One river, eight words

Bernie Fowler, the former Calvert County commissioner and Maryland state senator, told his father as a young man that he had no desire to go into politics or to sell whiskey for a living.  He did the former, didn’t do the latter. He also didn’t say he ever wanted to go into public relations, but you had to marvel at his ability as a pitchman Sunday when he attracted 250 people in mid-90 degree weather to St. Leonard to pay tribute to a … river. 

Picking up an award for Governor O’Malley

Md Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall with APA award for Governor O'Malley

By Richard Eberhart Hall

I was honored yesterday to accept a national planning award on behalf of Governor Martin O’Malley at the national conference of the American Planning Association, the largest professional planning organization in the country, representing 40,000 members. The APA selected Governor O’Malley for its 2012 National Planning Leadership Award for his advocacy of green policy and smart-growth planning.

Why I’m at today’s forum?

By Richard E. Hall, Maryland Secretary of Planning

Duck hunting on Eastern Shore, Maryland

Plenty of people have urged me not to attend today’s forum about PlanMaryland sponsored by the Carroll County Commissioners at the Pikesville Hilton. People who concur with us that PlanMaryland is a long-overdue idea, and even some who are less enthused, say the event is one-sided, not a public meeting and not worth our time. Their concern is that my attendance would legitimize the commissioners’ invited speakers, whose views against smart growth and climate change are well-documented.  Even the executive director of the Maryland Association of Counties, a group that has voiced many concerns about PlanMaryland but has continued to work very seriously with us on it, said of today’s forum , “The potential for negative repercussions from this event … is very significant.”

The reason I’m accepting my invitation is simple: I’d rather engage than not.

Rechanneling Daniel Burnham

A colleague passed along an interesting piece by a Midwest urban analyst, Aaron M. Renn, about lessons of the Burnham Plan. That phrase might draw blank stares around these parts (And by these parts, I mean Maryland, not the state Department of Planning offices). But in Chicago, they’re in the midst of a reverential centennial celebration of Burnham’s plan, considered one of the landmark documents in urban planning.

Secretary Hall on Plan for the Valleys

STATEMENT FROM SECRETARY RICHARD E. HALL ON THE “PLAN FOR THE VALLEYS” RECEIVING A NATIONAL LANDMARK ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FROM THE AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION: