Bowie's 1st African-American Mayor Taking On Development, Housing

BOWIE, MD — When Timothy Adams won the Bowie mayoral race earlier this month — an office held by G. Frederick Robinson for 21 years — he became the first black mayor in the city's history. And the significance of that is not something he takes lightly.

"It's exciting," Adams said in an interview with Patch, referring both to that big first for the city and the fact that there hasn't been a new mayor in Bowie since the 1990s. "There's always some trepidation for change with people. I think we've come to understand change can be good, so being the first African-American mayor, you have to embrace that."

Adams was sworn into office on Monday. A businessman and relative political outsider, he has lived in Bowie for the past 25 years. He is the founder of System Application & Technologies, Inc., a provider of operations and maintenance, logistics, program management, and investigations services for a variety of Department of Defense agencies. He is a former chairman of the Bowie State Education Foundation.

Adams pledged to "hear the voices of the citizens of Bowie" by starting a series of "listening sessions" throughout the city every couple of weeks.

"I want to make sure that, as we move forward, we make sure that people feel they're engaged and their voices are heard," he said. "As we were out campaigning, that was one of the things that kept resonating with the citizens."

The second thing Adams says he is focusing on is the city's economic situation, particularly when it comes to development.

"There are concerns, as we all know, that big box stores are not quite as competitive as they used to be — not only here, but around the nation because of the online situation," he said. "So we have to look at what we can do economically."

A third primary focus is to stop "over-development" in the city, Adams said. Specifically, he is concerned about dense housing developments which he says put an overly large burden on infrastructure and impact the quality of life in the city.

Adams will set up a task force soon to focus on economic development in the city as well as examine why businesses decided to leave in the first place.

"And we're making sure we're talking to local and state delegations on what we can do to help improve economic development," he said.

By the end of his term, Adams says ultimately he hopes to have been successful in creating "one Bowie" where the city is united in its vision and communicating to the county and the state what is in the city's best interests. The second thing he hopes to accomplish is to create an economic environment where the city no longer has to dip into its reserves or raises taxes in order to balance the budget.

"What that will require is that we don't simply rely on dense development to make that happen, but true economic development in bringing in businesses," he said.

But it's not just policies Adams believes will make a difference. He hopes his identity not just as an African-American but also as someone who uses a wheelchair and is personally affected by disability issues will bring positive change to Bowie.

"Accessibility is important," he said. "I think looking through my eyes about accessibility is a little different from someone who may not have a disability."

He said he was happy that the tree lighting ceremony on Dec. 1 was moved from Belair Mansion to City Hall this year, because it would make it would make the event more accessible. In the past, he was "hesitant" to come out for that reason.

He hopes that his mayoral win inspires the next generation in Bowie.

"We often say, 'Wow, we're still talking about firsts,'" he said. "But that's OK. I hope for many, it becomes an inspiration, and to know that anything is possible, I think that sends a terrific message from the city of Bowie that we are rising to our point that race doesn't matter.

"Hopefully, the city can just look for who is the best leader at the time," he added.