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Wilde Lake Takes the (Coffee) Cup


 

Good morning! I had an incredibly good day yesterday but I can’t write about it until Friday - - because it wasn’t in Howard County. Until then, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

*****

Have you seen this recent article in the Baltimore Banner? 

Why Howard County’s power brokers prefer to meet at the Wilde Lake Village Starbucks, Lillian Reed, photographs by Jerry Jackson

It’s fun to see people you know in the newspaper, in particular when it’s a delightful human interest story without any drama. This piece definitely falls into that category. I know many of these folks and they are “good people” who are interested/informed/engaged in community issues.

I still found it vaguely disturbing. From what I can see, I’m pretty much in the minority having mixed feelings about this article. Can’t quite put my finger on what’s spurring my discomfort…possibly it is because I personally would be mortified to be perceived as a wannabe mover and shaker. But that’s just me. 

Certainly I’ve seen people talking about it online.  Here’s a discussion on Reddit. 

Three things:

  1. I’m not a fan of the Starbucks corporate machine and I hate to see $$$ going in their coffers. BUT - - I’m still thrilled to see an appealing community space in Wilde Lake where people are consistently turning out and interacting. Life isn’t perfect. Our choices in this particular situation certainly aren’t. So, no judgment from me on that front.
  2. In my opinion this entire phenomenon has its roots in something called the “Santos Sunday Sixty” which the article barely touches on. Bill Santos, now the Wilde Lake representative on the CA Board, started having coffee get-togethers consistently years ago that were open to anyone who wanted to chat about community. Held at the Mall Starbucks and then later at the Whole Foods, this was never in any sense about “office hours” as the article suggests. Give the man credit, for heaven’s sake. 
  3. If these are indeed the power brokers in Howard County then we are in trouble. Again, it’s not the people I object to, it’s the framing. If you look at the accompanying photographs they reveal a picture I have been seeing locally for years: well-meaning, (largely) white people of a certain age. I have nothing against that particular demographic: I fall in that category, too.
But framing this with words like “power brokers” and “movers and shakers” simply emphasizes a long-standing problem here in Columbia/HoCo. The only conversations we highlight look like this. And, after a while, the people in those conversations come to believe they are the only folks having conversations worth having. 

It’s easy enough to fall into that way of thinking. I’m sure I have been guilty of it from time to time, even as I bemoan its existence. 

So here’s a toast to all the other conversations we aren’t seeing, the other topics worth discussing, and the other people who never make the newspaper. I’m raising my extra large San Francisco Bay French Roast iced coffee in their honor.


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