Friday night Columbia Compass guy and I were talking state and local politics, the HoCo blogosphere, latest goings-on in the world of the Columbia Association... you know, the sort of awesome stuff Friday night happy hours are made of!
As a lot of conversations about such things in such circumstances often do, things degraded. To the point that we begun to theorize: what if Columbia either ceased to exist, or in fact, had never existed?
Thinking about this further over the weekend, I kind of did channel my inner Harry Turtledove and think: indeed, what if Columbia had never existed? What if Jim Rouse and company decided to build their planned community in Virginia, or California, or Ontario? Hmmmm.....
First, I should restate myself. It's not that Columbia would have never existed, it's that the Columbia we know today had never been built. This map shows that there has been a place in Howard County called "Columbia" for as long as there's been a Howard County.
I am guessing that Howard County would have developed further along it's major highways-- I-70, US 40, US 29, US 1. I think that instead of one large community, development along 29 would've spread out from what was then knows as Columbia, Oakland Mills, and Simpsonville. I'm thinking there would've been a fourth town along US 29 called Atholton.
Other effects on the county fabric are more subtle. Because of there being no planned community in Howard County, what we know now as Maple Lawn or Waverly Woods never would've happened. Rather than become a historic district, as it did in 1973, the new charter government would have worked to incorporate Ellicott City again, a move that would then have occurred in the communities along US 29, Elkridge and Clarksville. Without a major population center, rather several smaller ones, Howard County would've become an exurb of Baltimore and DC rather than a suburb. Pressure would be great to build more homes in Howard, absent a major employer or tax base. A hospital in Howard County would be built, probably in the Ellicott City area, away from St. Agnes and Montgomery General hospitals.
In short, life in Howard County would have become radically different. Howard County would have become a balkanized bedroom community with no identity or clear sense of purpose. It would become sounthern Carroll County, on steroids.
So, gripe as we may about the current state of affairs; things could certainly be worse.
Can't believe I missed a discussion on alternative universes with Marshmallow Man and Columbia Compass! Augh!
Posted by: macsmom | November 07, 2011 at 03:59 AM