Top Cop

When the Chief of Police agreed to come on our show I was prepared for a rather dull interchange with a lot of “Yes sirs” and “No sirs.” Obviously, I didn’t know Bill McMahon. Our HoCo top cop is a very engaging guy who gives as good as he gets in an interview. It was an unexpectedly fun show.

His appearance was pretty timely too given the police shooting last week of Jeffrey Nichols in Elkridge, the school bus incident in North Laurel and the expiration of the new speed camera warning period this week. We also got a chance to hear Bills thoughts on police technology, local police priorities and what is like to come to come up through the ranks to the top job in HoCo.

It was also a loaded news week. We talked about the controversy over the pilot program for women only swim times at the Columbia Swim Center, the MDOT / CSX public workshop for the proposed intermodal terminal, school redistricting and the charter review commission. Paul also talked about an article in the Baltimore Business Journal that found Ellicott City and Columbia to be among the top 25 of smartest communities in the U.S.

We also debuted a new feature we call our “Rants.” This is a short segment at the end of the show where each us shares something that we want to rant about. Paul focused on a new requirement for Small Business Administration loans for borrowers to certify that they have never been convicted of or pleaded no contest to sexual molestation of a minor while I ranted about the desecration of the Thanksgiving holiday by some major retailers.

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

Big Bet Goes Bad

Almost exactly three years ago, I lauded Eric Stein for his “big bet” in opening The Wine Seller in Shipley’s Grant. It was then the early days of the recession and this was his second HoCo store. Eric was one of the few loco businesses that dared to expand during those dark days.

Sadly it looks as if he lost that bet. When I drove past the store early this week I noticed the store had closed.

Three years ago few suspected that the economy would still be limping along in 2011.

It is also a sort of weird coincidence that it was overcast and raining when I took my first picture of his then new store and the weather was exactly the same when I snapped this picture on Wednesday.

It’s All about Jobs

Starbucks is flexing its big company muscle to help small business. Beginning this month they have launched a campaign in their stores to raise money to help create jobs in this country. The coffee company has teamed up with Opportunity Finance Network for The Create Jobs for USA program and seeded it with a $5 million contribution from the Starbucks Foundation.

They further claim that every $5.00 donation from their customers “can provide $30.00 of additional financing to support community business.”

Contributors also get a bracelet so they can wear their support on their sleeve, so to speak.

It is pretty much an accepted fact that small businesses are biggest generators of job growth in this country and as such they could be the key to reducing the stubbornly high unemployment rate. According to this story by Carol Roth in The Huffington Post:

• If one out of every two small businesses (50%) hired just ONE person, we would have zero unemployment;

• If each of the 6 million small businesses that has employees hired just two people, we would only have 2 million people unemployed in the US (1.3% unemployment);

• In contrast, business with more than 500 employees would need to hire an average of 655 people each to get to hire the same 12 million employees (i.e., to achieve 2 million people unemployed).

So I pitched in my five bucks today. I’m not sure if this will work but it seems like a small price to pay to give it a try.

Pick Up Artists

About eighteen months ago, at a meeting in Kahler Hall during the final stages of the debate over the redevelopment of Columbia Town Center, I first learned about a group of young people who were just beginning a cross country quest to raise awareness about littering. Appropriately enough, they called their mission Pick Up America and one of the original members of the group was Kelly Klein, daughter of CoFoCoDo activist, Alan Klein.  Alan, regular readers may recall, led the effort to stop the Town Center redevelopment legislation and then, having failed at that, attempted to unseat Councilperson Mary Kay Sigaty in last years council elections. 

According to the Pick Up America website, Alan still serves as Chairman of their board though Kelly is no longer listed as a crew member.

Over 272 days on the road, they've walked over 2,000 miles, crossed nine states and picked up almost 150,000 pounds of trash.

Last night they were featured on NBC Nightly News.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

No More Warnings

During their first month roll out “warning” period which ended today, HoCo’s new school zone speed cameras racked up 650 warning tickets. According to this story by Andrea F. Siegel in The Sun, it is now game on as “$40 citations start Wednesday.”

Of course this is all about safety for our children and has nothing to do with a potential new revenue stream for the county of thirty grand or so a month.

Then again, if you happen to run afoul of the robocops, sometimes you can fight city hall and win.

Hanover Intermodal Site Gets Favorable Review

Though the officials involved will insist otherwise, it would be hard not to conclude from the current MDOT/CSX public workshops that the proposed Hanover site is the best candidate for the CSX intermodal terminal. All of the four main factors that the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) selection process must take into consideration, the Hanover site has only one negative while the other three sites have at least two. According to Dominic Wiker, the Project Manger for MDOT, none of these individual factors carry any more weight than the others.

The Hanover site has the zoning, is not in a flood plain, contains virtually no wetlands, and does not impact any historic areas or structures. The Beltsville site does not have the zoning, is located in a flood plain and includes a historic area. The Montevideo site has the zoning but also has significant wetlands and is in a flood plain and historic areas. The Jessup site lacks the zoning and is almost all floodplain and wetlands, not to mention the home of an endangered species, the Glassy Darter.

And then there is the cost.

Preliminary analysis has further determined that the Hanover site would be the least costly to develop and not by an insignificant amount. It is estimated to be at least $35 million cheaper than the next lowest cost alternative, Beltsville. According to this story by Kevin Rector in Explore Howard these preliminary cost estimates take into account “a variety of projected expenses, including cost of acquiring land from private owners, the cost of gaining water, electric and utility access, the cost of shifting or relocating existing infrastructure and the cost of mitigating specific environmental concerns…”

The only area where Hanover comes up short of course is proximity to existing homes and some of those homeowners have been trying to get the Hanover site eliminated from consideration. These opponents were somewhat heartened last week when the HoCo school board sent a letter to Beverly Swaim-Staley, the Maryland Secretary of Transportation “strongly” urging her to consider an alternative site. The school board is concerned because they recently approved putting a new middle school just down the road from the Hanover site at Oxford Square. They did this knowing full well that an intermodal terminal in Hanover was a real possibility. It kind of makes you wonder what they were thinking.

In any event, based on what is being presented in the public workshops, the final selection of the intermodal terminal is still a long way off. According to this story by Michael Dresser in The Sun, “Residents who go to the workshops hoping to find clues to the eventual location are likely to be frustrated. Officials at Tuesday's briefing remained studiously neutral about the choices under consideration. Residents who may be concerned about the future of their neighborhoods are unlikely to know the outcome before late next year, when a site choice is expected to be announced.”

E-Readers 101

Last night the HoCo library hosted a seminar about everything you want to know about e-readers. As it turns out there’s a lot to know including formats, screen resolutions and weight. For instance, up until last night I was seriously considering buying an iPad that would also serve as my e-reader but last night changed my thinking. After comparing the heft of the iPad to the milieu of available e-readers, I’ve now concluded that might not be such a good idea.

It’s like the difference between reading a big book like Hero versus a short novel like The Art of Racing in the Rain. The short novel is much easier to hold when you are reclining. I read a lot while reclining.

Before I go any further, I should note that the e-reader seminar was conducted by Beth Tribe, the Information Technology Instructor and Specialist with the library (she has a blog too!). She was excellent. In addition to giving a thorough overview of the pros and cons of  the various readers on the market and those about to come on the market, she also had most of the readers with her and passed them around. I got to mess around with a Kobo (the lightest), a Pandigital, a Nook, Nook Simple Touch and Nook Color, Sony, iPad and Kindle.

Beth also pointed out that since I owned a smart phone I already had an e-reader. I knew that but I find the phone to be just a little too small for reading a novel. It’s fine for reading newspaper articles while waiting in line but not for the serious commitment of a book.

So where did I end up after the class?

For me, it looks like the Nook Tablet would be the best fit, which coincidentally became available in stores today just in case Santa is reading this. Though it isn’t as light as the Kobo it is a couple of ounces lighter than an a iPad and features an Android operating system.

And speaking of the Art of Racing in the Rain, while working on this post I ran across this video promotion for the book. It still ranks as one of my favorite reads.

New Elkridge Market Opens Tomorrow

As I drove past the Elkridge Corners Shopping Center this afternoon I saw workmen busily putting the final touches on the new Green Valley Market. The new grocery concept store from food wholesaler B. Green is scheduled to open tomorrow morning and, from the outside at least, its looking pretty good.

In fact it looks like the whole shopping center got a bit of a facelift. Nice.

I may actually be in that corner of HoCo again tomorrow so hopefully I’ll get a chance to drop in and check it out.

UPDATE 11/16: Mo over at the Swim Write Run blog provides an opening day report here.

A Seat at the Table

The Maryland Department of Transportation held a “Media Roundtable” today to give members of the press a preview of the information that will be presented in a series of public intermodal workshops scheduled for this week in Beltsville, Jessup and Elkridge.

They also invited a couple bloggers to the somewhat rectangle roundtable, specifically, Brian Dunn and yours truly.

No doubt we were included because our blogs have weighed in on the issue but I was still a bit surprised at the invite. From my perspective this speaks volumes to the perceived influence of loco blogs.

I think it’s a good thing. The more writers covering a topic like the proposed intermodal facility the more chances for the public to be informed.

Afterwards, in the parking lot, I had a brief conversation with Elizabeth Janney, the editor of Elkridge Patch.  

“We’re you here for HoCoMoJo?” she asked.

Actually I was there for the readers of Tales of Two Cities. I told her that my report on the information presented would likely be different than hers since mine would include the obligatory blogger personal opinion. In fact, I’ll likely wait to see what the working press has to say before I write a post about it. That way I can link to their words as well.

After all, that’s the luxury of blogging.

Junk Calls

Is there anything more annoying than getting a robocall on your cellphone?

Okay, so maybe the person who uses the express check-out lane with a cart full of groceries and a fist full of coupons might be more annoying but still…

Nobody likes getting an automated call on their mobile phones…or do they?

According to this story by Randall Stross in The New York Times there are good robocalls and there are bad robocalls.

“A robocall to a cellphone about a scheduled softball game that has just been rained out is welcome. A robocall to the same cellphone from a debt collector may not be.”

Some in the telecommunications industry would like to make it easier to make the bad kind and “are pushing for a clearer path to making those calls.”

“Telemarketers cannot make prerecorded calls to either residential landlines or cellphones, unless the recipient has provided express consent or has a business relationship with the caller. For commercial calls that do not involve an explicit sales pitch, the law extends special protection to cellphones: automated equipment cannot be used unless the recipient has provided consent.”

This consent has proven to be fairly ambiguous so the FCC is working on stricter rules to define what actually qualifies as consent. Powerful interests including the American Bankers Association and the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals are pushing back, arguing that the current rules are outdated.

“The lobbyists try to argue that the protections extended to cellphones in 1991 were necessary only because the per-minute cost of receiving calls was high. Those costs have fallen greatly since then — so, they argue, there is no need to continue to treat cellphones differently.”

Judging from what Steve Kroft reported last night about the way Congress works these days, it looks like we’re screwed.

Goosebumps for Math

Thirty some years ago, UMBC was often derided as a second rate college. Some wags said the initials stood for U Must Be Crazy and that the Catonsville campus was the school you ended up going to if you couldn't get into anywhere else.

That all started to change in 1992 when Freeman Hrabowski became president. Today, UMBC is a honors university that ranks right up there with Loyola University in terms of admission requirements. The academic elevation of UMBC is largely credited to President Hrabowski, a guy who says he gets “goosebumps from math.”

Last night he was featured on 60 Minutes.

It was big night on 60 minutes for the Baltimore area. Frederick Bealefeld, the Baltimore City Police Commissioner, was prominently featured in this report about the use of tasers.

Talk about goosebumps!

Loser

The voting for the third annual Mobbie competition for loco bloggers wrapped up last week. Out of eleven blogs nominated for Best HoCo blog, Tales of Two Cities finished ninth.

Loser.

It’s a pretty far fall from that heady first year of the competition when I took home the Mobbie for Best Political Blog, a category that was retired after Hedgehog won it last year. 

Of course there were other losers too.  HowChow, arguably one of the highest trafficked blogs in HoCo finished seventh. That just doesn’t make sense to me. I could understand second or third but not seventh.

Then again what do I know?

The one thing that the Mobbie competition did demonstrate to me is that HoCo has one the most vibrant blogging communities in the Baltimore Metro Area. Only Baltimore City had more nominees than HoCo.

Winner!

UPDATE 11/14/11: In case you are one of those readers who don't bother to read the comments, please note that I got this WRONG! The listings I mistook for the final tally were in fact simply alphabetical as fellow HoCo blogger Sarah Says helpfully suggested. Sometimes the only exercise I get is jumping to conclusions...

A Solar Farm Grows in HoCo

On top of a former county landfill in Ellicott City a solar farm is taking shape. According to this article by Joe Burris in The Baltimore Sun, the 2,000 solar panels sprouting up next to Worthington Elementary School “will supply the school with solar energy year-round.”

Well not really. The roughly 600,000 hours of kilowatt energy produced by this installation will be sold on to the power grid. The school will receive renewable energy credits to offset their fossil fuel energy costs. In addition to the free land donated by the county, the project received a Project SunBurst Grant of about a half million dollars from the Maryland Energy Administration.

In other words, this little sustainable energy project is being sustained by a host of credits and subsidies.

Sadly, it also took away a walking trail that was popular neighborhood residents who regularly risked the wrath of the DPW and their No Trespassing signs in order to get a little exercise.

Of course this little solar demonstration project is also being touted as a learning laboratory for the students at Worthington. I doubt the curriculm will also cover the role of government subsidies in energy policy.

Master Number

Today is one those dates on the calendar that numbers people love, 11/11/11. Today, there will be more weddings, more movie releases and even more lottery ticket sales than your normal second Friday in November. As Jessica Dickler November points out in this story on CNN Money “that set of numbers won't roll around again for another 100 years.”

In this story by Monica Hesse in The Washington Post, numerologist Sonia Ducie Dip explains the significance of the number eleven.

 “Eleven is a master number,” she patiently explains, meaning that it’s the same digit, doubled. When a digit is doubled or tripled, its qualities become more intense. “The issue with 11 is that it’s meant to wake us up, spiritually. It’s a number for inspiration and passion.” Many celebrities have 11 in their numerical charts, she says. Also, because the two ones in 11 add up to two — a number of sharing and collaboration — the 11th could be a good day to get married.”

Then again, for most people its just another day. As Hesse points out “11/11/2011 might come around only once, but you know what other date that’s true of? 11/12.”

Politics & Old Dogs

At the end of Ken Ulman’s fundraiser last night I chatted briefly with Delegate Guy Guzzone and his wife Pam. Guy was the emcee for Ken’s gathering and his remarks were notable for their brevity.

“The best speech in history was only 265 words,” he observed.

Indeed, and it was written by a Repub to boot.

I don’t think Guy even used that many words. I took the occasion to probe him a little about his future political plans to which he was predictably coy. Then I turned to Pam and asked what she would like to see him do.

“I’d like to see him become county executive,” she said without the slightest bit of doubt or hesitation.

I like her. Pam works in organizational development at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, not quite a rocket scientist but you don’t really need to be one to understand the HoCo loco politico scene.

It was also an evening about old dogs, another subject near and dear to my heart. I was catching up with Ian Kennedy when he shared with me that his dog, a Husky named Atticus, is not doing well. “He has good days and bad days,” Ian said, “he still has the spirit of a young dog though some days he has difficulty just standing up.”

Ian knows it is only a matter of time before he has to say goodbye to his loyal friend and dreads the inevitable. It couldn’t come at a worse time either, with a new baby due in a matter of weeks. Joy and sadness at the same time seems so unfair. I felt for him.

I also spent time with HoCo loco energy guru Bert Wilson. Bert is the Managing Member of Castlebridge Energy Group. His wife Suzanne and her partner Tee run The Olbadi Inn in Ellicott City. Bert has a 12 year old dog at home with doggie diabetes. He showed me a picture of Buster on his phone. He told me that he had to get home to give Buster his insulin shot.

Bert wonders if Buster will it make it through the holidays.

When I got home I saw facebook posting from Mickey Gomez about the passing of her dog, Indy. She wrote a warm tribute to her old friend on her blog. Fair warning, if you love dogs you’ll have a hard time keeping your tear ducts in check.

And since this is Veterans Day, I offer this Veterans Day dog story by Steve Hendrix in The Washington Post. Just one day after rescuing a batch of puppies in Iraq, Army Specialist Justin Rollins was killed by roadside bomb. In one of the last photos taken of Justin he was cradling one of the puppies.

“When his flag-draped transfer case arrived at an airfield in New Hampshire, an Army general asked the family members if there was anything he could do for them.

As a matter of fact, there was.

“I want one of those puppies,” Rhonda answered immediately.”

The story of how Hero made it home is about as good a tribute to vets and the dogs they love as I could find.

To all the vets who stop by here, thank you for your service.

The Mothers Milk of Politics

County Exec Ken Ulman is holding a fundraiser tonight in Columbia and some of his supporters are already openly touting his gubernatorial bid. According to this post by Jessica Anderson on the Maryland Politics blog, Evergreen Advisors sent out an email promoting tonight’s event saying that Ken “desires to attain the Governor's seat for Maryland, so that all citizens will benefit from his administration's initiatives.”

He’ll have to do a few more of these events to catch up with another Dem who has eyes on the governor’s mansion, Doug Gansler. According to the last campaign funding reports Ken has $439,668.00 in his campaign war chest while Gansler had $2,905,529.00.

Peter Franchot, the state comptroller has also been waging an unannounced campaign for the states top job, He reports having $515,458.00 in the campaign kitty. The Lt. Guv, Anthony Brown is at the back of money pack with only $126,300.00.

Of course, 2014 is still a long way away. There could yet be another fresh face on the Maryland political scene and there is still time for someone to start from scratch. In the meantime, these front four will continue to build their respective bank balances and take advantage of an getting an early start, even without any “official” announcement.

A Field Hockey Phenomenon

In the thirty five years that Virginia Kincaid has been coaching Glenelg High School's field hockey teams she has amassed an impressive number of state and county titles. So when she says that she’s never seen a player like Alyssa Parker, its something to take note of.

This season, Alyssa Parker has scored over 100 goals which in and of itself is pretty impressive. What is even more impressive is the fact that she also has 100 assists. According to this story by Greg Schimmel in The Washington Post, she is “only the second player in the recorded history of the National Federation of State High School Associations to reach triple digits in both stats.”

“I like the 100 assists a lot more,” said Parker, who has orally committed to play for Maryland, the defending NCAA champion. “It’s about the team effort.”

It’s likely to get even better. Tonight the Gladiators played Queen Anne’s High School in the Maryland 2A Semifinals. The results of that 5 PM game were not available as I wrote this post but hopefully a commenter can provide an update later.

Regardless of tonights outcome, Alyssa has had a memorable senior season. Congratulations!

Innocent but Politically Damaged

Senator Ulysses Currie, once one of the most powerful members of the Maryland General Assembly, was found not guilty of extortion and bribery charges by a federal jury in Baltimore yesterday. According to this story by Tricia Bishop in The Sun, the trial that lasted over six weeks “took a mental toll on defendants who could have faced decades in prison if convicted, on jurors who described the process as taxing, and on lawyers from both sides of the aisle who collectively devoted years to the case.”

"It's been a rough four years," Currie said outside the courthouse, thanking his legal team and constituents for standing by him. He characterized the acquittal — delivered on Election Day in Baltimore — as "the greatest moment" of his life."

It took a toll on Senator Curries stature as a statesmen too as even his defenders described him as not being very bright. In this story by John Wagner in The Washington Post, Timothy F. Maloney, a former member of the House of Delegates “described the 74-year-old lawmaker as “a wonderful person” and “nice,” but insisted the Prince George’s County Democrat is not known by his colleagues to be smart.”

That’s not what you want to hear about the man who, until he was indicted, served as the chair of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.

Even Congressman Steny Hoyer described Currie as someone “not particularly taken with details or organization."

And these are his friends!

When Currie stepped down as chair of the powerful committee, he was replaced by HoCo Senator Ed Kasemeyer. Even though he has now been acquitted of criminal charges he still faces a review by the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics before he could reclaim his chairmanship.

Given these damaging statements about his intellect and capacity for organization, even if he clears this ethics hurdle, it’s hard to imagine his committee colleagues supporting a return to his former leadership role.

Sayonara Santastic

Four years ago The Mall attempted to replace a treasured HoCo holiday tradition with a new one. After thirty six years the iconic poinsettia tree in the center court fountain was replaced by a Santa on steroids exhibit dubbed Santastic.

The resulting community uproar eventually led to the departure of the mall manager and the return of the poinsettia tree the following year.

This year, Santastic got the boot. Instead of the towering Santa House and faux toy factory, replete with a Naughty or Nice meter, a much more toned down Santaland is taking form in the court adjacent to the fountain area.

When it first debuted, the Santastic display even included a snow making machine that rained fake snow down on Santa at regular intervals throughout the day. In the past couple of years this feature, arguably the coolest thing about the monstrous display, had been disabled.

The cheap thrill was gone.

The poinsettia tree on the other hand, has retained its charm.

BAM!

Tales of Two Cities netizen Erik DeVito sent me a note yesterday about the opening of Books A Million in Columbia. It was only two months ago that the company won approval from the bankruptcy court to take over the former Borders space in the Columbia Crossing Shopping Center.

BAM moves fast.

Actually, as the “pardon our progress” sign on the front door suggests, the new bookstore isn’t quite ready for primetime. I couldn’t even get a cup of coffee in the rechristened Joe Muggs Café though an employee told me it should be open by the end of the week.

Book lovers familiar with the old Borders will find the new store easy to navigate. The café is in the same place as are the registers and music section. This is probably why they were able to reopen so fast. The changes that they’ve made to the store are relatively minor.

One thing that did strike me was a display (still being put together) for Barnes & Nobles e-book e-reader, The Nook. According to this story by Robert Nelson in gadgetell, this deal was announced a year ago.

“In a slightly surprising move, Books-A-Million has announced that they have begun selling the Barnes & Noble NOOKcolor ebook reader. And when we say slightly strange, that is only because while customers will be able to purchase and read BAM! eBooks on the device—they may not be as easy to purchase and get on the device as say—Barnes & Noble ebooks. Sounds like a risky move for Books-A-Million, but then again maybe any customer is better than none.”

Though I swore I wouldn’t buy any more hardcover books I made an exception today and help support HoCo’s newest bookstore. Dana Priest has written a book based on her Top Secret America series in The Washington Post and she told me she’d sign a copy if I sent her one. That’s not so easy to do with an e-book.

Personally, I Prefer a Blowout

Tonight, on WBAL-TV News, they ran a cell phone survey asking viewers whether, when watching the Ravens, they prefer a blowout or a close game like last night. 72% of the respondents picked close game.

Not me.

Don’t get me wrong. I like a good close football game as much as anyone. It’s exciting. I just don’t like it when it’s my team. When my team is playing I like total, unconditional dominance from the opening kick-off to the last play of the game, like the last time we thumped the Steelers on 9/11. 

Last night I was so pumped up with adrenaline when the game ended around midnight it took me another hour to get to sleep.

A blowout would have been much more relaxing

New Library to Open December 17th

The new Miller Branch library in Ellicott City will officially open its doors on Saturday, December 17^th at 9:45 AM with a ribbon cutting by the exec.

Running Man

At the end of our last show we announced that this week’s special guest would be HoCo’s new economic development chief, Laura Nueman. Unfortunately, due to what I’ll simply refer to as scheduling snafu, it turns out that Laura didn’t know anything about it. We needed a Plan B.

Robert Vigorito has been a guest we’ve had on our radar for awhile but so far we hadn’t been able to find a date that worked. “Vigo”, as many in town affectionately call him, is literally a man in constant motion.

Fortunately for us, when this weeks slot suddenly opened up he just happened to be available and was happy to sit down in The Mall with us. Vigo is the man behind the Columbia Triathlon, one of the premier triathlon events in the country that this year alone attracted athletes from 38 states. Over 28 years the Columbia Triathlon has contributed over $3 million to loco charities.

In 2006 he started the first Iron Girl triathlon in the nation right here in HoCo.

We’re lucky to still have him around too. Last October, while training in Hawaii for the Iron Man competition, he was struck by pick up truck while riding his bicycle. He got pretty banged up with nine broken ribs, a fractured scapula, a collapsed lung and a cut lip.

Judging from his appearance Friday, he has completely recovered. He said he feels fine.

In the news stories we had talked about everything from Whole Foods to the weather.

You can listen to the latest episode of “and there’s that…” here.

Hard Rock in Woodstock

Yesterday we headed out to Woodstock to explore some of the hiking trails in that area of the Patapsco Valley State Park. We parked next to a group of mountain bikers who were packing up after their morning ride.

One of the guys asked if we were familiar with the trails in the area and I him told we weren’t. He helpfully recommended a trail leading up to an abandoned granite quarry that is now a hidden lake.

“It’s pretty awesome up there,” he offered.

 He was right. After crossing over the river into Baltimore County we easily picked up the trail with the help of an excellent trail map I purchased last year from the Department of Natural Resources.

 This portion of the park is pretty popular with the horse crowd. We shared the trail with groups of riders as we trekked up about a mile to the quarry.

This quarry is one of many that once thrived in this part of the Patapsco River Valley. According to this history of the area written by Paul T. Morgan, the granite mined here is considered “the finest, hardest granite rock on the North American continent.”

“Granite from Granite made the walls of the Baltimore Custom House. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. sent a Dr. David Owen on an inspection tour of building material sources. Of Waltersville and Fox Rock quarries at Granite he reported: "For about a mile square at this locality is an outburst of quartzose, granite of magnificent quality, both as regards beauty of appearance, compactness of structure and uniformity of color, texture and composition. I have never seen anything superior in this country. Indeed, I doubt whether it can be excelled in any country. It cannot be surpassed for strength and durability by any building material in the world." The original Smithsonian Institution in Washington is built of granite from Granite.”

Having Patapsco State Park so close by is one of the best parts of living in HoCo. This trail just across the border is one we will definitely visit again.

FiOS Fail

When Mama Wordbones and I decide to settle in for an evening at home with a movie the biggest challenge is finding a movie we can agree on. In the day and age of On Demand cable service there are almost too many choices. The division of labor in our home usually leaves it to me to winnow down the cinematic choices while she bakes cookies or pops popcorn. As the movie maestro, I am expected to have a selection of trailers for her to peruse when she’s ready to sit down. After viewing said trailers a discussion inevitably ensues about the pros and cons of each.

You are probably getting that this is not always an easy process.

And so it was last night, after finally settling on a choice, I clicked “rent” on the chosen movie only to receive a message that said something on the order that my box didn’t have sufficient “credit” to purchase this movie.

“You paid the bill didn’t you?” she asked.

Yes, I replied, mildly annoyed at the suggestion that I was a deadbeat. The FiOS message also had a number to call with a code if I had any questions. I dialed the number and then proceeded to wait on hold for over fifteen minutes listening to an endless stream of mind numbing music which was occasionally interrupted by a recorded voice telling me how much Verizon valued me as a customer.

I wasn’t feeling the love.

When a customer service agent finally came on the line I did my best to hold my annoyance in check. I understood that the poor schlub on the other end had nothing to do with the problem. After a series a questions verifying that I was indeed one of their valued customers (who else would wait on hold that long on a Saturday night) I explained the situation.

“We are having a technical problem with On Demand tonight,” she explained.

"And would you be doing anything for your "valued customers" to make up for this inconvenience?” I inquired.

“I’ll need your account number first before I can do anything,” she replied.

Seriously?

“You just verified that I’m a valued Verizon customer, why do you need my account number too?”

She insisted that this was indeed required. I told her that she’d need to hold this time while I went and retrieved my last bill. When I returned to phone I discovered that she had hung up.

We turned off the TV and read our books instead, thinking that perhaps, Netflix, Red Box or even the library might be a better way to go.

Whole Foods Coming to HoCo?

After forty four years, Town Center may finally be getting a grocery store. Multiple informed sources have confirmed that Whole Foods Market is in the final stages of negotiations with the Howard Hughes Corporation to lease the main floor of the former Rouse Company headquarters building to become the organic grocers ninth Maryland store and first in Howard County. The other three floors of the re purposed building will likely become a mix of office and other retail.

Town Center is the only Columbia village that has never had a grocery store. Out of the ten villages in the planned community, it has the fewest number of dwelling units. That is about to change. With the redevelopment process now underway, Town Center will eventually become one of the largest villages in Columbia, second only to Long Reach in terms of total residential units.

Snagging Whole Foods for Town Center would be a huge coup for the developer and should act as a catalyst for additional redevelopment around Lake Kittamaqundi.

The former Rouse headquarters is a four story 127,000 square foot office building designed by Frank Gehry. It was completed in 1974 and remained the headquarters of Columbia’s original developer until The Rouse Company merged with General Growth Properties in 2004. Today, only a small portion of the building is occupied by its current owners, Howard Hughes, the new entity that was created by GGP and spun off when the company emerged from bankruptcy a year ago. While the Columbia mall remains part of General Growth, much of the undeveloped land in Town Center and several buildings at the lakefront, became part of Howard Hughes.

As part of the redevelopment legislation, the developer agreed to preserve the iconic lakefront building.

HoCo Library by the Numbers

The HoCo library system has the highest number of items borrowed per capita than any other system in the state. According to their latest annual report, of the 6,971,086 items borrowed over the past year, 40% were fiction, 38% non-fiction, 19% non-print (presumably videos and such), and 3% “e-resources.”

I suspect that e-resource number to climb next year. The library’s annual report also reports that virtual visits outnumbered physical visits by almost two to one.

Almost everyone in HoCo has a library card too. The system currently has 262,302 cardholders. According to 2010 census, the population of HoCo is 287,085 which indicates to me that the library likely touches more HoCo citizens than any other loco government service, including the school system.

The annual operating budget of just over $18 million is 84% funded by the county, 12% from the State and various grants and 4% from library generated revenue, which presumably includes those late fees I always end up paying.

Strange Brew

We’ve been having record breaking weather this year. July was the hottest month ever recorded in the DC metro area. We had the fifth wettest September and the tenth wettest August. October, according to this story by Martin Weil in The Washington Post, was all “about low temperatures.”

“On Oct. 2, the mercury never rose above 52 degrees, which was 21 degrees below the normal high temperature for the date, and it tied a record. On Oct. 3, the high temperature for the day at Reagan National Airport was 53, which is 20 degrees below normal for Washington on that date. That reading also matched a record.”

This strange brew of weather is the new normal everywhere. Tuesday night, on the NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams reported “that we’ll all have to start getting use to this kind of thing over the long haul.”

In the near future, the big question locally is how much snow we will see this winter. The Washington Post is running a little contest to see who can come closest to predicting the total snowfall this winter. The winner will be recognized on the Capital Weather Gang blog “and have full bragging rights.”

That’s almost as good as a Mobbie…maybe better.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Take Me to the River but Don’t Wash Me Down

River bathing is another issue that the HoCo Parks & Rec Department attempts to address in their new sign on the Patuxent Branch Trail. As follow up to this post George Berkheimer got confirmation from Jennifer DeArmey, the Park Operations Superintendent, that naked bathing was an indeed an issue in the park this past summer.

Really?

Considering that only a year ago the river water in Savage was described as having bacteria levels higher than a dirty toilet these river bathers may actually be worse off after their bath.

Norman Loses…Again

Believe it or not, Marc Norman is still trying to keep Harris Teeter from opening a grocery store in Turf Valley. Though he tries to wrap his fight in the cloak of referendum rights, the fact remains that all his legal maneuverings are being bankrolled by the food workers union who would simply like to keep the non union grocer from opening another store in HoCo.

Despite repeated attempts, neither state nor federal courts have bought his arguments. His latest defeat came from a state appeals court. According to this story by Andrea F. Siegel and Jessica Anderson in The Sun, the court “refused to revive a petition that would allow Howard County voters to weigh in on the zoning approval for a supermarket at a proposed shopping center in Turf Valley.”

Marc remains undaunted. Apparently now he’s also hoping to glom onto the Occupy movement.

"It's an outrage that the government seems to thwart the will of the people, to thumb their nose at the will of the people," he said, calling it "indicative of the sentiment felt by the Occupy Wall Street movement."

I don’t think that the average protestor camped out on the streets would relate very well to someone living in a luxury home in a private golf course community but I suppose you can’t blame a guy for trying.

In This Months Business Monthly

While all the attention has been focused on the redevelopment of Columbia Town Center other parts of the planned community have been gradually losing their allure. Back in the day when The Rouse Company ruled the roost, every employee of the company served as Columbia covenant cops, particularly in the towns’ business parks. As soon as a business would violate the tastefully crafted covenants with a garish sign or fail to replace a dead tree the company would pounce upon the offender with certified letters threatening legal action. They would not let up until the offense was cured.

No longer. These days covenant crime in Columbia is on the march as the ranks of the enforcers have been decimated by mergers and bankruptcies.

Some may dismiss this as no big deal. Columbia’s covenants were often seen as being way too restrictive anyway. A little loosening of the rules can’t be all that bad they’ll argue.

I happen to disagree. These covenants are part of what makes Columbia stand out from other communities. My company has an office in Towson and I regularly travel there for meetings. Towson is arguably one of the nicer business communities in the Baltimore metro area but the contrast to Columbia is striking.

To be sure, the business areas of Columbia have long to way to go before they start to resemble the business areas of Towson but the trend has already begun in places like Dobbin Road.

First it was the taped over cracks in the plate glass windows over at Hamni, Inc. They’ve been this way for over three years.  Now, just down the street there’s a new barbed wire topped galvanized chain link fence. If these businesses are allowed to get away with this, others will inevitably follow.

You can read this month’s column here.

Headed North

Saturdays freak October storm left over a half million residents of New Jersey without power and led the governor to declare a state of emergency. This usually results in out of state utility crews being called in to help.

This afternoon this caravan from Georgia Power was spotted taking a break on their journey north at the Gateway Overlook Shopping Center in Columbia.

It looks like some folks in Jersey could soon have Georgia on their minds. 

And The Mall Came Tumbling Down

From its inception, the Laurel Mall has been an also ran. Added as a monolith appendage in 1979 to a relatively successful strip center, it was both poorly conceived and executed. Over the years a progression of operators, including GGP,  has attempted to turn it around to no avail. Every attempt was akin to putting lipstick on a pig.

It will now be torn down by the same company that is developing the Turf Valley Town Square.

According to this story by Ben Giles in the Washington Examiner, “Greenberg Gibbons plans to demolish the mall entirely and rebuild it as a town center similar to the Annapolis Towne Centre and Hunt Valley Towne Centre -- retail and residential developments the company helped design.”

The deconstruction is expected to begin before the end of the year.

Three Things for Tuesday

The neighborhood I live in now is one of those neighborhoods that gets absolutely jammed on Halloween. For about two hours last night, the streets were overrun with laughter and squeals. It was wonderful.

Admittedly I haven’t always felt this way. I can even recall years where I tried to ignore the holiday by riding out the evening in a loco watering hole, preferably one that wasn’t festooned with ghoulish foolishness.

I think becoming a parent changed that for me. The excitement of my kid for this night of home hopping and candy harvesting is infectious. 

It’s always interesting when a loco blog reader decides to become a blog writer as well. It seems that by reading the blogs they are able to find their own voice. I think that is the case with Julia McCready. Julia has been a regular and frequent commenter of HoCo loco blogs and now she has started her own, Village Green/ Town Squared. As someone who serves on her village board, she brings a studied and well written perspective to Columbia community issues. Welcome.

My sister is also a regular reader and commenter of Tales of Two Cities. Though she now lives in Baltimore, she grew up in Columbia and graduated from Glenelg back before Columbia even had a high school. In the late sixties and early seventies and they shipped all the Columbia kids out west because that was the only HoCo high that had excess capacity.

Anyway…

Kelly has recently completed a children's story about dogs. Her friend David Isreal even wrote a song to go with it. 

Nice job sis!