Residential Streetscape Task Force presentation, Monday evening April 20

Takoma Park’s Residential Streetscape Task Force will report findings and recommendations at the Monday evening, April 20 city council meeting. The RSTF presentation is scheduled for 7 pm and will be followed by public comment and then the regular council meeting, starting at 7:30 pm.

I’ll write about the streetscape work a bit farther down. First —

There are two worksession items on the council’s Monday evening agenda, scheduled to start at 8 pm: a) discussion of options for LED conversion of street lights and b) the police chief’s quarterly update.

Our aim, in the street light discussion, is to understand option benefits and costs given the goal of reducing energy consumption. According to staff, street lights make up about 60% of the city’s electric use each year. Converting every streetslight to LEDs would reduce Takoma Park’s municipal energy use by 30%, an important gain in its own right and one that would advance us in the the Georgetown Energy Challenge competition.

Police Chief Alan Goldberg will report on crime, staffing, emergency management, technology, and other matters. I’ll have questions for him, myself, regarding status of the Takoma Park Police Department’s implementation of license-plate reader (LPR) data sharing with the Maryland state data-fusion center and the city’s Community Cam video-sharing program, both of which were approved by the council last year, in July and November, respectively. A July, 2014 presentation on the then-proposed Community Cam program is online.

Finally, regarding the police: Mayor Bruce Williams said, at last week’s council meeting, that he will schedule discussion of department policy on the photographing of minors for a June council meeeting. Councilmember Kate Stewart has been seeking that discussion for quite some time, also Councilmember Terry Seamens,

*Residential Streetscape Task Force Report*

The council appointed a Residential Streetscape Task Force (RSTF) in November 2013, as a follow-on to a June presentation by an ad-hoc residents group. That presentation, Improving the Streetscape of Takoma Park’s Residential Neighborhoods, is online. And so is the RSTF’s report.

Thanks to RSTF members David Cookson, John Lorenz, Thomas Luebke, Pierre Perrolle, and Frances Phipps for their diligent work! I’m looking forward to their presentation and expect that the mayor will schedule council discussion, of city implementation of RSTF recommendations, at an up-coming council meeting.

Please do share your thoughts, regarding the streetscape, police, or other city issues: sethg@takomaparkmd.gov, 301-873-8225.

Thanks,

Seth