Politics – Gary Bennett Publishing

Frederick woman’s MS diagnosis inspires her to help others

By Gary Bennett

This article appears in the Health & Fitness section of the Frederick News-Post, March 26, 2024.

Frederick resident Robin Brown remembers getting her multiple sclerosis diagnosis like it was yesterday. It hit her like the proverbial ton of bricks.

“I woke up one Saturday morning — it was April 26, 2008; I was 47 years old — and felt a tingling on my left side. I’d never felt anything like it before. Because a dear childhood friend had just survived two brain aneurisms, I got scared and took myself to the ER.”

Once there, she endured an MRI of her brain and spine. The neurologist on call delivered the bad news that she “probably” had MS.

Since MS is notoriously challenging to diagnose, she soon found herself at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore for what she hoped would be a reversal of the initial diagnosis. She got the requisite lumbar puncture (also known as a spinal tap), which was frightening in its own right, and when the proteins came back positive for MS, the diagnosis was official.

“It was shocking,” Brown said. “No one in my family has it. My mother has rheumatoid arthritis, so I thought it may be that. The doctors ruled out other auto-immune disorders first such as Lyme disease and lupus. It only took four months to get my diagnosis, and that’s not normal. It usually takes a lot longer.”

Robin Brown and her “peeps” bring awareness to MS, raise funds and support each other.

WHAT IS MS?

Multiple sclerosis is a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the protective covering of the nerve cells in the brain, optic nerve and spinal cord, called the myelin sheath. It causes communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body. It is potentially disabling and affects nearly 1 million Americans.

Doctors don’t know why this happens. It is not necessarily genetic, environmental or due to the actions of the patients. Some studies show it may be a virus that can be contracted as a teen and remains dormant until later in life, but nothing has been conclusive.

Signs and symptoms of MS vary widely between patients and depend on the location and severity of nerve fiber damage in the central nervous system. Some people with severe MS may lose the ability to walk independently. Other individuals may experience long periods of remission with no new symptoms.

There is currently no cure, but treatments are available to help speed the recovery from attacks, modify the course of the disease and manage symptoms.

GETTING TO WORK

There is a bright side to Brown’s harrowing diagnosis.

In characteristic fashion, she threw herself immediately into the fight to find a cure. She was diagnosed in 2008 and began her association with the National MS Society the next year, where she’s been a valuable fundraiser and leader ever since.

To help find a cure and support those with MS, Brown is active in the MS Society’s main worldwide fundraiser, Walk MS.

“Walk MS brings us together,” she said. “I love that it gives me the opportunity to make others aware. It helps me feel not so alone. When I was diagnosed, I felt very alone.”

Walk MS is an event held in hundreds of cities throughout the world where the MS community, including supporters and loved ones, come together to walk, run or bike in support of those living with MS and raise funds to help find a cure.

Everyone is welcome to participate. There is no registration fee or fundraising minimum. While there is no fee to participate, every dollar raised helps those living with MS and their supporters. Since its inception in 1988, Walk MS has raised more than $1 billion to help people with MS and their caregivers.

According to Brown, the funds don’t all go to science. Some are used for critical but sometimes overlooked things, like respite care for caregivers, walking devices or vehicles that are wheelchair accessible.

“I do this for everybody, and, of course, it could be me one day that needs these things.”

WALK MS FREDERICK

Frederick’s next Walk MS event begins at 9 a.m. April 13 at Frederick High School. The day starts with a snack, sponsor booths, photos and an official ceremony.

At 10 a.m., participants start walking on the site’s supported and accessible routes, winding their way through Baker Park and back to Frederick High. There is a 3-mile route and a 1-mile route for those not quite as ambitious. The route is accessible for wheelchairs and strollers. The event concludes at noon.

New attractions this year include the Center for People Living with MS and Circles of Support. The Center provides information about the MS Society programs and resources, including self-help groups and navigators. Individuals living with MS also receive swag items there.

Circles of Support provides complimentary hand-held circles to use during the opening ceremony: yellow for those who support the mission to cure MS, green for those who love or care for someone with MS and orange for those who live with MS. The waving signs are sure to be a memorable scene at the event.

Since recent COVID-19 restrictions have been detrimental to the Frederick walk, Brown has been asked to help rejuvenate this year’s event. Her role is to be a powerhouse fundraiser and key awareness advocate for the society and walk. She has done so for many years. She heads up a team affectionately known as Robin’s Peeps, a group of 10 to 12 team members who bring awareness to MS, raise funds and support each other.

In 2023, Frederick’s MS Walk raised about $62,000 and had 295 participants. Brown and her team raised $15,000 of this total and was the top team in Frederick. Brown personally raised $13,475 of the $15,000, which ranked her No. 157 in the nation, out of more than 100,000 participants.

The goal for the 2024 Walk is to have more than 350 participants and raise $67,000. The Greater D.C.-Maryland chapter, of which Brown is a member, aims to raise $1.2 million this year during their 10 Walk MS events in Maryland, D.C. and Northern Virginia.

LIVING WITH MS

Brown does all this even though she has been one of the lucky ones whose symptoms have not progressed over the years. She doesn’t take this good fortune for granted. She leads an active life and works full-time as an associate agent in a busy insurance office.

“I know how lucky I am. I found the correct neurologist for me, and together we chose the correct treatment,” she said. “I use a medication called Rebif, which is injected three times a week. I am faithful to it, and it’s worked well for me. I’ve been on that same treatment since September 2008, and it has held everything at bay.”

Brown also credits her support system as key to her success. She counts support from her husband, mother, sister, other family members and countless friends as immeasurable.

“It is support for which I never have to ask. I attribute my success to working hard to manage my MS and to this unwavering support.”

Her deceased father also plays a surprisingly key role.

“My dad, who passed away in ’22, was always amazed about my attitude toward MS. He used to say that I have such a positive attitude that it’s never going to beat me. I hold on to that. It’s almost as if I just don’t want to let him down.”

Brown also co-leads a local peer support group called Messy Friends, with Dee Walter, a fellow MS warrior. The group allows folks to know they are not alone. They serve as a resource to provide information and share individual experiences.

“We Messy Friends don’t know everything, but we usually have access to information that’s helpful,” she said.

Gary Bennett is a longtime Frederick resident who spends his time hiking, biking, volunteering and providing childcare for grandchildren. He is married and retired from his career as a nonprofit marketing executive.

Can Frederick County ever be ‘Montgomery County North?’

By Gary Bennett and Hugh Gordon

white and gray concrete buildings under blue sky — Montgomery County, Maryland

You hear the sentiment thrown around all the time: “If we don’t stop all of this development, Frederick’s going to become Montgomery County North.”

Hyperbole? Sure. But like a lot of things, if we don’t rely on facts, misinformation can take hold.

It makes a nice political sound bite and is easy to fall back on when we see traffic getting heavier and schools more crowded. We do have an infrastructure problem that will take real political will to solve.

The hard truth, however, is we still don’t have enough housing in this county to satisfy demand. That is irrefutable.

Experts and politicians from both sides say so. But not just that, ask the 20- and 30-year-olds around Frederick who would like to purchase a starter home but can’t. Ask the working parents about finding a reasonable rent that doesn’t take most of their paycheck.

Ask the 60- or 70-year-olds who want to downsize but can’t find anything to downsize into. The problem is real and the construction you see is Frederick County’s attempt to bring balance back to the housing market.

When comparing Frederick County with Montgomery County, here are some facts to consider.

Size

Montgomery County is huge. Frederick County has about 290,000 people; Montgomery County has nearly 1.1 million.

In geographic size, Frederick County is the largest in the state. We have a land mass of about 660 square miles. Montgomery County has about 493 square miles. Frederick County has a density of about 440 people per square mile while Montgomery County’s is about 2,100 people per square mile. It would take growth of biblical proportions for Frederick County to get anywhere near the density of Montgomery County.

Growth

Frederick and Montgomery counties are growing at comparable rates. Most growth in Montgomery County is concentrated in nine large cities or areas, including Bethesda and Silver Spring, which mostly border Washington, D.C. In Frederick County, most growth is centered in and around the city of Frederick, where infrastructure and transit options are strongest.

In Montgomery County, the growth in the larger cities near Washington, D.C., has been allowed to run together, giving it a feel of sprawl. In Frederick County, most municipalities have adopted slow-growth policies. Because of this and the open-space initiatives discussed below, there can be no running together of municipalities in Frederick County.

Open space

In Frederick and Montgomery counties, large swaths of land must be kept perpetually rural because of Maryland’s agricultural reserve program. In fact, the northern part of Montgomery County is just as rural, if not more so, than Frederick County. One-third of Montgomery County, or 93,000 acres, has been designated as the Agricultural Reserve.

But Frederick County does a better job.

Its priority preservation program seeks to permanently preserve at least 160,000 acres of agricultural land and protect a total agricultural base of 200,000 acres as a rural reserve to support a diversity of agricultural practices.

When you add on land in programs like the conservation reserve enhancement program (CREP) and the Creek Releaf program, land protected in stream buffers and county parkland, the county aims to have over 200,000 of its 427,000 acres (47%) in some type of program that is or is intended to be protected against development.

The availability of adequate public facilities focuses planning and development on the municipalities of the county, chiefly the city of Frederick. Therefore, discussions shouldn’t center on maintaining the agricultural nature of the county that we all love — that is not going away—but rather should be focused on how we can best plan for development in the municipalities of the county.

Migration

It is convenient to claim that large numbers of people from Montgomery County are moving to Frederick County every day to escape growth and taxes. Some of that is happening, but not as much as we think.

According to the 2020 American Community Survey, roughly 16,000 people migrated into Frederick County from 2016 to 2020. During this same time, about 14,100 migrated out, for a net gain of nearly 2,000. Would anybody have guessed this?

Of the 16,000 who migrated into Frederick County during this time, about 3,200, or 20% came from Montgomery County. But, 2,200 Frederick County residents migrated to Montgomery County during this time, for a net of about 1,000 people.

Yes, in-migration from Montgomery County is higher than for any other Maryland county, but it is certainly not an invasion. Interestingly, when you look at per capita in-migration, Carroll and Washington counties lead the way.

an amusement park at night — Frederick County Fair, 2023

Editor’s note: Gary Bennett is a retired marketing executive. Hugh Gordon is the association executive for the Frederick County Association of Realtors and has decades of experience in the real estate world, including 24 years as a mortgage banker. They are longtime Frederick County residents and members of the Frederick County Affordable Housing Council.

Presidents’ Day Honors an Odd Bunch

By Gary Bennett

This article appears in the February 15, 20204 issue of Frederick News-Post’s “72 Hours” entertainment insert.

The most humble of federal holidays falls annually on the third Monday of February. It’s commonly known as Presidents’ Day – but it technically isn’t.

In 1971 Congress passed a measure that redirected many holidays to a Monday date, so that workers could enjoy several long holiday weekends throughout the year.

As part of this bill, Washington’s Birthday (Feb. 22), which had been celebrated as a federal holiday since the 1880s, was to be renamed Presidents’ Day to also honor Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (Feb. 12).

After much debate the name change failed but lived on as Presidents’ Day when retailers embraced the term for monetary and commercial reasons.

This year Presidents’Day in Monday., Feb. 19.

Presidents 45 and 46 (Trump and Biden) dominate the news cycle now, but it is quite interesting to look back and consider what an odd lot these presidents have been.

There are founding fathers, scallywags, scholars, and simpletons. And, for an office so sought after, more than a few were accidental presidents. Even a few more never wanted the job in the first place.

George Washington falls into this category.

He never wanted the job but took it at the urging of the other founders. He wanted nothing more than to retire to his plantation after leading the nation to independence. It’s hard to believe now, but it is well documented that he was largely reviled as president. No wonder. He was constantly charting new territory in this strange new job, to the consternation of most at the time.

But he gave a gift to the young republic struggling to disassociate itself from the English monarchy that cannot be repaid and has been brought into sharp focus on Jan. 6, 2021. He voluntarily and peacefully gave up power after eight years in office. This astounded not only the other founders but also most U.S. citizens and the world who assumed he would rule until death.

The behavior of presidents proves there is nothing new under the sun.

John Adams served one term and was so upset about his one vote loss to Thomas Jefferson in the House of Representatives in 1800 for his second term that he skipped Jefferson’s swearing in. Sound familiar?

Besides Mr. Trump and Mr. Adams, John Quincy Adams (sixth president and John’s son) and Andrew Johnson (17^th president, Lincoln’s successor, and the first to be impeached) also skipped their successor’s inauguration. Each was a one-term president who lost a bitter re-election bid.

Then there is the enigma known as Thomas Jefferson.

He was a proud member of Virginia’s upper crust but also lived most of his life in heavy debt to the point of near poverty. He was a quintessential introvert. He wrote and reasoned brilliantly but had such a soft, unassuming voice that he struggled to be heard.

He was an eloquent defender of independence and liberty but was also an unabashed slaveholder. He was mostly aloof but was also the mentor of both Madison and Monroe, and helped usher in 28 years of what today would be called liberal Democratic policies.

Mr. Trump’s decision to run again in 2024 put him in sparce, but pretty good, company. Ex-presidents Grover Cleveland and Teddy Roosevelt ran again years after completing their terms. Cleveland (22^nd and 24^th president) actually won a second time and is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Roosevelt split his party in 1912 with the incumbent president William Howard Taft, thereby handing the presidency to Democrat Woodrow Wilson, a stuffy scholar who ignored the pandemic of the day.

The case can be made that Taft actually went on to an even better job. After his presidency ended in 1913, he eventually became chief justice of the Supreme Court, the only former president to do so. John Quincy Adams was no slouch either. He went on to serve several terms in the House after his presidency, which would be unthinkable today.

Joe Biden is a healthy 81-year-old but has surpassed the life expectancy of males in the U.S. If he were to die in office, it would be sad but not unusual. Several accidental presidents assumed office upon the death of the president.

John Tyler assumed office in 1841 upon the death of William Henry Harrison, who died after only one month in office, reportedly from pneumonia suffered after giving an exceedingly long inaugural address in bitterly cold weather.

Harry S. Truman and Andrew Johnson assumed office in similar manners, ascending after Franklin Roosevelt died just one month into his fourth term in 1945 and after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated just a month into his second term in 1865.

Millard Fillmore became president in 1850 upon the death of Zachary Taylor. Chester Arthur assumed the presidency in 1881 after James Garfield was assassinated just months into his first term. Teddy Roosevelt became president the same way, after William McKinley was shot in 1901 and lingered on for days dying excruciatingly of an infection from the bullet wounds.

Warren G. Harding died in office of a heart attack in 1923 midway through his first term propelling Calvin Coolidge to the presidency. And, Lyndon B. Johnson became president in 1963 after John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Of these accidental presidents, modern day chiefs Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson all won terms of their own.

Only one incumbent president was denied the nomination of his party to run for re-election. Franklin Pierce was held in such low regard and was so inept as president that the Democratic Party in 1856 went with James Buchanan as its standard bearer instead of the sitting president.

That could not happen today. Buchanan won after all this chaos that would have shaken even the most hard-bitten of modern political operatives, and is renowned for only one thing: he was our only bachelor president.

Dwight Eisenhower was such a national hero in 1948 after leading the Allies to victory in World War II, both parties courted him to run for president. Incumbent president Harry Truman even offered to step aside if Ike would agree to run as a Democrat. Imagine that today. Instead, he waited four years and ran and won twice by landslides as a Republican.

Richard Nixon was the only president to resign the presidency, doing so in 1974 at the height of the Watergate scandal. His successor, Gerald R. Ford, was the only president not elected to either vice president or president and never wanted to be president.

Besides Ford, Jimmy Carter in 1977 may have been the most unlikely modern president. His Southern, born-again Christian and plain-folks demeanor was the perfect elixir at the time (and probably no other) for a reeling nation after Nixon resigned and was pardoned by Ford.

Modern presidents George W. Bush (2001) and Donald Trump (2017) won the presidency despite not winning the popular vote. Exhilarating or shocking, depending on your point of view, this was nothing new for the U.S.

Under the Electoral College system, five presidents have been elected despite the fact that their opponent won more popular votes. Along with Bush and Trump, John Quincy Adams won in 1824 over Andrew Jackson, who went on to win in a rematch four years later, as did Rutherford B. Hayes (1877) and Benjamin Harrison (1889) with the help of some Congressional deal-making shenanigans.

Andrew Jackson was the first president to use the power of personality to propel his ascension. He portrayed himself as the hero of the common man. He was gruff, flamboyant and downright mean at times. Again, sound familiar?

Gary Bennett of Frederick is an amateur presidential historian.

Affordable housing bills well represented in new session

By Gary Bennett and Hugh Gordon

This article appears in the February 10, 2024, issue of the Fredrick News-Post’s Opinion section.

The Affordable Housing Council of Frederick County is pleased to see there is clear recognition by the Maryland General Assembly, as evidenced by the actions it is taking, of the massive shortage of affordable housing across all of Maryland.

When the 90-day 2024 session kicked off on Jan. 10, it had prefilings over more than 800 proposed bills, many of which overlap. Of these, more than 200 deal with housing, affordable housing or related subject areas. All will be heard in committees in which Frederick County is well represented.

Despite the Affordable Housing Council’s urging, no housing-related priorities made it into the Frederick County Council’s 2024 legislative package. However, the County Council did provide several position statements supporting affordable housing initiatives and particularly the landlord/tenant “just cause” eviction notice.

The Affordable Housing Council has identified the following seven bills as important to advocate for and actively track during their monthly deliberations.

• HB3: Expedited Development Review Processes for Affordable Housing — sponsored by Del. Vaughn Stewart of Montgomery County. It requires local jurisdictions to implement an expedited development review process for affordable housing.

This bill is especially attractive since it mirrors the governor’s wish to reduce the public hearing process used to delay projects or have them narrowed and a 2024 policy priority for the local Affordable Housing Council to streamline Frederick County’s and the city of Frederick’s permitting process to accelerate affordable housing projects.

• HB7: Housing Innovation Pilot Program and Housing Innovation Fund — also sponsored by Stewart. It proposes establishing a housing innovation pilot program at Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) for providing loans for local housing authorities to develop mixed-income, cross-subsidized housing.

DHCD, the primary housing authority for the state, funds or insures loans for the purchase and construction of housing for low-income families; helps low- and moderate-income families buy or rehabilitate houses; and aids nonprofit organizations with grants or loans to house the elderly, developmentally disabled and homeless.

This bill dovetails nicely with Frederick County’s stated goal for its Division of Housing to expand further into the world of housing finance by prioritizing outside funding opportunities to create and preserve affordable housing.

• HB63: Property Tax Credit for Dwelling House of Disabled Veterans — sponsored by Del. Andrew Pruski of Anne Arundel County. It provides for a tax credit for dwelling houses of disabled veterans as declared by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

• SB25: Disabled or Fallen Law Enforcement Officer or Rescue Worker Property Tax Credits — sponsored by Sen. Katherine Klausmeier of Baltimore County. It proposes a tax credit for disabled or fallen law enforcement officers or rescue workers.

• HB69: Live Where You Teach Program — sponsored by Del. Marlon Amprey of Baltimore City. It authorizes the Community Development Administration in the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development to administer a homebuyer assistance program and a rental assistance program for housing near schools where school employees want to live.

• SB90, sponsored by Sen. Antonio Hayes of Baltimore City, is proposing that $200,000 be appropriated for CDA to apply to the Live Where You Teach Program.

This bill, if passed, would only apply at this time to the school staff in Baltimore City, but the positive ramifications for teachers statewide could be huge in the future.

• HB154: Revaluation of Property on Transfer After Appeal — sponsored by the chair of the Ways and Means Committee on behalf of the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. It provides for a homeowner’s property tax credit for applications submitted within three years after April 15 of the taxable year for which the credit is sought. This means that if the assessment of the property is reduced upon appeal, the taxpayer pays the lower amount.

• HB138: Financial Literacy for All Act — also sponsored by Amprey. It proposes financial literacy requirements as part of required curriculum for students. Financial literacy is an important component for understanding prerequisites for buying, renting or financing a home.

All of these proposed bills are important building blocks for the creation, preservation or financing of affordable homes in the state of Maryland.

We are heartened that help is on the way for millions of Marylanders who can’t afford the home they need.

‘A hand up’: Frederick’s leading advocate for ending homelessness in the county talks about his program and passion

By Gary Bennett

Ken Allread, Executive Director, Advocates for Homeless Families, Frederick, MD, 2024

This article appears in the Frederick News-Post’s February 2024 issue of “Prime Time” magazine.

It’s not often you find your life’s purpose after a lifetime of work, but that’s exactly what Advocates for Homeless Families executive director Ken Allread did.

Like most of us, Allread had been concerned with the welfare of homeless families his entire life but couldn’t do much about it. Then in 2009, he got an invitation to volunteer at Advocates for Homeless Families in Frederick. Now, he has been executive director for 15 years, and his passion for the mission of this somewhat obscure Frederick nonprofit has only grown.

After retiring in 2009 from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in Washington, D.C., where he was serving as section chief in the budget division, Allread sat around the house for three weeks and decided it was not going to work for him. Luckily, his friend Joe Case was the current executive director at Advocates in Frederick and invited him to volunteer. “It will be fun,” Case wryly told Allread.

Although “fun” may not have been the best descriptor for the difficult work, it was certainly fulfilling. Allread took to his volunteer duties at Advocates with the same vigor he approached his paid career. In 2010, Allread was recognized as Advocates’ volunteer of the year, spending countless hours writing grants and doing other administrative tasks, freeing paid staff for other work.

In early 2011, the executive director position at Advocates became vacant when incumbent Joe Case decided to reestablish his professional contracting career in D.C. and left Advocates. Throwing caution (and perhaps a comfortable retirement) to the wind, Allread applied for and got the job in September 2011.

He was thrilled, but taking the job turned out to be a tough decision for Allread. At about this same time, his former employers at the U.S. Courts came calling. They wanted him to go to Serbia and help get that former communist country into the European Union. To do so, they would have to show a separation of powers. Allread took a leave of absence from Advocates, traveled to Serbia and helped their newly formed independent judiciary write an operating manual.

From homelessness to homeownership. One of Advocates’ families recently moved directly from temporary housing to their first home!

“They wanted me to stay in Serbia for a lot of money. But at the time, Joe [Case] was leaving and Advocates probably would have failed. So, I had a choice to make, and I chose Advocates,” Allread said.

Because of less than stellar management prior to Case coming on board, Advocates had only $20,000 in the bank. Most of the other nonprofits and foundations no longer trusted Advocates. Allread had to work hard to rebuild that goodwill. And by all indications, he has succeeded.

Advocates for Homeless Families is a valuable but somewhat hidden asset in Frederick County.

Perhaps misnamed, Advocates does much more than advocate on behalf of homeless families in Frederick. It operates two successful programs designed to keep homeless families together, off the streets, and eventually in a reliably-housed, stable, working, tax-paying situation.

Allread said he sees Advocates as a holistic program first and housing-provider second.

“The housing is just a means to an end,” he said. “We are a program and not a shelter. We want our clients to stand on their own, and we do everything we can to make that happen.”

Advocates currently owns 12 apartments and townhouses in Frederick that provide families with an alternative to life on the streets. Aptly named, the transitional housing program serves as a transition from shelters to permanent housing. It features intensive case management that can last up to two years.

During that time, families pay a housing fee of 30% of their income with a cap of $300 per month. “There are no free rides,” said Allread. “The goal is to eventually get them standing on their own and into public housing or, at least, get them Section 8 assistance.”

Receiving the highly subsidized housing requires more than just paying the fee. The program mandates education, training and support services to help families find jobs or increase earnings so they can afford to live on their own.

Keeping families together. A newly married couple from Advocates’ transitional housing program now has a gateway to a better life!

Advocates works closely with Frederick Community College and Hood College to steer clients into degree programs and trades that will provide enough money to live on. If they are accepted into a program like nursing, they can be with Advocates for up to three years.

“We support them as long as it takes to get that degree and a well-paying job. This doesn’t mean they won’t struggle along the way,” Allread said. “They do.”

All clients agree to a personalized plan and must meet monthly milestones to assess their progress. The program is successful in moving five or six families a year into permanent housing.

Allread admits there is a real need to increase Advocates’ funding so they can help more people by purchasing or renting more properties. They have a waiting list of about 60 households.

Currently, one-third of Advocates funding comes from private contributions, which includes individuals, civic organizations and businesses. One-third comes from charitable foundations and one-third comes from state and federal grants. A falloff in any of the three can really hurt.

He realizes Advocates has kept a low profile over the years but would like to change that. “We would love to have a development manager to get the word out about Advocates, but we’re just not ready financially. It is necessary. Our peers such as the Religious Coalition and Heartly House have development managers.”

Finally, Allread hopes the organization continues to expand and keep up its high success rate. He’s excited to see where Advocates goes in the future but overall, he knows the program works.

“Our operating philosophy is that we give a hand up and not a handout,” Allread said, “and we really mean it.”

No stopping her. Andrea, a single mother of four, has overcome homelessness and is now a full-time student at FCC and working part-time at FMH!

Working to ensure everyone has a decent place to live

By Gary Bennett and Hugh Gordon

This article appears in the January 2024 issues of the Emmitsburg News-Journal and Woodsboro-Walkersville News-Journal, page 21.

Among the many boards, commissions and councils serving Frederick city and county, there is one that advises on the charged issue of affordable housing.

Charged? Well, yes. It is hard to find another issue that elicits such visceral comments both for and against. Most folks support the availability of housing for those economically shut out of the market until it affects them directly. Everyone is for more affordable housing until they think it might affect their own property value or when construction is planned nearby. It is understandable.

That is the tightrope on which the Affordable Housing Council (AHC) is perched.

The AHC serves as Frederick County’s main forum to discuss affordable housing issues, is the main advocate for affordable, safe, and decent housing, supports affordable housing providers and their programs, and advises county and city governments on promising new and existing affordable housing laws and regulations. The council is comprised of appointed volunteers who care about affordable housing issues and have no personal stake in encouraging more affordable housing.

Position Statement of AHC

The Affordable Housing Council believes that:

All Frederick County residents deserve to live in safe, decent, and affordable housing that does not require more than one-third of their total monthly income to own or rent.
County, state, and municipal governments should look for every opportunity to incentivize affordable housing options in land use, zoning, and development laws and regulations.
All stakeholders – government entities, developers, builders, real estate firms, civic and business groups, and consumers of affordable housing – need to recognize that a lack of affordable housing is a real problem for all of us and should work together to find real solutions.
The lack of enough infrastructure to support increased housing is a real problem and should not be downplayed. Instead of punishing middle- and lower-class Americans, however, we must hold government accountable to proactively fund appropriate infrastructure, especially schools.

What is affordable housing?

The definition of affordable housing is not always accurately understood, especially in terms of today’s charged political discussion. To those with moderate to low incomes, affordable housing is usually defined as housing that requires one-third or less of their disposable income to afford. This includes rentals and owned homes. For these folks, there is not enough affordable housing to go around in Frederick County and in most parts of the U.S. In the affordable housing world, we are typically focused on the ALICE households, those who are Asset Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed. Basically, they are working citizens living paycheck to paycheck.

Policy Priorities of AHC

The Affordable Housing Council has been quite successful in developing housing priorities and encouraging elected officials to give them fair consideration. Indeed, both the city’s Board of Aldermen and the Frederick County Council, depend on the AHC to be non-staff housing experts. We are constantly looking for creative ideas to help increase our affordable housing stock.

Earlier this year, we recommended and were pleased when the Board of Aldermen approved the updated Moderately Priced Development Units (MPDU) ordinance. The ordinance encourages increased development of affordable housing in the city by requiring developers to pay $2 per square foot for every unit in the development if they opt out of building the required number of MPDUs. The fee had been flat but is now pegged to the size of the units in the development. The city is then charged with using the proceeds from the ordinance to fund affordable housing programs. The change in the city’s ordinance brings it into synch with the county’s MPDU ordinance.

Other AHC policy priorities we will advocate for in 2024 include:

Updating the 2016 Frederick County Affordable Housing Needs Assessment report to better reflect current housing and economic realities and to develop a strategic plan to address the findings. Such an assessment and plan would guide county and city programs and resources to better serve residents in need of affordable housing.

Increasing the portion of the county’s recordation tax revenue that is earmarked for the housing initiative fund (HIF) in one-time increments and consider permanent changes to the formula that funds the initiative. The HIF is used to provide resources that make home ownership accessible to county residents.

Supporting the implementation of the City of Frederick’s rental registration and inspection program. The program provides for protection of renters’ rights and landlord and tenant education on renters’ rights and best practices.

Advocating for the inclusion of several key policies in the City of Frederick’s form-based code initiative: implementing an affordable housing overlay, waiving development fees for projects that meet certain income requirements, allowing for more density and building height in designated areas and right-sizing parking requirements for new projects.

Streamlining Frederick County’s and the City of Frederick’s permitting processes to accelerate affordable housing projects. A particular need is to increase staff capacity and use a customer service-based approach to incentivize and encourage affordable housing projects.

Encouraging the implementation of area plans as part of the Livable Frederick Master Plan to include priorities such as implementing an affordable housing overlay, allowing more density in designated areas, aligning available public transportation with affordable housing developments, and encouraging municipalities in the county to allow construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

Waiving or deferring impact fees in Frederick County and the City of Frederick charged to buyers that meet income requirements for affordable housing purchases from a developer. Further, City of Frederick should formalize the waiving of property taxes and impact fees for developers while they are building or renovating homes for sale or rent to residents meeting income requirements for affordable housing.

Hugh Gordon serves as the current chair of the Affordable Housing Council. He commented, “The need for affecting implementation and the potential for assisting seniors, school teachers, policemen, firefighters, restaurant workers, and the most vulnerable residents of Frederick County is critically important.”

According to Malcolm Furgol, vice-chair of the AHC and policy committee chair, “These policy priorities build on past recommendations by the Affordable Housing Council and progress made by Frederick County and the City of Frederick towards realizing a positive environment for safe, stable and affordable housing for all residents.”

Invitation to Participate

The issues are difficult but the stakes are high for all of us. The Frederick County Affordable Housing Council invites you to participate.

AHC meets the second Tuesday of each month at 2:30 pm at a location designated by the Council. Confirm meeting dates and location by checking https://www.frederickcountymd.gov/6371/Affordable-Housing-Council or by calling the Frederick County Department of Housing and Community Development at 301-600-6091.

Meetings are open to the public and public participation is highly encouraged. Agendas can be obtained at the website noted above. Public comment is welcome at all meetings.

If you are a Frederick County resident, a registered voter and wish to become a member of the AHC, send a letter of interest and resume to fcgboards@FrederickCountyMD.gov. Call 301-600-1102 for more information. The County Executive makes all appointments subject to confirmation by the County Council.

The AHC may be comprised of as many as 13 voting members. We currently have seven members and two very good prospects. We are working hard to ensure affordable housing consumers such as teachers, police officers, and seniors are represented on the Council as well as members of industry, nonprofit organizations, and the public in general.

Gary Bennett is a retired association executive with no stake in the housing market except for being a concerned citizen. Hugh Gordon is the association executive for the Frederick Association of Realtors and has decades of experience as a mortgage banker. They are long-time Frederick residents and members of Frederick’s Affordable Housing Council.

How housing (or lack thereof) affects our economy

By Gary Bennett and Hugh Gordon

Sharpe Square affordable housing units in Frederick

This article appears in the January 12, 2024 issue of the Frederick News-Post.

As the largest monthly expense for just about all of us, it is no surprise that housing plays an outsized role in our regional and national economy.

First, there is the robust construction industry and all it employs.

We see the workers every day as we make our way around Frederick. It is no surprise that housing construction and allied trades are a large economic engine for most localities, including Frederick County.

Nearly 10% of employees in Frederick County work in the construction and allied trades industry. It is one of the largest industries in our diverse local economy. Any disruption in the construction industry, or any of our top industries, would be harmful to Frederick’s overall economy.

Second, there is the menace of inflation.

The wide gap we see now in the supply of and demand for housing that has driven up housing prices to historic levels had its origins in the recession of 2007.

Later, supply chain woes caused by the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 drove up the cost of housing even more. The lack of balance in the housing market and the higher prices that come with it have been a major driver of inflation.

Even as food and fuel prices begin to moderate, housing prices remain stubbornly high. Mortgage interest rates that rose exponentially over the past year have only cooled demand slightly.

Rents remain artificially high, too, as folks get priced out of the home-buying market and increase competition for rentals. It seems clear, and most experts agree, that the best way to make a meaningful and long-lasting dent in inflation in the U.S. is to create more moderately priced housing.

Thirdly, our current lack of affordable housing may have a profound economic impact on the future if it’s not proactively addressed.

Research has shown that increasing access to affordable housing is the most cost-effective way to reduce childhood poverty and increase economic mobility in America. If we can somehow condition ourselves to take the long view on increased affordable housing instead of focusing on the short-term problems that can be solved with government action and political will, society will be better off.

In a large multi-year study, Stanford economist Raj Chetty found that children living in stable, affordable homes are more likely to thrive in school and have greater opportunities to learn inside and outside the classroom. Children who moved to lower-poverty neighborhoods saw their earnings as adults increase by approximately 31% and had an increased likelihood of living in better neighborhoods as adults.

Indeed, the lack of safe, affordable housing is costing U.S. cities in many ways we don’t always see. It forces families to live far from work, increasing their carbon footprint. It lowers tax bases that fund the amenities we take for granted. And, perhaps most painfully, we lose potential workers and customers that keep our local businesses thriving.

You don’t have to look any farther than our Maryland neighbor to the west, Cumberland in Allegany County, for a discouraging example.

Cumberland has long embraced a very slow-growth housing policy. With little excess housing stock, Cumberland cannot grow.

Young people who may want to stay cannot find entry-level housing. Older folks who wish to sell their large family homes in hopes of downsizing to a smaller, more manageable home cannot find buyers or more modest homes to move to.

Businesses that come to town cannot find appropriate housing for their employees. It is a self-fulfilling cycle that Cumberland has found itself in for years.

Prosperity for the Frederick region depends on decisive action now to make sure our housing stock meets the needs of the future.

We are pleased to see both Frederick City and Frederick County taking steps to make building moderately priced dwelling units more appealing to developers, and if they don’t build them, a revenue base so government can fund affordable housing programs.

For Fredrick businesses to grow and stay vibrant, they need more customers and reliable workers who have housing. To succeed, Frederick County must remain a diverse place where all people have decent, safe, affordable places to live in thriving communities.

How did we get in this affordable housing mess (Part 2)

By Gary Bennett and Hugh Gordon

This article appears as an opinion column in the Saturday, December 9 issue of the Frederick News-Post

In our column of Oct. 21, we discussed the overarching supply-and-demand cause for the nationwide affordable housing shortage and the role that single-family-only zoning plays in exacerbating this shortage.

In this column, we look at other limiting factors for building affordable housing and some possible solutions.

***

Single-family-only zoning is one way local zoning boards limit how much housing can be built.

Many places also employ height restrictions. Some areas are zoned for multifamily buildings, but don’t allow any building over two stories high. This drives down supply.

Parking requirements are often written into zoning laws, too.

Many laws require two parking spaces for each unit of multifamily housing. A 100-unit apartment complex would need 200 parking spots. This usually means buildings of that size don’t get built.

Builders must lower the number of units to save space for parking, even in areas with effective transit systems. Those units become more expensive because the land is still the same cost to the developer. What could have been reasonably affordable units become units for those with higher incomes.

Another feature of many zoning laws is minimum lot sizes. Builders are legally required to allot land for each home, often a large amount.

These “exclusionary” zoning laws push builders to focus on bigger luxury homes instead of smaller starter homes or multifamily homes.

Zoning boards are essentially only allowing people who already benefitted from the wealth of this country — who built their incomes with access to high-opportunity jobs and education and generational wealth — to live in neighborhoods.

Historically, some of the first zoning laws in our country were engineered to block people of color, particularly Black Americans, from living in predominantly white neighborhoods. This was known as redlining.

Today, laws don’t explicitly mention race, but they continue to worsen segregation. In most municipalities, the more single-family zoning for a neighborhood, the whiter it is.

Shrinking the pot of new housing getting built, while demand keeps rising, drives up the cost of housing for everyone.

The old code phrase “changing the neighborhood character” gets thrown around.

People are confused when they hear that affordable housing is coming to their neighborhood. They say they don’t want giant apartment buildings.

And they’re right — not every neighborhood should have giant apartment buildings. But affordable housing is much more than that.

Even small gradual changes to zoning laws can have an impact.

For example, allowing smaller homes on smaller lots, or simply allowing duplexes, would double available housing in some areas. In recent years, cities like Minneapolis took the huge step of ending single-family zoning.

Increased automation of the construction process can help, too.

There’s some innovation now with modular construction and 3D printing, but productivity growth is slow. States can help by mandating that manufactured housing is permitted housing in any zoning code.

The federal government isn’t blameless, either. Many incentives have been written into the tax code to encourage home ownership over other asset classes as our country’s primary wealth-building mechanism.

Most American homeowners expect the sale of their home to finance a large part of their retirement. This means property values must be maintained at all cost.

The Biden administration is attempting to help at the federal level by tackling exclusionary zoning through a $5 billion program to give money to localities that remove exclusionary zoning policies. This is more than any presidential administration has done on this topic.

Help may be on the way from Congress, too. A bipartisan bill called the Build More Housing Near Transit Act has been reintroduced to encourage construction of new homes, including low- and middle-income homes, in transit-served, walkable communities.

The act would incentivize local governments to promote building new homes in and around transit corridors. The bill adds pro-housing policies to existing law, so local governments will be incentivized to make the following changes near transit corridors:

• Eliminate parking minimums

• Establish by-right permitting for projects that meet objective standards

• Reduce minimum lot sizes

• Create and preserve homes affordable to low-income households

• Raise or eliminate height limits

Ending America’s housing shortage will require real political willpower. And it will take people across the country taking a hard look at their own neighborhoods and understanding what gets built and who gets excluded, and how to make home ownership achievable for millions who are shut out.

Editor’s note: Gary Bennett is a retired marketing executive. Hugh Gordon is the association executive for the Frederick County Association of Realtors and has decades of experience in the real estate world, including 24 years as a mortgage banker. They are longtime Frederick County residents and members of Frederick’s Affordable Housing Council.

How did we get in this affordable housing mess?

By Gary Bennett and Hugh Gordon

This article appears in the October 21, 2023, issue of the Frederick News-Post.

As members of the Affordable Housing Council in Frederick County, we spend lots of time looking at houses on Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com and The Frederick News-Post.

This is no news to anyone, but we can assure you that houses are more expensive than ever. Here in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., region, it’s shocking.

In Maryland, according to Zillow, more than half of all buyers in June 2023 paid above list price for their home. Buyers are paying, on average, 1 to 2 percent above asking price now.

That may not sound like a lot, but on a $500,000 home, that may be another $10,000. One Realtor friend told us that for one of her listings, there were 32 offers, all above asking price. That means 31 unhappy, unsuccessful home seekers.

Renters have it no better.

In Maryland, the National Low Income Housing Coalition has found that a renter working 40 hours per week and earning Maryland’s minimum wage of $13.25 per hour must work 79 hours each week to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment and not be cost burdened (not spending more than 33% of income on housing costs).

But it’s not just Maryland and the D.C. area. The lack of affordable housing is a nationwide problem. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen housing prices reach a level they’ve never reached before.

According to the National Association of Realtors, the median price for a house in America is now $414,000. That is the second highest median price recorded, after June 2022.

In Maryland, it’s worse. Maryland Realtors, a nonprofit membership organization, reports the average sales price in Maryland is up more than 3 percent from last year to over $486,000. Our proximity to Washington, D.C., has a lot to do with this.

That price may not sound like a lot for this region, but keep in mind it includes all areas of Maryland, rural and urban. Those prices make rents more expensive and home ownership unobtainable for millions of Americans.

How did this happen, and how can we fix it?

We can think of today’s exorbitant housing prices as a result of a supply and demand problem. The housing supply isn’t matching demand.

On the demand side, there has been a generational shift in who is buying homes. Millennials are now the largest generation in American history, and they are aging into their prime home-buying years.

On top of that, until recently, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages were at an all-time low, which meant it was relatively cheap to borrow the money to buy a house. That enticed people to buy if they could, making demand for houses even greater.

Over the last two years, interest rates rose past 7 percent, but because of low inventory, that has yet to substantially cool demand in the housing market.

From 2010 to 2019, there were fewer homes built in the U.S. than in any decade since the 1940s. In particular, the construction of smaller, entry-level homes, for first-time home buyers, has dropped more dramatically.

In the 1980s, those “starter” homes made up about 40 percent of homes built. Today, it is closer to 8 percent.

Currently, the National Association of Realtors says the U.S. is down anywhere from 5.5 million to 6.8 million starter homes needed to satisfy demand.

Moreover, according to Pew Research in 2021, 55 percent of adults under age 30 said the lack of affordable housing is a major problem, up from 39 percent in 2018.

This housing shortage drives a big part of the problem for renters and prospective homeowners. It is worse where demand is highest, such as near good jobs, transit and schools like Frederick.

One straightforward solution is to simply build more affordable homes in desirable places. For years, however, there has been one big obstacle — builders aren’t allowed to.

Zoning or local regulations that decide where things can be built overwhelmingly favor single-family homes over multifamily homes. Zoning boards have banned the ability for anyone to build anything other than a single unit of housing on that land.

In many towns, zoning boards exclude all types of multifamily housing from their neighborhoods.

And not just large apartment buildings. Things like duplexes and fourplexes are illegal on most residential land in many American cities.

Single-family housing is the law in 70 percent of Minneapolis, 75 percent of Los Angeles, and 84 percent of Charlotte, N.C., to name a few. This is a huge determining factor for the housing shortage in the U.S.

We need states to step in and preempt municipalities from enacting and enforcing land-use restrictions that raise housing costs. Land-use control is constitutionally guaranteed to states, not municipalities.

States often delegate the authority to municipalities. But they can and should take it back when cities don’t use it for public benefit.

Gary Bennett and Hugh Gordon are longtime Frederick County residents and members of Frederick’s Affordable Housing Council.

Confessions of an “Adopt-a-Road”-er

By Gary Bennett

Succinct analysis from Noccalula Falls Park in Alabama.

This article appears in the June 9, 2023, issue of the Frederick News-Post.

I am a volunteer with Frederick County’s Office of Highway Operations Adopt-a-Road program. I pick up litter on about a mile stretch of Crestwood Blvd. between Ballenger Creek Pike and New Design Road.

It’s one of the best and worst things I’ve ever done. It is undoubtedly a needed function and I’m proud to help. But trash is never-ending and wearing me down.

I don’t do it to be a hero, although many people honk and yell thanks to me as they drive by. I do it because all this trash truly offends me. I hate looking at it so I try to eliminate it. I know it harms the environment and animals and decreases property values. But, I’m almost ashamed to say that it is mostly aesthetics that gets me out on the highway almost every day.

I also do it for exercise. I know that sounds crazy but my mindset is: “I’m taking daily walks anyway so why not bend over and pick up some trash while I’m at it?” All these ‘bend-overs’ approximate sit ups but accomplish a public good while I’m doing them. You can’t say that about exercising at a gym or in your basement.

Adopt-a-Road Stats

Highway Operations staff tells me that approximately 85 miles of county roads have been adopted. That means volunteers (individuals and teams) have agreed to pick up trash on their adopted roads at least four times per year and report their efforts back to the county. This sounds impressive until you consider that the county maintains over 1,300 miles of roadway. Unfortunately, we’re picking up just a drop in the bucket of the available roadway trash.

If you are so inclined, you may volunteer to adopt a stretch of road in Frederick County by contacting the Department of Highway Operations at 301-600-1564 or by emailing extremely helpful staffers Mike Ramsburg (mramsburg@frederickcountymd.gov) or Casandra Fitzpatrick (cfitzpatrick@frederickcoungtymd.gov). Both can explain the program and help you get started.

There are currently 45 teams in the program which are comprised of hundreds of volunteers. Approximately 70 percent of the teams are civic or neighborhood groups and about 20 percent are religious groups. Ten percent are families or individuals like me.

My experience

Some stretches of road are easier to pick up than others. Judging from what I’ve seen, mine is not so bad.

It helps if your road is close to a residential area. Residents, at least in fairly affluent areas, tend to pick up their own trash or not throw it in the first place. Much of my road is residential but is unfortunately bookended by two strip shopping centers with a Wawa and an Auto Zone along the way. Trash from these establishments is plentiful, to say the least.

I also have several schools nearby. I’m not blaming all students who walk this stretch. I know many are fine, young people. But I have personally seen some go into Wawa for a drink and candy bar, finish it, and promptly throw their trash on the ground. They don’t even try to hide it. It seems second-nature to them.

When people honk to thank me, I usually don’t pay too much attention. My feeling is I’m going for a walk anyway. Why would I not pick up trash along the way? Other times I am annoyed because I don’t want thanks, I want help. Or better yet, I want people to stop throwing their trash out. Unfortunately, I am beginning to see most people as potential trash throwers, not thankful citizens.

A few walkers I pass by when picking up trash thank me and claim to do the same thing in their own neighborhoods or in a past locale. I find this sad and funny at the same time because I’ve never, ever seen anyone bend over to pick up any trash they are walking over. Not once.

Why is this? Such a simple act could help so much.

Could it be that there is a sense of futility in picking up litter? After all, as soon as you pick up one batch a new one blows in. I frequently feel this futility. Could it also be the old elementary school mindset that “I didn’t do it!” Most likely, people just don’t notice trash like I do, or they don’t care. I probably expect too much.

The author by his Adopt-a-Road sign in Frederick.

The psychology of littering

The psychology of littering fascinates me. And why not? I can’t figure out what could possibly motivate us to do such an antisocial thing when it is so easy to do the right thing.

Studies show that some littering is accidental – like the trash that blows out of dumpsters and garbage trucks – but most is indeed intentional.

This fact is stupefying to me. I can think of nothing simpler than bringing my trash home and throwing it in the garbage can where it belongs. It is second nature. I do this not because I am some kind of do-gooder, but because, to me, this is the simple nature of things. At the risk of sounding terribly old-fashioned, I don’t have other people shop for me, clean my house or deliver my food. Those are my jobs. And I sure don’t want other people picking up my trash for me.

According to a report done by Keep America Beautiful, people are more likely to litter when they feel “no sense of ownerships for parks, walkways, beaches, and other public spaces.” This sense of ownership, instead, is found around people’s homes and neighborhoods.

“It seems the reason people litter is not because they think it’s OK,” says Joshua Rottman, assistant professor of psychology at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “It’s because they think it’s the easy thing to do. It’s a moral hypocrisy. People know it’s wrong, but they do it because it’s easy.”

Who are these trash throwers? (Litterbug is too cute and polite a term)

In the 1980s, the Institute for Applied Research found that people most likely to litter were 18-to 35-year-old males. Not a big surprise, right?

In more recent surveys, this finding was corroborated. Seventy-two percent of people observed in the act of deliberate littering were found to be under the age of 30. Nationally, males were found to be responsible for 72 percent of all intentional littering.

What could be driving this young male carelessness?

Could it be a youthful disdain for authority? A not yet fully developed brain? The lack of consequences for this seemingly minor act of civil disobedience? The inability to trace their actions to eventually harming the environment? A sort of hopelessness to ever being a functioning part of society? Unfortunately, pinpointing the reasons for littering have proved elusive to the research.

Observations

I hate to say this but my findings are iron-clad, largely corroborated by the available research and were developed over several years of picking up trash along my stretch of highway: the lower the economic status of the area, the more trash is strewn about. There is much more trash around apartments than around single-family homes or townhouses in my area. And there’s much more around subsidized housing.

I drive around Frederick quite a bit for my part-time job. Obvious lower-income areas have much more trash than their share. Psychologists have observed that the presence of existing litter was strongly predictive of littering behavior. It’s a vicious circle—if you’re in a place that’s already got a lot of litter, you’re much more likely to litter. That’s one reason I’m out there almost every single day. I hope to make littering stand out and perpetrators feel just a little bit bad.

Of course, before people can throw out their trash, they need trash to throw.

I’ve had my hands on what seems like tons of trash, and I can tell you one of the biggest sources of trash is our old friend McDonald’s. It seems intuitive. The food at McDonald’s is among the cheapest and lowest quality available so of course the folks at the lower ends of the economic spectrum disproportionately get much of their food there and are disproportionately willing to throw the residual trash on the ground.

In my little area I’ve got two liquor stores nearby and they are the next biggest offenders. Miniature bottles of liquor seem especially made to be thrown out. They are not very visible, consumed quickly and may not be welcome at home in the trash. I’d like to see them outlawed.

I even stopped in at one of the liquor stores on my route to ask if they would be interested in helping me pick up the trash their customers make. They looked at me like I had two heads.

Other major offending items are plastic grocery bags, napkins, fast food bags, soda cups and bottles, beer cans, cigarette packs, water bottles, Slim Jim wrappers (of all things) and candy bar wrappers. It’s probably not a coincidence that many of these items aren’t good for you.

One person on my route is so brazen they tear up their junk mail with name and address clearly visible and throw it in the median of Crestwood Blvd. in the very same spot every day. Naturally, I’ve called the sheriff’s department on this person many times. Deputies are sympathetic and try to talk with this person, but when they show up at his door, he simply refuses to answer. The deputies tell me there is nothing they can do in that case. I don’t particularly want to get this person in trouble, I just want him to stop.

Another person (or maybe the same one) disposes of a Wawa coffee cup, a Sizzli ™ package, two or three empty snack pie packages, napkins, and get this—a bottle of laxatives—every single day. I’m sympathetic but fearful. This person has some serious problems and may not be around much longer to litter. How do I know it’s the same person? The same items are in the very same spot every day. They must walk to work and gleefully eat and dispose of breakfast packaging along the way.

I do get a little humor out of this.

One time I found a shopping cart along my route so I just started pushing it and throwing my trash in there instead of the kitchen garbage bags I usually carry. I was dressed in my rattiest clothes of course, so I’m sure I must have looked homeless. Wouldn’t you know it that about that time my son drove by and honked. Later, I found out he asked my wife if I was okay.

I suppose I’ve made my corner of the earth a little better. My stretch of highway is in pretty good shape and better than most but never perfect. The truth is, before I started doing this, I was pretty much oblivious to all the trash along the highways. I suppose most people are. Now I am super-sensitive to it and it disgusts me. I guess I’ll keep doing it, but I have to say I’m a bit sorry I ever started this in the first place.

Five Facts about Littering

1. U.S. roadways accumulate over 51 billion pieces of litter per year.

2. There are an estimated 6,729 pieces of litter per roadway mile.

3. On average, there are 152 pieces of litter for every U.S. resident.

4. Litter cleanups cost the U.S. an estimated $11.5 billion annually.

5. The presence of litter in your neighborhood or community lowers property values by 7%.

Source: Roadrunner Recycling, 2022