Scene This Week In...

Jessie and I connected on some weird coffee shop vibe this week. I had decided to do a post about the Starbucks Café in the Barnes & Noble bookstore in the Long Gate Shopping Center in Ellicott City. I needed to park someplace for a hour before I went back to my daughters elementary school. This bookstore is my favorite local bookstore and one of my least favorite coffee shops. The staff is friendly enough but the wifi costs four bucks for two hours. At 9:30 AM on a Thursday morning the place was dead.

I am willing to bet that was not the case in downtown EC. As previously reported here and further confirmed in today’s post on Hometown Columbia, the place to grab coffee and free wifi connection in Ellicott City is the Bean Hollow coffee shop. On the other hand, Bean Hollow isn’t a very good bookstore.

The Scene This Week in Columbia is the sculpture “When The Wind Comes.” I was driving through Thunder Hill last weekend when I noticed this large sculpture in front of Thunder Hill elementary school. The plaque at the base of the sculpture identifies the sculptor as Rodney Carroll and indicates that it was erected in 2000.

I love discovering stuff like this. When I was a senior at Wilde Lake High School one of my best friends lived in a house directly across the street from the school. I was in that neighborhood all the time. It was fun to drive through it again and discover this piece of public art.

The 30th Annual

Last week I received a mailing for the 30th annual Clyde’s American 10K race in Columbia. Today I’m filling out the application and sending in the check. Of course that will only mean that I am “signed up” for the race. That doesn’t necessarily mean I will actually run in it. I do have certain limits.

Still, I have always looked at this race as a way to gauge how I fared through the winter. I don’t run against anybody but me. Running in the middle to the back of the pack doesn’t bother me at all. I’m just happy to participate with all the other 1,200 or so runners. Simply finishing this race is its own sweet reward.

This year’s race will be held on Sunday, April 20th right in Town Center. The course takes runners through Town Center, around the mall, up to Fairway Hills golf course and out to Route 108, then it's up to Centennial Park and back down through Running Brook to the finish line at the pedestrian bridge back in Town Center. It’s a hilly course.

It is fun though and Clyde’s puts out a nice spread of food and beverages after the race.

Last year the weather was awful; rain, wind, cold, but the race still went on. Look for those sporting 29th annual t-shirts this year. They will be wearing them with pride.

I, on the other hand, happen to think that they’re just a little nuts.

Moving Day

They are dismantling the office cubes around me. My laptop is perched on a recycling bin laying on the top step of a step stool. I am hoping I can keep this chair for just a little longer.

My company is moving today. Actually, we will be moving over the next three days. After 10 years in the BWI Business District we are moving to new offices in Columbia on Dobbin Road.

It will be good to be back in Columbia. Ironically, the space we are moving into is the same space that my old firm occupied about 17 years ago. You stick around here long enough and you can end up back you started.

Barbarians at the Gate

I attended the Columbia Association Board of Directors Planning & Strategy Committee last night. I went to show my support for increasing the annual contribution that CA makes to the Columbia Festival of the Arts. For as long as I can remember, the CA contribution to festival has remained static at $95,000.00. This money is used primarily to help fund the free, three day LakeFest program of the sixteen day festival.

This year, the Board of Trustees of the festival requested a $15,000 increase from CA. As I have previously written, this years fundraising for the festival has been directly impacted by the slowing economy. Festival volunteers are pulling out all stops to make up for the shortfall. The request to CA was one of these ongoing efforts.

First, the good news; CA will not reduce this years contribution. That was actually proposed by Councilperson Cynthia Coyle (Harpers Choice). After watching Ms. Coyle in action last night I can honestly say that she is either the dimmest bulb on the council or simply an obstructionist. Councilperson Coyle and Councilperson Barbara Russell believe that the festival is “flush with cash.” They believe this because they erroneously misinterpreted a contribution made to the festival from The Rouse Company Foundation.

The foundation made a contribution to an endowment for the festival in lieu of continuing to make annual gifts. The object was to establish something more long term to insure the festivals long term survival. The intent is for this endowment to produce an annual income that would be equal to the previous annual gifts. Unfortunately because the endowment fund has not actually earned much money yet (it was only established this year), this had the resultant effect of actually reducing the amount of money that the festival would have received this year from the foundation. Instead of being “flush with cash” the festival is like a Columbia homeowner. Our home is worth more on paper than it would be in readily available cash. That is hardly being “flush with cash.”

Both Ms. Coyle and Ms. Russell said they got their information from “the newspaper.” A statement from Steve Sachs, the former chair of the festival Board of Trustees detailing the facts of The Rouse Company Foundation gift was read by CA president, Maggie Brown, at the meeting. The statement claimed that the CA board members had injured the festival fundraising efforts by these statements. Both Ms. Coyle and Ms Russell remained unapologetic for their previous statement and simply reiterated that they believed what they had read in “the paper.”

The bad news is that the CA Board voted 5 to 4 to deny an increase in the annual contribution. Those voting against the increase along with Ms. Coyle and Ms Russell were Councilpersons Evan Coren (Kings Contrivance), Phillip Kirsch (Wilde Lake), and Henry Dagenais (Long Reach). Evan Coren, who also chaired this particular committee was blatantly pandering to both Coyle and Russell all evening, not just on this issue. It was quite obvious to the very small audience (less than five people including myself) that Coyle, Russell, Kirsch and Coren are all under the influence of the Alliance for A Better Columbia. I am beginning to question what a “better Columbia” actually means to these people. I don’t think it looks like any place I’d want to be.

It wasn’t all bad. There are good people on the board too. There just aren’t enough of them. Last night the festival friends were Tom O’Connor (Dorsey’s Search), Miles Coffman (Hickory Ridge), Pearl Atkinson-Stewart (Owen Brown) and Michael Cornell (River Hill). After listening for an hour and a half to the discussions about staff salaries, the sister city program (it now has some new multi cultural name) and the festival funding request, I would have to categorize these four councilpersons as the guardians at the gate. We are very lucky to have them on the council. Right now they are outnumbered and it is getting harder to hold back the barbarian hordes.

Just my opinion of course. Still, I challenge anyone to attend a CA board committee meeting and draw your own conclusions. It is high drama of Columbia politics. This particular meeting even had a surreal nature to it. Ms. Russell was unable to attend in person (I know not why) but she was present on the speakerphone. I guess that is at least better than Gail Broida (Town Center) who was not in attendance at all (again I know not why).

The bottom line is that The Columbia Association has seemingly been taken over by a people are closely aligned with The Alliance for a Better Columbia. That should scare anyone who cares about Columbia.

The Alliance for a Better Columbia is a darling of the local papers. Alex Hekimian, the president of the organization is often portrayed by the papers as a spokesman of a leading community group. The problem for me is that this organization is basically Alex Hekimian. For at least fifteen years he has been the only president the organization has ever had. I would be very surprised if the ABC board of directors hadn’t changed that much in so many years either. I am willing to bet that their active membership does not exceed 300 people. Three hundred people led by one guy, having a major influence on the direction of an organization that touches the lives of the majority of people in Howard County. Scary.

Real citizen’s organizations have succession in leadership and dynamic boards. In this way they attempt to more accurately reflect a wider range of opinion and thought. That just ain’t happening at the ABC.

In my opinion of course. This is my blog after all. You don’t have to read it if you don’t like it.

For those who agree, we need to do something. We need to do something big. We need to act soon before it is too late. The barbarians are at the gate. We are outnumbered.

A Call to Arms for the Arts

The Columbia Festival of the Arts needs your help. I know I’ve already made that pitch in this post but now the festival also needs your voice, particularly voices of those folks who live in CPRA lien assessed properties. This Thursday at 7:30 PM the CA Planning and Strategy Committee of the Columbia Association Board of Directors will be meeting to consider the festivals request for this years funding. The CA contribution to festival has always been earmarked for the free three day Lakefest festivities. So far, Councilpersons Miles Coffman (Hickory Ridge) and Tom O’Connor (Dorsey’s Search) have been supportive of the festivals request. Councilpersons Barbara Russell (Oakland Mills) and Cynthia Coyle (Harpers Choice) have been somewhat less so. Ms. Coyle has gone so far as to suggest that the CA contribution be reduced this year.

If you believe the Lakefest celebration is worthy of CA support the festival needs your help at this critical juncture. If you can spare the time please try and attend this meeting and let the CA board know how you feel.

It’s Good To Get Away

Mama Wordbones and I just returned from seven days in the British Virgin Islands or more specifically, Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda.

Little Dix Bay was created as one of the first “eco resorts” back in 1964. The buildings all blend in nicely with the environment (none is over two stories) and the majority of the land has been set aside as a permanent conservation easement. It was originally developed by Laurence Rockefeller in an attempt to preserve as much as the island as possible. If you like to hike and experience the natural beauty of a Caribbean island you won’t be disappointed in this place. There are no TV’s in the rooms.

It is a small place (population around 2,000) that is 1,600 miles from Baltimore yet we still met six people from Maryland while we were there.

Did y’all miss me?

Scene This Week In...

The Howard County Blogtail Hour came to Ellicott City this month. The local blogosphere landed at the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company. Jesse Newburn and Frank Hecker “sponsored” the gathering which was also attended by Bill Santos, David Wissing, Mike Morucci, Ed C., Cheri Beck, Susan Coghlan, and Mary Kate Murray. This auspicious gathering seemed appropriate for my Scene This Week in Ellicott City.

Before the blogtail hour I stopped by the mall for a haircut with long time Columbia barber, Wayne Shepard. Wayne has been a fixture in the mall for as long as I can remember. In the early days his shop was called Rex’s Place, today it is known as Cavallaro & Company. Wayne is another one of those long time Columbia residents who recently relocated to Ellicott City. That kind of makes him a poster child for this here blog.

Never Gonna Happen

A few months back I was standing in line for coffee at the Mad City Coffee stand in the main lobby of the Howard County General Hospital. In front of me in line was an African American male who appeared to be in his late sixties or early seventies. Unprompted, he turned to me and asked “So who do you think is going to be our next president?”

“If I were a betting man I’d put my money on Barak Obama,” I replied.

“Never gonna happen,” he shot back.

I think about that response quite a bit these days. Keep in mind that this coffee line conversation occurred before the Iowa caucuses. Obamamania had not yet taken off. To this gentleman, the notion that our nation could embrace an African American as president was just too farfetched.

I initially believed that this was a generational thing. His generation had experienced the hard edge of race relations and discrimination for too long. His cynicism was well entrenched. My generation, though not that far behind him, grew up a bit more enlightened in this area, particularly in Columbia. For me, an African American president is very conceivable.

Columbia has always been a little ahead of the national curve in this regard. My first realization of this came when I went away to college in Cleveland. The campus was primarily white with very few minority students. It was a bit of a culture shock for a kid raised in Columbia. Today, John Carroll University is much more diverse than it was in 1973.

While we may live in an area that is progressive in race relations we are behind the times in how our primaries work. Maryland is a closed primary state meaning that participation in the primaries is largely limited to registered voters of the two parties. As a registered independent the only vote I can cast in the election on Tuesday is for the school board. It is time for Maryland to get with the program and open up its primaries to independents.

In This Months Business Monthly

I took a departure my usual commentary to make an unadulterated fundraising pitch for the 21st Annual Columbia Festival of the Arts. The festival needs some serious help this year.

You see, as much as some people like to beat up on the developers and the home builders in Howard County, they are the ones who have been disproportionately represented in sponsorships for the festival. As you may have noticed, the real estate business isn’t doing all that great lately. That in turn has had a negative impact on festival fundraising.

A few facts are in order here. The festival costs in excess of a million bucks. That doesn’t count the value of the time that the hundreds of volunteers add to the equation. In our business we call that leveraging up. The community gets a great deal. It gets a free three day Lakefest (which still puts the best stage at the lakefront), artists workshops and masters classes for the schools, a community art project (this year it’s the birdhouses), a parade, and world class performances in the intimate 700 seat Rouse Theatre.

Even if all the paid events sell out (which occurred about three times last summer) it would not cover the cost of the performances. Donations by corporations and individuals subsidize the entire sixteen day festival and keep ticket prices generally affordable. A business can participate for as little as five hundred bucks and an individual can “join” the festival for as little as fifty bucks and yes, membership does have its privileges.

In addition to the corporate and individual donors, the festival holds a raffle and a special fundraising event. Last year the fundraiser was a dinner in the Spear Center atop the General Growth Building in Town Center. The guest appearance last year was John Waters. It was a pretty wild evening.

This year’s fundraiser will be held on Friday May 9th in the Spear Center and will feature comedienne Paula Poundstone. The theme for the evening is Black Tie and Bling Bling. The entire sixteen day festival schedule will be made public in mid March.

If you could see a way to help the festival this year it would be greatly appreciated. You can contact Leigh Murphy at the festival office to learn how you can help. The festival office is located in Town Center at 5575 Sterrett Place, Suite 280. The phone number is (410) 715-3044.
Or drop me an email.

And to show that I put my “bones” where my words are, I have donated all of my 2008 income from the Business Monthly to the festival.

Requiem for the Tower

The site is stabilized, the deposit money is being returned and the sales center is now by appointment only. The Sun reported today that everyone who had a reservation with a deposit for the Plaza Residences would receive their deposit back. WCI will continue to honor the reservations.

“"We appreciate their patience as we look forward to the continued successful development of the Plaza Residences," Robert H. Grabner Jr., vice president/senior project manager of the tower division of WCI Mid-Atlantic U.S. Region Inc., said in a statement.”

They say the earliest the project could get going again would be around mid 2009. Of course this isn’t the result of any local pressure. The condominium market is taking the biggest hit in the housing downturn. Ironically, WCI may be thankful that the anti tower legislation and lawsuit held them up for awhile. Right now the last thing that company needs is unsold units.

Liz Bobo was even strangely compassionate in her quote. "It's an example right in our own community of the impact of the housing slump,"

How very insightful.

Scene This Week In...

“Excuse me sir. You are not allowed to take pictures in the mall.”

I was standing on the second level of the mall snapping pictures of what appeared to be a kids show for my Scene This Week In Columbia. The crowd was large, the strollers were double parked, and the kids seemed to having a blast. It was a perfect Columbia moment until the mall gendarme appeared.

My first reaction is that he must be kidding but he had that no nonsense mall security guard look about him. I simply said. “Well I already have, haven’t I?”

With that comment he gave me a look and then turned on his heel and left. I took more pictures.
How long has this no picture policy been in place?

It is a pretty stupid policy. I for one intend to ignore it. If I were GGP I’d be very careful about aggressively enforcing it too. It smacks of the same PR misstep as the poinsettia tree fiasco.

That same morning I had an appointment cancelled at the last moment so I used the opening in my otherwise hectic schedule to drop in for a cup of coffee at the Bean Hollow coffee shop on Main Street. As much as the Lakeside coffee shop in Columbia functions as the community center for Town Center, Bean Hollow does the same for Ellicott City. Interestingly, both coffee shops share the same DNA. They were both started by Mike Lentz who operated them as Riverside coffee shops before selling them off and moving to North Carolina.
Today, Bean Hollow is owned and operated by Gretchen Shuey.

You Just Can’t Make Some Folks Happy

The Sun reported today that Greg Hamm, the newly minted “General Manager” of Columbia for GGP, spoke to an “open meeting” of the Columbia Association board of directors about his firms plans for the redevelopment of Town Center. His predecessor had been heavily criticized for holding private meetings with individual community groups.

In case you are interested, I attended one of these meetings and posted about it here, here and here.

Still, it seems that just wasn’t good enough for Alex Hekimian, president for life of the Alliance for a Better Columbia who was quoted as saying “There have been a lot of private meetings, and those people have gotten a lot more information than was available in public sessions. That's troubling. If the information was good enough for the private groups, why isn't it good enough for the public session?"

Sheesh!

How would he know what was presented at those meetings if he didn’t attend one of these meetings?

I can see why some people refer to his group as the Alliance of Bitter Columbians.

We’ve Got A Great Dump

Last Saturday I packed up the last five years worth of retired computers and related peripherals and headed out to the county dump. Mama Wordbones has been badgering me to get rid of them since we first moved into this house two years ago.

I finally got around to it. My prior reluctance to perform this task was my inability to accept the fact that these machines no longer held any value. I knew they were kaput but I kept hoping that someone would want them.

I finally accepted the fact that no one wants them and so off to the dump I went.

Of course they don’t call these places dumps anymore. They are called landfills and ours is run by the Department of Environmental Services.

A dump by any other name is still a dump. It is a place where you dump the stuff that you no longer want or need. It is the repository of last resort for unwanted items.

Our dump is more like an orphanage though. In the old days I recall driving out to open area with tractors and bulldozers and just dumping my stuff in a big pile. At Alpha Ridge there are individual stations for electronics, plastics, metals, paper, yard waste and so on.

The dumpster for computers and televisions goes to a recycler who will extract the last bits of value out of them.

It is all very efficient and very cool.

Not That They Will But They Might ‘Cause They Can

My good friend Jim Troy who publishes the Howard/Arundel Report, reports that the portfolio of office buildings owned by GGP in Town Center are now “eligible” to be sold. Jim reports that “the 10-year moratorium on selling assets that were part of the Rouse Company REIT lapses this year on the approximately million square feet portfolio.”

Interesting. If GGP needed to generate cash this would certainly attract attention from investors, particularly foreign buyers looking to capitalize on the favorable exchange rates.

Ah, but that is unlikely to occur. GGP has too much at stake in Town Center right now. It will be much easier for them to achieve their redevelopment plans if they control the surrounding properties. Besides that, the Town Center buildings have a significant vacancy level right now (approximately 30%) which pushes down the value. It is always better to sell an office property when it is 90% leased preferably under long term leases to strong credit tenants. These types of tenants will be more attracted to these buildings if GGP is able to create the type of Town Center they envision.

Panhandling Columbia Style Part 2

Back in April of last year I wrote a post about a panhandler working the LL Bean plaza of the The Mall In Columbia. This past week I had my second panhandling experience while I was taking a picture for another post of the Brunswick Bowling sign on Carved Stone in Columbia.

While I was taking the picture I was approached by a stocky fellow who appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties. His hair was cut short and he was dressed in typical Columbia casual (warm up jacket, sweat pants, etc.). He walked with big strides towards me. Before he got too close he shouted out “Hey buddy could you help me out so I can catch the MARC train into Baltimore. I just got out of prison.”

He stopped and added. “Look I’m just bein honest here.”

My knee jerk reaction was a quick “Sorry pal,” and he simply shrugged his shoulders, turned and headed off again.

As he walked away I began to have second thoughts. What if he really had been recently released by some local correctional institution?

There are more than a few of them in Howard County after all. I mean why else would he just blurt that out?

I liked the fact that he was dealing with his post penal situation in such an open and honest manner. I called him back over and laid a twenty on him. He was a little surprised and very grateful.

As he strode off in the direction of the Starbucks on the other side of Carved Stone I had two thoughts. For one, there isn’t a MARC station anywhere near here. Secondly, if he truly had just been released from prison then panhandling was probably a violation of his parole.

Howard Lite

Is it just me or does anyone else agrees that the Sun has significantly pared down their Howard County coverage?

The new tabloid format cannot the mask the fact that there is lot less meat in the package. It isn’t as noticeable in the online version. It’s much more evident, to me anyway in the print version.

They seem to have come down to level of The Washington Post for Howard County coverage.

April at Merriweather

I just learned that Santana will be performing at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Sunday April 6th.

April 6th?

Did I miss something?

Have they enclosed Merriweather already?

They haven’t of course. This is the earliest I have ever heard of a show being held at the outdoor theatre. I don’t know about the other Santana fans out there but I just can’t see paying $55-$75 to sit in the cold and watch a concert.

Scene This Week In...

Okay, so I skipped a week there. My bad. I don’t know what it is but since Christmas I seem to have more things to do and less time to do them. January and February always seem like such bleak months anyway.

But there is beauty in a gray winter’s day and that is exactly what I found on College Avenue about a mile outside of the Ellicott City historic district for my Scene This Week In Ellicott City. These guys were just standing around in a pasture as I drove by. I spotted the white one at the crest of a hill and thought perhaps I could get a closer shot if I stopped and walked over to the fence. I pulled over on the shoulder, got out, walked over to the fence and started zooming in and snapping some shots. Before long the pinto decided to come to check me out which provided me the close up. Fortunately, the white horse was also curious and came close enough for me to get a decent picture too.

For the Scene In Columbia I picked the Brunswick bowling sign. I recall when Brunswick opened this bowling alley back in 1974. I was around back then and I recall it was a big deal to be able to go bowling in Columbia rather than heading over to the Brunswick lanes on Route 40 in Ellicott City. Today the bowling alley remains as popular as ever while the neighborhood surrounding it has gradually shifted from industrial to office and retail. Just across Snowden River Parkway, Rock Realty has demolished a warehouse formerly owned and occupied by an electrical contractor. They will be building a Chevy Chase Bank and possibly a hotel and other retail in its place.

Barely A Whimper

Another of the Mall In Columbia's original local tenants has left. Hyatt & Co men’s clothing store recently closed its mall store and relocated to Maple Lawn. How come there wasn't any outcry over this departure?

Hyatt caters to the fashion forward men’s market which is a retail category that has certainly taken it’s lumps over the years as mens clothes have trended to a more casual look. The store relocated from its original location to the Nordstrom’s wing of the mall when the mall expanded with the arrival of Nordstrom.

I guess this isn’t such big news because Hyatt is staying in business. They have managed to adjust to the times and that just doesn’t make much of a story.

Wegman's Saga Part One

There was a story yesterday in the Sun about Wegman’s receiving initial site plan approval for their proposed store in Columbia. The action by the Planning Board predictably upset the union folks who are challenging the decision to allow the gourmet grocer to locate in an industrial zone. They are calling the zoning action “illegal.”

It sounds like the old Comp Lite argument all over again.

Anyway…

It is disingenuous to suggest that this location is still an industrial zone. It is true that in the original plan (or was it vision?) for Columbia it was intended as an industrial area. That was back when GE was operating a huge appliance manufacturing plant across Snowden River Parkway from this site. This area was (and still is) part of the Seiling Industrial Park.

Today GE is gone and the former appliance park is now a mix of warehouses, retail, office and flex buildings with the retail concentrated along Snowden River Parkway. The proposed Wegman’s site was originally home to American Hospital Supply which later became part of Baxter Healthcare which later spun it off to Allegiance which was in turn acquired by Cardinal Health. All this time the building and property were actually owned by the State Farm Insurance Company and leased to these different companies.

Approximately six years ago, State Farm sold the property to a group of local investors who set up a limited partnership called Science Fiction. The Science Fiction partnership determined that the original Final Development Plan for this parcel allowed for gas stations, banks and restaurants. They developed plans for tearing down the building and putting up a variety of retail buildings much like the layout that is now on the site of the former Pontiac/GMC car dealership across the street on McGaw Road (Green Turtle, Orinico Coffee, etc.). Before this development program got very far the partnership received a purchase offer from Jack Antwerpen that was more than twice what they paid for it. Antwerpen originally planned to put a Toyota dealership on the site but ran into some difficulty with Toyota for that location.

Meanwhile Antwerpen temporarily leased the property out to HBO films. During this time they began discussions with Wegman’s. Wegman’s had been scouting for a Columbia location for some time. The Rouse Company had tried to entice them to locate in what is now Gateway Exchange (Lowes, Costco, Trader Joes, etc.). Apparently Wegman’s preferred this Snowden River Parkway location.

The point is, considering all of the other uses that could have ended up at this property, Wegman’s probably makes the most sense.

What doesn’t make sense is an industrial use.

Scene This Week In...

STWI took a brief hiatus over the Christmas / New Years holiday. Actually, the break is more related to a bad case of writers inertia that crept up on me. Some may call it writers block but I don’t think that adequately describes my particular malady. I’ve had plenty of ideas and topics in my head I just lacked the motivation to post them.

Anyway…

A good dose of nice weather has helped me slug off those winter blues. In fact, everyone I’ve encountered seemed to be buoyed by the nice weather of yesterday and today. For the Scene This Week in Columbia I snapped a photo of some folks enjoying a late lunch at the outdoor tables at PF Changs at the Mall in Columbia. I was over at the mall getting a haircut from Wayne Sheperd at Cavalloro & Co. With all the brouhaha over the closing of Bun Penny and the supposed demise of local businesses in the mall, I am reminded that Cavalloro & Co has been a mall tenant since the mall first opened. The owners are the same but they did change the name some years ago. It used to be called Rex’s Place.

In Ellicott City, the scene I chose was the reincarnation of Sarah and Desmonds. Sarah and Desmonds Gourmet Bakery and Vegetarian Café used to be on Main Street. I am not sure why they closed that location but now they recently reopened on Old Columbia Road (near The Well) in a space formerly occupied by Wessels Flower Shop which relocated to a space on Main Street formerly occupied by Su Casa. The nice young man behind the counter is Christian Lepson.

And Now To Sports...

Since none of our local NFL teams are playing football anymore this year, it’s nice to at least have something interesting going on for the fans. The big news today is that the Washington Redskins coach, Joe Gibbs, will not be returning to the team next year. Apparently he quit but undoubtedly some fans will have a different opinion on that.

The Ravens were already in the search for a new coach after Steve Bisciotti sacked Brian Billick at the end of a very disappointing season.

Will both teams now go after Marty Schottenhiemer, the coach who was fired by the San Diego Chargers last year after finishing 14 - 2?

Should they?

Weirdly enough both teams could end up in with a Schottenheimer for a coach. Marty’s son Brian, currently the New York Jets offensive coordinator, is also interviewing for the Baltimore job.

If Brian Schottenheimer becomes the new Ravens coach and Marty Schottenheimer becomes the new Redskins coach they could both move their families to Howard County, right between the two cities.

I had to make a local connection in order to justify this sports post.

And, while I’m at it, anybody have a Super Bowl prediction they care to share?

Empty Building For Sale

When I last wrote a post back in November about this building it had just been completed and was actively trying to attract its first tenant. Two months later the building owner, Orix Real Estate Equities is offering 7021 Columbia Gateway Drive for sale even though no leases have been signed.

It is not exactly a fire sale. Orix is simply expanding their options for this asset. They are hoping that a company wishing to own a building as opposed to leasing one will be attracted by this offer. Orix believes that they can get a premium price for this 104,000 square foot, five story Class A office building because of its location in Columbia Gateway and the fact that it is ready to go. If a company wants to build their own building like this it typically takes about eighteen months. Orix is further encouraged by the recent sale of the Micros building next door. Last summer, 7031 Columbia Gateway Drive sold for around $250.00 per square foot setting a new record sales price for a Columbia office building.

Good luck.

7031 Columbia Gateway Drive has two blue chip tenants (Micros and Motorola) with long leases. 7021 Columbia Gateway Drive is empty with no leases. I happen to think it’s ugly too.

Take Me To The River

The Patapsco River that is. Just across the bridge from downtown Ellicott City, the mill town of Oella is going upscale. Charles Wagant, the president of the Oella Company has struck a deal with Steuart-Kret Homes for 11 sites in the historic mill community. The project, dubbed Granite Hill, includes five existing historic homes that will be restored and at least three custom homes that will be attached to existing historic structures overlooking the Patapsco River. Prices for the custom homes will be in the million dollar range.

This has been a long time coming for Charles. Working out of his restored church in what can be described as downtown Oella, Charles has been a tireless promoter of restoring Oella and enhancing public awareness of the Patapsco River valley His strong support helped the Grist Mill Trail become a reality after years of hard fought battles with other property owners in the area.

If you have never wandered up into Oella it is worth the trip. No stores or shopping but some great views of the river and a pretty good idea of what it looked like back when the original mill, was chartered by the State of Maryland in 1808.

Happy Birthday Hedgehog!

Local blog, The Hedgehog Report, just celebrated its fifth anniversary at the end of December. In blog years that makes The Hedgehog Report ancient. I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Hedgehog himself, Dave Wissing and can tell you that he’s a nice guy and doesn't look anything like a hedgehog.

Well okay maybe just a little bit like one.

I think his blog gets something like 1,000 visits a day. Though he primarily focuses on political polls, he will frequently post on local issues as well.

Five years of blogging make The Hedgehog Report the granddaddy of local blogging.

Congratulations Gramps!

In This Months Business Monthly

The January issue of The Business Monthly is now on the street and online. This month I wrote about Claire Lea and her successful protest to bring back the poinsettia tree to the mall’s center court fountain for the 2008 holiday season. I happen to think that Claire and her friends Sandi Carbotti and Janet Shinski embody a spirit that is uniquely Columbia.

What do you think?

This is your chance to chime in and toss a bouquet or a brick, your choice. You can find the column here.

County Framework for Town Center

In my original post on this topic I said I would share my thoughts on the county’s framework document for Columbia’s downtown over the weekend.

It’s been a long weekend. I realize its Tuesday but today feels like Sunday so I figure I’m still on time. Some logic eh?

Anyway…

I am about 36 pages into the document and I have begun to see that GGP’s draft vision plan that they began sharing at private meetings earlier this fall fits very nicely into this framework. I attended one of these meetings and posted about it (with pictures) here, here, and here. Of course these posts don’t include the narrative that was provided by GGP’s Project Director, Chuck McMahon but I can tell you that GGP’s and the county’s thinking are aligned.

Of course the devil is in the details.

The other thing I noted was the makeup of the focus group that advised the county. It includes representatives from every local interest group. Of course, you can never make everyone happy and those who didn’t get everything they wanted in this document are already whining about it.

No surprise there.

Happy New Year!

A very happy new year to all the readers of Tales of Two Cities!

Last night, Mama Wordbones and I celebrated quietly in our home in Ellicott City after a nice little dinner at Strapazza. We got a little freaked out however when, at the stroke of midnight as we watched the ball drop in Times Square, the power went out in our neighborhood. For awhile there we wondered if this was some sort of terrorist attack but by 1:30 AM the power came back on. Mama Wordbones was fast asleep by then.

Anyone else care to share a New Years Eve experience?

Bun Penny Brouhaha

Darrell Nevin emailed me a copy of the Mackenzie Ditter email about the impending closing of the Bun Penny store in the Mall in Columbia.

“Not sure if you knew this or saw it, but certain it is fodder for one of your columns.”

How could I have not seen it? Freemarket blogged about it here and Evan Coren blogged about it here. The Sun papers had a story about the closing and last night, on the eleven o’clock news on Channel 13, there was yet another story about it.

From my perspective, I just don’t see what the big deal is. Sure, it is sad that a family business is closing. That is always sad. It is sad for the owners, the employees and the longtime customers but I hardly think it is big news. Over the years many family run businesses have quietly closed their doors in Ellicott City and nobody ever made a big deal out of it.

I have known Bun Penny since it was opened by the Sachs family many years ago. For the longest time the store was the place to get lunch in Columbia. It was Columbia’s own Zabars.

Times change and so do peoples buying habits. Over the last few years I watched as Bun Penny slowly faded from popularity. I trace the beginning of this slide back to when the mall was renovated and the Lord and Taylor department store was added. What once was the mall’s front door was no longer. The entrance where Bun Penny was located took on a different character. Seldom did I see full tables in the glassed in seating area. I don’t think the store adjusted to this dramatic change in traffic patterns. Also, new competition sprouted up in town center. The Lakeside coffee shop surely took some business away too. That is what occurs in a dynamic marketplace. Either a retailer adjusts to these changes or they risk losing relevance.

That is hardly big news. It is just a fact of life.

Downtown Columbia: A Community Vision

It’s on the street now. The county’s long awaited and already debated framework for the development of Town Center is now available here.

It is 58 pages with two appendices. Don’t be discouraged by the page count though, there are only about 25 pages worth of meat.

I’ll read it this weekend and post my thoughts later.

Raggin On Ranazul

I don’t often write restaurant reviews. I defer to HoCoLoCo Girl in that area. However, once in awhile, just every so often, I have an experience so awful that it compels me to write a post about it.

I had just such awful experience at Ranazul last night. The thing is, I am quite certain that the other two tables in the “La Galeria” room we shared were also having awful experiences.

The short story for those with short attention spans is that the service stunk but the food was, in some cases exceptional and in all cases good. That makes the choice as to whether to return for a second chance a little more difficult to make.

For those who like the details, we arrived around 7:00 PM without reservations, a party of three. We were seated within ten minutes, so far so good.

Then we were left alone, completely alone with the paintings in the La Galeria room. We had water and menus from the hostess. I expected someone to offer to get us a cocktail while we looked over the menu. I was disappointed. At least fifteen minutes passed. Soon though another couple arrived and was seated at the table next to us. In very short order a waiter appeared at their table, welcoming them and offering to get cocktails and warm bread.

I sat watching, wishing he were at my table. Meanwhile, at the table next to us, the waiter was cheerily going over the menu and the specials in great detail. I heard him mention that they were out of the pear salad.

We still had no waiter at our table. This was getting ridiculous. Finally, I decided to go see if I could find someone to wait on our table. While hanging out at the server station I saw the guy who was serving the table next to us. I leaned over to him and said I’d appreciate it if he could find someone to come to our table. He nodded and I returned to my seat and waited.

And waited at least another fifteen minutes At long last a waitress appeared. She said she was ready to take our orders.

“What about the specials?” I was feeling a little cheated here.

“There are no specials.”

“Are you sure? I could have sworn I heard the waiter at the table next to us mention something about specials.”

“No. No specials. Would you like me to explain the menu to you?”

At this point I am getting pretty annoyed. The thought of getting up and leaving crosses my mind. Then again, I’m hungry. That’s why I came here.

We ordered a couple of glasses of wine and five tapas dishes. We had plenty of time to read through the menu during our no waiter period.

And then we waited some more.

Meanwhile, at the table next to us, things were also beginning to go south. His entrée came out, but hers didn’t. They began to exchange sympathetic glances with us.

Our glasses of wine arrived followed shortly by three of our tapas dishes. One of them was a salmon avocado sushi concoction that was delicious. Another was calamari and the third one was something called arepas, which was crab, shrimp and polenta with a sauce that was exceptional.

We polished these off in short order. The lady next to us still hadn’t received her entrée.

We all waited together. Soon, a third couple was escorted into La Galeria.

Our waitress reappeared and said that one of our choices, a salmon with crushed cashews would take a little longer. We told her we’d wanted to order two more tapas dishes and two more glasses of wine. We decided that since we were seeing her so infrequently that we’d better get everything covered while she was there.

The rest of the evening was more of the same. Soon we began laughing with the other two tables. The newest arrivals, having already begun to wonder if they were ever going to see a waiter asked, “How long have you all been here?”

“We got here last night,” I replied which drew laughter from all three tables. The lady at the table next to us, who had finally received her entrée, stated that their water had just seemed to disappear for long periods of time.

So, in conclusion to my ragging post, that I sincerely hope that the Ranazians were simply having a bad night. I may give them a try again but if they offer to stick me back in a table in La Galeria, I’m bolting

A Stroll through Downtown

On the Friday before Christmas I was in Town Center on business. I had to drop by clients offices in the Park View office building and the Merrill Lynch building. I also needed to stop by Clyde’s to pick up some gift coins. I decided to accomplish these visits on foot, getting a ground level perspective of a pedestrian navigating through Town Center. It wasn’t pretty.

Leaving my car parked in the Park View office building garage, I walked along the outside sidewalk towards 20 Columbia Corporate Center. This requires crossing the mall entrance road which on a good day can be challenging. The Friday before Christmas cannot be considered a good day. Still, I managed to cross without getting hit and only received nasty looks from the cars who grudgingly respected a pedestrian’s right of way. The sidewalk on this side of town is not exactly inviting. At regular intervals street light poles sprout from the center of the walkway creating a bit of obstacle course.

When I reached the front of 20 Columbia Corporate Center I turned left towards the mall and the Merrill Lynch Building. Coming down alongside the JC Penney store. I was struck by the garbage and leaves that littered the curbs in this area.

After exiting the Merrill Lynch Building I crossed over Little Patuxent Parkway on the pedestrian bridge and down towards the Lakeside coffee shop. It was there that I encountered Roger Caplan and Mary Ellen Duncan. It seems that whenever I stop in Lakeside I run into someone I know. After a quick chat and cup of coffee I continued down to Clyde’s to get my gift coins. For my return walk I opted to cut through the mall exiting at the Food court entrance. This was probably the faster route and certainly it was more pedestrian friendly, even with the holiday crowds.
All in all, my little walk reinforced my belief that Town Center needs a fresh perspective and a more pedestrian friendly environment.

Sorry Dan

Matt and Dan

So today I dropped by Heavenly Hams in Dorsey Search Village Center to pick up my previously aforementioned turkey and ham and I run into Dave.




"Hey, did you check out my blog?"



"Yeah, it was great but you got my name wrong," he says as points to his Heavenly Ham nametag which very clearly says "Dan."



"Shit. I'm sorry. I'll fix it tonight."

Sorry about that Dan.



I gotta start writing this stuff down...

Scene This Week In...

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is that strange phenomena that compels women (and some men) to bake up batches cookies and other yummy treats. Last night Mama Wordbones and the girl were happily baking away in our kitchen in Ellicott City. That inspired this week’s scene in Ellicott City.

If you’ve never purchased a ham or a turkey from Heavenly Ham in Dorsey’s Search Village Center you are probably unaware of the preparations this store makes for the annual holiday rush. Matt and Dave are two of the guys who will hand over hams and turkeys to the throngs of shoppers who will be descending on this small shop over the next few days. Your first clue that this is no ordinary sandwich shop is the chains and stanchions for crowd control that begin outside the store doors. On Christmas Eve people will be lined up well before the store opens at nine.

This year I’m picking mine up on Sunday.

Meridian Square

The county wants to purchase a 15,000 square foot floor of the proposed 60,000 square foot Meridian Square office project in Oakland Mills. The project is proposed for the site that formerly housed a gas station next to the village center. The developer says that he needs the county commitment in order to secure financing for the building.

Rubbish.

The developer needs the county commitment so that they can secure “favorable” financing for the project. The project could move forward without the county purchasing a floor. It would simply require that the developer put up more equity.

I have no problem with the notion of having the county spread offices and services around the county as opposed to one central location. If the county can serve as a catalyst to redevelopment I am all for it. My problem with this deal is the way it has come down. The developer buys the site, announces the project and then says he can’t do it without county support. To me that says he should have never bought the site in the first place.

The way it should happen is that the county buys the site, solicits development proposals and then picks a proposal that offers the best terms to county.

If the county does proceed with this deal they should get the space below cost in recognition of the contribution their commitment makes to the project. In other words, the county needs to get a real sweetheart deal from Metroventures.

Claire Lea Needs Something To Do

Marc Fisher had a follow up story to the poinsettia tree saga in this mornings Washington Post. I think Marc's column yesterday was instrumental in causing the GGP about face on the tree. It appears that the new sheriff in town took control of the situation and showed mall management the error of their ways.

Nice job Greg!

Geary Got It!

I still can’t quite believe it but it appears that GGP is caving in on the poinsettia tree in the mall. The mall issued the following press release today:

POINSETTIA TREE TO RETURN TO THE MALL IN COLUMBIA
-General Growth Properties Works With Columbia Community
To Resurrect Tree-

(COLUMBIA, MD), December 13, 2007 – Executives from General Growth Properties (GGP), owners of The Mall In Columbia, today announced that the poinsettia tree will once again return to The Mall In Columbia for the 2008 holiday season. After witnessing the show of support for the tree from the Columbia community, GGP has decided to bring the holiday symbol back to the center.

“The community of Columbia has spoken and we heard loud and clear,” said Karen Geary, senior general manager, The Mall In Columbia. “GGP is committed to this community and recognizes our role as trustees of the community’s legacy and traditions. We are grateful to the many people who voiced support for our poinsettia tree. They are our neighbors in this community and they need to know that we listen and respond, whether it is a holiday tradition or the larger issues involving Town Center’s future.”

The Mall In Columbia continuously shows its commitment to the community. Recently, it opened Healthy Howard’s Soft Play Area in the JCPenney Court. Young families shared with GGP their desire for an area in the mall that would be suitable and safe for their young children. The center also introduced “Santastic,” an interactive holiday experience for families young and old. This interactive Santa display has been embraced by the community and will join the poinsettia tree as an annual holiday tradition at the center.

Geary Doesn't Get It

Dan Beyers first blogged about this in Columbia Talk today but I felt I had to chime in too. After all I was quoted in the column. Marc Fisher, Metro columnist for the Washington Post, wrote a nice column about the malls decision to discontinue the poinsettia tree this year after a thirty six year run.

Karen Geary, the general manager of the mall was quoted as saying ""The Poinsettia Tree doesn't define the community the people define the community."

Hey Karen, we really don't need a mall manager to tell us what defines community. That is not what the poinsettia tree was about anyway. It was simply something of beauty that was different from any other holiday decoration anywhere. It made our mall special. GGP should appreciate that more than anything. Yes, the mall is a temple of commerce but what harm does it do to set aside one area for something that simply makes folks feel good about coming there?

I think this is potentially a public relations nightmare for GGP.

Scene This Week In...

The Lakeside coffee shop is a cool place. I have to admit that I take some personal pride in this place. I was the guy who convinced Mike Lentz, the original operator, to go there. I also had to convince Columbia Management that it was a good idea. The Columbia Management folks were a little gun shy about that corner because all of their Rouse masters walked by it all the time. Anyway, what was originally Riverside became more appropriately named Lakeside. Mike is now somewhere along the coast of North Carolina running a raw bar…at least that’s what I heard.

But I digress. This past week I spotted fellow blogger Bill Santos and his wife Ann sitting by the fake fireplace with laptops in their laps. Jud Malone quipped that they were emailing each other.

And while I am on bloggers, apparently we have a new western Howard County blog, appropriately named, Western Howard Blog. Welcome, post often.

When I was a kid growing up in Catonsville one of the highlights of the Christmas season was going up to firehouse on Frederick Road and seeing the train display. That tradition is alive and well in Ellicott City at the Ellicott City Fire Company #2. They have a 24 X 10 train garden display that includes interactive buttons for the kids (and their dads). It’s free too though donations are always appreciated. The station is located at 4150 Montgomery Road (think Long Gate Shopping Center). The display will be up until January 6th. Hours are Saturdays and Sundays (11 AM to 8:30 PM), and Wednesday through Friday from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Call (410) 313-2036 for additional info.

Change of Command

The Sun reported this morning that Doug Godine has been replaced. Doug has been the general manager of Columbia for GGP since last year when he replaced Dennis Miller. The new general manager is Gregory Hamm. Gregory has been working as consultant to GGP for over a year now with an office in Columbia.

And no story about GGP and Columbia would not be complete without the obligatory quote from Alan Klein,” I think a change in leadership behavior was needed; whether a change in leader was needed I don’t know.”

In my opinion, Alan Klein is not exactly a leading authority on leadership but the papers love to quote him anyway.

Doug Godine is a true gentlemen and I wish him well in his future endeavors.

The Ultimate Decider

The Plaza tower saga rated a front page story in today’s Washington Post business section. It appears that the ultimate decision as to whether the tower will be built rests with the ability of WCI Communities to secure financing. A year ago that would not have been a problem for the Florida developer but back then its stock was trading at around $35.00 per share. Today it trades for $4.84. It may be mid January before the fate of this project is decided.

Poinsettia Protestors

The poinsettia tree protest was held today. My daughter and I attended, dutifully carrying our poinsettia plants to show our fealty to the cause. The cause of which I write is the hope that a mass protest might compel GGP to reinstate this cherished Columbia holiday tradition and get the freaking cars out of the fountain at the same time.Judging from today’s crowds, that is not likely to happen. I’d give it a 10% chance that we will ever see the poinsettia tree grace the center court fountain area of the mall again.

That is no reason to call today’s protest a failure. On the contrary, it was a grand success but for a different reason. It was a success at bringing community together. Old friends met and hugged. Pictures were taken and laughter was evident amongst the din of conversations.

The holidays provided a perfect backdrop for the gathering. It added a festive air.

It was not just the loss of the poinsettia tree that was lamented either. It was the vehicles dumped in the fountain and the car dealer banner that surrounds the fountain court that bothered people. It has just become too much.

The poinsettia protesters also noted that the fountain court seemed to contain more poinsettias than it did at the beginning of the holiday season. This turns out to be correct. I took this picture the day before Thanksgiving. All of the mall holiday décor was in place including the Santastic experience.

There are many more in fountain area today and not just because of those that the poinsettia protestors bought by.

If nothing else, the poinsettia protestors can take credit for having affected that change. Every little bit helps. In fact, maybe an annual “poinsettia drop” could be become a new tradition.

Poinsettia Protest

My friend Jim Binckley bought my attention to a column by Diane Brown in this weeks Columbia Flier. It seems that an ad hoc group of Columbians is planning a little protest this Sunday.

Claire Lea, Sandi Carbotti and Janet Shinski are planning on converging on the center court fountain at noon this Sunday with a poinsettia in hand "to make a statement."

"The loss of the tree is the loss of tradition," says Claire. "Our tradition seems to have been arbitrarily demoted. It's just gone. And I believe there are thousands of us who remember and who want it back. It's just so sad."

Thousands?

Perhaps. It will be interesting to see how many people show. I'll be there, with a poinsettia in one hand and a camera in the other.

Karen Geary, the mall manager, tried to justify the poinsettia trees demise with this letter to editor. I don't know about you but to me the letter rang a little hollow and a little preachy.

In This Month’s Business Monthly…

I’m going to try something new here. As you may or may not know, I also write a column in the Business Monthly. In fact, I have been writing a column in the Business Monthly as long as the Business Monthly has been around.

I’ve been through three owners but I like the new ones the best. I figure it can’t hurt to suck up to them once in awhile anyway. The Business Monthly has been my only steady writing job. I figure that the fact that I get a 1099 every year for writing validates me a professional writer. Thankfully I also have another job.

Anyway, since I also have this here blog, I thought it might be fun, once a month, to open up this blog to comments about my latest column. I’ll gladly take the good, the bad, the ugly and the anonymous.

Or not. Your call.

This month’s column is entitled “The Ghost of Christmas Past.” You can find it here.

Scene This Week In...

In a word, snow. The first of the season, a good one too. My nine year old daughter and I both agreed that this morning it was magical.

For the Ellicott City scene I choose The Good Life Market in Ellicott City. These guys really did a nice job with the holiday décor. They even play holiday music outside. This was picture postcard perfect for a snowy day before Christmas.

In Columbia there is an old stretch of Oakland Mills Road that winds through Thunder Hill and the Smith Farm. It is an amazing trip in time to how Columbia looked before it was Columbia. The fact that it runs right in the middle of Columbia makes it even cooler. It is a very pretty drive on a snowy day.

Private Meetings Part Two

Last night I attended a political fund raiser for County Councilperson Greg Fox. It was extremely well attended given the fact that it was a) Sunday night and b) rainy cold and miserable.

I heard from several different people at the event that GGP has already met with most of the council members privately to share their vision for Columbia's town center. I hope that is true. I also hope that, if it is true, it will stop this silly posturing by the Columbia Council and the village boards over open meetings.

Again, I have no objection to public meetings. They play an important role in formulating public policy. Similarly, private meetings play an important role as well as they don't allow for posturing for the press and tend to focus more intensely on the subject matter.

The 2008 Columbia Festival of the Arts

The 2008 Columbia Festival of the Arts will be held June 13th through June 28th. Mark your calendars so you can be sure to be in town for the 21st annual festival. If you go to website you can see a sampling of last years paid performances. Right now the festival staff is booking entertainment for for the paid events at the Rouse Theatre and the free events at Lakefest...which brings me to the point of this post.

The festival needs money!

The success of the Columbia Festival of the Arts is largely dependent on the amount of money they are able raise during these cold months. Right now that fundraising is going on in earnest as most good acts need to be booked by the end of January.

If you are thinking about making any charitable contributions before the year end for tax purposes, please consider the arts. All donations are fully tax deductible. You can send a check directly to the festival offices at the Columbia Festival of the Arts, 5575 Sterrett Place, Suite 280, Columbia, MD 21044.

I'm trying to get them to accept Pay Pal but right now you'll need to contribute in the old fashioned way.

Profit Motives

If you haven't already done so, please visit the Hometown Columbia blog and read Jessie's post entitled "Jim Rouse as *ALL* about the money."

Jessie nails it perfectly and I have to say that I couldn't have said it better myself!

Wildlife in EC

A coyote has apparrently been spotted in the vicinity of the historic district. And you thought the wildlife was only in the bars!

Store Window Contest

This Saturday the Ellicott City Restoration Foundation is sponsoring a holiday store window decorating contest for the merchants in the old town. Shoppers will be able to vote for their favorite window by picking up a ballot in one of the participating stores or at the Howard County Tourism office located on the lower level of the old Ellicott City Post Office on Main Street.

It's a fun activity for the family and a great way to explore Ellicott City.

Scene This Week In...

Is it just me or does anyone else find the display of the poinsettia tree skeleton tragic?

The once elegant fixture of the Columbia holiday scene now sits stripped of its red flowers in a Merriweather Post Pavilion parking lot. I’m sorry but it comes off to me as a cheap sideshow in the already borderline tacky Symphony of Lights.

It is worse of course during the day when the colored lights that it has been festooned with have no effect. Fortunately the general public can’t see it as the exhibit is closed during the daytime. The poinsettia tree I knew and loved was beautiful day in and night without any artificial lighting.

And viewing it was free, now it will cost you twenty bucks a car just to see it in this sadly diminished form.

Thus I have dubbed it “The Ghost of Christmas Past.” You can read more about it in my column the December issue of the Business Monthly. I’ll post the link here under “The Way I See It” after the paper hits the streets next week.

On a lighter note, this fire hydrant in Ellicott City cracked me up. Those are pieces of chewing gum plastered around it. This particular fireplug sits on the corner of Winding Ross Way and Edgehill Court in Taylor Village in Ellicott City. It happens to be on the main walking route to the bus stop for a large number of elementary and middle school kids.

A true work of people’s art.

Is That What You Think?

The Columbia Association Board of Directors has placed full page advertisements in several local publications featuring this letter to County Executive Ken Ulman outlining their position on any redevelopment of Town Center.

For the most part the document is fairly innocuous, restating themes that all parties generally agree upon, such as respect the land; create a livable community, more restaurants and businesses and so on.

What struck me was the misleading statement about open space. The letter calls for preserving the “open space” around the Hug statue. That land is not open space. It is private property. CA has plenty of open space under its exclusive control in Town Center. From the looks of things they do a pretty lousy job of maintaining it too.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if the CA board instead spent the same amount of energy looking at how their own organization might adapt to a new downtown.

Scene This Week In...

The big man himself is the subject of this weeks scenes. Thanksgiving is the official kick off of the holiday season. From now until December 25th it will be difficult to keep the kids focused on anything but the big guy in the red suit.

In Ellicott City, Frank DiPietro must surely be one of Santa’s elves. Along with Ed Williams they own Mumbles & Squeaks Toy Shoppe on Main Street. If you want something different from a Toys R Us experience, you will find it in their store. I love this place.

In Columbia you get the real thing. At least you get a guy who looks like the real thing. This authentic looking Santa is all wrapped up in the Santastic experience brought to you by Creig Northrop, Comcast, Build A Bear and other sponsors with ads prominently displayed.

I usually update my Scenes This Week on Wednesdays but tomorrow my daughter and I will be amongst the millions of people schlepping through an airport on our way to a Thanksgiving reunion. Our destination is Birmingham Alabama and the home of my sister Pat. There is a true Columbia connection here as well. Pat worked in Columbia back in the early years (67-69) as an aide to Gary Clark, Zeeger DeWilde and Art Caplan. If you recognize any of those names you more than qualify as a Columbia old timer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Santastic In Poinsettia Tree Out

click to enlarge

With all of the hoopla surrounding the new “Santastic” attraction at The Mall In Columbia you may not have noticed that something is conspicuously missing this year, the poinsettia tree. The 22 foot poinsettia tree graced the center court fountain of the mall every year since the mall opened in 1971. My favorite columnist wrote this about it five years ago.

After a thirty six year run, the poinsettia tree has now been replaced by trucks parked in the fountain. I for one, lament this loss of a Columbia holiday tradition.

Town Center Website

Thanks to fellow blogger Bill Santos at Columbia Compass for giving us the heads up on this. As expected, GGP has launched a website dedicated to Columbia Town Center redevelopment. There isn't much there right now but expect to see more in the coming months. Most importantly, they have a section soliciting input and recommendations from the community at large, so let your voice be heard. I have added a link in the Links of Interest section of this blog.

If you want to see photos of the vision that they are sharing in community meetings you can check here, here and here.

Adam The First!

click photos to enlarge

As part of my in depth reporting on “Columbicott City, I stopped by the sales trailer for Bozzuto Homes at Shipley’s Grant. Adjacent to the entry road off Waterloo is this historical marker. I figure that most people zip by this sign without stopping to read it. There really is no place to easily pull over for that matter.

But it is an interesting marker. You hear a good deal about the Carrolls and Calverts around here but not so much about the Shipley’s. Sounds like they had a pretty nice spread back in 1687.

Today of course, the landscape is a bit different. This is the development model that sits in the sales trailer. Note that Route 100 and the overhead power lines are conspicuously absent. You have to step outside the trailer to see those features.

Private Meetings

General Growth is holding a series of private meetings with a wide range of community groups to discuss it’s vision for the future of Town Center in Columbia. I happen to think that this is a wise approach. It gives the company a chance to respond directly and appropriately to individual concerns.

I have attended one of these briefings. It was informative and there was healthy dialogue between the developer and the invitees. That is what is required to refine a vision and build it into a plan.

That is what GGP says it wants to do. They emphasized time and time again during the presentation that what they are discussing in these meetings is a vision, not a final plan. That, they insist, will come after absorbing the feedback from the various community stakeholders.

Some folks don’t like this though. In today’s Sun, June Arney reported on these meetings and the reactions of some of these folks. Alex Hekimian is challenging whether any village board members or Columbia Council members can legally attend these meetings since they are not open to the public and the press.

Hogwash.

These are GGP’s meetings. They can dam well invite whoever they want. They are not presenting a final plan, they are looking for feedback. Have you ever noticed what happens when a meeting is open to everyone and the press, especially when the topic is a hot one like Town Center?

The big mouths and politicians dominate the dialogue as they vie for being quoted by the press. That’s why some of the politicians don’t like them. They can’t grandstand.

I hope my elected representatives attend one of these meetings. That's what they are supposed to do. Go. Listen. Learn. Form an opinion. Report back.

Then they can grandstand and pontificate all they want.

Scene This Week In...

It was a picture postcard fall day today, a little foggy and damp. The trees were just past their color peak. It reminded me once again of just how beautiful Howard County is.

The Ellicott City scene is the view on New Cut Road leading out of the historic district towards Montgomery Road. This road gets my vote for one of the prettiest roads in HoCo land.

The Columbia scene is the view of Little Patuxent Parkway from the pedestrian bridge looking back towards the Central library. You can see the corner of one of the blue Columbia 40th birthday banners by the entrance to the GGP building.

Isn’t it time to take those down?

Columbicott City

click to enlarge

I missed this story in the Sun last week about the “limited income” apartments planned for Ellicott City.

I was wondering if “limited income” has become the new euphemism for affordable housing.

Anyway…

The 106 unit project being called The Residences at Ellicott Gardens is planned for a site at the intersection of Route 108 and Route 104. While this is technically Ellicott City, it still feels like Columbia because it is on the south side of Route 100. Then again maybe we should call this Waterloo Road Route 100 corridor area Columbicott City.

It is probably politically safe to put affordable housing in Columbicott City because it is sort of neither here nor there.

Also underway in Columbicott City is the Shipley’s Grant development, a 306 unit townhouse development that is about a quarter mile from the Ellicott Gardens project. Shipley’s Grant will be for people who are “limited” to purchasing a townhome in the $450,000 to $600,000 price range. That seems pretty pricey for a community that is bordered by high power transmission lines to the west, Route 100 to the north and Snowden River Parkway to the east.

They seem to selling well enough though.

Shipley’s Grant will also have a “village” retail center that will front Waterloo Road. So far Starbucks and Cold Stone Creamery have committed to leases in this new center on Main Street (Waterloo Road) in Columbicott City.