Important Update-June 14 DoT Meeting on Roland Avenue
June 13, 2018
Dear fellow Roland Park residents,
Thursday evening June 14th there is an important meeting for our community with DOT regarding the safety and design of Roland Avenue. I encourage all concerned residents to attend, listen intently, and ask questions.
DOT has provided a brief format and agenda which includes a time for open discussion while circulating through stations to see the options up close and review the pros and cons with a DOT official. This agenda format was only provided to us late Wednesday afternoon, and we have several questions about it that we plan to address with the Director of the DOT today, and will forward updates as soon as we get them.
In preparation for this meeting, I would encourage everyone to go to our website and review the extensive work done by the Civic League and its numerous volunteer residents who have spent the last 2 years compiling and reviewing data and national best practices. This has obviously been an emotional time for our community, but a solution cannot come from opinion alone. So, it’s time to harness that passion and energy into asking the difficult questions that will certainly come up tomorrow night. I think the best way to ask those questions is to be prepared with data that supports that energy and passion so we can maintain a civil discourse. Shouting down speakers and interrupting presentations does not allow for residents to hear the information being presented and ask their questions. It also runs the very real risk that this public meeting will be shut down abruptly before we have had a chance to hear the information we need to move forward.
Tomorrow night’s meeting will not be the end of this discussion. I have been assured by Director Pourciau and Councilwoman Middleton that The Roland Park Civic League and its entire membership will be given an opportunity to consider the proposals by using our new Project Approval process after tomorrow night’s meeting. Roland Park has always met its challenges together. In any consensus building, it is understood that not everyone gets everything they want. But we can be assured that if we work together as neighbors we can find a solution that we can be proud of. We have done it numerous times before, because we take our role as stewards of this beautifully designed neighborhood very seriously. Let’s meet this latest challenge as we have in the past, with civility and common purpose, and create a safer Roland Avenue for generations to come.
See you tomorrow evening,
Bob
Robert Connors
President, Roland Park Civic League
