You have a word vomit issue.

TLDR: “No”

Did you attend the open meetings? Because all I saw were a bunch of unqualified yokels who should not be leading out community.

Like shooting down the idea of revisiting the town's strategic plan in the wake of COVID? One of the dumbest fucking things I ever heard coming out of board's mouth was "the strategic plan is the strategic plan." That statement showed me that a number of these board members have no vision, are out of touch and are unqualified to lead in any type of executive capacity.

I know you are trying to be thorough and cover your bases, but um... yeah, no one's reading all of that - especially since you've done nothing in your introduction to provide a compelling reason to stay.

"This is the first part in an 8 article series..." JFC.

At this point, knowing the shit-show they would be walking into, I’m going to have serious difficulty trusting the the judgement of our next CA President. What rational human being would want to work under this board?

I hear there's an opening at... nope, won't do it. Too painful.

In terms of neighborhoods, I think you'll find a lot more variety in EC compared to Columbia. I'd be comfortable talking about Columbia as a whole, but not as much EC. But like others have said, plenty of family-friendly options in both.

There is no “congestion”

First off - it's not the County's responsibility to protect your home values. That should have ZERO consideration when it comes to EDUCATIONAL decisions.

We are talking about property values in the one of the wealthiest counties in one of the the wealthiest states. Property values are not a "concern" here. And perhaps property values would not vary so widely, if certain communities didn't work so hard to segregate themselves from those they see themselves as better than.

And here's what makes me sad. Columbia has it written into it's core values that it is a community of shared resources and actively looks to integrate communities of varying economic status, attending the same schools, etc.

Then you have communities like Maple Lawn the get built overnight, sit nearly vacant for years before the demand catches up. Then once demand is there and people say "now we need affordable housing" and Maple Lawn residents say "oh but the infrastructure can't support it!!!" And they spend all of their money and political capital to keep "the poors" away from their community. No - they must go live in Columbia. And so what happens? You successfully segregate yourselves. And then the schools become segregated. And now the board has to resort to redistricting in order to correct that.

It's modern day segregation hidden behind property values. So yeah... pay the fuck up.

>I’m generally against redistricting/ bussing. (Mostly because redistricting can cause the value of your home to swing wildly and I am hoping to move to a different home within HoCo in the next few years, and I think everyone here knows how much homes are here.)

I'm annoyed saddened that this is considered a reasonable stance.

Now that's a man who's dedicated to his property value!

I shouldn't even share this considering how embarrassing this is, but case in point...

My wife sent me the link to the article and I responded "have I been talking about this with you?"

"No. This is the first I've heard about it"

I've been talking about this on reddit, watching all of the board meeting videos for weeks, etc... and I didn't even realize that I hadn't discussed it with the person sitting next to me. I'm ashamed!

Anyway... just a reminder to talk to people about it face-to-face. Talk to your family and neighbors. People talking out-loud will raise a lot more eyebrows than reddit. Especailly given that most of the board is likely like "What's a Reddit?"

I've watched the videos of the board meetings - If I was in Lakey's position, I would be incredibly frustrated to be dealing with this board. I get that this is how it works, but it's very clear that you have a seasoned professional dealing people who clearly are not...

CEO: "We should review the strategic plan to make sure our priorities are still aligned coming out of COVID"

Board: "Why?"

The board comes off as idiots who are way out of their element.

Like others mentioned, it's more about pedestrian safety (I think). It's likely a part of the strategy for the city's Vision Zero initiative (a nationwide effort being implemented locally around the country)

https://transportation.baltimorecity.gov/toward-zero

Yeah, I personally wouldn't hesitate to use them for a job like that... unless maybe you had some complex tiling pattern you were going for and wanted to be confident that it was going to come out right (I'd want to see prior work in that case). But simple flooring & trim, I wouldn't hesitate.

They've done my carpet before and as much as it pains me to do so, I'd recommend them. I honestly hate Lowe's - especially the one here (some of my worst customer services experiences in Columbia have been at that Lowes). I had Home Depot do it last time... and honestly, I liked the Lowe's contractors better. I thought they did a cleaner job on the install, and the Home Depot people had to come back because they didn't being enough carpet. I've had Home Depot's contractors do plenty of good work for me in the past though.

It's all pretty dependent on who it is that they are contracting with - but I've found that no matter what type of work I am having them do, both of them tend to hire very capable contractors who operate very professionally at a reasonable cost. Can you find better? Absolutely, but I find them to be an "easy button." I wouldn't necessarily hire them to do a big remodel or anything major project - I'd go find someone independent.

Both Lowes and Home Depot contract to different independent contractors from various companies in the area though... it's hard to review because one person is likely working with a different crew/company than another.