Moving Stuff

I've spent more time thinking about things to post here than I have writing them. The fact of the matter is that I've been a little preoccupied lately. My real job has caused a bit of writers slack.

I have been going through a transition at work. The company I've represented for the past fifteen years or so, ceased to exist last month. It wasn't a surprise. For the past year the principals had been working through the process of becoming the Maryland office of the national brokerage firm Lee & Associates.  At the end of March it was finally a done deal. Literally overnight we went from an office on Dobbin Road with four people to an office in Gateway with seven. We have new everything and while that is nice in many ways it still requires having to deal with new passwords, new copy machine, new phone system, and so on.

Recall that I am an old dog and all of the sudden I’m being hit with a lot of new tricks.

It’s all good, even those hiccups you always encounter in a new space. This morning for instance we arrived to find all office communications completely shut down, no phones, no server, no Internet. It was noon before that got ironed out.

In a way this move, like the others I've been through before, provides first hand knowledge for my clients. When I suggest that moving their offices will be disruptive in ways they may not have anticipated, I speak from experience.

Perhaps you’re wondering what the picture of the Rouse brother statue has to do with any of this. The answer is nothing. I just happen to like the shot.

How Animals Eat Their Food

Peanut told me this short clip garnered over 20 million hits in five days on YouTube.

Its classic slapstick stuff and I got a good laugh out of it. Perhaps that reveals something about my intellectual depth.

Anyway…as I've mentioned before, Peanut watches YouTube way more than what I’d call conventional television.

But what is conventional television anymore?

In the most recent issue of Wired, Willa Paskin  points out that streaming video has not only enabled us to watch our favorite shows on any computer with a WiFi connection, it has also changed the very nature of how we watch TV. We are now able to "binge watch” our favorite shows.

“Whatever our televisual drug of choice—Battle­star Galactica, The Wire, Homeland— we've all put off errands and bedtime to watch just one more, a thrilling, draining, dream-­influencing immersion experience that has become the standard way to consume certain TV programs. We've all had the hit of pleasure after an installment ends on some particularly insane cliff-hanger and we remember that we can watch the next episode right now. It’s a relatively recent addition to the pantheon of slightly illicit yet mostly harmless adult pleasures, residing next to eating ice cream for dinner, drinking a beer with lunch, and having sex with someone you probably shouldn't.”

Guilty. Just last Friday we binge watched two episodes of Homeland after we got home from dinner.

Three Things about Food

Sushi Sono is celebrating their fifteenth year in downtown Columbia and right now they are the only restaurant open on the downtown lakefront. The good news is that parking has never been easier the bad news is that right now they are the only restaurant open on the lakefront.

Well maybe not the only one if you include Waterside in the Sheraton and the Lakeside coffee shop. I don’t think hotel restaurants count and the Lakeside coffee is…doomed. Once Whole Foods opens next door with a café, Lakesides days will be numbered.  

But Sushi Sono is doing just fine. I can easily see them hanging around another fifteen years.

That’s one.

When we were having lunch at Sushi Sono on Thursday King mentioned that there would soon be another restaurant in the space next door. It’s been empty since the Red Pearl closed last year.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“I don’t know but I think it’s French,” he said.

I tried getting more out of my sources at Howard Hughes but all I could get was that a deal for a new restaurant was very close to being signed.

That’s two.

 Late yesterday afternoon I dropped by Victoria Gastro Pub and got the chance to chat with Tori. She was all excited. The restaurant has been nominated by the Restaurant Association of Maryland for “Craft Beer Program of the Year.” This is the first year for this particular award and they'll find out if they won on April 15^th.

She reminded me that they were also recognized as one of the best  restaurants in Baltimore by Baltimore Magazine, one of only two HoCo restaurants to make the list. Tersiguel's in Ellicott City was the other one. Victorias also won the magazines reader poll for Best Pub Food.

That’s three.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Friday afternoon my sister asked me if I had an American Express card.

I do.

“Did you get your free money?” she asked. I had no idea what she was talking about.

“If you have an American Express card you can get a $25.00 credit if you use the card to patronize any of their small business clients on Small Business Saturday.”

I didn't get that memo. Fortunately, it wasn't too late so I went to the website and signed up. Last night, after I got home, I picked up a six pack of New Belgium 1554 from Kelly’s Liquors in Ellicott City, realizing a net gain of about fifteen bucks.

That’s the good.

Last night Mama Wordbones and I decided to catch the eight o’clock showing of Lincoln at the AMC Theatres in downtown Columbia. I purchased the tickets around six o’clock on Fandango. Unlike the Regal Cinemas at Snowden, the AMC Theatres do not allow you to print out the actual ticket at home. For AMC you need to pick up at the box office or at one of their automated ticket stations outside the entrance. At the downtown AMC Theatres  there are five of these. Last night only one was functioning. The line for remaining machine rivaled that of the box office. We decided to split up to cover both in the event that one turned out to move faster.

They both moved slowed. After a time, a gentleman in an AMC shirt stepped out of the doors of the theatre and started talking into a microphone. The sound quality was on par with that a subway car announcement and nobody around me at least could make out a single word he said. Someone yelled out and asked him if the customer service window was open. He nodded, briefly, before retreating back inside.

That was the bad. You’d think that the theatre would gear up for the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, but apparently no one at AMC got that memo either.

About a month ago I started experiencing problems with Disqus, the commenting widget that I employ here at To2C. I thought that I could fix the issue by simply upgrading to the latest version. I thought incorrectly.

Several readers and a couple of regular commenter’s have told me that they continue to have problems posting comments.  I’m sorry. Please bear with me. I realize that the fix is beyond my limited technology skills. For all I know I might have made a bad situation worse with the upgrade.

That’s the ugly. Hopefully the offer of help from my friend Jamie Howard is still valid and a solution to this problem will soon be found. I hope he get’s this memo.

The Afternoon After

I slept in this morning. I was among the last to leave the Isle of Sanity last night and it was well after midnight before I climbed into bed. By design I did not have any appointments scheduled for this morning.

First of all, I want to thank Matt Milani for hosting our nonpartisan election party. All through the evening he bought out special appetizers for the dozen or so attendees and even took the time to share the story of the ghost that inhabits his restaurant. Second of all I’d like to acknowledge Tom Coale, Mickey Gomez, Jesse Newburn and Dave Bittner for keeping the election night tradition going. All four were part of the original group in 2010 at Clyde’s. I also want to thank the folks who joined us for the first time. It seemed like everyone was having a good time and there was more laughter than heated political discussion. It was my kind of election night party.

I would also be remiss if I did not acknowledge the Twitter feeds of Sara Toth (@SaraAToth) , Luke Lavoie (@LukeHoCoTimes) and Andrew Metcalf (@ColumbiaPatch). The old stone walls at The Rumor Mill made the wi-fi signal spotty at best but thanks to Sara, Luke and Andrew we were able to stay on top of the school board race. Local news coverage was alive and well last night.

I was a little disappointed in the school board results. Since the primary I got to know David Gertler pretty well. He is the type of person you want in elective office, smart, insightful and funny. On the other hand, David doesn't possess a “take no prisoners” political instinct and that probably hurt him in this race. I sincerely hope he stays involved in some capacity. He has much to offer to our community.

Now it’s time to get back to reality…

Why We're Here

As we were getting started with our podcast at The Mall yesterday, an elderly lady stopped to examine our show banner as she passed by. At this point we already had our headphones on so we just nodded at her when she then turned to consider us.

The banner did not provide enough information for her. “What is this?” she asked.

Paul was closest to her. He took off his headset. “It’s a podcast about local issues,” he explained.

“But why are you here?” she wanted to know.

I wanted to say “because we got thrown out of the coffee shop.”

It was good to be back.

After taking an extended summer break we returned to The Mall yesterday afternoon for the 70^th episode of  “and then there’s that…”. Appropriately enough our guest was Michelle Jose, the Marketing Manager for the Mall. She’s got alot of things going on in her world right now, beginning next month with the opening of the SA Elite store. This will be the first east coast store for the new retail concept from The Sports Authority. We also talked about the plans to open up the LL Bean plaza with new retail and the unlikelihood that there will ever be another flash mob in The Mall.

Not inside perhaps but maybe with this new outdoor plaza…

It was a big local news week too. We talked about WholeFoods, Allen Dyer, gambling, the general plan, Clarksville, BGE, and even our old coffee shop.

It’s been a long time since we started in Lakeside back in 2009. We’ve been in The Mall since November of 2010.

Michelle said The Mall likes us there. We like it there too and that’s why we’re there.

So there.

...and you can listen to the 70^th episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

Good Show for a No Show

In the two plus years since we started, we’ve had every member of the county council on our podcast except Jen Terrasa. It’s not like we haven’t tried. Our latest attempt was for the show we taped this past Monday. At least two weeks prior we reached out to her and she indicated that she was interested in joining us but demurred from making an actual commitment. She told us she’s get back to us.

As late as Wednesday last week she still hadn’t gotten back to us. We were running out of time. It was four days before the show and we didn’t know if we had a guest or not. That night I attended her fundraiser at Kings Contrivance and when I got a moment to speak with her I asked again if she was coming on the show.

“Can I let you know tomorrow?” she asked.

"Sure, but please let us know by then so we can make other plans if you can't do it." I replied.

She never did. Maybe she just  didn’t like what I wrote about her party.

Thankfully, on short notice we were able to get the Programming Manager for the Columbia Festival of the Arts, Josh Stoltzfus. Josh is the guy who lines up the entertainment for the ten day festival, including Lake Fest. He’s the guy who bought Marching Fourth to the Columbia lakefront and he wanted us to know about the rest of the festival lineup. It’s a pretty impressive lineup including Rosanne Cash, The Flying Karamozov Brothers and Momix, all within the intimate confines of the Rouse Theatre.

It turned out to be a pretty fun show and probably a lot more interesting than talking about HoCo loco zoning and land use with Jen. 

You can listen to the 68^th episode of “and then there’s that…” here.  

A Book is a Book is a Book….

“Aren’t you packing your NooK” Mama Wordbones asked as we got ready for our recent trip. She had given me the Nook for Christmas.

I told her I had just started reading what some now refer to as a “tree” book. My sister Pat sent me “Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes for my birthday at the end of January. When it arrived I was already about midway through “The Big Short,” by Michael Lewis, my very first eBook. It's a tale about a few investors who figured out the absurdity of sub-prime mortgage underwriting and made a boatload betting against conventional wisdom.

I put Matterhorn on deck until around mid February. It’s a big book, 566 pages. By the time we were ready to leave for Curacao, I was only about a third of the way through.

And so I left my shiny new eReader back home while tree book made the trip. I can’t tell you what it is like to read an eBook on the beach, by the pool, and on the plane. I did enjoy a moment of smugness with old tree book when passengers were instructed to turn off their electronic devices. It was a guilty pleasure though. There but for the grace of literary timing I would have been one of them.

Then there’s the security thing. I thought nothing of leaving tree book on a beach lounge whilst I wandered off for a beer. I doubt I’d feel as cavalier about leaving my Nook lying about. I’d probably take it everywhere with me.

Just like this guy.

Anyway, I wrapped up Matterhorn on the flight home. It was the best book I’ve read about the Vietnam war since reading “A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam,” by Neil Sheehan. If you have an interest in that conflict I highly recommend both of these.

Ignoring the two tree books awaiting on my night stand, I instead find myself trolling the Nook bookstore for my next read. The bottom line is that reading a book on an eReader is just better, in most situations. Reading a book on my Nook is a treat for my eyes. The lighting is always perfect, just right for me and I never lose my place. I flew through The Big Short, flipping pages with my finger, never having them flap back.

I’ll still read tree books of course. A book is a book is a book after all. There are two of them sitting next to my bed that will beckon me back to the good old days.

It could be awhile though. I downloaded a free sample of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” by Stieg Larssen. It’s the first 76 pages of the book. I’m on page fifty something. I feel the hook gently sinking in.

Same Show, Different Day

Every other Friday, for over two years now, Dave Bittner, Paul Skalny and I have gathered for lunch followed by a podcast. This biweekly routine has developed its own little rhythm and rituals. Since I was on vacation on our normally scheduled podcast day last week, we simply moved it to Monday.

Monday has a much different vibe than Friday, particularly at The Mall where we tape the show. It’s less crowded and easier to park. Getting a decent table at the Nordstrom café is no problem on Monday. On Friday we have to arrive before noon in order to secure good lunch time real estate.

The day change didn’t seem to affect the show vibe though. Once we got underway it was just like another Friday, only with a little less background noise.

Our guest this week was Dr. Calvin Ball, the county council member representing District 2. Calvin is good guy with a decent sense of humor. This makes discussing hot button political topics like school board diversity easy. We had lively discussions about the school board, councilmanic redistricting, and the General Assembly taxing frenzy, without anyone getting all riled up.

I pointed out to Calvin that I had received spring fundraising invites from Courtney Watson and Ken Ulman but not from him. He said he had been too busy to think about that right now. Imagine that, a poltico too busy to think about fundraising!

We also talked briefly about some recent crime news; the mall robberies, the University of Maryland student from HoCo who threatened to go on a shooting rampage and the Howard High School assistant principal accused of stealing credit card information from the staff and teachers at the school.

You can listen to the latest episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

Cramming

It is often said that your worst days at work are the day before you leave for vacation and the day you come back. That’s why we came back yesterday. We needed today to gird for the reentry to reality.

Arriving home in the late afternoon, we commenced with the usual stuff like unpacking, sorting through a weeks worth of mail, and discovering that the kitchen faucet is no longer working. Last night we ate sushi. I later fell asleep watching Game Change. That wasn't a statement on what I thought of the film. I had been up since 5:00 AM. A day of schlepping through airports, a glass of wine at dinner and a second back at home did me in. 

Today was more productive. We even fixed the faucet thanks to Mama Wordbones tenacity and somewhat amazing plumbing skills.

I also have to carve out time to get caught up on the latest HoCo news. Since I was some 1,500 miles south on our normal Friday podcast day last week, we went ahead and pushed it to Monday afternoon.

That’s like tomorrow Monday.

And we have a guest, Dr. Calvin Ball. We last had the good doctor as a guest almost exactly two years ago.

We originally thought it be interesting to hear what he has to say about the new park in his District, Bridge Columbia and how it felt to be the only council member who didn’t have an alternative plan for councilmanic redistricting.

Now that I’m home I found out that he was also on the losing side of the vote for the plan that the council has passed on to the exec. This is high loco politico drama for HoCo. We have a council appointed redistricting commission recommendation that nobody seemed to like except the Dem politico operatives. We have people in Ellicott City who don’t want to be a part of a Columbia district and people in Columbia who don’t want to be part of an Ellicott City district. As if that wasn’t enough fun, the plan that the council passed has pissed off the people in Elkridge, not this is all that unusual lately.

The stuff going on in Annapolis is pretty scary too. The budget that the state Senate is about to approve has some heavy baggage. According to this story by Aaron C. Davis and Michael Alison Chandler in The Washington Post, it “is an even more fundamental change to the way government works in Maryland.”

“The state would assume authority to seize county tax revenue and to hand it directly to school boards to ensure that counties maintain what areamong the nation’s highest levels of per-pupil spending.”

I’ve got some reading to do.

Reading, Redistricting, and Puppies

The problem with having a really good show is the expectation it raises for the next show. Our podcast with Chris Oxenham and Roger Caplan on January 27th turned out to be one of the more popular shows we’ve done so far and we really wanted to build on that. Unfortunately, due to a schedule accommodation with our next guest, we ended up not having anyone lined up for Friday as of last Monday.

Paul and I discussed simply cancelling this week’s show. Dave, thought we were giving up too easily. “There are plenty of people you guys could have on,” he suggested. That's the type of thing producers do, keep the show moving.

Dave pointed out that there were two big annual fundraisers coming up in HoCo, Evening in the Stacks next weekend and The Chocolate Ball on March 3^rd. Why not have someone come on and talk about them?

He was right of course and we ended up having a another fun show.

We decided to go with the library fundraiser since it was coming up next weekend. By the end of the day Monday, Christie Lassen, the Director of Public Relations for the library, had agreed to join us to talk about her event and the new Miller Branch library.

Another reason to go ahead with the show was the abundance of loco news stories since the last show, including the highly charged Board of Education meeting the night before the podcast.

I also found out that that Paul’s family dog, Bailey, came from an out of state breeder and was “flown in” when they got her. I’ve heard of people driving to another state to pick up a dog but Paul is the only person I know who’s ever had their puppy flown in. Consequently he had some pretty strong opinions about the protests against Charm City Puppies.

You can listen to the 59^th episode of “and there’s that…” here.

Who We Are

There is a core of activists, living in Columbia, who are seemingly obsessed with the notion that anyone living in the planned community shares some universal value of community. The People Tree codifies this notion for them; People working and living together in harmony. They see every action that occurs within the lien paying borders that geographically define the town through the glasses of Jim Rouse. Whether it is the removal of a graphic from a logo or making improvements to a public park, these self anointed “keepers of the flame,” righteously challenge any perceived affront to these values.

I wonder if Jim Rouse would be amused. He had a pretty good sense of humor.

Columbia is physically special. Its winding roads and abundant open space are a welcome departure from the typical suburban development of the sixties and the seventies. It also has funny street names.

And it’s full of people that are no different, or have any special values than any other community in the Baltimore Washington, D.C. corridor.

I started out to write this post about graffiti. Driving past the first phase of the new Blandair Park in Columbia today, I noticed that, even before anyone has had a chance to enjoy these wonderful new fields, vandals have already left their mark.

This happened right smack dab in the middle of Columbia. It could have just as easily occurred in Catonsville or Laurel. I’ll bet the profile of the perpetrator or perpetrators’ would be readily recognizable in all three communities.

When I got home I read this post by Julia McCready on her blog, Village Green/Town Squared. Julia takes issue with the notion of a mythical developer “Mr. GoodRouse” and the expectation that someone at Howard Hughes Corporation will now attempt to fill those shoes. That isn’t going to happen and she suggests that “waiting for the "Great Good" someone to make things right with Columbia leaves us vulnerable to anyone who knows the real rules of the game…”

HoCo Loco Politico Games

One school board member, all five county council members, the county executive, two  state delegates, a state senator, states attorney, the governor and lieutenant governor, two bloggers, a reporter and the president of the United States all got a little air time on our latest podcast. When Paul mentioned that loco political activist Chris (“Ox”) Oxenham might make a good guest for a partisan take on the loco politico scene I suggested that it would be even more interesting if we could get someone from the opposite side of the political spectrum to be on with him. After spending some time with him at Guy Guzzones fundraiser earlier this month, I thought Roger (“the Rog”) Caplan would be the right match.

It worked out even better than I expected.

Despite the strong convictions of both guests, there was no yelling or overt nastiness. Instead we had a spirited exchange about the people and politics in HoCo with more than a few laughs. Nothing was held back.

I suspect some loco politicos may not find our sometimes brutally frank analysis all that amusing though. On the other hand, I also suspect that some others may take offense that they weren’t even mentioned.

The bottom line is that this was a very fun show and we will likely have these guys on again. They were that good.

You can listen to the latest episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

Mutiny on the Blog

I’m having a birthday. It’s not a joyous moment for me this year but I can’t escape it. My actual birthday isn’t until Sunday yet I’ve already received a half dozen or so birthday greetings on facebook. Yesterday the usually celebrated birthday box from my sister arrived on my doorstep. I haven't opened it yet.

I'm trying hard to be grateful. It's better than not having a birthday after all.

Last week I received a postcard from Iron Bridge Wine Company telling me to come in for a free entrée for my birthday. It was good for something like a month. We went Saturday night. I drank more than I ate.

Today I got this postcard from Mutiny, the new pirate bar concept from the boys at the bridge. It’s basically the same birthday deal only I'd have to drive much farther to use it. I think I’ll pass, for this year anyway. I seem to recall Steve Wecker telling me Saturday night that they are looking for a spot in HoCo to do their next one. We talked a bit about the Friendly Inn but by then it was the second glass of wine and the only thing I can definitely recall him saying was that the place was going to need a lot of work before it could reopen. He didn't come right out and say that it was out of the question so I suspect that it would really just be a matter of getting the right business terms. 

I’d say keep your eye on that one.

That night I also had a moment of HoCo loco blog brotherhood. Mama Wordbones and I were joined by Tom Coale and Indiana Jane. Upon our arrival, there were no seats at the bar and the hostess was giving us that sad faced look when Tom waved us over. The gentleman of proper upbringing that he is, he offered his seat to Mama Wordbones. This naturally had the secretly desired effect of separating them from our conversation. They didn't seem to mind.  In no time TC and I pored ourselves into a glass of wine and proceeded to have a lively exchange over the HoCo loco politico scene.

And that my friends, beats a free entrée any day. 

We Got Ourselves a Contest

Last week it looked as though Allen Dyer had a pretty easy path to reelection. Only five candidates had filed for the three open seats. There would not be a primary and not much of a contest. Interest would be low.

This week it’s a different story. As of now, there are ten candidates for three seats. According to this story by Sara Toth in Explore Howard, this “guarantees an April primary, as it is more than twice the three available seats.

We have ourselves a contest.

Many already know, Siddiqui, Giles, Dyer and Gordon. We met Leslie Kornreich and Bob Ballinger in the last election. That leaves the new folks, Ann De Lacy, Olga Butler and Kelly Casey Van Horn.

I have never met Kelly Casey Van Horn but I liked what she had to say to Sara.

"From a parent's perspective, I want to be involved in local education," said Van Horn, who previously taught in FairfaxCounty, Va., and has two children, 1 and 3. "The board would have a fresh, young perspective of a person who's been in the classroom recently — I have the teaching aspect and student aspect, and I'm quickly learning the parent aspect. I think those things needs to be represented a bit more."

It’s going to be fun getting to know these folks. It’s good to have a contest.

It’s Dookie Time

Yes folks, that’s right, it is time once again for that modestly recognized year end collective roast of HoCo loco blogs, the Dookies. Since their inception back in December of 2006, the Dookies have continued to rise in loco stature, or perhaps I should say we've attempted to raise a bit of a stink. In fact, just last year, transit wonk blogger Sarah, helpfully pointed out that the word “dookie” is often used to describe feces.

How oddly appropriate is that?

Our Dookies are HoCo homegrown. It was started by a once promising loco blogger who subsequently sold his soul to The Man. He blogs no more and therefore he shall hence remain nameless and even more sadly, soulless. Pray for him. He has young children.

Before departing to the dark side, he that shall remain nameless, passed me the torch of Dookie.

But enough about that. Time to get things rolling. The rules are simple because we make them up as we go along. I am the high priest of the Royal Academy of Dookie and in my role I "will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger" those entries that cross a certain line.

And where is that line you ask?

You let me worry about that.

To start things off…

“He’s everywhere, he’s everywhere…” was the oft heard refrain from the Chickenman series. In honor of the intellectual contribution of that show to our culture, I nominate Tom Coale and HoCo Rising for this years Chickenman Dookie. Over the past year our prolific morning links news commenter was everywhere in HoCo, speaking, governing, sitting in meetings, all while ending homelessness. All I can say is that Brian Meshkin is no Tom Coale.

Kermit the Frog will often lament that it’s not easy being green. Coming up with important topics to discuss and offering brief liberal commentary in the wee hour of the day, everyday is enough to make anyone green. Take a look at the post times on almost every one of Duane St. Clair posts on HoCo Connect; 5:43 AM, 4:36 AM, and so on. What is that all about?

“I can’t sleep therefore I blog.” I think Duane makes a pretty compelling case for the Left Handed Green Frog Dookie. We finally got our lefty blogger.

It’s the best book that nobody's read. I hear its good though. I did read some it in his blog posts. I am referring of course to the book by Frank Hecker, uber geek HoCo loco blogger. Frank spent hours of painstaking research and analysis putting together a modern history of Howard County politics and political divisions. It reads like Tolstoy. Though you can buy it on Amazon, its only in Kindle format. Sorry Frank, I'm a nook man. I think I’ll just wait for the Cliff Notes. This year I nominate Frank Hecker for the “Will There Be A Test On This” Dookie. .

And finally, you know how it is when somebody recommends something to you or suggest you try something. If the person making the recommendation is someone you otherwise admire and trust you’re probably going to give it more weight than something you'd get, say, from one of the Dobbin Road panhandlers you just handed a buck to. The thing is both can be wrong. When the wrong recommendation involves food, it becomes particularly memorable. Before I go any further I’d like to stress that I DID NOT GET SICK. I like HowChow but from now on I’ll buy in smaller quantities first. For 2011, my nomination for the “Don’t  Play With Your Food” Dookie is HowChow.

Now its your turn….

Trading Places

Taping the podcast at The Mall two weeks before Christmas presents a special set of challenges, not the least of which is parking. Last year, when Katie Essing, the malls general manager was our guest just before Christmas, she suggested that the top level of the Maple garage always has spaces available. On Friday, as I leaving Nordstroms heading to our podcast set up, I passed Katie sitting at a table with our guest, Laura Neuman. Katie had just finished giving the new EDA chief a mall tour. After exchanging pleasantries, I made a crack about parking.

“Did you remember what I told you last year about the Maple garage,” she replied.

Indeed I did. While I appreciated the tip I told her that parking garages at malls during the holidays have their own special angst. It is not so much the availability of parking spaces as it the process of getting to them. Navigating three levels of parking means dealing with three levels of stopping and going as incoming shoppers block the flow while waiting for an outgoing shoppers to vacate a treasured close in space. The situation is further exacerbated when the outgoing shopper, oblivious to logjam, takes their time leaving, checking receipts, checking their phone and whatnot.

Needless to say I didn’t park in the Maple garage.

It is no secret around town that Laura Neuman and I did not get off to a very good start when we first met. On Friday we got past that and were able to have a congenial discussion about her background and her vision for the counties economic development efforts. 

My favorite part of the show however came at the end when Paul ranted about holiday gift baskets he’d received in his office.

After we wrapped up and I was heading to my car in the Nordstrom parking lot, Courtney Watson pulled up and rolled down her window.

“Are you leaving?” she asked with a distinctive tone of desperation in her voice.

We carefully choreographed a parking space swap even as other hungry space seekers hovered nearby.

You can listen to the latest edition of “and then there’s that…” here.

Ringing That Bell

My buddy Tim Gallagher spent three hours ringing the bell standing next to a Salvation Army red kettle last Saturday. This is the third year in a row he has volunteered for bell ringing duty. The folks at Wells Fargo Mortgage in Columbia got him started and it has now become part of his holiday tradition. Kettle bell ringing is a big deal in this Wells Fargo office, with employee volunteers vying among themselves each year to be the top kettle producer.

Tim said he is pleasantly surprised at the generosity of HoCo folks. During his stint at the Centre Park Giant he saw more than a few fives and tens dropped in his bucket. “The bigger donors tend to be a bit older,” he said. He noticed others however, who seemed to go out of their way to avoid him.

He was also very complimentary of Giant. “More and more places won’t allow the kettles, so we really appreciate those that still do.”

Last year Giant received some criticism in the media when they limited the time that the bell ringers could spend in front of their stores. Earlier this year the grocer made a $75,000 donation to the local Salvation Army in honor of their 75^th year in business.

I happen to like the bell ringers and their red kettles. For me, those kettles with their sentinel bell ringers are as much a part of the holiday season as Santa Claus. They’ve been out on the street in towns across America every December since 1891. Nowadays they are found around the world as well. This year they received a Top Rated ranking from CharityWatch.

“Of the over five-hundred charities currently rated by CharityWatch, only a select number qualify for our listing of Top-Rated charities based on our rigorous analysis. Groups included on the Top-Rated list generally spend 75% or more of their budgets on programs, spend $25 or less to raise $100 in public support, do not hold excessive assets in reserve, and receive "open-book" status for disclosure of basic financial information and documents to CharityWatch.”

Tim said had a good time too and not just standing there ringing his bell. He also spent the afternoon interacting with strangers and helping the occasional shopper with their groceries. One lady he assisted was trying to manage four rotisserie chickens fresh out of the oven, in addition to her assortment of other grocery items.

“You must really their chicken,” he quipped as they loaded them into her car.

“Actually these aren’t for me,” she told him. “I’m giving them to some other less fortunate families today.” 

A buck in every kettle, a chicken in every pot...

Top Cop

When the Chief of Police agreed to come on our show I was prepared for a rather dull interchange with a lot of “Yes sirs” and “No sirs.” Obviously, I didn’t know Bill McMahon. Our HoCo top cop is a very engaging guy who gives as good as he gets in an interview. It was an unexpectedly fun show.

His appearance was pretty timely too given the police shooting last week of Jeffrey Nichols in Elkridge, the school bus incident in North Laurel and the expiration of the new speed camera warning period this week. We also got a chance to hear Bills thoughts on police technology, local police priorities and what is like to come to come up through the ranks to the top job in HoCo.

It was also a loaded news week. We talked about the controversy over the pilot program for women only swim times at the Columbia Swim Center, the MDOT / CSX public workshop for the proposed intermodal terminal, school redistricting and the charter review commission. Paul also talked about an article in the Baltimore Business Journal that found Ellicott City and Columbia to be among the top 25 of smartest communities in the U.S.

We also debuted a new feature we call our “Rants.” This is a short segment at the end of the show where each us shares something that we want to rant about. Paul focused on a new requirement for Small Business Administration loans for borrowers to certify that they have never been convicted of or pleaded no contest to sexual molestation of a minor while I ranted about the desecration of the Thanksgiving holiday by some major retailers.

You can listen to the latest episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

The Tax Man

Growing up in Maryland the office of Comptroller of Maryland and Louis Goldstein were synonymous. Governors came and went but the comptroller stayed the same. When he died in 1998 he had served in the office for 39 years. As further evidence of the stature of this office, his predessor was William Donald Schaefer who was elected comptroller after serving two terms as governor. Many expected that Schaefer would also live out his years as Maryland’s CFO.

Except perhaps Peter Franchot that is. In 2006 Peter became the 34^th comptroller in Marylands history after defeating Schaefer and former AA Co county executive Janet Owens in the Democratic primary. He was reelected last year.

Peter is a skilled politico in the ways of Annapolis, having served for 11 years in the House of Delegates representing the 20^th legislative district in MoCo.

He is also one of those stealth candidates for governor in 2014. He sees himself as “fiscally conservative and socially progressive.”

On the podcast he shared his views of the challenges facing Marylands state budget and his efforts to involve the private sector in making state government more efficient. The first time I met Peter was at a Courtney Watson fundraiser and I know he campaigned with her in the last election. On Friday however, the loco politico that he singled out was Calvin Ball for his efforts to improve financial literacy in the public schools.

When we got into a discussion about the recent dust up over using proceeds from the new alcohol tax to fund artificial turf fields at a couple of HoCo high schools he called out the Balto Co county executive for his amazing lack of politico subtlety. In testimony before the public works board Kevin Kamenetz openly admitted that he was directing his counties share of these proceeds to districts where the delegates supported the tax. 

The only time we threw off this seasoned politico was when we asked him how the Jeffs were doing this year. It took him a second to register that we were referring to his D3 alma mater. Actually the Lord Jeffs had a pretty good day yesterday defeating Wesleyan 24-10.

You can listen to the latest episode of “and then there’s that…” here.