MARYLAND'S INTERNATIONAL CORRIDOR PRELIMINARY WORKING PAPERS

William John Hanna with The 1996 Langley Park Project Research Team

Executive Summary

This is an interim report on the effort of the Langley Park Project team within the University of Maryland's Urban Studies and Planning Program to develop a strategic plan for improving business vitality and job creation in the bi-county area that includes Langley Park, northern Takoma Park, and Long Branch. Our conclusion is that, with planning and effort, there are tremendous opportunities to improve the focal area. However, improvements depend upon better organized businesspeople and residents, and obtaining some public sector support, especially from the State of Maryland.

Our specific geographic focus is an area stretching from just east of Riggs Road along and adjacent to University Boulevard to just west of Piney Branch Road, and south along Piney Branch Road to and around its intersection with Flower Avenue. We think the area can -- and should -- be identified, developed, and promoted as a single entity. We like the name, "Maryland's International Corridor."

There are many resources and comparative advantages in Maryland's International Corridor. These include an amazing number of international restaurants, grocery stores, specialty shops, and microenterprises, as well as discount stores and a typical array of other establishments. For instance, within the corridor there is a Vietnamese record store, an African record store, and a handful of Latino record stores, not to mention record stores in the mainstream that carry a wide variety of international music.

According to our interviews with store managers and surveys of license plates, customers come to the area from as far away as Baltimore, Richmond, the District, and even West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas.

In addition, this area has affordable housing, recreational opportunities in Northwest Branch and three community centers, an excellent road system with many bus routes, convenience shops, and services.

The hard-working, multilingual people who live in the International Corridor constitute a great resource. Although they come from more than forty countries, the greatest source of immigration is from Central America (especially El Salvador).

Close to Maryland's International Corridor are large yet virtually untapped concentrations of potential customers. Significant potential for business and job growth exists thanks to such nearby locations as the University of Maryland with its 40,000 employees and students, the university's 30-40,000 weekly football fans who come to Byrd Stadium, the 17,000 regular basketball fans at Cole Field House, and conferences and events at the Adult Education Center, Tawes Theater, and the soon-to-be-completed Performing Arts Center. There is even a free shuttle bus to take University people to and from Maryland's International Corridor.

Also close by are such work-centers as the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center with its 7,200 employees, plus such employment centers as Federal Archives II, the George Meany Center, a large U.S. Department of Agriculture facility, and the Institute of Physics. Furthermore, there are an estimated 100,000 people living within walking distance of the corridor! These potential customers could -- and should -- supply the economic lift needed to transform Maryland's International Corridor into a vital business and employment center with many more jobs than it has now.

This area (and, of course, other areas too) is faced with challenges. Some are physical, including the somewhat unappealing stip-mall look of the corridor, the pedestrian-unfriendly design of crossings, and its lack of a central identifying place. Other challenges are social or cultural, having to do with the way people behave in the corridor or others think people behave. Thus crime and the image of crime are drags on area business development. Among other problems are the high turnover of residents and the soft real estate market. Such problems contributed to the closing of the Flower Theater. Similarly, the problems also contributed to the closing of a large K-mart; but the building's new tenants, including Toys R Us, may well have a long-term beneficial impact.

We think that none of the area's challenges is insurmountable, especially with collective action supported by the public sector.

What is to be done?
We have a wide range of suggestions, but of course priorities must receive primary attention. The first step is to create more positive thinking by businesspeople and residents in Maryland's International Corridor as well as the thinking of their potential partners in municipal, county, state, and federal agencies.

Obviously, the politicians and staff-members in the governments of Prince George's County, Montgomery County, and the Municipality of Takoma Park are crucial. Their positive thinking, relevant agenda, and priorities are absolutely essential if the opportunities of the corridor are to be realized. Certainly, a majority of the stakeholders has to realize that positive change is possible in the commercial strips and residential neighborhoods. Such positive thinking is the basis of positive action -- whether one is a councilman, planner, volunteer, or otherwise.

A change of thinking and an action-orientation should make cooperation more likely. That's a second step. Businesspeople have to organize, residents have to organize, and businesspeople, residents, and the major property owners have to cooperate among themselves and with representatives of key public and nonprofit agencies.

Within the International Corridor, there are some nascent organizations. For instance, CASA de Maryland is working with Latino residents as well as other community organizations to improve neighborhood life. ECO de Latino is a new neighborhood organization. And the Takoma-Langley Crossroads Development Authority is a step in the right direction, but only for a small portion of the corridor's businesses. A hopeful sign is that some organizations are starting to work together. For instance, CASA de Maryland has begun to explore cooperative possibilities with the businesses of the Crossroads Development Authority. [Note: ECO has ceased operation, and Action Langley Park has been formed.]

With some form of broad encompassing cooperation, it will be possible to take many other steps. For instance, businesses should engage in group marketing to get potential customers to know about the International Corridor and to become actual customers. And businesses should work with public agencies to start an affordable corridor shuttle bus to make shopping and community-building easier.

Becoming active in organizations is difficult for businesspeople who work long hours in a mom-and-pop shop, and it is difficult for foreign-born residents who may well have suffered from being on the wrong side of a civil conflict in their country of origin. Promoting participation should be a goal of governmental units as well as community organizations.

Another early step that businesses and residents should take collectively is to sponsor special events. Surveys reveal an interest in such events as musical performances, sports demonstrations, nationality festivals, and farmers' markets. They will draw people to the corridor and give the area a more positive identity. Downtown Takoma Park has special events, as do such places as Rockville, Bethesda, and Wheaton. Maryland's International Corridor should have such events too.

Confronting crime and disorderly behavior must be on the agenda. The first line of defense must be the various police forces. Community policing is valuable if it is done well. The goal of community policing is "order maintenance," or as it is sometimes called, "livability." This requires officers to be on the street, by foot or by bicycle, not just in an office or an automobile. Furthermore, some local residents should be hired as members of a uniformed patrol to greet and direct customers and to enhance safety. Such patrols are already working successfully in Baltimore and Silver Spring.

Creating a positive sense of place is important. The place should create identity and provide a setting for socializing. A plaza, reflecting the heritages of many area nationalities, would be ideal. The northeast quadrant of New Hampshire Avenue and University Boulevard would be a good location, and there are other possible locations.

Looks are important. Our consulting architect has suggested several design changes for the New Hampshire Avenue - University Boulevard crossroad area, and his ideas could well be extended to the east and west.

For most residents of Maryland's International Corridor, jobs are of the greatest importance. We think the goal of more residents at work should be achieved in several ways. First, there has to be more business activity in the area. One useful approach would be for the state and/or the counties and/or Takoma Park should start a small business support center in the corridor.

Second, the wide-ranging talents and skills of residents have to be channelled into the business sector. There must be efforts to get public, nonprofit, and private sector support so that residents can start and successfully operate businesses based on their ability to sew, to cook, to translate, to file tax reports, to take care of children, to repair cars and other machines, and to use the many other talents and skills that reside within the area. Currently, FINCA is working to give residents the needed business knowledge. Of course, some residents have skill-based businesses within the informal sector. These residents must be helped to move the businesses profitably into the formal economy. Governments, businesses, and non-profit organizations must do the helping by providing the needed know-how as well as start-up credit to residents who may not have the needed entrepreneurial training or traditional credit-worthiness. Small business workshops and incubator programs should be on the agenda.

Third, agencies and organizations must enhance job readiness, English-language facility, job training, and job placement for area residents. CASA de Maryland and La Comunidad help some people now, but much more employment-support is needed. Montgomery County's extra $40,000 for CASA's Employment and Training Center is certainly helpful, but this still meets but a small fraction of the need.

Of course, for any program to be successful in Maryland's International Corridor, the three local governments must take positive action -- seizing opportunities in the corridor as they are trying to do elsewhere within their jurisdictions. And the state must be involved, given its resources and its multijurisdictional geographic scope. Furthermore, people with non-governmental roles must contribute.

Implementation will be difficult and long-term. Perhaps the best initial concrete action would be for funds to be made available by the public, nonprofit, and/or private sector to hire, for perhaps two years, an energetic, imaginative, area-knowledgeable, understanding person who could work with businesspeople, government officials, and residents to make Maryland's International Corridor a reality and a success.