It'll be a bit of a drive with a good amount of traffic to commute from either Baltimore or DC. Baltimore is probably more feasible because it's closer. Living in Canton or Locust Point in Baltimore might not be a terrible commute. You'd just hop on I-95. They are trying to develop and densify downtown Columbia more but it's still a work in progress.

That was blocked by Liz Walsh on the council. See above commenters.

For better or worse we are all cogs in a much larger system. I don't blame coal miners for global warming and I certainly don't think their opinions are more or less valid because of their occupation. I blame our government for not investing enough in clean energy and local activist groups from blocking solar panel projects because they dont like the look of panels. Ad hominem criticism are one of the weakest rhetorical points. Particularly when what we're talking about is an increase in housing units, which we can legitimately argue about merits/demerits and the attack is about...foreign policy.

While not a fan of the military industrial complex, a job is a job and you have to pay the bills somehow. Not everyone can work at an NGO. Besides there's a lot of military hawks with a progressive domestic agenda on the Left and vice versa. You don't have to adhere to every aspect of the most far left of the Democratic Party to be a progressive.

Here's a Baltimore Banner article about increasing segregation. This is a more in depth report about the housing market in HoCo and the rising costs of housing due to lack of supply. Matter of opinion but I think that spot is a good place to put higher density homes. It's right next to the village, and there are vacant storefronts that could use the extra customers.

The villages created by Rouse were high density townhomes or even higher density apartments. The successor to Rouse's company Howard Hughes developers want to build these but people are blocking them from doing so thus leading to lower density housing units and a shortage of housing. Rouse's vision was to create communities with a racial and socioeconomic diversity and Howard County has become more and more segregated on both fronts.

Did you build your own house?

What's the name of the development you live in?

The "champion" of affordable housing Liz Walsh blocked the apartment complex with designated affordable units. The area is already zoned for higher density, so now townhomes are being built instead.

People move to these counties because that's where the jobs are. When you restrict development, housing becomes more expensive for everybody. It also just drives people to move to places like Carroll, which increases traffic and leads to even more sprawl.

Seems like that link specifically talks about the reservations for meeting rooms. Not sure if different rules apply for renting the entire library.

The library holds events for private organizations all the time. The only points of possible contention the article brings up is that the library closed 4hrs early for set up (not sure if that is common for events or not) and a promotion said it was "invite only" which may or may not violate whatever event rules the library has.

Even IF those were contrary to official policy, which it's unclear if it is, who f**king cares. It's so insignificant and a waste of taxpayers dollars to "investigate."

Agree with fines for parents if the kids assault other people, but disagree on the "loitering." It's a mall people are supposed to loiter. Most kids just want a place to spend time with friends and the mall is a great place for that. It's the kids starting fights and shooting bystanders with toy guns that is the problem.

Speed cameras are a great idea. Cuts down on dangerous stuff like this and also brings in county money. Win win.

I hope not. Frivolous lawsuits against the government are what drives up costs for everyone and leads to less services and more taxes.

Keep up the great work with the Merriweather Post! Local Howard county news is hard to come by.

The best way to lower housing costs for all but especially for people on the lower income ladder is to increase the supply of housing. The White House recognizes that the housing shortage increases home prices for everyone. The most expensive type of home to build and therefore buy is a single detached home. Townhomes are cheaper and apartments less than that. And yes affordable is relative to the costs of housing in the community and that cost is very high, median price 570k in HoCo.

Agreed. I would much rather have increased density on already developed land such as allowing development of duplexes, quad plexus or mid-rises on single family lots. Unfortunately that has even less of a chance of happening.

Columbia is a wonderful place to live, but there is also racism. That racism reared its ugly head in the school redistricting fights. This is not just something in the news, it’s something I’ve heard in private conversations and basically anytime I just look at NextDoor. Relative to most parts of the country, I think the racism is relatively low, but I do argue that there are systems (school districting as well as the systemic blockages of new/affordable housing) that are racist in the county.

Dense low income housing such as apartments/condos are the most environmentally friendly thing a community can do. Housing is the single biggest carbon impact each of us has. The most environmentally destructive thing a community can do is mandate single family zoning which much of Howard County does. I would argue that the Dems who support housing but only if environmentally friendly don’t really care about either.

The NIMBYism of severely restricting the housing market from building lower cost housing such as townhomes and apartments thus economically restricting who can live where specifically regarding school districts. This is systemically racist as it leads to de facto segregation, just looks at the demographics of Centennial high school, very few black and Hispanic students.

In District 1 of Howard County, which is mostly Ellicott City, there’s a lot of conservatives. Definitely saw more signs for Kittleman (the Republican county executive candidate) than for Ball (the Democrat).

Being a suburb of DC, people are more politically active than most of the US. However it’s not like DC where everyone you meet is a lobbyist or works on Capitol Hill. It’s a very blue district and this past election, Democrats won across the board. That being said, there’s quite a bit of Democrat infighting as there are real substantive policy differences during the primaries on issues such as housing. Columbia is a non-incorporated community so the Columbia Association is sorta the governing body of it with the Howard County Council and Executive over them. Regarding demonstrations, I tend to see less of that. if there’s a big march it would be in DC. I do encourage you to get to know your County Council and go to meetings as that is the best way to make real change.

Even NPR admits that more police lead to less crime.. Some estimates even say one more police officer leads to 0.1 less homicides. Those are predominantly Black lives. If you think Black Lives Matter, which I do, then you should support more police.

Tom Coale is the resident liberal representative on WBAL for the past few months. He has really good takes and takes the super conservative callers in stride.