Symphony Woods Big Moment

The one time of year that Symphony Woods is enjoyed by more than an occasional picnicker or squirrel is the annual Wine in the Woods festival. It is by far the biggest event in the park, that the CA Board suddenly cares so deeply about, and CA isn't even the main sponsor. Wine in the Woods is put on by the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks. I believe HCDRP pays a hefty fee to CA for the use of the park for this immensely popular event.

Some have even speculated that when Blandair Park is developed the wine festival will move there and save forking over a fee to CA. Though it is more of a geographically central park for Columbia than Symphony Woods, Blandair is not CPRA land. It is a county park.

This week we received a post card in the mail with the dates for the 2009 Wine in the Woods. Mark your calendars for the weekend of May 16th and 17th from noon to 6 PM and pray for nice weather.

Sláinte!

Score One for Anonymous Commenter’s

In this story in The Sun, Tricia Bishop reports that the Maryland courts have afforded new protection for anonymous posters on the Internet.

“Maryland's Court of Appeals today issued a decision protecting the identity of three anonymous Internet posters and, for the first time, offering guidelines for state courts to follow in libel cases before unmasking online commenters.”

Council Approves Town Center Plan

“A new network of streets, “two distinctive mixed-use activity centers” and tree-lined transit corridors anchor the plan and environmental and economic sustainability are the themes throughout.”

Those are the elements of an urban development plan that was adopted by the Alexandria City Council last Saturday. According to this story by David Sachs in the Alexandria Times today, the plan would add about a million square feet of office space and 6,400 new residential units to the area surrounding and including Landmark Mall. Landmark Mall is owned by General Growth Properties.

In Alexandria, it just so happens that our own Greg Hamm is also representing GGP’s interest. This time however, GGP is not driving the process but it does hold the “crux of the plan” with its mall.

Not so fast says Greg.

“Hamm said the company was in favor of the city’s efforts but could not offer an exact timetable on when the city could utilize the “underperforming” mall’s space, but said redevelopment is “probably imminent.”

Poor guy. In Columbia they tell him he’s moving too fast. In Alexandria they tell him he’s moving too slow.

And the Winner Is…

Phil Nelson, the soon to be former City Manager of Troy, Michigan has won the three way race and has been selected to become the next president of the Columbia Association according to this story by Larry Carson in The Sun.

Presumably he'll move here.

Phil will become the fourth president of the association and will replace Maggie Brown on May 1st.

The question now is whether Rob Goldman will stay on as Vice President of Sports and Fitness of CA after twice now being passed over for the top job.

Liz Speaks and Mr. Ed’s Lips Move

I don’t know how I missed this before but I just came across a letter that Ed Kasemeyer wrote in The Columbia Flier back on January 15th on behalf of Liz Bobo and CoFoCoDo.

“Recently I attended a meeting at Slayton House convened by the Coalition for Columbia's Downtown. A presentation was made by Cy Paumier, one of the early Columbia partners, a longtime resident and an internationally renowned urban park planner. Among other thoughts, Cy presented his ideas for developing Symphony Woods as, if you will, Columbia's "central park."

If you haven't already seen his presentation, I hope you have the opportunity to do so soon. His proposal is very impressive, not too difficult to achieve and would maintain and enhance the park-like environment we all treasure in Symphony Woods.

I want to put my support behind this proposal and look forward to working with Del. Liz Bobo, our other colleagues in the Howard County delegation and all of you in providing whatever help I can to make Cy's proposal a reality.

This would be an invaluable addition to the quality of life not only for Columbia but for all of Howard County.

Sen. Edward J. Kasemeyer"

If there ever was a case of political back slapping this is surely one. What is it, I wonder, about Cy Paumiers plan for Symphony Woods that Senator Ed likes so much compared to the one put forth by General Growth Properties?

Has Cy Paumier even finished his plan yet?

Is Senator Ed opposed to a world class public library in Symphony Woods?

Maybe he should stay in Arbutus where they actually may care about his opinion.

BRAC Facts #1

Thanks to the Fort George G. Meade Regional Growth Management Committee, of which Howard County is a member, I can share some good news about the jobs that are coming to Fort Meade and when they will actually arrive.

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) will employ 4,272 people at Fort Meade when it completes the construction of its new buildings on the base in February, 2011. The phasing in of those jobs will begin in October, 2010.

The Defense Media Activity (DMA) will employ 663 people at the base with a “beneficial occupancy” of April 2011.

Defense/Military Adjudication Activities will employ 759 people also with a beneficial occupancy of April 2011.

Two years from now there will be 5,694 new people working in Annapolis Junction. These are the actual jobs that are directly related to BRAC. In addition, 14,000 more new jobs are expected at Fort Meade over the next ten years resulting from the growth of the existing tenants on the base which include the National Security Agency.

The Homebuilder Blues

Surprisingly, one of the most popular posts on this blog is “Altieri Homeless.” I wrote this post last July and it is still generating comments, including one today.

Over on realtor Pat Hibans blog there is a spirited discussion taking place as to whether Dale Thompson Builders is out of business or not.

Clearly these are trying times for some local homebuilders. Banks are tightening and, in some cases, revoking builders credit lines. Some of this was obviously necessary. Lax lending standards and the story of Samuel Burrows, Jr. and his home building project in Ellicott City were the subject of this piece about Suburban Federal Savings by Robert Little and Andrea K. Walker from the front page of The Sun yesterday.

“Court papers say that in April 2005, Burrow was constructing "a palatial, seven bedroom residential home on over five acres of property with amenities including a movie theater, recording studio, gym, and media room." Suburban agreed to refinance his existing $872,000 mortgage and give him $389,000 more to finish building.”

He listed his occupation as “minister” with a monthly income of $30,000 in the loan application. I don’t know about you but that seems like a pretty big house for a minister, except perhaps a pope. He never made a payment to Suburban.

So while many are directing their vitriol at the builders, it appears that, in some cases at least their bankers may be just as culpable for throwing money at them.

A Visit with Vernon

The new Starbucks at Shipley’s Grant has become a regular workday stop for me. It is perfectly positioned on my commute route between Ellicott City and Columbia. Lately, it seems as if every morning I run into someone I know there. Last week one of those someone’s was Vernon Gray.

C. Vernon Gray is, among other things, a former five term county councilman (District 2), a past president of the Maryland Association of Counties, a past president of the National Association of Counties and a resident of the Village of Long Reach. After serving on the council he ran for the District 13 State Senate and lost in close race to Sandy Schrader. That seat is now held by Jim Robey.

These days he is the administrator of the Howard County Office of Human Rights. He said he misses some of his former life in politics. “I like to get things done,” he told me. Vernon was very instrumental in the early development approvals for Maple Lawn.

He lamented about the vocal few who seem to dominate the discussion on local issues like the governance of CA and the redevelopment of Town Center. He generally supports the plan that General Growth Properties has put forward and believes that it is in the best interest of Columbia and the county to see this come to fruition.

And though he has retired as a professor of political science at Morgan State University he shows no sign of slowing down. The coffee is probably helping that.

He Writes Good

As has already been reported, a new blogger has entered the orbit of the local blogosphere. The academically titled “Columbia Blog Project” is the work of Jack Cole. Jack is a local boy, an Owen Brown villager.

He’s written some nice profile posts about a few local personalities including bloggers JessieX and John Boyle (Owen Brown News).

Check out Jack. He writes real good.

Scene This Week In…

“No Free Papers.” When I first spotted this little sign at the end of a driveway on Montgomery Road in Ellicott City I was immediately struck by the double meaning. Undoubtedly the homeowner was merely signaling to delivery people that they did not want free papers dropped in their driveway. I got a different message. I saw it as a commentary on the decline of newspapers.

You see, there are truly “no free papers.” While there may be papers that are circulated for free, somewhere, somebody is paying for that paper. Someone is paying for the writers to write the stories and the paper to be printed and circulated. Most often that someone is the advertiser. Declining paid ad pages are bringing down the newspaper industry.

This is not healthy for our democracy. The fourth estate has long been the watchdog of government and the rights of citizens. When a papers ability to report and investigate the news is diminished everyone pays the price. There are no free papers and our own freedom is jeopardized when the papers go away.

Over in Columbia it was this line up of shiny new snow blowers that caught my attention. Inside the Lowes store in Gateway Exchange there were displays of grills and lawn furniture, harbingers of the impending approach of warmer weather. Outside, in the cold afternoon, these items reminded me that winter is far from over.

Last year, I purchased an electric snow blower for our short driveway. I reasoned that this small snow appliance was all that I needed. Mama Wordbones snickered when she saw it. When she lived out in Glenwood she had a driveway that was almost a quarter mile long. To keep that drive cleared of snow she had a heavy duty self propelled snow blower that should have required a Class A drivers license to operate. It was bigger than any of the ones that Lowes was selling. It was a real mans snow blower.

Obviously that machine was too big for our new home but I may have gone too far in the opposite direction when I purchased my little electric number. I almost feel as if I should wear a skirt when I use it.

More Pennies from Heaven

According to The Kiplinger Letter, The State of Maryland is likely to receive “nearly a half a billion” for infrastructure from the economic stimulus package signed into law this week by President Obama.

The federal infrastructure largess will be “divvied up three ways: 30% each for repairs to roads and bridges. The other 40% will go for intersection and safety improvements.”

But that’s just the infrastructure portion of the bill.

Julekha Dash and Daniel Sernovitz reported in this story in the Baltimore Business Journal that the big money winner in the state is Johns Hopkins.

“One of the biggest surprises in the stimulus package — even to some Hopkins staff — is the additional $10 billion increase in NIH funding, from $29 billion to $39 billion. That is a 34 percent increase for the agency whose funding had been flat for years.

The top recipient of NIH grants, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, receives about $580 million a year in grants that support cancer research, patient safety and treatments for neurological diseases.”

Money that flows into JHU also flows indirectly into Howard County. Dr. Chi Dang, vice dean of research for JHU School of Medicine predicts “There will be a lot of jobs: I can tell you that.”

Like Pennies from Heaven

According to this story by Ryan Sharrow in the Baltimore Business Journal, Howard Bank has been approved for $5.98 million in TARP funds from the US Treasury Department.

Does this mean that Howard Bank CEO Mary Ann Scully will now be limited to $500,000 in annual compensation?

In the fourth quarter of last year the banks earnings fell by two thirds but all indications are that the bank is relatively healthy. Mary Ann issued this statement about participating in TARP:

“While we do not require additional capital at this time, we are considering how we could effectively use this capital to positively impact our community through a further increase in our capacity to lend, as well as enhance the long-term interests of our shareholders.”

Five Hours Later…

No wonder 47 degrees felt balmy. The temperature dropped twelve degrees in the five hours since my last post. The wind picked up too. Around two o’clock this afternoon we were driving west on Rouse Parkway by Snowden River Parkway and noticed the guys working up in the steel erection at Baxley Realty Advisors office condominium project next to the old Lone Star.

“That looks cold,” TW noted dryly.

I had to agree. On the other hand, they are probably happy just to be working in construction these days.

The cold is really starting to get to me. In better times, last February, Mama Wordbones and I were able to get out of town to a warm place for a week. That helped to take the edge off the cold a bit. It was 77 degrees and cloudy today on Virgin Gorda.

Sigh.

This year we are taking care of our two aging dogs. Lucky has been having a particularly rough time this winter.

Here’s a happy thought though, it’s only 30 days til spring.

Bike Happy

I know it sounds weird but today actually feels like spring. 47 degrees isn’t what I would normally refer to as “balmy” weather but compared to yesterday it feels simply glorious.

That got me thinking about getting out my bicycle and going for a ride with my daughter. Two months ago I took her shopping for a new bike. She had finally outgrown her old one so we took a trip over to Race Pace Bicycles in Columbia. I have now purchased three bikes from this store (one from the Ellicott City store and two from the Columbia store). There is a reason I keep coming back. They’re good, very good.

I don’t doubt that I could have gotten a better price on a bicycle elsewhere but I seriously doubt I could get better service. They took care of Peanut like she was the most important customer in the world, which of course, she was.

Who Is Buying GGP Stock These Days?

Columbia developer General Growth Properties has lost its listing in the Standard & Poors 500 index. This morning the stock was trading at $0.51 a share. There is wide speculation that a bankruptcy filing by the firm is imminent.

Who would want to buy this stock?

William Ackman. Bill Ackman and his private hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, have been busy buying up shares of GGP since last fall when all of the news about GGP’s financial position was bad. The fund is now the largest individual shareholder in the company.

What is Mr. Ackman up to?

Basically he believes that the underlying real estate assets of the company are worth more than the stock. According to this story by Todd Sullivan on the blog Seeking Alpha,

“Bankruptcy usually leaves stock investors with plenty of nothing, but General Growth is an unusual case. It has almost $30 billion of assets on its books, and just about $27 billion of debt. But most of the company's real estate assets are recorded on its books at their historical value, and many were bought years ago, meaning their value now is likely substantially higher. The company's problems are not with its assets, but with refinancing maturing debt in frozen markets.”

And The Beat Goes On

Looking at Howard County did a nice job with this table of the current campaign war chests of our local politicos. It is readily apparent that our county executive is the big money leader with $303,616.00 bucks in the bank. That should scare off some potential contenders to his reelection bid in 2010.

The next big money playa is Delegate Guy Guzzone with $94,677.00 in cash on hand.

Ken’s not sitting on his fundraising laurels either. We just received this invite for a little gathering he’s hosting just after St. Patrick’s Day.

At least they are serving drinks.

Three Out of Four Corners Covered

Today as I was sitting at the light at Rouse Parkway (MD 175) and Dobbin Road I noticed that at three out of the corners of the intersection there were guys holding “going out of business” signs.
Each of them was holding a sign for a different business. One was for Champion Billiards and Bar Stools, another for Expo Design Center and the third for a store called International Furniture.

A pessimist might say it is another startling reminder of just how bad things are even here in Howard County.I’m no pessimist. Each of these businesses failed for different reasons. The current economy may have hastened their demise but these stores had other issues too. Home Depot stopped opening new Expo Design stores over five years ago because the concept wasn’t meeting expectations. International Furniture popped up overnight in the vacated Scan store. A closer look at their sign reveals that they are actually “going out FOR business" so that one doesn’t count. As for Champion Billiards and Bar Stools, Mama Wordbones and I went in there looking for bar stools once. We were unimpressed. We purchased our bar stools elsewhere.

Back to the Future

I have a good deal of respect for Bob Tennenbaum and Cy Paumier. Both of these gentlemen have long and distinguished careers in planning. They were both involved in the early planning of Columbia.

Now CA has brought them back to participate once again in the planning of the Symphony Woods park that they never got to finish forty two years ago. In an article entitled “CA devising alternative plan for Symphony Woods” by Derek Simmonsen in The Columbia Flier, Cy recalled those early years:

“We had this absolutely great vision for what this Town Center park was going to look like," Paumier said of his original work in the 1960s. "But because of the pressure on other things we never got to it."

Cy and Bob are both Columbia residents and they are volunteering their time to help CA devise an alternate strategy to the one proposed by General Growth Properties for the park. The GGP plan was developed by a team that includes Jaque Robertson of Cooper, Robertson & Partners, Alan Ward from Sasaki Associates and Keith Bowers of BioHabitats.

On the one hand, Columbia is fortunate to have the input of such a wide range of experts in shaping the future of Symphony Woods. On the other hand, I feel like Bob and Cy represent old school thinking on community planning while the GGP team represents a fresh approach. Cooper Robertson designed some of the most innovative and award winning new communities such as WaterColor and Celebration in Florida and The Woodlands in Texas.

Columbia has been given the unique opportunity once again to lead the nation in excellence in community planning. Forty years ago Cy Paumier and Bob Tennenbaum had a shot at it. For forty years nothing much besides Wine in the Woods happened in Symphony Woods. For forty years Symphony Woods was largely an afterthought for CA.

It’s now time for fresh thinking and a new perspective for Symphony Woods for the next forty years.

Ruewer Rattling Retirees in Taylor Village

Villa sales in the Village Crest neighborhood in Taylor Village have bottomed out. Pulte has pulled out of the Cloisters at Village Crest and Ryland is reeling from a lack of sales for their new villas that were supposed to replace them. These are the very same “55 or better” villas that were selling like hot cakes three years ago.

What’s a developer to do?

If you’re Don Reuwer you drop back and punt.

Reuwer has decided that it would be easier to sell 140 “garden style” condominiums than the 45 villas currently approved for the site on White Jasmine Court. He is considering requesting a change in the development program for the site from the Department of Planning and Zoning.

Many seniors in both the adjacent Village Crest villas and the adjacent Legacy at Village Crest garden style condos are not pleased. According to this story by Jennifer Choi in The Howard County Times,

“the overwhelming majority of residents were against the changes, voicing concerns about increased traffic, especially on the two main roads leading into the development, New Cut Road and College Avenue, both of which are narrow and winding.

They also are worried about lower housing values, exacerbated parking problems, a possible shortage of electrical power on a grid they say is already too weak, and the loss of scenic views because of the proposed four-story condominium complex.”

Weak electric grid?

Maybe that explains why the power goes out all the time at my house.

The Final Three

The Sun reported today that there are three finalists for replacing Maggie Brown as the president of The Columbia Association. The final choice will be announced on May 1st.

Milton Matthews is the executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Reston Association. According to this story from the Washington Post, he took over that job in October 2004 after the association considered over 150 candidates. Milton has been through this type of drill so handicappers should take that into consideration when sizing up the race.

Rob Goldman is the inside man. Rob has served as the vice president of sports and fitness for CA for the past 19 years. If you like the job he’s done running CA’s sports and fitness facilities you will probably think he’d make a good president. I happen to think they could do much better.

Philip Nelson is currently the City Manager for the City of Troy, Michigan and has served in that capacity since July of 2007. Prior to that he was the city manager in Northglenn, Colorado for five years so he has proven he can stay in a job longer than two years.