Dennis Lane
“You have to realize that Dennis doesn’t care about the people who live here. His only goal is to exploit Elkridge for as many profits as he can get. As I put on his blog — he claims to like Elkridge, but he likes Elkridge like a dog likes a fire hydrant.”
Ouch.
That was a comment posted on a Facebook page dedicated to stopping CSX from locating a new intermodal terminal in Elkridge. A member of the group had posted a link to a recent podcast where Paul Skalny and I briefly discussed the issue.
You can pretty much figure out from the comment that I’m not exactly supportive of that person’s position. I merely suggested that, when you buy a home within a quarter mile of a main railroad line, across the tracks from the heaviest zoned industrial land in the county, you shouldn’t be all that surprised when someone wants to build a freight terminal on that land.
That’s what it was zoned for, after all.
This attitude was seen by some Elkronians as nothing more than a case of Columbia/Ellicott City elitism. Some of these Elkronians believe the central countians think they’re better than the northeast county folks.
This type of neighborhood jingoism is not isolated to Elkridge, either; it manifests itself in other parts of Howard County as well, like out west. Some west county folks think Columbia is the last place they’d ever want to live. I actually know of west countians that will go the extra distance to drive around Columbia rather than have to drive through it.
I’ve experienced some of this personally. When we decided to consolidate a Columbia household with a Glenwood household about six years ago, Columbia did not make the short list for the new merged homestead. I had grown up in Columbia and at various times lived in four villages, so Columbia was fine with me. It was the Glenwoodians that were not big fans of the planned community. It was just too urban for them.
Admittedly, I wasn’t all that enamored with Glenwood either. It’s certainly beautiful out in the country part of the county but, wherever you are, you’re bound to be 20 minutes by car from everything else. There are only about three decent restaurants out west, too. Six years ago, there wasn’t even a Chinese take-out past Clarksville. How can anyone live somewhere without Chinese take-out?
We settled on Ellicott City. It is somewhat ironic that Columbia/Ellicott City have now been cast as sort of one and the same community. The recognition last year of Columbia/Ellicott City by Money magazine as the second-best place to live in the country has helped to validate this. To me, it still feels like a bit of a shotgun marriage. When I was growing up around here in the ’70s, Columbia and Ellicott City were pretty much worlds apart.
Columbians tended to be Democrats, Ellicott citizens, Republicans. Columbians had the Flier. Ellicott citizens read the Times.
That naturally changed over time, as growth and development filled in the physical space between the two communities. Today, it’s not always clear where Ellicott City ends and Columbia begins.
Now Ellicott City is growing towards Elkridge. New homes are slowly filling the gap between these once distinct towns. Parts of Elkridge resemble parts of Ellicott City and, to some degree, Columbia, too. Elkridge even has a sushi restaurant now (unlike Glenwood, I might add).
In a way, this has caused Elkridge to develop a sort of split personality. On the east side of Interstate 95, closest to Hanover and the potential intermodal terminal site on Race Road, you’ll see plenty of red signs along the roadways demanding that the CSX terminal be located elsewhere. On the west side of Interstate 95, those signs are few and far between.
However, at the end of the day, we are all still Howard Countians. We share the same government; there are no mayors in Ellicott City, Elkridge, Columbia or Glenwood. We share the same police and fire departments, school system, libraries, parks and stink bugs. It is not uncommon in Howard County for families to move from Glenwood to Ellicott City and from Columbia to Elkridge, all the time staying within the county borders.
And some folks would even prefer to live next to the industrial areas of the county rather than live somewhere else.
Dennis Lane co-hosts “and then there’s that…” a bi-weekly local news podcast on www.hocomojo.com and blogs about stuff around here at wordbones.com.
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The distinct identities of our communities are definitely getting muddled. Think of a place like Shipley’s Grant. Columbia? Ellicott City? Or is it just “Shipley’s Grant”? Do people even self-identify with their community anymore?
I live in Dorsey’s Search, which has an EC zip code, but is also a Columbia Village. This may explain the tepid involvement of DS’ers in Columbia activities, boards, and events. Then again, there is also the issue of “Bowling alone,” which is another subject all together.
Great column.