Village Green/Town²

A year ago my posts were filled with talk of the election. A year from now I guess they will be, too. Right now I'm just shaking my head and hoping for the best. The last election broke my heart. And not just a little. I told myself I wasn't ever going to let myself care about politics that deeply again. And I was truly only on the periphery of the intense work that political campaigns demand from participants. But even that was more than enough for me. Because for the first time, the people who were running were my friends. It was more than endorsing a political point of view for me. I believed in them as people. But already in Howard County candidates for the Board of Education are announcing, and I can't feel indifferent about that. I feel the familiar sense that our community has a responsibility to our children and that we have an opportunity to make things better. And I just can't turn my head away and not care. Community, responsibility, opportunity, improvement....

I attended the kick-off event for Kirsten Coombs last night at Historic Oakland. She's running for a seat on the Howard County Board of Education. I've known Kirsten for a while now, as a friend in the blogging community, and through her work on Tom Coale's campaign. I've watched as her involvement in her daughter's education grew beyond an interest in just one school. I've seen her willingness to donate her time and talents as an accountant to serve on the school system's Citizen Review Board to analyze the budget. I've had conversations with her about the great things that are happening in our schools. Last night when Kirsten came forward to speak, it was clear that she was doing something right. In choosing to run for the Board of Education she is connecting with her desire to serve the community and her deep love of education. There couldn't be a better match. She brings to her candidacy her experiences in school and community volunteering, her ...

I'm having one of those days where everything I might write about just makes me feel pissy (translation: angry or in a bad mood.) Not violently angry but annoyed and/or jaded. And I don't think it's healthy to go on day after day like that. Part of what colors this is watching my daughter struggle each morning with the early high school start time. It's not good for her. Actually, it borders on being soul-crushing. Being forced to operate on a clock which is opposed to her naturally body clock is taking much of the joy out of her high school experiences. That's how we start each day. Miserable. She goes to a great school, is involved in activities she likes, she has already made new friends. But she is dragging around her messed-up sleep cycle like a ball and chain. It goes everywhere she does. And at the end of the day, when she is supposed to be giving her best to an increased homework load, she is exhausted almost to the point of paralysis. There is a substantial...

Assigned reading: In 'Soda Politics', Big Soda at Crossroads of Profits and Public Health -- (Allison Aubrey, Eliza Barclay for NPR ) City to Get Healthier Vending Options -- (Andrea K. McDaniels for the Baltimore Sun ) While the County Executive may have pushed back on this issue in Howard County, it is still very much an issue. A public health issue. And it's far bigger than our little Bubble. ***** Tonight, the CA Speaker Series offers "Best Zoning Practices for Large Planned Communities" at Slayton House from 7 to 9 pm. Tuesday, November 3rd, the Inner Arbor Trust offers "Math of Architecture, Architecture of Math" at Smith Theatre, HCC, 7-8:30 pm. Both events are free, just sign up for tickets at the link. ***** A tip of the hat to Mickey Gomez for leading the HoCo Civility Power Up session at the Miller Branch Library yesterday. The topic was Social Media Responsibility and Online Harassment. It was eye-opening. More on that soon.          

Yesterday the Howard County Schools posted their own press release (carefully crafted in-house) on their own website. The only reason many of us know about this is the prompt coverage by local media. Both Amanda Yeager of the Howard County Times and Amy Aubuert of ABC2/WMAR got the information out on Twitter. That's really kind of amazing, since the hcpss press release does its best to try to discredit the work of both of these reporters and their organizations. @amandacyeager: The release calls media reports "targeted," "inaccurate" and "sensational," says school system wants to "set the record straight." Mind blown. How many of us would have just happened to be at the hcpss website to see that press release appear? How much normal everyday traffic and organic sharing is there on a normal day? Probably not all that much. I don't know. I do know that once it got picked up by Ms. Yeager and Ms. Aubert it got much, much more attention. ...

Correction : Although I know I got this from a reliable source, the claim that this has something to do with work on Merriweather and the Chrysalis is not, in fact, correct. My sincere apologies. The one year hiatus is connected to construction taking place on the Crescent Property. ***** The year was 2007. General Growth was new in town. Do you remember? Do you remember the year they took the Poinsettia Tree away? Oh, boy--I do. It was a mighty Big Deal. If your memory needs refreshing, here's a piece from the Washington Post. "The Tree was a symbol of how Columbia was different," said Dennis Lane, who grew up in the town, blogs about it and writes a column for the Business Monthly, a local paper. "It's a non-political statement, a thing of beauty. I live in Ellicott City now, and it has a definable center and a long history. Columbia yearns for that. It's a suburb on steroids that holds tight to any tradition it has." So now, for some very good reason...

"When a city gets public transportation right, it gets so much else right. So much is made better simply through the ability to get around." So says my friend Gerry, who recently moved to Chicago after many years as a Baltimore City resident. During his last few years in Baltimore, he frequently live-tweeted his experiences using Baltimore public transit. It wasn't pretty. Now that he's in Chicago living the big city life, he's reveling in all the opportunities that decent transit affords him. I thought of Gerry this week when Governor Hogan unveiled the shrouded mystery vehicle in Baltimore to announce his plan for better buses in Baltimore City. Would my friend, with painfully in-depth experience in using local public transit, think this was enough? A drop in the bucket? Too little, too late? I don't know. I haven't asked him yet. Surely he would find Bryan Sears' vignette from the big event a delicious bit of Baltimore local color. As Columbia con...

So I can still drink two Dogfish on a Friday night at the Second Chance and be up early the next day to write the blog. Ha! I thought to myself, a bit triumphantly, I'm not completely over the hill. And yet, something in that lovely IPA seems to have had the residual effect of flattening any motivation to write...I guess there's always a tradeoff. Sigh. Today there's a boatload of things going on around town. The Library is having a 75th Birthday celebration and burying a time capsule with the help of local middle school students. The Columbia Association is hosting an Open House in their new headquarters complete with access to the amazing Columbia Archives. And I bet there's more I don't know about. As for me, I'm taking my girls to the Ren Fest because it's the last weekend and somehow we haven't made it yet this season. It's an annual tradition with us. They dress up. I play the part of the suburban mom. (I have plenty of outfits for that.) If...

It's good to have friends. Sometimes you need friends to set you straight. I was reminded of this yesterday when my friend Nina responded to my blog post about the tiny soda cans by informing me that they were not new, in fact they'd probably been around for about ten years. Well, phooey. Now all of that astute observation and brilliant analysis was reduced to, "Hey! Look what I saw at the store!" Not very impressive. And then I laughed. Because sometimes, despite your best efforts, you're wrong. And it's of course a good deal more likely if you come away from your efforts thinking you have executed a particularly clever bit of work. That's when you are more susceptible to believing your own publicity, and less likely to give your work that extra bit of scrutiny it deserves. Sigh. What would be worse: being corrected by a friend, or persisting in ignorance? It depends whether your ego is more invested in the quality and truth of your work, or in your per...

While shopping at our neighborhood Walgreens, something caught my eye.   It's hard to tell from the picture, but these soda cans are really, really small. Tiny, even. More like those little cans of V-8 or pineapple juice we are used to seeing. So I checked. They're eight ounces. And the packaging proudly proclaims, "only 100 calories!" The fluctuation of product size, especially in relation to the cost of ingredients and what producers think the market will bear, is an ongoing source of frustration for me. Examples: breakfast cereal and toilet paper. But this is different, I think. This is a sign that perhaps Big Soda knows it's in trouble and it's trying on a new set of clothing to fit in with changing consumer attitudes. Let's face it, if beverages exist for the functional purpose of abating thirst, then this tiny can just isn't going to cut it. Except maybe if you are a kid. Ah... It's okay, Mom and Dad. You can still be a good parent and mak...

Dan Reed from Just Up the Pike shared this article the other day on Facebook. It's a tad long but definitely worth your time. Entitled "How to Keep [Your City] Weird", it takes a look at the ramifications of preservationist attempts to maintain the essential character of a community. The author, Kriston Capps, uses the city of Austin as the focal point of the piece. As you read you come to realize that what makes for the essential character of a place is very much in the eye of the beholder. Today, when the conversation turns to Keeping Austin Weird, it tends to mean keeping people out. Developers, Californians, festival-goers, franchise owners: The list of factors threatening to emblanden Austin grows longer and longer. To the extent that Austinites are trying to erect barriers to entry for people who might like to live there, the city risks losing something worse than cool: its sense of hospitality. "Emblanden". What a great word. And I wonder if that may be ...

Two big stories (that aren't mold or the Harriet Tubman building) in the news this week pertaining to the Howard County School System. Bill proposes to elect Howard school board members by district (Amanda Yeager and Lisa Philip)* Howard delegate proposes legislative remedy to school system transparency complaints (Amanda Yeager) Both stories feature elected officials, both Democrat and Republican, who are proposing to improve the workings of the elected Board of Education and the school system in response to constituent requests. Many constituent requests. This is notable for two reasons. Number one, we see elected officials being responsive to constituents, something that we need much more of from the Board of Education. Number two is rather personal to me. In October of 2014, in " Disconnect ", I wrote of attending a PTACHC meeting in which the topic "What makes a good board member?" was discussed by a variety of experts, including present and past board m...

Within Reach. If you live in the Baltimore area, or the DC area, Columbia is within reach. It's close enough to the things you need already, your job, the people you know and hang out with. It would be easy to make the move. And now's the time, because a lot is happening in Columbia and it's a really cool place that you want to be a part of. I think that was the message of the Within Reach festival, put on Saturday byHoward Hughes and the Downtown Partnership. Let's have a party, with great music, and food, and amazing beer, and let's have it right on the Lakefront, in the heart of where everything is happening. Let's reach out, especially to a younger demographic. Let's just get them here and they'll see how awesome it is. They'll see that living in Columbia is a real possibility.   I got there early, because, well, that's just me. Everyone I came in contact with was friendly and helpful. The area was well laid out and everything showed signs ...

First frost. I always made a big deal out of it when my daughters were little, showing them the frost on the ground and the icy windshield in the morning. First frost. It means something. To us ordinary suburban types it means that yes, most of the warmer days are behind us. We really need to pull out the warmer clothes if we haven't already. We may be getting ready to break down and turn on the heat. First frost means more than that to gardeners and those living in agricultural communities. I'm sure blogger AnnieRie could tell me much more about what this means to farmers. I did a quick look-up: "Growing seasons is stated in terms of frost-free days, i.e. the average number of days between the last frost of spring and the first killing frost of fall or winter . Most agriculture requires a frost-free season of at least about 90 days." Things like the first frost in the Fall remind me of times long past when everyone's survival depended upon astute observation of...

Had a bit of grownup fun last night. Finally made it to Petit Louis Bistro after almost a year of trying to make it happen. My husband and I don't do the "get dressed up and go to a fancy restaurant" thing very often. Sometimes I'm wistful about that. Most of the time I'm quite happy at TheSecond Chance, or bringing home exquisite takeout from Maiwand. Last night was special. It was actually a celebration of last year's wedding anniversary. It was the only thing I asked for: dinner at Petit Louis. It took a while, but my wish came true. I liked it. I loved the feel of the room. The light, the marble, the gleaming brass, the wood, the mirrors, the tiny candles flickering on the tables. The service was knowledgable and attentive. Well, maybe a hair too attentive. But better that than to be ignored, I guess. Service moved smoothly, like a carefully-planned dance. But in a comfortable way. Not too fussy. Part of me wished that there had been a bit of live music...

(Breaking the third wall here, walks down towards audience.) I don't consider the things I write here as the be-all and end-all on any topic. I write to express my opinion, which may be impassioned, and I am always hopeful to start a conversation. Just because I have a strong opinion does not mean that I think it's my way or the highway. Yesterday Oakland Mills community activist Karen Gray spent a long time both here and on Facebook outlining an opposing point of view as to the $50,000 sought by Oakland Mills from the County Budget. She has put a lot of thought into her position. She has a lot of experience to back that up. She could be "right." I could be "right". The reader gets to decide for themselves. As for me, a pattern of behavior by this board leadership has brought me to a point that I feel that a change in Board Leadership is the best possible outcome for the future of Oakland Mills. I laid out examples of some of that behavior for you yesterday....

It looks like there's going to be a surplus in the Howard County Budget and the leadership of the Oakland Mills Village Board wants some of it. $50,000.00, to be exact. Yes, the very same people who: recently held a secret meeting with Tom Carbo without informing the rest of the board released a negative story to the press about the state of Oakland Mills housing stock without informing the rest of the board tried to sell all of Howard County on a state-of-the-art sports complex so that they could displace less fortunate Oakland Mills residents Yes, those people. They want $50,000.00 to pursue their plans for "re-inventing Oakland Mills." Don't give it to them. The idea that one extra cent of Howard County tax money should be extended to such poor stewards of our community's resources galls me, today in particular. Today is our Covenant Advisor's last day. Why? Well, after months and months, no, several years of rudeness, systematic interference, veiled thre...

At the beginning of the school year, the Superintendent of Schools exhorted us to "focus on what's strong, not what's wrong." I think people are aware of the many things that are strong about our schools. Expecting that things that are wrong get discussed openly, responded to promptly--and with respect--is the expectation of people who want to believe in the system. It's when people stop expecting this that you need to worry. That would mean that people have given up. I awoke today to this wonderful article by Lisa Philip of HoCo Times about my husband, who is a semifinalist for the Grammy Music Educator award. Surely here is something that's strong about our schools: our music program, from Pre-K in some schools through 12th grade. An article in the newspaper may highlight just one person, but he is a part of a much larger community of learning that makes what he does possible. It's nice to be in the newspaper. I've been lucky to be covered twice in ...

Mold in our schools and how the school system is handling it is a continuing problem being covered now by the Howard County Times , Amy Aubert of ABC2 News , and a parent advocacy group on Facebook. Named, "Mold at Glenwood Middle School - Information for Parents", the parent page published some information yesterday which combines both the continuing story of how parents have been treated and concerns about changes in leadership at PTACHC. I asked permission to run their piece as a guest post here today. ***** One thing that has surprised... actually shocked me is the amount of politics at play within the BOE, PTACHC and HCPSS central office. Without getting into too much detail, it is obvious that political and career aspirations and alignments within the BOE, PTACHC, Central Office and the Superintendent have slowed down our progress immensely. Dr. Foose is supposed to work for the BOE. The BOE is supposed to work for us. Right now, we only have 2 out of 8 BOE members w...

So, imagine this is you. Your family. Your spouse. "Okay I knew it was a matter of time…we are an average, patriotic family with 2 kids living in the River Hill neighborhood… I am a practical girl from the Midwest sometimes intrigued and entertained by the HOCO mentality…well my husband has been dieting and working out by walking around the neighborhood, sometimes he wears a Gold's Gym workout/weight vest and today on his walk on this beautiful day…a person called 911 and then 3 cops cars stopped my husband on his walk after he was reported as a probable terrorist/menace to society and may have a gun -- they made him raise his hands and they asked if he had a gun….Can't wait for the responses on this one ! by the way…the police could not have been nicer!" I had to do an Internet search on the vest. It looks like this. Recently HoCoRudkus wrote a blog post on "If you see something, say something." The post addresses the actions of school officials who report...

Some love-thy-neighbor types took to the streets yesterday to defend the worship space at Dar Al-Taqwa Mosque on Route 108 in Ellicott City. You can read more about this through posts on the "Celebrating Columbia and its Future" page on Facebook. Briefly: a man named Mike White, not a Howard County resident, called for a rally against Islam to be held Saturday, October 10th, at the site of the Dar Al-Taqwa Mosque. You can see the kind of hatred his group is spewing here . (Don't say I didn't warn you.) Once word got out on social media, people from Columbia and Howard County responded with a plan of action to support our Muslim neighbors and reject hatred in our community. They made a commitment and they showed up armed with goodwill, resolve, and signs like this. (Photo credit: Robin Procida.) The rally against Islam was a bust. " BTW, Mike White, the rally organizer did show up but when he realized no one else was there to join him he drove away." (Ro...

Trees are beautiful. And important. And in Columbia we care about maintaining Open Space and keeping a healthy natural environment for our community. But over time we have come to have a problem with trees. We worship them. The cutting down of one tree is cause for grief. The cutting down of multiple trees is a calamity. Write the newspaper Call your congressman Rant online I do believe trees are important, and I do believe that protecting our natural environment in Columbia should be a high priority. But there's a double standard at work here that no one seems to want to acknowledge. If trees are so important, let's go back and replace the ones that used to be where your house is now. Poof! More trees, no house. Your child's school--poof! No school. Your favorite restaurant, shop, athletic club. Poof! More trees. All these places once had trees. They had to be cut down for you to be here. Why is it not a crime? Do you feel guilty? Are you willing to donate your land back t...

There was a great conversation on Twitter last night stemming from the Choose Civility event at the Miller Branch Library. "Would You Say That to my Face?" took a look at online civility. If you want to catch up, you can follow @MickeyGomez, who was live-tweeting, and/or search the hashtag #hococivil. HCPSS is clearly the media winner this week, with three separate stories percolating. Harriet Tubman Mold Teacher Arrest I'm not going to go into those in depth right now, but it's interesting to note that if you search the "Rate My Teachers" site for the teacher in question, a number of things come up in student reviews which are absolutely red flags for abuse. We all tend to roll our eyes at reviews like this, perhaps questioning their validity, but this is quite telling. I must say, all that extra money the school system is spending on public relations/media presence is really paying off. There's hardly a week that they're not in the headlines. Touc...

"Downtown Columbia is where it's at!" So reads the home page for the Within Reach Festival, to be held Saturday, October 17th, in the Amercian City Parking lot, from 4-10 pm. Live music, local beer, and food from local chefs in a beautiful Lakefront setting. I'm fascinated by this. Howard Hughes is in the process of developing the last bit of residential property in Columbia. The Metropolitan is open, the Crescent Neighborhood has broken ground. Who will live here? The Within Reach Festival gives us a hint that Howard Hughes is looking to appeal to young, "hip" folks with some disposable income to take a chance on Columbia. It might be a hard sell for a generation who are embracing urban life, walkability, bikeability, and decent transit. But maybe, just maybe, there are people who would consider Columbia if we just got them here and showed them what it was all about. The future of Columbia depends on bringing a younger generation into the mix. Does an even...

The last time I gave blood my daughter was a little girl and I had to bring her along with me. She had some activity books to help her pass the time. One of them was a hidden picture book. As I sat across the room with a needle in my arm, a nice lady kept her company and gave her some good advice. "If you can't find something, it helps to turn the picture upside down." It really does. It also works on those hidden picture games in the iPad, tilting just enough to the left or the right to change your perspective. Suddenly, at just the right angle, an item which was somehow invisible magically appears. Sometimes the solution appears only if you are willing to change your point of view. And if you are highly invested in seeing the world from only one location, then finding the solution is not as important to you as maintaining your personal belief that you are the North Star. Around town I see plenty of examples of this. The co-chairs of the Oakland Mills Village Board who ...

Serious case of a "just can't do it" malaise this morning.   Please send ideas.    

On September 10th I wrote about the implementation of Canvas and Synergy in the Howard County Schools. If this topic interested you, I highly recommend this article by Lisa Philip of the Howard County Times. "Howard County school system rushed rollout of new software, teachers say" It's a far cry from the original piece published by HoCoTimes. "Howard school system gives high marks to new software" This is where being a subscriber to the digital edition really pays off. If you can, read the article and the comments. As you know, I generally take a dim view of anonymous comments. But it looks as though they are being used here by teachers who might face very real retribution were their names known. What do you think? If you are a parent, how are Canvas and Synergy working for you and your student? Are you satisfied with this expenditure of public funds? If not, how do you think this should be addressed? A lot of questions for a Monday. Go ahead, have some cof...

I went to the Columbia Festival of the Arts concert at the Rouse Theater last night. The folks from Classic Albums Live were in town to present the Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in its entirety, in conjunction with the Columbia Orchestra. Of all of the British Invasion offerings, this was the one that really spoke to me. A group of us from church made a ladies' night of it, having dinner beforehand at the Hickory Ridge Grill. Ours was a multi-generational group. I'm hazarding a guess that we had representatives from teens, thirties, fifties, and seventies. One of us had actually seen the Beatles live in concert, in Baltimore. One of us remembered staying up late to see the Beatles debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. This particular concert drew pretty much the age group that you would expect: the people who tend to turn out for the Festival of the Arts and the people who strongly identify with Beatles music. And that would be more or less the same age group....

I belong to a Music Teachers group on Facebook. It is an extremely active group. Members discuss ideas for lessons, instrumental questions, they look for repertoire, discuss discipline techniques, share successes and commiserate on bad days. But this week I read something out of the ordinary. " I absolutely love my job. I have adequate prep time, reasonable breaks, small classes and only 24 classes a week. The problem is that I will soon be forced to leave because the cost of living has priced my family out of the area. I'm terrified! Are there other great jobs out there like mine? Please share!" This didn't come from a local teacher, but it very well could have. Solidly middle class professions like teachers, police, firefighters, nurses, plumbers, and more are just about completely priced out of Columbia. All the while certain people rail about Section 8 housing and use coded language to encourage a fear of "thugs" coming to a street near you. Yeah, th...

It doesn't matter where you live, the traveling show will soon be coming to your town. If not now, then sooner rather than later. The traveling show has money to burn and the tickets are bought by people like us who think they'll never have to pay the price. It doesn't happen here , they say. Come one come all to gawk and stare as the ringmaster makes media statements and the ambulances pull away from the scene. Action in all three rings! You can have a front row seat. And there's always audience participation. Come early to get good seats. New venues are always being booked. Don't worry if you missed it the last time around. It'll be back. ***** With love, condolences, and profound respect to the community of Roseburg, Orgeon.  

"Columbia's Grande Point decision leaves some wanting more" reads the headline . HoCo Times reporter Amanda Yeager outlines the abrupt cancellation by Tom Carbo to speak the the Oakland Mills communuty about a possibly purchase. As thorough as it is, the article itself leaves me wanting more. How is it even remotely acceptable for two (possibly three?) members of the Village Board to hold a secret meeting with Mr. Carbo without communicating with the full board in any way? This violates everything I know about Columbia Village leadership. Why would anyone want to run for their village board if they can see that their participation may be completely dismissed if something controversial comes up? How can we encourage a next generation of leadership when long-time residents play keep-away with community issues? The long-term goal of anyone who truly loves Columbia should be a vibrant and involved citizenry. Instead what we have is a few self-styled power-brokers who tre...