Skip to main content

Other People’s Tweets Still Telling It Like It Is



Howard Hughes Corporation runs adverts on social media about why Columbia is the up and coming place for “the best talent.”

Howard County Tourism and the Columbia Association entice you with beautiful vistas, appealing amenities, and engaging activities.

But those folks you don’t know on Twitter, well…they get straight to the heart of it.

All they build in PG County is Chick Fil A’s and Townhomes.

Move to Howard County or Caroll County. You get the country, farms, plenty of open land + townhouses and chick fil a within 2 minutes of each other.

I’m imagining a whole new slogan:

Howard County: sure we have Chick Fil A and townhomes, but there’s so much more!

Oof.

Yes, I’m still going through Twitter first thing every morning looking for local stories. At best it’s a shadow of its former self. But I love coming across snippets like this because I enjoy seeing how other people think. It’s the homebody equivalent of DCist’s Overheard in DC.

The Howard Hughes Corporation warned us that, without the TIF, the Downtown Plan wouldn’t amount to much more than “Walmarts and garden apartments.” (Remember that?) To my knowledge, they haven’t built any Walmarts or garden apartments in Columbia since those words were spoken. Nor do I think they ever intended to. Those were just words that HHC thought might scare - - sorry, motivate - - people towards a resolution they felt would the most fruitful. 

Poor Prince George’s County. If only they had Howard Hughes perhaps they’d have more than town homes and Chick Fil A’s. 

No, this post is not entirely serious. I do think it’s interesting to look at things through other people’s eyes, though. If you asked people in River Hill/Clarksville about what keeps getting built it’s likely you’d hear about banks and nail salons. They seem to be congregating out there for some reason. Every time a new business begins construction you see people get their hopes up, only to have them dashed by another bank or nail salon. 

Someone, somewhere, must think those folks have plenty of money to bank and plenty of time to get their nails done.

So endeth yet another episode of Other People’s Tweets. Do you have any witty ideas for a Howard County slogan? Let me know.

Village Green/Town² Comments 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...

Columbia Chance Connection

  Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!”  We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...