Not sure if this is thread to bring up but i have a condominium over near Howard County hospital and i remember a few summers ago a convoy of pickup trucks with trump and rebel flags riding through Columbia and really caught me off guard. I was walking from one of trails and they were talking trash me. Pretty interesting to see in this area.

Spot on and agree you said it better than i could have

yeah thats where a lot of the "moderates" are who's main issues is being against school redistricting and all the other NIMBY stuff

Dense low income housing such as apartments/condos are the most environmentally friendly thing a community can do. Housing is the single biggest carbon impact each of us has. The most environmentally destructive thing a community can do is mandate single family zoning which much of Howard County does. I would argue that the Dems who support housing but only if environmentally friendly don’t really care about either.

The NIMBYism of severely restricting the housing market from building lower cost housing such as townhomes and apartments thus economically restricting who can live where specifically regarding school districts. This is systemically racist as it leads to de facto segregation, just looks at the demographics of Centennial high school, very few black and Hispanic students.

In District 1 of Howard County, which is mostly Ellicott City, there’s a lot of conservatives. Definitely saw more signs for Kittleman (the Republican county executive candidate) than for Ball (the Democrat).

I’d say lead paint is less likely to be a concern in Columbia compared to other parts of Maryland, as many of the homes here are relatively newer compared to this historic homes which are far more common outside of Columbia. I would be more concerned about asbestos, which can be easily found in the popcorn ceilings and linoleum floors (both found in typical 70’s era homes, which are prevalent in Columbia).

Thanks for your thorough answer

Columbia is, by-and-large, a Democrat stronghold full of Liberal and Progressive ideals. Overall, it promotes diversity, inclusion, education, and (despite the development) some forms of urban environmentalism. Howard County is about 48% Democrat, 31% Republican, and 21% Unaffiliated or Third Party; even then, most Republicans are either A) non-MAGA "old school" conservatives or B) live in the western areas of the county (away from Columbia proper).

You'll find gatherings or events supporting just about every disenfranchised demographic here, particularly celebrating Asian, Black, Hispanic, LGBTQIA+, and Women. Festivals and other celebrations are very common in and around Columbia; check your weekly or monthly guide and you'll hopefully find some event, even if it's just a minor ceremony.

Protests for federal issues are rarer, as both people and local government are often on the same page, but you'll find occasional demonstrations in solidarity for progressive issues. There was a march for BLM during the Floyd protests, for example, that our own police chief even joined. Most activists, however, take their stuff downtown to DC, where it has more of an impact.

As for political talk between people here, well...

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As you live here, you'll find out that Columbia is very classist. The divide here is very much by income, which makes sense given a household making less than six figures is "lower middle class" or even "working poor." And, as most know, classism is often intertwined with racism; the wealthier neighborhoods tend to be predominantly white and Asian, while the 'affordable' neighborhoods often have higher Black and Latino populations.

What you end up with is so-called 'Moderates' and 'Centrists' who are NIMBYs, liberal elite, champagne socialists, etc. People who claim to support progressivism, diversity, environmentalism, etc.... but then use their wealth (and political power) to prevent the very policies that would help those things. Some examples...

• Support immigrants but vote against sanctuary county laws
• Support diversity but protest redistricting that integrates schools based on income (which often integrates them more racially)
• Support LGBTQIA+ but question school policies on 'age-appropriate' representation in materials or rules protecting transgender students
• Applaud our green spaces but vote against laws restricting new developments (and often line their pockets with developer money)

And that's not even getting into complaints about "spikes in crime" which are often accompanied by the dog whistle about us "turning into Baltimore." (Hint: Columbia's 'worst' zip codes are 44% below the national average for crime per capita, and 59% below for violent crimes.)

Combine this with the nepotism and corruption that often follows when wealthy sit in seats of power, and you get a lot of dirty local politics. People abusing their authorities on Village Boards, coups within the Columbia Association (the closest we have to a 'governing' body), and attacks and slander throughout the election season.

Worse, those above can (and do) end up on the same side of votes as Republicans (including MAGA types), which just exacerbates the issue. Our county votes a bit more purple than you'd think, given it's demographics. We were mostly 3:1 (or more) for Democrat candidates, but only 2:1 on marijuana legalization and less than 2:1 in favor of codifying ourselves as a Sanctuary County.

Thanks to this lovely example of "Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows," we have entire social media groups dedicated to the vocal minority, full of "freedom investigators" bringing us the "truth," most of which read like FoxNews and Breitbart comments. While you can often ignore these groups just by not engaging with them, sometimes they become very loud on social media or at certain county or school meetings, especially during election time.

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tl;dr Columbia is overall Democrat/Blue/Liberal/Progressive and a place that celebrates diversity and inclusion. It's not overly political, except wherein it hosts events supporting those ideals.

However, it is a wealthy city (in a very classist county), and that leads to many egocentric Liberals of privilege who sometimes join with Conservative (and even MAGA) voices when it comes to anything that affects their money or neighborhood. While still a minority in the end, this 'alliance' can get very loud during election time (or when a 'contentious' progressive policy is in the works).

Lead pain is usually found in older urban construction, but didn't stop being used until 1978 so some older homes in Columbia may have it. That said, as long as it isn't chipping, it isn't a danger. I recently was updating home insurance (my home was built in the 60's) and had to repaint a few areas to eliminate the risk of chipping lead paint.

If you buy a house or rent a place built later than 1978 (most of Columbia, and most of Howard County) then there's zero concern.

Yeah…I don’t think I said it should be the same. I asked if people are politically interested and active.

We had the hullaballoo about the busing/school redistricting a while back.

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Yeah i did, small world isn't it?

Did you to to OMHS? When I was there we also had a young democrats club

Big BLM protest after George Floyd. The (then) HoCo Police Chief, Lisa Myers, marched in solidarity with the protestors.

Don't bring politics from places you are leaving. Cities, states, communities aren't copy paste, what works [or doesn't] one place does not mean it will somewhere else.

I've seen a few in downtown.

I had a friend move from Colorado and I asked her what was the biggest change moving here. She said people in this area are far more political than any other place she has lived. I haven’t noticed because I have lived here my entire adult life. But, when you’re this close to DC, there are a lot of people who work in the government.

Occasionally you see protest marches in Old Ellicott City but I’ve never seen one in Columbia.

While you may not find as many activists as opposed to DC, DC is probably the pinnacle. Like most of central Maryland, the area leans very left. I ran every street in Columbia two years ago, mostly around election time, and I saw countless signs for Democrats and literally only two houses with Trump signs. And one of those was a flag hanging inside a guy's garage, only open because he was washing his car. It's not common to find a place in the US where people are embarrassed to show support for Trump.

I've never lived in Boston, and only visited a few times, but I'd say it's similar enough. I'd say Boston is probably closer to Annapolis politically, where you have a good majority of Democrats, but there's enough old money people who are going to be conservative. Columbia has no old money :)

Left leaning and diverse embracing. Lots of inter racial families and kids (like mine)

Going to mad city for coffee, mall for towels (wife), lunch ekiben in baltimore

Life is good

Ahh ok well looking forward to that.

When I was 17 and in a young democrats club at my high school we attended a very contentious protest around whether or not the county would become a sanctuary and there were a ton of activists coming out, both for and against.

Generally activism happens on the county level rather than city because columbia isnt actually incorporated. I'd say if you're looking for progressive folks to organize with and stuff look for the unitarian churches.

Columbia itself is mostly split between the "moderates" who don't like public housing and don't want their school districts to be connected to them, and the progressives who are fine with it. The older areas like oakland mills, long reach, owen brown etc will generally have more progressives while the newer places like river hill will have more "moderates". Generally the republicans and whatnot are in western hoco and you wont see many unless you go out to clarksville and beyond

I have lived in Columbia since 2005 and i think the area is pretty centrist with regards to democrats. I don't follow local politics as others here on reddit from the area but for a liberal area no mention of UBI and no public wifi for example ting that others can buy into and this area only Verizon and Comcast.