The 53

Randy Pausch

A co-worker offered me the chance to borrow the book "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch last week.  I politely declined, not because  I didn't know about his story, or because I had heard negative things about the lecture-- far from it-- but  I thought it better to watch the lecture before or instead of reading the book.

On this week's fishwrap there is an article  about Randy Pausch.   I am ashamed to say I didn't know this, but he was a  native Howard Countian-- from Columbia in fact.  And his mother, Virginia Pausch,  was my high school  English teacher in 11th and  12th grade  at Howard High.

I am going to take the time to watch "The Last Lecture" over the weekend.

Why not international weekend?

So around 9:15 last night I got into my car and drove to the lakefront to capture the end of Columbia International Day.  It was late and I didn't expect much, and what I saw met with my expectations.

International Day to me has always been kind of underwhelming.  Not so much because of the amount of food and craft vendors, but because of the lack of emphasis Columbia places on the event.  In my view the International Day (weekend?  week?) should be every bit as big as the Festival of the Arts.

A few ideas to make the event bigger and better:
1. Like I wrote above, make it longer.  One day isn't good for everyone.  Make it a weekend-- or longer.
2. Get more vendors to represent, literally, all six continents.  And hey, if you can get someone to represent Antarctica,  do that too!  : )
3. Arrange all of the vendors EPCOT- style, to give visitors the feel that they are moving into other parts of the world.  Go from Australia into Asia, then Africa, then Europe, then South America, then North America.
4. Define the borders between each village with some sort of boundary, as, for example, the different neighborhoods of the Symphony of Lights are arranged.  An asian-style arch to denote that neighborhood, an awning that loosely resembles the Sydney Opera House... those may be a little kitschy but this is fun, family entertainment as well as...
5. Educational.  There doesn't seem to be really, any educational component to the International Day.   How about a showcase of projects from foreign language classes at the high schools and HCC?

Having been a veteran of Baltimore's ethnic festivals, and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, a great ethnic festival gives the visitor a feeling of actually being at that location, a feeling of sensing things  authentic to that part of the world.  The Columbia International Day never gives me that feeling.  And it should.

Does anybody really care??

Took a bit of a break for my birthday and for a great family daytrip yesterday!

So I've just cruised several of the local blogs (Hayduke, Tale of Two Cities, Columbia Talk, Chris Bachman) and the comments on their posts regarding the redevelopment of Town Center are-- and no offense intended-- underwhelming.  I go to Columbia Compass, and wow, Bill Santos has stirred up a hornet's nest!  Well done, Bill!  (Makes me wonder if my own decision to go semi-anonymous [a la Tony Stark is Iron Man] was a good one).

OK, so I read the local fishwrap-- at least the fine Patuxent publications and the Sun-- and I find, nothing.  OK, maybe the Post and Examiner have more.  And perhaps I'm bitter because MY letter to the editor was one that wasn't printed last weekend!  Maybe there's this entire, rich debate going on, that I don't know about.  But I doubt it.

So what's the deal?  Some possible alibis:
1. Of course, it's the middle of July.  People aren't tuned into community affairs. 
2. The presentation by GGP happened just over a week ago-- hasn't had time to sink into the community yet. 
3. Maybe the  discussion that has gone on is representative of the interest level of the topic, and I'm just looking for something that isn't there?

So I have no illusions that is this point, the redevelopment of Town Center is of primary interest to the wonkosphere and to the Cult O' Columbia.  (The former applies to people like myself and all my blogging and letter-writing colleagues; the latter to all of those Columbians, regardless of ideology, age or term of residency, whose blood gets pumped by local affairs-- you can be part of both groups)  But a lot of these blog posts that I just mentioned above are very strong-- and pose some very interesting thoughts to consider.  Don't we owe it to ourselves to write something a little more probing and pondering than "good job" or "why do you like this?" in response?

I have to toss a little venom here at the letters to the editor pages.  I can not believe that there haven't been more letters written in the past week on the presentation than have seen print.  And I know that at least mine didn't suck! : )  So why haven't I seen more?

At this very early stage, I find the quality of public discourse on this topic to be very low.  It is very easy for a corporation, elected official or advocacy group to get their voices heard.  But forums such as these blogs, and the letters pages, are supposed to represent the town square for the citizenry.  Failure to participate in such forums will lead to the end results being one crafted by the corporations, elected officials and advocacy groups.  And if that happens all bets are off.

No, I won't back down

OK, here's where I am on the topic of the Columbia "pioneers" and their influence in local affairs:

There is a lot of benefit in the richness of experience and perspective that longtime Columbia residents bring to the table.  I definitely do not subscribe to the concept, "Never trust anyone who's lived in Columbia more than 30 years."

However, I do refer back to almost two years ago, when some numbskull wrote in a letter to the editor about downtown development, "the Columbia pioneers know what is best for Columbia."  Really?

I can recall County Council meetings in the 90s when Charlie Feaga used to ask people testifying, as his first question, "So how long have you lived in Howard County?" As if that was a litmus test for the legitimacy for their views.

I won't let that happen here.  We are better than that.  And if that means I refer to people as "jerks" or "morons" or "doo-doo heads", so be it.

My point is and always has been that the community needs to bring a global view when looking at downtown redevelopment.  There are a lot of long-time Columbia residents who bring that.  But there are also some who play upon hot buttons and community fears in order to advance their own agenda.  Which is an agenda of small thinking, the "trust us, we know what's best for you" thinking.

It didn't always used to be this way among the "pioneers", I have noticed.  Some of these people who I look at know with great apprehension, I used to look at with great admiration.  These are the people who protected the Middle Patuxent, who fought hard (albeit unsuccessfully) to make River Hill full-spectrum housing, who helped get the assessment cap.  But, over time, people and conditions change.

Everyone is welcome in the debate concerning downtown.  But I also think egos need to be checked at the door.

GGP plans a New Town-- inside a New City!

The GGP presentation on the Town Center Master Plan on Wednesday, July 9 was most impressive.  It is clear that the plan has been very well thought-out, and that GGP is committed to thinking creatively in terms of redefining Town Center as the heart of a new Columbia that will endure as a leading edge community of its size for future generations.  However, there are hopes that need to continue to be held, questions that still need to be asked, and cautions that still need to be offered.

First, I'll address two pet peeves of mind.  I wish the GGP folks would stop referring to Merriwether Post Pavilion as "Post Pavilion".  OK, post-what?  Call it MPP, call it Merriwether Post, but I've never heard of "Post Pavilion".  Sounds like some corporate arena and I'd rather lose the monicker.

Second pet peeve-- there is only one Central Park, and it's in New York City.  The references to "Central Park" in Columbia make me chafe.  Let's find another name, like "Crescent Park" or "Rouse Park" or "Friendship Park", or something like that.

On to the questions:
1. The big one I have is the numbers.  How does a million square feet of retail space, five million square feet of office space (equivalent to what was in both towers of the World Trade Center), and 5,600 residential units get filled?  The latter is for me, the easiest to see.  What's much harder to see is the retail and office space, especially since we have so many vacancies in our village centers of what, 250,000 square feet on average?

2. How does the impact on connections to the neighboring villages, indeed all the villages, get addressed?  Town Center can not become so transformed independent of transformation in the other villages?  Certainly, infrastructure around Town Center will have to be expanded.  Good things were said last night about pedestrian connections to Wilde Lake and to other parts of Town Center.  Nothing said about any connections to Oakland Mills.  And, as Cindy Coyle from the CA Board pointed out, it does seem as if schools will need to be planned.

Now for the hopes:
1. Every building built within the environs of Town Center needs to be  as green as it can be.  Town Center must be better than carbon neutral; for Town Center to keystone the new Columbia I sense is coming, it has to be giving more to the planet than it is taking out.

2. The plans  show a lot of redevelopment in Town Center.  I am sure there will have to be a lot of construction and redirection of streets, sidewalks and building.  I hope that this can be minimized such as to reduce disruption to a minimum.

3. I hope a plan is revealed as to the phasing of the actual redevelopment.  What is the horizon (15, 20, how many years), and what will be built when?

Now for the cautions:
1. At the meeting the first question was posed by a lady who was obviously a longtime resident, who was very concerned about the congestion on streets in Town Center, notably Little Patuxent Parkway.  After she asked her question, a GGP employee, a guy who looked to be in his 20s wearing brown horn-rimmed glasses, turned to a colleague and said, "That's the voice of yesterday", quite dismissively.  Actually, Skeezix, that's the voice of a concerned resident, and although I don't share her near hysteria, your butt needs to pay attention.  Regardless of this dope, the presenters were all very knowledgeable and diplomatic and the staff who worked within the crowd was quite gracious.  This bodes well for a civil discourse.

2. I get back to the numbers.  I saw a lot of great things last night, exciting possibilities about what Columbia could be for my children and grandchildren.  I don't want it to be done half-assed.   If that means  scaling down some of the targets  on space or on residential capacity, so be it.

3. I fear negativity and waving the people flag.  I do not think what was presented last night was perfect.  But I do think the tone and tenor of Columbia was captured by the presenters.  Now what's going to happen is that a lot of irrelevant jerks are going to prattle on about "Jim Rouse's vision" and how this plan  is or is not what Columbia "is supposed to be".  To everyone engaged in this debate, I implore everyone: let this debate be about the future, let it be about what Columbia will be!  I don't need to be given a history lecture, and in return I will respect the foundation upon which this city was founded.

The next year or so is going to bring a vigorous debate about the future of Columbia.  After last night, I finally feel as if the debate has been joined in earnest.  I urge GGP to have its radar turned on for good ideas coming from the community (it sounds so far as if it has) and I urge the community to think carefully, with great consideration, and creatively about what Columbia can and will be.  Literally, the future of this town within a city depends on it.

A cool thought

Howard County needs a first-class ice facility.  And we need it now.  It is amazing to me that we can bring businesses into the County to build fitness palaces, indoor basketball arenas, and indoor soccer fields, and we can't have a decent ice facilty.

I should change that last statement.  We do have a "decent" ice facility in the county, but the skating rink in Oakland Mills is 1) closed until August, 2) a single-rink facility, and 3) already booked solid during the skating season.  Lots of county business-- hockey teams, figure skaters, recreational skaters-- go to Gunpowder in Montgomery County right over the county line, or even to Piney Orchard in Odenton-- which now has been more aggressive in its marketing since the Washington Capitals don't practice there anymore. 

I have two solutions to offer.  One would be to expand the current Columbia Ice Rink, adding a second full-size sheet of ice.  This could be done if the current parking lot next to the rink is used, which then pushes the parking for the ice rink out into the village center and/or Interfaith Center parking.  Adding in the parking for the proposed Meridian Square, this could make Oakland Mills a very busy place to be, very fast, and would spur commercial investment there.

The second solution would be the establishment of a new ice facility in the county.  Such a facility could also incorporate a swimming and diving center which could help facilitate the inclusion of swimming as a high school varsity sport in the county-- which it isn't, now, obstensibly because of the lack of available pools.  (Yet the local high schools' ice hockey teams play in an interscholastic league.  Go figure.)

The vision would be that the new facility be a single sheet, like the Columbia Ice Rink-- but one facility or the other, would be open year-round.  And hopefully, the new facility would be centrally located in the county-- maybe as part of a redesigned Wilde Lake Village Center?  Or, how about in Blandair Regional Park?  Although the latter is still a few years off.

The need for more water and ice-based facilities is there-- how and when the need will be met is uncertain.