I get tons of questions about what's happening of late along the 198 Business Corridor. I really wish I had better news. Yesterday, Anne Arundel County Police advised on a shooting at the long-troubled Garden Inn Hotel. The victim said that he was "waiting for a female friend to arrive at the rear of the hotel when two unknown males began approaching his vehicle. The victim started to drive away, and one of the suspects fired at the vehicle, striking it." It's all too familiar right? Let's count the ways:
A suspected "drug deal" at one of the local shopping centers where the suspect pointed a gun at his victim;
An assault and robbery at an ATM;
An armed carjacking by two teen suspects at one of the local shopping centers;
An armed carjacking at an apartment complex along 198; and
As of 3 AM yesterday morning, in what looks like an attempted carjacking, a shooting at the Garden Inn Hotel.
All within the past six weeks. All along a very busy commercial corridor long haunted by nuisance hotels and ghosted by successive County leaders. Did it have to come to this? Not at all.
During his first term as County Executive, about three years ago, I warned Steuart Pittman (D) in very stark terms that conditions along the commercial corridor, particularly at some of the hotels, were deteriorating to the point of no return. I told him that it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt. I also shared with him that the issues along the corridor posed a threat to economic growth and personal wealth for nearby homeowners. I reminded Mr. Pittman that nearby communities were the most diverse in Anne Arundel County and were deserving of the same attention that communities might receive in Severna or even where he lives. I encouraged Mr. Pittman not to traffic in stale institutional tropes that ascribed public safety issues along 198 to our community's proximity to the Prince Georges County line. I think he agreed with me that those tropes were not only fraught with problematic undertones, but that they were also counterproductive. Mostly, my conversation with him was to convey my view that, the issues impacting 198, particularly at the hotels, were not just an issue for police only. A solution for 198 required more imagination and commitment from his office.
He tasked senior members of his team to "address the issues." I along with Mike Rogers and Andrew Pruski met with his team at the library. We were assured that a comprehensive plan was in the works and that it would, in a more proactive way, especially address the needs of homeless families who utilize the nuisance hotels as the housing of last resort. I also launched a petition and over 700 of our neighbors respectfully and directly shared their concerns with Mr. Pittman.
We received more promises and then we received a report. The report issued by Mr. Pittman's team wasn't good y'all. The report essentially said that our collective perception of issues particularly at the hotel was more imagined than real. I kid you not! I shared my take on the report with Mr. Pittman who seemed at the time very defensive and I would even say mildly volatile about my criticism of the report. Pittman even remarked later, during a public walk along 198, in front of numerous parties that I was "trying to tell him how to do his job." I kid you not! I was just taken aback by the comments which inferred that I either had no right to question him nor demand accountability from him as an elected official. One lady who witnessed the exchange later remarked that the comments made Pittman look small "like a petulant and arrogant bully." She was clear that she felt like Pittman's micro-aggression towards me not only diminished my concerns but the community's concerns as well.
I only documented in more objective terms, using 911 call data, that the issues at the nuisance hotels were significant and conveyed to Pittman my belief that he wasn't taking the issue seriously enough. Not being one who is just descriptive about a problem, I made a "good-faith" deposit and wrote a prescription for what has long ailed 198. I shared it widely with our fellow neighbors, a few elected leaders, and the Pittman Administration. So what happened after I wrote a plan for 198? Pittman's Administration copied the plan almost verbatim, without attribution and quite frankly compensation. Ultimately, they only made a marginal effort to implement the plan and we now find ourselves staring into the same abyss we proactively tried to address three years ago.
Three years later, I'm afraid that we have reached a long-feared inflection point with the hotels in particular. Recent public safety issues along the 198 Business Corridor are unusual in their frequency and intensity. To be fair, with the exception of yesterday's shooting at the Garden Inn, there is no evidence that other recent crimes were committed by anyone living, loitering, or congregating at the hotels. There is evidence however that nuisance and quality of life issues at the hotels persist in a very debilitating way for all nearby residents. I sent a cordial response to Mr. Pittman a few weeks ago about recent incidents along 198 and copied many of our neighbors on that email. I have not heard back from County Executive Pittman as of this writing.
I spoke with one of our neighbors yesterday about the Garden Inn shooting. She expressed a great deal of anger that more hasn't been done to address the ongoing saga with nuisance hotels along 198. She quipped that the best solution might just be to steal or "jack" the hotels away from the current owners rather than wait another three years for County officials to do something. I laughed at the joke but it's a joke that I think encapsulates the frustrations of so many who are scared and concerned about recent public safety issues along 198. I remain hopeful that things will turn around but like so many, I'm starting to lose a lot of faith and time unfortunately is not on our side.