Scene This Week In...

Driving through Ellicott City the other day I witnessed a sight you seldom see these days. A store owner was actually sweeping the curb in front of his store on Main Street. I believe the man in the ball cap is Tom Shoemaker, the proprietor of Shoemaker Country.

There was a time when this type of thing wouldn’t cause a second glance. Nowadays, it seems that many store operators often can’t see beyond their front doors.

When I was fresh out of college working for The Rouse Company, I was given a valuable lesson by Jim Rouse himself. Jim believed that whenever you were on a company property and you saw trash you should bend over and pick it up. No one was too good to do this simple task and the Chairman himself led by example.

My hat goes off to Tom Shoemaker. He is this weeks Scene in Ellicott City.

Over in Columbia I had the occasion to drop by the Howard County Central Library in Town Center. It was Monday afternoon around 1:30 and the parking lot was packed.

This is a very popular library.

Part of General Growth’s proposed redevelopment of Town Center includes replacing the existing library with a larger and expanded scope facility similar to the one in Cerritos, California. Apparently Valerie Gross the Executive Director & CEO of the Howard County library system is completely on board with this plan. GGP sees the new library as an intregal part of a new group of cultural amenities in Symphony Woods that would include a completely refurbished Merriweather Post Pavilion and a new Children’s Theatre run by Toby Orenstein in one of the existing barns.

The best part about these plans is the prospect that many more people will be encouraged to walk to these facilities rather than driving as they do now.

The existing library is this weeks Scene in Columbia