sailskidrive
Legalize the Constitution
A little history...
sUntil a little over a year ago I lived about 1/2 mile from the Arundel Mills Mall and I still own property in the area.
The now bankrupt Mills Corporation faced fierce opposition early on to their development plan by the Harmans Civic Association. A few individuals in particular, Roger Fox, Wayne Dixon, and County Council Woman Pam Beidle deserve significant credit for putting the Mills in check or the development of the property could have gone even far worse than the mess it is today. Originally, the Mills wanted the Mall to be significantly larger with even less parking. Early on there were NYC style labor contract disputes, stolen equipment, work stoppages, loud mouth corporate VPs making threatening remarks and consequently getting fired, literally a "Big Foot" sighting which later morphed into a bear sighting coupled with lots of wildlife management issues as the deer and beavers etc fled the habitat destruction.
After all of the bickering and negotiating was done I think everyone thought we had a reasonable compromise. The local residents were eager for the out lying parcels to be developed because it meant there be local grocery stores and a few restaurants. By the end of the first year obvious problems related to poor planning began to emerge. Traffic had become a nightmare, there were serious accidents every single weekend on the off ramp from route 100. The Mills Corp began having financial issues and moved to quickly develop block "I" with commercial businesses in direct violation of the agreement they had with the Civic Association. By Christmas the following year the assaults and robberies were starting to happen, especially outside of the area where Best Buy is located. The county established a police sub-station in the Mall, traffic lights went up, ugly plastic dividers were installed to try to fix the off ramp issue. The plastic dividers lasted about two weeks before they were completely destroyed by out of control motorists. Fast forward to today, over the past year my former community has had a handful of assaults, shootings, and other bizarre happenings all from Mall patrons who have found their way into the neighborhood.
Very few people in Anne Arundel realize the burden that has been placed on that portion of the county: Arundel Mills Mall, BRAC, and westward expansion of the airport (displacing many low income elderly folks who lived there for decades). Frankly, the casino was the latest slap in the face. The worst part is the area provides a disproportionate percentage of tax revenue from all of the businesses, yet the county wont even make good on their promise to build local park after taking the previous one to build a stadium only available to leagues. I plan on selling my remaining property in the area this Spring as I'm sure the casino will attract an even less desirable element than the tactless freak show and gang bangers that show up at the Mall every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I once had a druggy knock on my door at 0200 asking for "money to buy his daughter medication"! And I'm not going to even drone on about the Israeli Intelligence operation they caught operating out of a "Dead Sea Skin Care Products" kiosk at the mall....
I bought the house on a VA loan when I was a recently separated serviceman; it was a peaceful 15 year old neighborhood at the time. I never would have guessed that 13 years later I would be honking my way through horrendous traffic and trying to remember to move my vehicles off the street at night. Personally, I blame the former County Exec, Janet Owens; as her wealthy friends in Crofton and Annapolis got new schools while we carried the burden and prayed someone would plow our streets.
sUntil a little over a year ago I lived about 1/2 mile from the Arundel Mills Mall and I still own property in the area.
The now bankrupt Mills Corporation faced fierce opposition early on to their development plan by the Harmans Civic Association. A few individuals in particular, Roger Fox, Wayne Dixon, and County Council Woman Pam Beidle deserve significant credit for putting the Mills in check or the development of the property could have gone even far worse than the mess it is today. Originally, the Mills wanted the Mall to be significantly larger with even less parking. Early on there were NYC style labor contract disputes, stolen equipment, work stoppages, loud mouth corporate VPs making threatening remarks and consequently getting fired, literally a "Big Foot" sighting which later morphed into a bear sighting coupled with lots of wildlife management issues as the deer and beavers etc fled the habitat destruction.
After all of the bickering and negotiating was done I think everyone thought we had a reasonable compromise. The local residents were eager for the out lying parcels to be developed because it meant there be local grocery stores and a few restaurants. By the end of the first year obvious problems related to poor planning began to emerge. Traffic had become a nightmare, there were serious accidents every single weekend on the off ramp from route 100. The Mills Corp began having financial issues and moved to quickly develop block "I" with commercial businesses in direct violation of the agreement they had with the Civic Association. By Christmas the following year the assaults and robberies were starting to happen, especially outside of the area where Best Buy is located. The county established a police sub-station in the Mall, traffic lights went up, ugly plastic dividers were installed to try to fix the off ramp issue. The plastic dividers lasted about two weeks before they were completely destroyed by out of control motorists. Fast forward to today, over the past year my former community has had a handful of assaults, shootings, and other bizarre happenings all from Mall patrons who have found their way into the neighborhood.
Very few people in Anne Arundel realize the burden that has been placed on that portion of the county: Arundel Mills Mall, BRAC, and westward expansion of the airport (displacing many low income elderly folks who lived there for decades). Frankly, the casino was the latest slap in the face. The worst part is the area provides a disproportionate percentage of tax revenue from all of the businesses, yet the county wont even make good on their promise to build local park after taking the previous one to build a stadium only available to leagues. I plan on selling my remaining property in the area this Spring as I'm sure the casino will attract an even less desirable element than the tactless freak show and gang bangers that show up at the Mall every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I once had a druggy knock on my door at 0200 asking for "money to buy his daughter medication"! And I'm not going to even drone on about the Israeli Intelligence operation they caught operating out of a "Dead Sea Skin Care Products" kiosk at the mall....
I bought the house on a VA loan when I was a recently separated serviceman; it was a peaceful 15 year old neighborhood at the time. I never would have guessed that 13 years later I would be honking my way through horrendous traffic and trying to remember to move my vehicles off the street at night. Personally, I blame the former County Exec, Janet Owens; as her wealthy friends in Crofton and Annapolis got new schools while we carried the burden and prayed someone would plow our streets.
