Route 1 Reporter (https://route1reporter.com/category/news/)
Hyattsville’s mayoral debate revealed two candidates – interim Mayor Kevin Ward and Ward Five City Councilor Joseph Solomon – as rhetorical front runners in the three-way campaign for the city’s top job.
Projects funded include a long-sought parking garage in downtown Hyattsville, stormwater infrastructure work in College Park, an effort by DeMatha Catholic High School to redevelop land along Baltimore Avenue, and money for a new city hall in Brentwood.
A split Hyattsville City Council appears poised to rename Magruder Park after renowned African American artist David Driskell, with the deciding vote likely to come at its May 3, 2021, Council meeting.
Mount Rainier’s three official City Council candidates appear to have broadly similar visions for the city.
After mistakenly granting, then revoking, a tax break for a student-housing project, College Park City Council narrowly approved a measure granting the project a reduced tax break anyway under a new waiver created for this specific situation.
An endorsement from County Councilor Deni Taveras in Hyattsville’s mayoral race – and its deletion from a popular Hyattsville listserv afterward by a moderator – sparked a controversy Tuesday. Critics of Taveras focused on the ethics of using her official county email address to send the message. Critics of the moderator, Hyattsville activist Jim Groves, said the decision to remove the post from the forum was overzealous moderation at best, censorship at worst. In the end, both Groves and Taveras were pleading for understanding from the public.
Mount Rainier suddenly has a mayoral race featuring Ward 1 City Councilor Celina Benitez facing off against Ward 2 City Councilor Scott Cecil.
Ward Four City Councilor Edouard Haba issued a lengthy endorsement of mayoral hopeful and Ward Five City Councilor Joseph Solomon, rebuking “negative and unfounded” accusations from former mayor Candace Hollingsworth.
In the race to fill out the last two-years of her term, former Hyattsville Mayor Candace Hollingsworth said voters should choose interim Mayor Kevin Ward for the role. In the process, she also issued a stinging denunciation of mayoral hopeful and current Ward Five City Councilor Joseph Solomon that was quickly echoed by another current City Council member.
College Park City Council appears supportive of still-preliminary design plans for a cycle-centric overhaul of Rhode Island Avenue. But the plans are likely to disappoint some cycling safety advocates, who in previous meetings called for more robust separation between the bicycles and cars.