"You could only get into Crofton through I think there were two gates on Route 3, two entrances. And there was a committee that went down, from what I heard, didn't see it, but this vigilante group went down with shotguns to protect the town itself.”
In 1972, Governor George Wallace spoke at Merriweather Post Pavilion and won 70 to 80 percent of the vote in Crofton. Berkowitz saw this as the handwriting on the wall.
In 1973, Berkowitz moved to Wilde Lake with his family where he met Ron Klein, a psychologist who was on the planning committee. Klein started the Family Life Center in Wilde Lake, a non-profit providing mental health services to residents where Berkowitz worked as an adjunct. Berkowitz says he served on low level committees with Barbara Russell.
“As far as I know, I knew of only one black family in Crofton, in fact they had a screening committee that my understanding was to not include minority groups coming into Crofton, so this was very very different.”
Berkowitz says he moved in next to a black family and learned that the first child born in Columbia had interracial parents. Our neighbors were friendly, he says, adding that they would often visit with their children.
Columbia, he says, has lost its small town feel and that along with the over-commercialization disappoints him. He says Columbia could do without the cookie-cutter housing lots as well.
“What they did get right was the quality of the schools and the racial mix I think has been very successful. I think the quality of the schools have lived up to the high expectations."
36 years later, Berkowitz has no regrets about moving to Columbia. He says the city is just want he and his wife wanted for their children.
3 comments:
Wow, Jack. That's a full-on article. Great writing.
Interesting blog Jack. That's cool that the first born child in Columbia was an interracial baby, it shows that Columbia was an open minded town that did not look down on interracial couples.
When I become a parent the quality of the schools in the area will be a very important factor in deciding where I live. So I definitely agree with some of Mr. Berkowitz points.
Part of the reason Columbia no longer has a small town feel is that it is no longer the small town that it was in the 70's. It's grown and evolved, just as it was supposed to. Did people not realize that they were moving into a growing town when they moved here? It seems that many people expected Columbia to stop growing as soon as they moved here. (I am not speaking of Mr. Berkowitz specificaly, but many of the "pioneers".)
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