Is Columbia a Bohemian City?

In a post on his blog in The Sun yesterday, Jay Hanock posits that Columbia is “anti-bohemian.”

“For anti-bohemias I would suggest looking at places without traditional downtowns: ie., Columbia, Maryland. For all its reputed liberal politics, Columbia is a swath of green lawns, expensive stores, quarter-million-dollar dwellings and respectable two-income families. Maybe there are some starving artists, dive bars and poetry slams there, but I haven't seen them."

Judging from his description of “bohemian” I have to say that I agree with him.

“To me bohemian means garret apartments, low-rent arts scenes, weird music and above all an urban, youthful street scene of clubs, galleries, used-book stores, restaurants and residences in very close proximity. Never having been there, I would guess that San Antonio and El Paso have at least a small share of this vibe. For sure Atlanta does. Any place with a traditional "downtown" has high odds of having a bohemian presence.”

Local wildlife photographer, Michael Oberman, actually described downtown Columbia as “the most moribund place where I've ever lived.”

I’m not certain that it is as bad as all that but I definitely wouldn’t use the word bohemian to describe Columbia.