Mapping The Budget: West Hyattsville Blues

Council members Ruth Ann Frazier (Ward 5) and Paula Perry (Ward 4) both Mayor Marc Tartaro's because it does not invest heavily enough in West Hyattsville. 

And when the spending is plotted on a map, it's hard to disagree. Perry noted that the only real infrastructure improvements called for in her ward in the five year, $9.1 million budget planning document was the construction of bicycle lanes on Nicholson. Frazier criticized what she saw as the city's over-emphasis on the Route 1 side of town at the expense of the neighborhoods in the Queens Chapel and Ager Road corridor. 

"I want some money spent in ward 4 and ward 5," said Frazier. "Forget about the bbt building, and forget about the arcade building, and put up something for people to enjoy."

The issue takes on racial and ethnic implications when one considers that West Hyattsville contains the largest concentration of Hispanic residents in the entire city. Ward 5 is home to the three most heavily Hispanic census blocks in the city. 

Those very implications informed a recent debate about