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I am glad The Diamondback is covering much of the progress happening in our community. Together, College Park, the university, Prince George’s County, the College Park City-University Partnership and others are working to transform our area.

We are making great progress maintaining and increasing the strength and stability of neighborhoods, the vibrancy and revitalization of commercial areas, the city’s pedestrian and bike friendliness, improvements in transit and Route 1, our work with local public schools and the overall safety and sustainability of our community.

That is why The Diamondback’s June 18 editorial, “Better redevelopment efforts,” was puzzling. In addition to errors ­­— the new Domain College Park apartments are 98 percent leased, not “low occupancy,” for instance — the editorial board’s perspective shortchanged the unprecedented degree of collaboration and progress that is occurring in the city.

The level of energy in the community and the recognition that College Park is on the move is higher than I have ever seen in my 20-plus years in College Park. Together, we are implementing the University District Vision 2020 that calls for College Park to be a top-20 university community by 2020. We are making strides in each of the five areas of focus. Some of our accomplishments to date include:

1. Transportation. Progress on our goals to build the Purple Line light-rail and rebuild Route 1 were just announced by Gov. Larry Hogan. This year, MARC train service to College Park was expanded with four new daily stops. We continue to grow our local bike paths, and improve pedestrian safety and bus transit, like the “Route 1 Ride.”

2. Housing and Redevelopment. There is $540 million in active private investment, including 525 new hotel rooms in three separate projects; 748 apartments and 45 townhouses in three developments; 2,322 new student beds in construction; and an overall total of 115,922 square feet of planned retail coming to the city. The launch of our Home Ownership Program is evidence of the city, university and state working together to attract those who work at the university to also live in the city.

3. Education. The city and university established a public charter school, College Park Academy, which just finished its second successful year, and students are performing well above both local and state academic levels on the Maryland School Assessment.

4. Public Safety. Our collaborative goals resulted in the university expanding its area of police jurisdiction and Code of Student Conduct; the city increased its public safety cameras and we are working with the State Highway Administration and Pepco to increase lighting along Route 1.

5. Sustainability. The city, university and community have worked on efforts including a new community garden, advancement in clean energy and several farmers markets.

Does our community face challenges? Absolutely. But far from being insurmountable, as suggested, we are taking them on and moving College Park forward.

Eric Olson is the executive director of the College Park City-University Partnership. He can be reached at eolson@collegeparkpartnership.org.