Personal (and very subjective) favorites:

• Maple Lawn!!
• Shipley's Grant
• Old Frederick Rd around Waverly Woods & Marriottsville Rd

Bro you’re not wrong I constantly feel like I’m too poor to be living here lol

The neighborhoods in kings contrivance are very nice and you're right off 32, super quick to 95/295

What's your budget?

Are you worrying about schools?

Do you prefer someplace quiet or nearer to stuff?

Do you want to have access to the trails for running biking or do you not really care?

How much space do you need/want?

This is like saying what's a good place to get food...

Op you haven't given any commute parameters or pricing or whether schools are important.

If you're budget conscious don't move to Columbia. Look just over the county line in Anne Arundel county. Much cheaper and a trip to Columbia is 10 mins.

Don't discount this notion. Paying the CA annual assessment (which is like a tax) will set you back about $1,200/year.

That depends on your budget. Town Center has nice townhomes that are fairly new. They also have more condos. There are some new townhouses that were just built in Kings Contrivance, River Hill is always a nice area if you can afford it.

Wilde Lake and Owen Brown are turning things around but I’d still wait a bit to see if it sticks.

Also, if you want to enjoy the amenities of the Columbia area without the Columbia Association dues, look in EC.

Downtown Columbia area has some nice town houses with great walkability.

The new HS opens in fall of 2023 I thought. Either way, I am grateful to be done with the Hoco School saga.

Thank you!!!

If you want the typical "nice," you'll be looking in Ellicott City. Columbia has more socioeconomic diversity and more community benefits.

Easier to guide you with a price range. Low end, small, old townhouses in less desirable areas start around $300k, new luxury townhouses are $700k. You can get very nice garage townhouses in convenient locations for around $500-550k.

This is not a popular opinion in this sub, but pay attention to the school district and you'll be fine. Also keep in mind that the Howard County Public Schools are building a new High School and have a "proposed" redistricting map carved out already. They're soliciting comment but the current board will ignore any protests or any comments that aren't in favor of their proposal.

https://hcpss-gis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d0e49d28a24b41f38b15347711c76ce5

Which is the nicest area for townhouses?

Are you looking for a single family home or townhouse? Family friendly or does that not matter? Are you commuting to somewhere outside of Columbia?

All of the neighborhoods have a few things in common--the Columbia Association, extensive walking trails, shops and restaurants are in each village/neighborhood. Some neighborhoods are older than others and some schools get higher GreatSchools ratings (and you will pay more to live in those neighborhoods). Crime is relatively low.

Dr Chen is the man. He is pragmatic and will get things done without partisan ideology. Adler is a conservative nut who is just pushing their talking points, McKoy is useless, and Newburger is a far left partisan who pushed for school redistricting which resulted in many folks leaving for Carroll county. His past actions have shown that he will pull down everyone to the lowest common denominator

Lmao. I didn’t say a word about drinking. You can’t force bonding. If it’s not the appropriate spot for it find another one. If you don’t like something move on, they don’t need to change it just for you Karen.

Thank you, she was 12 at the time. I didn’t want her around the ganja and had no idea it would be a problem.

Newberger is the only one worth voting for regardless of presumed partisanship by the candidates.

Traffic blows, so plan accordingly. I used to work at the mall and would have to go the long way to work on days with big concerts.

I came across harsher than I meant, edited.

Don't put down people who are actively doing research for their vote.

or maybe people shouldn’t drink so they remember the concert and this lady should get to bond with her daughter over music:)

If you're at all on the fence about who you're voting for:

Adler wants to follow the republican (trump era) plan of eroding confidence in public education - accusing educators of having "an agenda" (as if it's monolith). We all know that "agenda" is that we shouldn't discriminate against LGBTQ communities and science is real.

Chen: At first I thought he was just an old school conservative - but his comments at the board of ed debate were really disturbing. He referred to the FARM program as "addictive" and encouraged kids to graduate off of it.

Dan Newburger has nuance and a deep wonky understanding of our county's education system.His answers to show an ability to separate how he wishes things were done with the pragmatic approach of what should be done.

McKoy: I'm not excited by her answers to a lot of the questions - but she has a Masters degree from Johns Hopkins in secondary education and is a former teacher. She doesn't seem to shy away from work, so she has my vote.