'all politics are local'
well, well, Tip O'Neill lives
Annapolis is quite a little town. Not only was it the capital of the United States between 1783 and 1784 and a place where the Confederation (a.k.a. Second Continental) Congress sat but it also remains the Maryland capital rather than burly Baltimore up the road 30 minutes. It’s also the city at the entry to the majestic/terrifying, depending who you are, Bay Bridge across the Chesapeake.
As you know, I view largely view it as the place allowing me to photograph shots like early this morning on Spa Creek between Annapolis proper and Eastport (a.k.a. the Maritime Republic of Eastport).
It’s also a place, sadly, with plenty of crime and some downright strange behaviours about the city regulators and land uses. I am positive long-time neighbours know oodles more than we do but some of these tales are wild. Wells Cove, the inlet you are seeing to the right off many of my morning photographs, was the object of a recent fight over Creek access. Seems the condominium community built on Wells Cove about two decades ago told the city that water access would be available yet the only access one finds (and we actually looked out of curiosity one day several months ago when the story hit the paper again after litigation) is a trail about 18 centimeters wide, running between the street to the waterline. Uh, I don’t know about you but I have never seen a boat for which that would provide water access. Needless to say, someone in the local government was asleep at the switch or something else. Since Spa Creek is completely built up and the water rather limits space for many, this is a big deal. As a matter of fact, land rights along the water are a huge deal in this town.
Then there was the truly bizarre case during the pandemic of the company that simply announced they were going to build luxury condominia towards the western edge of town. Fair enough, go get the permits. No, they simply put up a fence, built a drive way into the large tract they intended to populate, then started tearing out trees. They neither told anyone in the city government, allegedly, of their intent nor did they bother getting any sort of permit. Since Maryland is a relatively higher taxed state, linked inextricably to higher regulatory activitiy, this was inexplicable to me.
The fantastic tale became laughable several months ago when it turned out the people destroying the trees not only don’t believe in prior approval or permits but they don’t pay their bills, either. According to stories in the local paper, this company tore out the trees and neglected to pay four vendors working for them so all work ceased. Right. Just another day for Annapolis land use oddities, I suppose.
Two summers ago, rumblings surfaceded about the use of a former Navy communications station towards the Bay Bridge on the east side of town (we are so good at weird behaviour all over town), the Greenbury Point Conservancy. When the Navy modernised communications, thus departed this peninsula east of the Severn River but attached to the Naval Academy, it became an area full of walking trails adjacent to the Academy golf course. Lots of birds and probably some critters use it along with the dogs who walk their owners along the trails. It’s got a pretty view of the Bay Bridge to the northeast while the town of Annapolis is directly west across the Severn River.
To be clear, we are not talking about hiking trails in the Sierra or Cascades but a couple of miles of tracks allowing we more seasoned folks a quiet area to walk without fear of cars running us down.
Oh, and the entrance to Greenbury Point is, by the way, the Naval Academy golf course.
My husband and I actually were familiar with it because in the early weekends of the pandemic, we walked there Sundays with old shipmates of my husband’s. The four of us could keep socially distanced on a path so we were in touch with others at a time we all craved seeing friends while we had the glory of seeing buds opeon in the brush growing across the peninsula. It was such a nice way to face one more day during the pandemic as we wondered how long it would persist. Oh, and we were not the only ones there as it was a pretty popular weekend spot for people from across the community, especially families.
The rumblings were about the sudden closure of Greenbury Point because of a massive chain-linked fence. Since many people visited this area frequently, it didn’t take long for one of the many regulars to dig around. It turned out the Naval Academy Athletic Director was advocating for a second golf course at Greenbury Point to help make Annapolis ‘a destination’.
I am not sure what that had to do with the Naval Academy Athletic program since his desire sounded rather grandiose relative to the mission of educating Mids but this was the aspiration. Close the trails and build a golf course.
For a subsection of Annapolis, this was the causus belli for revolt. That ever vigilant rallying platform, Facebook, went nuts within the Save Greenbury Point group (which I joined, in all disclosure). People were talking about what they would lay down to absolutely prevent this from happening. They were rabid. They were leaving little signs saying ‘Save Greenbury Point!!’ all over town. Greenbruy Point officionados were on the march.
The City Council doesn’t have jurisdiction over Naval Academy land, of course, as it’s federal so it soon became clear that the City was no help. Congressman Sarbanes (yes, the one who is soon to retire as I have discussed), Senator Van Hollen, and Senator Cardin became foci of an unrelenting campaign to stop this travesty.
The Naval Academy, already busy with things like keeping the Yard from succumbing to the rising waters of the Chesapeake (literally) and educating the Mids, didn’t say much because the community furor was fierce. Not everyone in Annapolis cared but those invested in this fight were in it full bore. The Academy obviously would have been happy to have another golf course since Greenbury Point isn’t really good for much else but that would only erode public trust for these folks further. Locals are important to the Academy because it’s a small town.
About every three months over the past couple of years this has arisen again. I left the FB group when I said I expected their fight ultimately would be unsuccessful which led to people declaring they would give their life for the cause. I decided that was way more than I would give so it was a fight I really didn’t need to follow more than in the newspaper. Besides, I was still working and, as any academic knows, absolutely no fight in politics is as tenacious as professors arguing over office sizes or something else inconsequential so I did not need replicate Don Quixote moments from work in my community, thank you.
This morning we read that the 2024 National Defense Authorisation Act actually resolved the issue—for the time being. It’s this factoid I really want to comment on today. Amidst a spending bill for $865+ billion dollars (even Senator Everett Dirksen would have been impressed since he famously said ‘A billion here, a billion there becomes real money’) replete with many Congressional constraints on spending and actions, a statement says that ‘The Secretary of the Navy may not modify or restrict public access to teh Greenbury Point Conservation Area at Naval Support Activity Annapolis, Maryland’. A couple of exceptions exist such as safety-driven temporary closures or our county, Anne Arundel, or National Park Service taking control of the area for conservation or public access reasons.
Good news, my friends, and a classic example of precisely what a community can do within our system. It’s an abosultely miniscule victory in the grand scheme of what confronts our nation but the power of mobilisation matters a great deal. Congress listens to the people who elect them. This is why Republicans do what they do and Democrats do their things.
We, as Americans, have forgotten what our role is in this system. We need make our voices known. We should not rely on someone to do it. We need be involved in items, large and small that bother or motivate us.
In truth, we have surrendered much of our power to other personal priorities. If we engage on abortion, on park land, or on climate, on religion in schools, or on any other national level topics, Congress does hear our views. Yes, wealthy donors make their views known as well but as we have nationalised state and local races, there is a danger for any elected official who relies on outside money rather than the feelings of her constituents.
This probably strikes you as a pretty weak case on my part because this was a small item. But, as one of our readers pointed out to me yesterday, evidence is clear that the center—defined as real people across the country—are engaging in politics for school boards and other policy questions. This matters, not in a partisan manner but for the good of the country.
It’s evidence that politics are local, as the late Massachusetts Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill used to remind us regularly, and we tend to support those who produce local results we like. Since politicians respond to positive incentives, they will always weigh how strong public motivations are before they decide on a particular issue. We the electorate, particularly when we are whining about our elected officials, seem to forget that registering our opinions matters beyond cursing at the news in the car. We need show up, make our points known, and politicians will act.
I am not sure the Navy ultimately won’t get to close Greenbury Point because people will move on to other concerns and those exceptions do exist in the NDAA. But this is a place where the Annapolis community overcame the inertia that too often leads to a city where semi-inexplicable decisions appear. Sure, this was a federal intervention in a seemingly local concern. But, it was a outcome that I would not have put a lot of money on when the initial barriers closed the walking paths in 2021.
Thank you for reading Actions Create Consequences today. I appreciate you more all the time. Have you thought about a subscription? Sending this to your cousin who feels shut out of our system? Please keep sending me your thoughts.
Be well, have a restful weekend, and be safe. FIN
Rebecca Ritzel, ‘Defense bill protects Greenbury Point’, The Capital Gazette, 15 December 2023, page 1.