All about the Trees

Michael McCall says that his epiphany on Symphony Woods occurred as he was leaving a concert at Merriweather one night last summer, “For about fifteen seconds I got disoriented” in the dark woods.

“What a wonderful thing that that you can be right next to all this development yet feel like you’ve escaped”

That set Michael on a path that radically changed the future direction of Columbia’s central park.

"The worse thing I think you do is to start drawing straight lines through the woods."

Michael is the president of Strategic Leisure, a Columbia company that has designed the Inner Arbor Plan. He and his wife Barbara are also longtime Columbia residents though he readily admits he knew very little about local politics before deciding to get involved with Symphony Woods. It was his old boss from Enterprise, George Barker, who introduced him to Ken Ulman.

This rest is history.

And speaking of Ken, our county exec was recently honored by Government Technology Magazine for his One Maryland Broadband Initiative. We talked about that in our local news recap along with the new storm water management fees, Wilde Lake Village Center redevelopment, the Merriweather noise legislation  and the political ascension of Laura Neuman.

You can listen to 85^th episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

Meanwhile on Route 40…

Since Safeway left in the summer of 2009, the once venerable Normandy Shopping Center has been a bit of a ghost town while the owners embarked on a four year process to redevelop the property. Next Tuesday night the developer will unveil their latest plans at public meeting in one of the vacant storefronts in the center.

It’s a major makeover that includes about 200 new apartments on a previously undeveloped parcel of land in the center.

Predictably, there are concerns from some neighbors, particularly those whose homes currently back up to the loading area of the former grocery store. It seems to me that they are actually getting an improvement over current conditions. Instead of facing the unfinished backside of an aging strip center, the new plan opens the space up with separate buildings and includes a new pedestrian plaza.

In any event, this development will be a huge improvement and will help reshape this portion of the highway that in recent years has more notably gained notoriety as the location of the only pornographic video store in HoCo.

The End of an Era

Watermont Pharmacy is closing. After serving the community for fifty two years, the family owned business has fallen victim to a changing health care marketplace.

I feel at least partially to blame. When we first moved to this Ellicott City neighborhood in 2006, I began getting my prescriptions filled at Watermont. By then the pharmacy was being run by Jodi (Dagold) Lare, the daughter of the original pharmacist, Donald Dagold. The pharmacy provided the kind of personal service you’d expect from local owners, including home delivery.

Over time however, as my health plan changed and I had to shoulder more of my own medication costs, I switched to an online pharmacy reducing my costs by a third. Undoubtedly this was true with other of their former customers as well.

The store reminded me of pharmacies I knew growing up, when they typically included a soda fountain. Though the soda jerks are now long gone, the counter and stools remained as reminders of another era.

The name Watermont was coined by combining the names of the crossroads where the store was located, Waterloo and Montgomery. 

A Gathering of Writers

Last night, as I circulated around the HoCo Blogs party, it occurred to me that this would best be described as a writer’s party. The term “blog” is often viewed with somewhat less cachet than “writer,” as if blogging were some lower form of written expression.

I don’t believe that it is.  After talking with at least eight different blog authors I realized that the common thread is a joy of writing. A few even readily admitted that they would write their blog even if nobody read it. That’s what writers do.

That’s not say that they don’t welcome readers. That’s what separates writing a blog from keeping a journal. People write blogs because they feel the urge to share their thoughts and observations with the world. The blog is the conduit and when something written in a blog compels a reader to comment, it makes the experience all the more satisfying.

 Comments are like currency for those who write blogs, even though it is understood that only a small percentage of readers will post comments. According to this article by Paul Grabowicz from the UC Berkley Graduate School of Journalism, “a very small percentage of readers usually will comment on any given news story or blog posting, and most comments will be made by a relative handful of frequent posters who may not be representative of general readership.”

“This has been referred to as the 90-9-1 rule, which means 90 percent of people won't post any comments, 9 percent will post infrequently, and 1 percent will account for the vast majority of the postings.”

That one percent was well represented last night too. I spoke with someone who comments regularly on HoCo Rising and another who comments regularly here. Both individuals were well versed in local affairs and genuinely invested in the community. One I knew quite well, the other I met for the first time.

These gatherings of writers are unique to HoCo. I know of no other community where local blog authors come together regularly to socialize. It’s just one more thing I love about this place.

Ready. Fire! Aim.

Count me among those who believe that Governor O’Malley’s proposed gun control legislation will do little to nothing to curb gun violence in the state. Short of an outright ban on gun ownership, nothing can stop a determined person from procuring a firearm and wreaking havoc with it. I don't believe you can legislate against madness.

On the other hand what the gun bill may accomplish is to drive a major employer to leave the state, putting 300 Marylanders out of work. According to this story by Aaron C. Davis in The Washington Post, Berretta USA, which had been planning to expand its plant in Prince George’s County with a new line is now “weighing whether the rifle line, and perhaps the company itself, should stay in a place increasingly hostile toward its products.”

“Concern that the company will leave, and take its 300 jobs with it, is palpable among state lawmakers who worry it could be collateral damage from Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed gun-control bill.”

It's not an idle threat. The last time Maryland introduced new gun laws the company moved some operations from Maryland to Virginia.

The best quote in the story was that made by Ugo Gussalli Beretta, the patriarch of the five hundred year old company during a recent visit to the plant, ‘There always seems to be a problem with Maryland.”

Nice.

A Trail Less Traveled

The little taste of spring yesterday drove many locos outside for the first time in weeks. When we arrived at the trail head of the Grist Mill Trail on Ilchester Road around one o’clock, cars were parked in every available spot. After wedging our car into a space of questionable legality, we decided to explore the HoCo side of the river instead of taking the paved trail that lies in Baltimore County.

Actually, the opposite side is paved too, in places at least. Remnants of a former road provide an easy trek for the first leg. On the other hand this is not a path for cyclists.

Approaching Bloede Dam, things get a bit dicey as the road disappears and hikers must navigate a narrow path along the rivers edge. The recent wet weather made this portion of the trail a little muddy and a bit trickier to traverse.

 Bloede Dam, like other man-made dams on the Patapsco River is slated for removal though no date has been set for the work to begin. The cost is estimated to exceed $4 million and will include some attempt to preserve part of the dam on the Baltimore County side of the river.

On the other side of the dam it is smooth sailing on obstacle free  paved roadbed all the way down to the swinging bridge.

Postal Blues

Stopping by the Ellicott City Post Office last week I spotted this notice on one of two available parcel bins. The hand written commentary, presumably by disgruntled patrons, gave me a chuckle. How long is temporary?

A Task Force on Hippness

Montgomery County is establishing a task force to figure out how to make the county more hip. According to this article by Bill Turque in The Washington Post, “County Executive Isiah Leggett wants to make Montgomery more competitive with the District and Arlington County for the coveted millennial demographic, or “Generation Y” — roughly defined as those between ages 18 and 34.”

“The county’s concern is reflected in the data. According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 36 percent of Arlington’s population is between ages 20 and 34. Montgomery’s proportion is 19 percent, trailing the District (31 percent), Prince George’s County (23 percent) and Fairfax County (20 percent).”

It’s an even bigger problem here in HoCo where only 17% of the population falls in that age group. Even more disconcerting is that this is a drop from the 2000 census when it was 19%.

“We are aging faster than we probably anticipated,” Leggett said. The traditional, suburban Montgomery will not disappear, he said, but for the tax base to grow — and to help support a burgeoning aging-in-place population — a new county has to take root alongside the old.”

Upping Her Game

Tomorrow night loco celebrity status will be measured by the amount of tips given to six loco luminaries. Tom Coale, Mickey Gomez, Paul Skalny, Vicki Goodman, Dick Story and Pam Klahr will serve as celebrity bartenders for the HoCo library’s black tie fundraiser, Sparkles and Spurs. They will use charm and wit to see who among them can cajole the most tips to benefit the library.

Last year, when it was my chance to be measured against other loco standouts behind the bar, Mickey Gomez won the night. That got her invited back for another stint this year.

She is a very formidable competitor. Last night, on her blog “Life & How to Live It”, she wrote an open letter to one of my favorite humorists, Dave Barry. In the letter she tells a tale of a canine caper that reduced her autographed copy of his book “Insane City” to shreds.

“On Thursday I brought the book home. I took it out of my bag – worried about it getting crushed or torn there – and placed it in the middle of the dining room table. The large dining room table. My husband and I went to dinner and returned less than ninety minutes later to find the book laying open on the floor. The cover had been removed and – how shall I put this? – artfully redesigned by Shiloh, Mischief Dog. He even ate part of it.”

It’s a very funny read.

The best part though is that instead of appealing to the author for another signed copy of his book, she asks for a donation to the library.

“If you happen upon this message and are so inclined, I’d like to ask you to consider helping to promote our local libraries. They are top-notch, but – as with all libraries – there are programs that need support in order to continue. I’ll be raising money this weekend as a Celebrity Bartender during Evening in the Stacks, their annual fundraiser that supports two exceptional programs: A+ Partners in Education and Project Literacy.”

Nicely done.

HoCo EDA Chief Becomes AA Exec

After three rounds of balloting tonight, Laura Neuman, the CEO of the HoCo Economic Development Authority was elected to fill out the remainder of John Leopolds term as Anne Arundel county exec.

The victory stunned many AA politico observers. Shortly after the vote Allison Bourg, a reporter for the Capital Gazette, tweeted “I think it's fair to say no one saw this coming.”

The top three candidates were thought to be Delegate Steve Shuh, former first lady Kendel Ehrlich and interim exec, John Hammond. Ehrlich didn't even make it to the final four.

Neuman won by sweeping the three Dem votes on the council while three of the four Repubs split their votes between Shuh, Hammond and Annapolis Alderman David Cordle. The lone Repub voting for Laura was council chair Jerry Walker.

Divide and conquer...it's an old cliche but this evening it served Laura well...

General Assembly Goes to Pot

A bill has been introduced in the House Delegates that would legalize marijuana in the Free State.  According to this story by Holly Nunn in The Gazette, Delegate Curt Anderson “introduced a bill that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Maryland, mirroring measures passed by referendum last year in Colorado and Washington.”

“The bill would allow Marylanders 21 and older to possess one ounce or less of marijuana, and to grow three or fewer plants in their homes. An excise tax of $50 per ounce would be collected by the state under the proposal.”

That being said, it is doubtful that the bill will get very far this year. I just don’t the General Assembly being ready to inhale...not just yet anyway.

Now What?

When I first read this story about the HoCo Housing Commission backing off their previously announced plans for the Beechcrest Mobile Home Park in North Laurel, I thought it was in response to community opposition. After conducting my own inspection of the property today I now believe that it is much more than that.

My first reaction while driving through the community was “What were they thinking?”

This is a tough piece of ground with a couple of immediately obvious development obstacles, aside from relocating the current residents.

To begin with, access appears to be problematic. The community shares a narrow access road with an Econo Lodge hotel. I doubt that it meets current standards, much less what would be required if the property were redeveloped with more residential units. As I exited the property this afternoon another SUV entering pulled to the side to let me pass.  In order to fix this the county would likely need to acquire the property next door.

Assuming you could fix the access issue, the next hurdle is topography. The existing mobile homes occupy about half of the five and a half acre site that slopes up about ten feet from Route 1, levels off slightly for about two acres and then drops about 20 feet. In the development business we'd refer to this as challenging.

The commissions site plan shows a "bio-retention" storm water management area that looks to eliminate about half of the existing trees. I'm not sure how that works.

Then there are the existing mobile homes. Many of them look barely inhabitable and I'd be surprised if any of the units meet current minimum standards for county owned housing. Now they are the county housing authority’s responsibility so even if the property isn't redeveloped, the commission will likely have to do something to improve conditions for the current residents.

What a mess.

Vanishing Postcards

A friend in Cleveland recently asked me to help out her fifth grader with a school project. The students were tasked with soliciting postcards from around the country. The postcards were to be mailed to the classroom and include a few pertinent local facts. It wasn't all that long ago that my own fifth grader received a similar assignment and I appreciated the response she received from friends and family so I readily agreed to help out.

It never occurred to me that I’d have difficulty finding a loco postcard. My resultant, albeit unscientific, research would seem to indicate that the business of picture postcards is going the way of Saturday mail delivery. There was a time that local picture postcards were easily found in any drug store. The once ubiquitous five foot carousel racks were commonly found near the registers.

They are not so easily found these days. On a recent visit to Walgreens I had to ask a clerk for help.

“Do you carry postcards?”

“I think we do.”

She led me to an aisle but we didn't immediately see them.

“Ah, here there are,” she said, somewhat surprised by her own discovery, "I thought we had them."

On the end cap of the aisle, on a portion of the top shelf, next to refrigerator magnets, sat a small carousel with a meager offering of cards.

Judging from this product placement I suspect it won’t long until they vanish from the shelves completely.

Coffee Mugged

I no longer feel guilty about using disposable coffee cups. According to this story by Danielle Braff in Men’s Health, “Twenty percent of office mugs carry fecal bacteria, and 90 percent are covered in other germs…”

The problem of course is that most office mugs are regularly cleaned using a common sponge or scrub brush instead of a dishwasher. These low tech cleaning devices are veritable petri dishes of nasty stuff.

"Bring your mug home daily to be washed in the dishwasher, and make sure it goes through the dry cycle, which uses the hottest temperatures and zaps every last germ. At the very least, wash it with hot water, soap, and a paper towel. If it sits unwashed on your desk after being used, germs will start reproducing immediately—and bacterial colonies grow even when the cup contains nothing more than a coffee ring."

Eech!

Good Parker, Bad Parker

Last night I tried out the new Streetline parking system in Ellicott City for the first time. At 5:32 PM I pulled into a space in front of the Phoenix bar and dutifully noted the number of my space. When I then entered the number in the parking kiosk I received the message above.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by this. I had been under the impression that the new system would not allow unused time to stay on the meter after the car left the spot. It appears that this was a mistaken assumption.

That was the good news.

Around ten this morning, as I pulled into a space in front of the Little French Market, a freezing rain was falling. I thought this would be a perfect time to test out the Parker app on my smart phone allowing me to feed the meter in the comfort of my warm and dry car. I entered my space number along with my credit card but when it came time to finalize the transaction the app said I was paying for space 402 in Miami, Florida.

I wish. If I had been in Miami I wouldn't exactly need the warmth of my car. It appears that this little feature is not yet activated for Ellicott City.

I headed out in the rain to a nearby kiosk where I learned something else about the new system.

It doesn't take American Express.

I see a potential commercial here.

Ruminations on Presidents Day 2013

Presidents Day is one of those half holidays, sort of like Martin Luther King Day. Banks, schools and government offices are closed but in the private sector, commemoration of the holiday is not universal. From my own experience, I’d guess that only about a third of our HoCo loco non retail businesses gave their employees the day off.

That would include my own company.

For those of us who were trying to conduct business today it can be challenging. In my own personal experience, more often than not the person I really need to speak to will inevitably be one of those who have the day off.

That’s not to say that nothing gets done. There is even a certain bravado expressed among those who had to work. When a meeting is held on day like today there is certain to be someone who points out that “at least somebody is working today,” as if being stuck at work today was some sort of badge of honor.

Then there is the whole homogenization of what once was celebrated only on the 22^nd, no matter what day of the week it fell on. Congress gave that up in 1971 after deciding that a wandering holiday was inconvenient. It makes you wonder how long they’ll tolerate the 4^th of July.

I did find a couple of Presidents Day items in The Washington Post this morning. First there was this column by John Kelly about a book entitled “The Smithsonian Book of Presidential Trivia” It includes multiple choice quiz for serious history buffs. Until today I never knew that Grover Cleveland was called the Buffalo Hangman by some critics.

Then there is this feature by Chris Cillizza in which readers are asked to weigh in on the most underated and most overrated presidents. This is a political minefield and picks are bound to reflect personal political affiliations. One reader, identified as “blackwell575” tried to achieve balance.

"Over-rated by the right – Ronald Reagan 

Over-rated by the left – LBJ 

Under-rated by the right – FDR 

Under-rated by the left – Warren G. Harding"

Happy Presidents Day!

A Brit in Clarksville

I can’t recall exactly how I first stumbled across Claire McGill's blog, ukdesperatehousewifeusa, but I’m pretty sure it wasn't the result of using a search term like “undressed housewife.” According to Claire, those words or some similar iteration, are the most frequent keywords used to find her blog. She shares this insight with us, not with anger or revulsion, but with a certain sense of amusement. That same sense is reflected in her writings, which she describes as “a little bit adventure, little bit stream of consciousness, little bit Bill Bryson.”

In her blog she writes about her observations of American culture from the prospective of a thirty something mother of a five year old, transplanted from Britain to Clarksville about two years ago when her husband accepted a job here. Instead of pining for home she’s embraced the move as an adventure.

George Bernard Shaw once wrote that Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language. Claire points out that it is more than just language that sets us apart. Restrooms, fire hydrants, and football are but of a few of the topics we covered in the podcast.

We had such a good time with her that we are already talking about having her back later in the year. I should also note that Claire is co-sponsoring the HoCo blogs party with Marshmallow Man on February 26^th at Union Jacks pub in Columbia. The event is free and open to the public but registration in advance is encouraged. You can find out more here.

In news stories we talked about the Inner Arbor Plan, the apprehension of the suspected Mall flasher, Lisbon firefighters, HoCo’s bond rating, the accreditation of the Tai Sophia Institute and the move to push back the school start time for HoCo high schools.

You can find the 84^th episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

Neuman Covets Exec Job

Laura Neuman, the CEO of the HoCo Economic Development Authority, has tossed her hat into the ring for the Anne Arundel County Exec seat.  John Hammond is currently serving as acting exec since John Leopold resigned after being found guilty of misconduct in office. John has also applied for the non acting job.

I guess she determined that after serving under Ken Ulman she could just as easily do his job.

She has some formidiable competion for the job though. According to this story by Robert Lang from the Associated Press sixteen people have applied for the job including “former Anne Arundel County Executive John Gary, former Maryland First Lady Kendel Ehrlich, current Anne Arundel County State Delegate Steve Schuh and former Delegate Phil Bissett.”

Laura was appointed CEO of the EDA by Ken in 2011 after Dick Story retired. Curiously, the AP story made no mention of her current job instead describing Laura as a “former interim director of a county homeland security incubator…”

She does have one important qualification for the job in that she actually lives in Anne Arundel County, not the county she's paid to promote. 

Blockbusted

It doesn't seem like all that long ago that having a Blockbuster store nearby was seen as a plus. Then came Netflix in 1997, Redbox in 2002 and Video on Demand shortly thereafter and the corner Blockbuster store began to lose relevance.

Seeing this banner draped across the Blockbuster storefront on Dobbin Road reminded me just how quickly a hot retail trend can cool off. The first Blockbuster opened in 1985 and by 2004 the company had over 9,000 stores and 60,000 employees. Six years later the company sought protection of the bankruptcy court. Today, the company now owned by Dish Networks, has approximately 1,000 remaining stores. I believe this is the last one in HoCo.

Simpson Bowles 2.0

Tonight at the Baltimore Speaker Series, Erskine Bowles boiled the country’s fiscal crisis down to five issues: healthcare, defense, social security, the tax code and compounding interest. The former chief of staff to Bill Clinton also expressed his disappointment with President Obama for not embracing the recommendations of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform that he co-chaired with former Repub Senator Alan Simpson.

Erksine was entertaining and a bit scary too. As he sees it, if Congress and the president fail to proactively take bold measures to fix the nation’s deficit on their own, a crisis of epic proportions will force them to, sooner rather than later. He said that when they first started working on the commission he believed this was something we needed to do for our grandchildren. He now believes the problem is much more urgent. “We need to do this, not for our grandchildren or even our children. We need to do this for us.”

To point out the absurdity of our current situation, he noted that we are bound by treaty to protect Taiwan from an attack by China but we’d have to borrow money from China in order to do so.

Once again the speaker series did not disappoint.

The good news is that he and Alan have not given up. They have launched a grassroots efforts “The Can Kicks Back,” as well as an online petition “Fix the Debt” to encourage citizens to get involved. Erskine also told the audience that next Tuesday they will announce a joint effort with Pete Domenici and Alice Rivlin and their Debt Reduction Task Force to apply a full court press on Congress. He called it Simpson Bowles 2.0.