2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
The Year in Review: Winners and Losers
Raquel Christie
Issue date: 5/12/07 Section: Opinion
It's the end of the year, and it's been an interesting one. We scoured the Earth (or maybe just the state) to find out who made the last two semesters worth it - and who really, really messed things up. Behold, 2006-2007's Winners and Losers.
WINNERS
Gov. Martin O'Malley: He's an incumbent-defeater, a living-wage supporter and probably the dreamiest governor in America. And he's all ours. While he keeps our tuition in the freezer, comes to the campus to reiterate support for higher education and keeps flashing those Kennedy-esque smiles, we'll keep making eyes. But we have a hunch that it won't be this way next year, although it will likely be a nervous Maryland legislature with an eye on a looming deficit and balancing budgets that could make the cuts needed to keep tuition for another loop.
Doug Duncan: The man who replaced Silver Spring with Silver Sprung as Montgomery County executive is now the university's vice president of administrative affairs. Also former Rockville mayor and gubernatorial candidate, Duncan has just the experience, smarts and spunk to spring the same kind of miracle on East Campus, or maybe even improve College Park policing, or maybe even solve the housing crisis, or maybe secure us that billion-dollar fundraising goal, or maybe even take the entire student body to Disney World! Sorry - we just can't stop thinking bigger.
David Daddio and Rob Goodspeed, RethinkCollegePark.com: In the course of two semesters and through the use of an online blog, David Daddio and Rob Goodspeed have become major players in waking up area officials to what the area needs by ranting and raving on local development and disaster. Their direct, prescient style has won them seats at the table in influencing local legislation and guiding local development toward a bold but insightful completion. What did your LiveJournal do this year?
Mark Srour, owner, Cornerstone Grill and Loft; John Brown, owner, R.J. Bentley's: Any economics graduate student writing a thesis on oligopolies need look no further than downtown College Park. Two men control three bars downtown, keeping a stranglehold on a market of nightlife-seeking college students narrowed down to three choices: Crowded and fratty, or crowded with freshman, or crowded with bands playing above your head. These two men are hot this year because one massive bar poised to open all year, The Thirsty Turtle, didn't. It would've offered some serious competition, but it couldn't, because of one little fence (see below).
LOSERS
College Park Mayor Stephen Brayman: It's always been surprising to us that residents seem to get so wound up over students in their communities, even though they chose to live in College Park. Mayor Steve Brayman isn't one of those residents, which may have been what got him into so much trouble this school year with his constituents. First, after proposing the idea of party permits during daytime hours, residents apparently got so angry at Hizzoner that the proposal never resurfaced. Then, when he used his goodwill to hammer out negotiations on a student housing tax zone, misinformed residents in Berwyn were so riled up, the mayor backtracked and reneged on the deal. Will the mayor ever get back to his student-friendly ways? In an election year? Ha.
Thomas Hall and Alan Wanuck, owners, Thirsty Turtle: You promise sports bar, restaurant and music venue, but like Chipotle, you refuse to deliver. We're still thirsty. If you aren't going to quench that thirst, please at least remove that damn "Thirsty Turtle: Fall 2006" T-shirt display that taunts us as we stumble on toward another sloshy, skanky eve at the not-as-cleverly-named Cornerstone. Or at least give us a better excuse for not opening than a fire-code-breaking fence.
John Giannetti: A Democrat is a Republican is a ... political trainwreck. Former District 21 Senator John Giannetti lopped off eight years of service to the campus community when a stinging primary defeat turned the lifelong donkey into a desperate-for-votes elephant. Sadly, the elephant didn't turn into a swan; voters were not impressed, and opponent State Sen. Jim Rosapape won the general election in a liberal landslide. If unsuccessful presidential candidate John Kerry taught us anything, it's that nobody loves a flip-flopper. In other words, even though you swear you're an elephant, we all know you're still really an ... oh, nevermind.
Deb Grandner, director, Department of Resident Life: It's probably unfair to focus the blame on the one at the top, but it's also unfair to kick over 600 students out of housing, via e-mail, weeks after appealing on-campus rentals are no longer options. It's also unfair to leave them answerless weeks after they've begged for help at the Board of Regents, garnered community attention with a Tent City and secured $900-a-month rent housing in a student-loathing city. We want to make this one funny, but there's absolutely nothing funny here. We've accepted the problem you created; now fix it, before time for negotiating and planning runs out.
WINNERS
Gov. Martin O'Malley: He's an incumbent-defeater, a living-wage supporter and probably the dreamiest governor in America. And he's all ours. While he keeps our tuition in the freezer, comes to the campus to reiterate support for higher education and keeps flashing those Kennedy-esque smiles, we'll keep making eyes. But we have a hunch that it won't be this way next year, although it will likely be a nervous Maryland legislature with an eye on a looming deficit and balancing budgets that could make the cuts needed to keep tuition for another loop.
Doug Duncan: The man who replaced Silver Spring with Silver Sprung as Montgomery County executive is now the university's vice president of administrative affairs. Also former Rockville mayor and gubernatorial candidate, Duncan has just the experience, smarts and spunk to spring the same kind of miracle on East Campus, or maybe even improve College Park policing, or maybe even solve the housing crisis, or maybe secure us that billion-dollar fundraising goal, or maybe even take the entire student body to Disney World! Sorry - we just can't stop thinking bigger.
David Daddio and Rob Goodspeed, RethinkCollegePark.com: In the course of two semesters and through the use of an online blog, David Daddio and Rob Goodspeed have become major players in waking up area officials to what the area needs by ranting and raving on local development and disaster. Their direct, prescient style has won them seats at the table in influencing local legislation and guiding local development toward a bold but insightful completion. What did your LiveJournal do this year?
Mark Srour, owner, Cornerstone Grill and Loft; John Brown, owner, R.J. Bentley's: Any economics graduate student writing a thesis on oligopolies need look no further than downtown College Park. Two men control three bars downtown, keeping a stranglehold on a market of nightlife-seeking college students narrowed down to three choices: Crowded and fratty, or crowded with freshman, or crowded with bands playing above your head. These two men are hot this year because one massive bar poised to open all year, The Thirsty Turtle, didn't. It would've offered some serious competition, but it couldn't, because of one little fence (see below).
LOSERS
College Park Mayor Stephen Brayman: It's always been surprising to us that residents seem to get so wound up over students in their communities, even though they chose to live in College Park. Mayor Steve Brayman isn't one of those residents, which may have been what got him into so much trouble this school year with his constituents. First, after proposing the idea of party permits during daytime hours, residents apparently got so angry at Hizzoner that the proposal never resurfaced. Then, when he used his goodwill to hammer out negotiations on a student housing tax zone, misinformed residents in Berwyn were so riled up, the mayor backtracked and reneged on the deal. Will the mayor ever get back to his student-friendly ways? In an election year? Ha.
Thomas Hall and Alan Wanuck, owners, Thirsty Turtle: You promise sports bar, restaurant and music venue, but like Chipotle, you refuse to deliver. We're still thirsty. If you aren't going to quench that thirst, please at least remove that damn "Thirsty Turtle: Fall 2006" T-shirt display that taunts us as we stumble on toward another sloshy, skanky eve at the not-as-cleverly-named Cornerstone. Or at least give us a better excuse for not opening than a fire-code-breaking fence.
John Giannetti: A Democrat is a Republican is a ... political trainwreck. Former District 21 Senator John Giannetti lopped off eight years of service to the campus community when a stinging primary defeat turned the lifelong donkey into a desperate-for-votes elephant. Sadly, the elephant didn't turn into a swan; voters were not impressed, and opponent State Sen. Jim Rosapape won the general election in a liberal landslide. If unsuccessful presidential candidate John Kerry taught us anything, it's that nobody loves a flip-flopper. In other words, even though you swear you're an elephant, we all know you're still really an ... oh, nevermind.
Deb Grandner, director, Department of Resident Life: It's probably unfair to focus the blame on the one at the top, but it's also unfair to kick over 600 students out of housing, via e-mail, weeks after appealing on-campus rentals are no longer options. It's also unfair to leave them answerless weeks after they've begged for help at the Board of Regents, garnered community attention with a Tent City and secured $900-a-month rent housing in a student-loathing city. We want to make this one funny, but there's absolutely nothing funny here. We've accepted the problem you created; now fix it, before time for negotiating and planning runs out.
Submit a letter to the editor or post a comment below.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Doug
posted 5/12/07 @ 6:18 PM EST
O'Malley might be a winner of the year, but the people of Maryland are the losers in this event. It's a sad day when this guy can win governor of the state. (Continued…)
Uncle Rico
posted 5/13/07 @ 11:50 AM EST
I'm finding it hard to fathom that Deb Grandner is fundamentally to blame for "creating" the current housing problem, as is implied in the article. Resident Life suffers from an inability to pull the required strings to get housing built, and that problem dates back over more than a decade. (Continued…)
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