The Village of Wilde Lake is very much in the news this weekend. In addition to hosting the only contested race this spring for a seat on the Columbia Council, the village was highlighted in the Where We Live section of The Washington Post today. In an article by Amy Reinke entitled “Wilde Lake, on the cusp of transition,” she writes about the changes occurring both within Columbia’s first village and in its neighbor, Town Center.
“The village center redevelopment isn't the only project Wilde Lake stands to benefit from. Earlier this year, the Howard County Council approved a plan to redevelop downtown Columbia that would bring as much as 13 million square feet of retail, commercial, residential, hotel and cultural development within walking distance of Wilde Lake. “
Local blogger and village board member Bill Santos was also featured. Bill particularly lamented the absence of a village pub as a community gathering place.
"We used to have a local pub where people could sit down and discuss the issues of the day," said Wilde Lake Community Association board member Bill Santos, 43, a mechanical engineer with the National Archives in College Park. "It really served as a place where neighbors could gather and interact socially in an informal setting, and I would hope the redevelopment would bring the neighborhood back together in that way."
The village election today has been characterized by another local blogger as a bellwether of sorts for the race for the House of Delegates in District 12B. The incumbent, Liz Bobo is a supporter of the incumbent Phil Kirsch and the challenger, Linda Odum is widely supported by those who’d like to retire Liz from her Annapolis job.
More news later.
Daily
18 hours ago
5 comments:
For the love of...Man! Liz isn't going anywhere, why not try to work with her? This Wilde Lake election shows a lot. Big turnout, people are becoming more engaged locally. Liz is one of the few incumbents who is not at risk this year.
anon 7:52
i agree with most of what you say. instead of working against the system all of the time, no matter what, if you really care about something, try to work with the folks in office. it's funny how when i ask many of the folks who are anti-incumbent if they have ever met with an incumbent and talked about issues important to the community, the answer is no.
for the vast majority of voters, who don't read the blogs and testify at council meetings, they feel the incumbents in Howard County are fine. also, most of them don't even know who any of the other candidates are and since most of the upstarts can't raise any real money or point to any real votes they would take a different position on, they offer no reason to "trhow the bums out."
outside of a few vulnerable ones like maybe warren miller or steve deboy, incumbents will likely sweep the election in 2010.
But weren't you also sure Linda Odum would win big? I keep saying this, but for the readers I'll say it again. Get out and talk to someone not in your circle. People are upset with incumbents. The term GGP Bailout is not lost on HC voters. The economic downturn threatened everyone.
The most important question here is: "Why doesn't Liz reach out to all parties?" Isn't that the right thing to do? By picking one CA Board member over another, Liz is deciding who gets to play and who sits on the bench.
Voters decided the Wilde Lake race, not Liz.
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