Expanding the five-district Howard County Council to three members per district
Another approach to expanding the Howard County Council, still using five districts but now with three members per district.
Another approach to expanding the Howard County Council, still using five districts but now with three members per district.
In this last post of the series I talk about why I care about this, and why I did it.
My proposal for Howard County Council expansion has raised a lot of questions. Here are my answers.
Here’s one example of what a more open, fair, and inclusive approach to Howard County Council redistricting could produce.
A county that cares about inclusivity needs an approach to council redistricting that is open to all, transparent, as fair as possible, and not controlled by...
Let’s elect the Howard County Council in such a way that every voter has an equal chance to express their preferences and have them matter.
When we expand the Howard County Council let’s make it more reflective of the people it serves.
Let’s expand the Howard County Council to make it more responsive to the larger population it now serves.
On the occasion of Michael McCall’s death I reflect on his signature achievements in Columbia, Maryland.
I’m renaming my blog and closing down my Substack newsletter.
The Inner Arbor Trust is revising its plans for Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods to reflect new realities.
Yes, this is another post promoting ranked choice voting.
I answer questions about ranked choice voting raised by the Howard County Charter Review Commission and others.
Tweaking the council redistricting process is the wrong solution. Ranked choice voting is the right one.
Some areas of Howard County are over a hundred times more densely populated than others.
I look at median household income within Howard County, Maryland, and how it has changed.
Looking at median household income in Howard County, Maryland, over time compared to other local jurisdictions. [UPDATED]
Everyone can now work with data and visualize it. Should you?
Merriweather Post Pavilion gets its own resident orchestra
Update 2021/06/19: This post is now obsolete.
I explore the ideas of Judith Rich Harris as they apply to the roles of parents and schools in Howard County and elsewhere.
I reveal the winner of the vote for best-looking Howard Couny 2018 campaign sign.
After you vote in today’s 2018 primary, vote for the best-looking campaign signs among those that made it to the final round.
Here’s my final set of reviews of Howard County 2018 campaign signs.
I’m in the home stretch now in the race to review Howard County 2018 campaign signs.
My reviews of 2018 campaign signs in Howard County continue.
We’re halfway through my reviews of 2018 campaign signs in Howard County.
I continue my look at 2018 campaign signs in Howard County.
I take a look at 2018 campaign signs in Howard County.
I have some final thoughts after completing my series on the Chrysalis and the background to its creation.
A timeline of significant events in the history of the Chrysalis and its surroundings, from 1962 to the present, with references.
Getting the details right on the Chrysalis, featuring Living Design Lab and Mahan Rykiel Associates.
Now that construction of the Chrysalis is complete, what are the next steps to fulfill the vision of Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods?
I discuss how the Chrysalis and Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods can attract visitors, based on research conducted by Integrated Insight.
I present more details on the Chrysalis foundation/basement or “subfloor” and related construction, featuring the work of Whiting-Turner.
I explain how the skin of the Chrysalis was fabricated and installed by A. Zahner Company.
I explore the steel frame underlying the skin of the Chrysalis, as designed by the structural engineering group of Arup.
I discuss how the Chrysalis will function as a professional stage, as designed by the theater consulting group of Arup.
I explore the design of the Chrysalis and the work of Marc Fornes, its designer.
I discuss the various institutional activities related to implementation of the Inner Arbor plan
I explore the vision for a new park in Symphony Woods and the strategy to implement it
I recap the history of Symphony Woods and the various attempts over the years to develop it as a park.
In this series I explore the conception and construction of the Chrysalis amphitheater and Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods.
Merriweather Post Pavilion gets ready for the 21st century, and the Howard County Design Advisory Panel offers its advice.
As construction of the Chrysalis amphitheater begins, I look again at the structure and its architect.
Update 2021/06/19: This post is now obsolete.
Howard County government ups its game in providing data with a new web site opendata.howardcountymd.gov. Next stop, HoCoStat?
The Crescent development in downtown Columbia is going to be a (very) big deal.
The map of Howard County looks very different if you’re looking for votes. Cartograms help you see like a politician.
I release two useful Howard County election datasets in preparation for future posts.
I have fun creating graphs and maps with building permit data from data.howardcountymd.gov.
As we wait to hear more about Allan Kittleman’s HoCoStat proposal, you don’t have to wait to download lots of useful county-related data at data.howardcounty...
Don’t expect many blog posts from me in 2015. Those I do post will be on micro-local issues like Merriweather Park, with a smattering of other stuff of inter...
I testify in support of the plan for Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods and the Planning Board approves it (note that correlation is not causation).
Dear Planning Board, I support SDP-14-073, the site development plan for Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods, and you should too. (signed) Frank
Tom Coale deserves our thanks for showing us the best aspects of politics, in a world in which we so often see the worst.
Before Howard County’s next county executive goes off on a high-profile “open government data” initiative, they (and we) should think more about what such a ...
Vote for Tom Coale for Maryland House of Delegates, District 9B.
What I planned to tell the CA board about the Inner Arbor plan.
Yet another indication that the Inner Arbor Trust did a good job of selecting its design team.
I’ve looked at and commented on lots of Howard County campaign signs during the 2014 primaries. I end my series of posts with some final winners.
In the battle for Howard County Executive, whose sign reigns supreme?
I look at campaign signs in the 2014 primaries for Howard County Council District 1.
My thoughts on campaign signs in the race for Howard County Board of Education.
I look at campaign signs for the 2014 primaries for Maryland State Senate Districts 12 and 13.
I turn to another of my home districts to look at campaign signs for the Maryland State Senate, District 9.
I look at campaign signs for the 2014 primaries for the Maryland House of Delegates, District 13.
There are lots and lots of campaign signs in the primaries for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 12.
I look at campaign signs in the 2014 primaries for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 9B.
I look at campaign signs for the Maryland House of Delegates race in my home district, District 9A.
I continue my focus on Howard County local races with a look at campaign sings for the Judge of the Orphans’ Court positions.
My next “sign-off” is for the race for Howard County State’s Attorney, in which incumbent Dario Broccolino faces fellow Democrat Rich Gibson in the 2014 prim...
OK, the preliminaries are over, and here’s my first campaign sign 2014 face-off. I’m starting with the courthouse races, and in particular the race for Howar...
Here are the criteria I use when judging 2014 campaign signs.
Pity the poor political candidates of Howard County. It’s hard enough running a campaign as it is, but they also have pesky bloggers grading their performanc...
I lay out some thoughts on how best to promote the Inner Arbor plan for Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods.
Are you wondering when the renovation work on Merriweather Post Pavilion will be done? Wonder no more.
There is a “silent supermajority” in Columbia in favor of the Inner Arbor plan for Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods.
I conclude my two-part series on the proposed Merriweather Post Pavilion renovations.
Why Merriweather Post Pavilion is being renovated, what’s being done, and what it will cost.
Guess what? Ordinary people in Columbia and Howard County like the Inner Arbor plan for Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods.
If you really want to “save Symphony Woods” then the Inner Arbor plan is the best one on offer.
Would the Cy Paumier plan “save Symphony Woods”? I don’t think so.
I take an in-depth look at the details (such as they are) of the Cy Paumier plan for Symphony Woods.
How overreach by GGP and blowback from CA led to Cy Paumier’s plan for Symphony Woods.
I take a lonely walk through Symphony Woods in order to get a feel for what it is and might be.
Some semi-random thoughts about Symphony Woods and the controversy over its future.
Why is the controversy over Symphony Woods so heated? Because at least in part it’s about questions of “sanctity” and “violation”.
The information in this post is now out of date based on the approved final development plan for the Crescent neighborhood phase 1. For more current informat...
Columbia is well on its way to becoming a real city with a real downtown.
How parking is handled at Jiffy Lube Live and other venues comparable to Merriweather Post Pavilion.
Merriweather Post Pavilion will continue to be a centerpiece of downtown Columbia. But where are Merriweather visitors going to park?
Is Symphony Woods really an untouched (and by implication untouchable) piece of natural woodlands? I think not.
You already know that I like the Inner Arbor plan. Now you know that the Howard County Design Advisory Panel like it too.
This post continues my ongoing series on the evolution of the Inner Arbor plan, this time looking at the Chrysalis amphitheatre.
In this post in my ongoing Inner Arbor series I look at revisions to previously-proposed designs.
Metamorphosis produces the Butterfly, as I conclude my comments on the features of the Inner Arbor plan as presented at the pre-submission meeting on Decembe...
After the Caterpillar comes the Chrysalis, as I continue my comments on the Inner Arbor plan. For context and more information see other posts in this series...
I now turn to the most prominent features in the Inner Arbor plan, starting with the Caterpillar. For context and more information see other posts in this se...
Today I focus on the Picnic Table and the Lily Pads as I continue my look at structures and other features proposed as part of the Inner Arbor plan. For more...
Today I look at the proposed structures and other features proposed for Symphony Woods as part of the Inner Arbor plan presented at the pre-submission meetin...
After reviewing concerns expressed about the Inner Arbor plan, it’s now time to take a closer look at the proposed design. Andrew Metcalf has done a great br...
Last Tuesday night the Inner Arbor Trust revealed a clearer picture of what’s they’re proposing for downtown Columbia. I attended the pre-submission meeting,...
In my previous post I discussed the very high median household income in Howard County in 2012, and noted that median household income is only part of the st...
When I started blogging about Howard County issues just over five years ago it was in response to a post by Dennis Lane quoting Alan Klein on the “wealthy fe...
Continuing my intermittent series of recommendation posts, today we’ll put aside more intellectual topics and focus on entertainment, albeit with a bit of a ...
To get back in the blogging habit, a quick note on what’s going on food-wise in my part of Howard County, namely Route 40 in Ellicott City and the historic d...
We conclude our tour of campaign signs from the 2010 Howard County elections by looking at some of my favorites. (For more signs see part 1 and part 2.)
Continue down memory lane with me as we look back at the campaign signs for Howard County local elections in 2010. (For more signs see part 1 and part 3, and...
Now that the local Howard County political campaigns are starting to heat up, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the last local elections in 20...
Last Tuesday Tom Coale announced that he’s running for the open House of Delegates seat in the newly-created District 9B in (parts of) Ellicott City. Unfortu...
Congratulations to the Howard County Library System for being selected the 2013 library of the year by Gale and Library Journal magazine. Note that the cover...
They say America is suffering a crisis of ill-maintained infrastructure prone to occasional failure. Closer to home I’ve been having my own infrastructure pr...
I knew Dennis Lane only slightly: I occasionally commented on his blog, he commented on mine once or twice, and I met and talked to him several times at Howa...
One political faction obtains a solid majority and uses it to push through a far-reaching initiative, only to have their dominance threatened in a subsequent...
I don’t usually comment on Maryland politics beyond Howard County, but this Washington Post story on Martin O’Malley’s approval rating reinforces an opinion ...
I think this is a record for me: Three posts in one day, and all about libraries to boot, to mark the occasion of the “Evening in the Stacks” fundraising eve...
I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities that might be opened by a new Central Branch of the Howard County Library System, so I’m taking the unpreced...
Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend the Evening in the Stacks fundraiser at the Miller Branch of the Howard County Library System. However that won’t sto...
Over at Columbia Compass Bill Santos has written a great post that brought into focus some of my thoughts around the proposed Inner Arbor project for Symphon...
For the most part I’ve stayed out of the debate over the “Inner Arbor” plan proposed for consideration by the Columbia Association Board of Directors. For th...
In part 4 of this series I discussed the general problem of estimating growth rates for periods less than a year, and using Howard County’s population in the...
In part 3 of this series I recapped the method derived in part 2 for estimating growth rates (using Howard County’s population in the 21st century as an exam...
In part 2 of this series I discussed a more correct approach to the problem of estimating growth rates, using Howard County’s population in the 21st century ...
In my last post I introduced the problem of estimating growth rates, using Howard County’s population in the 21st century as an example. I took a simpleminde...
[I’m interrupting my series of “weekend reading” posts to bring you an actual blog post.]
This week my theme is the search for one’s ancestors and the surprising places it can take us: The founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland...
This week my theme is the urban-rural divide in U.S. politics, both present and past:
Recently my fellow HoCo blogger Tom Coale strongly recommended voting against Maryland Question 5, the state ballot question asking voters to approve or reje...
I saw this on Andrew Sullivan’s blog and thought it interesting: Michael Chabon’s interview at Salon where he talks about his new book Telegraph Avenue and n...
If you could vote on exactly how Howard County spends $10M (just over 1% of its operating budget), would you take advantage of the opportunity? What if you c...
I’m interrupting my blogging hiatus again to point you to an important report that I think everyone interested in Howard County and Maryland politics should ...
No deep analysis tonight, just a brief report on my visit today to BonChon in Ellicott City to try out their fried chicken. The place still hasn’t officially...
Thus far this weekend I’ve suggested revamping the way we elect the Howard County Council as the price for extending the time council members can serve, prop...
Walking around the neighborhood after publishing my last post I had a sudden pang of anxiety: Were the things I wrote about STV (or “ranked choice”) election...
In part 1 of this two-part post I discussed my proposal to replace the current way of electing the Howard County Council with a new scheme to elect council m...
In my previous post I proposed a bargain between the voters of Howard County and those who want to extend the time Howard County Council members can serve: T...
As noted by HoCo Rising, Calvin Ball recently proposed allowing Howard County Council members to serve four terms instead of three. The usual opinionating en...
As some of you know, I like to learn new things. For example, I’m trying to re-learn some of the statistical knowledge I’ve forgotten over the years, and as ...
Some people are fond of using the term “statist” to describe their political opponents. (I’ve never heard of anyone using it to describe themselves.) For exa...
Technology and education is a funny topic. On the one hand technological innovation in education holds out the promise of helping students learn better and t...
As reported by the Howard County Times, county executive Ken Ulman “decided not to sign” the council redistricting bill passed by the Howard County Council b...
I’ll interrupt my blog hiatus briefly to note today’s article in the Howard County Times, “Coming soon to Howard County: a digital school system”. The headli...
The gist: I spent 100 hours writing a book that sold 10 copies; you should too.
Following my review of my 2011 Howard County blogging and related activities it’s time for a look ahead to 2012. I did a similar preview last year and will ...
Last December I took the opportunity to review my Howard County-related blogging in 2010, and I thought it would be fun to repeat that for 2011, including pr...
This is my fifth and final post in Dividing Howard week on my blog, as I discuss some topics related to my new book on the history of county council redistri...
This is my fourth post in Dividing Howard week on my blog, as I discuss some topics related to my new book on the history of council council redistricting in...
This is my third post in Dividing Howard week on my blog, as I discuss some topics related to my new book on the history of council council redistricting in ...
I’m continuing Dividing Howard week on my blog, as I discuss some topics related to my new book on the history of council council redistricting in Howard Cou...
This is Dividing Howard week here on my blog, as I discuss some topics related to my new book on the history of council council redistricting in Howard Count...
For those of you who enjoyed my blog posts on Howard County Council redistricting so much that you’d like to read them all again in one convenient package, y...
In part 22 the redistricting commission created an initial set of proposed council district maps. In this post the commission makes its final recommendation ...
In part 21 in this series we saw Democrats succeed in taking back both the Howard County Council and the county executive position from Republicans. In this ...
Here are more recent links from hecker.tumblr.com. This week (actually, more like two weeks) was somewhat random, to say the least.
Dear Ken,
Back in October 2010 pollsters were dueling over their predictions in the Howard County race for county executive, with pollster Patrick Gonzales of Gonzales...
In this post I continue the story of the 1998 elections for Howard County Council that I began in part 20 of this series.
In part 19 of this series we saw that in 1996 the voters by referendum adopted a change to the Howard County charter to have a redistricting commission creat...
For those following this blog, note that I’ve changed the canonical site name from blog.hecker.org to frankhecker.com. Any links and feed URLs referencing th...
How can Maryland promote job growth and the well-being of its citizens as the economy languishes and Federal spending shows every sign of declining, never to...
In part 18 of this series Republicans overcame the disadvantage imposed on them by the recently-adopted redistricting plan and gained a majority on the count...
In part 17 of this series the Howard County Council ended an over two-year battle by finally adopting new councilmanic district lines based on the 1990 censu...
As we saw in part 16 of this series, 1992 ended with the Howard County Council still divided over how to proceed with redistricting in the wake of the ruling...
Part 15 of this series ended with the trial about to begin that would decide whether the Howard County Council had acted illegally in passing the Democratic-...
As we concluded part 14 we’d seen a move by the Democratic council members (adopting their preferred redistricting plan as a bill), a counter-move by the Rep...
As we saw in part 13, the fallout from the 1990 Howard County general election ensured that the path to creating new council district boundaries would not be...
The recent publishing of proposed revised Howard County Council district lines has pushed me to try to finish this series before the new lines are actually a...
Part 11 of this series took us through the 1990 party primaries for the second election year featuring county council districts; in this part we see how the ...
A continuation of my history of Howard County Council redistricting series is coming soon (I promise! really!), but after an evening at the HoCo Blogtail par...
After a long hiatus, I’m happy to announce that I’m resuming my series on the history of County Council redistricting in Howard County (which is also, as in ...
I happened to stumble on this New York Times article this evening: Calling Off Auction, Borders Plans to Liquidate. According to the article, Borders said it...
Now that I’ve set the scene for Chris Leinberger’s presentation on the shift to walkable urbanism, let’s move on to the actual talk. I took notes during the...
Tonight I attended the presentation by Chris Leinberger on walkable urbanism at the Spear Center in the Howard Hughes Corporation building in downtown Columb...
A month or two back I donated in support of HoCo Rising’s personal End Homelessness in Howard County drive, and have through the years also donated to other ...
Yesterday HoCo Connect posted an interesting article on whether Columbia’s village centers are still relevant, including a look back at the original village ...
For those of you who haven’t heard, the Howard County local blogosphere has a new entrant, as Corey Andrews has started a new HoCoLibertarian blog, to get a ...
HoCo Rising has been teasing us all week about his big announcement. It turned out that he’s not just raising consciousness through his blog but he’s also ra...
I’m interrupting my blog hiatus to discuss direct-to-consumer (or DTC) genetic testing, an issue that has recently become a cause celebre (at least among the...
After posting lots of information it’s time for me to turn around and ask my few readers a question: I’m currently considering establishing a new bank accoun...
I hadn’t seen this mentioned in any other local blogs, so I thought I’d note it here for the benefit of all you political anoraks out there: The folks who br...
Quick, guess in which year the following events occurred in Howard County:
In the previous part 9 of this series we reviewed the Howard County Council races of 1986 up to the time of the party primaries. In this part we continue the...
Part 8 of this series covered the Howard County Council’s first exercise in drawing council district lines. We now turn to how that effort affected the 1986 ...
My last two posts were all about me, so I wanted to switch gears and wish a Happy New Year to all of the local Howard County bloggers and other local media m...
In my previous post I reviewed my Howard County-related blog posts in 2010. Now it’s time for a sneak preview of 2011.
This is the week for everyone to do looking back at 2010 reviews, and I’m no exception. I thought this would be a good time to review my past year (really, p...
1985 was a busy year in Howard County Council districting news, so busy I’m having to split it into two parts. Part 7 covered the creation and public unveili...
As we concluded part 6 of this series proponents of electing Howard County Council members by districts had finally achieved their goal of amending the count...
In part 5 of this series nothing much happened in relation to actually doing something about council districts (as opposed to just talking about their potent...
In part 4 of this series proponents of Howard County Council districts failed to get a referendum on the ballot in the November 1980 general election. In thi...
Thursday I happened to be in the vicinity of the Miller branch of the Howard County Library system at the time of the topping out ceremony for the new Charle...
In part 3 of this series Columbia’s new-found political power was tested in a referendum in 1976 on a proposal to expand the Howard County Council from five ...
At the end of part 2 of this series Columbia Democrats had finally achieved political power within Howard County: The 1974 general election produced a 5-0 De...
In part 1 of this series I discussed the formation of the Howard County Council as part of an bipartisan effort to modernize Howard County government at the ...
In doing research for my series on the history of Howard County Council redistricting one thing that became apparent was the major impact that the founding o...
Now that the 2010 Maryland general election is over, the thoughts of Howard County political activists are turning to the 2014 county elections. Adding an ex...
In part 3 of this series we constructed a linear model in R to estimate the proportion of voters in the 2010 Howard County general election who are unaffilia...
In part 1 of this series I discussed downloading and installing the R statistical package and loading it with Howard County election data, and then in part 2...
In a previous post I promised to explore how we can use the statistics package R to produce estimates for the relative proportions of Republicans, Democrats,...
HoCo Rising recently commented on supposed high Republican turnout in the Maryland House of Delegates race in District 9A, and wondered whether Bob Flanagan ...
There’s this meme going around that Howard County Republicans fared badly because Howard County has so many government workers, and they all vote for Democra...
The Maryland and Howard County general elections are now over, and we (mostly) know who won. However there’s still one major question I’m waiting on the answ...
As I’ve written before, I don’t plan to urge people to vote for or against particular candidates, and I don’t plan to publicize who I vote for or against. So...
In the course of commenting on voter turnout today, HoCo Rising complained about use of the term unaffiliated to describe voters who don’t register as Republ...
HoCo Rising recently highlighted a Baltimore Sun poll showing Martin O’Malley 14 points ahead of Robert Ehrlich in the Maryland gubernatorial race (52% vs. 3...
I’m not in any shape to blog anything that requires concentrated thought, but I didn’t want to let the night pass without noting that I had a great time at t...
In my previous post I made some projections about the likely percentages of Democratic, Republican, and unaffiliated and other voters in the upcoming general...
Previously I discussed the recent Gonzales poll on the Howard County executive race, focusing on the poll’s margin of error (part 1 and part 2). As I noted i...
In part 1 of this post I discussed how to calculate the margin of error on polling results, using as an example the recent Gonzales poll on the Howard County...
HoCo Rising recently highlighted a new poll on the Howard County executive race. This occasioned much comment among HCR’s readers on the political implicatio...
Continuing my series of posts related to my political beliefs, today I thought I’d look at the issue of independent voters and what their independence actual...
Saturday I went down to downtown Ellicott City for the fall festival, which turned out to be a much more popular event than I thought it would be. (I had to ...
A while back in the course of a comment thread for a HoCo Rising post I promised to write more about my political views, so that people could decide whether ...
Last week HoCo Rising did a post on a supposed $72M of Federal grant money being awarded to Howard County for a broadband network. Unfortunately HCR was led ...
After posting about the Howard County Democratic Central Committee candidates I’d be remiss if I didn’t post the DCC election results. So without further ado...
Now that the polls have closed in Howard County I thought I’d post a few random comments on the primary election. Since I don’t know all that much about Howa...
Those few of you who read this blog regularly will recall that I’m a registered Democrat, and therefore one of my missions (should I choose to accept it) is ...
In part 1 of this series I essayed some initial (negative) answers to the question of whether Howard County could ever become the Silicon Valley of cybersecu...
In part 1 of this article I addressed the question (originally raised by HoCo Rising), could Howard County be the Silicon Valley of cybersecurity? My initial...
In the course of analyzing the death of the Taxpayer Protection Initiative HoCo Rising implored the Howard County Republican party to focus on more serious a...
Two recent posts by HoCo Rising and Steve Charing prompted me to jot down a few thoughts to complement my previous posts on same-sex marriage and civic equal...
The Taxpayer Protection Initiative is dead. I’ll defer to HoCo Rising (and Trevor) for in-depth analysis, particularly from the viewpoint of fiscal conservat...
In my previous posts (part 1 and part 2) I introduced the topic of same-sex marriage as a civil right, discussed how many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transg...
In my previous post I introduced the topic of same-sex marriage as a civil right, only to digress into a discussion of how many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and t...
In this post (actually the next three posts—I do run on so) I continue my focus on how the Columbia vision of tolerance and diversity might translate into Ho...
In my previous post I looked at the reality of ethnic diversity in Howard County today, and concluded that Howard County is in fact significantly more divers...
Continuing my series on Howard County in the 21st century, in my next two posts I address the question of ethnic diversity. As described in an article on Col...
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 d...
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 toda...
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 ...
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 T...
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...
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 m...
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 se...
Thanks to all those who showed up at tonight’s HoCo Blogtail meetup at Pure Wine Cafe. Blogs represented included Annethologie (more active recently as @Anna...
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 H...
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 Win...
My apologies, I was going to work on my next post about a sense of place in Howard County, but got distracted by something I read in Alan Klein’s announcemen...
A little over a year ago the Howard County Chamber of Commerce and other local organizations sponsored a presentation by Richard Florida of creative class fa...
I meant my last post to be my final word on voter referendums, ballot initiatives, and other forms of direct democracy. However I found something interesting...
I’ve probably already spent too much time on the proposed Howard County Taxpayer Protection Initiative, but there was one point brought up by an anonymous co...
Coming from the world of open source and Internet security to dabble in the waters of Howard County affairs, I was surprised by the predominance of anonymous...
Recently Wordbones blogged about a proposed Taxpayer Protection Initiative that Howard County Republicans would like to put on the November ballot. The basic...
This is a very rare week (the first one in years) in which I’ve been left at home to take care of the pets and work past my usual stopping time. Tonight I de...
I don’t normally do restaurant reviews, but I thought I’d do a quick one for the Coal Fire Pizza in Ellicott City, since it just opened and I was among the f...
(This is part 2 of a two-part post; for background on the Gini coefficient see part 1.)
(This is part 1 of a two-part post; for the conclusion see part 2.)
This doesn’t sound good: While researching a Howard County-related blog post today I happened to follow a Google search to www.columbia-md.com (a domain cont...
In a previous post I investigated the question of whether those in Howard County with annual incomes of $120,000 or more truly constituted the wealthy few or...
Last night a post by local blogger Wordbones caught my eye. Based on a story in the Baltimore Sun, it discussed proposed plans for affordable housing in Colu...
For those Mozilla folks and others who’ve been following my full blog feed: I happen to live in Howard County, Maryland, between Washington DC and Baltimore....