View from the Bridge

At around six pm last night I took a walk somewhere I had never walked before.

I've been putting it off, I'll admit.

It's not exactly a welcoming path.

You feel isolated.

Closed in.

You wonder if you are really safe.

It seems crazy that Columbia is divided like this: a highway runs through it, and nothing to unite it but rust, peeling paint, and cracked cement. Columbia deserves better.

Do you want a better bridge? I do.

We need to help our community leaders understand how this bridge will serve not just the areas directly on either side, but will be a valuable link in ongoing plans to connect residents from Blandair Park to Howard Community College and Howard County General Hospital. Columbia has many beautiful pathways which are lovely for recreational use. Bridge Columbia takes this one step further by providing a pathway to get people where they need to go: to work, to shop, to study. The Bridge will improve area transit times, save fuel, and create a safe and appealing route for bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

Get involved. Go to the website and learn more. We're all grateful for what James Rouse did to create Columbia. He left this piece for us to complete. Are we up to the task?

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Comments

Teacher Gifts

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Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!” We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...

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