The WaPo/Amazon reference is completely irrelevant. The writer of the Fishbowl piece is part owner of that website but has no financial stake in either of the organizations discussed in the piece. But when you can’t attack the message (that CA’s board dysfunction is harming the organization and community) you attack the messenger.

Sure. There are plenty of clips of her saying otherwise but I am not going to waste my time. The 2 candidates who said the least are in the lead. I cannot wait for all the outrage once this terrible BOE gets rolling. Lol.

I’ve posted in my Buy Nothing groups and gotten a couple of people to reply with some kid’s clothes! :) unfortunately I have tried for food stamps multiple times, but I make just above their income limits so even though I haven’t been able to afford food I still don’t qualify. I am going to visit the food pantry Columbia community care provides on Saturday though! Thank you for your suggestions.

There is a difference between a “shadowy conspiracy theory” and pointing out a lack of transparency. The Washington Post never runs an article about Amazon without stating that they are owned by Jeff Bezos. If the owners of a medium have an interest in the outcome of a dispute, that should be apparent.

That blog post is full of shadowy conspiracy theories and seems to be an attempt to deflect from the real story of the conflict between the CA board and Lakey Boyd. I recognize the blogger wants to defend her friend who asked a question that was, at a minimum, ill-advised and that sparked this whole kerfuffle, but the bigger story of the the board is too important to have it dragged into this petty personal drama.

There is this blog, which I have found to be thoughtful and better informed than I am: http://villagegreentownsquared.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-choices-tell-you.html?fbclid=IwAR2f60m6UFf0LWgJymmpaoqZCNN6NxF2xgkDjwKZLblrw9rUZgYPmOpkG0c

I would try Facebook buy nothing & then local food pantries. If you call social services they will have a social worker that should be able to assist with employment & setting up food stamps etc if you are in need.

Definitely worth watching the first hour. Wow!!

Thank you! Will look into that!

I am in one locally. They do often have things, but I haven’t had much luck as of late.

You should look into Just Living Advocacy. They support local families in a variety of ways.

The fireworks just ended at the meeting. It was must watch YouTube!! Sad state of affairs.

If you’re on Facebook, there are buy nothing groups for most parts of Columbia, requests on there do really well especially for kid’s clothes

Well, when young folks start to vote......

I will definitely look into that! Thank you very much.

Before you do anything else you should get in touch with Columbia Community Care! They have a pantry of food items/grocery delivery, and they might be able to connect you to some other services.

I used to work for CA and it has always been fairly turbulent, especially after the sale of Rouse to GGP. Some of the board members have been in their role forever (Stack & Thomas for sure). I respect Stack very much because he is committed, bright and really understands the community. Thomas is the rep for where I live and I am very disappointed by her efforts to oust the current president. I really feel that we should have more input about where our assessment dollars go and it’s infuriating that they are being used for an attorney to champion this removal effort.

You might not like/disagree with it, but I'm just explaining why some people don't want redistricting. You're still putting the burden unfairly on a small number of households which I think is wrong.

Why shouldn't property values be considered in educational decisions? Last I remembered... Property taxes pay for education?

I'd say if there was a county-paid reimbursement for homeowners/values that are affected from redistricting then it would be A'Okay with me-- that means everyone is equally paying for the cost/raise taxes. However, I doubt that would get support and it's easier to mess with a small number of polygons/people.

Edit: I wanted to add a bit more about racial claims. It's not about segregation, at least not for Chen.

This is the demographics of HoCo schools: https://www.hcpss.org/about-us/facts/

These are the demographics of the schools his kids attend:

https://www.hcpss.org/f/schools/profiles/prof_es_hammond.pdf

https://www.hcpss.org/f/schools/profiles/prof_ms_hammond.pdf

https://www.hcpss.org/f/schools/profiles/prof_hs_reservoir.pdf

They are actually pretty close to HoCo average.

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.

Since this makes you sad, maybe I can help rationalize it?

Whether we like it or not, school district has a huge impact on home value. You're asking a small number of people in redistricted areas to pay the entire cost of equity. 10-20% of a home's value is equal to a down payment. That is a ton of money... Tens of thousands of dollars. I'm not rich and people (including myself) spent many many years to save up for it. No one wants to be the unlucky ones who have to pay for it all.

It's actually sort of poetic that you want to "promote equity" in such an inequitable way.

I'd consider supporting measures addressing equity if the burden wasn't placed on a concentrated segment of people. History tells me the people who feel the brunt of redistricting aren't going to be the "rich, wealthy, and privileged". Those polygons don't change.

Edit: Formatting.

I’d recommend not moving to Columbia. Extremely expensive; high taxes. I’d recommend Carroll county or Baltimore city.

>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.

Asians voted for Chen and didn't really care about the rest. What's the mystery?

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?"