Introduction: It's been a minute since I've regularly been posting articles on The Merriweather Post. This is not a business or even a side-hustle for me, it's just a hobby blog to share my passion and interest in retail and development happenings in Downtown Columbia and surrounding areas. So, please excuse the intermittency as the blog has taken a backseat in my life. Despite the hiatus, moving forward, (but no promises!) I'm going to attempt to restart posting in a new abridged monthly format - a single monthly post briefly touching on recent retail and development news I've been following. So, with that said, here's the May 2024 update.

It's that time of year again! Columbia Association and Village Board Elections are ongoing - ending this Saturday April 20 - and this year, perhaps more than ever, there is scant coverage and limited online discussion about the elections and candidates. But these elections are important - enough so, that it warrants dusting the cobwebs off this blog to share voting and candidate information.

There are a number of local stories that I have been following that have been deserving of a long-form investigation and analysis in typical The Merriweather Post style, but given my busy schedule of late, I have been unable to give these stories the attention I would otherwise like. Instead, I’ve compiled this article that provides a brief overview and some thoughts on a number of Downtown Development stories I have been following.

The Columbia Association Board of Directors held its first meeting of its fiscal year on May 11th. During the meeting they discussed who would serve as chair for the fiscal year and, after being deadlocked 5-5, the board decided that Andy Stack and Eric Greenberg would each be chair for six months of the year using a coin flip to determine which would be chair first.

The proposed Lakefront Library has generated both enthusiastic support and understandable skepticism. This article provides context of the proposed $143 million Lakefront Library within the Downtown Columbia plan, describes the details of the land-swap agreement that would occur between Howard Hughes Corp and the County, analyzes why each party would do it, and adds my own commentary on why I hope it occurs and some solutions that the Council should consider as it reviews the FY24 Capital Budget. Phew!

For anyone who wants to learn more about our shared community, I can’t recommend enough New City Upon a Hill: A History of Columbia, Maryland by the late long time Columbia resident, Joseph Rocco Mitchell and his former student now Professor of History at Ohio State Dr. David L Stebenne. While calling itself a “History of Columbia,” it really is a history of the entire county from colonial times up to 2007 when the book was published. The book concentrates specifically on the development starting from the 1960s under real estate developer and Easton native, James Rouse. I wanted to share with readers some interesting facts that I learned, and I hope to pique your interest enough to check it out yourself.

It's been nearly three year's since Clyde's closure - leaving Columbia's Lakefront without a restaurant in the Teacher's Building and missing the buzzy outdoor dining scene on the patio adjacent to the People's Tree and Lakefront Pavilion that was a fixture at the Lakefront for decades. Now, the long wait...

Good morning! It’s Columbia Election Day. Go forth and vote!. To continue with has become somewhat of a tradition at The Merriweather Post, here is this year’s completely-unscientific, totally-baseless, bound-to-be-wrong, based only-on gut-feeling set of predictions. This time from both Mike Golibersuch and myself, Jeremy Dommu. Both sets presented in order of confidence. First up, Mike.

At recent meetings, the Columbia Association (CA) Board of Directors has held renewed discussions about their ethics policy. This is a continuation of a debate that has been ongoing since at least February of 2022. There have been multiple draft ethics policies produced by CA's professional staff, various board members, and outside legal consultants proposed for consideration by the board. This debate has taken place against a backdrop of an unusually high number of ethics complaints against board members and staff. This article attempts to summarize these issues.

The Merriweather Post shared a list of questions with all candidates seeking to represent their villages on the CA Board. The questions consisted of three long responses of 500 words or less, which focused the candidate's overarching philosophy of serving on the board, as well as four shorter answers consisting of 150 words or less, which focused on topics that have recently garnered community attention. Candidates were also free to submit a statement covering any topic they desired of 750 words or less.

The Merriweather Post shared a list of questions with all candidates seeking to represent their villages on the CA Board. The questions consisted of three long responses of 500 words or less, which focused the candidate's overarching philosophy of serving on the board, as well as four shorter answers consisting of 150 words or less, which focused on topics that have recently garnered community attention. Candidates were also free to submit a statement covering any topic they desired of 750 words or less.

The Merriweather Post shared a list of questions with all candidates seeking to represent their villages on the CA Board. The questions consisted of three long responses of 500 words or less, which focused the candidate's overarching philosophy of serving on the board, as well as four shorter answers consisting of 150 words or less, which focused on topics that have recently garnered community attention. Candidates were also free to submit a statement covering any topic they desired of 750 words or less.

The Merriweather Post shared a list of questions with all candidates seeking to represent their villages on the CA Board. The questions consisted of three long responses of 500 words or less, which focused the candidate's overarching philosophy of serving on the board, as well as four shorter answers consisting of 150 words or less, which focused on topics that have recently garnered community attention. Candidates were also free to submit a statement covering any topic they desired of 750 words or less.

The Merriweather Post shared a list of questions with all candidates seeking to represent their villages on the CA Board. The questions consisted of three long responses of 500 words or less, which focused the candidate's overarching philosophy of serving on the board, as well as four shorter answers consisting of 150 words or less, which focused on topics that have recently garnered community attention. Candidates were also free to submit a statement covering any topic they desired of 750 words or less.

Major breaking Downtown Columbia news came out today! There is a new plan for a stand-alone transformational public library in a prime location at Columbia's Lakefront as well a new 240-unit mixed income affordable housing building in the Merriweather District. If you missed, local media covered the announcement in depth...

During the Columbia Association's March 23 meeting, Board Chair Eric Greenberg announced fifteen closed sessions that had been concealed from public knowledge. This announcement confirmed that the CA Board was in violation of Maryland law, demonstrated a consistent lack of transparency by the CA Board of directors, and corroborated previous reporting by The Merriweather Post.

On February 21, the Howard County Office of Transportation held their annual open house to provide updates on upcoming pedestrian, bike, complete streets and shared micro-mobility (e.g. electric scooters) projects that are planned to make it easier to get around Howard County. The materials from the open house included a...

Recently, two proposed Maryland State bills that would have mandated alterations to elections in Columbia's ten villages failed to advance. This article provides a brief summary of the two bills and their fate. Campaign Finance Disclosures. The first bill was proposed by District 13 Delegate Jen Terrassa, would have required...

With 50 years in the books, our tot lots are ready for a makeover. Our communities have shifted from when these play spaces were first designed, and it's time to look at what we could do better. The tot lots were designed to serve a certain era of stay at home moms and small toddlers, but our community needs have changed. The tot lots should too. For several years now, the CA board has attempted to revamp the tot lot policy without success.

Columbia Association’s Board of Directors approved CA’s budget for fiscal year 2024 (which runs May 2023 – April 2024) at the February 23rd Board of Director’s meeting. This article provides a summary of the contents of the budget. In summary the budget should deliver the same level of service Columbia residents are accustomed to next year but it does not demonstrate any forethought by the board of directors to improve CA’s services or position the community for success in the long run.