Village Green/Town²

Right now the term Ellicott City is trending in the number one position on Twitter with 6,896 tweets. If you were on social media last night you know why. Truth in advertising: I didn't take any of these photos. I'm sharing them from various sources on Facebook and Twitter. It is hard for me to having anything coherent to say in the face of such overwhelming destruction. So I'm just going to thank some people: First Responders and anyone who jumped in to assist in rescues last night. Howard County Office of Emergency Management. Howard County Government and the County Executive. Former Councilwoman Courtney Watson for jumping in to share up-to-date information and letting people know how to donate supplies for the cleanup. If there are more people to thank, I hope you will add their names in the comments. Information on what happens next can be found here, along with a link to donate to assist in recovery. Information on how to donate clean-up supplies can be found here ....

My family went to Eggspectation the other evening for dinner. We hadn't been there for some years. It wasn't that we didn't like them, but when our daughter was younger the ambient noise was unpleasant for her. And then as years passed we just stopped thinking about them. My husband won a gift card in a contest, so we went. I was really craving something healthier than much of the delicious-sounding concoctions on the menu. I went with a fish I'd never tried before: Bronzino, served over greens. The only kind of fish we ever have at home is crunchy fish fillets because that's all my natives eat. I adore fish and seafood so I have to get my fix away from home. When our food arrived I was surprised to see that it was the whole fish. Not a problem for me. I was raised to know how to eat one. The problem was what happened to my husband. His reaction was similar to what one might feel if a plate swarming with poisonous insects had been set on the table. The waitress was ...

Straight from the You Can't Make This Up department comes news of appointments to the audit committee chartered from the County Council resolution to review HCPSS budgets.   See anything that strikes you as odd? I do. Ellen Flynn Giles and Ann DeLacy, Board of Education members (whose work is the focus of this audit) have been nominated.   That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.   Not surprisingly, other community members who supported the legislation to create the audit and the committee were quick to point out the problem:   Isn't is a bit of a conflict of interest to have two sitting board members on a committee chartered due to a lack of confidence with the school system to audit Board approved budgets? And,   It is befuddling that two members of the audit committee will be auditing their own work. Why are we at a place where an independent audit of the school system budget became necessary? A reminder : At a public hearing Monday, the p...

I first became aware of Lisa Spangler Zovko on Twitter when I was looking for Oakland Mills news. As momzovko (@Zovko1Lisa) she was generating an amazing amount of positive, OMHS-related sports tweets. As one of the Admins for the Oakland Mills is Awesome Facebook page, I'm always on the lookout for OM-centric information. Discovering Lisa was like striking it rich. Her love of the students and the school shines through in everything she writes. Yesterday she posted the following piece on Facebook and I immediately asked for permission to share it here as a guest post. It speaks to so many things for me: a diverse circle of friends, brought together at Oakland Mills High School, supported by people who live the Columbia vision every day in the here and now. It also speaks to the very real problems our nation faces in acknowledging and dismantling systemic racism. It tackles issues both big and small. It comes from a mother's love and her belief in the value of all children, not...

Yes, please. I read the article in the Howard County Times this morning and I'm mentally doing a little happy dance. What a wonderful way to start the day. "Proposed multi-purpose arts center envisioned as 'crown jewel' of Columbia" is the title of the piece by Fatimah Waseem which outlines a proposal by the Orchard Develooment Corporation to ...relocate Toby's Dinner Theatre, the Howard County Arts Council, the Columbia Festival of the Arts and the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts. The center, proposed in the Crescent neighborhood, would include a parking garage, a visual arts center, a performing arts space, black box theaters, studios and a cafe. I've written about my desire for a cultural arts center numerous times on this blog, most recently after my visit to Olney Theatre Center. One of my commenters clued me into the existence of this plan, which wasn't even on my radar. (Thanks, Linda.) Every time I visit a place like Strathmore or Roundhou...

Mold grows in unseen places: behind, beneath, between. Under, above, maybe just out of reach. It thrives in darkness. Mold is on my mind this morning because yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my first post about the mold problem at Glenwood Middle School. In "Mold and Truthiness" I outlined the loss of trust with the Glenwood School community because of the school system's failure to communicate promptly and thoroughly about mold in the school. A parent was quoted in the HoCo Times: "As a community, we need to demand confirmation of mold remediation and INDEPENDENT indoor air quality testing of all rooms and inspection of walls and ceilings for presence of mold--This should occur FOLLOWING the completion of the HVAC upgrades, BEFORE the start of the school year," read a post about the email July 22. "We cannot allow our teachers and students into a building without knowing that it is a safe environment." There was a brief moment where the scho...

I don't know why it's taken us so long this summer, but my daughter and I finally hit the pool yesterday. It was delicious.   Yes, those are my extremely pale legs, in the shade, with plenty of sunscreen. Part of what keeps me away from the pool is fear of sunburn. I've already had too many in my life, and I don't want to push it. My daughter picked the two lounge chairs with the most natural shade in the entire place. (Somebody raised that kid right.) It was a great day at the Talbott Springs pool. As I posted on the Oakland Mills is Awesome FB page: On a personal note, we finally made it to the Talbott Springs Pool today and the water was lovely. Quite a respectable number of adults and children were enjoying the pool. Swimming laps, using the slide and diving board, playing basketball, and splashing in the baby pool. It did my heart good--I love that pool! It is well-known that Talbott Springs is one of the pools with the lowest attendance. Yesterday I'd say ther...

I am sharing this piece from a year ago because it's still a problem. A problem for me, personally. I found myself in an online conversation last night where it looked very much like I was saying to someone, "Yes, make noise. But be responsible about it, be careful. It could get out of hand." So, here it is again, this time respectfully dedicated to @fountain_jade . Making Noise (July 28, 2015) "The more affluent children had been taught to submit," he said, describing a job working in a pediatrician's office. "Their mothers would coach them to behave, and apologize to the doctor if they acted out or objected during the exam." "But the less affluent kids were different. They reacted. They had righteous indignation--'ow! Don't do that! Why are you doing that?' I think you lose something when you lose that righteous indignation." This conversation happened probably twenty years ago, with someone I knew only briefly, but it has ...

From yesterday's post: Go to Twitter. Search the hashtag: #standupcolumbia . It will give you a look at the peaceful Black Lives Matter rally which took place yesterday at both the Lakefront and the Mall. You will see photos, view video clips, read statements paraphrased from speakers. This event was planned and led by students and young adults. Local social media has been having a field day recently talking about those crazy young people throwing common sense to the winds to play Pokemon Go. I guess there's more happening in Columbia than that. New game crazes are fun, don't get me wrong, but what got people out yesterday, on one of the hottest days of the summer, was not a game. It's life and death. And these young people want us to look right at it. They don't want us to be able to distance ourselves and look away. Let's face it, if we have the personal space to feel comfortably separated from these instances of violence and injustice, then that's a priv...

I saw references in my Facebook memories to two local businesses that are no longer. I miss them both. Interestingly enough, both were in Old Ellicott City: Mumbles and Squeaks, and Green Row Books. Independently owned and operated, they brought personality and fun to the main drag and there truly has been nothing yet to replace them. It made me think about other now defunct local businesses. I got all the delicious baked goods for my daughter's bridal shower at Linda's Bakery on Snowden. I clearly didn't shop there enough--it's now gone. Although I hear excellent things about Renata's Tasy Bites, which has opened in that space. Have you been there? What would you recommend? I'm starting to miss the Oakland Mills Food Lion, even though it is still with us. According to the Howard County Times, it has been sold and will soon be a Weis Market instead. I talked to one of my favorite check-out clerks and she said the switch will be taking place in September. Some g...

I look forward every week to reading my digital copy of the Columbia Flier. The staff does an admirable job of rounding up what's happening locally. When you consider how few people we actually have working on local news--as journalism suffers cut-back after cut-back--it's kind of amazing how good a product we are getting. For free. (At least for now.) There's a lot in this week's issue. If you don't get the digital edition, go out and find a paper copy. A sampling of topics: Downtown Development Local Dems on Republican presidential nominee Suspension gap in Howard County Schools Arts at Avoca Local interest in the Pokemon Go craze New business on old Ellicott City This is not cheap stuff. This is no PennySaver operation. Putting this out takes hard work and professionalism. But as I reviewed this week's paper, an untold story leapt out at me. Almost everything in this week's edition could be categorized as The Stories of White People. The article about sch...

The best thing I've seen on social media this morning is a panda eating a Popsicle. National news is just nuts. Locally, there are two new articles in the Howard County Times: Divided public mulls over measures to overhaul Downtown Columbia , Fatimah Wahseem Eliminating racial divide in Howard school suspensions requires community effort, county leaders say , Lisa Philip As to the first article, the issues on the table for Downtown Columbia appear to have spawned a new Twitter account. As with the now-defunct HoCoPollster account from the last election cycle, establishing a social media account where you want people to trust your expertise without revealing your identity is problematic. It's hard to trust an Egg . I'm fine with variety of opinions, just be honest about who you are. The second article, about the racial divide in Howard County Schools, focuses on the continuing disparity in the suspension rate between white students and students of color. Even with indicat...

Last week I attended a four-day professional development Institute in suburban Virginia. The event was held in an elementary school. As I drove to the site, I noticed many houses in the neighborhood looked familiar. When I got to the school, I discovered something else familiar. Yes, that's right. Mold. Each group of students at the institute was led by one instructor, and assigned two rooms, side by side. One was for classroom work, with desks arranged in groups of four or five, and the other for morning and closing meeting, with chairs arranged in a large circle. We quickly discovered that our Morning Meeting room was poorly air conditioned and the air was heavy the smell of mold. Our teacher told us that it had been the room designated for all our class work, but due to the poor air quality she had requested all the furniture to be switched so that the least amount of time would be spent there. She herself had experienced a bad reaction from being in the room during set-up. When...

I woke up from nightmares. I think I broke the coffeemaker. I can't seem to work out how to blog with my new glasses (progressive lenses.) It must be Monday. I had a topic picked out for this morning. I'm too tired and bleary eyed to do it justice. I'm digging around on Twitter to look for something else. Vans Warped Tour is a popular topic. It must be Monday. Once my new job starts I will be leaving the house early enough that I may not be able to follow my morning blog routine. Maybe now is the time to transition to writing in the evening. I've always said I'm a morning person. I'm certainly not feeling it today. It must be Monday. In the meantime: Len Lazarick's first piece in a series about Columbia at 50. What Bill Woodcock has to say about Downtown development. A blog called HoCoCommonSense questions placement of a future Central Library. I hope your Monday is off to a better start than mine.

I went to see "Evita" last night at the Olney Theater Center . Excellent production, although I'm not convinced by the show itself. But that's a story for another day. I came back to Howard County from Olney with the same thought I have each time: why does Olney have such a well-established theater company and we don't? Yes, we have Toby's for musical theater. And we have Rep Stage for drama. But Olney Theater Center is a full-blown combination of both offering subscriptions, camps for kids, and educational outreach in area schools. How did they get to that point? How did they get the community to support the kind of capital investment that must have been necessary to make that happen? I clearly have some research to do. Recently a commenter here made a reference to a plan for a local Cultural Arts Center. You can read more about it here on HoCoConnect. I remember that the orginal Inner Arbor Plan for Symphony Woods included an Arts Village which would incl...

I'm back in my comfy chair, drinking coffee and eating cold pizza for breakfast. I have so many ideas spinning around in my head from the last five days that I might as well have no ideas. I need some time to decompress. A few things on my mind as a result of the last week: Asking people "where are you from?" Good or bad? Mold in schools Gallup Strengths Finder vs. Responsive Classroom Different kinds of development (observations from my travels) Risk-taking in educational settings Why is Bethesda the specter of development gone wrong for those in Columbia who oppose the continuation of the Downtown Plan? Yesterday we enjoyed my daughter's musical theatre performance as a part of the Round House summer program for teens. If you have no objections to Bethesda, you should definitely check out Round House offerings for kids and teens. Excellent. Enjoy your Saturday. I'm looking forward to seeing Evita tonight at Olney Theatre Center.

There's a lot of information and opinion swirling around right now about what's happening with the continuing development of Downtown Columbia. If you are in the Bubble of people who are local news obsessed, you already know. If not, there has been information in the Howard County Times and there will probably a write-up last night's County Council meeting. Read up. Get informed. I have some opinions about this, but, as I've said in the past, land use is not my speciality. I find myself more interested in the local personalities taking leadership roles on these issues. Who is saying what? Who is showing support on either side? Does anyone appear to be brokering a compromise solution? Is anyone unusually silent? Why? Writing a post like that could easily devolve into a gossip column of area notables. I don't think I'm at the point in my knowledge on this issue to produce an end result that rises above "he said, she said". And so, like the representative...

On page twelve of this week's Columbia Flier: Bartender who stole from grill gets jail time. The story details the crime committed at the Stanford Grill by Scott Lawrence Lebow of Sykesville, who used gift cards to steal $54,000.00 in March, 2015. Yes, he did receive jail time. Fifteen days. Okay, it's more complicated than that. He was sentenced to five years with all but fifteen days suspended. He will be on probation for five years. He will have a criminal record, of course. But fifteen days? Some clues to the sentence maybe in the final paragraph. Mr. Lebow has been ordered to attend weekly Gambler's Anonymous meetings and is also required to make restitution. So that begins to tell a story about the background of this crime. I still feel that fifteen days is rather light for a theft of more than $50,000.00. This entailed 900 individual theft transactions over a period of thirty weeks. In a week where the news is filled with stories of disproportionate police ...

Do you remember the Anne Tyler book, "An Accidental Tourist"? It centers around a man whose career as a writer has become the single-minded pursuit of the most familiar, least challenging travel experiences for his readers. I believe the logo used for his series of travel guides was an armchair with wings. I've often lamented how strip malls and retail chains have taken away a sense of place and individuality to local communities. When I go on vacation my desire is to find the things about a place which are interesting, off-beat, true examples of the locale. It's disappointing to arrive many miles away from home to discover the same Bob Evans, the same McDonalds, the same Five Below and Payless. The sameness. The sterile, unrelenting sameness. What have we become as a nation? The home for one franchise after another, from sea to shining sea. And yet. This week I'm in Alexandria for four days of intensive education training and I'm staying at a hotel about five...

Postponed--to be rescheduled:     As the news from around the country continues to be overwhelming, people in Howard County are working together to respond in a helpful and meaningful way. Thursday night there will be a community forum at Long Reach High School.   I've been talking to so many folks who want to be an active part of a solution. Coming together with neighbors, friends, and local leaders to have an open conversation is a start. If we are silent in the face of injustice then we are complicit in perpetuating it.   I'm out of town all week for work. Please go and let me know what I missed.   Sunday evening from 4 to 5 pm the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia held their monthly Black Lives Matter Vigil on Little Patuxent Parkway near the Mall. The community response was amazing. At 4:30 there were 161 adults and 69 children.   Photo credit Tina Sheets Horn   This is Columbia. This is Howard County. And maybe this is the beginnin...

A quick look at what's happening on the education front this morning. The bill (introduced by Calvin Ball) on budget oversight has passed. Also, air quality testing (this means: mold) has been completed in twelve schools by an independent contractor, at the direction of the County Executive. You can read more here . Take a look at the Mold in Howard County Schools FB page for an update on asbestos found under tiles at Glenwood Middle School. Of course, asbestos is never good news, but it looks like the way this is being handled is refreshingly transparent. Progress? I hope so. The Commission to review the use of testing in Maryland's Schools has released its report. In my opinion, it doesn't go far enough, but encouraging the involvement of teachers in evaluating the usefulness of assessments at the local level is a start. Their recommendations are just that: recommendations. They don't have the power of enforcement, so we'll have to see how this plays out. Board ...

I spent most of the day yesterday not having a heart attack. Good to know, right? The problem was, it sure felt like a heart attack. So, what do you do? You have waves of chest pains accompanied by an overwhelming, physical sense of panic and dread. You look up the symptoms. I had excellent care at Howard County Hospital. Everyone who had any contact with me was pleasant and helpful. They reassured me that I shouldn't feel foolish for coming in. Women's heart attacks don't always present like the "typical" cardiac event. Better to be safe than sorry, they said. You made the right choice. Yes, long-time readers of this blog will rememember I went through this about five years or so ago. Outcome the same: really bad reflux. Really convincing reflux, I might add. No one goes to the ER for fun. I tried to talk myself out of it for over an hour. It's way past time for me to look at what I'm eating and make some changes, rather than just taking medicines day aft...

Sharing a post I wrote about a year ago. It feels all the more relevant today. We have neighbors, friends, community members who are crying out for justice and so often it seems they are not being heard. I feel particularly challenged to do something to amplify that voice, to join in to support that voice. I have privilege. I have choices. What will I choose to do? ***** Nightmare (originally posted July 3, 2016) I just woke up from a nightmare. I had been called into the office of a school to meet with school staff about my daughter. As it is in most nightmares, I was in a school I had never seen before and the staff members were equally unknown to me. What was important about the scene was that these people were making observations about my child and telling me what they were going to do about what they perceived to be her problems or difficulties. But I couldn't talk. I couldn't get my mouth open, or if I could, I could barely make sound or form words. Whe...

I keep staring. I just keep staring at the page. And it doesn't get any better. If you've been following the news, you know. I have nothing new to offer. I have no message worth sharing. But I can point you to a few things worth seeing: Here is a thoughtful post from Tom Coale on HoCoRising. Here is a heartfelt statement from County Councilman Calvin Ball. Here is a chance to meditate and pray. Here is a invitation to stand up in the face of hatred and injustice, to stand on the side of love. Here are your neighbors and friends, united in a peaceful vigil at the Lakefront. Last night Broadway Actor/Composer Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted out this message: Everyone will sit under their own vine & under their own fig tree, & no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken. -- Micah4:4 I'm not particularly religious, but the notion of a world where everyone feels safe is calling me right now. Me, too. ***** ...

Today's post is shared with permission from the author, Jessica Tabbert. A friend of mine shared it yesterday on Facebook. All I know about Ms. Tabbert is that she is local and she is a mother. Motherhood transcends race, ethnicity, nationality, economic status. Her words could be the words of any mother who loves her child. Just read. Please. Read, and understand that her child is our child. Her fears should be all our fears. We must make it our responsibility. We cannot be silent. ***** My son is 6'2", heavyset, and he has beautiful brown skin. I have to look up to speak to him when he's standing next to me. He is only 16 years old but he has facial hair, big hands and feet, and is slightly taller than my husband and my brothers, all who are men in their 30s. I have joked about having him constantly carry ID even when just chilling outside our home because he looks like a grown man. I'd get side eye from the MPs and gate guards on Fort Meade when I'd insist ...

When you think of Columbia, do you think of...tourism? Howard County has a Department of Tourism , of course, but what about Columbia? That is, do we have anything that would draw people here just to have fun? The question is not, "what do we have here that would entice people to buy a home and live here?" Yes, we have great schools, and pools, parks, and pathways. And The Mall. But where do you take folks from out of town to show them a good time? This was the topic of an online discussion last night on the "Celebrating Columbia" Facebook Group. It isn't the first time this has come up. One particular member of the group finds it simply unthinkable that Columbia doesn't have museums and other uniquely Columbian entertainment opportunities that would draw people here from out of town. Aside from Merriweather, that is. His theory: relying on affluent people to come and buy houses here as a way to support the community won't last forever. Columbia will ne...

The following editorial appeared in last week's Columbia Flier, accompanied by this cartoon: I am printing them in full because I can't find a link to where they can be found at baltimoresun.com. To be clear, neither the cartoon nor the editorial are my work. They are the property of the Howard County Times and I am sharing them for the purposes of discussion. The community has endured one school-system based crisis after another over the last year. There was a time when a piece such as this would have been earth-shattering. Now it seems that it's merely another confirmation in a steady stream of evidence that HCPSS leadership operates without transparency and without thought of accountability. It is summer. Most of our children are out of school. We are thinking about other things. People I know read this and thought, "no surprise here." Are we becoming desensitized to the level of disrespect shown to the community? If HoCo Times thought this...