Village Green/Town²

Foot's Forecast is practically beside itself. "6:00 AM 9/30 - Sometimes the truth, though painful has to made known. In this case, it's the realization Maryland may be facing the most significant hurricane threat since Isabel." The Capital Weather Gang doesn't appear to be as anxious. You can follow for yourself at the NOAA Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ So, part of the story today is whether we should be taking the possibility of a major storm seriously. The other part is whether the Kittleman administration is ready to marshall its forces to deal with this kind of weather event. Ken Ulman and his team had the emergency weather thing down to a science. And an art form, if that's possible. They were good at coordinating people to get the work done, and keeping the community informed every step of the way. Veterans of the "Emergency Operations Center" (or whatever if was called) are probably glad that they never have to do that ag...

So what's up with the Harriet Tubman Building? It's owned by the Howard County Public Schools. But it has historical significance to the community. Tonight there will be a celebratory event marking the 50th anniversary of desegregation in Howard County. Despite years of advocacy by Delegate Frank Turner and others to turn the Harriet Tubman Building into a museum, it remains in use as office space for hcpss maintenance staff.   Why?   It's true that the school system is using the building. But I would think that they would have bent over backwards to honor the desires of the community on this one. Surely there's some other-out-of commission building they could put to use?   I don't have all the answers on this one. But I do think we could be making more progress on this if we really put our minds to it.    

Following up on yesterday's post in which I expressed my horror at anonymous online comments--if you are interested in the dynamics of what makes people feel free to say these things you'd probably be interested in the upcoming Choose Civility Forum : Would You Say That To My Face? And Other Questions of Online Citizenship. The African Amercian Community Roundtable is having its Fall Forum this evening in conjunction with HCPSS. I would imagine they have a good bit to talk about. The public is invited. If you are interested in going a step further and connecting with other people in Howard County (and across Maryland) actively working to overcome racism, a great place to start is this Facebook page: Black Lives Matter: Maryland. You can support Penn North's new youth center in Baltimore City by attending a benefit concert this Saturday night at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia in Owen Brown. More about Penn North here . This promises to be a fun ev...

Lisa Philip's article for the Howard County Times, "Report points to racial divide in Howard County school suspensions" presents some disturbing numbers. " According to a report issued to the African American Community Roundtable by the Howard County school system, black students in the county were 7 times more likely to be suspended than their white classmates during the 2013 to 2014 school year, the most recent year included in the report." Seven times more likely. I'm equally disturbed to learn that AACR asked for this information three years ago but only just received it this past June. That doesn't feel very responsive to me. I'm not going to focus on the article itself today. Instead, it's the comments that floored me. HoCoTimes puts up articles on many different aspects of community life and often there are no comments whatsoever. Maybe just one or two from those diehards who just cannot restrain themselves. But watch what happens w...

Last night I was driving back home from hanging out on the deck at my daughter's house in Stevens Forest. My car windows were rolled down, the early Fall weather was mild and the James Taylor song was building towards the chorus. I turned into the Village Center and noticed a touch of Fall color on trees and bushes. The parking lot was busy with people doing a bit of Friday night shopping, picking up dry cleaning, Chinese food, heading into the Second Chance. I felt something well up in my heart. " I forget what to ask for, there isn't anything I haven't been given. How could I wish for anything more as I am here living in heaven? This moment in the sun to feel the wheel turning on." This is my home. These are my people. The beautiful streets and houses, the seasons changing, people out walking their dogs, the cross country runners from the high school. The teenager who breaks off from his pack to help an older lady who has dropped ...

Thanks to that cheery Memories function on Facebook, I am reminded that this happened a year ago, almost to the day. Do you think anyone benefited? Ms. Vaillancourt did emerge as the top vote-getter in the November election, but surely that was not the point.   In a week when I have written about journalists, transportation, Oakland Mills politics, the resignation of a school system employee, and academic outcomes for children who need help with food, Facebook tells me my biggest success was with a piece showing my teddy bear Buddy down at the Second Chance Saloon.   Perspective.   I wonder what I'll think about all this a year from now?  

At 7:22 pm saw the following post on Facebook: "Columbia folks, explosion info?" Followed shortly by another: "Earthquake? Explosion? House just shook!" And then the conversations were percolating all over the place. The best information was coming from the gentleman who knew how to follow the Howard County Police & Fire live web feed. News was spreading by word of mouth from one Facebook thread to another. Unbelievably, some people hopped in their cars to go take a look and post photos. (In my opinion, not a recommended course of action.) Social media allows us the ability to do this. And in times of crisis it can be very helpful. We're not alone. We can share what knowledge we have. But, at the very same time, our local journalists were going into high gear. First Amanda Yeager, then Andrew Michaels, then Kevin Rector (out of Baltimore) went to work collecting information and getting it out to the public on Twitter. A preliminary story went up onlin...

Today is my half-birthday. For those of you keeping track at home, that means I'm something-and-a-half. When I was little my mother marked half birthdays by baking half a cake. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized the secret of the missing half. She just baked one layer, cut it in half, and stacked it. This also means it's the birthday of Buddy Bear, who was given to me on my half birthday by my husband and younger daughter. He and I have been through a lot together. He may be as old as ten or eleven--perhaps even twelve?--but he's every bit as much my best friend now as he was the day he walked in the door. Although Buddy is very likely approaching adolescence, he shows no signs of it. He's still very loving, cuddly, a little bit unsure of himself. He continues to be afraid of heights and isn't at all keen on acrobatics or acts of derring-do. He loves to sing and dance. He tends to ask questions first to make sure he knows what's going on. He pon...

Gotta hand it to Oakland Mills Girl Scouts for schooling certain decidedly unfriendly adults on the Oakland Mills Village Board without even trying. They decided to build a friendship bench for their Bronze Star Project. "Simran eventually became friends with three girls in her Girl Scout troop, Troop 4709, who also attended Thunder Hill Elementary, in Columbia, and wanted to help her create a friendship bench for a Girl Scout Bronze Star project. 'It's open to fifth- and sixth- graders,' said Simran's friend, Aria Lunt, now a sixth-grader at Oakland Mills Middle. 'First you find something that needs to be fixed in your community, then you find a way to fix it.'" A friendship bench. If you don't know what this is, look here for the origins of the Buddy Bench. " The buddy bench is a simple idea to eliminate loneliness and foster friendship on the playground. Let's spread the message of inclusion and kindness!" Inclusion and ki...

The biggest surprise to me as a blogger has been when people send me anonymous emails. I just wasn't expecting that. It doesn't happen often, but writers share two qualities: they think someone should know what they are seeing, and they fear reprisal if their identities are known. The problem for me is that an anonymous email doesn't give me enough to write a responsible post, no matter how important the topic. I combine evidence from the public record, my own first-hand experience, and conversations with people I know and trust to bring balance to pieces that I write. I'm not a journalist by any stretch, but the responsibilities of a journalist still weigh heavily upon me. That being said, there are two issues that I haven't addressed on the blog because of this, and yet I still think they bear discussion. So I am going to put them out to you in case you have information to support or disprove them. Hello, court of public opinion. I suppose I may regret this. ...

A few snapshots this week on the way we get around town. Did anyone have a chance to speak with these folks? I'd like to know more. @maximize2040: Having a great time camping out on @parkingday to #TalkTransportation @WholeFoods in #ColumbiaMD! Stop by to chat.   A blast from the past, courtesy of the collection of Ilana Bittner: Yes, availability of gas stations in Columbia has an effect on gas prices and on how we choose to get around. And there's definitely a history in Columbia on limiting the number of gas stations. You can see just exactly how people are fighting about this issue in the here and now when it comes to a proposed gas station on Snowden River Parkway.   The most recent Friends of Bridge Columbia Newsletter is out. You should definitely get on their email list if you aren't already. Connecting Columbia with a pedestrian, bike, and transit bridge will definitely change how we get around. For the better.   This next photo is a sign not of...

When I was in high school my mother and I had an ongoing feud over paper towels. I would find one crumpled up on the kitchen counter and throw it out. She'd be furious. "It was still good! I could have used it again. Paper towels are expensive!" I just didn't get it. Paper towels are meant to be disposable. You use one; you throw it out. She got so ticked off with me, in fact, that one year when I asked her what she wanted for Christmas she shot back, "A roll of paper towels!" Through the years I have come to understand her behavior through the lens of her childhood during the Great Depression. It shaped how she looked at material possessions. She was the sort of person who carefully saved bakery string, shirt cardboard from the dry cleaner's, margarine tubs, and old birdseye cotton diapers from our babyhoods--the best for washing windows, she claimed. Waste not, want not. She absolutely would have used that paper towel one more time, for a spill on the ...

Long before Howard County Schools Superintendent Dr. Renee Foose came to town, Rebecca Amani-Dove was a contributing part of the school system. She's a HoCo local. Several people I know have known her for years, and speak highly of her. This is her town, so to speak. Yesterday Ms. Amani-Dove's decision to leave her position as Communications Director for hcpss was detailed in an article in the Howard County Times. She has accepted an offer from Discovery Communications. She will be the Director of Acquisitions Marketing for Discovery Education, a division of the Silver Spring-based firm. Having observed Ms. Amani-Dove at PTACHC meetings, I can say that her job was an extremely difficult one to have. She has been in the business of having to go places and say things that made people angry, or at the very least, that were received with suspicion or a lack of enthusiasm. I don't think this job has been any fun for a long, long time. I get the feeling that she came to feel th...

It's taking over the world, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. That's right. Pumpkin Spice has returned. "Pumpkin Spice all the things!" said someone somewhere in the marketing department. And food chemists from all over the nation have complied. Here you see a formidable sample of offerings: pumpkin spice tea, coffee, donuts, cereal, snack cakes, muffins, crackers, and even marshmallows. Gah! Something about grouping them all together in one display makes it all the more dreadful. It's an example of how the commercial success of one item, pumpkin spice coffee, morphed into an out-of-control propagation of pumpkin spice products. I'm sure the Food Lion has constructed this shrine shelf to make it easier to find all your favorite seasonal items. You won't have to wander aimlessly through the store, wondering if you can get your pumpkin spice fix. They've got it all ready for you at the endcap of aisle one. Now, if you were hoping to find an i...

It seems that the Howard County Times needs a good talking to from Dr. Zaneb Beams, former candidate for the BOE. You may recall that she said the following during a candidate's debate in Oakland Mills: "We don't have FARM students, we have children who need help with food." Well, last night a rather odd article appeared online, promoted on Facebook with the following: "Howard County graduates with FARMS status less likely to attend college, report finds. According to a report on the postsecondary outcomes of Howard County public school graduates from the Class of '07 through the Class of '13, students who received free or reduced meals were 20 percent less likely to attend college than other students." Head. Desk. Here's the conversation that followed. The first comment is mine. This is an odd way to frame this. It makes it sound as though students who receive nutritional support have negative academic outcomes. I wonder what would ha...

Facebook threw me this advert this morning: "Want to create blog content FAST - without having to write a single line of text? Download our 'Perfect Blog Post Template' and get your post up and running Today!" Really? Well, maybe we don't all write blogs for the same reason. It seems silly to me, but then I look at blogging as a form of self-expression. Although, when I wake up at six am and know I have to walk out the door at seven-thirty, the idea of an automatic blog-writing product is awfully tempting. Facebook also reminded me that five years ago today we hosted a party at my house to celebrate the groundbreaking for the Oakland Mills Walgreens. The progress of that corner in my neighborhood from abandoned, boarded- up bank to "the corner of happy and healthy" was anything but fast. Thanks to naysayers who had nothing else to do with their time but show up and oppose it, bringing a healthy, functioning business to Oakland Mills took what f...

I went to a party yesterday, which is practically news unto itself as I am well-known as a shy person who avoids social events. But this post is not about me. It is about Interesting People. The people who came to the party. You wouldn't think that a birthday party for family and friends would produce such a fascinating turnout, but it did. A glimpse: Former, current, and probably potential local bloggers Columbia Village Board members, past and present Non-profit board members Members of Howard County boards Former and current members of the Democratic Central Committee PTA and PTACHC members, past and present And this represents a whole lot of overlap. People who get involved tend to get involved a lot, both serially and concurrently. They just can't seem to help themselves. It resulted in a whole lot of Bubble-Centric conversation. Banter. Repartée. If there were disagreements they were put off with a smile. For while all of these people had strong opinions, th...