Photo by Caleb Winters
By CHARLOTTE KANNER
Former City Councilmember Bob Catlin hasn’t had a seat on the dais since 2013 but still sometimes attends council meetings—to keep everyone informed about the city’s history.
During the three minutes any citizen may speak at a regular Tuesday evening meeting, Catlin has shared brief reflections about the number of homicides and pedestrian fatalities throughout the city’s history, the evolution of the council, and former councilmembers who still live in College Park, among other tidbits of trivia.
“I’ve always been interested in history and policies and why things work the way they do,” Catlin said. “I think you need to understand that in order to make your decisions in the future.”
Catlin represented District 2 as a councilmember from 1997 to 2013, serving as mayor pro tem for his final nine years. He ran again—unsuccessfully—in 2021.
Along the way, he has remained active in civic life.
“He has been very involved for a long time and in different ways in the city, and I think that speaks to his appreciation for living here and wanting to be engaged,” said Councilmember Llatetra Brown Esters (District 2), who met Catlin in 2020 when she was considering running for office.
As a volunteer, Catlin, 71, serves on the city’s Vacant and Blighted Properties Committee and the College Park Housing Authority. In addition, he is co-president of the Berwyn District Civic Association (BDCA), for which he writes a monthly newsletter column.
The former economist said he ran for office because he was disappointed that the opening of the Metro in College Park did not jump-start development in the city. He wanted to understand why.
“I came here because I thought things would change,” Catlin said. “The Metro opened in December of ’93 and nothing happened. … So that led me to get on the city council in ’97. I said, ‘Nothing’s happening. What’s going on here?’”
During his time on the council, Catlin helped pass a temporary rent control ordinance in response to a student housing shortage, he said. Catlin added that the council initially passed the measure with a five-year sunset clause, but it lasted more than a decade and withstood a legal challenge in Maryland’s highest court.
Catlin also represented Lakeland, a historically Black neighborhood devastated in the 1960s and ’70s by urban renewal. He serves on the city’s Restorative Justice Commission, which deals with a topic he said was too sensitive to publicly address while he was in office.
“Now that pretty much everybody who was an adult back then has died, they’re trying to address it,” Catlin said.
The civic leader retired from the federal government in 2004, which allowed for deeper involvement in city government, Catlin said. As a retiree, he often attended daytime meetings around the city and took on duties that councilmembers who were still working full time couldn’t, he added.
“I typically put in 25 or 30 hours,” Catlin said. A council job is considered part-time and most councilmembers have other full-time jobs.
Kevin Young, a longtime resident of College Park’s Berwyn neighborhood and a former BDCA co-president, described Catlin as a “go-to authority” on real estate and local policy.
“Bob has always been a hard worker,” Young said. “He always has had the best interest of the town.”
Esters said Catlin’s efforts make a difference.
“He values the idea of people having [a] voice and he also values the history of the community,” Esters said.
Efforts to preserve the Berwyn neighborhood history included digitizing more than 3,500 pages of civic association newsletters dating back to 1974. Catlin recovered past newsletters last year with help from neighbors, including Young, and published them online after securing a grant from the city.
In 1989, Catlin bought his Berwyn home, which previously belonged to a horticulturist who managed the White House grounds, he said. The property includes more than 200 trees and plants, some reportedly sourced from presidential homes, Catlin said.
“My attic still has the indoor/outdoor carpet that was used when one of the Johnson daughters got married at the White House,” he said.
Catlin described himself as a policy wonk and introvert who stays busy with neighborhood walks, yardwork, city meetings and occasional lunches with longtime residents like Russell Robinette, who has picked up trash throughout the city for more than 20 years.
“Even though I’m retired, I try to learn new things,” Catlin said.
“I try not to be set in my ways.”
Although he admitted that he sometimes entertained thoughts of retiring from politics, he ran for election eight times until giving up his seat in 2013, occasionally when no one else expressed interest in running for the next two-year term.
“People used to get their arms twisted into running,” Catlin said. “You had to find someone who hadn’t lived here too long—someone you could still convince.”
Even post-retirement, Catlin said, “There’s always things to be involved in. Things don’t work right if people aren’t involved.”