Village Green/Town²

No April Fools this year. How about some crazy wishes instead? How about a list of the local unlikelies that would just make you laugh if they were to come true? Yeah. I think I could get behind that. Some suggestions: CA Board votes to fund complete pathway system for Merriweather Park in Symphony Woods and name it in honor of Michael McCall. Governor Hogan scraps plans for maglev in order to bring appealing, convenient, and affordable public transportation throughout Columbia and Howard County. Allan Kittleman and Calvin Ball become accountability partners in a Whole 30 diet group. A new form of redistricting stuns the County as real estate stays the same but the schools themselves are moved to different locations. Politicians found to be in possession of campaign funds in excess of the legal limit will be required to donate the remainder to a Sick Building Health Fund to cover healthcare costs of victims. Columbia Gateway named as 11th Columbia Village. Colonel Gatew...

What with the interesting political hocus pocus going on in Annapolis this week, I thought it was significant that this post came up in my memories for today on Facebook. The Craziness Continues At the heart of that post: I'm of the opinion that these meetings allow for greater transparency and accountability. In Howard County the community struggle with our school system over these issues has taken on almost epic proportions. Citizens continue to testify in Annapolis in favor of a bill to ensure meaningful compliance with MPIA requests, yet legislators in Annapolis don't think our Superintendent should need to articulate capital budget priorities in an open meeting.  For heaven's sake, right now Howard County is practically the definition of why these meetings need to be open. We have students and staff who have suffered long term health problems due to mold issues in their schools. All the while those in power denied there was any problem at all and there was ...

If yesterday’s blog post proved anything whatsoever, it would be that Dave Yungmann has plenty of women friends who are willing to give him testimonials. That’s great. It’s good to have friends, and it looks like he has some of the best. Things that these testimonials focus on: Dave Yungmann is a great guy. I don’t dispute that. My blog post wasn’t about that at all. Dave Yungmann did a lot during the BOE campaign that you don’t know about . I don’t dispute that either. That’s just how people write campaign literature. It’s no big deal . Hmm. He would   never erase women. He’s not like that. Well... Here’s the deal. As a writer, albeit an amateur, I naturally focus on how people use words. So my blog post was an analysis of how Mr. Yungmann was telling his story to the public. In a political campaign, once you put stuff out there, the public will read it and give feedback. That’s how it works.   And there’s nothing innately unfair about commentary on politi...

Into every successful movement, spearheaded and supported largely by women, will come one man who will take credit for the whole thing. I was noodling around on Facebook, looking at candidate pages,when I took a look at the page of David Yungmann. Yungmann, a Republican, is running for County Council in District 5. My eye caught this sentence: David became a leader in the movement for new school system leadership, successfully electing a new Board of Education and installing a new Superintendent. Wait, what? I rubbed my eyes. I shook my head. I read it again. David became a leader in the movement for new school system leadership, successfully electing a new Board of Education and installing a new Superintendent. While I was aware that Mr. Yungmann supported the campaigns of two of the BOE challengers, I had no idea he was responsible for both the new board and the new superintendent. That’s pretty impressive. In fact, it’s a such preposterous claim that I clicked on the p...

All text printed in italics is from this article in the HoCo Times by Kate Magill: Howard County looks to add door locks, 4 officers to bolster school security  Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman announced Tuesday that he is committing $1.1 million in his upcoming budgets for school security initiatives, including more door locks at high schools and additional police officers for middle schools. AltonSterling Three new school resource officers, and a supervisor, would join the three officers assigned to serve six middle schools: Mayfield Woods, Patuxent Valley, Wilde Lake, Harper's Choice, Lake Elkhorn and Oakland Mills. Stephon Clark Until the additional school resource officers arrive, Gardner said the department will mandate all patrol officers to add public and private schools in their beats to their regular patrol rounds. Tamir Rice  “So the role here is for our road officers, in their beats, to make at least one check per day of going in, checking ...

I was there on Sunday when the store employee held up his phone to play bagpipe music and tell people to bring their purchases to the cashiers up front. He had been doing that every Sunday at that time for many years, but this particular time it was different. “Please bring your purchases to the front to pay. Thank you so much, and have a good evening. And a happy life.” The customers laughed a bit, then applauded. On a Sunday, March 25th, Daedalus Books and Music Outlet Store closed its doors for the last time. There will be no more browsing, no more discovering new music heard while shopping, no more great finds which snatch gift-giving victory from the jaws of defeat. The new owners will continue an online presence from their headquarters in Ohio but our hometown store will be no more. We all know that, in the age of Amazon, bookstores are a dying breed. Yet somehow I thought that our little funky, off-beat local place would last forever. As a teacher I found books to use in...

I had a conversation the other evening about development in Howard County. I confessed that I have found myself to be conflicted on this issue. In fact, I have shied away from writing about it in the recent past because I have felt that my stance of conflict was of no use to anyone. I thought that, after doing my homework, I should be able to choose one side or the other. I haven’t. If you’ve ever wondered why I didn’t weigh in on APFO, this is why. Or make a definitive statement about the Columbia TIF. On the one hand, I know what communities look like when businesses feels that they are no longer commercially viable. Developers are no longer motivated to engage. It can be a vicious cycle. A lack of willingness to invest can be the kiss of death. And I know that we need a push for affordable housing and decent “starter” housing. We need to make that a priority. On the other hand, I do see quite clearly the overcrowding in schools that continued development has brought to our...