i_live_in_maryland t1_j2ulkqt wrote on January 4, 2023 at 1:27 AM

Reply to comment by meestaplu in Event at the People Tree to draw attention to their concerns with the CA Board while praising CA President/CEO Lakey Boyd by goliebs

Yeah I don't see what is a "pipedream" about Columbia being a city. Columbia has around 100k residents, about 1/3 of Howard county, and CA has a budget of around $70m. Columbia could absolutely support itself as a small city with that budget. I admit I don't know anything about how MD laws relate to "cities". I feel like it should be possible to have a "city" and a "mayor" and a "council" and still be part of the larger county... but maybe I'm wrong and there's something odd in MD law that prevents that (lots of those states have that without having the cities be independent). It think that would be much better than the current setup.

If it was to be "independent" (from Howard County) then I can see how that would be problematic. I think, tax and size wise, the city could support itself. But removing it from Howard County would probably fairly well eviscerate the county so there would be little political support from basically any politicians in the entire state.

goliebs OP t1_j2us67b wrote on January 4, 2023 at 2:15 AM

As a point of reference, Annapolis is an incorporated city. It has less then half the population of Columbia (40k) while its annual budget is about 6.5 times CA's budget.

The responsibility and power you would want the city, mayor, and council to have; and how those responsibilities and powers would be funded can't be afterthoughts - those questions are the fundamental thing that you would need to answer before making the case to incorporate as a city. I call it a "pipedream" (genuinely sorry if that comes off as dismissive) because I've never heard those aspects defined in any detail nor an explanation of how that would result in a better quality of life for residents. But, despite the lack of rigor, "becoming a city" is treated like a panacea that would solve all Columbia's problems... meanwhile people aren't taking the readily available actions that would improve the status quo: stay informed about CA and vote in village elections.