The Plan to Strengthen a Community

51-year-old district 1 Councilmember Fazlul Kabir wasn’t nervous when he ran for a second time in the 2011 College Park city council elections. The councilmember, who had lost 2 years before, knew exactly what he needed to improve.

“In my first election, I lost by quite a big margin. People didn’t know me so it gave me the opportunity to get to know the residents,” Kabir said.

Kabir, who initially ran for the seat in 2009, lost the election by 81 votes, but he didn’t allow that to keep him from making an impact in district 1.

“I saw many opportunities to contribute to the neighborhood,” said Kabir.

Between his first and second elections, he noticed that residents tended to react to a familiar face, one they felt comfortable enough to approach with their neighborhood issues.

“I got in touch with many residents and had an opportunity to serve them,” he added.

He began engaging in a number of different activities and projects to help the city.

The councilmember created a blog called Kabir Cares, volunteered with the North College Park Citizens Association, the Free Snow Shoveling Brigade Service, the neighborhood watch, and more, which made all the difference in the winning of his second election in 2011 and re-election in 2013.

Apart from city council, Kabir is the Senior Project Manager in a federal project and teaches at the University of Maryland College Park (UMD).

“By 2011, the residents had actually noticed me working. I think the difference was, at first I was a fresh face so the time in between gave me the opportunity to learn how things work,” Kabir said.

The councilmember also helped with the creation of one of his most infamous projects, College Park Day.

The annual community day was created in 2009 by Kabir, his fellow councilmember Patrick Woajahn, and a UMD student. The councilmember, who was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said he felt he could identify with community members who were born out of the USA, and he believed a community day would be able to unite them.

As word got out that the council members wanted to create the event, Kabir received an outpour of emails on his blog from residents wanting to help.

“Everything was organized by the residents and we have such a diverse population in the city so it was nice to have all of the residents come together,” said Kabir. “With the help of the residents, the event has grown quite a bit,” he added.

“We’re grateful to have College park Day in the city, because we went years without a community day. But we’re even more grateful that the council members listened to the residents,” said Kimberly Clark, a resident of the city.

Strengthening the communication between residents and council members was also one of Kabir’s missions when he took the seat. He wanted residents to feel comfortable enough to voice their opinions in front of the council members.

“Their voices are very important, because often I rely on what they think about the issues, to help make my job a lot easier with decision making,” said Kabir.

The city council put in place a number of options designed to help the residents. These options included newsletters, online forums, daily emails, city council meetings, a neighborhood association and Kabir’s blog.

Jackson Henry, a College Park resident, found the online forums to be the most helpful.

“I use the online forum, anytime I can’t make a council meeting,” said Henry. It gave me the option of voicing my concerns through email, when I couldn’t physically make it to the meetings,” Henry added.

One of the concerns residents and councilmember Kabir shared was the issue of slow development on Route 1, one of the busiest and most popular roadways in College Park.

The councilmember saw the potential for development that he believed was overlooked by the government. But because Route 1 is was not owned by city of College Park, the council members had to work with state officials for improvements.

Since then, Kabir has announced there will be sidewalks built on both sides of the road, which residents have wanted for a long time.

“Walking alongside traffic on Route 1 is dangerous,” said Mary Sutton, a resident of the city. “I’m glad the city is going to do something about it,” she added.

Councilmember Kabir also noticed there were a number of residents who felt public safety was an issue in their neighborhood.

“I realized that there was big talk about this in the city and something had to be done,” said Kabir.

The councilmember urged residents to help the city council brainstorm ideas on how to keep the people of College Park safe.

“I’ve noticed more police patrols in the shopping centers and on Route 1,” said resident Patrick Greenfield. “It gives me the sense of protection.”

The councilmember also said the poor public safety issues and slow development on Route 1 were giving the city a bad image.

Since Kabir’s election in 2011, the city has seen a decrease in violent crime. Also three buildings were demolished on Route 1, to make space for new developments. The councilmember along with volunteers, created a farmer’s market on Route 1 to attract residents to shop in the surrounding businesses as well.

In the future, Kabir hopes to see more developments on Route 1, an even stronger relationship between residents and city council, larger turnouts for College Park Day, and some of the lowest numbers in crime in the area.