Village Green/Town²

  Do you want all the juicy details about what’s going on at the CA Board? It looks like there are some folks who want to tell you all about it. They’re anxious to assert that they know everything.  Beware people who think they know everything. Or tell you that they do. What do I know about CA President Lakey Boyd? CA graciously granted me a Zoom interview with her early on and I wrote about it. I pay attention to her work (and that of the CA Board) for the blog. That’s it.  What do I know about the CA Board? That’s a harder question. I’ll start with this quote from an earlier blog post. From “ A Crisis of Face ” : Don't misunderstand me. I believe in Columbia and what it stands for. I believe in the Villages, where you will find community engagement and vibrancy happening all the time. But I'm not sure I believe in "CA."  Panel member Candace Dodson Reed offered the following, "If all people had to go on was what they read in the newspaper and saw online, they ...

  There are two perfectly good local stories to talk about today. The first one is close to my heart. Oakland Mills High School has announced that tickets are now available for this year’s WBAL Concert for Kids, to be held on December 3rd at 7:30 PM, with a Family Matinee at 2:00 PM. This annual event is a favorite of mine. If you are looking for an all out holiday extravaganza  without leaving town, this is it. Proceeds benefit the WBAL Kids Campaign.  The annual Concert for Kids to benefit the WBAL Radio Kids Campaign is a holiday concert which supports our community by raising funds and awareness for the WBAL Radio Kids Campaign.  Since it premiered in 2007 as an opportunity for the twenty-plus student orchestra to give back to the community, the Concert for Kids has raised over $101,000 for the WBAL Radio Kids Campaign.  A true community event, the Concert for Kids series features the OMHS Performing Arts Department, WBAL Radio On-Air personalities and a vi...

  It’s Monday. Time to come clean with something I haven’t been 100 per cent candid about.  Remember this? Time for a Change , August 3, 2022 I decided this week to cancel my subscription to the Baltimore Sun/Howard County Times/Columbia Flier. At almost $350 dollars annually, it has become too weighty an expense to justify, especially since the local coverage has become scant and often downright inaccurate. Still, I’m grateful that the Howard County Library System offers free access to its patrons.  Right after that post I sent an email to the subscription department through the Baltimore Sun website and formally requested that they cancel my subscription. I explained why. I asked them to send me confirmation in writing that they had received my request and were taking action to honor it. I received what looked like a computer-generated response that they had received my email to cancel my subscription and would be getting back to me shortly. If I had any questions I sho...

  On the day before the election the weather was beautiful. I knew what I had to do. There was somewhere I had to go. Something I had to see. In 2014 the County purchased the Long Reach Village Center. “…the County Council approved legislation that created an exception, allowing the government to purchase the private commercial land because of its rundown condition.” The Village Center is not only comprised of commercial property but is also home to the Long Reach Community Association and the Columbia Art Center.  For more about the 2014 purchase: Howard Co. purchases Long Reach Village Center for $5M , Luke Lavoie, Baltimore Sun, photos by Jon Sham Not everyone agreed that purchasing the troubled Village Center was the solution to the problem. Some felt it was not a wise use of public funds. And, in fact, Allan Kittleman, who won the County Executive race that November, was one of them.  At the beginning of Kittleman’s term, Long Reach Village Center sat in limbo. Resid...

  About yesterday. I’m grateful to those who offered thoughtful comments about the piece I had written and were willing to engage in dialogue about the issues it raised. A few others showed up with arguments and accusations which were only tangentially related to the topic at hand. That’s not a crime. But I’m not going to provide people with an unlimited platform to make unrelated accusations.  I was once waiting to be treated at the ER at Yale New Haven on Memorial Day weekend. Suddenly all hell broke loose. It seems that some injured victims from a drunken brawl at a holiday picnic had been brought in as a group and had restarted the fight as soon as they arrived at the emergency room. That’s pretty much what the comments section looked like by the end of the day. I didn’t want to, but I turned off commenting for that post. My reasoning is this: while I am willing to facilitate conversation that includes disagreement and multiple points of view, I am not obligated to host a...

People make choices. And the choices show us who they are. Yesterday Baltimore Fishbowl chose to publish a piece by Executive Editor David Nitkin that treats rumours and innuendos and back-room smears as truth. That was a choice.  A coup in Columbia? A dynamic leader faces a disgruntled board in Maryland’s second-largest city. That piece will upset and confuse people in our community and very likely do lasting damage to some. That was also a choice. I’ve done my best to try to stay apart from recent rumblings online about the CA Board and CA President Lakey Boyd, largely because I know I’m not a professional journalist and I don’t have access to the necessary information to provide a balanced picture. Completely separate from this, I have been aware of clumsy attempts online to make accusations and spread lies about someone who is a personal friend: Nina Basu. Basu is the President and CEO of the Inner Arbor Trust: the organization that is responsible for the care of Merriweather P...

  You’d be amazed what has accumulated here in my bag of tricks. Today feels like a good day to dump it all out and see what I’ve got. There’s a new superhero out there protecting the environment and his name is Sharkey D’Shark. Sharkey found 251 pieces of trash between the road and the train tracks. He found more, but he learned that not all trash gets thrown away. Some can be reused or recycled! #SharkeyAttack #PatapscoRiver #ChesapeakeBay Over at the Howard County Library, they must still be tallying votes. No winner has yet been announced. Did you vote? If you’ve ever wondered about the popularity of the Green Bins for collecting food waste/yard waste, or doubted they’d catch on, you might be interested to see this photo. It appears that Green bins have become so cool and influential in the local bin scene that our good old Blue bins want to get in on the fun. I’m sure there’s a great story behind this. Green bins as influencers, perhaps? Have you seen this woman? If you keep y...