Tag: sustainability

  • CSC 2026: Kansas City

    CSC 2026: Kansas City

    After our immensely instructive experience at the 2025 conference of the Community Streetcar Coalition, we’re back! As planned, the Resilience Authority posted a request for proposals (RFP) from transit engineering firms to perform a streetcar feasibility study. We sent a small delegation to CSC this year with that RFP in hand.

    Like last year, we were impressed with what a powerful tool for urban (re)development an urban streetcar system can be. The success stories we learned about in cities like Kansas City, Tampa and Omaha were inspirational. Kansas City is presently the national “poster child” for urban streetcars; it’s an immensely popular and profitable free-fare system — that has nearly tripled in length since its first segment in 2016.

    What’s more, city officials repeatedly emphasized how the KC Streetcar has profoundly re-energized development in the city. The tired old catchphrase “Good enough for KC” is gone, and projects like the waterfront development that were dismissed a dozen years ago as too ambitious are now actively underway.

    One key lesson this year was this:

    Streetcars aren’t transit. They’re urban development.

    That’s an oversimplification, obviously! Of course streetcars are a mode of public transit. The point is that it’s misleading to think of them only in that light. They’re not high-volume like subways or inexpensive like buses. They’re not intended to move the most people in the fastest way for the lowest cost; that’s not what they’re for.

    What they ARE for is to make it cheaper, easier and more fun for residents and tourists to get around an urban environment. That’s what streetcars excel at — much more so than buses, and for a fraction of the cost of a subway. That’s what sends retail foot traffic skyrocketing and attracts developers to invest in new construction. That’s why so many cities are turning to streetcar systems to convert surface parking lots, brownfields and underdeveloped or vacant properties into vibrant, revenue-generating neighborhoods. Kansas City is a textbook example: the KC Streetcar turned neighborhood after neighborhood, from City Market to Union Station to The Plaza, from struggling to flourishing.

    Responses to the RFP are already coming in. Stay tuned!

  • AACC SAV study, year 1

    AACC SAV study, year 1

    In 2025, the Denker Foundation is excited to underwrite a multi-year longitudinal study — the first of its kind — to research best practices for the harvesting, processing and dissemination of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in the Chesapeake Bay. This original research is being performed by the Environmental Center at Anne Arundel Community College.

    SAV plays a keystone role in Chesapeake water quality, oxygenating the water, reducing CO2, filtering sediment, mitigating wave action and erosion and providing habitat for crabs and fish. For decades, research scientists at the Environmental Center have worked with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and conservancies like the Arundel Rivers Federation to harvest seed from wild SAV and replant it the following year. In 2024, Maryland Public Television produced an award-winning episode about this Bay-wide activity: “Ribbons in the Tide.”

    No one, however, has done a scientific longitudinal study of best practices for this activity: where and what species to harvest, how to most efficiently process and store the seeds, and what conditions (e.g. depth, substrate, sunlight, wave action) make for ideal replanting sites. This study does that in four phases.

    Phase one establishes a baseline of conditions at proposed planting sites through weekly observations of water properties, sunlight, depth, soil and wave action prior to any intervention.

    Phase two is the seed harvest, which occurs each year at various times and locations based on the SAV species being collected. This multiparty event involves the participation of students, faculty, partner river conservancies and oversight by the DNR.

    Harvesting requires collecting plant matter with as much properly ripened seed as possible.

    Phase three is seed processing — a complex and labor-intensive procedure involving custom-engineered equipment developed over decades of experience. After a short decomposition stage, which weakens the bonds between the seeds and plant, everything is loaded into turbulators, which agitate the SAV to separate the seeds from most of the plant matter.

    But “most” isn’t enough; any plant material that remains mixed with the seeds can rot and spoil it. This necessitates further stages of sifting and cleaning.

    Once the seed is clean, it’s ready to be refrigerated and stored until phase four — planting — which will take place the following winter and spring.

    Check back for future posts on phase four and this ongoing multi-year project.

  • AACC Environmental Center

    AACC Environmental Center

    Since 1980, the Environmental Center at Anne Arundel Community College has supported AACC’s mission through applied research designed to address local environmental needs. Most community colleges don’t double as scientific research institutions — but the Environmental Center at AACC is a brilliant exception. The EC conducts vital applied research, monitors the health of our local waterways, and leads critical habitat restoration efforts.

    Students in the EC greenhouse

    The EC’s status enables it to engage in unique collaborations between students, sponsors, local organizations, governmental agencies and other universities to develop solutions to a variety of contemporary environmental problems, thus providing opportunities for a diverse population of AACC students to gain hands-on work experience.

    The EC supports the activities of Annapolis’s Spa Creek Conservancy and riverkeepers across the region, with water testing, environmental analysis, conservation research, expert testimony and much more. In recent years, the DF has been particularly proud to underwrite a multi-year study — the first of its kind — of best practices for the harvesting, processing and dissemination of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), underwater grasses of critical importance to the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

  • CSC 2025: Portland

    CSC 2025: Portland

    Our inquiry into the possibility of a streetcar for Annapolis is picking up steam. Building on an extensive research project that began in 2024, the DF, in April 2025, led a delegation from Annapolis and Anne Arundel County to Portland for the annual summit of the Community Streetcar Coalition — a non-profit coalition that, for more than 20 years, has been supporting municipalities that have or are interested in building a downtown streetcar system. Our delegation (funded by a DF grant and costing taxpayers nothing) had representatives from the city and county councils, the offices of the Mayor and County Executive, Annapolis and County Transit, the Resilience Authority, the Annapolis business community and the tourism bureau. That’s a lot of folks wanting to learn about how streetcars promote sustainable urban development!

    And learn? Did we ever. The 2025 streetcar summit was a firehose of information provided by transit engineers, policymakers, builders, regulators and 20 different cities, large and small, that have streetcar systems currently in operation. We learned about:

    • planning and zoning to make the most of a streetcar system
    • designing your transit system to feed a streetcar
    • engineering, route planning and design
    • maintenance, scheduling and safety
    • different models for system governance
    • fare vs. fare-free (“open-platform”) systems
    • funding instruments like TIFs (Tax Increment Financing) and TDDs (Transportation Development Districts)
    • the pros and cons of federal funding
    • And so much more!

    But the #1 takeaway from this conference for our delegation was that these things WORK — their capacity to stimulate sustainable urban (re)development is tremendous. City after city showed how their streetcar turned surface parking lots and underdeveloped commercial areas — or in many cases, industrial brownfields — into vibrant, healthy, tax-revenue-generating neighborhoods.

    It’s not magic. We heard a dozen cautions and caveats: your community needs to have adequate size and density; it needs to have done its planning and zoning homework; construction and funding are challenges that must be met. But there’s a reason that more than two dozen American cities have (re)built these systems over the past 30-odd years: they work. They’re possibly the single most powerful tool at a city’s disposal to spur smart, intentional, sustainable development. And they address a raft of city challenges all at once: they improve traffic and parking problems, they’re environmentally friendly, they help fix affordable housing problems and they generate significant new municipal revenue. They’re expensive, but they generate a commensurately high return, both in literal revenue and in incidental benefits like housing.

    Is a streetcar right for Annapolis? We don’t know, of course! That’s the point. At CSC 2025, we learned just how much more we need to learn. But everyone in the delegation came away from the conference knowing one thing: we’re not crazy for looking into this. Considering how positive its impact on the city could be — and the crucial role it would play in linking a Chesapeake ferry at our brand-new City Dock to new express BRT from Parole to Washington — we’d be crazy not to.

    To that end, the delegation agreed that our next step is to commission a feasibility study from a transit engineering firm to research the physical possibility and financial practicality of this concept. The Resilience Authority, in consultation with city, county and MDOT officials, will prepare the RFP for the study. And to continue insuring that this inquiry comes at minimal cost to taxpayers, the DF has formally pledged to fund a substantial portion of this study, should it come to pass.

    Stay tuned!

  • Sweden follow-up: RA report

    Sweden follow-up: RA report

    In February 2025, The Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County delivered its final report on the 2024 Climate Change and Sustainability Tour to Sweden. Discussing why we went, the report notes Sweden’s:

    • electric mass transit and electric ferry technology,
    • bike-friendly cities and integrated mobility,
    • climate-smart urban planning,
    • ethos of retrofitting and repurposing,
    • community engagement in infrastructure projects,
    • closed-loop resource systems to minimize waste and promote reuse, and
    • policy frameworks that incentivize investment in green technologies, sustainable practices, and responsible land use.

    Better still, the RA has followed up on a number of examples of ways in which delegation members have already implemented lessons learned in Sweden, including:

    • Based on Sweden’s approach to sustainable and multimodal transit, Annapolis is taking steps to enhance its system with the deployment of two electric buses, launch of a local-area electric ferry, the potential feasibility of streetcar service and “car-free” days downtown
    • The RA incorporated lessons from Stockholm Royal Seaport into two EPA Challenge Grant Applications: Glen Burnie Town Center Redevelopment and the City of Annapolis’ Redevelopment and Connectivity Initiatives.
    • The RA is working with the Stockholm Environment Institute to develop a computerized modeling tool for that integrates emissions data, simulated responses and economic analysis to aid in project planning in Anne Arundel County.
    • Inspired by Stockholm Royal Seaport’s zero-waste principles, the RA is working with research and private-sector partners to incorporate “zero-waste” solutions and soil amendments for stormwater management, carbon sequestration and ecosystem restoration.

    The full report is available here.

  • A trolley for Annapolis?

    A trolley for Annapolis?

    In the wake of two sustainability study missions, the DF in late 2024 undertook a research project to help investigate the possibility of a trolley (aka streetcar) for Annapolis. Visiting some dozen streetcar systems and museums across the eastern US, the DF met with system operators, technicians and executive directors and in 2025 delivered its initial report.

    Since then, the DF has helped organize an informal working group to further investigate the feasibility of a trolley for Annapolis. The trolley workgroup is comprised of civic groups and government agencies that would be most directly impacted. The workgroup’s efforts uncovered a 2009 transit feasibility study expressly calling for future consideration of streetcar service in Annapolis.

    Is that future now?

    It might be. In the past 20 years, scores of US cities have re-installed streetcar systems to support downtown revitalization, improve pedestrian safety, facilitate sustainable transit and relieve traffic congestion. Historic or vintage streetcars in particular tend to be popular. By and large, the reintroduction of streetcar systems in the US has been a success, combating the siloed communities spawned by urban sprawl with a high-interaction community model that hearkens back to the small towns of 1940s America. But it remains to be seen whether a streetcar system would be a practical, desirable and cost-effective transit solution for a small city like Annapolis.

    Other small cities, like Little Rock and Kenosha, have successful historic streetcar systems. And there are larger cities, like Dallas and Tampa, that have small vintage streetcar systems (less than 5mi) that are immensely popular. While Annapolis proper is a small city, it has high-density suburbs, is the seat of state government and has unusually high tourist traffic owing to its many historical attractions. And there have been dramatic infrastructure developments both downtown and in the suburbs since the 2009 study.

    Annapolis could be a candidate. The DF will continue to partner with the trolley workgroup to help determine if a formal transit feasibility study is warranted. In the meantime, it’s inspiring to imagine the positive impact something like this might have:

  • Sweden follow-up: awards

    Sweden follow-up: awards

    Pursuant to the Sweden study tour, Patrick Denker and Matthew Earl, directors of the Denker and MHE Foundations respectively, were honored to receive a 2024 City of Annapolis award from Mayor Gavin Buckley and the Annapolis City Council for “leadership toward a resilient and sustainable future for our community.” (Pictured left to right: Mayor Gavin Buckley, Matt, Patrick, Alderman DaJuan Gay, Alderman Rob Savidge.)

  • Netherlands 2023 Resilience Study Tour

    Netherlands 2023 Resilience Study Tour

    In 2023, the DF helped support the City of Annapolis’ study mission to the Netherlands to research two public-benefit topics of crucial interest to Annapolis and Maryland: biking infrastructure and flood control/prevention — topics you’d be hard-pressed to learn more about, anywhere in the world, than in the Netherlands. The delegation of 14 included Maryland Secretary of Planning Rebecca Flora, disaster risk reduction director Sara Bender, members of the City Council and others. The Dutch Cycling Embassy and the Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County were instrumental in organizing and executing the tour.

    And what we learned was invaluable. We cycled to all our meetings, of course — the Dutch cycle everywhere — and were able to see, in use, all the theories the Dutch have developed about best practices for cycling infrastructure.

    Tanya Asman, Bicycle and Pedestrian Planner at Anne Arundel County, was with us on the tour, which gave fresh impetus to the county’s ambitious expansion of its county-wide bike trails system.

    Another highlight of the tour was our visit to this incredible parking lot buried under sand dunes (reconstructed to combat sea level rise) in Katwijk an Zee. As you walk out toward the beach, you see nothing but the unspoiled landscape of sand dunes, a natural sea-level barrier, interrupted here and there by small weathered steel entrances into the 663-car parking facility buried underneath.

    And of course the delegation visited countless flood mitigation and rising-sea-level prevention structures. The Netherlands has an abundance of both. On the one hand, it must combat rainfall and river flooding from continental Europe to the east. One remarkable system in Rotterdam leveraged construction of an underground parking garage, to which was added a huge stormwater storage basin.

    On the other hand, there is the ever-present threat of rising sea levels. A quarter of the Netherlands — literally, “the low-lying lands” — lies below sea level, and the Dutch have been wresting their nation from the sea for thousands of years. The Dutch regional water boards are among the oldest continuously functioning democratic institutions in the world, with origins dating back to the 12th century. And flood control measures like the world-famous Maeslant Barrier are among the engineering marvels of the modern world.

    Like two Eiffel towers lying on their sides, supporting giant walls that swing into the Rhine to block it, the scale of the Maeslant Barrier is impossible to convey in a photograph.

    For an outstanding video summary of the mission, see here. And for the full presentation to the City Council, here.

  • Water testing

    Water testing

    The Denker Foundation began working with the Spa Creek Conservancy in 2019. The DF supports SCC by both grants and volunteer work, assisting marine biologists from Anne Arundel Community College to gather and test water samples on Annapolis’ Spa and Back Creeks every year. Water sampling involves measuring water temperature, salinity, suspended solids, pH, dissolved oxygen, and bacteria levels. Suspended solids, for example, indicate how far sunlight can penetrate into water, thereby permitting the growth of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). Oxygen indicates the presence of SAV and is crucial for sustaining aquatic life. Bacteria levels determine whether water is safe to swim in.

    Conservancies and riverkeepers all around the Chesapeake have been taking water samples to monitor Chesapeake Bay water health for many years. SCC has been water testing on Spa Creek for many years. Water samples are processed in the Marine laboratory at AACC and results are published to the general public.

    The DF supports Spa Creek Conservancy in other ways. For more information, click here.