Village Green/Town²

  Teacher life is spending $200 on supplies for your classroom and then deciding $20 shoes for yourself are too expensive. That’s the tweet that brought from deep within me both a smile and a wince. If you’re a teacher, you know. You know there is never enough money for what needs to be done for your students and weighing the decision between materials for the classroom and a new pair of shoes is a familiar one.  I learned this week that I’m not the only person in Columbia/HoCo that had such a visceral response to that tweet when I received an email from Roy Appletree who, with his wife Sue, has co-chaired  Prepare for Sucess for the past fourteen years. He wrote,  All I knew was that the $200 tax deduction nowhere matched what Sue [a retired teacher] spent for supplies for her students. Prepare for Success is fairly well-known in our community but, for those of my readers who may not have heard of it, I’ll let their own words speak here: …who we are and what we do ...

  Yesterday late afternoon found me in the tiny hallway of our home between the furnace closet and the powder room, along with my husband and daughter. That thing where you move from tornado watch to tornado warning actually happened. We were directed to take shelter. That’s our shelter.  Technically the safest place in our quadroplex is inside that powder room but I have yet to convince my husband that the severity of the weather merits our all piling in there at once. It would be possible in a life or death situation: one person sits in the sink, one on the toilet, one stands in the middle. We don’t have a basement.  How many Columbia homes were built on a slab, like ours? I’m sure there are some in greater HoCo, as well. Many’s the time I’ve wished for a basement for extra storage or a decently laid out laundry room. But never is that wish so fervent as when that ghastly alarm goes off on my phone and we need to take shelter. The early Columbia homes went up quickly an...

  I am sitting here and writing words today because writing words is what I do. But I feel wholly inadequate to address what I need to write about. I would rather go back to bed, pull the covers up, and retreat from the deep sense of darkness that I feel. Darkness that comes from evil. Evil that is right here in Howard County. Yesterday we learned of a break-in at the Harriet Tubman School. Whoever committed this crime did so with the intention of defacing and destroying precious pieces of the history of students and teachers who attended that school. This is more than casual erasure. It is intentional desecration. The stories of Black people have never been valued in this country and even now there is a move nationwide to suppress them. And right here in our community we see the results of someone who finds those stories to be so dangerous that they must be destroyed.  I attended a story-telling event that was a part of the Columbia 50th anniversary year and heard Bessie Bo...

  Probably the weirdest thing about the controversy of the last few days is the number of people who were unaware that a new library was a part of the Downtown Plan. And, rather than do the necessary learning to bring themselves up to speed on the issue, they have decided it’s some kind of sneaky plot that’s being sprung on them in the most insidious of ways. To turn the brilliant Maya Angelou quote upside down, it is very important to them to not know better, so they aren’t obliged to do better.  It reminds me very much of the old Peanuts comic strip where Lucy is educating Linus on butterflies. Artist Charles Schulz, United Features Syndicate/ Peanuts Worldwide LLC Schulz gives us a brilliant example of someone who feels compelled to make new and contradictory evidence fit their old hypothesis. We have a lot of that going on right now in Columbia/HoCo. I have avoided wading into these arguments online for the most part, but one statement was so egregiously ignorant that I w...

  Yesterday’s post seemed to hit a nerve as numerous readers jumped in to share their feelings and experiences about architectural requirements in Columbia. I’m still wading through everyone’s comments.  There’s no denying that people have some strong feelings about this. I’m left pondering an exchange where one reader maintained that HOAs are unAmerican, while another responded that they are uniquely American. As a palate cleanser, I strongly recommend this book by Daniel Pinkwater: The Big Orange Splot. What got on my last nerve yesterday was an all-out social media attack on two local women who have been nominated to serve on County committees. It was ugly. It was a prime example of all those ills people mention when they rail about the perils of social media.  My first instinct was to run into the burning building to do some good, followed by an intense desire to watch historical programs on television and plunge myself into my new library books. How exactly can you s...

You all are probably thinking that I spend too much time on Twitter, but, honestly, one can learn a lot there. Take this conversation, for instance: I am going to stay far away from the gentri**** word and just say community revitalization is not necessarily a bad thing. You can have mixed income and diverse communities that truly thrive.      *Columbia, MD has entered the chat* Columbia is a wonderful racially diverse and economically diverse planned community. With excellent schools too. My only issue with Columbia, MD is that the housing stock is old. And you cannot update the exterior of the homes without going through the Columbia Association.       I recently just learned that it’s not a real city or town, but rather an HOA. And the residents must comply with the board. It’s the first I’ve ever heard of that. Okay, first we need to make the correction that you must work with your Village Association on changes to the exterior of your house, not C...

The other day I stumbled upon the Twitter acount of the Columbia Housing Center. It’s fairly new. Something about the name rang a bell. I found a Facebook  account .  I noodled around on their website , which is still a bit glitchy to navigate. From the website: The goal of the Columbia Housing Center is to sustain Columbia’s residential integration so that all of Columbia is attractive and welcoming to all ethnic and racial groups. As a rental housing locator service, the Columbia Housing Center will help landlords find tenants and tenants find homes. It will also provide training and educational programming. You can go to their FAQ page to learn more about how this will work. I was interested in the information about this particular model has been used successfully in Oak Park, Illinois. This spring they hired their first Executive Director, Andy Masters. He comes to the Columbia Housing Center from Enterprise Community Partners, where he was the Strategic Partnerships Man...

  At the moment I’m having my first cup of coffee of the day and enjoying birdsong and the cool morning air. The sky is blue and the clouds are thin little wisps as though they were put in place by a painter of happy little clouds. It’s seven am on a Saturday and this constitutes a very lazy morning for me indeed. Since there’s always a story for everything, at least for me, I want to include you in this one. Yesterday I posed this question on Facebook because it was a real dilemma for me: Suburban etiquette question: our back patio is completely fenced. Would it be permissible for me to have my coffee out there in the morning in my nightgown? I would be visible only to my next door neighbor if she looked out her second-story window. What say you all? Columbia has rules, you know. We have rules about hanging out laundry, cutting your grass, changing your house and even when you can put out your trash. How was I to know whether there was a rule about having coffee in one’s nightclot...

  Where are the mug shots? Where are the photos chosen to show the accused in a bad light? I’m talking about Andrew Ryan Bennett, the Columbia resident who pled guilty to his actions in attacking the Capitol along with a mob of like-minded insurrectionists. First of all, how on earth do we have people in Columbia* who would do such a thing? I do tend to think of us as a hotbed of acceptance and open-mindedness, but that is clearly wishful thinking. I do think it’s odd that we have not seen the typical “defendant in a sketchy pose suggesting guilt” photographs that we usually see in cases where the accused is not white. Mr. Bennett, of course, is white. The public has been given a screenshot from a video taken the day of the attack but that’s it.  Now these investigations are being done by the FBI so perhaps that makes a difference. I don’t know. But I do know how often we are subjected to mug shots of Black and Brown people who have been accused of a crime and photos taken fr...

The recent groundbreaking for the Gateway United Way Family Center and the opening of the new Bauder Education Center in Long Reach have drawn the public’s attention to the shortage of affordable, high-quality childcare for young children in our community. Research has shown how important the early years are for physical, social-emotional, and cognitive development. I asked Bonnie Bricker, founder of Talk With Me • Howard County to write a guest post explaining another crucial way to support brain development in young children from the moment they are born. - - jam ***** Every child deserves  the  opportunity   to have a good life. While we know many factors will impact that o utcome , solid brain development in the early years is critical.   Imagine this dream:  C hild ren  growing up here go through their daily routine seeing and experiencing interactions everywhere. Mom and  D ad put their phones down at mealtimes to chat.  As each daily walk u...

In my experience the position of Columbia Association President and CEO is for special occasions only. That is to say, an ordinary resident of Columbia is not likely to meet or even simply see the CA President in the flesh except at ribbon cuttings or Columbia-centric celebrations. They are like the inherited silver or the good china. You know they are there but they are far too good for everyday use, if you get my analogy. Yes, one might see them regularly at CA Board meetings but for most of us those are special occasions, too: you have to make plans to attend and it’s usually for a very specific reason. Last week I had an opportunity to meet the new president of CA, Lakey Boyd, and I suspect she may go about her tenure here a bit differently. As we spoke it became apparent that she is putting a high priority on getting out of her office and into the community. Ms. Boyd commented that she wants to put such “field trips” into her calendar so that she is committed from the outset to ma...

Update: tonight’s Elevate Maryland event is being postponed in deference to the observance of Eid al-Adha. I’ll let you know when they have a new date.  ***** Tonight, live and in person, the return of local podcast Elevate Maryland to their fashionable digs on Grantchester Way. Their guest is Brooke Leirman , who is, by far, the most promising and interesting candidate for Maryland State Comptroller. From the Elevate Maryland Twitter account: First live show is 7/20 at 6:30pm with @BrookeELierman!  Guests, please note: you must wear a mask while indoors unless you’re actively eating or drinking. (Elevate rules.) Thank you! If you are interested in attending, Elevate does their live shows in Downtown Columbia in the Howard Hughes event space across from Cured/18th and 21st. Parking is right there and keep an eye out for signs guiding you to the exact location. Alas, my doctor says no indoor events for me right now so I will be there in spirit only. I’ll just have to make do wi...

  It’s true that I spend a lot of time scanning Twitter for local stories. As you know, sometimes I come away with what I call “Other People’s Tweets.” Today’s is a doozy. Was in Columbia, MD yesterday and it was a total car-dependent hellscape, best place to live in America?  Totally nuts that people see that and like it Bulldoze and start again include beavers on the planning team Give me a city or give me a cabin. Tell us how you really feel, Mr. Out-of-Towner. Don’t hold back, now. For some contrast, I hopped over to the Columbia Association website to see if I could find some descriptions of Columbia’s original intent and what we say we are proud of. Silly me. The website has changed. I knew where I was going on the old website. If you are interested in Columbia history you get one page with links to go somewhere else. (The Columbia Archives.) Well, heck. I’ll just have to speak for myself for the moment. The truth is, I agree with what Mr. OOT writes, and yet I also lov...

I’m seeing lots of joyful photographs on social media these days of friends on long-postponed vacations, get-togethers with friends and family, celebrating at weddings. After more than a year of lying low it is only natural to mark the return to a more “normal” way of life with things we have missed the most: opportunities for human connection. As for me, I’m getting there, albeit slowly. But, as anyone who has been reading current posts knows, I’ve been spending most of my time going around in circles in Columbia/HoCo’s parking lots and cul-de-sacs. One doesn’t exactly post photos on social media of that. Besides, I’m there to supervise a learning driver, not snap photos with my phone. But if I were using these daily trips to be a “roving reporter” I’d probably be snapping photos of: 1. Those signs that appear at the ends of major roads or at intersections. You know, the ones that are about the size of the smaller political signs that one plants in the yard during campaign season. Si...

I’m having way too much fun not making up my mind what to write about this morning. So let’s just do it all. First off, thanks to all of the input about the location of the new courthouse . To all of those who are telling me that the location has always been in Ellicott City, I say: are you sure? I’d love someone from the County to rise up out of the mist and explain this but I suppose it’s my responsibility to go and ask. We’ll see how that goes. As to the new courthouse, I was out yesterday doing that practice-driving thing with my daughter and our route took us that way. It struck me as having a bit of that Columbia “joy of discovery” feeling. You wind around what feels like a rather unassuming stretch of road and then: boom. There it is in all its glory. Over on Twitter today the term to search is Ellicott City. The pictures and videos that come up are of Germany. Why? Because recent flooding in Germany looks very much like the floods in Ellicott City. There’s quite the conversatio...

Print journalism is under attack from any number of sources these days. The survival of local journalism feels uncertain. Whether decimated by a succession of corporate owners or denigrated by the now-familiar  accusations of “Fake News!” our newspapers are struggling. Local journalists, overworked and paid a bare minimum, are, in my opinion, the most vulnerable and ill-treated. On my mind this morning are the brutal murders at the Capital Gazette and the verdict yesterday that the killer is criminally responsible. My heart is with the family members, friends, and colleagues of the victims. Their names are worth mentioning here: Gerald Fischman Rob Hiaasen John McNamara Rebecca Smith Wendi Winters My mind is puzzling through some thoughts about the murderer. He was an abuser. Journalists covered a legal case that outlined his abuse. He didn’t want to be called out for his actions. He responded with violence. I’m aware that my words are far from eloquent this morning. I’m trying to ...

  The new courthouse is finally open. The ribbon-cutting photos are all over social media. So is local commentary, both positive and negative. But this post isn’t about either. It’s about how to get there. This tweet from Commute Howard was timely and helpful: There you have it. Not everyone who needs to visit the new courthouse will own a car or have Uber money. For some reason I just adored this. I’m making up an imaginary narrative here: Blah blah blah new courthouse blah blah blah important people blah blah blah expensive investment blah blah blah Need to get there? Take the bus. Well done Commute Howard. Here’s the link to routes they mention: RTA Routes and Schedules.   Two more things. First, the nearest places to grab something to eat if you are at the courthouse are now Wendy’s and Pizza Hut. Will we see any new restaurants pop up in the immediate vicinity? And what about a place to grab something for that pretrial headache or a new pair of stockings if yours run at ...

We met when our daughters were in preschool. Now they’re in college. She grew up here, I always manage to feel like I’m from out of town. I’m East Columbia, she’s West Columbia. She’s vegan, I eat just about everything. We’ve been friends for sixteen years. We got together last night for our first meal in a restaurant since the before times. I mean, the kind of restaurant where one can order grown-up drinks. The chosen location was the Ale House. We wanted to be able to sit outside. I must say we were in the minority on that front. They were doing a brisk business inside with what appeared to be a happy, relaxed, almost all unmasked crowd. I haven’t been to the Ale House in years and in my opinion it is much improved. I never used to be able to find anything on the menu that was right for me; now there is much more of a variety of different kinds of food. On the other hand, it was nearly impossible for my vegan companion. Service was fabulous and our table was in the shade. There was e...

  For those of you who have been celebrating the return of sporting events, here’s good news: there’s still time to get your tickets for this year’s MLQ Championship. Even better, it’s being held in Howard County. MLQ? That’s right, it’s Quidditch. Major League Quidditch, no less. Three days of championship matches will take place in Troy Park beginning on Saturday, August 21st. You can purchase tickets here  and,if you’re a true devotee, order a jersey in support of your favorite team. Alas, it appears that Gryffindor did not make the finals. When I first learned about Quidditch coming to Howard County several years ago I was nonplussed. It didn’t much make sense to me as a game without the requisite magic and flight described in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Despite my personal opinions, Major League Quidditch is clearly a thing, or, as it likes to call itself: MLQ. This strickes me as similar to Kentucky Fried Chicken rebranding as KFC, but, what do I know? If you ...

  I was hunting through old posts for something else entirely and I found this: Career Goals April 26, 2019 Now this is the job for me. DPW creates a $100,000 job for outspoken critic Mark Reutter and Fern Shen for Baltimore Brew I’ll let you read the piece and draw your own conclusions. It’s a fascinating story. I share it here today because, as the young folks say on Twitter,  “career goals.” Dear employment universe, I am uniquely qualified to be hired as an Outspoken Critic in the $100,000 range. Additional skills and qualifications: Ardent Supporter, Bemused Observer. Strong writing skills, persistent, consistent work ethic. Hobbies include anecdotes, vignettes, free-form poetry and doggerel verse. Sincerely, Village Green/Town² I wonder if there’s anyone in Howard County who’s hiring?  It could be the opportunity of a lifetime. ***** Friends, I am still looking for that job - - now more than ever. And I’d be really good at it. It’s Monday, it’s hot and humid, and it...

   Anyone who has learned how to drive or helped teach someone to drive has experienced the time-worn tradition of driving in parking lots. The emptier they are, the better. They provide a safe environment for the tentative efforts of the nervous beginner: maintaining a smooth, even speed, staying on the right hand side, signaling, turning, parking, and so on.  Recently I’ve been a part of many parking lot driving sessions. We started with school parking lots, then graduated to Blandair and Centennial parks, which provided more varied topography. Then I began to get creative. I started seeking out entire communities of parking lots. Columbia/HoCo has plenty. Some examples: Off of Broken Land past the Exxon where the Columbia Assocation Headquarters and Humanim are located. Off of Thunder Hill Road behind the Walgreen’s where the DoubleTree Hotel is located. Each of these areas present different challenges or hazards, if you will. In a park there may be children running ou...