Town Hall Meeting Turns into "Rodgers Forge Meets President Caret"
The tone for the meeting was set when Janice Moore, President of the Rodgers Forge Community Association got up at the Towson Town Hall Meeting at Minnegan Stadium and actually introduced herself to President Caret saying, "I have never met you before." Even though we have unhappily been wrestling over community issues with you for how long? Yet, you President Caret, have never met the President of our community association. We know you're busy, but now that you have met, we hope you will be true to your word and halt all activity on the new Arena (it may be only an addition, as you call it, but lest semantics muddy the waters, it is still a big brand new, first class Arena that will be attached to the existing Towson Center which is presently slated to be deposited in the backyard of Stanmore Road) until you have met with the community directly to begin a dialogue to promote what is good for the entire community at large, and not what is only good for the university at the expense of the rest of the community.
We await with great anticipation a phone call from your office giving us the time and place of this meeting which you promised would be held either Friday (1/30) or Monday (2/2). We look forward to working with Towson University so that you can demonstrate your willingness to work with the community for a solution that both forwards the university's progress and supports our mission to promote a vibrant family neighborhood with strong home values not threatened by university encroachment. Our goal is to continue to maintain a high quality of life in the neighborhood that is enhanced by having the University as our neighbor--not hindered by it, or even crippled by it.
We are hoping that President Caret will take steps to personally rebuild the trust that has been eroded by the university's seemingly deliberate lack of communication and lack of concern for the community they exist in and exist to serve.
More to come----
The real shame is that TU announced the Arena plans to the Towson area neighborhood leaders at a Greater Towson Council of Community Associations meeting in June, and many members of the group were angry enough to write letters to TU at that time. THAT WAS JUNE. and yet TU still didn't hold any meetings or act as if it was anything more than a 'done deal.' The Towson Times article that followed should be required reading - copy and paste this into your browser:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.explorebaltimorecounty.com/news/953/neighbors-kept-dark-about-new-tu-arena/
The Forge needs to understand that this is not the only major issue they've been oblivious to while TU does whatever they please.
-Entire neighborhoods are getting run over by students because TU claims it can't build dorms.
-Towson Police and neighborhood COPS are reporting unbelievable incidents involving drunk TU students, and are being stretched so thin they've had a hard time responding to neighbors' calls (despite this, Towson Police are doing everything they can, and are very involved with the GTCCA).
-Neighbors are talking about the York Road circle area being over run by students at night; young families and long-time residents don't feel it is a place for them anymore.
If the Forge thinks the arena is a separate issue, it is time to connect the dots. We can't win the battle, but lose the town.
The growth of TU is the issue, period.
RE: Last night's meeting with President Caret:
ReplyDeleteI'll put in my two cents for what it's worth.
I had a queasy feeling after last night's meeting. It was positive in the sense that we seem to have gotten an OK to meet and dialogue, which probably will happen on Monday of next week.
However, did anyone else notice that all of a sudden we had the 2003 Master Plan slapped up there on the wall and NOT the new plan that moves the Arena into our back yards? Was this for Media play or are they really back-pedaling?
I think Dr. Caret has been schooled well in filibustering - the more he spoke (and he sure is glib), the less time we had to stand up and make our voices be heard. They adhered to that 7:30 end-time quite effectively. I was unaware that that would be the stopping point, and I kind of felt short-changed.
I was thankful that Wes got the floor; he did an AMAZING job summarizing all of it firmly but gently. And having the concerned residents raise hands to show our numbers was truly inspired.
I think we can be cautiously optimistic, but we should not let our guard down. I seem to remember that this sort of game was played during the Stadium debacle and they "won" their seats anyway.
We can't let our energy flag. We may think we're spending a lot of precious time, energy and resources right now, but it'll be worth it in terms of quality of life and value of our neighborhood.
All in all, I'm glad there was a strong presence last night. Let's hope for a good result on Monday, but let's not discard our picket signs just yet!