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Side By Side



Juxtaposition is everything. To me, anyway. I’m fascinated by how two seemingly unrelated items turn up side by side on social media and take on a new meaning of their own. Sometimes they’re funny. Sometimes they make you think.

Here’s one for you from Bluesky. Two posts back to back.



Ellicott City Motel abruptly shutting down, leaving residents without a home, Dennis Valera, CBS News

For sale: Spacious Howard County home with a backyard oasis , Jason Freeman, Baltimore Banner 

Do you see it? 

Do you feel a twinge of irony, or is it some kind of uncomfortable cognitive dissonance?

Some folks in Columbia are fond of harkening back to Jim Rouse’s views on inclusive and affordable housing. However, one would be hard pressed to point to examples where we are living that out today. Plus, it’s important to note that this was not some kind of pledge that Howard County as a whole jumped in to validate and embrace.

They did not. 

And they are not necessarily impressed by suggestions that if you work here you should be able to live here or that our neighborhoods should have room both for the janitor and the executive. 

Exhibit A, this recent declaration on a Hocolocal Facebook group:

The simple fact is that not everyone can (nor should they) afford to live in our community.   That is a GOOD thing...not a bad thing.

And that is how we have people with no place to go being pushed out of less than ideal living situations, existing side by side with “Spacious Howard County home with a backyard oasis.” 5 bedrooms, 3 ½-bathrooms, nearly 5,000 square feet. 

Every local attempt to create affordable housing is met with claims that such projects constitute the biggest threat to our school system and the education of our children. In fact, continuing to reinforce policies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer and then demanding that they be kept as far away from each other as possible is far more detrimental to education and our children’s futures.

Why? Because it reinforces a world where out of sight is out of mind. Where the “haves” feel perfectly comfortable not caring about those other people who can’t find a decent place to live. And their children will grow up just the same, and perpetuate the same notions. And the “have-nots” will grow up just the same, with fewer options and opportunities. 

Who will bridge that gap? I don’t know. We haven’t created a system that will nurture the kind of people who will value those priorities and take those risks. 


Village Green/Town² Comments


*****

Today in Local HoCo - - another note in support of a HoCo nonprofit! This one is from Laura Crovo of Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center.

There’s also Grassroots, Howard County’s emergency homeless shelter and free 24-hour crisis center. We provided support via more than 100,000 free crisis calls, 988 texts and chats, free urgent mental health and substance use walk in sessions and Mobile Crisis Team responses.

Learn more and donate: Grassroots 



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