Looking for Annapolis

Another Annapolis Blog

2008-05-01T04:26:00.000-07:00

One of my goals in Looking for Annapolis is to get in touch with Annapolitans who have been here a while. There are a number of good blogs on the area and we'll start adding links, one by one.

The first one I came across is 'Consciously Conscience - The inner thinking of an Annapolitan.' It is posted by Kate Roper, who is Chief Marketing Officer at Annapolis Wireless (they are the people who give Annapolis the free downtown wireless service and are making quite stir nationwide installing wireless at NASCAR races, for instance).

Kate's last blog post is on Governor O'Malley and the tax woes of Maryland - it is an interesting read!

Farewell to The Capital

2008-04-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

I am no longer the Internet Director at The Capital, but plan to continue this blog as long as there is interest. The excitement and curiosity of discovering a new home is still there. There are so many good things about Annapolis and many fine people I have met and heard stories from.

Speaking of The Capital I wish everyone there well and much success. I hope that the impending sale of the newspaper goes well and Annapolis and Anne Arundel county have the same (or better) service from the hometown paper and the hometown Web sites associated with it.

Newspapers across the country are in a difficult time of transition now - but the value of a local paper to a hometown community cannot be measured. There will be a way through this transition. I believe we are in an historic time in media and cultural development.

HometownAnnapolis is in good hands with a good team.

Meanwhile I can be contacted at alan@alaneason.com. Feel free to email me and to add comments to this post.

Alan Eason

Great Time with the Boys and Girls Club

2008-04-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

In the last blog post I told you about an exciting "Money Matters" show the youth of Annapolis are putting on WNAV every Sunday morning at 8:30 AM.

I was privileged to be able to go last Thursday to the club and interview Reginald Broddie, the Chief Professional Officer of the Anne Arundel clubs; and then go and film the taping of the show at WNAV under the leadership of Lawrence Huggins.

It was a great experience. The economic advisers who were on the show (sponsored by Charles Schwab) were a great help and the questions the young people were asking amazed me. They showed a lot of depth and comprehension of some difficult subjects. I can honestly say that I learned a lot about the mortgage crisis and got a much better view of the financial crisis the country is in.

We will be putting together a video soon from the shooting I did last week plus a take on the class that will be shot this week. Mr. Broddie said that he would like to take the video to the National Convention coming up in San Francisco in a few weeks, so we will hurry production.

This blog will be moving, but look for a link to the video here - wherever it ends up on the Net.

Smart youth in the center of Annapolis

2008-04-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

There is a pretty exciting Annapolis project waiting for me and I am anxious to start.

Friday I went by the Bates Center Annapolis Boys and Girls Club looking for a video project. Reginald Broddie, the Chief Professional Officer of the five Boys and Girls Clubs in Anne Arundel County, invited me into his office and we talked. It seems that he and Larry Huggins, a fine young communications professional with the clubs, had just been talking about video that same day. We decided to do a project together and put it on HometownAnnapolis.com.

Reginald talked about another project - one that we could cover - and it is exciting. Perhaps you have heard of it. It is a radio show called "Money Matters," which is produced by young people in the clubs and aired on WNAV at 8:30 on Sunday mornings. It teaches "critical thinking," Reginald says.

He made a believer out of me. I can't wait to watch them produce the show and film the process.

Long ago I became familiar with a favorite saying of Alex Haley. He used to quote it often in Tennessee, as he went around giving speeches and teaching at UT:

"Find the good and praise it."

Haley was a consummate journalist and to him this principle seemed the pinnacle of the craft of writing. In following that maxim he brought a lot of energy to people trying to do right.

Reginald and Larry have the same energy. It is exciting to join with them in this small project.

It will give me a good look at some of Annapolis' finest young people and I know it will take me a long way on my search to understand my new home.

Annapolis 2.0

2008-03-06T10:48:00.000-08:00

There is a concept of the Internet called 'Web 2.0,' which defines the fastest-growing aspect of online communications. It sounds technical but really is more a description of how people use the Internet.

It is summarized by the catch phrase "the read-write Web."

This refers to the phenomenon that more and more people are using the Internet not only to read stuff (like this blog), but also to self-publish. The Internet is quickly moving from being a "one-to-many" medium to being a "many-to-many" medium (to use the words of Dan Gilmor in We The Media) .

The amazing thing is that millions of people of all ages, races and inclinations are posting pictures, blogging, commenting, engaging in online discussions and forums, chat groups and much more. They are not only reading, they are writing (or publishing) up a storm!

We want to move more in that direction on HometownAnnapolis.com soon.

We will soon add commenting on our blogs, and add a lot more community blogs. (If you have interest, please write). We are also looking at adding other social-networking applications which will help local users connect with and publish to the larger community.

I spoke on the phone not too long ago with Brian White, of Edgewater. Brian had called for several reasons, one of which was to thank us (and especially reporter Pam Wood) for the "excellent coverage" of environmental issues in the newspaper. He was very complimentary of the coverage of Chesapeake Bay that The Capital has given.

We went on to talk about the Internet. I mentioned to him that since we introduced story commenting about 8 months ago, there has been a tremendous response by local people not only to comment on the stories we post but to use these as a jumping-off point to start vigorous discussion of local issues.

In response, Brian said something that really rang a bell for me. He said "yes, I use the service , and comment sometimes. It has helped me find my passion."

The answer stunned me. While I have long been an advocate of citizen media and people-publishing I have never considered this a way to help people 'find' their passion.

Express their passion? Sure! But find it? Wow - quite a concept.

The more I thought about this the better I feel about it. It is great to imagine Annapolis and Anne Arundel County full of passionate people. Especially the kind that express it publicly. It could transform a community.

For too long people have been content to just listen, or read, and be passive. For centuries people have had little choice. The media has traditionally been a one way conversation - 'one-to-many.'

Now people are entering the public conversation in large numbers. We in the traditional media have to move over on the stage and make room for a lot more people on it - and for a very passionate, many-sided conversation.

Our community is full of bright, earnest and caring people. There is a lot of passion. It is great to hear all of you speak.

USNA - United States Naval Academy

2008-02-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons I was excited about moving to Annapolis was the Naval Academy. To a lot of people outside of Maryland, if you say the word "Annapolis" they think you are talking about the academy. It only occurs to some that the city is also the state capital - one of those smaller cities that are capital cities in states which have much larger cities in them.

I liked the idea of living near the naval academy. It didn't hurt that I had grown up with navy and marines in the family - all enlisted though. I even had some friends who went to the academy, but had fallen out of touch with them once they went. (As a youth I had even thought of going myself when I was 14 - with dreams of flying F-4's off of carrier decks and so forth - but life took me in other directions).

So the first time I walked out on the campus a few days after I got here it was an amazing feeling. History. Honor. Tradition. Water. More water. It really seemed like the Annapolis I had imagined.

It still does.

I think more than any other part of the city - the USNA still carries a huge mystique with me. But there are some personal experiences becoming entwined as well, which makes it much more human without taking away the sense of awe.

Two stories.

The first humorous, and warm; the second also warm and inspiring.

One day last spring my family and I were walking on the grounds with our families who were in from out-of-town. Our little 2 year old was walking there with us (the one in the picture on my shoulders) and he spied some ducks on the lawn of the Marine commandant's house. Not thinking too much about protocol, he ran up on the lawn chasing the ducks. The commandant's wife was on the screened-in porch and saw him. Very quickly the door opened and she came out, all smiles, with some bread in her hands. Bending down, she offered the little adventurer bread to to give to the ducks.

My son took one look at the bread, then at the ducks, and proceeded to eat the bread! We thanked the commandant's wife profusely and she seemed to really enjoy it - but as we walked away my wife was worried that she might have thought we never fed the little guy. I told my wife that I figured she just thought he would make a good Marine!

The second story is one that also warms me when I think of it.

I had had a particularly bad day at work one day and just needed to do a lot of walking and thinking. I headed to the city dock area and sat there, looking at the harbor and not getting much relief.

The new gate and visitor center had just been opened and I decided to go in and see how much walking I could do. I think better when I walk.

As I walked out along the water by the side of the city dock and then headed towards the main channel of the river, I stopped at various memorials along the waterline on spa creek (see a great map). At each one I thought about the fact that people gave their lives and fought hard to give me the ability to be as free with my life and opinions as I am. I thought a lot about the culture of honor and sacrifice being taught to young people there.

Sometimes in regular work-a-day America we forget how our very existence has at times been preserved by the steel strands of such a culture. That reminder tends to put things into perspective.

As I walked across the campus on the way back to my car, I was greeted by probably 20 midshipmen crossing paths with me. To a person, they smiled at me and most greeted me verbally. They were all very young. Most all seemed very optimistic and full of life.

I returned to my car and to my job feeling better than I had in some time.

This too is Annapolis.

The voices of Annapolis

2008-01-13T14:28:00.001-08:00

It's a new year and lots of things are afoot. Many readers have probably already heard that Landmark Communications (our parent company) is investigating putting all its newspapers and other communications assets (including The Weather Channel) up for sale.

This certainly adds to the bumpiness of the newspaper business in the past 18 months, with our long-time publisher, Phil Merrill, passing away in June of 2006, The Capital ownership transferring to 100%-ownership by Landmark Communications in spring of 2007 and now uncertainty on the horizon again to start this year.

All that said, I don't feel any different about what we are doing. In fact, I feel even better. Newspapers like us are local phenomena. We are all about a town, a city, a region. The best ones put out a daily picture of a city and interact with a community in powerful, often intangible, ways. They may even do as much for a multitude of smaller communities.

No matter who the owners might be, that is what a company of people at a good local paper do and who they are. Some of us were talking after the latest news and concluded this - let's just keep being who we are. In fact, let's focus on that more than ever.

From my point of view as Internet Director, I also realize that 'who we are' is changing in a deeper way, and was before any of these other things happened. This deeper change is a good one. It has to do with making the paper's conversation with other people who live and work in this region more of a two-way dialogue.

As company and on the Internet team, we decided some time ago to give you, the users of this website, a much greater voice. We started doing that with the addition of commenting on all of our news stories, a feedback page for posting your comments about the site, and an open forum page. We are soon moving ahead to launching community-specific pages with stories from the paper on local communities, comments, calendar events, local meetings, and citizen comment areas all geo-targeted to smaller communities.

So, If you live Crofton, before long you will be able to find all that stuff that is applicable to Crofton on one page. In addition, we will be putting up sections for you to interact with your community even more fully in a style much somewhat like social networking sites have.

Newspapers around the world are changing from being news delivery organizations to becoming community information hubs.

In my opinion, one of the most important things we will have in the future is a much broader stage where a lot more voices can be heard. Especially your voice.

This is what I am talking about when I say I feel even better now. Perhaps it took a jolt to remind us of some of the basics. This trend of bringing in more voices is not going away. It is also 'who we are.' And without a doubt it is in the direction of 'who we will be.'

I say that not to put any agenda into possible future owners' considerations, but to state that I believe any newspaper which does not do this will cease to be a viable community voice before long.

People have tasted a new freedom of expression and they will have it. With the Internet, anyone can publish now, and find readers across the nation or across Main Street. A.J Liebling's trueism, "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one," has been overwritten by the digital age. As the printing press brought the ability to read and, some argue - thus, democracy - to millions, so the Internet has brought the ability to publish their own voice to millions as well.

Now, a citizen of Anne Arundel county or any other community does not have to wait to get published in newsprint to be heard. I still believe newsprint is a very powerful platform, and I encourage you to keep writing Tom Marquardt, our editor, and others in our organization. But there are also many other outlets for you to let your voice be heard on our web site and they will increase.

As I have mentioned to my readers on some other posts, I have been deeply moved by comments I have read on our site posted by people who live here. It has been heartwarming. These are the voices of regular people, not journalists or professional writers. They are often not written particularly well from an English teacher's perspective. But they have real human spirit in them.

As a newcomer to the Annapolis area, I started this blog as a personal search for connectedness for myself and my family, as well as a place to talk about Web sites. I am trying to be honest in this search, and sometimes it is painful, because life can be hard and it can be scary. It is also exciting and envigorating, especially when others who are neighbors also begin to show their humanity and their own fears, deams and frustrations.

That, to me, is what being a community is all about. I am hearing your voices as you participate. The commenting on our stories has grown and is getting fuller, richer and more diverse. I love it. It is also coming from communities all over the region, not just Annapolis proper.

It is helping me to find what I call Annapolis.

We won't stop doing this.

The Very Best Wishes

2007-12-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

Though my family and I are not in Annapolis this Christmas holiday, we join together in wishing the very best and warmest holiday season to all of you in our new home on the Chesapeake!

Our thoughts are with you and we look forward to a fantastic new year together in 2008.

Alan Eason and family

Peace in Annapolis - Part II

2007-12-20T13:20:00.000-08:00

I know - I know.

It has been a while since the last post.

While I do apologize, I have to admit I have been puzzling a lot over some things and it has clouded my search for Annapolis somewhat.

I promised you some posts on the Naval Academy, a letter from a reader and some other material and they will come, but let me address this issue first.

You may have noticed we have had some vigorous commenting by residents of Annapolis, Eastport and other parts of Anne Arundel County on a couple of stories having to do with residential security in certain neighborhoods (gunfire in Eastport) and who gets to go to what school and why (a basketball player leaves a rough life to go to Severna Park High) click links to go to the stories.

Read the stories - then read the comments.

Both stories have some common elements.

Guns.
Who lives in which neighborhoods.
Official responses.
A desire for security - a chance - hope.

The comments from people who read the stories also have some commonalities:

How to characterize a neighborhood (or school).
What you should or should not expect from the place you live - home.
Who gets what from the government.
A sense of protecting something we want to feel is safe.

There are some uncommonalities.

One story is about a young man trying to get a better life.
The other is about long-time residents trying to live safer lives.
One is about sports and a chance to restart life.
The other is about random (or stray) gunfire.
One has a hopeful upswing.
The other seems to have a fearful repetition of theme.

In my search for the real Annapolis, I cannot escape wrestling with things brought up in these stories and in the comments following them. Most everyone involved in the stories and the commenting live here. They are all part of that greater region I call "Annapolis."

If this is my home, and where my family is to live, how do I react? I have a 2 year old son. Do I want him in one school or the other? Do I have to fear for my family's lives if we live on one street and not another? How do I look at the legions of other parents who also love their children and want them in another school than the ones they are in?

What is 'safe?'
Why are bullets bouncing around in residential neighborhoods?

It shocks me.

My grandfather was a babe in a cradle and a bullet came in off the street and passed through the wood in the headboard inches above his head. He went on and lived 84 years, which is good because it helped get me here.

Difference is, that was Norwood Colorado. 1902 or thereabouts. Gold and silver mining town between Durango and Telluride. The Wild West. Gunfights in the streets. Wild miners on Saturday nights.

This is Annapolis.

I have to ask - is Annapolis the Wild West? Are we supposed to accept that as part of life here? True, a bullet is a bullet but somehow I expected something different in Annapolis.

After living here a while I see why people retreat to certain "neighborhoods" and send their kids to certain schools. The fear of violence in some parts of the county is truly palpable, at least to a newcomer from a much more secure part of the country.

But then what happens when another family also wants to retreat to a better school and a better neighborhood. Are we to allow some and not allow others? And why do people have to retreat at all? Can we not have an Annapolis where people do not have to hide and do not have to retreat?

I know I sound naive, but was it not Bobby Kennedy, paraphrasing George Bernard Shaw who said: "There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not? "

Cannot Annapolis, home of a national military academy which trains future world leaders and national protectors, come up with something better?

I wonder about these things.

In my last post I was very hopeful, having seen a spirit of this city which could help nudge weary countries half a globe away towards peace.

The last few weeks I have seen darker shadows, skirting around under our own historic dome, stealing peace away.

The search goes on.

Peace in Annapolis

2007-12-03T09:40:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I mentioned that my concept of Annapolis changed somewhat during the peace conference. I was very curious how a city of 35-40,000 population would react to being the focal point of much of the world news for a few days. Most cities of this size would have a pretty good fit of narcissism and navel-gazing as they tried to figure out what all this means to their image, their place in history, etc.

At the very least, a lot of folks would probably be out trying to take in what was going on and get a sense of personal "I was there" out of it. That is very human. Hey - that is part of why I went downtown Tuesday. No matter how you slice it, a little self-gratification and self-congratulation could certainly be expected.

Amazingly, I did not see much of that around here.

It is not that Annapolitans are not proud of their city's place in history. They are. Maybe because there is so MUCH history and tradition already here, it was not enough to really make the city big-headed last week. People here tend to be pretty unflappable by nature.

But I believe there is more to it.

First let me share a little more of my views since I am a newcomer here. For about a year now, I have found myself giving a pretty consistent answer to people back home (and here) who ask me what I think of the local people. The word I hear myself using is "earnest." After being here a while, I find people in this region to be pretty earnest people.

You have to understand that, where I come from, people are also very sincere (slightly different than earnest) but show it in different ways. For one thing, Appalachian people seem to have a lot more of the old Irish-style gift of Blarney, tall-telling, and pure out-and-out sandbagging. There is also a lot of back slapping, smiling, emoting etc. in many conversations.

I tried that some when I got here and a lot of people would just stare at me, earnestly! They really wanted to know what the heck I was talking about. Before I moved here I had heard that people in this part of the country are more 'direct' and 'to-the-point' and I expected that. But I had not expected the real sincerity that is often in it. It surprised me that so many people really did seem to want to know what I was saying. They might not respond in a way I am familiar with, but they seemed to want to know.

(We can have another discussion about which method is the more effective form of communication - at another time).

But I have to say, last week the intensity and 'earnestness' of getting directly to the real issue took on new meaning for me in Annapolis.

Page back with me to Tuesday afternoon of last week. I was outside the Academy wall, watching people hash out the issues on the streets without the diplomacy and decorum of the diplomats inside. It was loud.

There were protestors of all stripes - American Jews protesting against the whole two-state idea from a religious viewpoint, Israelis protesting about the Israeli prime minister neglecting schools back home, peace protestors from all over protesting the lack thereof, American students protesting American policy. That was just the bunch that I saw. It was a noisy bazaar of protest.

I even witnessed several arguments that got so heated it looked like a fight was about to erupt. People were shouting, demanding, and trumpeting their positions. Most were talking and few seemed to be listening.

I looked around and remembered I was in Annapolis. This is usually a pretty calm place. I walked up the street. The center of Annapolis is two circles next to each other, one with a church in the middle and another with the state house in the middle. (I have not yet figured out how they both manage to be the center of town.)

I found myself suddenly struck with the contrast. The calmness of the city versus the emotion on the streets. While I don't always agree with the decisions made in the state house (or in the church either) I have to say - It pretty much works. And somewhere along the way, people evidently do listen.

I reentered the protest area. There in the midst of this confusion was a lady interviewing people from both sides - people who had been shouting at each other. She was listening very earnestly. At first I thought she was from the media, but then found out she is just an Annapolitan out trying to listen to people. And she seemed to be trying hard to understand what people were really saying. It was impressive, even iconic, at that moment.

This has become something of a symbol of Annapolis to me. It gives some hope. You have to wonder what can come out of an environment where people are looking directly into your eye and asking "what are you saying?"

Maybe that is why the city seemed so upflapped by all the attention - because to many here, the real issue was not what it means to 'us' but what really gets said and what really gets heard and what gets done in this conference. I could hope that is the case.

That kind of attitude could help the situation in the Middle East if it were to spread. For that matter it could really help the situation on another Capitol Hill 30 miles to the west. Dare we hope?
____________________________________
Here is the video. The woman doing the interviewing (and listening) is Erin Gormley of Annapolis.
____________________________________

A new definition for Annapolis?

2007-11-28T14:31:00.000-08:00

Maybe you are checking back on the "Looking for Annapolis' blog to see if my concept of the place has changed any since we became a world-center-stage city for a day with the Peace Conference.

Or, as one of my co-workers asks, "Have you found Annapolis yet?"

The short answer is: "Yep, my concept of Annapolis did change some yesterday."

And it did so in a surprising way. I discovered something I had not realized about this city. I guess some pieces came together for me.

I also discovered something about myself in the process. Good things, on both sides.

Made me proud of my new home.

No time to write it all right now - more when I have time for a real post.

I'll even show some video I shot.

Yes, I was downtown some during some of the happenings.

More later.

Phil Merrill and my introduction to Annapolis

2007-11-20T12:30:00.000-08:00

A big part of the reason I took this job (Internet Director at The Capital) in March of 2006 was Phil Merrill. He was the owner and publisher of the paper until his death in June of that same year. I was drawn to Annapolis and this job in a large part because I was intrigued.

Let me go back a bit. At the time, I lived in Tennessee. Had you mentioned the word "Annapolis" to me, I would have had little idea what this town was about. I certainly had ideas of the Naval Academy from my youth, a hazy idea that people had sailboats here, and, if you reminded me, would have recollected from my 7th grade civics class that it was also the capital of Maryland.

That was about it.

When I was first contacted about the job, I went straight to the Internet to look up Capital Gazette. I saw the site, read some of the paper online, and eventually found information about the publisher, Philip Merrill. He looked like a pretty interesting guy so I Googled him, Yahooed him, and ran his name through several other online search funnels.

That is when I got hooked. Who could pass up a chance to work around someone who fit that description?

I mean, here is a guy who bought a small paper, turned it into a very successful medium-sized paper, and bought a magazine and turned it into the most successful city magazine in the country (The Washingtonian).

All the while in a parallel life he was serving a number of positions at the State Department, Department of Defense, as Assistant secretary general of NATO, President of U.S. Export-Import Bank, and so forth. On top of that he was an avid sailor and philanthropist.

What kind of place would have a newspaper publisher like that?

Maybe that is when I started looking for Annapolis. What kind of town is home to this type of person?

It really intrigued me.

Now about the meeting -

I had been forewarned that meetings with Mr. Merrill could get really loud very fast. So I was ready for that - sort of. I had only been on the job a few weeks when I chanced upon him in his office (he was usually in at hours I was not walking around) so I decided to introduce myself.

After a very brief hello, he shot at me "What are you going to do with us on the Internet?" It came suddenly, with the force of a naval salvo.

It was not the question, it was the intensity.

Startled, I shot back about three things that were of top importance to me at the time. I don't even remember what they were. I am sure they were good.

What I do remember was Phil Merrill's response to my explanation.

"What does that mean to those people who live on that street in that city?"

His finger was jabbing the air in the direction of West Street. His eyes were a wall of fire. I was struck, not dumb, but enough to start wheeling my guns around as fast as I could.

Mr. Merrill did not say anything about 'his paper' as many publishers would have.

He did not talk much about revenue, procedures, technology, or trends. We discussed those things very little. But what overarched everything he said was how whatever we did would affect 'those people on that street.'

That was what really mattered. It was more than a passion. It was a fiery obsession with the people on the other end of The Capital's and HometownAnnapolis' product.

It was all about you.
The reader.
The site user.
The Annapolitan.

That was my first real introduction to Annapolis through the eyes and actions of someone who cared deeply about you.

For me, that short meeting of about 20 minutes was a life-changing event. I had always believed the feedback loop was the most important part of communication (what people get out of what we say). But I had never seen the idea take flight like it did that day. With a roar.

Phil Merrill not only believed it, he breathed it. With all his public honors, his wealth and his fame, it was really all about the common person down 'that street.'

It was the only meeting like that I would ever have with Phillip Merrill.

A month and a half later he was gone, slipping beneath the waters of his beloved Chesapeake Bay.

(If you would like to read more about Philip Merrill - we still have the tribute 'blog' on our site with some of the hundreds of comments people sent in upon his death. We also have a short biography of his life).

Where are you from?

2007-11-15T17:16:00.000-08:00

A quick post on a note I heard today. I was talking with a friend who stated "I have lived here 35 years and I still am not sure I am an Annapolitan."

Interesting.

We talk a lot in the online office at HometownAnnapolis.com about identifying with communities, feeling a sense of place, and the unique mix that is Anne Arundel county (and then we throw in Kent Island and Bowie to make it interesting).

This is especially important since we have branded the main website of The Capital hometownannapolis.com. Since we have an audience in all these areas, this question is a professional one, not just philosophical.

What kind of identity is there living here? Is there a sense of place? Does there need to be one? Deep questions for sure. For any community.

But assuming that most people feel a need to be 'from' somewhere, what would you answer if someone asked you "where are you from?"

Are you an Annapolitan? What does it take to be one of those? Are you an Anne Arundelian? Would your answer be: "...from Kent Island" or "South county" or "Gambrills" or "near Baltimore" or what?

I guess names for places and people who live there don't mean much unless people need them. But for people like me who do identify with a place and like to express that succinctly to those who ask - it is a bit of a riddle figuring it out. I live in Piney Orchard in Odenton. I work in Annapolis. We travel all over the area on weekends. When people from back home ask me where I am now, I say "Annapolis, Maryland."

Maybe it is because I am a southerner. I have heard that if the first question you hear upon meeting someone new is "what do you do?" they could be from most parts of the country; but if that question is "where are you from" they might well be from the south. That statement is probably over-generalized, but it is true that roots do mean a lot to most of us southerners.

So this might be a question you are not interested in.

But I am still intrigued by my friend's statement.

And I wonder: what does it take to be an 'Annapolitan?'

That too is now a part of my search for Annapolis.

Next post I'll talk about my introduction to Phil Merrill.

Looking ahead to 'What is Annapolis?'

2007-11-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

In the last post I mentioned we would wait a little while to get into the subject of "What is Annapolis?" And we will - it will be a lot to discuss.

But to prime the pump of your thinking, I'll link here to something I read recently on The Washingtonian website:

Long known as a world sailing capital, Annapolis is no longer a sleepy town full of boats and midshipmen. Now home to hundreds of new condos, high-class shopping, and three restaurants on the 2007 100 Very Best Restaurants list, this suburb is rapidly becoming a hot spot for Washingtonians to live and play....

The reference is found here: http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/visitorsguide/2961.html

Annapolis is a suburb????

I have not been here that long, but I would not call it a suburb. Maybe if you worked in DC with people who drive home to Annapolis to sleep at night, you might think it is like a suburb - if you had never been here. But having been here, that should never enter your mind again. At least that is my opinion - and I am the new kid on the block.

But do other people in neighboring (larger) cities view Annapolis as a suburb?

Interesting fodder for discussion - and a starting point for "What is Annapolis?"

I just wanted to tease that a bit. We will get to it. Feel free to write in your views. I will post them when we get back to the subject.

'Til later.

(Note: I was told by one person that the quoted travel interest article was not written by a regular Washingtonian staffer).

Also - in all fairness - the rest of the mentioned article speaks much about the distinctive traits of Annapolis. I just wonder why the word "suburb" might have come into the writer's mind.

Lots of Posts coming up

2007-11-08T08:19:00.000-08:00

The wait in between posts here is not because I have not had ideas but maybe because I have had too many. I plead for patience. Working on several posts at the same time and you will see some of them roll out in the next few days.

I know blog posts are supposed to be fairly extemporaneous, but these need to be developed more than most.

A preview:

Discovering Annapolis - the Naval Academy - a special experience to a newcomer.
Philip Merrill's impact on me (Though I only met him a few times and only had one long - and loud - conversation with him). What an introduction to Annapolis! What he told me about his view of the newspaper in Annapolis.
My impressions on the new mall opening, talking with some business leaders, and other community people. If I get the time to edit it, a video I shot at the mall opening - it was fun.
A letter from another newcomer -
A discussion I would like to have about citizen journalism - more about the direction we are going with the web sites - more about getting readers - users - YOU - onto the stage and hearing you speak to us and to the rest of the community.
What IS Annapolis anyway? How does the rest of the county fit in? What about the smaller communities? Are we city, suburbs, hometowns, developments, sprawl, all the above or what? This one is going to be a good discussion. Might save this for last of this bunch.

(If you have thoughts on these subjects - email me - I would like to make it more than a monologue).

These are all on the stove - different burners. Not sure which one will come out first. Check back soon.

The Annapolis of Today

2007-10-31T14:29:00.000-07:00

My search for Annapolis took a huge leap forward last Saturday when I was part of the judging team which decides on the youth portion of the "Carrier of the Year" award for The Capital newspaper.

I'll tell you - I found something talking to these kids. They are bright. They are energetic. They are entrepreneurs. They care about the people in their communities.

I heard stories of kids who stopped their "work" of delivering papers long enough to help people carry their groceries in; who would read the news headlines to customers who could not see well; and of kids who managed school, sports, activities, priorities and ambitions in a quest to provide extra value in their customers' lives at the tender age of 11 or 12.

I sometimes interview people several times their age for positions we need to fill here at HometownAnnapolis.com and I'll tell you, it is hard to find adults with the kind of values I saw on display there.

I also heard stories of gutsy young people who faithfully deliver their cargo of "news of what is happening around them" (one youngster's target-center quote) even when they sometimes hear gunshots on neighboring streets or have to have their parents drive them after dark to keep them away from the drug dealers' turf.

These are community leaders, people.

Need I say I was thoroughly impressed? I am so glad we are still an afternoon newspaper, because it affords a chance to have more of these young heroes out on the streets and it gives us an opportunity to see their faces and shake their hands.

They are not just the Annapolis of tomorrow; they are the Annapolis of today.

My hat goes off to them and I intend to follow their lead.

Update on the airplane gas station

2007-10-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

One writer asked for the address of the web site about this airplane gas station I wrote of in my last post.

I'll do better than just the web address. I have some pics. (Left) is one I took while home.

Here is the banner and the link to the web site:
http://www.powellairplane.org/

'Nuff on the airplane gas station.

Catching up

2007-10-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

Just returned from a 9 day hiatus to my place of deepest roots - East Tennessee.

Though I did not post to this blog during that time, I actually did think about it a lot.

You see - I am searching for this idea of 'community' here - and it is pretty much akin to the idea of 'home.' I guess every genuine community is a home of sorts.

In my search for Annapolis, I am trying to grasp what it means to call this new place home. To many of you, it has been home for years, maybe all of your lives. To others, including some of you who have written me, your experience is nearer mine - a new place to live or work - an interesting place to hang the hat. But not really home yet.

What is it that winds deeper into our souls when a place begins to really become home? It is pretty mystical. I realized that on my trip.

Going back to that fertile valley between the Smoky Mountains and the Cumberlands does strange things to me. I always think I will be prepared for it, and I never am.

I try to analyze it - but I cannot reach into it. It is just there - deeper than a feeling - stronger than an emotion. A settledness, a sense of safety and belonging - a reconnection with a part of life that is like an arm or a leg - attached securely and sublimely. It causes one to transcend time.

That is what 'home' means.

I am waiting for Annapolis to start growing on me like that. I believe it can, and will.

Other places I have lived have had a similar effect - though less intense. I recently heard an opera singer on a CD and something transported me back to Vienna, where I lived 3 years of my life. It was weird - I could once again see the contours of the opera house and smell the musky shadows of Stefansdom. The clear music brought it all back - along with faces, smells, dialects, even skidmarks on the cobblestones. The mind is a strange thing.

As we look for what it means to call Annapolis - or Crofton or Kent Island or Gambrills - home, it is good to notice the little things that mark our days with color and sound and life.

We never know what might come flooding back when we see a calendar or listen to a song or hear the clank of rigging against an aluminum mast somewhere else in the world one day.

Most likely it will be memories of Annapolis people - voices, laughter, tears, dreams, disappointments, life.

And they may well be framed by inanimate things - buildings, streets, neighborhoods - or even some quaint icon of innocent days past or of a happy time of life.

On my trip back to Tennessee, I saw where a group is trying to save an old gas station that was made in the '40's to look like an airplane. It was actually pretty goofy.

But I remember driving by that place as a kid, and how we all got excited to see 'the airplane' as we cruised into Knoxville. I thought we were the only ones. Well now this group has a Web site up and it seems dozens - even hundreds - of people are chiming in with their own versions of how this goofy gas station marked a part of their wonder years.

I thought of this blog then. How it must be for many of you who are watching Annapolis change.

A lot of energy is going into placing more modern and progressive things into quaint spaces that make up the Annapolis of many people's memories.

Some of those spaces might even be presently occupied by something that seem's 'kinda goofy' but has a deeper link to shared experience than meets the eye.

Every town has such places.

Can we preserve all of them? Of course not.

Which ones get the websites and the petitions and which ones get the bulldozers? Hard to determine.

But the very process of wrestling with that challenge is part of what makes us a community; a group of people struggling to hold onto a part of our shared life.

And it helps us feel we have a home.

On my search for Annapolis...

2007-10-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

One letter came in from Katte, who recommended I talk to her father, now retired.

"My father has been a long time resident of Annapolis with lots of stories I'm sure he would love to share ... he was involved in the rowing team for many years and was also the team captain..."

"He also was a sailor for many years ..."

Sounds great - I like sailing stories.

"...I'm sure he would love the company as well as the interview and maybe (help) your readers not to forget the people of the past in Annapolis."

That is key.

We need to remember, see, and sense the past.

So much of my life has been shaped by older people telling incredible stories in places I have lived.

I want my son to have those experiences as well.

Thanks Katte and I will be calling him.

Let's talk about HometownAnnapolis.com

2007-10-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

Many discussions have taken place about the name HometownAnnapolis.com.

People ask: "Why is it such a different name than The Capital?"

We did this because we had big dreams for the future.

The future is arriving fast.

What's going on is we are developing a platform for all sorts of things which relate to Annapolis and Anne Arundel county. The site will eventually offer a lot of content and interactivity beyond what is in the newspaper itself.

We are very proud of our newspaper and what we print is the foundation of all our content. But we want to push far beyond what will fit on newsprint alone. Our goal is to be a strong print/online tandem team.

For the present, however, the site is still predominantly based on the daily news stories and features as they appear in the newspaper.

(The news story content is promoted very well on our news home page and indexed in our top stories page. The news home page is what you see if you come to the site using 'capitalonline.com').

What are these future interactive things?

Stay tuned and you will see several new launches after the first of the year. I cannot go into details yet, but suffice it to say HometownAnnapolis.com will become an even more exciting portal to online information for everyone in this county.

We are also dedicating the site to be a new communications 'place' for all the communities of Anne Arundel county.

This is your Web site.

It will be increasingly two-way. It will have a lot of user feedback and citizen journalism. Keep this in mind - we are looking for interested people, who want to have a say.

Other new things

In a more traditional vein (if you can talk about anything 'Internet' as having a tradition already) we have just launched some new web features that are creating a lot of buzz.

One is a new interactive calendar, which is now database-driven and allows you all sorts of searches and filters. Pick your venue, or your event type, or your geographic location.

In the near future you will be able to subscribe to feeds of updated calendar events to your iPods, personal web pages, cell phones or anything that will take RSS.

We have also launched a new and very comprehensive high school sports page.

Capital sports writer Aaron Gray has done a masterful job with video coach interviews (football), game updates and a new blog - The Aaron Gray Sports Blog.

Aaron's blog is a lot of fun - my family loves his YouTube links!

We also launched a new Navy sports section, featuring not only story links and score updates, but a new, popular blog by Capital sports writer Bill Wagner.

Earlier in the year we launched in-story commenting, and a tool for you to quickly see all the recent users' comments posted together on our 'Your Say' page.

User commenting on stories has taken off and has started many valuable, and often emotional, discussions about all sorts of issues and events.

We try to take a basic hands-off attitude towards the comments and let them run unless they violate stated rules. These are your comment boards.

What is this Community thing?

In the next post I want to write about a broader concept - community.

A large part of our goal with this Web site is to give you a place to speak, react, think and create online with us - and to help us all further define our sense of what our communities are.

What does it mean to live in Annapolis? or South County? or Crofton? or Pasadena? or Glen Burnie?

That is something we really want to explore and we are depending on your help.

Part of my blog is about my own experience and my family's experience as newcomers. But a lot of this blog is going to be about your sense of community - where you live.

Several have already written and I will post some and follow up on others.

Please write.

Annapolis Street Vignette

2007-10-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

Foggy Morning in Annapolis - One of the best ways to get to know a place is from the street. The sounds. The smells. The people you meet by chance.

Thursday morning (yesterday) dawned foggy so I grabbed a camera and headed downtown for some pictures and to see who I could find.

Had some great experiences. Grabbing a parking meter space I discovered I needed to put in at least a quarter to grab the shot. Checked pocket. No change.

A quick duck into 49 West Coffeehouse Winebar and Gallery to buy something, anything, to get some change. The pastry bill came to $1.86. I told the guy at the counter I needed to make change and come out with a quarter. "Here," he said, handing me a quarter. "Don't worry about it." Friendly math. I ran out to get some fog shots and then ducked back into the coffeehouse and met some people. It was great fun and the kind of laid-back morning experience that is common in Annapolis.

Ran back out and met some more folks. I set up some shots of the capitol dome in the mist and decided to photograph and try to interview the first person who walked in front of the camera. That person was Mark Haggerty of Annapolis. Delightful fellow, full of life.

Back to the coffee house and grabbed a shot of Ryan (the guy at the counter) serving customers (that's Eileen of Middletown, DE, and Stephanie of Pasadena). Enjoyable atmosphere. (Table has Mark and Lecie Davis and Lance and Terri Goldberg, along with Mike Rainen, all of Kansas City).

Then it was back to the office and back to work.

One more vignette in my search for Annapolis.

Introduction

2007-10-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is.

My long-promised blog.

I love to talk with people, about people, and discover what makes people tick.

I also love new places and Annapolis is a new place to me. It is a place, however, that I have had imaginations of since I was a boy with sailing ships and Navy stuff on my wall. And now I live here - time to find the real Annapolis.

Besides my personal goals, I also want to discover what this place, and the county in general, means to others who live here and have lived here for years. That is an incredibly fun thing to do. It is a lot of what we are about with our new community portals opening up on the HometownAnnapolis.com web sites.

You will be hearing more and I want you to be a part of it all.

Check back often to see what I come up with and what others have to say!

And feel free to write me your ideas. I will publish some of them here.