The Walk Stops Here

I live in the village of Owen Brown and I often bike through Dobbin and the surrounding villages. Wait, lets back track, which is hard because there aren't many paths in Dobbin to begin with.

On days when I know I'm in class, I try to plan a few posts ahead of time to keep you interested. Over the weekend, while biking to photograph the closing of Z-Pizza, I thought of writing about the lack of connecting sidewalks in the Dobbin area.

Turns out Wordbones beat me to it. He's written about the lack of sidewalks in the Snowden area but I consider the areas linked. While interviewing Larry Carson of the Baltimore Sun Monday, he also mentioned the issue.

I'll give you an example. Lets say you live on Downdale Place in Owen Brown. A sidewalk runs along the edge of Oakland Mills road. Its a nice day out and you feel like walking to Dobbin Donuts & Deli for lunch. As soon as you get to the brick church you notice there's no sidewalk on the other side of the road!

This is a common occurrence in the Dobbin/Snowden area. Across Dobbin road from the Blockbuster video, there is a path that runs behind Dobbin and Owen Brown and into Oakland Mills. Once you walk up the hill from that path you'll have difficulty getting to the other side.

The point I'm trying to make is that there are no sidewalks or crosswalks in places where there ought to be sidewalks. Columbia was supposedly designed to let residents walk to schools and village centers, why not restaurants and retail? There are sidewalks in some places and those simply stop as if to say "go back and get in your car and drive the rest of the way!"

Residents who live off of Carved Stone should be able to cross the street and walk to the strip mall for pho, but they can't because the sidewalk doesn't connect to the retail outlets. Instead they are required to either walk through a camoflauged cut or get in their car and drive.

The pedestrian and bicycling situation in the Snowden/Dobbin area is really f--ked up and needs to be fixed!

idX Brings Business To Columbia

Earlier Wednesday, Wordbones reported on the idX move in Snowden from Odenton. After reading this, I got on the horn to Frank Grelle, the general manager of idX's Baltimore division to get the scoop.

idX manufactures shelves, tables and other store fixtures for Kohl's, JC Penney's, Marshalls and other retailers as well as financial institutions. Based in St. Louis, Mo, idX has offices in Louisville, Seattle, Toronto and Shanghai. The company bought out Russell Williams Ltd in 2005 which was originally based in Columbia but moved to Odenton.

idX in Odenton currently operates out of two buildings catty corner to each other. Grelle describes the move into the Snowden building as more efficient for the operation.

"As we continue to grow, I really needed to be in one building so that I don't have to move finished from the manufacturing building, onto a trailer, move them 50 yards and unload them into a warehouse."

idX is moving it's operation to 8901 Snowden River parkway because the new location has many more dock doors than their Odenton location. The additional space of the Snowden location will also allow Grelle to house all of his production lines under one roof and make the distribution process easier.

“We might ship to 15 Kohl's stores in a matter of three days, so when you've got limited dock doors, you can't stage in advance because you can't block a dock door. In the new building we can say this is store A, this is store B, this is store C, this is store D and we can stage the product that goes on to the truck that's going to that store in advance.”

So will the move into Columbia bolster the local economy and create more jobs? Grelle says yes, but not right away.

“The move probably by itself probably isn't going to create more jobs, you know, other than the jobs created due to tenant improvements to this facility, but by gaining these efficiencies in planning for the future, that's going to help us gain more business which will in turn create jobs.”

Grelle says the company hopes to complete the move into Columbia by July of this year.

Building Relationships

Today I wrote my midterm essay for my independent study. This is class I'm writing this blog for by the way. The essay and the fact that I wrote it aren't relevant to this blog except for the fact that I mentioned Wordbones in it. The essay details how the link helps me build relationships through my blog based on the book What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis. Hopefully, Dr. Spaulding won't be the only person to read it.

How Can The Link Change Everything & Build Relationships?

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Essays Academic Work towson university columbia blog projec

A Conversation With Barbara Russell

"You ran into people wherever you went, except the mail box (laughs), never at the mailbox! When I would go shopping at the Giant in Wilde Lake, it would take me literally hours to get out of there, not that I was shopping so much but you know you'd have a conversation in every isle, in isle four with Helen and you know that's how it was with everybody. You'd go to the grocery store and you'd spend an eternity there because you met everybody you knew and you just had conversations."

One summer day in 1967, Barbara and Charles Russell were driving down Route 29 from Baltimore to visit friends in Rockville when they noticed the do not enter sign near the development of Columbia had been removed, so they entered. In July, they moved in, become two of the first 100 residents in Columbia.

"There was almost nothing in Columbia at the time, there wasn't even a village center. In fact, when we drove around there were these little muddy circles and we asked somebody what they were and they said oh those are going to be cul-de-sacs. And we said what the heck are cul-de-sacs?"

At the time, the Russells had followed their jobs at the Social Security Administration from California. Before moving to Columbia, they had lived in Woodlawn and even had to get married in Washington D.C., because it was illegal for an interracial couple to marry in Maryland.

"When I married Charles, my family was dead set against it and they felt and told me that they thought that I would forever be living on the fringes of society and my children."

Russell says that for most of the early residents, Columbia was their first experience in an integrated community. She recalls the day an older couple moved into the apartment above them. They mistook Charles for the maintenance man, requesting that he help them move in.

"So he did, he helped them move their stuff upstairs and when he was all finished he said let me introduce myself, I'm your neighbor Charles Russell, from the apartment down below."

42 years later, Russell thinks things have changed, that after James Rouse stopped driving the Rouse Company, the bottom line took the wheel instead of the vision. In her mind, the biggest problem of early Columbia was public transportation. When asked about current problems, she spoke about General Growth Properties.

"GGP is not giving anything to the county, it just wants the density and zoning changes worth billions and is not agreeing to pay for the costs of infrastructure to pay for affordable housing, to pay for cultural amenities, its not, it doesn't want to pay and hasn't promised to pay and hasn't agreed to pay for anything. And now it can't afford to pay for anything. And so it would be in my mind, a real rip if you will off to the taxpayers, to allow them to do that without any of the trade offs."

Ryan Ballengee Now

At 25, Ryan Ballengee isn't much older than I but what he lacks in years he makes up for with his blog footprint. About a year ago, Ballengee started Columbia Now to start a conversation about the issues that face Columbia. Ballengee got his start in the blogosphere two years ago with Waggle Room, a golf based blog.

Ballengee says he thinks the purpose of his blog is to share his interest in local politics.
"I encourage people to share an opposing view," says Ballengee. "My feeling is that the conversation can be nothing but good for the community, so long as it is rooted in facts and is honest."

Columbia Now's readers come from all over Howard county, says Ballengee. He says the content speaks for itself and though the feedback is usually positive, his readers may not always agree with what he thinks.

"More or less, I talk most political or policy issues on Columbia Now because my undergrad degree is in business and my Masters is in public policy. So, in a sense, what I cover is really reflective of some of my personal interests."

So who is Ballengee following on the blogopshere?

"I try to read bloggers from all over the County. I read HoCo Freemarket, Columbia Talk, Tales of Two Cities, Jessie X, and read HoCoBlogs for blogs that I may not normally see. I really enjoy the food and restaurant blogs because they give me good tips on where to eat."

When writing his blog posts, Ballengee says he gets his information from the Howard County website, the Baltimore Sun or papers on Explore Howard. He also gets information from other blogs.

Ballengee closes out the interview with his top five tips for bloggers:

1. Have a passion for both your subject area and writing.
2. Be responsive to your audience.
3. Don't let your audience dictate how you communicate with them.
4. Be a credible source and back up opinions with facts.
5. Blogging is fun. If you aren't having fun, stop blogging and come back to it.

Source Remorse

"When you stand in the light of truth, the only place a lie can hide is under your feet."
-The Gonzo Journalist

Any journalism student will tell you that media law is a breeze. Memorize the terms, take the tests and forget most of what you learned after the semester ends, easy A. The last 24 electric hours have sent me to far corners of the internet. I've consulted experts, media law professors, even my old news editing text book.

Thursday night, Robert Tennenbaum took the offensive with a surprise attack on my senses. "Take down the post right fucking now," he shrieked. How do you explain to a screaming senior citizen that you're standing at a light rail stop in North Linthicum unable to check your blog, your email or even the MTA light rail schedule?

Shortly after the blitzkrieg, I got on the horn for technical assistance. Caller #5 had access to the internet and followed my step by step instructions, disarming the post and what I thought would be legal fallout. Then I recorded a statement as a podcast as a sort of personal PR move.

Statement


Almost a week later, I've received a lot of buzz about the "dust up" over the Tennenbaum post. Some people have commented anonymously that I have a one sided political agenda, or that I am portraying Tennenbaum as the "bad guy." Let me dispel the myths and half-truths.

This blog has no political agenda. When I interview residents about their Columbia experience, I publish quotes about what has worked and what hasn't. Robert Tennenbaum is not the bad guy. In fact I would encourage anyone who sees him to stop him and buy him a cup of green tea. I thoroughly enjoyed our interview, Tennenbaum has some amazing stories to tell. We may not have always agreed on things, but as the young people say, its whatever.

No Hard Feelings,

Jack Cole

Bill Santos on Blogging

Bill Santos, 42, is the engineering manager of the national archives and a Columbia native. He moved away from the people tree for college and replanted in Wilde Lake in 2000, with his wife.
Santos keeps his ear to the ground and his finger on the pulse of Columbia issues.

In the fall of 2006, Santos started Columbia Compass.

"As stated in the [Columbia] Compass tag line, the blog is intended to navigate the social, political and cultural world of Columbia, Maryland. Admittedly, the blog has been more about politics than the social and cultural aspects of Columbia. That has been more of an evolution than a conscious decision."

Santos says he hopes his blog will reach out to both natives and ex-patriots of Columbia.

"For those that live locally, I hope to provide perspective on the goings-on in the community. For those living farther away, I hope to provide a connection back to Columbia."

Santos doesn't tailor his content. Sometimes he hears a quote from a local official or reads one in the paper and gets a 'spider sense' feeling to write about it in his blog. Other times he reads something that evokes nostalgia, passion or joy and writes about that instead.

"With respect to information, I do a lot of research. I would say about half is web-based. The other half is reading books (I have a crazy collection), attending meetings and talking with people."

Santos follows Tales of Two Cities, a hyper-local blog similar to Columbia Compass. The difference he says, is that the author Wordbones writes from a business perspective. He also follows Dinosaur Mom, 53 Beers on Tap, Columbia 2.0 and Hometown Columbia.

"All of them are very good bloggers," he says. "The Howard County Maryland Blog and Hedgehog Report are also well done."

Santos offers some advice to new bloggers and his top 5 tips.

"My advice to beginning bloggers is to find something you are passionate about and keep it narrow. If you like what you're writing about you are more likely to stick with it."

1. You will never have enough time to write everything you want to write.
   
2. Be honest.
3. People who post anonymously are wonderful people, except when they are posting anonymously.
4. Give credit often.
5. Attend the Blogtail happy hours.