The Old Stomping Grounds

I'm headed the NAIS conference in Baltimore today. Truth be told, I can't remember the last time that I was in Charm City. I just don't find a need to be there.

I lived in Baltimore City, in Bolton Hill, from 1985-1991 My older daughter and I moved to Rodgers Forge, right over the line in Baltimore County, and lived there until 1999. My life has changed so completely since then that I don't often think much about the old days and my old neighborhoods.

Things that I remember fondly:

The Bolton Hill Festival each Fall.
Artscape (but not the intense July heat)
Being able to walk to the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Walking in the neighborhood to the grocery, pharmacy, video store, and preschool
Collecting pockets full of horse chestnuts on Bolton Street

Memories from the Rodgers Forge years:

Walking to the Tot Lot
Splurging on a little picnic food at Eddie's Market
The free Towson at Night concerts in the Summer
The Towson Farmers Market
Picking out stacks of picture books at the library

It was a long time ago. I'm not sure I ever connected with Baltimore to the extent that I have in coming Columbia/Howard County. I'm guessing that a lot of that has to do with the fact that, for most of those years, I was on my own and struggling financially. When you are divorced, a single parent, and holding down two jobs just to cover the essentials, how much can you truly engage in your community?

That's probably a good point to remember when considering who gets involved in local community issues here in Howard County. When you're just struggling to survive, community engagement is a luxury you can't afford. Or, at least, it certainly feels that way.

What do we do in Columbia and Howard County to reach out to people like that? Ideas?

https://www.facebook.com/VillageGreenTownSquared/?ref=bookmarks

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday. Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018. 2018 . But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest. In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog