A Day for the Wearing of the Red

Today is the Feast of St. Joseph. In some Italian neighborhoods this day is honored with a parade followed by much eating and drinking in honor of the saints intervention during the Sicilian famine in the Middle Ages.  In California this is the day that the swallows make their annual return to the Mission at San Juan Capistrano.

Italian Catholics usually commemorate the day by wearing red and eating a large meal of pasta and fish. There is no meat for these celebrants since this is also the Lenten season.

As near as I can discern there are no celebrations planned in Baltimore’s Little Italy aside from the celebration of Mass. Of course Father Wally and Postman Joe will be celebrating with their Italian friends as part of their annual tribal ritual but that is the only loco St. Joe celebration I know of.

Of course here in HoCo we really don’t have any ethnic neighborhoods save for the burgeoning Asian community along Route 40. That means for the most part this holiday will go largely unrecognized within our borders.

But You Won’t Find One in Columbia…

I realize that it is the day after St. Patrick’s Day but when I saw this video it hit me that there isn’t an Irish Pub in Columbia. There are however at least two in Ellicott City…

Blogger versus Homelessness

To celebrate his second anniversary of HoCo loco blogging, Tom Coale, the author of HoCo Rising has embarked on a fundraising effort through his blog to help end homelessness in HoCo.

If he’s not careful he may give HoCo loco bloggers a good name!

Seriously, Tom has long been involved in the Rt. 1 Day Resource Center operated by Grassroots which provides a wide range of services and assistance to HoCo’s homeless population. He now hopes to leverage his blog to provide additional support for the cause.

To find out more about his new initiative check out his post.

Blinded by Ivy

The hiring of Annie Burton-Byrd (AKA Annie Louise Burton or Annie Burton) to be the executive director of the Domestic Violence Center has raised serious questions about the organizations board of directors. The board, which is currently led by Bernie Bradley, had already been through two executive directors in the past twelve months before hiring Ms Burton. That rate of turnover suggests that there is something fundamentally wrong with the either the boards hiring process or their overall leadership abilities...or both.

In all fairness, there could be valid reasons why the first two executive directors didn’t work out. Unforeseen circumstances may have contributed to their short tenures. That being said, after losing two executive directors in such a short period of time, the board could reasonably be expected to make doubly sure that they got it right the third time.

That apparently didn’t happen. If they had done an even half way job of vetting Ms Burton it’s doubtful that she would have been offered the job. According to this story by Lindsey McPherson in the Columbia Flier, Ms. Burton “misused federal grant funds in a previous position.”

“I understand Ms. Burton-Byrd asserts the allegations are untrue and has provided the County’s Public Information Officer with an email from her attorney stating that he ‘understands’ the U.S. Attorney investigated and closed the matter without taking any action,” Ulman wrote in his letter to the auditor. “But according to the Office of the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service, Ms. Burton-Byrd is debarred by the federal government and therefore cannot receive federal contracts or grants.”

She also has a trail of lawsuits and judgments from her former real estate company, The Signature Groups. That information is easily attainable to anyone with a computer.

More troubling however, is if the board actually knew about these issues but choose to ignore them for some reason. Could it be that the board felt that the fact that Ms Buton is a Harvard graduate somehow outweighed these other concerns?

As they say, you can’t judge a book by its cover.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the problems at the Domestic Violence Center run deeper than their troubled executive director and that a wholesale change in the board of leadership is also in order. For the sake of this important community organization, the sooner this occurs, the better for HoCo.

A Grand Day for the Irish

Tis a fine day to celebrating the Irish. The sun is shining and the mercury is headed into the sixties. I hope to drop in to J. Patricks in South Baltimore this afternoon to share a pint or two of the Guinness with my sister, the priest, and the mailman partaking in their annual St. Patrick’s tribal ritual.

Until then, here’s a little Irish music from the Saw Doctors to get the day started properly…

Who Are You?

Think you know what political label fits you best?

Take this short quiz and you may be surprised to find that you’re wearing the wrong label!

(Thanks to my podcast co-host, Paul Skalny for sharing this with me…)

Merrill Lynch Makeover

The Merrill Lynch Building in Columbia Town Center has changed hands…again. The twelve story office tower next to The Mall was originally developed by Pat McCuan and Peter Kirk in 1982 as the Equitable Bank Building. Since then the 137,000 square foot building has traded several times, most recently last month when First Potomac Realty purchased the property from BIT Investments, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.

According to the Howard/Arundel Report newsletter, the new owners intend to spend $2 to $3 million in renovations to the property. It won’t be the first time for that either. The Merrill Lynch building has undergone a series of renovations over the years including several attempts to correct continuing problems with the HVAC system.

It wasn’t one of the unions’ better real estate investments. BIT paid $20 million for the building in March of 2007. The sales price to First Potomac was $11 million.

A Good Dog Down

I put my dog down today. I thought I was emotionally ready to do this. I wasn’t. Though her health had declined markedly over the past week, I was reluctant to give up on her. I realize that this was really more for me than her; I that sensed she was ready. Age and infirmities had taken their toll. She no longer had the energy or strength for play.

Afterwards, I asked her vet, Michael Shulkin, if playing Dr. Kevorkian was difficult. He shared with me how he once was given permission by a pet owner to perform an autopsy on a dog that had been suffering from cancer. When he opened the animal up the insides were black as night. He imagined that the dog had been suffering for some time. This helped him rationalize that euthanasia was the most humane thing he could do for them. It even gave him some comfort when is own dog contracted cancer and he had to put him down.

Of course the dog has the easy part. Their suffering ends quickly and painlessly. It’s a far different story for their humans.

Leaving the vets office with tears streaming down my face I wasn’t ready to go home. I knew that walking into my house without being greeted by my four legged friend was going to bring on another wave of grief. I needed to go somewhere and collect myself first.

When Mars was a puppy I was living in Ellicott City, not far from Patapsco State Park. Once she was about four months old I’d take her for long walks through the woods to the park almost everyday and her first experience swimming was in the Patapsco River. That’s where I headed this afternoon .

Today, our neighborhood old dogs club lost another member. The ranks are getting thin.

Post Dumps Loco Blog Directory

The Washington Post has redesigned their website and in the process also eliminated the directory of local bloggers. Up until now, for at least the past four years, The Post provided links and feeds from local blogs throughout the metro area once a blog registered with them. Granted, it wasn’t exactly a strong effort. According to Google Analytics, over the past thirty days Tales of Two Cities has received more referrals from The Huffington Post (9) than The Washington Post (4).

I have no idea what The Huffington Post thing is all about.

Anyway, it’s gone now, in case you weren't paying attention.

Meanwhile, The Sun has become much more blog friendly, particularly to HoCo bloggers. The Sun maintains a metro area blog directory and hosts an annual blogger competition called The Mobbies. The Howard County page on the web also includes a sidebar with links to the latest posts from a handful of local blogs. It is the only county page on The Sun website that features local blogs, perhaps a nod to the robust HoCo blogosphere.

Consequently, The Sun is the second highest referral site for Tales of Two Cities (1,880) next to Google (2,108).

Pi Day

While many of us are pouring over brackets for the impending NCAA Basketball Tournament, the math geeks amongst us are also celebrating Pi Day today.

I know it’s traditional to actually enjoy some pie on Pi Day but it won’t be celebrated that way in our house this year. Besides, Mama Wordbones just made a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies yesterday.

Happy Pi Day!

Now That’s Root Beer

Yesterday I checked out the new Big Lots in Columbia Crossing for the first time. Since I am already a Costco member I didn’t feel all that compelled to check out another big box discount store. Though Big Lots promotes itself as being “the nation's largest broadline closeout retailer” I pretty much assumed that the only difference between them and Costco was that you didn’t have to buy stuff in bulk.

I didn’t expect to find Dad’s Root Beer.

The first root beer I ever tasted was Frostie Root Beer. Frostie was originally bottled by the Frostie Beverage Company in Catonsville. The bottler was later acquired by the company that made Dad's. I thought Frostie was a pretty good root beer until I tried Dad’s. Once I tasted Dad’s the other root beers just didn’t stack up. The only problem was that Dad’s was hard to find. Through the years, in all my travels, I’d occasionally get the root beer urge but I’ve never could find Dad’s. I just assumed that they'd stopped making it. When I spotted Dad’s at Big Lots I was skeptical. Could this really be the same Dad’s Root Beer I once held in high esteem or was it just some bottler who purchased the Dad’s name?

I am happy to report that it’s the real thing.

Annie Burton-Byrd and My Dog

It’s been a tough weekend. My old dog is taking her final lap. Her bodily functions are starting to fail. She wanders aimlessly in the kitchen at night, sniffing a pair a slippers, walking away and then coming back to the exact same spot and sniffing again. She’ll do this for twenty minutes…or longer. I know the end is nigh, but making the call as to when to actually pull the plug is gut wrenching. We’ve been together for over thirteen years.

Anyway, I haven’t been really been thinking about the blog this weekend. That is until I received a rather scathing comment yesterday from someone who identified themselves as “Radicalexplicittruth.” Radicalexplicittruth took issue with this post about the developing controversy of Annie Burton-Byrd and the Domestic Violence Center.

“It amazes me that you have the audacity to write a Blog in regards to Ms. Burton based on hearsay. I would advise you to get all your facts straight before you Blog and put anything on the interenet.”

Until Friday afternoon I had never even heard of Annie Burton Byrd. Before every podcast Paul and I grab lunch to go over what HoCo loco news stories we are going to cover in the show. Paul had the same Annie Burton-Byrd story that Lindsey McPherson reported in The Flier later that day. He also told me that his firm had been previously involved in action with her. His take was that the board of the Domestic Violence Center did a pretty lousy job in vetting their executive director. We decided to use the story.

Later I did a quick check on the Maryland Judiciary website and saw that there were five recorded judgments against her totaling over $800,000.00. I decided I had enough to write that she had been in “hot water.” I also wrote that she had been accused of being a slumlord and provided a link to the site that made this accusation. I just figured I'd get to the rest before the weekend was over…or not. The point had really been made already.

Radicalexplicittruth took me further to task.

“This is very irresponsible reporting and any reporter should investigate everything themselves and not listen to hearsay if you are really a Professional.”

In fact I am not a professional reporter. I am a commercial real estate broker with a social media problem. That being said I stood behind what I wrote and I intended to respond to Radicalexplicittruth, later. Right now I was dealing with canine hospice issues.

That’s where Jason Reddish came in. Within a few hours he took up Radicalexplicittruth’s challenge to investigate and found plenty of fire beneath the smoke. I am always appreciative when a Tales of Two Cities netizen takes up some of my slack. Thanks Jason.

My dog thanks you too.

A Brave New World for Community Journalism

In the not so distant past, community newspapers like the Columbia Flier and The Howard County Times worked on weekly deadlines. The papers were printed once a week and everything revolved around that schedule. Today, with a large part of their audience only reading online that model no longer holds true. Today, the papers post stories pretty much as they break, particularly with events like high school sports. Paul Milton, the Executive Director of News Operations for Patuxent Publishing and our podcast guest this week has helped shape much of this transformation in the 27 years he's been with the media organization.

One of the more interesting discussions we had was the dynamic of commenting on stories. The comments made on some stories on the Explore Howard website make blog comments see tame by comparison. Paul likened it to talk radio.

Since Patuxent Publishing is in the business of local news gathering we decided to dedicate the entire show to local news. With an abundance of stories this time around like  Town Center sign guidelines, bag taxes, speed cameras, and quadruplet Boy Scouts we had plenty to talk about.

It is also interesting to note that Patuxent Publishing seems to be embracing the blogging community instead of seeing it as a threat. A healthy symbiotic relationship has been developing between the establishment press and the bloggers over the past year. Patuxent writers have begun attending the blogtail parties and even Patuxents irascible editorial editor, Doug Miller, has softened his view of the HoCo bloggers. I believe this to be a very positive development for an informed community.

We’ll likely have Paul back for another news discussion in the not too distant future but until then you can listen to the 36^th episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

Another Questionable HoCo Hire

No sooner has the dust settled down on the Diane Wilson affair than another HoCo loco organization finds itself mired in personal matter. In January, the Domestic Violence Center hired Annie Burton to be the organizations new President and CEO. Now, according to this story by Lindsey McPherson in the Columbia Flier, Annie “is being scrutinized by county officials, concerned about her ability to lead the organization and reports that she misused thousands of federal dollars in a previous job in Baltimore.”

“An investigation by the Corporation for National and Community Service found that Burton, in her previous position, used five AmeriCorps volunteers sent to help the after-program to work at her rental management and tree trimming business at a cost to taxpayers of $30,634, according to a USA Today news report last month.”

My sources tell me that this is not the first time Ms Burton has found herself hot water either. Some people have even called her a slumlord.

Frisky Business

Frisky’s Wildlife  and Primate Sanctuary was in the news again today. It was the subject of this column by John Kelly in The Washington Post. John reports that “Every animal at Frisky's has a story.”

“Kiko, a rhesus macaque, was given up by his human family in Iowa after he started biting people. His former owner visits Frisky's annually, sleeping on a cot across from Kiko's cage.”

Colleen Layton-Robbins, the preserve proprietor, has a total of 23 monkeys on her three acre property in Woodstock. She has other animals too.

“In the rabbit room are a clutch of baby bunnies, rescued from a hoarding situation. There are pygmy goats, minks, chinchilla, parrots, squirrels, all tended by Colleen and an army of volunteers.”

Frisky’s has been in a long running zoning battle with their neighbors, Julianne and Richard Wyckoff. The Wyckoffs want the monkeys to go, contending that the preserve is both a nuisance and a health hazard. Their fight has gone all the way up to the state Court of Appeals only to be kicked back down to the county. There is another hearing with the Board of Appeals tonight.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one. Colleen apparently has all the required federal and state licenses and the help of a cadre of dedicated volunteers but three acres seems like a pretty small piece of land for wildlife and primate operation.

I think I’ll take Peanut over there and check it out. I’ll report back after that.

Stream ReLeaf

The same folks that gave us free trees last year are now offering native plants and shrubs as well for select HoCo homeowners.

HoCo residents whose properties border a creek or stream are being encouraged to participate in the 2011 Stream ReLeaf Program. The program, administered by the HoCo Department of Recreation and Parks provides free native plants and shrubs to HoCo property owners who agree to plant the material within 75 feet of a stream.

“This program was initiated in 2003 as part of the implementation of the Little Patuxent River Watershed Restoration Action Strategy, but has expanded to include all of Howard County. Trees and shrubs planted along streams help prevent erosion; provide vegetative cover; and trap nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus - two major pollutants of the Chesapeake Bay.”

If you are interested in participating in this program contact Laura Miller, the Program Director at ltmiller@howardcountymd.gov. 

And speaking of free trees, the little Dogwood that we got from the county program last fall appears to have it through it's first winter. 

Governor Ulman

Last night a group of HoCo loco politico watchers gathered over drinks to ruminate about the future political aspirations of some our loco politico leaders. This was the third time our little fellowship has come together, the last time was in early October, before the elections. We figured it was time to regroup and take stock of things.

Probably the worst kept secret in HoCo loco politico circles is the fact that Ken Ulman, our newly reelected term limited county executive, is laying the groundwork for a run for governor. The group was divided on his chances but some felt that having Ken in the governors mansion would be good for HoCo. The last county exec to take a shot at the top state job was Chuck Ecker in 1998. Chuck was bested in the Repub primary by Ellen Saurerbrey. Ellen went on to lose a close race with the Dem, Parris Glendening.

Ken isn’t the only Dem with gubernatorial aspirations, Peter Franchot, the State Comptroller and Doug Gansler the States Attorney are said to be preparing their own runs. Of course it’s early and lots can happen between now and 2014. Someone below our radar could emerge upon the scene. In fact, I’ve heard some insiders suggest that this election could go to a woman. She would have to be a Dem of course.

The top job in HoCo is also in play. Right now, the most likely suspects are Courtney Watson and Guy Guzzone for the Dems and Alan Kittleman for the Repubs. One of the participants suggested that Guy may opt to run for Jim Robey’s senate seat instead. Jim is expected to retire after this term and Guy seems to enjoy his role as a behind the scenes power broker. On the Repub side Sandy Schrader may contemplate a campaign to retake that seat. She lost it to Jim in 2006 in a contest that got a little dirty.

Everyone had an opinion about Brian Meshkin too. The consensus was that if Greg Fox decides not to seek a third term that Brian would move to District 5 and run as a Repub for that council seat. On the other hand, if Greg does decide to seek reelection in 2014, Brian may be tempted to take a run for county executive. One of the group thought that, from now on, we should simply refer to Brian as “The Amazing.”

I still like The Amazing Meshkin better.

The public house we chose for our gathering this time was Aida Bistro and Wine Bar. It was perfect, not too crowded, not too loud and Dan, the bartender, saw to it that our wine glasses were never empty throughout the evening. I like that in a public house.

“At the Tone, the Time Will Be…”

I can’t remember the last time I used a regular phone to get the time and weather. For the past 70 years Verizon has provided residents the current time by dialing (410) 844-1212 and the current weather by dialing (410) 936-1212. As of June 1^st that service will be discontinued.

In his column in The Washington Post today, John Kelly suggests that “this is no reason to mourn.”

“After all, the precise time is available on our cellphone screens. As for the forecast, there's "weather on the 8s," not to mention an entire cable channel devoted to rain, wind, sun and snow. Do we really need to employ a 19th-century technology - Alexander Graham Bell's telephone - to decide if we should wear a sweater or carry an umbrella?”

Like I said, I can’t recall the last time I used this service. In fact, until I read his column this morning I didn’t even know that the phone company still provided it. It turns out that we are one of the only places in country that still has dial up time and weather.

“This is the last area where Verizon provides the weather forecast, although you can still get the time in Massachusetts.”

Fat Tuesday

I felt spring today. Mulching crews were out in our office complex, the mercury inched above 50 and I took my car to the carwash.

This month also marks the beginning of the next political season. Our county executive will hold a fundraiser on the 22^nd and Courtney Watson will hold one on the 25^th. Speculation abounds as to what these two are running for next.

The next school board race has started too. This week Corey Andrews announced that he is running for a seat on the board in 2012. Corey had hoped to be selected as the next student member of the board after Alexis Adams leaves this year but failed to make the short list. Presumably that would make him a high school junior. He has reached out to Allen Dyer suggesting they run a "joint campaign". Allen seems to spend a lot of time with high schoolers.

And speaking of Allen Dyer, Tales of Two Cities got credited in this story by Sara Toth in the Columbia Flier and this story by David Greisman in Columbia Patch for breaking the story about his alleged ethics shenanigans. That was nice.

In yet another sign of the beginning of the next political season, our pub politics group will gather tonight at an undisclosed public house in HoCo. We will begin the process of handicapping the races for governor, county executive, and other local races. 2014 is a long way off and lots of things can happen in the meantime but you have to start somewhere. 

Laissez les bons temps rouler. 

Hallowed Ground

Last night Larry Schoen, the chair of the Wilde Lake Village Board, asked Darrell Nevin and I which of two redevelopment scenarios would be more attractive to prospective retailers. This scenario is the plan drawn up by Kimco, the shopping center owner.

Bob Tennebaum and some other Wilde Lake residents proposed this scenario as an alternative.

It was an easy decision. The Kimco plan would be more attractive to retailers because it opens up the visibility of all the retail spaces in the center. This really comes as no surprise. This is Kimco’s business. They own and lease over "1,465 retail properties comprising  150 million square feet of leasable space." This plan reflects their collective knowledge of what makes a retail center successful.

The community plan is more concerned with creating what some have referred to as a  “sense of place.” That is a certainly a noble goal but it misses out on a key component. A sense of place is created not by gardens and benches but by a combination of many elements working together. The key element is what fills the space. Open space gardens and courtyards are nice but they don't draw people on their own. Stores and café’s draw people. The community plan seeks to preserve the original village green but in doing so it walls off the retail surrounding that green space from the main traffic generators for the center. I can honestly say from personal experience that those retail spaces surrounding the village green would be the last spaces to lease. I've heard some community members speak in almost reverent tones about this green space because Jim Rouse himself had a hand in designing it. That somehow makes it hallowed ground in their minds. This is what I call the "Columbia as a museum of sixties planning" mindset.

I’m also not sure why Larry asked us if the community plan was a viable plan for retailers. No one has offered to actually build the community plan. It’s easy to draw up imaginative schemes on a kitchen table when you do not have a financial stake in the game.

The village board should embrace Kimco’s plan. They should realize how fortunate they are to have a developer willing to invest millions into the aging retail center to once again make it a destination. The village center does not exist in a vacuum, there are plenty of options available to retailers in that zip code besides Wilde Lake Village Center. 

Meanwhile, Over in Wilde Lake…

I have been invited to visit with the Wilde Lake Village Board tonight. Larry Schoen, the board chair has asked me to join my colleague Darrell Nevin in evaluating Kimco’s proposed plan for the redevelopment of the Wilde Lake Village Center from a retail perspective. As commercial brokers with some retail leasing experience we’re being asked to look at the plans from a prospective tenants point of view. In other words, real job stuff.

It also could make an interesting post. Apparently there is a group that includes Bob Tennenbaum that is unhappy with the proposed plan. They will likely be in attendance this evening.

I’m thankful for shifting topics. It was beginning to feel like this was starting to become the all Allen Dyer all the time blog. He is very easy to tire of.

Dyers Legal Legacy

Since 2001, Allen Dyer has filed seven lawsuits against the Howard County Board of Education. He’s filed five of these lawsuits since he became a member of the board. So far he's 0 and 7.  The cost to HoCo taxpayers for defending these actions is now over $400,000.00.

In a December letter from his attorney Harold J. Burns, Jr. to the boards counsel seeking to have the ethics complaint filed against him dismissed, Allen sang a far different tune.

“As an elected Member of the BOE, Mr. Dyer is understandably concerned at the time and expense that these proceedings will consume to no useful purpose.”

Does this mean his days of filing frivolous lawsuits are over?

I'm afraid that's just wishful thinking.

The Dyer Files

This weekend, in defiance of ethics panel rules, school board member Allen Dyer released a copy of the ethics complaint against him on howardpubliced. In addition to the complaint Allen also released copies of correspondence between his attorney, Harold J. Burns, Jr and the boards attorney, Andrew W. Nussbaum, relating to this action.

Three things are clear to me after reading these documents. One, Allen did not want this complaint to see the light of day. He and his attorney tried repeatedly to have it dismissed before a hearing was held. Two, Allen really wanted to be board chair. He apparently worked the student member hard for her vote, even enlisting her peers to help. Three, Allen was pretty confident that he had the votes of Brian Meshkin and Cindy Vaillancourt in his pocket. It makes me wonder if this was also some sort of payback for the assistance he gave their recent campaigns.

In a message on howardpubliced Cindy Vaillancourt, asserted I had “gotten a fair amount of it wrong…”. In fact the complaint confirms that this does involve what the student school board member believed to be inappropriate behavior by Mr. Dyer in his attempt to get her vote for board chair, so at least I got that right.

Putting It Out There, Sort Of

Well he’s gone and done it now.  Allen Dyer, the school board member who is the subject of an ethics complaint has ignored the ethics panel rule for confidentiality and released a trove of documents relating to the complaint. His attorney, Harold J. Burns, Jr,, writes that he has “instructed Mr. Dyer that he should feel free to release to public the Complaints, the correspondence between us, the Exhibits Mr Dyer submitted in his defense, the Panel's Rules, and the BOE's Ethics and Handbook.”

He believes that this is justified in doing this because “the leaked information is incorrect and slanted against Mr. Dyer…”

He also assures the panel that neither he nor Allen was the source of those leaks. I am certain that the panel is comforted by this assurance.

Only Allen didn’t release the documents to the public. He released them to his Yahoo discussion group, howardpubliced. If you are not a member of this group you can’t open the attachments. To say that he released this material to a small sympathetic audience would be a gross understatement.

That is Allen’s style. He needs sell the story of him being the true victim here. He wants to sure up his defense before anyone else involved in this action has a chance to speak. Allen, the self professed defender of openness, released confidential information to a closed user group without first making his case to the panel and allowing all parties to be released from their silence at the same time.

Keep in mind that this case involves an adult and a minor. Is this guy a piece of work or what?

This morning I decided to join howardpubliced in order to get a look at this stuff. I am now awaiting approval by the moderator. I am not expecting a quick turn around on that.

UPDATE: A netizen of Tales of Two Cities has forwarded me the files that Allen posted on howardpubliced. I'll post about them later this evening after digesting them with my dinner. 

In This Months Business Monthly

There are two iconic white buildings in Columbia, the former Rouse Company headquarters building and the now former Columbia Flier building. Both are non traditional office buildings; one designed by world famous architect Frank Gehry and the other by local architect Bob Moon.

Both buildings symbolized centers of power in the community, one the developer and the other the fourth estate.

The story of the Flier building is also the story of Zeke Orlinsky, the Columbia lawyer who started the paper on his kitchen table. In the late sixties Zeke was the brash upstart publisher who upended what was until then a rather staid HoCo loco media landscape. He achieved this by simply giving his paper away for free to every home in Columbia, no subscription necessary. By the time the Flier building was completed in the early seventies Zeke had created a loco media empire included other community papers, a magazine and local phone directories.

It’s hard to predict the fate of the building now that its new owners have decided to move out. Its unique design poses some real challenges for the next occupant. Like its white cousin down the road, it will likely require a substantial capital investment in renovations to make it attractive for potential users. The HVAC system for example, has been problematic since the building first opened.

You can read this months column here.

CA Gets A++ Bond Rating

Yesterday Fitch Ratings affirmed an A++ rating for the Columbia Associations $26.9 million senior secured bonds According to this report on CNBC, Fitch noted “Long-range planning efforts are strong, and CA has a solid history of achieving financial and capital development goals.”

Someone should buy a round of drinks for Susan Krabbe and her staff for that one.

“Financial operations and debt management remain credit strengths for CA.”

The report also credited the Columbia Town Center redevelopment for CA’s rosy economic outlook.

“KEY RATING DRIVERS: --Continued commercial and residential redevelopment that supports revenue growth; --Maintenance of sound financial results; --Continued adequate revenue-raising flexibility.”

Dyer Responds

I suppose it is perfectly understandable that Allen Dyer has choosen not to comment here on Tales of Two Cities. I haven’t exactly been nice to him. That is by design of course. I happen to hold an extremely low opinion of the guy.

So this is actually an indirect response. Allen posted a link to the post I wrote about the ethics complaint that has filed against him on his Yahoo discussion group, howardpubliced. In a later comment to his own post, Allen wrote, in all caps, “No complaint was filed by the student board member.”

This is where I make it clear that I have not seen the actual complaint. I attempted to get a copy when I became aware of this. Mark Blom, the boards attorney told me he could not accommodate my request. He referenced Item 10 from the Ethics Panel of the Howard County Public School System:

“The panel, its staff, the complainant and the respondent shall not disclose any information relating to the complaint, including the identity of the complainant and respondent, except that the Panel may release information at any time if a release has been agreed to in writing by the respondent, and the identity of the complainant shall be disclosed to the respondent, at the request of the respondent at any time.”

Allen is technically correct. I did not know that the complainant was not the student member. I now know that former board members Larry Cohen and Pat Gordon are the actual complainants. I know this because Allen Dyer posted that bit of supposedly confidential information on howardpubliced today.

Isn’t that a violation of Item 10?

In any event. I still stand by the presmise of the complaint, that Allen allegedly attempted to improperly influence the student members vote in the board chair election, even though she did not apparrently "file" the complaint. 

Ethics Complaint Filed Against Dyer

An ethics complaint has been filed against school board member Allen Dyer by the student member of the school board. Multiple sources have confirmed that the complaint stems from an attempt by Dyer to improperly influence Alexis Adams vote for the chairmanship on the board. A hearing on the complaint was held last night.

It interesting that the man who has been an outspoken proponent of transparency for all matters concerning the board has been silent on this issue…so far at least.

Bad Bay Report Card

The Chesapeake Bay is a classic underachiever. In the Winter 2011 edition of Save The Bay, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation issued a report card on the state of the bay in 2010 and gave the largest estuary in the United States a D+. In my household that kind of report card results in the revocation of computer privileges.

The low grade indicates that the bay is “still a system dangerously out of balance.”

Still, the CBF sees reason for optimism.

“The numeric index of the Bay's health jumped three points from 2008 to 2010, with eight of 13 indicators rising. The indicator for the health of the blue crab population spiked 15 points, as the Bay's population increased significantly last year. Also, underwater grasses showed steady progress for the fourth year in a row.”

That's kind of like a kid saying "Well its better than a D!"

We've got a long way to go. For example, nitrogen levels went from a D- to an F.

Now where were we again on that new septic tank legislation?

No Love for Mortgage Bankers

We closed on the refinance of our home mortgage this morning. The euphoria we experienced back in late November when we locked in a historically low interest rate had completely worn off by early January. Between then and now it has been increasingly an exercise in anger and frustration. We didn’t even celebrate after closing, we felt beat up. We were simply happy to be done with the process and even now I’m not so sure it was worth it.

Yesterday I had to make a trip to Howard Bank to get a cashiers check. We opted not to roll the closing fees into the mortgage so we needed to fork over a check at closing. While waiting for the check to be prepared I spent some time talking to Tim Kelley, the Branch Manager. Tim said that the bank was “crushed” with mortgage refinancing last fall. It didn’t sound like much fun. Every day he dealt with customers distraught by the underwriting process. He told me that his competence was regularly called into question by customers irate over the seemingly endless requests for more documentation from the underwriters.

It wasn’t his fault either. Howard Bank simply acts as a conduit for the actual lender; they are at the mercy of the lenders underwriters who seem to always want more. Tim is merely a messenger who has to relay these sometimes absurd requests to the customers. Consequently he gets to bear the brunt of customers’ ire.

I can certainly relate. On more than a few occasions we were ready to walk away.

It was inevitable that the pendulum would swing far from the freewheeling lending that pushed the country into recession. In 2005 if you had a pulse you could get a mortgage. Today, even customers with stellar credit scores get put through the underwriting wringer. In a few years it should drift back to a more reasonable center but by then rates will undoubtedly be higher too.

Misguided on Main Street

The negative reaction of some to the news of a Subway sandwich shop landing on Main Street in Ellicott City is puzzling. According to this story by Larry Carson in The Sun, the news of Subways arrival was “very disturbing to some of the more protective independent local merchants, craftspeople and visitors who come to the old mill town for its quirky appeal. What's next, some wonder: Starbucks?McDonald's?”

And this is necessarily a bad thing?

  

Consider this, some of the most successful historic towns like Annapolis and Chestertown thrive on a combination of the familiar and the not so familiar. The very fact that a national chain is locating on Main Street validates the location for others both local and national, especially if Subway knocks the cover off the ball. 

But what about the other local deli’s you say, won’t a national chain hurt them?

Perhaps, but consider that a chain also brings some marketing muscle to attract more people. A good national operator like Subway will also make everyone else raise their game up a notch and, in the case of Ellicott City’s Main Street, that would not be bad thing. Quirky appeal can only get you so far. 

The whole integrity of the historic district argument doesn't hold much water either.

"That's not a direction we want to see Ellicott City go," said Shelly Wygant, a Historic District resident who is also president of the Howard County Historic Society.”

Which direction would she prefer, vacant storefronts?

Similarly confusing is the objection to the proposals for the redevelopment of the Hilltop Housing complex and the Roger Carter Recreation Center. According to another story by Larry in The Sun residents at a recent meeting about the project “complained about the estimated $15 million cost of a proposed larger recreation center, skeptically questioned traffic conditions, worried about school crowding and suggested that mixing low-income and full-price renters in the same complex might not work.”

I suspect the true objection is the fear that this will somehow lower their property values.

"We're more worried about our green stuff," said Tom Marshall, 48, who lives in the Chapelview development on a ridge just west of Hilltop. "I paid $500,000 for my $350,000 house," he said referring to the recession's effect on its value. "It's not going to get any better for us. This is going to impact us negatively." He criticized the recreation center, saying, "I moved out of Columbia. I don't want to be in Columbia north."

Seriously Tom?

It is more likely that his home value will be negatively influenced by maintaining the status quo. This is smart growth we’re talking about here, creating a more walkable community. More people living within walking distance of the stores and restaurants in the historic district is good for the health and welfare of the Main Street merchants. A successful historic district equates to healthy home values.

And if the project ends up looking anything like the housing project that the county is currently redeveloping in Columbia, it will be a significant improvement over the current conditions.

Even if it does looks to some like Columbia north.

Scene This Week In…

My neighbor was born and raised in Egypt. I’m not sure when exactly he emigrated to the United States but he still maintains close ties to the land of his birth. We watched their house when he took whole family went back to Egypt for a winter vacation this past December.

“We missed all the excitement by two weeks,” he told me. 

And he was excited. On February 11^th he hung the Egyptian flag over his garage in celebration of the political upheaval that some have called the Facebook revolution. He told me that this was a very proud moment for all Egyptians. He found it difficult to adequately express how he felt but suggested that February 11^th will henceforth become as meaningful to Egyptians as the 4^th of July is to Americans.

It reminded me of how fortunate we are to live in such a diverse county.

At the risk of eating my words with a topping of grit encrusted snow, I think the worst of winter is now behind us. To be sure, March can be a fickle month as far as weather goes. I can recall St. Patrick's Day celebrations where it was warm enough to wear shorts and others that required snow gear. I’m hoping that this year will trend more towards the former than the latter.

I choose this picture of a snow mound in the parking lot of Wal-Mart in Columbia because it captures how I feel about snow at this point in winter. As much as I enjoy the quiet beauty of a fresh fallen snow in November by now I am so done with the cold white stuff. 

20 Acres in Elkridge

How hard can that be?

Actually it’s proven to be pretty hard because 20 acres of available land in Elkridge doesn’t readily exist. There are a few larger parcels of land and some smaller ones as well. The larger ones may or may not be able to carve out 20 acres and the smaller ones can only work if you “assemble” a couple of them together to get what you need. For an elementary school in HoCo these days, you need about 20 acres, twice as much as The Rouse Company provided for Columbia’s first elementary school.

Elkridge needs another elementary school. They have lots of kids in portables and new families are still moving in. Elkridge has been promised a second elementary school but they don't have a site yet and time is slipping away. If they don’t get one by 2013 most all new residential development will grind to a halt.

That’s why the developers’ offer of 20 acres of land for free in Elkridge was so enticing. It sort of solved the problem. I say sort of because if you were simply evaluating a site based on merit, the Oxford Square site wouldn't make the short list. And that’s even before CSX started focusing in on this area for a new intermodal container terminal. Oxford Square is a 122 acre mixed use enclave in the middle of a rail served industrial district. This is an area for industry, not ABC’s.

I’m thinking that the HoCo public school system is going to take a pass on this site now. While it is difficult to find a good site it is not impossible. It just won’t be cheap.

Train Wrecked

Preston Partners was able to outbid other developers to purchase the Coca-Cola site in Hanover because they saw this as a mixed use site instead of an industrial site. They were betting that they could convince the county to rezone the land for Transit Oriented Development which would allow them a residential component and a higher yield than warehouses would provide. The bet paid off, at least partially, when the county zoning board granted the zoning change.

The only problem is that the zoning change did not alter the basic facts on the ground. This is still, by nature, an industrial site. The property is bordered by the CSX Main line and is surrounded by warehouses. Now CSX is considering the area for a new intermodal transit terminal. According to this story by Larry Carson and Michael Dresser in The Sun, a site in Hanover, which is less than a mile from the proposed Oxford Square development, is “among a dozen possible rail facility locations for a CSX container transfer facility…”

"The rail plan is intended to both free more cargo space at the port while moving the container transfer station south of Baltimore's antiquated 19th-century Howard Street train tunnel to allow CSX to stack containers two-high on railroad cars for movement to Midwestern markets.

"They want to be on the main line, their Camden Line, south of the Howard Street tunnel," said Leif Dormsjo, chief of staff to Maryland Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley. The search is on for easily accessible sites of under 100 acres, zoned for industrial use, environmentally suitable, where a big crane could work moving containers from trucks to trains."

Hanover may actually be the preferred site for this facility due to its proximity to highways. This is great news for the warehouses in that area, but it’s not so great for residential development, much less a new elementary school. That’s a problem. As part of their development agreement Preston Partners has agreed to give the school system a 20 acre site in their 122 acre development as well as $4 million to build a much needed school. Without a new elementary school in Elkridge, the development will not be able to satisfy its Adequate Public Facilities requirement. Right now it appears that the Oxford Square elementary school site is dead in the water.

Preston Partners isn’t only developer that’s getting railroaded in their attempt to change the character of the area either. CSG Partners built three office buildings on an adjacent tract of land in 2009. Like Oxford Square, the buildings are bordered by the CSX mainline. The rumbling of trains past the project proved to be a detriment for office prospects. In December the 130,000 square foot project was taken back by its lender. The three buildings remain vacant today.

If the developer had built single story buildings with loading docks instead they'd be leased by now.

HoCo Lags in School Value Proposition

The Center for American Progress determined that the HoCo Public School Systems delivers “high achievement at a relatively high cost.” According to this story by Nick Anderson in The Washington Post an analysis of test scores and spending by the liberal think tank concluded that “Manassas Park and Calvert County have the most efficient schools in the Washington area.”

CAP charted the spending per pupil in the sixteen counties surrounding Washington, D.C.. HoCo had the second highest at $11,439 per pupil. Calvert spends $8,091 per pupil. Then again, it’s a lot cheaper to live in Calvert County.

Still, HoCo also got beat out by Montgomery County where they spend $10,199 per pupil.

“Elsewhere in Maryland, on an index called "basic return on investment" - one of three methods the center used for comparison - Frederick County received a top mark. Schools in Montgomery, St. Mary's and Anne Arundel counties were rated just behind. Then came Howard County…”

Of course a school system shouldn’t give too much weight to it’s value proposition but it does belong in the conversation. 

Sirens Song

Cars don’t always move out of the way when an emergency vehicles blast their sirens. In some cases this is due to the fact that driver may not actually hear the siren because of the din of music inside the vehicle. To rectify this situation the Federal Signal Corporation has developed a new siren device that drivers can feel as well as hear. According to this story by Ariel Kaminer in The New York Times, the new siren makes “ people sit up and take notice — even people accustomed to hearing sirens all the time. Even people wearing ear buds or talking on the phone. Even people insulated from street noise by a layer of glass and steel.”

“Rumblers, as Mr. Bader called his invention, achieve their striking effect with a low-frequency tone, in the range of 180 to 360 hertz (between the 33rd and the 46th key on a standard piano keyboard), which penetrates hard surfaces like car doors and windows better than a high tone does. When it is paired with the wail of a standard siren, the effect is hard to ignore — like the combination of a bagpipe’s high chanter and low drone, or perhaps like a train whistle and the caboose that moves that whistle through space. “

No word yet as to whether HoCo will be adopting Rumblers.

Catholic Church Buys and Sells

Just across the HoCo border in AA county, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has purchased the Blob’s Park polka hall and about 12.5 acres of land surrounding it. According to the Howard/Arundel Report newsletter the church paid $2.5 million for the building and the land. The long range plan is to build a church and a school on the property but for the time being at least, the oompah music will play on and the beer will continue to flow.

In HoCo the church sold property. Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ellicott City has sold 14 single family lots adjacent to the school and church for $90,000 per lot to Security Development.

The BRAC Billions

Fort Meade is inarguably the most significant economic engine for HoCo. According to this story by Elizabeth Janney in Elkridge Patch “it is difficult to picture the amount of money the fort brings to Maryland each year, because the number is so large: $18 billion.”

And that is before we take into account the additional growth coming to the fort as a result of BRAC and after five years of talking about it, BRAC has arrived. The first employees of the relocated Defense Information Systems Agency began moving into their new million square foot campus at Fort Meade in October. All 4,300 employees of the agency should be in place by September.

Helping HoCo to cope with this growth is Kent Menser, the HoCo BRAC Director. Until 1993 he was the garrison commander of Fort Meade when he retired from the military. On our podcast he shared his outlook on the transportation challenges associated with this growth. “We have a plan,” he told us.

We also asked Kate Essing, the general manager of The Mall to join us to discuss the newspaper story about the Malls alleged hostility to certain homeless people. She denied that the mall singles out any classification of people and insisted that the banning of an individual is behavior based.

That’s a tough call and I can easily understand that it is a nuanced approached that can sometimes be unfairly applied. On the other hand, the mall is private property. It depends on people feeling comfortable to shop and not being accosted.

Dave Bittner, our producer, also shared some great news with us this week. Each episode of the podcast now gets an average of 10,000 downloads. Thanks to all those who tune in.

You can listen to the 35^th episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

The Blue Can Dilemma

When I arrived home this afternoon I immediately noticed that my big blue recycling can was missing. When I placed it at the curb this morning the air was calm and the can was full. Later today, when the winds gods let go their wrath, presumably the can was empty.

I rather doubt that anyone would steal our blue can. We’re not the first house on the street with a blue can sitting in front.  Wind was the obvious culprit.

A quick look two doors down from me revealed two blue cans at the end of a three house flag lot driveway. There were no other blue cans within the immediate range. I figured it could be one of those so I went over to take a look.

How could I know if one of these identical blue cans was mine?

I then noticed that the blue cans all have bar codes. I pulled out my Droid X and scanned the barcode on one of the cans. I got nothing. That information is apparently unavailable to us mere mortals.

I looked up the three house flag lot driveway and saw one another blue can in front of a house. These cans could belong to one or both of the remaining houses, or not. I made a decision. I took the can with the bad wheel.

 The thing is I know that the Department of Public Works knows which can was delivered to my house. I recall reading that each of the blue recycling cans has an RFID chip for some odd reason. I watched when it was first delivered. After the guy took it off the trailer he scanned the bar code before putting it in our driveway. DPW knows whether either of these cans was mine but they were nowhere around this afternoon so I took action on my own. As I hauled it back it occurred to me that I was doing so at risk of breaking some blue can covenant. If I was to call and try and get it replaced because of the bad wheel and it is determined that I have somebody else’s can, I could be in some real blue can doo doo.

I think I’ll just live with the bad wheel for now.