Rehoboth is best when cars are left at home
As the election campaign heats up for mayor and commissioner of Rehoboth Beach, much of the talk appears to center on personalities and style.
No matter who wins the election next month, it’s critical that the mayor and council continue to protect and promote the city’s small-town charm.
All the candidates say they value Rehoboth’s allure, but it will take serious effort by a majority of the board to ensure Rehoboth’s future.
Several initiatives backed by outgoing Commissioner Dennis Barbour remain key to the city’s future. Whatever problems led him to step down, others must step up and move forward with efforts he supported in recent years: reducing traffic, promoting walking and cycling, preserving and improving the city’s tree canopy and maintaining reasonable limits on building size.
Traffic already approaches gridlock on summer weekends. This will only get worse unless Rehoboth actively promotes other ways of accessing its Boardwalk, beaches, restaurants and stores. A study is now under way on the feasibility of a water taxi, using the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal to link those two towns, an effort that must be expanded to include Milton, Dewey Beach and even Georgetown and points west.
Rehoboth should play a leading role in urging the development of safe cycling routes throughout the resort area and beyond, and encouraging rental bike and similar concession, so people can ride the water taxi from Lewes into town and then bike to the Boardwalk or out to Gordon’s Pond along streets guaranteed to be shady because the trees are protected.
Only a few years ago, such ideas would have been written off as flaky West Coast tree-hugging. But as more and more people crowd Cape Region streets and beaches, they take on great urgency.
No matter who wins the upcoming elections, the Cape Region, with historic towns and picturesque byways, is perfectly situated to become a model of walkable, bikable communities, a place where residents can leave their cars home because they can easily access boats, buses or bicycles that will take them everywhere they wish to go.
