Village Green/Town²

Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman will be holding his first Town Hall Meeting tonight at the Other Barn in the Village of Oakland Mills, Columbia. This is pretty exciting from a Village Green/Town Squared perspective (where Columbia and Howard County intersect.) How ironic that I have a prior commitment driving my daughter to a mandatory rehearsal in Towson. Colossal blogger fail. I hope you will go and bring me up to date. Although public meetings in Oakland Mills in the last several years haven't always shown residents at their best, I'm hoping this one will draw a wider audience with a more varied perspective. Whether you go or not, I want to point out how incredibly lucky we are in Howard County to have the Other Barn. We don't have many large community spaces in Howard County. Large indoor performances happen mostly at the Rouse Theater. Outdoors? Merriweather. Large community charitable events used to be held in the old Rouse Building--now the site of our new Wh...

From Twitter on 3/28/15: @JulieZauzmer: I've been to all 91 DC Metro stations. My essay in @washingtonpost on memory, community, & even romance on @wmata. @Lawrence_n_DC: @juliezauzmer @washingtonpost @wmata If you were actually born and raised in the District, I'd probably care. @JulieZauzmer: @Lawrence_n_DC Fair. We can't help where we're born. I can try my best to learn deeply and sincerely about a place, but never the same. Boom. Remind you of anything ? "How long have you lived in Columbia?" And I thought this was principally a Columbia phenomenon. No, apparently there will always be someone ready to smack you down if you don't meet their qualifications for residency. What a pity. I share it here because 1) I loved her article, and 2) her response is brilliant. She acknowledged that there is a distinction between her experience and that of the "born and raised here" resident, but notes: We can't help where we're born. I...

This blog pays frequent visits to locations on the lunatic fringe. There's my advocacy for HiPiHoCo . There's my friendship with GingerBread Girl. I've waxed eloquent about Wacky Wednesdays . I've likened local residents to oddly-shaped grains of sand . It's not all straightforward over here at VG/TS, and I like it that way. It's no surprise that I jumped on the Col Gateway Twitter account with glee. This is the kind of stuff I live for--local, silly, a little bit mysterious. I love those quirky things that make Columbia and Howard County different, more interesting than our neighbors in Maryland. I've written about our illustrious Colonel twice. ( Here and here .) I even had the opportunity to chip in my two cents in Amanda Yeager's Columbia Flier article about the Col Gateway phenomenon . As you can see, in my second post I suggested: Okay, here's what I think. It's time for ADG Creative to reach out to Jessie Newburn to arrange to host a loc...

I have been teaching long enough that my original students are now adults. Young adults, mind you, but adults nonetheless. Many are college graduates. One is married with a baby. One is a professional ballet dancer. I follow their progress on social media. Yes, some people actually "friend" their preschool and kindergarten teachers.   Occasionally I will search around on Facebook to see if I can find former students and see how they are doing. It's so amazing to see how they have grown, what they look like, what studies they have been pursuing. It's also pretty amazing to see how many of them keep in contact with friends they made at the small independent school where I taught them so many years ago.   This week as I lay around in the throes of a head cold, I made another such pilgrimage around Facebook to check on those former preschoolers and kindergarteners. One of them seemed to have disappeared. Well, Facebook isn't as popular as it used to be amongst the yo...

In reading the Blair Ames article about this year's annual educators' survey, I came across this quote from school system spokesperson Rebecca Amani-Dove:   "Without full knowledge of the methodology behind the results including how it was administered, how it was communicated and which research group developed the questionnaire, it is hard to comment on it beyond saying that, ultimately, the results demonstrate everything we expect a union sponsored survey to say," she said in an email. Wow. Just wow. First, how many people do you think had a hand in crafting that statement? (You know what they say about the horse, the camel, and the committee.) What a mouthful! Let's translate. We don't like the results of this survey, so we are going to say everything we can to discredit the survey, the results, and, ultimately, the teachers' union itself. School system management actions certainly back up this translation. How much money have they spent purchasing a p...

Where is the center of town? You know, Downtown Columbia. Is it the Mall? Whole Foods? CA Headquarters? The People Tree? If you read a lot, you may see Central Library as the hub around which other things are placed, whereas if you frequently attend concerts and plays you may think of the Rouse Theater as the center. Swimmers--Splashdown. Walkers--the path around Lake Kittamaqundi. What about Merriweather? Or Symphony Woods? There was a time when Jessie Newburn of Totally HoCo posited the theory that the Dobbin Road Starbucks was true center. And the homeless and jobless have often planted themselves at the intersection of Dobbin and Route 175. Is that the true center--a highly-frequented center of commerce? Of course we all know that Columbia was not meant to be a city or town in the old-school, traditional sense. It's not built on a neatly-formed grid with streets running north/south. It's not centered around government buildings like a Town Hall or a Courthouse. No, the New...

Oh, Spring, where are you? I've been home sick since Saturday morning, and not with Spring Fever, mind you, but a real knock-down-and-drag-out head cold. Apparently there was some sunshine Monday on my birthday. I missed it. I crawled out of the house this morning to drive my daughter to school and there was frost on my windshield. Ugh. It will get better, I tell myself. Spring is just around the corner. This morning's encouragement comes from blogger AnnieRie, of AnnieRie Unplugged: Life in the Slow Lane. In her post " Spring Visitors " she presents an assortment of places to take visitors from out of town in the Springtime. She gives plenty of choices that show Howard County at its best. Just reading it made me feel a little bit less gloomy. One of my favorite Spring things is the Lunchtime Concert Series at the Lakefront. It's a perfect time to catch the People Tree in bloom. Do you have any other Columbia-centric Spring traditions? I'd love to hear them....

"How long have you lived in Columbia, Julia?" Again. Again with the age-old question. I had expressed a positive point of view about plans for the Crescent neighborhood and I was almost immediately called out for doing so. You can see the conversation here , on the Columbia, MD -- Downtown Developments Facebook page. And you can read about the Planning Board's approval of the plan , plus more in depth analysis . I have grown more than weary of being asked how long I have lived here. Do you want to know why new people who move to the area don't get more involved? Well, maybe it's because the first time they come to a meeting and express an opinion, someone asks, "well, how long have you lived here?" As though that number alone defines credibility. Ain't nobody got time for that. It is the hubris of those who believe that their New American City belongs to only a chosen few, and that it must be protected from outsiders with a zeal reserved for archeolo...

I keep coming back to this: Excite Columbia , CA's Citizen's Academy. Thanks to my newly-installed Google search-bot-thingy, I was able to instantly find what I have said in the past. In 2013, I'm still curious. Imagining this as a party, who will come? What will motivate them? How will CA reach out to the target audience, who are often disengaged from CA and community issues? Will the presentation of information be dynamic and appealing? And what will completing the program give them that they didn't have before? Will they see that and know how to use it? And again in 2014, More than anything else, my biggest question is, how do we present something like Excite Columbia so that it reaches new residents and young people?...How do we take that idea and make it "exciting" for children, young adults, and new residents? Here we are in 2015. CA is about to start a new session of Excite Columbia. I think it is a great concept. But as I look at the pictures that ac...

I'm taking a sick day--head cold extraordinaire over here. Two things you should know. Soup R Sundae to benefit Grassroots is today from 12-2. And there's a pie fight going on to benefit Bridges to Housing Stability. If you want to do that you'd better get a move on; you have to show up between 8:30 and 10 am. More rest, more fluids. And something exciting for tomorrow.   Posted with Blogsy

At a PTACHC meeting this Fall before the election, present and former board of Ed members spoke to the group about what makes a good board member. Larry Cohen was easily the most comfortable addressing the group. His personal style was relaxed and humorous. One of his comments stuck in my head. It bothered me, but I wasn't quite sure why. There are basically just a few reasons people run for the Board of Education, he explained. Either they have an agenda (or "cause"), they have ambition to seek higher political office, or they actually want to do the job in the way it is supposed to be done. It was said in such a pleasant way that one could assume any Board members in the room were of the third category. And well, as to the others, we just weren't going to name names. Overall, the impression I got from that evening was that Board of Ed members had very little power, exercised their power not through collaborating with stakeholders but by following rules and doing w...

So Allan Kittleman has been in office for over a hundred days now, and folks are writing pieces about how he's shaping up as County Executive. Since it hasn't been all that long, we're faced with a limited sampling of what he's actually done, and how he's done it. And for those of us writing opinion pieces, as opposed to journalists, we're also bringing past experiences and preconceived notions into the mix. My past experiences and preconceived notions prompt me to compare the County Executive I know the most about, Ken Ulman, to the newer model. It's hard to forget Mr. Ulman, after all. He had two terms to work himself into the public consciousness. And he continues to find his way into the news in his new position working with the University of Maryland to make College Park an inviting environment for high tech businesses, start-ups, and entrepreneurs. Gone but not forgotten. Hardly gone, even. Ah, Ken Ulman. "Not your father's Oldsmobile,...

Did I ever tell you the story about the waterbed? Actually, it's more of a story about me, and the first time I tried to sleep on a waterbed. It was the 4th of July after a concert and fireworks at Tanglewood and the decision was made to find a hotel and stay put rather than drive back to Connecticut. At check-in, much to my surprise, a choice was offered: regular bed or waterbed? Ooh! I was intrigued. It was one of the worst choices I have ever made. I hadn't really taken into account that a waterbed moves . And I'm a light sleeper, so every time it moved I would wake up. So, without thinking, I used every muscle in my body to try to control the waterbed so it wouldn't move. It was exhausting. And, when I awoke in the morning, every muscle in my body hurt. All in all, it was a perfectly dreadful experience--and yet it taught me something: I'm a control freak and I hate change. And, when you think you can take it all on yourself, you will end up exhausted and in...

Monday I taught four classes with a lesson which had been achieving overwhelming success. But on Monday the results were different. The activities which had enthralled other children were found to be only so-so. The thematic thread, the glue that holds the lesson together--held little interest. It was like herding cats. "How could I have become such an overnight failure?" I wondered. All four classes had something in common. I hadn't seen these children for weeks and weeks due to snow days and Monday holidays. They're preschoolers, many with special needs, and their schedules and school time have been disrupted. And into this swirling chaos comes that nice music lady. Who was she, again? So many factors affect the classroom experience. This article , "8 Myths That Undermine Educational Effectiveness", says it well. Of course teachers are extremely important. Good teachers make a significant difference in achievement. But research indicates that less tha...

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I won't be wearing green today. I might wear orange. I imagine I'll get some comments. "Where's your green?" "Aren't you Irish?" Yes, yes. I'm Scots-Irish. And my husband is from Belfast, Northern Ireland. But when it comes to Saint Patrick's Day, it's complicated. To begin with, wearing green is a tradition that pays homage to the Roman Catholics of Ireland. And Ireland is not solely a Catholic place. (Wearing orange honors the Protestants of Ireland.) Probably the best solution would be to wear the colors of the Irish flag: green, orange, and white. Green for Catholics, orange for Protestants, and white for the peace between them. But even that is far too complicated for most Americans who celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. This article from Time describes how a religious observation of Ireland's patron saint became something else entirely. Does that mean we shouldn't celebrate? No, but it clarifies something most people do...

"Can I have your email?" We've grown used to the request in retail establishments as we go through the check out process. I don't always give out my email adress. I'll admit that I find the request somewhat intrusive, but I've gotten used to it, along with the, "Did you know you can save five per cent today if you open a credit account?" question. Anyway, let's face it, email is so last year compared to social media. Companies want to expand their reach by connecting with you, your family and network of friends and aquaintances. They want to sell you more stuff. They want to find out your purchasing preferences. They want to build brand loyalty. But not Pearson. The company that produces the PARCC exams used throughout the nation is encouraging students to provide their social media account information for a much more intrusive reason: they want to keep an eye on them. #PearsonIsWatching That's right. Pearson has partnered with a softwar...

Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.   --Camille Pissarro So we were driving down 175 towards home after a dinner at the Columbia Crossing Maiwand when my husband said, "We're so lucky to live here." It had been gray and rainy all day and we were on probably one of the most uninspiring routes in Columbia. His comment startled me. "What made you say that?" "Because we're so lucky to live here." He paused, as though that needed no explanation. Then he added, "It's safe here. And we have a home. And everything that we need." Then I thought, not of rainy days and suburban roadways, but of war-torn lands far away, and racism, violence, and hopelessness not so far away. I didn't really enjoy being jolted out of my crankiness, but I acknowledged the truth in what he was saying. We were looking at the same vista and seeing something so different. What he saw was colored by the wisdom...

I woke up the morning and heard Spring. Eyes still closed, I could feel the morning light filling the room. I knew that I had slept deliciously late and I wasn't in any hurry to get out of bed. And then I heard it: Spring. What does Spring sound like? Was it the bird singing? Was it the sound of morning rain? Maybe. It was something about the air. Something different, which transformed all of the sounds--rain, bird, footsteps, cars going by. Something warmer. A feeling of lightness. I got the feeling that something amazing was getting ready to happen. That's Spring, alright. In Columbia in Spring we get outside more. Casual pathway users join the year-round diehards as they explore neighborhood nature and visit the tot lots. People tend to their gardens, pull up the junk, buy mulch, start to plant. Oakland Mills Village has a plant sale every year on Election Day. We anticipate the opening of our Farmers Market. The beautiful color and variety of local produce stays fresh in o...

Last night was the induction ceremony for the Howard County Women's Commission Hall of Fame. As uncharacteristic as it may seem, in light of my general dislike of public functions, I not only committed to going--I actually went. I had that little talk with myself in the mirror about walking the walk, and I went. I went to support my friend Nina, who is the chair of the Commission , and I went to honor Courtney Watson, one of the five inductees. And I went to show my support for these Uncommon Women who have pushed boundaries and challenged the status quo and made things happen in Howard County. Oh, how I wish that they were all bloggers! It was heartening to see the County Council room packed for an event about women. Every day I read about so many ways, big and small, that women are abused, ignored, harassed, and underestimated. For one night in Howard County, it was all about women. From the students whose essays clearly said, "I am ready," to young women like Nina B...

I had a bad day yesterday. You know, one of those days where it feels as though the forces of darkness are winning. I went to bed feeling powerless and defeated. As I said rather plaintively on Facebook, "Bad people make me sad." But here's a ray of sunlight. This video , posted by The Globe and Mail, caught my attention yesterday. It is the story of a man who suffers from focal dystonia and how his life has been transformed through a treatment that involves music and dance. It's not long. Click the link above and watch it. As I scanned the comments, two leapt out at me. Music ..... magic in so many ways.. we aren't even close to untapping its potential. And, Thank you for sharing this. The power of music and dance is so healing. I am so happy for this man and others who have discovered that there are alternative therapies to help one heal! It is just sad that many school boards want to get rid of the music curriculum and we all know growing up with it, ev...

Spotted in a teacher's lounge in the Howard County Public Schools:   Rigor = Vigor   Really? Now teachers have to make bulletin boards to encourage eachother to do things they already know to be false? Really ?   Do you remember "Newspeak", from George Orwell's novel 1984 ? Newspeak is the fictional language in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, written by George Orwell. It is a controlled language created by the totalitarian state as a tool to limit freedom of thought, and concepts that pose a threat to the regime such as freedom, self-expression, individuality, and peace. Any form of thought alternative to the party’s construct is classified as "thoughtcrime". (from Wikipedia ) For a side-by-side comparison on the definitions of rigor and vigor, please look here . One has its roots in death, the other in life. Anyone with basic dictionary skills can work that out. The sign I saw was a part of an ongoing bulletin board project exhorting teachers to...

Today my daughter will sit for an exam that has no correlation to what she has been learning. She's in GT Geometry, and there's no test for that yet, so she'll be tested on the algebra curriculum she learned two years ago. I mean, they have to take some test, right? It doesn't really matter what, right? Yesterday I saw a five year old boy sit in a chair while he was assessed by a staff member. He sat, away from his classroom, and the adult followed a script in an even tone, pausing only to mark down his responses. It was an oral assessment of phonemic awareness skills. It seemed to go on a very long time. I found out later that the assessment is given four times in the year, plus a pre-assessment at the beginning. When I talked to the para-professionals later about the assessment, none of them felt it was developmentally appropriate. Today my husband takes his choral groups to an adjudication. It's an assessment for choirs. There will be ratings, points given and...

We went to see "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" at Oakland Mills High School yesterday afternoon. It was a fabulous production, excellent on so many fronts. But I found myself troubled by how clearly depressed Charlie Brown is. Why can't anyone see the depth of his distress? He needs much more than a nickel's worth of Lucy's pseudo psychiatric advice. It made me think of my own childhood. I often felt like Charlie Brown. And it brought to mind how I struggled with poor fine motor skills--manual dexterity, if you will. It's amazing how much of an impact that had in my overall sense of self-worth. It was a big part of what made me feel like, "I'm not like other people." Kind of like Charlie Brown. *****   I see my childhood in my hands. I remember my child-hands so clearly. Small, helpless: they didn't do what they were supposed to do. They struggled. Pale, stubby, awkward hands. And now they are older, more worn and wrinkled, they do mor...

Looking for a blog post? Me, too. Whatever that magic thing is that makes blog posts appears to be missing in action this mornng. I suspect it decided to take the day off between two am and one am, if you get my drift. I'll check back here later, in case it turns up. Posted with Blogsy

High points, low points, points of interest. Friend, local blogger , and champion of a vibrant Downtown Columbia Kirsten Litkowski-Coombs has been accepted to serve on the Town Center Village Board. Definitely a high point. All of our village boards need more people like her. (Have you turned in your candidate packet yet?) Haven on the Lake is offering free weekly workshops on Wednesdays. I think this is a great idea. Anyone want to go to one with me? Mark your calendars now for "Come Home to Howard County", the largest housing fair in the state of Maryland. This will be the 9th annual Howard County Housing Fair -- Saturday, April 11th from ten am to two pm at Wilde Lake High School, Admission is free to the community. Howard County Mobile Journalism site HoCoMoJo announced yesterday, "Excited to re-launch the HoCoMoJo network on a new platform with a host of new content and features. Look for an official announcement in the coming days!" You can support B...

Once upon a time, a long time ago, about last Tuesday, I read the news that local writer Lisa Rossi had resigned as News Editor of The American Journalism Review. She has accepted a position at The Des Moines Register in Iowa, as storytelling coach. And that means that she and her family are moving back home, home to Iowa. I'm going to miss Lisa. To be honest, I have only seen her in the flesh a handful of times, at blog parties and public functions. That cup of coffee at Lakeside I always wanted to have with her never happened. But her presence on the local scene has been significant. I've always known she was destined for great things, but I also hoped I'd get to know her better along the way. The first time I saw the name "Lisa Rossi" was as the author of articles on Columbia Patch about her impending first-time voyage into motherhood. She arrived here in the summer of 2010, and did some free-lance writing for Patch before the birth of her first son. She began...

Wading into politics here. Not an expert. This is your typical disclaimer: All opinions here are my own, no one has asked me to say them nor offered me so much as a cup of coffee to hold forth on this topic. Ahem. Senator Barbara Mikulski has announced her retirement. And the entire state of Maryland is falling all over itself analyzing the likelihood of who will run to succeed her. I gladly leave the prognostications to others. As for myself, I have one thought in my mind. It should be a woman. Don't tell me it should be whoever the most qualified candidate is. Maryland has plenty of well-qualified candidates, both male and female, and I am saying I want to see a woman win it. Not just any woman off the street, for heaven's sake. A well-qualified, constituent-serving, feisty, responsive, ready-for-prime-time woman. And, to be specific, as I am a Democrat, that matters to me, too. Women are grossly under-represented in government. And their voices need to be heard for ou...

The following quote comes from a January 24th, 2015 article on The Hill about the appearance of Dr. Ben Carson at the Iowa Freedom Summit. Carson also criticized political correctness as he answered a question about gay marriage — and followed up by flaunting decorum with the type of comment that endears him with the base but could hurt his cross-party appeal. "What I have a problem with is when people try to force people to act against their beliefs because they say 'they're discriminating against me.' So they can go right down the street and buy a cake, but no, let's bring a suit against this person because I want them to make my cake even though they don't believe in it. Which is really not all that smart because they might put poison in that cake," he said to chuckles from some of his staff and dead silence from the journalists in the room. I've been mulling this one over for awhile. (Obviously.) What are the implications of these words? I have a...