Columbia's Community Split On ZRA-113

Derek Simmonsen over at the Columbia Flier brought this to my attention Monday. According to the report, of the 103 people who testified to the county planning board on ZRA-113, half were for it and half were against it.

Titled 51-51 Split, this report provides a snapshot of the community or at least those who are concerned and active within the community. To a certain extent I think every one of us feels a certain amount of apprehension at the thought of a developer coming in and restructuring our downtown area.

Perhaps its because we are sick of the way things are and we are worried things might get worse as a result? Maybe we think General Growth Properties has the right idea but the wrong vision? Whatever the case I don't think there are many of us who are opposed to any development. I think we can all agree that something needs to be done and that's a start.

The planning board begins closed session deliberation on the plan Monday at 6:30 p.m.

Read Between The Lines

An advertisement on the Explore Howard website caught my eye this morning as I scanned the site for something newsworthy to post on. I'm not an advertising major but I enjoy studying the semiotics of print and T.V. ads for their hidden meanings. What does this ad say to you?

Ok you've got a black woman holding a red bag, nothing out of the ordinary here. Shop the VC the ad reads, value & convenience very close to home. To me, the ads reads shop local, keep the village centers alive, don't hit up the big boxes.

Then it hit me. The ad for Columbia only lists six village centers! So what if you live in Owen Brown, Oakland Mills or Long Reach? Don't they have village centers as well? To me this ad says, stay out of East Columbia, it sucks, the village centers are dead. We've let developers come in and fuck them up and now we'd rather you didn't even bother going. Go to these upscale village centers instead.

Take Wilde Lake village center for example. What could that woman possibly have in that bag that isn't seafood, hair care products or alcohol? Would you rather her shop at a village center without a grocery store or a village center without a computer shop? The image of the red bag suggests the kind of shopping she could only do at big box or the Columbia mall.

So am I reading too much into this? Does the ad scream bias to anyone else, or should I put my contacts in before something hazardous happens?