Articles

These are articles, videos and op eds by members of the group.

The Benefits of Reducing Parking Mandates – Part Three. Parking minimums are pseudo-science that often limit the size of restaurants, prevent alternative forms of transportation from gaining traction, and unnecessarily inflate costs for restaurants and diners.

The Benefits of Reducing Parking Mandates – Part Two in a series about parking in Annapolis. Parking minimums prevent the reuse of existing buildings, stymie infill development and are especially damaging to a downtowns.

Many Reasons to Eliminate On-Site Parking Requirements for Restaurants – Part One of a series about parking in Annapolis. Parking lots generate very little tax revenue compared to other uses and leave gaping holes in the urban fabric. Onerous parking requirements make business tough for restaurants so let’s get rid of them.

Ignite Annapolis Talk that covers many Strong Towns concepts in the Annapolis context:

Housing, Not Lodging – Annapolis’s downtown has become dominated by short-term rentals, and it’s beginning to degrade the community’s social capital.

Accessory dwelling units can be one cure for some of what ails Annapolis – ADUs can be one step toward fixing larger problems — an incremental tool for reducing congestion, perpetuating our community’s health, and preserving our neighborhoods through family resilience.

How to Grow a Local Strong Towns Conversation – Making your community stronger is too big a job for one person to do alone. Here’s how one Strong Towns member connected with likeminded people in his own city…and some practical steps on how you can do the same.

When Public Art and Historic Preservation Clash – Hurdles to revitalization based not on substance but control are the last thing America’s cities and towns need.

Raising the Interest and Reducing the Concern – How do we encourage the largest untapped group of “Interested but Concerned” bike-users to embrace transportation cycling as a way of life? Here’s one step that might help.

Why I Ride a Bike – I don’t ride a bike because I love bikes. I ride because it’s a convenient and economical mode of transportation to accomplish my daily tasks. Plain and simple.

Anne Arundel can escape its growth Ponzi scheme – Growth in and of itself is not bad. When done in a long-term, fiscally sustainable manner, growth builds wealth for residents, business and the county.