The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'…that's what I said…

I'm sorry about that title. I can't help it: I inadvertently stumbled onto the beginning of This is Spinal Tap on television this weekend and I told myself I was only going to watch until Nigel talked about his guitar's sustain and his amp going to "11." But I didn't. I watched the whole thing. And you know what? I'm a better person because of it.

So, uh, yeah…

I guess there's no such thing as Retriever Magic. Oh, well. The NCAA tournament was fun while it lasted for my alma mater. At least I got a post (and a half) out of it.

Here are a couple other things…

By now you've probably heard about a village center-related press conference tomorrow involving my boss. I can't really share more than what's in the oh-so-thorough press release, but if you're interested in being the first to know, stop by the Wilde Lake Village Center tomorrow at 10:15 a.m.

In other news – news that I can actually share – for the second straight year voters in Oakland Mills will have a choice between two candidates vying for the village's seat on the Columbia Council. This year's contest pits long-time Columbia Association antagonist (and former Columbia Councilperson) Alex Hekimian against Phil Engelke, a (very) long-time Columbia resident and owner of probably the coolest house in Oakland Mills. Expect a bit more coverage of this election as it really starts getting underway.

Finally, Papa Hayduke is out in California for spring break, which means I'm missing out on my weekly free meal. Making my culinary sacrifice worth it is the fact that he was able to play a round at Pebble Beach and parred the 18th, one of the greatest finishing holes in all of golf. Congrats, Dad!

Nothing left for me to do but dance...

Woo-hoo!

UMBC is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever!

Stolen from a sign shown during the broadcast: Fear the Turtle Retriever.

The horizon has been defeated...

Here's my meager weekly attempt at maintaining this blog…

First things first: I got a new car! Actually, I didn't, Abbzug did. But my name's the first one on the title! Which counts for absolutely nothing. Still, it's a damn fine looking automobile, if I may say so. (I'd post a pic but it's too dark now. Maybe tomorrow.)

Sure, it's the same brand and model of the car we had before, but in addition to being shiny and new, this one has a much greater probability of actually starting when asked, a fine attribute for a car to have. I must admit, however, that I'm a bit sad to see white people don't like Subarus as much as they once did. Here I was, thinking I'm doing my part to fit the mold. Darn.

Meanwhile, another local merchant closes its doors. This time it's Produce Galore. Columbia Talk was on the scene first (as usual) and offers some follow up coverage that includes a couple interesting things.

Thing one, from the Sun's story: Said Del. Elizabeth Bobo, "I think it's just so sad. I can't help but believe that with support from the local government, we could prevent something like this. There must be something we can do to help family businesses that give such a unique, personal service to our community."

Hmm.

Thing two, from the post itself: "We channel so much energy these days into fighting stuff we don't want (highrises, Merriweather development, etc.) but not so much in saving that which we hold dear." Personally, I think that's a fantastic idea. Change the whole tenor of community activism.

Meanwhile, Wordbones offers a cool, logical and detached take on the closing of Produce, as do some of his commenters. But, of course, the comment I liked most was this:

...and let me add, the HC bloggers are a mess where developers are concerned.

There are no discussions, it's more like a cheer leading exercize. Quite nauseating at this point.

No wonder y'all are loosing readers like money at the gas pump.

There's a lot of funny in that. I mean, Wordbones is a developer (for the purposes of this discussion, anyway). But I'll leave it to you to dissect the rest of the humor…or not.

There's probably something to learn about our situation in that observation, too, irrespective of its accuracy (which I'm not weighing in on).

I was going to say something about the Flier's opinion pages, but as with the humor above, I'll let you do the analysis.

Oh, here's a start: "Like, wow!"

Finally, good things may be on the horizon for my little slice of heaven, Oakland Mills.

It's a crazy world we're living in…

I have a ton of stuff about the One Homeowner's Association to Rule Them All, Columbia Association.

First, if you haven't seen Bill's post on the Lakefront issues, go there now. Seriously, it's good stuff.

Second, breaking news: I've been told that long-time Columbia Council representative and one-time Ian Kennedy opponent Barbara Russell has opted not to run again for her post.

Really? She couldn't have made that decision last year?

Actually, I'm glad she didn't. Yeah, I went there: I'm a loser and proud of it. 

Anyway, who's going to run for the seat? Leave suggestions – or pleas to your candidate of choice – in the comments. I know who I'm rooting for.

Finally, Evan Coren and I have deep, fundamental disagreements about a bunch of things, particularly stuff related to Downtown Columbia. For instance, he thinks the Plaza Tower is a "middle finger" to all that Jim Rouse stood for. Me, I think it's a kind of boring tall building with expensive condos that probably, at this point, won't even get built.

See? Totally different.

These disagreements have at times caused tension among us, but that's cool. I like tense, awkward situations.

But, now, I have to hand it to the guy. He's been doing good things. First, I hear he went to bat for Oakland Mills revitalization, supporting in the face of considerable opposition an appropriation of funding for the community organizer position currently occupied by Ben Hunter. This position is vital to the success of OM's continuing revitalization effort, and Evan, unlike many of his colleagues, understood this from the get go. 

Also, he's questioned a proposal to lower CA's assessment cap, a move that could be damaging to CA's financial position, which seems a bit tenuous already.

Overall, he's got perspective on things where others seem to lack it -- in addition to what's mentioned above, see his comments about the deteriorating structures at the lakefront in Bill's post (seriously, check it out.)

So without hesitation, I'm giving Evan the CA Board Member of the Year Award. And while we're at it, I'm giving Barbara a lifetime achievement award -- after eight years on the board, she deserves it.

And lastly, about this decision to end CA meetings at 11 pm: While I applaud the realization that public meetings aren't really public if they're held past midnight, board members seem to be trying to solve a symptom rather than the problem. There are very real concerns about how the board operates, concerns that aren't going to be addressed by simply letting everyone go to bed at a reasonable hour. Jessie shares some similar thoughts here.

Come on, Evan, try taking this one on. 

Hold your head up, you silly girl...

Just a couple assorted links while my head recovers from the pounding it took at the Maryland Home and Garden Show over the weekend.

Hey, hey. Lookie here. David Wissing's got a new (kinda) blog focused on HoCo stuff. For the non-national-poll-obsessed, this is where you'll want to go for all the local news. If you like polls, however, be sure to keep both sites bookmarked.

And that's about all I got for local stuff. But, wait...

You know Jessie likes those LOL Cats pictures, which are fine if a bit illiterate for my tastes. (I mean, "I can has cheezburger"? Don't they know that is not proper syntax or spelling?)

Anyway, there's now a similar site for those choosing the better side of the great pet debate: Fail Dogs. Unlike the LOL Cats craziness, the site does not rely on the anthropomorphic infantilization of cute kitties for humor but rather needs only the inherent and boundless silliness of canines to bring the funny. Like...

Yay dogs!

All we need is just a little patience...

The email from Little Duke says it all...

"Uh oh":

There will be no sneak peek via On Demand of the 90-minute series finale of HBO's The Wire, according to a spokesman for the cable channel.

The finale will premiere at 9 p.m. March 9, and that will be the first time anyone will be able to see it - whether or not they have access to HBO On Demand.

Throughout this fifth and final season, subscribers have been able to use On Demand to see each of the nine previous episodes starting the Monday before their Sunday night cable premiere.

HBO says they are breaking with that pattern so that On Demand viewers don't "spoil" the finale for those who want to watch March 9. During this season and last, On Demand viewers have often posted details of episodes online in a way that made the spoilers almost impossible to ignore.

Man, it's gonna be a long week.

At least I can surf the internet again without fear of someone spoiling the ending. So, there's that.

Anyway, Wire fans, what have you thought about the season so far? If the trend in quality of episodes continues, this last one could be the best and saddest ever.

As I said earlier, I was apprehensive about the plot lines and story trajectory at first, but I'm totally on board now and, obviously, can't wait to see how it resolves (or doesn't).

But if you're waiting on the wind, don't forget to breathe...

Dinosaur Mom (via Jessie) shares more sad news for Oakland Mills: The Blue Cow Café is allegedly closing. If true, the news may be bit shocking but, sadly, not surprising.

Karen Blue (owner of the café) was a supporter of mine during the CA elections last year. I only hope that things work out in the end for her.

Although it may be too late to reverse the tide of recently or soon-to-be closed restaurants in Oakland Mills, it's not too late to leave an impact on the long term health of this village. Tomorrow night (Tuesday, Feb. 26, 7:30 pm) is the Oakland Mills Town Hall meeting, a big opportunity for residents to help set the agenda for the redevelopment of their village.

Leave the posturing about revitalization to others. Here's your chance to actually do something. Take action. Get involved. Make a difference.

Yes we can?

(Sorry.)

OK, seriously. Words may make it sound trite, but nowhere is your contribution more meaningful and change more possible than in your own backyard.

I've been trying to get down to the heart of the matter...

There's this conventional wisdom floating around that the health of our village centers is contingent on the health of their anchors, grocery stores. Example here:

[Wilde Lake] Village Board Chairman Vincent Marando told [General Growth Vice President Greg] Hamm that the village had gone without a grocery store for a year and a half. The Giant store at that location closed in September 2006.

"I'm not sure the health of the Village Center can be held hostage for the next couple years," he said.

While not stated explicitly, the underlying sentiment in this statement seems to be that without a grocery store, the health of the village center is in peril. But is that really the case?

Once but, perhaps, not anymore.

For instance, compare the offerings at Wilde Lake's village center versus those in Oakland Mills (PDF) and ask yourself: Which would you rather live near?

I can count the businesses in Oakland Mills with just my hands (nine establishments). In order to count those in Wilde Lake (19), I need to take my shoes off, and trust me, you don't want that.

Wilde Lake has everything Oakland Mills does and much more to boot. Yet, the former is the center without a grocery store.

What gives?

Many hands have been wrung over the future of our village centers, about how we keep these vital components of our community relevant in the face of significant social and economic change. But we seem to keep coming back to the idea that an anchor grocery store is the most essential element. Maybe it's time to ditch that idea.

Back in the day, grocery stores were physically smaller and drew from smaller geographic areas. Today, however, with increasingly diversified tastes and shopper preferences, the thought of getting groceries at the store that happens to be closest to you is almost quaint. People want to go where they want to go, not where they should go because of geography and some mushy ideals about community.

Big families like Costco. Funky folks like Trader Joe's. Hippies like natural food stores. Rich hippies like Whole Foods. Cheapskates like Wal-Mart, Target or some other discount retailer that squeezes everything under the sun into their aisles. People who want it all like Wegmans. And so on.

To be sure, there is still a small segment of the population that must or chooses to walk to get groceries. And most of us don't want to go 20 minutes out of our way to get milk, toilet paper or some other essential item. In general, however, the bulk of our grocery shopping seems to be done on a weekly basis at the store of our preference, assuming it's within a reasonable distance (10 - 20 minute drive).

If this is how society has evolved, why should we fight ourselves and insist on full-sized, modern grocery stores in every village center?

To be sure, the "daily needs" element of village centers is still very relevant. Dry cleaners, banks, barber shops, and the like all belong in village centers, as do places that provide basic food and grocery needs. Beyond these requirements, restaurants and other small businesses seem like the most appropriate uses. The dearth of such establishments is bemoaned by anyone who has sought good, non-chain restaurants, specialty items or just decent customer service -- that is, all of us.

Admittedly, I haven't fully thought out the repercussions of such a shift in thinking. Perhaps, as we ponder their future, we need to look at our village centers as a whole, instead of individually, and try to understand how they can serve as retail and commercial hubs for neighborhood needs as well as those of the broader community. Perhaps I'm wildly off base and most people still want to go to whatever store is closest.

Regardless, a discussion about the potential of post-grocery store village centers seems to be in order for our sake and that of one our community's most cherished institutions.

I keep the ends out for the tie that binds...

Just a couple odds and ends for today...

I'm working on the Montana trip Round Up but haven't gotten too far. Really, all I have is a working title: "Southwest Montana: The Dirtbag Chronicles." Also, I organized most of the pictures from the trip -- only 650ish this time, compared to over 1,500 from my last Montana adventure. 

Here's the problem: While I want to write with enough detail to satisfy any skiers or boarders who read this blog and might be looking for ideas for a future trip, I don't want it to turn into one of those painful ski resort recaps you can find all over the internet. That is, the kind that earnestly and laboriously list all of the runs the author did, the price of food in the base area and the relative comfort of the accommodations. There's no "pop" in that.

Maybe I'll just post a video of me hitting a gnarly jump and call it a day.

What else? Hmm...

What about The Wire? Who's watching it On Demand? Man, the latest episode -- #58 -- had a shocker, huh? Let's avoid spoilers in the comments for the non-On Demand audience.

Something I've noticed: Some of the show's lovers have become haters -- this season's too didactic, the newsroom too staged, some of the plot lines too forced or unrealistic, they say. At first, I was on the fence about the newspaper stuff, too, but in the past few episodes it has come around. Also, I read two things on the plane -- an essay by David Simon in Esquire and Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen -- that added a ton of perspective to The Sun story line. 

Regardless, the show's coming to an end in only a couple of weeks and television will become a little poorer because of this.

How about the weather? Couple chances of snow and other wintry messiness this week. Anyone excited? Even though I just came from a place that has received over 20 feet of snow so far this year, I'm still pretty jazzed about the prospect of a couple flakes/pellets falling in the area.

To all my Oakland Mills peeps, next week is the annual Town Hall meeting, which is pretty cool and certainly worth a couple hours of your time on a Tuesday night. From the OM eNews:

Listen – Brainstorm – Report Back!

Oakland Mills Town Hall Meeting
Tuesday, Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m. at The Other Barn
(Please enter through the side/courtyard door)

Our purpose for the Town Hall Meeting is to provide an opportunity for Oakland Mills residents to create agenda items for our next phase of community development! We are gathering together for the purpose of identification, prioritization, and implementation of creative ideas to move us forward as a community.

Be a part of Oakland Mills ongoing community development! We’re setting aside a few hours on Feb. 26 to find out what the residents of Oakland Mills think, what you want to see happen in Oakland Mills, and, what you are passionate and committed to work on.

We have proven over the past three years of our revitalization initiatives that it indeed takes a village to make things happen. Our board, committee volunteers and staff have been working diligently to create a framework for community development. Help us define Oakland Mills’ future on February 26th. Be a part of the exciting thing about to take place in Oakland Mills! (No r.s.v.p required, refreshments will be served. Bring a neighbor or two!)

Finally, I made a couple changes around here. Mostly subtle stuff, but I updated the link list and the RSS feeds on the side. As always, if there's anything I'm forgetting or should do differently, let me know.

All for now. More tomorrow.

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end...

Let's be honest: Most people read this blog for its travel tips, the witty dispatches about foreign locales most in our suburban community could only dream about seeing.  

OK, that's clearly not true (and therefore dishonest). In this blog's storied history, only twice have I gone on personal trips -- both times to southwestern Montana. Me, I'm not much of a world traveler.

But I did have a pretty good time at my sister's wedding a couple years ago and this time -- the week spent sliding down big mountains -- well, it was pretty cool, too.

Actually, it was more than just cool, but I'll get to that later this week when I'm not sitting on the floor of the Denver airport waiting for my delayed flight to board.

Until then, here's a picture from the week's pinnacle: Hiking up The Ridge at Bridger Bowl and riding what was, without exaggeration, the greatest run of my life.

I feel it coming in...

Well, we've yet to get dumped on, but with a couple inches last night and tons of trackless snow back in the trees, I'm happy to report (and I'm sure you're happy to hear) that I'm scratching my powder itch. 

Here's a shot of Bridger Bowl yesterday. Note the excessive crowd.

I think we're moving on to the big mountain tomorrow, but who knows? If it's snowing somewhere in southwestern Montana, we'll probably be there.

Don't forget to vote tomorrow! Oh, and here's something about Obama and specifics that I found interesting.

Can't you see the sunshine, can't you just feel the moonshine...

The week leading up to a vacation is the worst, right? You have a million things to do before you leave, but you can't focus on what's in front of you long enough to get anything done.

Not only that, but the days start slowing down the closer you get to departure and, if you're like me, the night before leaving is usually full of anxious anticipation rather than sleep (and considering my flight leaves before sunrise on Saturday, this is going to be particularly annoying).

Anyway, that's where I'm at right now. And with that in mind, here's a disjointed series of thoughts…

Sad news on the Oakland Mills front. It seems the Fire Rock Grill has closed for an indefinite amount of time for, apparently, indefinite reasons. This really sucks. Bad. But at least it frees up a couple of parking spots in the village center.

Somewhere there's a tree on a clear-cut hillside thankful for its safety…

Jack Johnson, who's pretty awesome, just came out with a new album on Tuesday. It's called Sleep Through the Static and so far, I like what I hear. But I'm a pretty big Jack Johnson fan (understatement), so my opinion probably isn't worth much to the disinterested music fans.

Two cool things about the album. First, it was recorded using only solar energy, which I got no problems with. The second is he's using its launch to promote All At Once, described thusly:

All At Once is a social action network providing information, tools, and motivation for individuals who want to become active in their local and world community.

All At Once brings together non-profit organizations and fans to create change - your actions, your voice, and your choices all have a huge impact.

All At Once connects people together through a new online community (full site to launch March 1 – come back and check it out!). AllAtOnce.org is a connecting place for people to discuss issues and events, learn about non-profit groups, and take action together.

Pretty cool.

Finally, I'm a little hesitant to mention this because anything can happen, especially when talking about weather, but it looks like my jinx has come to an end. You see, in my life I've taken only two extended trips away from the East Coast in the middle of winter. The first time was January 1996 when I went to New Orleans and the second time was February 2003 when I went to Las Vegas.

These dates may not mean much to you, but to weather nerds like myself, these dates are spoken of in hushed, reverential tones. In the last twenty years, Howard County has received more than two feet of snow from a single storm only twice, and both times I was somewhere else wearing shorts. And each time, a little bit of my soul died.

When I booked the tickets for my trip to Montana in December, I was afraid that we'd get another mega-storm this week, but such a storm now seems pretty unlikely. Which is fine by mean, especially if it means more snow out west.

Alright, that's all I'm saying for now. Probably nothing tomorrow, but stay tuned next week for some stupid posts and pictures (and perhaps even another guest blogging appearance from a random family member) from Montana.

So close, yet so far away...

Woo-hoo!

Yes, like most of America, I am reveling in the schadenfreude of the New England Patriots' historic loss at the hands of goofy Eli Manning and the G-men. 

I think I've watched close to 1,000 replays of "The Play" and it just never gets old; I mean, how does David Tyree not drop that ball?  

Great play. Great game.

Anyway, nothing but a couple of pictures today. Enjoy!

The hope of a skinny kid with a funny name...

The day after the 2004 presidential elections -- around the time I was called out for being a petulant ass by someone with whom I disagree often but have always respected -- I came home from work feeling horrible. 

Not only had my "guy" -- if you could even call him that -- lost, but our future seemed darker than ever for reasons that had nothing to do with the war, social security, or any other area where decent people can and should disagree.

I was upset with the stupid maps of the country showing blue states as the United States and red states as Jesusland; with the emails telling me how to move to Canada or just telling me to move to Canada; with the idiotic Bushitler and "Imagine No Liberals" t-shirts spreading like invasive weeds; and with all the petty proclimations of superiority and righteousness, from both sides. 

Yes, the divisiveness had fueled me for months, but on that day, the Day After, my tank was empty and I just wanted it all to stop, even though I knew it wouldn't.

So, I walked my dog and ate dinner with my wife. And then I went into my office, sat on the floor and listened to Barack Obama's speech from the Democratic National Convention three months prior. And, as with the first time I heard it, I cried.

Maybe I'm a naive, overly-emotional git who is easily persuaded by a positive message delivered by a once-in-a-lifetime orator, but I can't help feeling now, as I did then, that he really is the Real Deal; that we really are standing at the precipice of a profound transformation; that there really is such a thing as the "politics of hope;" that the true mark of a leader is not what he does, but how he does it; and that deep down, we -- all of us -- recognize that "there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America — there’s the United States of America."

And today, by virtue of an absentee ballot, I added my meager voice to the chorus of millions chanting "Yes We Can" and truly believing that "out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come."

The audacity of hope indeed.

If I could only get there, then I could enjoy...

There's an interesting dynamic between people, neighborhoods and grocery stores that, had I more time or inclination, I would like to explore further. Perhaps another time.

Suffice to say, you can tell a lot about a community by its grocery store(s). And with all the fuss surrounding the Wegmans, now seems like a good time to take a closer look at the source of the fuss.

Determined to find out just what a Wegmans is and whether its worthy of Columbia (or is it vice versa?), I set out last Sunday for Hunt Valley to see first hand how -- in this day, in this community -- a big-box development could actually rouse as many supporters as opponents.

I'm certainly not one to shy away from hyperbolic love for grocery stores, but some of the odes to Wegmans I'm hearing are making even me blush.

So, here, with pictures, is my take on The Wegmans Experience.

Unfortunately for the Hunt Valley Wegmans, it's in Hunt Valley, which now has one of those vanilla Town Centers -- basically a mall without a roof or, perhaps more fittingly, Disneyworld's Main Street without large stuffed animals. To say these projects represent some great advancement in community/retail planning and development is kind of laughable, but hey, people seem to like them.

But in its favor, Hunt Valley's lifestyle center has transit.

So, there's that.

Anyway, I didn't go to look at stores that we have in Columbia. I went to see this:

Let's take a look inside.

Hey, a "Convenience Case" with milk and butter right up front. That's nice, if a bit silly in concept for a store like this.

Lots of prepared food in the "restaurant" part.

Bagged salads galore, always good for the health-conscious family on the go.

Plenty of fresh produce, too, and, as advertised, it all looked pretty good.

(That's the best picture of produce I got. Sorry.)

Although the size is a little overwhelming at first, Wegmans does a good job of clustering things to make the store feel like a collection of smaller, specialty shops. For instance:

Cheese.

Bread.

Tea.

Kosher stuff.

Cliff bars. (By the box!)

And this, which I dubbed the "Trader Joe's" section.

Navigation, at least on Sunday, was tricky. Not only was it super crowded with many folks wandering around, mouths open, soaking up the enormity of it, but the middle lane that breaks up each aisle served mainly as a traffic bottleneck. Which was frustrating at times.

The "traditional" section had everything you'd expect to find at your local grocer, including, importantly, a healthy selection of Utz.

Despite the crowds, check out was quick, with plenty of lanes open and many without any line whatsoever.

I was less impressed with the total cost, however. Even with a bunch of store brand products in my cart, I easily spent more than I would for a normal trip to Food Lion or Trader Joe's. But unlike those stores, I can complete my entire shopping trip at Wegmans. (Ah, if only Trader Joe's sold Coke and Gatorade.)

The million dollar question, then, is: Will I do my routine shopping at Wegmans once it opens in Columbia?

Unfortunately, I can't say. Sure, it's big and nice and full of good food. But it's size, in my opinion, is actually a drawback. One of the things I like most about Trader Joe's is that its small and manageable, though it, too, can get crowded.

That said, comparing the experience at Wegmans to Trader Joe's probably isn't fair to Wegmans. Trader Joe's has built its reputation, to an extent, on its quirkiness, which alone helps make for a more enjoyable and entertaining experience. Wegmans serves a different need, one that is perhaps less in line with what I'm looking for than with what others want.

Also, when it comes to food, I'm a creature of habit. Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you I have a very consistent diet. For instance, I've had the same lunch -- apple sauce, sugar snap peas (sometimes carrots), yogurt, crackers, chips, protein bar, pistachios, and some other random fruit (the wild card) -- for the past three years.

So, for me, what's the point of going somewhere that has everything I need and a million other things I don't? If I'm not saving money, am I at least saving time by making one lengthy stop instead of two shorter ones?

(Aside: An interesting anecdote that relates to elements of the controversy surrounding the Columbia Wegmans. Thrice, while eavesdropping on other shoppers (a bad habit of mine), I heard folks extolling Wegmans' treatment of its employees and how it is consistently ranked among the best places to work.)

The unobtrusive tones on the news tonight...

Perhaps you heard about this:

James T. Smith Jr. will report to work tomorrow in the county executive's office, but it won't be the one in Towson.

As the result of being on the losing end of a high school football wager, the Baltimore County executive will start his morning working as an assistant in Howard County Executive Ken Ulman's office in Ellicott City. Smith then will go to River Hill High School in Clarksville to speak to a government class, and the two executives will serve lunch to the River Hill football team's players and coaches, according to Smith's office.

Well, here's the video (with a fleeting shot of the back of my head!).

You've got to give a little...

There hasn't been much discussion recently about Downtown. Is this the calm before the storm?

Or are we entering into a new era of community planning, one without acrimony and division?

Either way, General Growth seems to have heard the "more openness, more meetings" refrain from the community. Columbians, by nature, never seem to tire of meetings, but after the GGP Downtown blitz, even the most hardened meeting mavens may find themselves begging for mercy.

General Growth Properties Inc. will release the draft as part of a four-step public review of the plan that will include several meetings in which company officials will take input on the plan from residents before submitting it to Howard County officials for approval, according to a statement the company released Jan. 17.

…Prior to releasing the draft on April 28, General Growth officials will conduct two preliminary meetings designed to allow residents to question the heads of firms that are playing lead roles in designing the plan…

The firms are the Massachusetts-based Sasaki Associates Inc., which specializes in landscape architecture and will develop the pedestrian areas, and the New York-based Cooper Robertson and Partners, which is designing the plan for buildings and streets.

The meeting with Sasaki principal Alan Ward is slated for March 5, while the meeting with Jaquelin Robertson, a founding partner of Cooper Robertson, is scheduled for March 9.

The company also could add a public meeting with a transportation consultant before the draft plan is released, said Gregory Hamm, General Growth's regional vice president and general manager for Columbia.

…After releasing the draft April 28, General Growth officials will hold public meetings with each of Columbia's 10 villages to gauge residents' reactions to the plan and additional forums to collect reaction on specific aspects of the plan, including transportation, the environment, housing, and arts and cultural opportunities, according to company officials.

If my math is right, which it rarely is, I count at least 16 meetings (assuming one for each village). Wowser.

Time is the essence...Time is the season...

While in graduate school a few years back, I developed a strange fixation with oysters. 

Now, I've never eaten them and never plan to, but I found the story of the native Chesapeake Bay bivalves fascinating -- I mean, people fought wars over them! 

My oyster obsession led to several papers on the topic of their restoration -- which after over half a century of effort has actually left them worse off than before intervention -- and ultimately culminated in a policy memo arguing not for or against any specific polices, but rather a new approach to policy. To wit:

Despite the insistence of many intelligent individuals to the contrary, the problem plaguing oyster recovery efforts is not an inability to overcome the diseases; rather, the problem is an inability to overcome our dogmatic approach to issues of ecology and economics. The first question posed above asks what we have done wrong, and the answer is simple: we have mistaken the oyster situation for a single problem and therefore have generated single-minded policies to address it. In reality, we are faced with two distinct problems, one involving oysters and one involving watermen. And, to define these problems only in their joint context fails to account for the broader range of issues involved in both. The perfect example of our outmoded framework for addressing these issues is the current debate over the introduction of the non-native oyster Crassostrea ariakensis (Chinese Oyster). Proponents of the plan stress that these oysters would be able to supply watermen with a viable livelihood, while also increasing the Bay’s water quality; it sounds too good to be true because it is. When freed of the desire to find a single panacea for these two problems, we can finally begin to individually address the real needs of maintaining the oysters’ water filtration capacity and improving the sustainability of the watermen and their harvests by creating adequate levels resource stock, oysters or otherwise.

Of course, I was writing this to get a grade and not so much to change policy, but prior to my ill-fated stint with the State Department of Natural Resources, the memo found its way into the hands of policy makers, who at the time weren't too keen on taking advice from some Longhair with a nebulous job title.

Nevertheless, despite its glacial pace, State government has proven me prescient.

Maryland should move toward an aquaculture-based oyster industry while at the same time trying to restore natural oyster bars for ecological benefits, according to a task force report.

The Maryland Oyster Commission's 2007 interim report does not call for a moratorium on the harvest of oysters nor for an end to public subsidies for harvest programs. Rather, it says the state should over the next two decades change how it manages oysters.

"People understand that what we've done in the past is not working, and that we do have to take some dramatic steps," said Bill Eichbaum, commission chairman and vice president of the World Wildlife Fund. "We have at least put down benchmarks that are different from what's been done in the past."

The state has convened numerous panels to discuss oyster restoration over the years, and each has tried to balance the ecological benefits of keeping oysters in the water with the economic interests of watermen. The new report says economic and ecological goals for oysters are "mutually incompatible." The oyster population is at 1 percent of its historic levels.

(Bolding mine.)

I'm not trying to claim credit or even pat myself on the back (well, maybe a little). Perhaps I'm just proving the cliche about a broken clock being right twice a day -- personally, I prefer "the sun even shines on a dog's ass some days," but that's neither here nor there.

What is here, however, is the fact that with a new approach to oyster recovery we might finally start seeing some real progress, which, no matter how you shuck it, is very good thing.

Mama I'm coming home...

Back in the good old days of this blog, an editorial like the one in today's Examiner was pure gold.

Seriously, it has more holes than a donut shop and my previous, more antagonistic self would have loved the opportunity to point out every single one.

In today's climate, however, I should probably take a more conservative tack.

Bor-ing!

Alas, this is the path I've chosen and the price I must pay for the wealth fame power…uh, benefits of my job.

Anyway, the editorial in question attacks Howard County's inclusionary zoning policy, also known as the Moderate Income Housing Unit program. This program is nearly identical to many others around the country, so in reality, the editorial's target seems to be inclusionary zoning itself.

The Examiner's problem with inclusionary zoning seems to be that "it discriminates against everyone else as it drives prices up on other homes."

In Howard County, a family of four with a household income of $75,408 qualifies to apply for the moderate-income housing program. Once approved, that family can purchase a condo or town home for a discounted rate in area developments.

At Ryan Homes' Elkridge Crossing, the moderate-income housing condos sell for $178,067 and town homes for $204,044. Regularly, those properties sell for about $260,000 to $330,000. Any way you slice it, that is a huge discount on a luxury home. Condos at Elkridge include a sun room, two full baths, an open kitchen and patio.

This is patently unfair to other county residents. How would you feel If you were a family of four with a household income of $94,260 — the median household income in the county? Why should the extra $18,852 you make each year force you to sometimes pay more than $100,000 more for the same property?

The program has other repercussions. A number of studies, including one from the California-based Reason Foundation, find that inclusionary housing policies, like rent control policies, reduce the supply of housing — driving demand up with prices.

(Huh. No mention of the patently unfair nature of the biggest housing boondoggle of them all and a bigger cause of increased home prices, the mortgage interest deduction?)

Rather than untangle the arguments from the outrage in this editorial, I'm going to focus on the source of its claims. In this case, the Reason Foundation and its free market dogma.

Reason has long been an opponent of affordable housing policies. The study mentioned by the Examiner is one of several produced by the libertarian think tank criticizing inclusionary zoning because, mainly, it distorts the "free market." These studies throw around numbers detailing the supposed costs of inclusionary zoning, which are always -- surprise! -- frighteningly high.

But what, then do you do when the market is clearly failing to provide the optimal outcome -- in this case an adequate mix of housing for people of all incomes  -- like the textbook says it always does? 

Thankfully, Reason has a bunch of recommendations in their handy report New Approaches to Affordable Housing: Overview of the Housing Affordability Problem (PDF). Here they are:

• Modify explicit and implicit land use and growth controls to allow homebuilders and developers the opportunity to meet demand quicker.
  
• Increase civil service compensa tion in select areas where incomes do not reflect high housing costs.
  
• Encourage the use of market innovations such as location-efficient mortgages.
  
• Assist and leverage grassroot, volun teer organizations such as Habitat for Humanity (HFH).
  
• Use local flexible housing vouch ers to EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) eligible households.
  

I don't know whether to laugh or cry: Several of those recommendations demonstrate a stunningly poor understanding of economics, markets and development.

For instance, while the basis for the first – that land use and growth controls raise the cost of housing – is true, removing such controls would then cause another, perhaps worse market distortion.

Why?

Because growth imposes costs on existing communities, and as everyone who has ever taken Econ 101 knows, actions that impose costs on others are known as "negative externalities." In order for markets to work as wonderfully as they do in theory, the costs of these externalities need to be paid for both those who create them. The report singles out "impact fees" as a problem, but such fees are perhaps the perfect example of compensation for negative externalities, yet Reason doesn't like them because they screw up the market. I don't get it.

But why don't we just raise civil service pay to bring it in line with housing prices? That's a solution I can get behind, but it probably won't help the affordable housing situation because…because…throwing more money into the economy causes inflation ( i.e. increase in prices). Oh, well.

There is also the location-efficient mortgages idea, which would allow higher income-to-debt-payment ratios in certain high cost areas. Right, because screwing with mortgage practices hasn't contributed to any housing bubbles or problems in the credit market.

As for leveraging volunteer groups like Habitat to build more affordable housing, I'm all for it. Habitat does great work – 50,000 houses in 30 years across the U.S. I'm not sure how much of an impact it can have on prices, however, when for-profit residential builders knock out just shy of 2 million houses…each year.

I'm not even going to comment on the last one, because, well, I didn't really bother reading about it. But I think I've made a point in here somewhere…

Hmm…

Oh, yeah…This affordable housing stuff is hard. Drawing supply and demand curves helps illustrate basic points, but in our complex reality, "X" rarely marks the spot.

Hey, monkey, where you been...

Happy New Year!

Ha!

First post of the new year. Sad, I know.

WOW! OMG!

So, I'm sitting here at my kitchen table, writing what's going to be a pretty lame post, when I hear a loud bang coming from the deck. Just in time, I turn my head to see a hawk flying from our new bird feeder towards a pine tree just beyond the fence with a much smaller bird in its talon. After a quick stop on one of the pine branches, the hawk flies off to find a less exposed place to enjoy its lunch. 

Needless to say, the feeder, which had been covered with birds all day, is now wanting for patrons.

Here's a picture of the scene of the attack. If you look close enough you might be able to see a few downy feathers still floating in the air.

Anyway, the real point of this post was to explain the lack of posts over the past couple weeks. I've been consumed with a project at work, which will come to fruition on Tuesday. Until then, here's a picture I was able to snap with my new camera (woo-hoo! thanks, Abbzug) during a brief respite from the grind last weekend.