I’m taking a brief break from my series on Howard County in the 21st century to pick up a topic I commented on some time ago at 53 Beers on Tap, namely why does Howard County have an elected school board? I don’t mean, what’s the history behind why school boards exist in their present form; rather I mean, what purpose does it serve to elect a school board, rather than simply having an appointed board or no board at all (i.e., just an appointed school superintendent)? ...

In a previous post I discussed how Howard County and Columbia could be “better suburbs,” not by the standards of the 1960s and 70s but by the standards of today and years to come. In my next few posts in this series I’ll consider whether and how the traditionally heralded Columbia virtues of diversity, tolerance, and inclusivity might translate into 21st century terms. This post addresses economic diversity, i.e., the relative balance between low-income, middle-income, and high-income households, and Howard County’s inclusivity toward families of modest means. ...

Today On Wednesday I had to drive over to drop something off at a co-worker’s house in Kentlands, the “neo-traditional” residential and commercial development in Gaithersburg. (For those interested in traffic, the trip took almost exactly an hour, starting from Oakland Mills Village Center and heading down US 29, around the beltway, and back up I-270.) My visit, short though it was, prompted some thoughts about future development in Howard County. My usual disclaimer applies: These are not the opinions of a trained professional, just those of an ordinary person who might be a visitor to or even resident of future developments. ...

I’m still working on the next blog post in my “Howard County in the 21st century” series. In the meantime I thought I’d take a break and revisit the proposed Taxpayer Protection Initiative to require a supermajority vote for the Howard County council to raise taxes. First, noted without comment, from a blog post by Wordbones about his attending a fundraiser for Dennis Schrader: There were also people at the event enlisting signatures for the petition drive to put the Taxpayer Protection Initiative on the ballot this fall. The [Republican] party faithful I spoke with last night were somewhat divided on the wisdom of this effort. ...

In a recent post I opined that three things made Columbia (and by extension Howard County) the kind of place it was and (to a greater or lesser degree) still is: It was a “better suburb,” relative to other suburbs. It had a more socially diverse and inclusive environment, again relative to other suburbs. It had a prosperous economy driven by steadily growing government spending. No sooner had I done that post than the Columbia 2.0 blog quoted Jim Rouse on the first goal of Columbia: ““To provide a real City—not just a better suburb” [emphasis added]. It was as if Rouse himself had risen from the grave to contradict me. (And wildelakemike further reinforced the point in his comment on my post.) ...

So far I’ve written two posts discussing whether Columbia and Howard County have (or could have) a true “sense of place,” and I really haven’t defined what I mean by that term. In a comment 0bject (of Patapsco Holler fame) attempted to help me out by giving some factors that help create a sense of place: Uniqueness & desirability—the latter of which is going to be different for different people. . . . Natural, geological or ecological diversity, water, physical beauty including buildings & homes, transportation, etc. History, commerce, ethnicity & spirituality. ...

I see the issue of anonymous commenters is heating up again, with Wordbones’s decision to require commenters to have a valid userid with Google or another service. (This isn’t how Wordbones presented the decision, but due to the limitations of Blogspot that’s how it ended up working in practice.) As HoCo Rising noted, we also had a conversation on this at the HoCo Blogtail party last night. I was particularly shocked to hear during that conversation that in the past some local bloggers have deliberately outed anonymous or pseudonymous commenters who offended them for some reason; I think such behavior constitutes a major breach of trust between a blogger and his or her readers. HoCo Hayduke also posted a link to past blog posts on this general topic. ...

Thanks to all those who showed up at tonight’s HoCo Blogtail meetup at Pure Wine Café. Blogs represented included Annethologie (more active recently as @Annathema on Twitter), ChrisBachmann.com, Columbia Compass, Do I Amuse You, HoCo Rising, Hometown Columbia, and Patapsco Holler. We had some fun conversations about Howard County politics and related issues, though I have to say I’m a bit leery of going down that particular rabbit hole. To be high-minded, I’d prefer to maintain a beginner’s mind as much as possible. To be low-minded, ignorance makes it easier and more fun to blog since I can put forward semi-informed opinions and don’t have to worry about the nuance inherent in the real world. ...

In a recent post I questioned whether Howard County and Columbia had a true “sense of place” and, if not, whether there were anything that we as residents of Howard County could do about it. This post and the next contain my tentative answers. As I wrote before, there’s nothing profound here, it’s basically me thinking out loud in a blue sky-ish sort of way. To answer the first question: I don’t think Howard County or even Columbia proper have a true sense of place. To some degree it’s the sort of question that if you have to ask it then you can be sure the answer is no. But, you might say, what about Jim Rouse’s vision? What about Columbia as a “shining example of . . . a well-planned community,” as Alan Klein recently put it? ...

I should have mentioned this earlier, but better late than never: I’m co-hosting (with Jessie X) a blogger meetup this Wednesday evening, June 2, at Pure Wine Café in downtown Ellicott City, from 6:15 pm to 7:45 pm. I went to Pure Wine Café a while back, liked it, and tried to co-host a previous meetup only to mess it up through my own stupidity. (If you’re planning to meet somewhere you should call ahead and verify it’s open.) ...