Did You Get My Best Side?

It all depends on how you look at it. Here you see two photos of the same building. The one on the top gives off the kind of glow than an iconic Columbia building ought to have. The one on the bottom looks sad, lonely, ready for death.

Yes, it’s the old Columbia Flier building, and it’s back in the news again.

Photo credit: Scott Kramer

Ellicott City Patch, featuring the sad and lonely photo, has the most hopeful text:

An updated RFP has been released for the Flier Building, which Howard County officials hope will have a new purpose soon. Former Columbia Flier Building Still For Sale, Howard Co. Leaders Hopeful For Its Future

The Baltimore Business Journal couples the attractive photo with less glowing prose:

The modern building on Little Patuxent Parkway was built in 1978 and could be demolished to make way for a new use. Howard County issues RFP for redevelopment of high-profile building

Demolished. Hoo boy. That really gets you right in the nostalgia, eh?

I’ve always been irrationally fond of this building, especially considering that I never knew it in its heyday. Over the years I’ve come to terms with the knowledge that it may not be possible to save it. I touched on this when the first RFP was released three years ago.

Yesterday and Today, Village Green/Town², February 10, 2020

The County owns the property and has found creative ways to use the space that benefit the community. It is also true that the end goal is very likely to sell the building and the land for an entirely new project. That’s just the way it is.

February, 2020 was not long before the shut down for COVID-19. It doesn’t surprise me that there hasn’t been a huge outpouring of capital to invest in and develop this site. In the meantime, the County has continued to foster creative use for the building. It’s currently the temporary headquarters of Columbia Community Care. The space enables them to provide home delivery service to families in need.

I’ve long since given up my idealistic fantasies for this building. Still, I can’t get over what different emotions those two photographs stir up inside me.

Wow, that’s sad. I guess it’s really time for it to go.

“Demolish”? What do they mean, “demolish”?

Same building. Such different feelings.

To possible investors the photos are irrelevant. The building has been considered by most to be a “teardown” for quite some time. What matters to them is the amount of land and where it’s located. Will investors be willing to put their money into a project at that location?

We shall see.

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday. Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018. 2018 . But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest. In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog