideas as a result of her sister city voyage:

Ms. Moyer said she's now armed with a "whole notebook of ideas" - and she's ready to go through it and find out which are viable options for the city.

Is that so? Well, the city could use some fresh ideas. I had a fresh idea once, but was distracted by my friend who claimed to be using his computer to access some type of 'internet' (that's what we called it back then), and since that time my creativity has taken a turn for the worse. So continue, Mayor Moyer, whadda' ya' got?

Near the top her list is lifting some transportation ideas from Paris, including more underground parking and increased public transportation on the water.

Umm, geez, you didn't think of this before? Also, I bet that the underground parking city was not the same as the public transportation on water city. Because when you have water, you usually can't build underground. If we had a public works director, we could ask him what the city rules are regarding underground building near waterfront.

So, most notebooks have, like, 200 pages or something. What else do you have?

She described bicycles lined up in the main tourist areas; with the swipe of a credit card, a bike could be unlocked for use.

So, instead of car rental, bike rental. Many towns have this already (although they may be run by private enterprise). I have a hunch: that this idea has been discussed before while Ellen Moyer was mayor. This guy might be able to verify that.

Adelante!:

A public "boat bus" stops at eight locations around the city.

A boat bus? You mean a water taxi? Right. We already have that. Way to waste space in your notebook.

These are not new ideas, and I'm guessing they are especially not new for transportation experts like hopefully we have working for the city. So what's the point of all this, from the mayor's point of view?:

Ms. Moyer said she's also interested in planning special programs to raise money for the sister cities program, to "treat them as well as they treat us."

B-da-bing!! Nailed it!! Right on targ.......

Subsidized housing just doesn't look like it there.

Oh no!

The cottages all have flowers in the yard and are well-kept and fairly attractive.

Too much propaganda....this post is out of control.

"No Taj Mahal (parking) garages there.

What?

Ok, enough with the quotes. The main issues touched here were public transportation and public housing. As far as transportation, we need to look at a solution that gets people out of their cars and off the roads. Building more parking garages and widening roads only encourages driving.

And with the public housing, ownership is the key. Using a highly anecdotal (and highly current) piece of evidence, just look at the kind fellow who was featured in the paper yesterday.

(If you want more scientific evidence, as I do, I must offer an apology. I am one of the worst "search term" people ever. I never know the right keywords to put into Google. Other people find things right away, and it takes me forever. So if you know where to look, or already have this data, let me know.)

This has been the city Republican Central Committee's objection to the direction of the MPDU program. People who qualify for public housing should be on the path to ownership, not renting from a non-profit or anyone else. (Note: the MPDU program is very different from public housing.)

To be fair, it doesn't matter where the mayor gets her ideas. So long as they are developed, and proper solutions implemented, I would be fine with that.