I had an unexpected opportunity to take a slow start to this day and I seized it. It can be truly delicious to take one’s time in the morning when that isn’t the usual plan of action. On the other hand, luxuriating in the extra time caused all of my blog ideas to get loose and float out into the universe. If you see any, send them back my way.
Much of the online discourse this morning is either about last night’s Presidential debate or remembrances of 9-11. Not truly inside of my focus for the blog, although I have written about 9-11 in the past.
So I’m going off on a tangent. (Big surprise.) Do you know what this is?
Join @MissionFirstHG, @autismsocietymd and Howard County Housing Commission for the Groundbreaking of Patuxent Commons – 76-unit housing community for adults with disabilities, seniors and families in Columbia, MD - on 10/1.
Or this?
What about this?
Image property of Dorsey Overlook
All three represent new housing in Columbia/Howard County. And I’ve been thinking a lot (again) about how we are conditioned to look at housing construction as alarming, ugly, or wrong. I know I’ve written about this before but it’s an ongoing concern of mine.
Why is it exciting and promising in 1972 to see new housing cropping up everywhere but in 2024 it’s a harbinger of doom? When did Howard County become “full”? Was there a cut off date? Did we all wake up one morning and discover that new housing was ugly and a blight on the natural environment?
I know that among my readers I have folks who are extremely well-versed on issues of housing and zoning and local infrastructure. I am not asking for a treatise on the pros and cons of each individual project and/or the strength/weaknesses of local zoning ordinances.
I’m talking about perception.
If there is this pervasive sense that new housing is, on its face, unattractive and detrimental- - that’s something that’s learned. Because there was a time in this same area where new housing represented hope and opportunity and joy.
It reminds me of the end of that well known Twilight Zone episode where a post-surgery patient is horrified to discover what she looks like. To the ordinary television viewer she is perfectly lovely. But when you look at the faces of those around her…she’s not like them. And that alone is what makes her ugly.
In order for places like Patuxent Commons, Legacy at Twin Rivers, and Dorsey Overlook to be ugly to us, we have to make an intellectual decision that they represent something not like us. Something that threatens what we have.
Why do we do that? Do we have to do that?
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