Bonnie Branch Blockage

HoCo residents living in the Ellicott City Elkridge border area are acutely aware that Bonnie Branch Road has been closed to through traffic since mid February. As in most cases, you don’t really appreciate something until you can’t have it.

We won’t have our Bonnie back until sometime in July.

Big chunks of it are missing right now as the county tries to keep certain portions of the winding road from falling into its namesake water body. Yesterday, Mama Wordbones and I walked up to take a first hand look. It was a rare pleasure to walk along Bonnie Branch Road without having to watch for cars.

And now I can’t get that song out of my head.

St Patrick’s Day in Ellicott City…Mid Day Report

The real action was last night of course. Revelers were out in force in the pubs and restaurants in Ellicott City and apparently so were the HoCo Police. I say apparently because we opted take our St. Patrick's vigil to the Ale House Columbia last night instead. I received all my info on the historic district revelry second hand.

Today, however is St. Patrick’s Day and no matter what day of the week March 17^th falls on, it is a day to put on a bit of green and celebrate the impending arrival of spring. There is also the ACC basketball tournament going on which by itself would be enough of an excuse to sit in pub and enjoy a beer or two. Then again the wind sort of came out of that sail last night too.

Voices for Children hoped to get things going early today by promoting a pub crawl that began at 11:00 AM. Last night, as Mama Wordbones and I discussed this, we agreed that 11:00 AM on a Sunday morning is different than 11:00 AM on a Sunday. Sunday is a day to sleep late and get up slowly, even if it also happens to be St. Patrick’s Day. Consequently t-shirt traffic was a little off from last year when it fell on a Saturday.

The volunteers were out there though, selling t-shirts while quaffing hot chocolate. This also turned out to be one of those cold St. Patrick’s years but it didn't seem to daunt their spirits (one wonders what else was in that hot chocolate?)

Nathan, the River House Pizza Company guy, was out this morning too, selling his popular breakfast pizza. I haven’t tried that yet but the reviews I’m getting are all good. Truthfully, I need to be focusing more on granola and fresh fruit right now than breakfast pizza anyway.

Talk of beers and breakfast pizza were almost drowned out by the chatter about parking. Last Thursday public works crews from Baltimore County swept in and created a no parking zone in front of Wilkins Rogers Mill. This little stretch of non-metered  roadside parking, just over the bridge, had become popular with locos. Within hours the BC police had slapped $52.00 parking fines on several vehicles.

Berry Protein Shakes and Speed Cams

The thing I like best about Roger ("The Rog") Caplan and Chris ("Ox") Oxenham as loco politico pundits is that they are able to find faults in their own political camps. Ox criticizes the HoCo loco Repubs as “not well organized,” while The Rog doesn't pass up any opportunity to take a shot at Delegate Liz Bobo, but then again, those two do have a bit of a history.

What I didn't like about this show was the attitude they both took towards the upcoming Columbia Council elections. They acted as if it didn't matter who was elected. Even my co-host seemed to think it wasn't a topic worthy of much of our time.

They are mistaken. It is very important. If you are reading this and you live in the Village of Oakland Mills, Wilde Lake, River Hill or Long Reach, please take a moment to get informed. This is a good place to start. For that matter, so is this.

But back to our guests…

After we finished talking about speed cams, teacher associations, berry protein shakes and Ox’s impending nuptials, we focused on the 2014 county executive race, specifically the potential candidacies of Allan Kittleman, Courtney Watson, Guy Guzzone and Dr. Calvin Ball.

A couple of my favorite comments:

Ox: "Physical money isn't important right now..."

I like physical money.

The Rog: "If Guy decides to run it's his..."

So why does everyone think he won't?

You can listen to the 86^th episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

Moving Day

The Rouse Company building ends its original purpose today. The Howard Hughes Corporation is moving out and over to new offices above Clyde’s restaurant and the building will now essentially shut down until the massive redevelopment effort begins in May. Monday morning, for the first time since 1974, no one will report to work in the building.

Before they turned out the lights one last time, I took the opportunity to capture a few final images of its former life, while it still had a third floor. That 33,000 square foot chunk of internal space goes away with the buildings restoration and reincarnation.

Then again, it won't really eliminate the third floor because what is now the fourth floor will become the new third floor. Suffice it to say that the ceiling height on the street level floor will be dramatically higher and this staircase would lead to nowhere.

When this building opened in the mid-seventies it broke the mold for suburban office buildings, particularly in the more conservative Baltimore business community. Frank Gehry created a corporate headquarters that mimicked the ambiance of its malls with clerestory glass and ficus trees. Gehry once described it as an "elegant warehouse."

I just recall that it was a very cool place to work, especially in those heady days of the Malling of America. From the mid seventies to the late eighties the company was opening five or six new malls across the country every year as if it would never end. 

And then it did.

To see more of the pictures from yesterday, go here.

Mulligan’s Wall

After the retaining wall along Mulligan’s Hill Lane in Ellicott City collapsed during Tropical Storm Lee in 2011 the county erected a temporary wall to stabilize the site and keep Dohony Hall from tumbling down the hill. The temporary fix eliminated about seven parking spots in Parking Lot C.

They aren't coming back.

The replacement wall will have much the same footprint of the temporary one but at least it will look a lot better than current conditions.

Electric Stuff

Yesterday, as I was driving out of my neighborhood on the way to work, I noted that a phalanx of hard hatter workers had descended upon my street along with an assortment of “Grid One” vehicles.

Later, when I returned home, there was a note on my door telling us that we now had a new smart meter. It also suggested that we might want to check our clocks since the power was off briefly during the installation.

We’re pretty ambivalent about this meter switch but there are others who suspect BGE of nefarious designs. For those folks the utility offers the option of opting out of the program.

They are scheduled to be finished in HoCo by August.

And keeping on with this electric theme, later in the afternoon I spotted this Chevy Volt in Oella. It is the first time I've seen one of these in the wild.

Nice looking car!

Cracker Barrel Rolling Into BWI

Nothing says road trip to me like Cracker Barrel for breakfast. I can’t even imagine what it would mean if there were one close by where I could get an artery clogging fix of sourdough French Toast lathered up with a Marion Blackberry topping and real whip cream anytime I wanted?

They open at 6:00 AM….every day.

Right now, according to their website, the closest Cracker Barrel to me is in Stevensville.

But not for long.

According to this story in City Biz Real Estate, the gastronomic giant of the interstate is building a restaurant in the BWI Business District “adjacent to the intersection of West Nursery Road and MD Route 295..." It "is scheduled to open in the third quarter of this year.”

You've been warned.

Three Things about Food

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

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

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

That’s one.

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

“Who is it?” I asked.

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

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

That’s two.

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

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

That’s three.

Thawing Out

I suffer no illusions that winter is finished with us just yet. March can be a fickle lover. One day the sun shines and the mercury flirts with sixty only to turn around and find the next day drearily overcast, back in thirties. It’s springs' big tease month.

Today is one of those teaser days. The garden centers are hopping and cars are being washed.

It really wasn't a bad winter. For the second year in a row we've escaped the big snow event. I like a big snow storm but only for the first few days. After a week the beauty of a fresh blanket of white snow is replaced by cinder encrusted mounds of melting snow along the roads.

Hopefully we’re done now. Tomorrow morning we’ll jump our clocks ahead an hour and edge one step closer to the warmer days ahead.

I’m ready.... apparently so are the daffodils.

Collateral Damage

This afternoon the only sound to break the afternoon silence was an aluminum soda can being blown down the street. I was a little surprised that such a small object could be so noisy.

The clanging can provided the perfect backdrop for all the other garbage that was flying around the neighborhood. It seems that the majority of my neighbors did not get the memo that our faux snow day resulted in a slide day scenario for trash pick up. Today was our normal recycling day. Tomorrow is our slide day.

The combination of wind gusts up to 30 mph and stuffed blue bins resulted in an accumulation of trash on lawns that rivaled Wednesdays’ snowfall amounts! 

Parking and Adaptive Reuse

Two buildings in Columbia are adapting to new uses and dealing with resultant parking challenges. On Dobbin Road, the building that now houses the Frisco Grille and two other retail uses was originally constructed for industrial use. In downtown Columbia, a former office building is being converted to retail. They both have different parking lot issues to deal with as a result of these changes.

On Dobbin Road, the owners of 6695 Dobbin Road want to reduce the setback from Dobbin from the existing 25 feet to the county minimum of 7 feet in order to accommodate 20 new parking spaces. Anyone who has ever tried to get a parking space at the Frisco Grille can attest to the need for more spaces. This is indicative of the changing nature of the Dobbin Road corridor, originally conceived for more industrial type uses which generally required fewer parking spaces.

In downtown Columbia, Howard Hughes is seeking to reduce the number of parking spaces at the former Rouse Company headquarters building. As part of the buildings redevelopment the developer proposes to reconfigure the existing parking lots which will result in a reduction of 98 parking spaces. Part of this reduction is due to mitigation of storm water runoff. The reconfigured parking lot will treat “50% of the existing impervious area for water quality within Micro-bioretention facilities within the parking islands.”

This is a huge improvement over existing conditions that offers no storm water mitigation.

In both instances the parking ratios will remain in compliance with county zoning regulations for the new uses.

The Perils of Predictions

Pity the poor weatherman. That’s the gist of this article by Joel Achenbach in The Washington Post today. Joel defends the masters of meteorology by stating simply that “Snow is hard.”

“Snow exposes failure. If the weatherperson botches a rainfall prediction, no one notices, because it’s hard for an ordinary person to judge rainfall totals, and the storm sewers gobble up the excess. But someone can detect a bad snow forecast — too much snow, or too little — just by looking out the window.”

He has a point. There is snow on the ground today, but not everywhere. So far at least, the Snowquester has just turned out to be a cold wet mess. The best part is that traffic coming into work this morning was light. The worst part is that the kids are home and the libraries are closed.

In This Months Business Monthly

I’d be lying if I said I wasn't flattered when someone suggests I should run for elected office. I take it as a compliment but that’s about as far as I take it. Though I find the prospect of governing intriguing, the thought of running a campaign and being a public “servant” is far less appealing.

I’m think I’d prefer to be anointed or to slide into office sideways sort of like Laura Neuman did in Anne Arundel County. She only needed four votes to become county exec and now that she’s in she’s not beholden to anyone. Perfect.

That’s not likely to happen in HoCo. I just can’t see our elected officials behaving as badly as John Leopold. We tend vet our bad apples on the school board first, giving them the boot when they act like jerks.

You can read this months column here.

Trying to Turn Back the Clock

In case anyone is under the impression that the battle for Columbia’s future has been won, think again. The forces that attempted to defeat the new plans for Symphony Woods are trying to organize a slate of candidates for the upcoming Columbia Council elections. In a posting on the HCCA listserv today, Alex Hekimian, the Columbia Council representative for the Village of Oakland Mills, hopes to garner enough allies on the council to reverse the decision to move forward on the Inner Arbor plan.

“Russ Swatek is trying to find Columbia Council candidates in other villages as well.  There is an opportunity that with Columbia Council contests in several villages and a new CA Board, the battle for Phase 1 of Symphony Woods can be won.  Otherwise, the chances are dim.”

Alex, along with Cindy Coyle from the Village of Harpers Choice, cast the only votes against the plan.

If there was ever a time to pay attention to your Columbia Council elections, this is it.

Spring Snow…Or Not

I enjoy a significant snowstorm as much as the next guy but, as a native Marylander I've grown skeptical of most snow forecasts. Perhaps it’s just my own warped perspective but it seems to me that the worst storms to hit us are, more often than not, the ones the professionals didn't see coming.

On the other hand, even the ever cautious Foot's Forecasters are suggesting that the approaching storm could be problematic. It’s just hard to imagine it right now with the sun shining and the mercury approaching fifty and the fact that we are already five days into meteorological spring.

Then again there’s that whole in like a lion out like a lamb thing…

The Weather Channel folks are calling this storm Saturn but in the DC area the preferred moniker is Snowquester.

The Bag Tax is a Good Tax

If the General Assembly passes House Bill 1086, Maryland would become the first state in the country to impose a statewide tax on plastic bags. This is one tax I can get behind. According this editorial in The Washington Post today bag taxes “are effective at cutting litter and popularizing the reuse of bags; and industry arguments against such measures are nonsense.”

“The evidence from the District and Montgomery is overwhelming. In the District, plastic bag use has dropped by at least half since the 5-cent tax went into effect in 2010. In Montgomery, the drop was significant — about a third — though not as sharp as in the District; however, the county collected more than $2 million from the tax last year, which will help it pay to remove litter that includes plastic bags.”

I've been a staunch proponent of reusable bags ever since I listened to Jean-Michael Cousteau at the Baltimore Speaker Series a little over three years ago. Since then I've amassed quite a collection.

Plastic bags are a public nuisance. A neighbor once quipped that we should make them the state flag since you can see them flutter in the wind almost everywhere.

“Industry lobbyists even argue that plastic bags don’t contribute much to litter, as if the visible evidence all around — bags in tree limbs, bags blowing down the street, bags clogging sewer drains — is invented. A study by the Maryland Department of the Environment last year confirmed their harmful effects.”

HoCo Delegates Guy Guzzone and Liz Bobo are signed on as sponsors of the bill making this one of those rare moments when I actually support Liz.

Merriweather Neighborhood Taking Form

This year the Howard Hughes Corporation intends to submit a Final Development Plan for 35 acres surrounding Merriweather Post Pavilion and Symphony Woods in downtown Columbia. The company's  annual report, filed last week, included the following statement about downtown Columbia:

“We also own approximately 35 acres, net of road and related infrastructure improvements, on the land around Merriweather Post Pavilion, which is south of the Mall. The acreage currently consists of raw land and subdivided land parcels readily available for new development. We intend to propose an initial Final Development Plan to the Howard County Planning department in 2013. Preliminary plans call for at least four million square feet of development activity, with high-rise buildings surrounding the Central Park-like setting afforded by the Pavilion and its surrounding property.”

Brian the Blogger

It’s been awhile since I've picked on school board member Brian Meshkin. Lest anyone misconstrue this as being due to his threats of legal action, the fact is I've just been waiting for the right opportunity.

My wait is over. Recently Brian joined the HoCo Blogs community with his blog “Big Ideas,” which, written in the third person, describes its mission as reporting “on activities before the Board of Education of Howard County and other civic issues.”

“Anyone who knows Brian understands that Brian believes that Big Ideas can make the world a better place.”

Wordbones thinks that is nobly stated.

The difference with Brian's blog is that, unlike the majority of the other members of the HoCo Blogs community, he does not allow comments to his big idea blog posts. I find this a bit curious for someone who professes to believe in ideas. Not allowing readers to comment gives the impression that Brian only believes in big ideas that he puts forward. That seems to be rather small thinking for a big ideas blog.

On the other hand, commenter’s can be a bit irascible at times, particularly when they disagree with you. Dialogue about ideas isn't always pretty. Still, I believe that nasty comments are the exception rather than the norm and you can always delete any that go too far.

I guess I’m not really all that surprised though. In the past Brian has demonstrated that he doesn't like his notions to be challenged. For example, after commenting on a To2C post  about his business ventures he wrote that he’d be “happy to come on your show” to talk about it and then backed out the day before the podcast.

Then again, he didn't exactly show up at the HoCo Blogs party either.

HoCo Loco Brewski

Randy Marriner wants to sell you some truly HoCo loco beer. Randy is the proprietor of Victoria Gastro Pub and if the General Assembly approves House Bill 1405, he hopes to sell beer in his restaurant that he brews on his Howard County farm. According to this story by Arthur Hirsch in The Sun, the farm brewery bill would “currently apply only to Victoria Gastro Pub…”

Presumably the Ale House doesn't have its own HoCo farm...yet

Nonsense about Noise

In a recent posting on the Howard County Citizens Association, perennial naysayer Russ Swatek wrote that “Merriweather Post Pavilion (MPP) was supposed to only serve the community, not be a huge amplified regional attraction.”

He references Columbia’s “original planners” as his source for this blatantly erroneous statement.

Ian Kennedy, who with fellow Columbian Justin Carlson, played a role in keeping Merriweather alive in the dark years, rebutted Russ. He pointed out that that the outdoor theater  named after Majorie Merriweather Post, had originally hoped to be the summer home of the National Symphony Orchestra, not the Columbia Orchestra.

“Furthermore, during the early years of Merriweather -- when the "original" planners still owned the pavilion and ostensibly oversaw its operations -- it hosted such acts as The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and other amplified acts.”

It was those types of performances that kept Merriweather viable when the National Symphony opted to make Wolf Trap Farms their summer home instead.

The proposed noise legislation that the Howard statehouse delegation recently approved is intended to protect and preserve Merriweather for future generations of concert goers. It allows for noise levels up to 95 decibels between 9 AM and 11:30 PM within a quarter mile of the theater. Right now there are no residences within this quarter mile radius but as the downtown Columbia redevelopment progresses, this will change. It is inevitable that some of these new residents will complain about the noise just like those who now live outside that radius do now, even though Merriweather was there, rocking away summer nights, long before they moved in.

Predictably, the only member of the HoCo delegation to vote against this legislation was Liz Bobo.