Cramming

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

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

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

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

That’s like tomorrow Monday.

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

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

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

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

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

I’ve got some reading to do.

Now Returning To Regular Posting

I’m back. Did I miss anything?

I know, that’s a stupid question. Of course I missed stuff. I’ll try and get caught up over the next few days.

We spent last week on the island of Curacao, forty miles off the coast of Venezuela. It has been four long years since we were last in the Caribbean and I was long overdue for a healthy dose of island time. I purposely limited my exposure to the online world in order to fully immerse in the island one. It took a day or so but by Friday I was fully disengaged, just in time to pack up and return to HoCo

We slept late. We explored. We ate. We drank.

I made a few observations I'll be sharing over the next few days, interspersed with the usual postings about stuff around here. It was good to get away but its good to be back home too.

Time Out

I won’t be posting for the next few days. I have some personal business to intend to and I need to take a little  blogging break.

It’s just a few days, no big deal but I just wanted to let the regular readers of Tof2C know what was up. I’ll miss you.

Back soon.

Pandoras Box

On 60 minutes last night, Steve Kroft reported on the repercussions of the Stuxnet virus. He spoke with Sean McGurk, the former head of cyber defense at the Department of Homeland Security.

"Sean McGurk: You can download the actual source code of Stuxnet now and you can repurpose it and repackage it and then, you know, point it back towards wherever it came from.

Kroft: Sounds a little bit like Pandora's box.

McGurk: Yes."

A New Day for First Baptist

Last April I wrote a post about the construction saga of the First Baptist Church of Guilford. The church started construction on a new sanctuary back in 2007. Progress was slow and by last year the general contractor filed for bankruptcy and the job was shut down completely.

It is now projected to open this June.

It has been a long and somewhat tortured path for the 112 year old congregation. Neighbors against churches held up the 70,000 square foot project for seven years. According to this story by Janene Holzberg in The Sun, “ the church had endured a seven-year zoning dispute with neighbors who opposed expansion plans. That conflict was finally resolved when the zoning of the church's property was changed in the 2004 countywide comprehensive rezoning plan, which remains in effect.”

It almost makes the five year Town Center redevelopment process seem like a walk in the park.

The church also has a new pastor. Reverend Tyrone P. Jones IV was selected to replace Reverend Dr. John L. Wright who passed away just over two years ago.

“Jones, who earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at Howard and Princeton universities, respectively, said he will draw on his community-based background to take in new members "in a radius around the church."

Something tells me that Reverend Jones is going to be a significant player in the HoCo loco politico scene once he gets settled in to his new building.

Come Monday

Tomorrow night, the fourteen candidates vying for three open seats on the HoCo school board, will participate in a candidates forum sponsored by the HoCo League of Women Voters. This will be the best opportunity get to learn more about the candidates and more importantly, how they conduct themselves in a public forum.

In other words, it will be a big night for HoCo loco poltico wonks, like me. In addition to the working press, the forum will be attended by a few members of the HoCo loco blogging community. 53 Beers on Tap has already weighed in on five people he won’t be supporting so presumably he’s going to learn more about the other nine.

Unfortunately, I won’t be attending due to a prior commitment. Fortunately, I’ll still get chance to view the proceedings. The LVW is planning to tape the forum and make it available online. I’ll provide a link here later in the week.

And yes, I will watch the whole thing. Besides, Ellen Flynn Giles, the only other candidate that I really have a strong opinion about is Allen Dyer. I am supporting Ellen but not Allen. If Allen loses in the primary, it may provide an early end to the impeachment drama and I’m all for that. That leaves two more choices for me to make before the primary on April 3^rd when the field of fourteen will be winnowed to six.

The LWV forum will be held tomorrow night at the School Board Meeting Room in the Board of Education headquarters on Route 108 in Columbia from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM.

Third Mildest on Record

With the possible exception of the loco community of skiers, almost everyone else is pleased with how mild our winter has been. Despite November predictions by the Capital Weather Gang of ten inches of total snowfall, so far we've only had two.

As far as records go, it has been the third mildest. According to this story by Martin Weil in The Washington Post the average temperature for the three month winter season was 43.3 degrees, the record holder "was in 1889-90, with 44.3.”

Then again, it ain’t over yet. March can still hold some surprises. 

Getting Closer to Our Co-Workers

If it seems like its getting a little tighter at your office than it probably is. A recent research study conducted by CoreNet Global predicts that the average amount of space allocated to each employee in an office will drop below a hundred square feet within the next five years.

This is part of a trend. In 2010 the average allotment was 225 square feet, today the average is 176 square feet.

"The main reason for the declines," said Richard Kadzis, CoreNet Global's vice president of strategic communications, "is the huge increase in collaborative and team-oriented space inside a growing number of companies that are stressing 'smaller but smarter' workplaces against the backdrop of continuing economic uncertainty and cost containment."

I noticed this in HoCo loco offices too. The majority of my clients that are currently renewing leases, are focused on gaining new efficiencies in their spaces. Sometimes this means a file room gets eliminated in favor of off site storage, other times it means reducing the suite size and getting everyone to just cozy up a little.

It hasn’t hit our office, yet. Even though our office is ninety percent open work plan, we still work out to 284 square feet per person. I don’t know how long we’ll sustain that but for now I’m grateful. 

Mother Nature Gives HoCo An Assist

On Tuesday evening 100,000 gallons of waste water was accidentally released from the Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant in Savage into the Little Patuxent River. Less than twenty four hours later a torrential rainstorm hit HoCo, complete with unseasonable thunder and lightning, and cleaned everything up.

It didn’t need much. According to this story by David Greisman in Explore Howard, health officials said the wastewater that was released “had been 90 percent treated.”

“Health officials said that they expected the sewage would quickly be diluted due to it largely having been treated and because of the heavy rain the following day.”

I think Mother Nature was pissed.

In Like a Kitten

When I left my office and headed towards Ellicott City this afternoon, I kept my camera at the ready. I wanted to capture some image that embodied this exceptional first day of March.

As soon as I pulled into the parking lot in front of the Little French Market in Ellicott City, I knew I had my shot. It was staring me right in the eyes.

“You two seem to really be enjoying this day,” I said as I got out of the car.

“We are!” they cheerfully replied.

“Would you mind if I took your picture?”

“What’s it for?”

“I write a local blog and I wanted to put something up about how great it is to be out enjoying the sun on March 1^st,” I explained, handing them one of my wordbones cards.

“Cool,” they said, they being Lauren Vespa and Kristen Parlette.

For a month that is supposed to do that whole  "in like a lion out like a lamb" thing, today was more of a kitten. It was just purrfect.

Everyone’s a Critic

If you have a favorite HoCo loco restaurant, do them a favor and put in a kind word (or two) in the Washington DC / Baltimore Zagat guide. The guide is soliciting reviews from diners for area restaurants through March 4^th. Survey participants will receive a free copy of the guide when it is published.

You can vent on bad dining experiences as well. I haven’t done that yet but just now I put in some kind words for Café de Paris, one of our favorite HoCo loco dinner spots. 

You can take up the culinary critics challenge here.

It’s Time

I am saddened to learn that Emily Lincoln died last weekend. Emily was a friend and political ally in the fight for Town Center. As has been noted in Columbia2.0 “She was passionate about the changes that we’ve all been advocating for and she yearned to actually see them happen.”

The news of her passing came as I was writing a post about community leadership. Sources have informed me that at least two members of the Columbia Council will not be seeking reelection this year, Phil Kirsch from Wilde Lake and Gregg Schwind from Hickory Ridge. If past history is any indicator, there is a good chance that at least one of these seats will go to someone who gets talked into it and ends up running unchallenged. Some villages will be hard pressed to even get a quorum of voters on election day.

This is how the board of directors is constituted for the Columbia Association, one of the largest employers in HoCo with an annual operating budget of $60 million. Somebody gets talked into it. Sometimes a good person gets talked into it, but not always. Sometimes the good person is not available and you have to go to the second or third string to get someone. Right now there are at least two third stringers sitting on the board.

It’s insane.

There’s hope though. A new generation of leaders like Tom Coale in Dorsey’s Search and Ed Coleman in Long Reach have stepped up and taken seats at the council but more good people like them are needed.

There isn’t much time left either. Some of the best of the old guard are already gone.

Leap Day Voucher

Not sure how to commemorate the extra day we get this month?

In The Washington Post today, writer Dan Zak provides a Leap Day Voucher that allows the bearer “to flout routine, shirt the norm, damn the torpedoes, raise a ruckus and generally carry on in an indulgent manner…”

Certain conditions apply of course.

Dress Rehearsal in Town Center

The Howard Hughes Corporation held an event at the former Rouse Company headquarters building in Town Center this morning. Invited guests were given flowers, coffee, popcorn, granola, handmade soap and dog biscuits in return for mingling in front of the building.

It was a dress rehearsal of sorts, presumably for Whole Foods Markets though no one would admit that on the record. Sources informed me that HHC had received a tip that the Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey, was going to do a drive by of the building this morning so they decided to dress the building up in retail form just for him. Apparently the deal to bring Whole Foods to the building is almost done and this tour was one of the final hurdles.

HHC could not have asked for a better day. The sun was shining and it was unseasonably warm.

Since we no longer have a dog, I took my dog biscuits over to the only four legged guest, a Newfoundland named Yogi. Yogi approved.

Late Fees

This morning I was sitting on a plastic chair in the passport agency office in DC. No WiFi, no coffee. I was doing penance for my procrastination. I had no one to blame but me.

My passport had expired. I became aware of this problem just over two weeks before I was going to need it. It was too late to renew by mail. I needed to make an appointment for getting an “expedited” passport. You have to do that in person, and not just anywhere either. There are only twenty five passport agencies in the entire U S of A. Thankfully, one of them is just down the pike in DC.

Today I arrived about fifteen minutes early for my 10 AM appointment.  It didn’t start off well. They wouldn’t let me in with my coffee. The place has all the charm of a police station. On the other hand, for what it lacked in warmth, it made up for in efficiency. I was fully processed and headed out the door by 10:30 and back in my office in Columbia about an hour later.

Just in time for lunch.

“Where’s the next closest passport agency,” Mama Wordbones asked me as she considered worse case scenarios.

The next closest place you can get this expedited service is Philadelphia.

Today, I was thankful that I didn’t have to drive to Philadelphia. 

Breaking Wind

Count me among those who believe that Governor O’Malley’s proposed wind farm is a bad idea. Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney is in the pro wind farm camp and this weekend he made his case for it in this column. He claims that the wind farm will “create more than 1,000 new manufacturing jobs and put Maryland on the ground floor of a new industry with great potential.”

“In Annapolis, the lure that could tip the balance for wind power is the chance of starting an industry to sell concrete foundations, steel towers and blades, and power cables for wind farms up and down the Atlantic seaboard.”

Really?

I’m not seeing that and even McCartney seems to contradict this claim by pointing out that western Europe is already fifteen years of us in wind power development.

“Denmark and Germany started first and now are benefiting by selling equipment to Britain and other latecomers.”

So wouldn’t Maryland be one of those “latecomers” too?

Tux Talk

The Evening in the Stacks library fundraiser last night was promoted as “black tie optional, masks encouraged.”

I’ll get to the masks later. Black tie optional, for me at least, means that I get to wear my tux and not look like I'm part of the wait staff. I don’t really get that many opportunities to put it on either; the last time was the Chamber Roast of Dick Story almost a year ago.

A tux is cool. It can make an average guy look above average. It’s easy too. Wearing one doesn’t require a guy to have any fashion sense, at all. All he needs do is stick to the basics and he’ll look great, no matter what.

That being said, even the basics are subject to occasional periods of  wild experimentation. Around ten years ago, the collar on the pleated white shirt for some fashion forward fellas, was all but eliminated, save for two little wings. The winged collar is now pretty much out of vogue as men retreated back to the safe harbor of a classic shirt collar.

Not all the men wore a tux last night, in fact the majority did not. The county exec didn’t even wear a tie. I know he owns a tux. Maybe it didn’t fit.

That’s the other problem with a tux. It’s usually wise to put it on for a test drive a week or so before you need it just in case it requires an adjustment here and there.

The county exec didn’t wear a mask either. Neither did Courtney Watson or Guy Guzzone.  Mary Kay Sigaty wore a mask, as did Jen Terrasa, and Ellen Flynn Giles.

I don’t think Guy was wearing a tux either but at least he had a tie.

I believe this mask divide among the loco politicos last night signals something significant. Wearing a mask is silly and last night the library invited us to be silly. Those who opted to join in the fun demonstrated an ability, for at least one evening out in the public arena, not to take themselves too seriously.

I like that.

Fun with Numbers

Yesterday, during the news recap of the podcast, but Paul and I stumbled with some big numbers. First, Paul fumbled a bit with decline in amount of money that the state returns to the county for education. He said that the state contribution had gone from $17 million when Ken Ulman first came into office to $3 million last year. It is actually worse than that. It has gone from $30 million to $3 million. $17 million is the amount that the governor would like HoCo to contribute to funding teacher pensions.

Shortly after that, Paul mentioned the $697 million budget request from the school system and I asked him if he was sure that was right. I asked him if he didn’t mean $67 million. No, he replied, it was $697 million.

Of course he was right. Out of the counties almost billion dollar budget, over 60% goes to the schools.

My bad.

A million here, a million there…

Our guest this week was Marsha McLaughlin, the HoCo Director of Planning and Zoning. As someone who often finds herself in the midst of contentious HoCo loco land use issues, we thought it might be interesting to get to know a little more about her.

For example, did you know she once worked in planning and zoning in the US Virgin Islands?

As she says "They have zoning everywhere."

You can listen to the 60^th episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

WAPO Blasts Guv on Teacher Pensions

The Washington Post editors laid into Governor Martin O’Malley and Senate President Mike Miller for their proposal to shift half of the costs of teacher pensions from the state to the counties. They headlined the editorial “The Buck Stops Nowhere.”

The paper acknowledges the problem, calling the states current system for funding teacher pensions as being “rife with perverse incentives.”

“Maryland’s scheme is the product of decades of improvisation, fiscal mismanagement and political pandering. Not surprisingly, it is virtually unique among states — and almost uniquely senseless.”

It’s really worth reading if you have any interest at all in how the state is being run and by whom. I also note that this opinion is coming from The Washington Post, what some might consider a bastion of Democratic ideology.

That’s not to say that the Dems are all lined up behind their governor either, notably a few county executives, including our own. Ken Ulman was front and center in this article by Michael Dresser in The Sun, complete with a shot of him gripping the lectern as he addressed the press in Annapolis.

"This puts a potentially devastating squeeze on local government," said Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, a Democrat. "Find the $239 million somewhere else in the budget."

Lindsey McPherson in her Political Notebook column in Explore Howard, wrote the HoCo loco Dems  are “are standing behind Ulman.”

This one actually crosses party lines. If the guv and the Senate president have their way, Howard County will take a $17 million hit on the roughly 40% of the county budget that doesn't go to the schools. That impacts everything from parks to police.

As the Post editorial notes ““The main problem with the governor’s plan is that it sticks counties with a heavy bill but gives them no power to control costs. After all, school boards, not counties, negotiate teachers’ contracts. And state law forbids counties from cutting funding for schools unless enrollment shrinks.”

Sheesh.

It’s a mess and needs to be fixed, that much all can agree on. To do so will require real leadership and political guts, to go for the big fix. That means all parties will need to share a little pain; the state, the counties and most importantly, the unions and the school boards. It may also require a reexamination of state law.

I wonder if anyone in Annapolis has the cojones to pull that off.

Gateway vs Town Center

A client recently asked my advice about whether he should consider relocating his firm from Town Center to the Gateway corporate park. His existing lease will be expiring soon and the company is contemplating a move to the largest office park in the county.

“Town Center just seems a little dowdy,” he explained.

I prefer the word tired to describe Columbia's aging downtown . There hasn’t been a new office building built in Town Center since 1992, the most architecturally significant office building in Town Center, the former Rouse Company headquarters, is badly in need of a major renovation. Even the lakefront, the very heart of Columbia, is not quite what it once was. The bell tower is long gone and the rest of the public space shows signs of decades of neglect.

Gateway, on the other hand, now has almost twice the amount of office space than Town Center with the newest office building coming online in 2009. When Merkle decided to relocate their corporate headquarters to HoCo they choose Gateway. When major defense contractor SAIC wanted to expand their HoCo presence, they expanded in Gateway. Gateway has arguably become the premiere business address in HoCo. 

So I recommended Gateway right?

No, I advised him to stay in Town Center. While Gateway makes sense for some firms, it isn’t for everyone. Consider just the lunch thing. Unless you brown bag it or have a company cafeteria, lunch in Gateway for the majority of office workers, always involves getting in a car. In Town Center most workers can walk to a restaurant for lunch or to a park to enjoy their brown bag.

And the dowdy/tired thing?

While it is true that Town Center today lacks the luster of the earlier years of the new town, all of that is about to change. GGP, HHC and CA are poised to invest millions in a vast Town Center makeover. Over the next five years or so, the lions share of private sector development activity in HoCo is going to occur there. At the same time, CA has embarked an ambitious program to remake the two most important public spaces in Town Center, Symphony Woods and the lakefront. It’s an exciting time as Town Center is about to become to the most happening place in HoCo.

In a sense, Gateway represents the past where we developed office parks that catered to the automobile, separate from our residential areas. Town Center, on the other hand, represents the future where gas costs more than five bucks a gallon and being able walk or bike is not only healthy but an economic necessity.