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Experience and Enjoy Tour at Vito’s Pizzeria, This Wednesday

Vito's Pizzeria

The next Experience and Enjoy College Park day will be held on Wednesday, January 19 at 7 pm at Vito’s Pizzeria, 7313 Baltimore Ave., in downtown College Park.

The special guest speaker at the event will be our new school board member Peggy Higgins.

The Experience & Enjoy College Park Tour is designed to bring those who work, live, and play in College Park together to talk about local issues and patronize a local restaurant once a month.

Come and support our local businesses,  meet with other city residents, and find out more about what is going on around College Park.

Hit by ‘Homicide a Day’, County Officials Turn to FBI, Pastors

Hit by 13 homicides in the first 13 days of the year, the Prince George’s officials are scrambling their heads on what to do to tackle this unusual spike of violent crime incidents.

According to the Washington Examiner, the county’s 13 killings exceed the 12 U.S. military deaths that have occurred this year in Afghanistan as of Friday morning.

In the mean time, federal agents have begun embedding with Prince George’s County police department homicide squads as part of an increasingly concerted effort to solve and stop the spate of killings.

The federal agents will come from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, though how many would join county detectives, is still unknown.

County police have also enlisted other area law enforcement agencies to help: On Wednesday night, officers from the Maryland State Police, the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Department, Mount Rainier Police Department and Bladensburg Police Department joined county police to saturate areas of the county where some of the murders have taken place.

“We will stop the unacceptably high level of violence which has plagued our inner beltway communities since the beginning of the year,” said Interim Prince George’s County Police Chief Mark Magaw in a statement. “This will be a concerted, sustained effort that will include the PGPD, Office of the Sheriff, municipal police departments, Federal agencies, and community & business leaders. Together, we are a formidable force that will bring calm to all segments of our County.”

On another front, Prince George’s County States Attorney Angela Alsobrooks is turning to the faith community to help address the recent spate of killings in the county.

Alsobrooks said she will visit several churches this weekend and appeal to church members to help her reach out to young adults.

Alsobrooks said she will attend Mount Ephraim Baptist Church in Upper Marlboro Sunday. On Monday she will be part of a panel discussion at First Baptist Church of Glenarden as part of the church’s Martin Luther King Day event.

“Part of what I will be talking about at First Baptist is changing the culture,” Alsobrooks said. “These young people have been taught they should not get involved and to stop snitching. I want to start a counter-campaign called speak up and that we have an active responsibility to come forward and help rid our community of this violence.”

Profiles of Service: Part 4 – AlHuda School Soup Kitchen

School volunteers at the Soup Kitchen

The school may not have its own kitchen to serve its students daily lunch, but that did not  stop a group of school volunteers to make trips to downtown DC to serve food to folks in a homeless shelter.

AlHuda school, located in the east end of Hollywood neighborhood, began volunteering with Thrive DC! (formerly known as DPHW, the Dinner Program for Homeless Women) in 2007.  The school volunteers help with preparing the food, serving, and cleaning dishes.  Typically, there are between 50-100 people that come in the evening for dinner.

The program runs on a monthly basis, so volunteers head to the soup kitchen on the first Monday of every month. The recipients are primarily African-American women, but there are also several women and children from Spanish, Chinese, and Caucasian descent.

“It is truly a humbling experience for the volunteers when they come to serve.” said one school student who volunteers at the kitchen regularly. “Even though they are only coming for a couple of hours, the homeless women show a lot of gratitude and appreciation while they are being served and as they interact with the volunteers. Towards the end of the program, a lot of them end up helping the volunteers clean up and put up the tables.” – the student added.

There is a special feeling of community in the program; it is customary to see elderly folks dispensing their advice to the younger ones amongst them. There are children milling about happily and playing with others while their mothers look on after them with sad smiles on their faces. There are disabled people that are chatting animatedly with other homeless women that help them with their various duties. There are quiet individuals either lost in their thoughts, filling out crossword puzzles, or reading books, while there are loud and boisterous people right beside them laughing away and/or causing much commotion in the crowd.

In the midst of all of this are the volunteers trying to provide the attendees with a sense of normalcy as they work alongside the organizers in the homeless shelter’s soup kitchen to serve an often-neglected component of society.

Lackawanna Lights, Speed Camera, WSSC on Tonight’s NCPCA Agenda

NCPCA - Your neighborhood association

Today is the second Thursday of the month and thus the day of the monthly regular NCPCA meeting. Here is a quick summary of what will be on tonight’s meeting agenda.

• The light ‘pollution’ issue on the Lackawanna Street does not seem to go away soon. Residents living on the street have started a petition asking the City to lower the intensity of lights there. The City is saying it’s looking into the matter. Let’s see what residents and the City officials have to say in tonight’s meeting.
• As you know, the City has installed several speed cameras in various parts of the City, including one on the Rhode Island Avenue. The City is saying the primary objective of these cameras is to improve the public safety around that area, yet some residents are saying they’re tools to generate revenues (and hence the term of ‘Greed Camera’). The City has also published FAQs on what to do if residents get tickets from these cameras. It’s also publishing the statistics on the tickets issued from these cameras on almost monthly basis. We’ll hear from both residents and the City officials on these new cameras in our neighborhoods.
• In the last December meeting, members asked to invite a project manager from the WSSC to the January meeting to talk about various ongoing projects in our neighborhoods, including the water replacement project that has some concerns from many residents due to road repair issues after the replacement work. If you’re one of those residents, please bring your questions or concerns to the meeting.

In addition to these items, members will also discuss an amendment that will address some concerns surrounding the process of the By-Laws amendment itself. If you’re a member, you should have received an email from the NCPCA on the text of proposed changes. You can also check the text on NCPCA’s website here. Please review those changes before coming to the meeting.

By the way, NCPCA’s website has gotten a new theme. Though the new theme is fairly simple in terms of its layout, it should make the sites content to read a bit easier. Please let us know what you think about the changes and if you want to have any other suggestions about our web site.

As always, for the detailed agenda and the direction to the meeting, please check our website at http://myncpca.org .

See you all tonight.

First Pattern Book Meeting Seeks Input, Draws Criticism from Residents

Pattern Book Meeting at the City Hall

Some 30 residents, City officials, architects and urban planning enthusiasts  gathered last Monday night at the City Hall to help develop a pattern book that the City hopes will assist homeowners, contractors, and builders, as they repair, rebuild and expand houses in the City.

At the end, the City wants to give the existing neighborhoods an aesthetically pleasing look that it thinks will enhance their architectural quality.

The City awarded the contract to a Pittsburgh based contractor Urban Design Associates (UDA) to develop the book and make this available free to everyone interested in the city.

The principal architect at Urban Design Associates, Eric Osth, made the presentation at Monday’s meeting.

The project’s proposal document states the pattern book will provide guidance to homeowners, builders, developers, and architects on appropriate architectural detailing, massing, siting and related techniques to ensure that additions, renovations and infill development relate contextually to existing neighborhood patterns and styles.

“The pattern book is intended to instill pride in homeowners and encourage them to reinvest in their property while maintaining the unique character of their homes and neighborhood” – the document cites.

The project is aided by a steering committee with some half a dozen residents. Lourene Miovski, a resident and a member of the committee said she was likely chosen to be on the steering committee because she and her husband researched and designed the addition on their own home in north College Park . “It was also important to me that our addition fit with the original design of the house and fit with the neighborhood.” – Ms. Miovski said.

Ms. Miovski thinks the presentation made last night be made at all the civic associations in College Park. “This would enable residents in each of the neighborhoods to have another opportunity to have input, if they were unable to attend last night’s presentation.” – she added.

The project’s debut however did not pass without criticism from some residents. “I’m basically shocked that this is going to cost $50,000.  Who is paying for this?  Why is it continuing to be voted for when there are so many other outstanding (public) safety issues that haven’t been addressed?” asked one resident.

Council member Stephanie Stullich disagrees. She thinks the  investment in the project is relatively small and will leverage private homeowner investments to make our neighborhoods more attractive. “(The Pattern Book) will save residents’ time and money when they embark on these projects.” Ms Stullich argued.

Ms Stullich also said pattern books are an increasingly popular tool being used around the country to help residents design attractive additions and renovations, as well as in-fill houses that are compatible with the existing neighborhood.

There were also concerns of transparency of the project. Some residents fear the pattern book may be incorporated into laws in future causing rifts among residents. “Unless it is in official writing, it’s difficult to believe that the City won’t find a means to put this into law” – said a resident.

Council member Patrick Wojahn disagrees. “The pattern book will add no new requirements or regulations on home owners and the inclusion of something in a patten book is not in any way, shape, or form a legally forceable requirement on homeowners.” – said Mr. Wojahn.

The project is expected to end by the end of the year, with a first draft of the project’s report  ready by the end of spring. Additional public meetings are also planned to seek more residents’ feedback.

UMD Student Killed in ’11/11′ Shooting

A 22 year old UMD student was shot to death in College Park, bringing the county’s homicide total to 11 in 11 days, Prince George’s County Police say.

The incident happened shortly before 11:30 a.m. on the 8800 block of the 38th Avenue. UMD’s Department of Public Safety says that the gunman was a black male wearing dark clothes and a ski mask.

This is not a random act,” Davis said. “None of our homicides in 2011 have been random acts of violence. If you reside in Prince George’s County, if you live in Prince George’s County, and you’re not engaged in a criminal lifestyle that gives people a reason … to harm you…Prince George’s County remains a safe community.” – said Deputy Chief of P.G. County Police, Kevin Davis.

Camera Petition Sent to Metro

In case you’re wondering what happened to the petition you all signed for the surveillance cameras at the north gate of Greenbelt Metro, here is the update. The City has recently sent a letter (please see below) with some 300+ signatures to Peter Benjamin (Chairman) and Richard Sarles (General Manager) of WMATA. According to the City, we’re expecting to receive a response from them sometime this month.

Thank you all for supporting the petition and also, let’s thank the Mayor and Council for their help in sending the letter on our behalf.

Download (PDF, 11.96KB)

A Lending Library in North College Park?

I came across this discussion the other day about the possibility of having a library in our part of the town. As we all know all of our surrounding towns have their own libraries – Beltsville, Greenbelt, Hyattsville all have it. Bu what about College Park? My friend Joe Smith also wrote a piece on the same subject and I agree with him in principle of having a library in our area too.

True the UMD has its own system of libraries, but those were primarily designed for the students and I know only a few residents who can go or will be interested to go to grab books from there. Especially when a resident wants to make a trip to a library with younger kids at home, he or she would most likely go to one of the nearest public libraries.

I agree libraries are not like emergency rooms in hospitals, one can survive without them, but libraries can only serve better and they don’t hurt the residents who live around them. Encouraging citizens to read in general is a concern of everyone, especially in this country, where folks are so busy in doing their daily choir and have little time to make a trip to the nearest library.

The issue is probably more acute for north College Park residents, a significant number of them are senior citizens and will most likely to be glad to see a library close to their homes. A close by library can also be a benefit to many parents whose children attend three elementary schools in north College Park.

But here is the problem of starting a library in north College Park. Neither the City nor any of the local government has enough money to start one. There have been talks of starting a community center somewhere in the Hollywood commercial district as part of Route 1 sector plan, and a small library can be a nice addition to this. However the start of such a center is months and most likely years away and so is the possibility of starting a local library in north College Park.

Fortunately, there is another alternative. Residents can start out a small lending library on a voluntary basis. This isn’t something new and many small communities have done this in other parts of the country.

A community lending library is fairly inexpensive to start with and run, since books and other library materials all come from residents themselves as donations. We can probably organize regular used book drives from the community to collect such books time to time.

Lending libraries typically run entirely by volunteer residents. They also work on cataloguing and maintaining the list of library lenders. I don’t think we’ll have problem in finding volunteers to do cataloging / serving books to residents. Most public libraries in other towns are run by volunteers, mostly by senior citizens; fortunately we’ve many of them in our part of the town who’d love to do this.

The next and final thing we need is a small space in our part of the town. We can try to find a corner in YFS or Davis Hall; in case we don’t find one, we can even keep the materials at volunteers’ places and bring them to a common place at a certain time of the week month, when residents can come and get the books. The monthly NCPCA meeting place at Davis Hall can be an option too?

Green Opportunities for Fun and Profit

If you’re student, and want to have some fun and profit while taking care of our environment, here are two opportunities you may want to consider.

(1) The City of College Park seeks a graduate or exceptional undergraduate student to conduct a community greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory. The intern’s primary responsibilities include the following:

Complete a baseline community GHG inventory and forecast, using ICLEI software (http://www.icleiusa.org/), identify possible actions and targets of opportunity for reducing the community’s global warming footprint, with the help of the software, work with City employees and selected members of the City’s Committee for a Better Environment (CBE); collect emissions data from representatives of local utility companies; and use U.S. census data to estimate other information and communicate all findings and issues, both verbally and in a final written report, to the City and CBE.

The intern will work approximately 200 hours total. Weekly hours are flexible with a minimum requirement of 10 hours per week.  A stipend of $12.50 per hour is available from the City. Please e-mail a cover letter and resume to: evitale@collegeparkmd.gov OR send by U.S. mail to Elisa Vitale, City of College Park, 4500 Knox Road, College Park, MD 20740.

(2) Seeking a Recycling Intern for the Spring Semester:  A Recycling Intern is needed to help implement a new waste-minimization program in buildings across the University of Maryland campus.  The “Can the Can” program replaces all standard desk-side trash cans with desktop “mini bins” to be used by faculty and staff to collect non-recyclable trash and ensures that each person has a full size recycling bin.  The program has been implemented in a few campus buildings with enormous success.  Facilities Management is looking for the help of an intern to introduce the program to even more buildings.  The expected outcome of the program is to promote recycling on campus and increase recycling rate to 75% by 2013.

The Recycling Intern will work 10 hours per week during the spring 2011 semester. Stipend:  $1,000 for the semester.  Funding provided by the Student Sustainability Committee of the SGA.

Please send a cover letter and resume to recycle@umd.edu.  The one-page cover letter should address the following questions: Why do you want to be the recycling intern?  What are your qualifications for the position? Deadline to Apply:  January 10, 2011

‘Quiet’ Sewer Studies to Begin in NCP

In a new announcement, WSSC has said that it will begin a sewer studies in some part of north College Park.

Unlike the recent water main replacement work, that has left many part of the neighborhood streets ‘broken’ and still unrepaired, WSSC is promising the study will be ‘quiet’ and ‘will not disrupt neighborhood traffic’.

The study will be conducted from January to May in the part of the town, but exact dates have not been announced.

Areas / blocks of the north College Park that will be affected by the study are: 4300-4900 of 49th Ave., 8400-8700 of 48th Ave., 8600 of 51st Av., 8600-8700 of 5oth Place and 9000 of 48th Pl.

The study is part of a larger project that started in December 2009 and is expected to end in December this year. The study identifies sewer and manhole defects,such as sewer line leakage and exposed pipes in WSSC’s northeast branch sewer basin.

Pilot Mistakes NCP Street as DC Runway, Residents Start Petition

NCP Runway

If you think the ‘Lackawanna runway‘ is a hyped propaganda term coined by a few residents,  you’re probably wrong - a US Airways pilot actually made a mistake thinking our neighborhood street a runway too.

The news came yesterday from a north College Park resident, who is also a ham radio hobbyist.

“I was just listening on my radio scanner to the tower approach at National Airport and apparently, a US Airways 737 mistook the lights on Lackawanna Street for Runway 19 at DCA.” - said the resident.

Thankfully, the pilot did not land on Lackawanna street .

The landing of an actual aircraft on our city street  may be a remote possiblity, but the incident did test nerves of some residents. “… it scares me that a plane could mistake us for an airport runway!” – said one concerned resident.

Though not a coincidence with the mistaken landing incident, residents who are affected by the high intensity of lights on Lackawanna Street have started a petition asking the City to “dim the lights to an appropriate level”.

Titled “Blinding Lights and No Nights in Hollywood“, the petition thanks the City for taking steps to improve safety on Lackawanna Street. However, it says the street lamps are far too bright for a residential neighborhood.

“The goal of the project was to light the sidewalks, not to give us permanent daylight! Currently, the project creates light pollution that is negatively impacting our homes and properties.” – reads the petition.

The residents are also very concerned about the devaluation of their properties as a result of light pollution. They want the  City “to take immediate action to readjust the lights so we can live in a neighborhood, not a runway.”

If you agree with the residents’ concerns, you can sign the online petition here.

UMD, Residents to Design Hollywood Gateway Park

Site of Proposed Hollywood Gateway Park

After the City Council voted to authorize the city staff to pursue a grant to fund design and building of the Park at the intersection of Route 1 and Edgewood Road, the University of Maryland has shown interest to work with the residents to design the park.

Earlier, the North College Park residents formed a committee to study the proposed eco-park .

At the last month’s NCPCA meeting, committee Chair Larry Bleau told members that the City’s Department of Planning, Community & Economic Development director Terry Schum was looking to see if the Landscape Architecture department at the University of Maryland would be interested in developing some conceptual designs as a class project.

“We have had a positive response (from the UMD) and are working out the details now.  Having this as a class project is a good way to brainstorm conceptual ideas to see the range of possibilities before working with a design professional” – Ms. Schum wrote to me in an email.

“The class instructor has indicated availability in March 2011 but the logistics still need to be finalized.” – Ms. Schum added.

A similar landscape architecture class project went into North Gate Park. The project was coordinated by the City-University Partnership and its final design was derived from a 22-student sophomore Landscape Architecture class competition.

Ms. Schum also said earlier that City’s planning department have met with an organization about the deconstruction/demolition of the site.

The property on the site has been on the market for sale for over two years and the City later purchased the property for $346,000, based on average of two appraisals. The City intends to redevelop the lot and spend $185,000, of which it will use $100,000 from a community legacy fund. City has considered using a green job vocational training program to deconstruct the existing single family home and salvage building materials, but the timing and method for demolition has not been finalized.

CP Woods Sets Example with Neighborhood Watch Program

January 2011 Crime Map

Today, I received the first batch of weekly crime reports from the PGPD community liaison officer Jaron Black; so I thought I should plug them in to our January crime map. I will add more crime data as I receive them from Ofc. Black and College Park contract police officer. Please check back this map in coming weeks.

Please click on the red markers to get more details about each crime incident.

The map is based on the following reports:

PGPD report January 04, 2011
PGPD report January 11, 2011

Group to Promote Local Shopping in College Park

Shop College Park

At a time when the tough economy is keeping the consumers stay away from shopping, a City project is trying to do just the opposite – by reversing that trend through enticing its residents more into shopping.

“Shop College Park” is a project of the City of College Park’s Department of Planning, Community and Economic Development and is designed to work together with local merchants and others to market all that College Park has to offer. The project’s website http://shopcollegepark.org/ features interactive maps and a database of retail shops, services, events and attractions.

On Thursday, January 20, the group will be holding a “Buy Local and Independent Business Presentation and Workshop”  in the City Council Chambers. The workshop will feature Jeff Milchen of the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA).

Mr. Milchen will provide numerous success stories of programs developed to support community-based businesses and keep them thriving in the face of competition from chains, online businesses, and others. This presentation is free and open to the public and all are invited to attend, however the workshop is limited to businesses operating in College Park. A registration is required in order to participate in the workshop and lunch. Please register by going to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y58VWP2 or by contacting Chris Warren or Robert Riker at the City of College Park.

More on the presentation and the workshop can be found here.

The group will be holding a  preparatory meeting tomorrow at Image Works (5110 Roanoke Place) to discuss organizing and advertising for the January 20th workshop.