Scene This Week In…

With the holiday season officially underway I figured it was time to update the STW pictures here at To2C and what better way to do than the feature the iconic shopping districts of Ellicott City and Columbia.

 To encourage shoppers to venture down to the historic district, the Ellicott City Business Association, Ellicott City Restoration Foundation and HoCo Government have joined together to suspend metered parking for the holidays. They have been doing this for four years now and each year they seem to expand the free parking period. This year the free parking period runs through January 2nd.

It should be noted however that this courtesy only applies to metered parking. The two hour limit for parking along Main Street still applies and violators of that rule will still be ticketed. I spotted a parking enforcement officer writing someone up near Ellicott Mills Brew Pub this past weekend.

Parking at The Mall during the holidays can also be a challenge. I know of some HoCo locos who actually forswear going anywhere near the The Mall between Thanksgiving and New Years.

It isn’t all that bad. I’ve learned that it is all about timing, especially on the weekends. The trick is to go early. Yesterday I arrived at about 11:00 AM and found plenty of parking and found the manageable crowds in every store except the Apple store.

There was even plenty of room to take a break and put up your feet for a spell.

For me, no trip to The Mall during the holidays is complete without a visit to our poinsettia tree and I do consider this particular shopping center holiday décor item to be uniquely ours. While there are other poinsettia trees across the country, ours has a history. You can read more about that here.