Nice Ride

When I drove by the Columbia Pike Shell in Ellicott City the other day and spotted this old Hudson I immediately thought of Paul Newman’s character, Doc Hudson in the Pixar movie “Cars.”

It's rare to see a Hudson is such great condition. Yesterday I pulled into the service station at the intersection of Route 29 and Montgomery Road for a closer look. The guy behind the counter at the station told me that this 1949 Hudson belongs to a customer named “Jack.”

Nice ride Jack.

The fuzzy dice add a nice touch too.

Make Way

I have a small golf calendar on my desk at work. Each day features a golf quote of some sort. Today’s was from Bob Hope. It struck me as particularly timely given the latest weather initiative from Dr. Peter Beilenson.

“If I’m on the golf course and lightning starts, I get inside fast. If God wants to play through, let him.”

Federal Lawsuit Update 2

click to enlarge

There is still another federal lawsuit pending against the county. This is the lawsuit brought by Phillip Rousseau, Carvel Mays, Jr., Frank Martin and Paul F. Kendall. As in the lawsuit that was dismissed yesterday, the plaintiffs are represented by Susan Baker
Gray.

Phillip Rousseau specifically complains that his “home is about ¾ of a mile from the Seiling Industrial Park site. Historically, this property has been used for low intensity use, most recently as the set for the TV show “The Wire.” Plaintiff Rousseau and his wife will be severely harmed if the site is redeveloped into big box grocery stores as would be allowed under Final Development Plan Amendment, FDP 117-A-II, approved by the Howard County Planning Board in January of 2008.”

The complaint goes on to allege that:

"It has been estimated that were the entire property to develop in this manner, such development would generate huge increases in traffic on Snowden River Parkway behind Plaintiff’s home.

Plaintiff is aware that as of this time there is one big box grocery store—a Wegmans-- which is seeking approval to be constructed from Howard County. With Wegmans built, more and more large trucks will traverse Snowden River Parkway behind Plaintiff’s home because the parkway provides direct access to the distribution trucks coming from the mid west and providing goods to the store. Many of these trucks are diesel and will bring with them the additional fumes, dust, and noise, emanating from such engines.

The construction of Wegmans, a regional shopping venue, will draw shoppers from all over the region. Shoppers coming from western and southwestern Howard County, Montgomery County and Carroll County will likely use Snowden River Parkway behind Plaintiff’s home to get to and from the store.

Such additional truck and vehicle traffic behind Plaintiff’s home, resulting from the completion of a Wegmans store, will severely and negatively affect Plaintiff and his family’s ability to enjoy their home and the value of their property. "

What is truly interesting to me is the complaint about truck traffic and diesel fumes. What Phil fails to mention in this complaint is that, prior to being used to film “The Wire”, this property was used for the regional distribution of medical products by Cardinal Health. If anything the amount of truck traffic has actually decreased as the nature of the area has shifted from industrial to retail uses.

And the status of this case?

According to Kevin Enright, the county has yet to be served. Go figure that! Someone should tell Phil that the county offices are now almost as close to his house as the Wegmans site

Federal Lawsuit Update 1

Recently I contacted Kevin Enright, the Director of the Office of Public Information to get an update on the three federal lawsuits that had been filed against the county by the activists favorite attorney, Susan Baker Gray.

I had no way of knowing how timely my request would be. This morning I received an email from a regular Tales of Two Cities commenter, Lotsabogeys, informing me that the lawsuit filed on behalf of Paul Kendall, et al, claiming that the county had deprived them of their First Amendment rights, their right to “substantive due process and equal protection as established by the Fourteenth Amendment” and their right “to petition the government for redress of grievances as protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution has been “dismissed without prejudice.”

A few months back when Frank Martin asked me why I hadn’t written anything about his lawsuit (he was one of the “et al” parties) I told it was because I thought the whole exercise was ridiculous.

Apparently the judge agreed.

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND

PAUL F. KENDALL, et al., *
Plaintiffs, *
*
v. * Civil No. JFM 09-CV-369
*
HOWARD COUNTY, MARYLAND, *
et al., *
Defendants. * *
*****
ORDER
For the reasons stated in the accompanying opinion, it is, this 30th day of July 2009
ORDERED

1. Plaintiffs’ motion for a preservation order (document 11) is denied;
2. Plaintiffs’ motion and application for preliminary injunction (document 17) is denied;
3. Defendants’ motion to dismiss (document 19) is granted in part and denied in part;
4. Plaintiffs’ claims for equitable or discretionary relief are dismissed;
5. Plaintiffs’ claims for money damages are stayed for a period of at least sixty days; and
6. This case is administratively closed.

J. Frederick Motz
United States District Judge

A big wag of the wordbones tail to Lotsabogeys….here’s hoping you get more birdies!

Ellicott City Parking Plan B

I had intended to write a post about the latest news on the Ellicott City parking situation yesterday but I got a little sidetracked. Both my real job and my paid writing gig interfered with my blogging time. This morning I was able to steal a few minutes before running into Baltimore to show a property.

According to this story by Mike Santa Rita in the Howard County Times this week, “county officials are considering installing a paid parking system or making the entire street into a timed zone where parkers would have to leave after a certain time period without simply moving to another spot along the street.”

Parking in Ellicott City has been a hotly debated topic among the locals for some time now. While some, including me, have advocated for a parking garage and the elimination of on-street parking on Main Street, others have insisted that there is plenty of parking already in the old town and that the parking problem is overstated.

Steve Lafferty, the Director of Special Projects for the Department of Planning and Zoning thinks a paid parking program might address some of the parking issues that some merchants believe are a detriment to business.

“Currently county officials are in discussions with Ellicott City merchants to decide whether to pursue paid parking on Main Street or whether to make the entire street a timed zone, Lafferty said. Meetings on the topic are planned for August, he said.”

Stay tuned

Those Apartment Recycling Blues

A commenter identified as “SH” on a recent post raised a question about why Howard County had stopped free recycling to the county apartment complexes. SH went on to ask the following four questions:

“How does it work for folks in single-family homes or townhouses? Do you pay extra for recycling? Is it funded through property taxes? Am I wrong to be annoyed?”

Well SH, I contacted Josh Feldmark, the county environmental czar, and got some answers for you. As it turns out, owners of townhomes and single family homes in the county pay an annual recycling fee of $39.00. For “several years” this service was provided to county apartment dwellers at no charge “but that program fell victim to budget cuts.”

“With the cancellation of the program, if the complex wants to continue recycling, they can do one of three things. We will continue having our contractors pick up the recycling for a fee that we pass on to the residents. They can sign up for the Chamber of Commerce's new recycling co-op or they can arrange a private contract the same way they do for trash.”

I asked Josh to identify some of the apartment complexes that have taken some of these steps. He cited Bowling Book, Columbia Town Center, Autumn Crest, Elkridge Town Center and Orchard Park apartment complexes as participating in the Chamber co-op program and he further informed me that Poplar Glen, Village Towns and Gatherings at Lynwood have arrangements with private contractors.

And as to the final question as to whether it is wrong to be annoyed, I'd have to say no. The only question is who to be annoyed with. If it were me and my apartment complex did not have a recycling program I’d be annoyed with the management.

Pick the Opening Act

Virgin Mobile is sponsoring a contest to select the opening act for the FreeFest at Merriweather Post Pavilion on August 30th. You can find the details here.

Lakefront Table Games

On my way to meet a colleague for lunch at Clyde’s today I noticed that the outdoor tables had been moved.

They were relocated to the lakefront gazebo where Clyde’s hosts after work parties during the warm months.Is this a permanent change?

Not quite. It turns out that the liquor license for the space adjacent to the restaurant was never “extended” and therefore the restaurant was compelled by the Liquor Board to move this operation to the gazebo space where they still had an active license.

The move is temporary. According to Billy, one of the restaurant managers, the tables will return around August 12th…if all goes well that is.

No Income Housing

According to this story by Larry Carson in The Sun today, five tenants of the Hilltop Housing in Ellicott report having no income.

The apartment complex, which is owned by the Howard County Housing Commission, charges rents “which require residents to pay no more than thirty percent of household income, are encouraging dependence in some residents.”

So what’s 30% of nothing?

Rocky Gap Road Trip Part Two

Now that we are back home in Howard County I thought I share my thoughts and observations about Rocky Gap.

First of all, Rocky Gap State Park is a true gem. The unspoiled mountain vistas are good for the soul and the park offers lots of hiking trials for both novice and expert hikers. There is even a specially designed trail for the disabled.

Staying at the lodge is not cheap. Room rates this time of year range from $219 to $240 per night. For that you get a room comparable to a mid priced hotel with a very small bathroom. On the plus side, the windows in the rooms open so you can turn off the a/c and enjoy the cool mountain air in the evenings.

Forget about newspapers. On the weekends, none are delivered to the hotel, not even to the small gift shop. On weekdays you can get a copy of USA Today. Oddly, you can’t even get a copy of the Cumberland Times News which is published just seven miles down the road. Internet access is provided at $6 a day.

There are plenty of things to do, golf, tennis, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, mountain biking, hiking, and fishing are all available in the park. Nearby Cumberland even offers some nightlife, on Friday nights in particular. Before we left this morning Mama Wordbones and I biked around the town an even took in a portion of the C&O Canal towpath. That was where I spotted this nice memorial to the Irish laborers who perished during the building of the canal.

Will we go back?

Absolutely. It is a nice getaway about two hours and less than three quarters of a tank of gas (in an SUV) from here.

Rocky Gap Road Trip Part One

Yesterday Mama Wordbones and I loaded up the bikes and headed out to western Maryland for a getaway weekend at Rocky Gap. Ever since our state tax dollars built this mountain lodge resort in 1998 I’ve wanted to check it out.

We arrived yesterday afternoon and soon after we headed out on our bikes for the Lakeside Loop Trail, a 4.7 mile trail around the 243 acre Lake Habeeb. We figured it would make a nice leisurely ride before cocktail hour.

We figured wrong. When we arrived back at the lodge an hour later we were exhausted.

This morning we learned that the Lakeside Loop trail is rated moderate to difficult for mountain biking.

It was really quite pretty though.

One of 31,000

According to this story by Derek Simmonsen in the Howard County Times, John Bailey, “a high school social studies teacher” has filed to run as a Republican against Delegate Liz Bobo in the 2010 statewide elections. No one will argue that Mr. Bailey faces an uphill battle against Bobo but at least he’s putting himself out there. Last time around Liz ran unopposed.

The bigger story to me though is the increasing number of registered voters in Howard County who list no party affiliation.

“The numbers are definitely in the Democrats' favor -- Barack Obama won Howard County with roughly 87,000 votes to John McCain's 55,000 last November. Both parties have lost about 1,000 registered voters since November, but the imbalance remains.

As of June, there were roughly 84,000 registered Democrats in Howard County compared to about 54,000 Republicans. Nearly 31,000 voters list no party affiliation, making them open game for both parties.”

That would include this old dog.

Scene This Week In...

On my way to the county council public hearing on Monday evening I spotted three young bucks grazing on the hill by the new Glen Mar Church in Ellicott City. Fortunately there was no other traffic on the road so I was able to stop and snap a few photos. The deer in our midst have become highly adapted to suburban life and are in fact thriving in the absence of their natural predators. They really seem to enjoy the new day lilies that Mama Wordbones planted this spring.

Earlier that same day I dropped into the Lakeside Coffee Shop in Town Center for what I thought would be a quick cup of coffee. As soon as I walked in the door I ran into Jud Malone, who heads up Columbia Tomorrow. I took the opportunity to trade notes with Jud on the local political scene. As I was getting ready to leave, Mike Davis and Jeff Agnor, partners in the local law firm of Davis Agnor Rapaport & Skalny, came into the café with two other attorneys from their office and this lead to even more discussion about local politics.

This seems to happen all the time at Lakeside. No matter which side of the political spectrum you lean towards, the chances are pretty good that, on any given day, more local politics will be discussed and debated in this little coffee shop than anywhere else in Howard County.

Scenes from Artscape 09

Even though Artscape was last weekend, I wanted to share two things I saw at the Baltimore arts festival that I thought were pretty neat.


The first was the human foosball table. They put six people in this big box and connected them with harnesses to PVC pipes and then dropped a large soft fluffy ball in the middle of them. It was a riot to watch and it looked like fun to play as well. Perhaps someone could steal this idea for the 2010 Columbia Festival of the Arts.

The other thing that caught my attention was the Wheely Good smoothie vendor. These smoothies are healthy in more ways than one…

Piling On

It’s almost as bad as congressional earmarks. Monday night, at the public hearing on CB 29, the usual suspects lined up to demand that any village center redevelopment include affordable housing if redevelopment plans include a residential component.

Under the banner of “full spectrum of housing” the housing activists want any new residential component to set aside 30% of the units for affordable housing. The 30% allocation would be broken down by 10% for families making between $60K and $80K annually, 10% for families making between $40K and $60K annually and 10% for families making less than $40K annually.

To be fair, these advocates recognize that some villages like Wilde Lake already have a disproportionate share of affordable housing. According to Tim Sosinski, the idea is to apply this 30% formula to those villages that have not done “their share” for affordable housing like River Hill. A developer like Kimco in Wilde Lake would be able to bypass the 30% allocation by making a contribution to a newly established “housing trust” instead.

While this is certainly a laudable effort to provide housing for those “police officers, firemen, teachers and waiters” who are currently priced out of this market, putting up additional hurdles for developers to jump through won’t help save the village centers.

I thought the whole idea of CB 29 was to actually make it easier to redevelop the ailing village centers.

The Liz and Alan Show

Reliable sources have informed me that Liz Bobo has convinced Alan Klein to challenge Mary Kay Sigaty for her District 4 council seat in the 2010 Democratic primary elections. As previously reported here, Liz has abandoned her former ally over differences on Town Center redevelopment.

This really comes as no surprise to this old dog. Alan has been Liz Bobo’s hand puppet ever since he came on the local political scene as the “spokesperson” for CoFoCoDo a little over two years ago. As near as I can tell, this appears to be his only community service credential, an unelected mouthpiece.

Mary Kay on the other hand has a long history of community service including tenure on the Harpers Choice Village Board and the Board of Education.

Jeez Liz, is this the best you can do?

New Signal for the Newest New Cut

Last night at the county council meeting, Councilperson Courtney Watson announced that the State Highway Administration had approved a new traffic signal for the intersection of the new alignment of New Cut Road and Montgomery Road (Route 103) in Ellicott City.

New Cut Road was realigned with the construction of the new Glen Mar United Methodist church. The old New Cut Road has been renamed Baugher Farm Road and is now restricted to right turns only from Route 103.

The new signal is expected to operational next spring.

While many will applaud this new traffic control device there will undoubtedly be some grousing about yet another traffic light on Montgomery Road.

General Growth Bankruptcy Update Two

Judging from this post by Brian McMorris on Seeking Alpha, things are looking up for General Growth Properties as it works its way through the bankruptcy restructuring.

“After a brief run to $3 per share, the stock has pulled back down to $1.65. This is not due to any fundamental change, but just the fact the buzz wore off the stock, temporarily. If anything, the recent court rulings and general improvement in the economy and banking sector bode well for General Growth.”

This is indeed good news for the company and its Columbia Town Center redevelopment plan as it moves toward county council deliberations on ZRA 113 this fall.

Twice the Government for Half the People

Actually, it would likely be twice the government for less than half the people if Columbia were to become an incorporated city. It is an idea that has come up in the past only to fade away due to lack of support. Most residents simply feel that that the county government is perfectly capable of handling the governance of Columbia issues as well the county. Howard is one of the smallest counties in the state encompassing only 254 square miles (the smallest is Calvert with 213 square miles).

Despite the past failed attempts to incorporate, the current push by the Columbia Association to have a greater role in Columbia zoning issues could simply be a back door attempt to circumvent the popular will. According to this story by Larry Carson in The Sun yesterday, Paul Johnson, the deputy county solicitor, “feels incorporation would be the only way for the town's residents to get zoning authority, an opinion shared by the Maryland attorney general's office, said spokeswoman Raquel Guillory.”

This is all the more reason to resist the efforts to create a new community based “gatekeeper” for Columbia to replace General Growth Properties. Gatekeeper is simply another euphemism for mayor.

Twelfth Night

The last time I sat through a Shakespeare play was many moons ago when I was back in college. Last night I ended that cultural drought by attending a performance of Twelfth Night at the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park in Ellicott City.

It was a great evening. Mama Wordbones packed us a picnic dinner with a bottle of wine and we dined on the grounds before the performance. The weather was unseasonably cool and the performance in the park under the stars was a perfect way to enjoy a summer evening.

We will definitely return. Tonight is the last performance of Twelfth Night but the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company will return to the ruins on October 8th for a three week run of Julius Caesar.

"God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents. "

I can relate to that.