Annapolis Capital Punishment

Nobody question's Sam's "greenness". He truly is an environmentalist and he has told me that his goal is to make Annapolis the greenest city in the USA. I don't doubt his seriousness. I just doubt his willingness to truly grasp the complexity of the issues and how to manage them. His recently released environmental platform is four single-spaced pages. It's long. Rather than publish it here, I'll refer you to friendsofsam. My comments are in red.

Sam begins with:

Annapolis’ environment is important to me. (Well, duhh!) I will do everything possible, working alongside our Department of Neighborhoods and Environmental Programs staff, to protect our water, air and health for this and future generations. (Why does DNEP and DNEP alone immediately and prominently come into the picture? What does DNEP do? What should it do? What has it done? It is a recent creation of Ellen "O" and it deserves a review and scrutiny. As I said for Cohen's environmental messages, he should begin with the programs, policies and positions in place and see if we are on the right track. Sam simply assumes we are. One of his top supporters is the wife of DNEP Director Mike Malinoff)

In fairness he gets into this in some detail with the next nine points that follow, but I'd rather see him call for a top down and bottom up review of all the policies and procedures and fundings in place. Instead he begins his nine points with saying he will "meet or exceed all applicable environmental laws, regulations, and municipal standards." (What if they are not good regulations or standards? I think Sam never met an environmental regulation he did not like.)

He then puts in a whole paragraph about his failed plastic bag ban fiasco. He should bag that. When I asked Sam what was his major accomplishment as alderman, he said it was that plastic bag bans were being discussed in France and Germany. Huh? Yet that's how Sam thinks. Big. Very big and sometimes to the exclusion of thinking small, right here and right now. Besides that, the ban failed here because of Sam's inability to consider alternatives that might have been more effective and might have been passed by his colleagues.

His legislation to ban smoking in bars and restaurants was a success and was followed by other bodies as well. He wants to increase our tree canopy and create a park off Edgewood Road. Sounds good, but where exactly? We should know more.

He says, "Annapolis needs to step up its monitoring and regulation of stormwater runoff
retention programs." (Absolutely--we must do that! He has spoken out about that and I believe he is serious)

He says, "Our city should implement goals of zero landfill waste with recycling practices that will gradually lessen the amount of solid waste trucked to landfills." (An ambitious but worthy and workable goal. Where do our wastes go anyhow? How much does this cost? Can we save money? Money and costs do not seem to be on Sam's radar screen.)

I can't believe he brings up that misguided attempt to scare everyone about Bisphenyl again. "Food, water and product safety is regulated, but many chemicals used in the production of our
food and products can cause unintended harm to our health (e.g. Bisphenol A in plastic food
containers). Addressing these concerns through education and outreach programs will allow consumers to make educated consumer choices." He is assuming that you cannot figure this out but that he and DNEP can. I've reported on that before and won't beat it to death again, but it was wrong. Bags, wrong. Bisphenyl wrong. What's next?


When it comes to the impacts and effects of transportation, Sam gets it--sort of. Unlike Cohen who ignored this, Shropshire addresses it, but again, with his ongoing fascination with rail. He talks about "Creating an alternative transportation system" and once again proves how he completely ignores, and writes off the one municipal resource we already have in place--our own bus system, but Sam has never paid it any attention and we own and operate it here and now. Instead he wants rail. It's a misguided dream Sam. Please figure that out already and derail this thing. Hop on the bus or the bike.

He omits anything about our sewage treatment plant and our water and sewer infrastructure, nor does he say a word about our 500 acre Waterworks Park, slated by Ellen "O" to become some energy demonstration park.

He concludes with a multi-paragraph section on "alternative forms of transit." He is afraid to come out and say the car-crazed culture is the problem. Instead he wants "alternative transportation"which is after all an alternative to to the car! But by calling everything but cars an "alternative" we automatically accept the car as the dominant mode. Why not a policy to seriously reduce automobile use on the city? He does mention phasing out cars from City Dock, but why wait? Why not now?

He launches right in to his obsession with rail and more rail. Get off the rail Sam! We have a bus system and he ignores it. It could be great in a year or two with proper oversight and management but he'd rather spend hundreds of millions on what might take ten years and what most transportation planners or engineers will tell us that we simply do not have the density or demand to support.

He talks about supporting bicycle improvements but he completely ignores the one thing that will make it happen--having a bike planner on staff. It is called for in the Comp. Plan as part of the priorities and vision for bicycling, but Sam must not be willing to commit to one staff person to make it happen. Too bad. He understands the importance of walking as a form of transportation and says "I support the city’s renewed effort at taking over responsibility for constructing and maintaining our public sidewalks." You get an A+++ for that Sam, but sooner or later, you must explain how we will pay for it.

Sam concludes with, "If you elect me mayor of Annapolis I pledge you my life to make our city a more sustainable, environmentally healthy community. Working together we can make a big difference, not just in Annapolis, but in giving inspiration to our county, our state and the nation."

I believe he means it and I believe he will work for it. But what worries me is that he may be more interested "in giving inspiration to our county, our state and the nation" than in achieving real results here and now. This is the same man that as alderman, repeatedly called for a third Bay Bridge span. At least he used to call for that, but now that he's running for mayor......

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