Hyattsville’s 2021 election season is here, and with 20 candidates running for five ward seats and the mayor’s office, it may be the biggest election the city has ever seen. All week long, Route 1 Reporter will be introducing you to as many of the candidates as possible in a series of video interviews. Over the past week, Route1Reporter has interviewed 15 of the 20 candidates running. Today, we unveil the interviews with four of Hyattsville’s six Ward Three candidates, namely Adam Alfano, Sherlyna Hanna, Alexander Houck, and Jimmy McClellan.
Unfortunately, Ward Three candidates Chuck Perry and James Wigley did not respond to requests for interviews before Monday morning, when the first of Route 1 Reporter’s candidate interviews published.
Route 1 Reporter’s interview with Houck is below.
In these interviews, each candidate was asked six questions. The questions were not shared with the candidates beforehand. The questions are also fairly broad, providing candidates an opportunity to introduce themselves and describe their approach to local government policymaking.
Hyattsville’s election season concludes May 11, 2021.
Theis:
Hello. My name is Michael Thies editor and publisher of Route1Reporter. I’m here today with Alexander Houk, one of [six] candidates running for council in ward three. In all, Hyattsville has 20 candidates running for five ward seats and the mayor’s office. This interview and others are intended to be a broad introduction to the candidates and their approach to local government policy and policy making. Next begin, Alexander, how are you doing today?
Houck:
I’m doing well, Michael, thank you very much for taking this time to be with me.
Theis:
Excellent. First question. Tell me a little bit about yourself. What do you do and how did you come to live in Hyattsville?
Houck:
So a little bit about myself. I have been in transportation and transportation safety for the past 14 years. Um, I work in Alexandria, Virginia for DASH as their safety and compliance specialist, which is why I’m actually really passionate about that subject. I moved to Hyattsville back in 2018. I moved to nearby College Park back in 2014. I worked at the university of Maryland from that, from that time on. And ultimately the reason I settled in Hyattsville was last year like a lot of my, a lot of my early 30 somethings friends during the pandemic, I bought my first home and it was one of those things that when I was looking in the area I had loved Hyattsville. I had previously rented an apartment near the Prince George’s mall across the street from Home Depot and wanting to stay in this area and found it found basically my, my first home and maybe my forever home. And I like to call it my dog’s first and last home. She’s a 12 year old blue healer and she’s been really happy with the backyard.
Theis:
Okay. Second question. Why are you running for Hyattsville city council?
Houck:
So I’m running because when I was at the university of Virginia where I did my undergraduate, I studied political theory. I’d studied government and it’s something that is important at any level for people to get involved in. I served as a Prince George’s County uh, voting official and election judge in 2020 for this the general election and the number of people who came out from the community to take part in that historic election – I served at Northwestern high school all day – and I worked with those people, exercising, their freedoms and their wishes. And for me being part of local government is so important because if it does the most good, it does the most it has the most direct effect on the people who live with and around you, because that’s the other thing it’s not like bigger politicians who go off to capital cities and that sort of thing.
Houck:
And it feels like they’re so far removed. If we want to see things done in and around whether it’s my personal neighborhood of University Hills or Ward Three or Hyattsville as a whole we’re held accountable because we’re going to be shopping with those businesses, walking those sidewalks and, you know, being out in the community for people to see so that’s really why I want to be part of this. I wanna be part of the community that I’ve decided to live in and purchase a home in. And I hope to raise future children in. I currently don’t have any children, but I want to invest in something that I see is just going to be amazing.
Theis:
Third question. What is the most pressing issue facing Hyattsville right now and what policies would you pursue to address it?
Houck:
Well, I think everything falls under the general umbrella term of quality of life. One of those things as a transportation and safety official is on a day to day, from the time I started driving buses, when I was 18 to now, we face a lot of those issues in my industry. We have people who were dealing with drunkenness, liveness things of that nature, but also just the sorts of things where in Hyattsville you know, having lack of infrastructure like sidewalks can cause a nuisance where if you’re just trying to get from point A to point B and you have to walk out into the street and you have people who are zipping up and down in the neighborhood or having to go out to a busier commuter street, like Adelphi, Queensbury or any of those – Queens Chapel, rather – uh, those areas that we just have such a high traffic volume I’m part of the communities, email lists, or hope the hopeless serve.
Houck:
And one of the things I see on there a lot is people talking about traffic calming devices, about pedestrian fatalities. And that’s one of those things that for me is, again, as a safety expert, you hit, you hate to see it. And, you know, there are ways to affect that change to make the, one of the things about Hyattsville is it is the slogan of “a world within walking distance” should be true. We should have safe walking worlds in which to live. And those are things that like I said, quality of life is just so important because it’s what allows us to operate in our community effectively, safely. And that’s, and that’s what I think most people are gonna care about. Affordable housing is also another huge issue for me. When I moved to Maryland in 2014, the only place I could find to live were either student-housing-adjacent or somebody’s basement.
Houck:
And I remember there was a coffee with the president that the university used to hope hosts with the former university president Wallace Lowe. And he would take direct questions from the employees and staff and faculty. And I asked the question about what the university intended to do about affordable housing in the area. And I could see the number of people looking around with the same question in mind, where you move to a place like this that is already so expensive, and that you haven’t had that high rise in in salaries to accompany it for a lot of people. You know, in Hyattsville, you have – I’m part of the largest age demographic. There’s about a fifth of high it’s. Billions are between 25 and 34. There are about a quarter of us who earn between 50 and 75,000 a year, but less than no, sorry, about 20% of the population as a whole has less than a high school education. So what that means to me, is there a vulnerable that exist when you have a community that has in certain areas, low education because that means people can sweep in and talk about, Oh, we’re going to raise the tax base. We’re going to build these high rises. This is the answer that the president had given us. He said, we need to build more enticing housing.
Houck:
I’m paraphrasing what he said. I’m not – these aren’t direct quotes. But basically they need to attract people with a higher income so they can raise the tax profile of the city so they can put in more infrastructure. And ultimately, who does that really serve? Because when I went to buy my home, as I mentioned, College Park, the city of College Park and the university have a great deal together where they will offer, I believe it’s up to $10,000 as a grant to live in the city. And that’s something that you can use for closing costs and to help you buy a home and there are strings attached to that and that sort of thing. But I looked at that and before I settled on Hyattsville, partly because I said that, okay, that’s a great opportunity. But in college park, all I could find me there half a million dollar townhomes or $300,000 fixer-uppers, neither of which were attractive to me or affordable – affordable to me in a lot of cases. because of the income I was getting from the university.
Houck:
Hyattsville offered me a great home you know, it’s a 1950s style ranch home that had great bones, great tree canopy. I mean, I liked the established feeling of the neighborhood I was moving into. So again, these quality of life issues where you can have a community that people are proud to call home, that they feel safe in, that they can afford to live in and stay in, in the long run. Because last thing you want to do is have people’s tax rates go so high that they’re pushed out of their community, that they’ve invested in, that they’ve planted their gardens in, that they raised their children and that they have one for office in. And so that’s what I think will speak to the constituents of Ward Three in Hyattsville and that’s what matters to me.
Houck:
Okay. Fifth question. Yes. Fifth question, almost all of the city council races this year are competitive. Why should people vote for you?
Houck:
You know, ultimately I think people are going to vote their hearts. If there’s a person out there that you identify with more closely, vote for them. if I don’t get the votes, I’m still going to be part of committees. I’ve done it in the past. When I was with the university, I was a Senator there. And then after I was no longer Senator, I was part of their elections uh, elections regulations and governance committee. That was all about ethics and fairness in their elections and in policymaking. So I’m going to find a way to stay involved in Hyattsville. This is my first foray into it because there is an opportunity because I was so impassioned by the 2020 general election and serving the great people of Hyattsville as an election judge at Northwestern High School. Um, Voting for me just means you have somebody who’s going to work hard for you. Who’s going to care deeply about what’s going on in the community in the city. I do have emergency management
Houck:
One second.
Houck:
That’s the the timer on the light.
Theis:
Yeah.
Houck:
Um, but there is – I mentioned I have emergency management training which, you know, we’re living in a pandemic and eventually post pandemic society where safety is always going to be crucial, any place we live. And I feel that I’m probably the most qualified candidate in terms of those sorts of – sorts of procedures to set up a continuity plan, to make sure that we don’t hopefully shut down again as a city, as a community, because we know how that affects our lives, not just a matter of going to work and just schools, but also what it means for when we’re stuck in our homes. When we can only foray out into our tiny village that we’re living in, that we made sure that we have plans to work with our police officers, our first responders, our local businesses to keep our community running, that people are taken care of.
Houck:
And I have seen so much of that in this past year. Um, the communication to make sure that people can get food, get resources has been amazing in Hyattsville. I want to continue to not only keep those plans going, but grow on them. I think ultimately there will always be a need for them, whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, and that they shouldn’t fall to the wayside as we move into a post pandemic world, because ultimately we’re – there will always be a next crisis. There’s always going to be something that we can prepare for and we should be, be prepared for and have that continued presence of mind.
Theis:
What is a unique skill or perspective you would bring to this job if elected? You kind of talked about this in your last answer a little bit.
Houck:
Yeah. It’s one of those things that, and, and, and not that it’s a big thing or something that I’m going to harp on, ultimately my campaigning, but I’m actually, I’m actually Latino. And a lot of people, if I know that I know my name doesn’t say it. But I’m Mexican on my mother’s side. And it’s one of those things that when I say that I care about these issues, there’s a reason. Um, you know, my foray into achieving education was not one that was handed to me because of means, and because of when my family was or anything, it was something that I had to learn a lot of it and carve it out for myself. I have a younger sibling who’s six years younger. And when it came time to her, for her to apply for college, I was the one helping my mom work through a lot of that same paperwork that I’d had to go through six years earlier.
Houck:
So I think a lot of my, my fellow community members understand that role of not just family, but also what it means that when you achieve, when you do something that you are willing to help out and bolster those who come after you, that you’re not just in it for yourself and for your own gain for your own advancement, that we only progress so far as we help those who come after us. You know, I know that my shoulders are gonna be the ones that others stand on. And she’s doing great. You know, that’s the thing my sister had. I was able to give her so much advice as the big brother to to, you know, pursue her own goals. And she bought her first house last year as well. And again, six years younger than me. And she’s also contemplating her own run for city council down in South Carolina, which is where we’re originally from.
Houck:
So as far as perspective, it’s one of those ones that I understand what it’s like coming up from little means in terms of socioeconomic background. Um, I have appreciated the education opportunities that have been presented to me, and I always seek a way to help others around me, better understand what opportunities are present to them. I read the fine print. It’s one of those things that when I was at the university as a safety and policy officer there, I get a lot of the new employee orientations. And I would tell people about not just what they were supposed to be doing at work, but they knew they had they could take advantage of their smart commute card. Do they know about affordable parking opportunity? Did they know about the College Park and university agreement for affordable housing or, or the $10,000 grant.
Houck:
You know, I would read those things, try them out, make sure that people had that communicated to them as somebody that they could then take advantage of, because if people never tell you something, they never say that there’s this opportunity for you take advantage of. How do you know to take advantage of it, you know, other than doing the work yourself. So I have put in work. I want to contribute that to my fellow residents of Hyattsville and hope that if they vote for me, they understand that they’ll be getting somebody who really is working for them and with them.
Theis:
Okay my last question, many hot button issues in our national political discourse are at their heart local issues. And I’m talking about things such as policing education policy or debates over renaming or removing landmarks and parks. How do you identify politically in a national context, such as progressive or conservative democratic or Republican socialist, libertarian any term under the umbrella and under the sun, how do those, and how do those values inform the policies you would pursue here?
Houck:
So I know that the race is ultimately non-partisan. So I’m just going to say that politically I’m very, I’m very progressive. I think ultimately as a society, we have a responsibility to make sure that the people that come after us, the children we bring up, have a better world than the one we lived in. And that can be very scary for people who have done things a certain way for a long time. We feel that we are, we are growing up in a community that we no longer understand sometimes. Um, there’s a great quote that sticks with me and kind of is my guiding philosophy when it comes to political matters and, and policymaking. And I’m paraphrasing here, but it’s basically that a sign of true leadership and stewardship is that people plant trees, knowing that they’ll never bask in their shade, you know, the hundred year old elm tree in my front yard has been there probably since, you know, near when Hyattsville started person who planted it, you know, whether it was a person or a squirrel is no longer around to enjoy its shade, but I am.
Houck:
And I appreciate those efforts. Um, yeah, you mentioned policing. Last year in May, you know, we had not, not the kickstart of black lives matter and BLM. That’s actually been going on for years at this point, you know, with Freddie gray and all the other tragic loss of life. But one of the things that came out of that was this whole political hot button topic of defund the police. And really ultimately one of the things that I mentioned, you know, being a bus driver and working in the transportation issue that police face, just like a bus driver, is deescalation. We have all these problems with dealing with a public that may or may not agree with what we’re asking to do then maybe pressed into defending themselves or their actions, or feel like they’re being called out people. Don’t like being embarrassed for one. As far as policing, it is a difficult job.
Houck:
And one of the things that I’m so proud of is that with Hyattsville police department, I worked with one of their lieutenants last year to help for my company’s COVID response, because they had already implemented a plan to help sanitize their vehicles. And then I think it was just two days ago on the 18th, there was a story that’s now getting some national traction about a couple of Hyattsville police officers, Anderson Franco, and Gaskell, who deescalated a situation where there was a person in crisis, a man who was having a behavioral health crisis. And they sat down with him, they talked with him, they were able to communicate with his family. And we know so many times those kinds of events don’t end that way. They can end in tragedy. So I believe that people have the opportunity to learn, to change and to grow.
Houck:
And it all goes back to what I said before, understanding that there are resources out there that they just may not know about. And so for me, it’s one of those things where any of these issues that we’re facing, facing them together is important. Going into conversations with empathy is a huge thing. You know, I recently had an online discussion with a person from, from what I’ll call, you know, my old home, South Carolina. And I grew up there, I went to public schools in South Carolina, and there was a simple article that was being shared about changing the state flag. You mentioned, that’s a huge issue. I know Mississippi recently approved a change to their flag and which I agreed with, you know, the Confederate banner that they had in their flag has no place in modern society.
Houck:
I had no place when it was formed. But South Carolina’s flag seems pretty neutral. When you think about it’s a, it’s an indigo background with a meadow tree. And what many people believe to be a Crescent moon, which was actually a gorget. I remember studying all this stuff as a, an elementary school student. And the comments that were coming from people were so vitriolic and angry about leave it the way it is. It’s perfect as it is. It’s beautiful. Why would you change anything? Clearly, the people who were commenting hadn’t even read the article. The article was talking about the commission that had been founded to find a historical precedent for how the flag should look because South Carolina has no has no standard flag. Can you imagine in Maryland, if we, with our, with our flag, with that banner, if people could just change how it looked altered, it ever so slightly, and then it would hang from official state, county, you know, in all these official capacities, that’s what was going on in South Carolina flag.
Houck:
They could change how the palmetto tree looked, how many leaves it had et cetera, et cetera. And I, and I had a conversation with an older gentleman, and I basically stated to him that look, I was proud to be from that state. I loved the flag as it was, but I understood and appreciated what the researchers were trying to do. They were trying to find a historical precedent and replicable banner that they could use in official capacities. And he finally kind of acquiesced and understood what I had been saying. Despite, you know, calling me a couple of different names and using some choice terms and other people kind of chimed in as well saying the same thing I had originally that he just hadn’t read the article. And I think we just have a lot of that right now, where people are so quick to jump to conclusions and we need to find patience.
Houck:
We need to find empathy to truly hear what other sides are saying and get to the heart of what it is that’s bothering them, what it is that they are, that they value and what they feel like they’re losing. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re, they’re entitled to their opinion. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re right in their opinion, but we owe it to ourselves to understand the issues as a whole before jumping to conclusions before making changes, because it affects so many people. You know, we, we understand that that’s what we need right now is to coalesce as much as we can and to have to have empathy.
Theis:
Excellent. Well, Alexander, at this point, that’s all the questions that I have for you. I’d like to thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me to everyone out there watching along on route one, reporter.com. Thank you very much for your patronage and for watching along, get out there and vote. Have a good day, everyone.