Annapolis Capital Punishment

CP has been an Eastport resident for over two decades and frequently walks and rides his bike. I am not unaware of the tremendous changes that have occurred and intensified in the past few years, most visibly in the form of architecture. Of course the architecture reflects the demographic changes, and it also reflect the transportation choices of the residents.

I always see and meet people when riding a bike or walking. I've often written of the value of walking and bicycling to build community and therefore, of its antithesis in wrecking communities--automobiles. Nowhere is this more evident than on the crowded and tony peninsula where the multi-million dollar homes are "complemented" with fancy garages and fancy cars with fancy bumper stickers.

Is it just me, or is there something supremely ironic and perhaps even offensive about mega-mansions crowded on the bulkheaded waterfronts with huge driveways full of cars--mainly gas guzzling and resource guzzling SUVs sporting "Save the Bay" bumper stickers? Many of them also have "St. Anne's Day School" stickers on them as well, but perhaps that's just a quibble on my part.

Homes that are already bigger than the domicile of the average family keep getting additions built on and mega garages attached. We already have a handful of gated communities and a marina in Eastport and we know where you can and cannot go. A favorite path to stroll down to the water is getting squeezed in with "No Trespassing" signs and the neighbors get angry when I walk upon it, even though it is a public right-of-way over a sewer line. The residents there may not be aware that years ago the turfed and bulkheaded lot they now occupy was slated to be a public park. It gets worse.

CP's youngest son and a friend were innocently riding their bikes by a private community when an elderly resident scolded them for riding on private property. What's up with that?

We have precious little access to the water and few places to enjoy the view. Lord knows why people need to keep biggerin and biggerin (apologies to Dr. Seuss)but so much of the crowding, the pavement, the congestion, the construction is due to cars and more cars. They bring air pollution, noise and decrease green space everywhere. Which brings me to the next ironic question: Why do people who build bigger and bigger houses and invest so much in making them comfortable and livable, then devote so much space and energy and resources to so many cars to take them to other places? And why so much space and resources to having them sit most of the time--which is neither an attractive site, not economically intelligent in my view.

The cars, for reasons mentioned above, hurt the communities in which we live, but their purpose is to take us away--to somewhere else. But it gets worse if you consider the idea of pulling up in your car, pressing a button to raise a door and then getting sucked in to your house--sharing your home with your car! This completely isolates us from our neighborhood and community. What do we do when inside? I dunno...watch tv I guess? (the purpose of most tv being to comfort us about our consumerist lifestyle and make us want to buy more...and more)

Yet it gets even worse. Have you seen the ads for these companies selling "garage organization systems"? They appeal to our most base consumerist instincts. One of them even has a content, self absorbed yuppie saying "My car is my life." What a loser!

Finally, while riding around on my two-wheeled, human propelled system, I came across a neighborhood yard sale. Now I used to live in that section of town 25 years ago, and I can tell you that just about every home there has either been built or seriously renovated in the last few years. Hardly a single resident has been in that part of Eastport for more than a few years. So here they are on a Saturday morning, holding a yard sale. Being a yard sale afficionado myself, I poked in and out of the driveways (and garages) where the wares were displayed.

I must say, it's pretty darn weird seeing people at the upper heights of the economic ladder taking a Saturday morning (when they could be at the horse races or on their yacht)displaying all their excess bric-a-brac and tschotchkes to pick up a couple of extra bucks. Why don't they just give it to GoodWill or the Salvation Army?