Mayor Patrick Wojahn. Image from the candidate's Facebook page.

Unlike many of its fellow towns which host flagship state universities, College Park has not quite known what it wanted to be. Should it be a quintessential college town with a downtown area catering to students? Or was it more of a strip mall suburb where people drive to and from a somewhat commuter-oriented state school?

What College Park did share with its counterparts was an often heated town-gown debate, with residents both appreciating and fearing the presence of many 18-to-22 year-olds and (fearing to a lesser extent) graduate students.

In recent years, College Park and the university have collectively found a path forward that eluded it for many years. It has worked to revitalize its downtown and the Route 1 (Baltimore Aveune) corridor. It’s added new student housing near campus; a new City Hall, now in progress; and new arts venues including live music.

It has built a trail, known as the Trolley Trail, along the former trolley right of way on and near Rhode Island Avenue. It has a Complete Streets policy. College Park is has been transforming itself into a multimodal, walkable, vibrant place.

This comes, in part, thanks to both a school administration less hostile to walkable urbanism and elected College Park leaders who have a vision, including current mayor Patrick Wojahn. They’ve collaborated on creating an Innovation District along the route of the future Purple Line, and created a City-University Partnership.

Wojahn served on the city council as one of the district members for eight years and then the last four years as mayor. During that time, he helped spearhead, support, or shepherd many of these initiatives.

Like many of our region’s smaller cities, College Park has a Council-City Manager form of government. Voters elect a part-time council including (in the case of College Park) eight members from individual districts and one at-large as leader of the council, who has the title of mayor. The council hires a city manager, a full-time employee who manages the various departments and prepares a budget for council review and approval, under the mayor’s leadership.

Maryland’s main elections happen in even years, but many of its municipalities vote in odd years. In Prince George’s County, cities voting on November 5 are Bowie, College Park, Greenbelt, and Laurel. (Next door in Montgomery County, there’s a competitive election in Rockville and an uncontested one in Gaithersburg.)

Wojahn’s day job is Director of Government Relations for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, where he advocates for public funding for active transportation and trails in Congress and the Maryland state government in Annapolis. He previously worked for a disability rights group, where he was attuned to accessibility issues in transportation.

As councilmember and mayor, he led College Park to enact its Complete Streets policy and pushed Prince George’s County to let the city install pedestrian safety features on Rhode Island Avenue crosswalks. Wojahn’s website says, “The county had been resistant to installing any new pedestrian safety measures on Rhode Island Ave., but Patrick worked with city staff and his council colleagues to develop an agreement with the county where the city could install several new pedestrian signals. These features have made it easier for residents to safely cross Rhode Island Ave. by bike or by foot, especially near Duvall Field and Hollywood Elementary School.”

He has pushed for “quality redevelopment” in College Park which brings businesses and jobs to the city that serve both college students and adults, such as new hotels, a WeWork (Maryland’s first), the MilkBoy ArtHouse performance venue, and a downtown City Hall.

Wojahn faces two opponents. One, Lalzarliani Malsawma, said at a forum she ran because Wojahn is openly gay, and his efforts to make the city welcoming to LGBTQ individuals was “totally against” her “Christian beliefs.” As she listed other gay elected officials, the Diamondback’s Eric Neugeboren reported, “Almost half of the about 40 people in attendance turned their backs as she spoke, and a handful of them walked out.”

A candidate running on substantive differences, not homophobia, is resident Nikesha Pancho. She said at a recent forum, “More density that we put downtown is going to add more traffic,” Neugeboren reported. To the contrary, downtown housing cuts on traffic by enabling people to walk to destinations instead of driving long distances.

On the other hand, at a different forum, Pancho said a solution to traffic is “additional bike lanes and an emphasis on car-free transportation,” a stance Wojahn shared. (Malsawma’s idea was “aerial gondolas.”)

Wojahn has a track record of moving College Park in the right direction and forging support for these initiatives from residents and the university alike. We recommend voters give Patrick Wojahn another term as mayor.

This is the official endorsement of Greater Greater Washington. All endorsements are decided by our volunteer Elections Committee with input from our staff, board, and other volunteer committees.