Columbia: Denial or Deal Making?

This post made me think of Columbia. 

This once quiet community is becoming a trendy destination.

Isn’t that what the Howard Hughes Corporation aspires to do in its work here? What is the Merriweather District if not Columbia’s new trendy destination? 

Some people want that. Some people don’t.

Some people were happy with being a once-quiet community and would have been happy to keep it that way, thank you very much. Others have ached with the longing for something more. You can see them delight in each new announcement, each opening, each event. 

When I was invited by the Howard Hughes folks to a small informational gathering in 2016 to discuss the benefits of the proposed TIF, Greg Fitchitt said something that gave me pause. From a post in October of that year:

I wonder if, years from now, 2016 will be remembered as the year when Greg Fitchitt became known as the "Walmarts and garden apartments" man.

"There could be development, but it would not be the kind that the downtown plan envisions. You can have garden apartments and Walmarts, if that's the kind of development you want," Fitchitt said, adding that the market alone can support a suburban environment. "You cannot fulfill the downtown Columbia plan without the TIF."

This quote, from Fatimah Waseem's article about further analysis of the TIF, is virtually identical to what Mr. Fitchitt said in the small group meeting I attended, hosted by the Howard Hughes folks. I have to give him credit. At the time I thought this was something he was putting out there quietly, in order to put the fear of God into people. Apparently he is willing to shout it from the rooftops.

When I heard the announcement for the Lakefront Library I understood that this was an example the kind of public amenity that Fitchitt had been alluding to in discussions around the TIF: an investment for the public good that was exponentially larger than what would be possible without it. 

In seeing responses to the Library proposal it is clear to me that some would gladly take Walmarts and garden apartments if it meant excluding or disempowering Howard Hughes. I’m not saying that’s what they want, necessarily. I’m saying they’d be willing to live with them if that were the cost. 

Some folks really, really, really don’t like HHC. Some have done their research and may have based their opinions on what they have learned but some just hate Howard Hughes because it is the Big Bad Entity that must be resisted. They congregate around the social media water cooler and share half-truths and downright falsehoods, egging eachother on.

And then there are those who dislike the political party in power and/or loathe County Executive Calvin Ball. If he likes it, that’s all they need to know. It must be rejected, vilified, set fire to, and incinerated. All ideas are immediately painted as the work of grifters. Somehow the fact that the party in power got there in a free and fair election never seems to be mentioned. 

Give us our Walmarts and garden apartments and make these people go away. We do not like them. We could do just fine without them.

But we can’t. And we couldn’t. The truth is that we have to deal with the reality of what’s in front of us and IN MY OPINION we need to make sure that our best and brightest - - smart, insightful, empathetic, grounded - - are engaged and in the position to negotiate with the entities that have the power to shape our community. Surely we have people like that in Columbia/HoCo. (In my opinion those are the kinds of people we should elect to the CA Board, for that matter.)

It is not possible to cross our arms and say “you can’t play in my backyard” to people who own a big chunk of our backyard. Obstructionism builds nothing. Engagement with an aim to listen as well as to share one’s own views at least puts another voice in the room. The community needs to be in the room as creative thinkers and fierce negotiators.

We could be tough negotiators and fierce but respected adversaries. But that would mean having to accept that HHC is empowered by the Downtown Plan and that Howard County’s leadership is, at present, led by Democrats. You don’t have to like it. But, to get anywhere meaningful, you’d have to get beyond that point to where the actual work is happening. Deal-making is not inherently evil if you:

• are an active part of the process 
• have given your best in the negotiation
• come away with some tangible successes.

Maybe you don’t want to be a “trendy destination.” Perhaps you fear what that would mean for the place you love. I get that. I myself am not particularly trendy but I do see how a healthy community needs to have a variety of modes of activity to drive its economy and meet the needs of its residents. 

We can’t go back. It is too late to vote for Walmarts and garden apartments. But how we choose to proceed really matters.