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So a little inside baseball about this. Everyone stereotypes, everyone has or will have racist thoughts at some point. What matters is what you do, and how you meaningfully atone (not perform atonement). Someone going around being like “I’m not racist” or “how dare you call me racist” what they are really doing is just identifying themselves as “not getting it”

What they are not getting is there is still work to do. That’s all. So I am unconcerned with people being hurt by the ugly word “racism” like I am unconcerned with when my kids say me telling them to cleaning their room (or whatever) isn’t fair. It’s not that I don’t know how to clean a room, or that I have a need to force them. It’s ultimately they’ll benefit from knowing how to do the work, and they are just saying “I don’t get that this is something I need to ultimately do to grow, for my benefit”

Lots of people who “get it” are called racist and their internal response is “well, ok. Probably not but hey, let’s listen and see why I make someone feel that way. Maybe I need to adjust how I am doing things here”

It’s a sort of “no one who is king has to announce they are king” kind of thing.

Even less so if we are saying maybe the way things are built benefits me more than my neighbor. It’s a weird hill to die on to be like “I am personally offended that you think this big collection of people I am not the boss of, maybe set things up unfairly before I was an adult.”

I’m a middle age white male btw. I’ll have to work a bit to give you more examples of systemic racism, but man could I give you examples of banks falling over to give me mortgages and instances of me getting way too much deference at work.

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I think you are getting a little too “someone is wrong on the internet” about this - the emphasis was on pointing out there is low rates of overt racism, using the fact we have issues places full of well meaning but not entirely fully self reflective white people do as contrast.

Over emphasis of the lack of overt individualized hate is usually a sign we are missing structural stuff or hand waving it away. I like it here. I moved here intentionally. I think Columbia can ride to the occasion and has a head start compared to most of the country. Idiot racists made a lot of laws in the 1950s and 60s and I dunno if we’ve examined them all.

I used to live in Manhattan which has got to be one of the least racist and most racist places in America, so I guess I am at peace with the ambiguity of having pride in our town but also knowing it’s probably fucked up too.

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Systemic doesn’t mean widespread or pervasive in this context, but rather built into the systems.

The place is an hoa, large focus on keeping housing prices up, a lot of the redistricting conversation is based on maintaining or at least not losing some of the advantage for our kids, missing out on how the eastern edge is underserved and less economically well off. Dues are based on property, not income and we inherit some regressive tax policy from the state.

Perhaps I should have used structural racism instead. I am not talking about the content of people’s hearts or their final destination in the afterlife. Just the (hopefully) unintended side effects of how things have worked. Behaviors, incentives, rules that are enforced or not, decisions we made vs how they could have been made differently.

For example, “I moved here so my kid could go to this exact highschool, why does he have to bus to another?” That’s a valid question. Makes some assumptions about how easy it is or not to pick where you buy a house, glosses over the experience of the kids who are bussing already, and doesn’t examine why we have to have fewer high schools than middle schools. How are we weighing needs? Am I personally ignoring someone else’s valid concern? Do neighboring non Columbia areas have a disadvantage in advocating for themselves due to fewer or less powerful local organizations? In this case the systemic racism would arise from people over simplifying the question through the lens of the collective experience of the majority. We potentially reinforce problems by seeking easiest path for us.

This is incredibly spot on

I always say we need more local coffee roasteries/cafes and fewer Dunkin' in the area!

I think Columbia, and Howard County in general, is a wonderful place to live all things considered. I'd say it is a definite Democratic or progressive leaning area, and has been trending more so the past couple of elections. However, it also wasn't long ago (through 2018) that Howard County had an elected Republican County Executive, so there is definitely a decent population of moderates and conservatives in the area, though probably less prominent in Columbia itself.

There is economic diversity with lower and working class neighborhoods not too far from middle and upper middle class areas. Overall it is very racially diverse, with a key factor for me being that there is some diversity in the backgrounds of the people that actually hold political power as opposed to just the basic residential demographics. There is a sizable black middle/upper middle class population in the area as well as significant East and South Asian communities which are becoming more politically engaged.

Like many suburban areas, housing and schools/redistricting are the areas where you are likely to see the most political or ideological discord. There are multiple local non-profits that do advocacy and community service, as well as several and local instances/clubs tied to the Democratic and Republican Party that you can check out.

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Weee everything and everyone is racist, well unless I say it isnt!

For houses in the 60s & 70s, you’d mostly see it in 9x9 vinyl tile and the mastic (look for black) underneath it. The good news is as long as the tile and mastics are breaking up, turning into dust (“friable” is the term) then you can just encapsulated it (put something else on top).

You probably aren’t going to see asbestos insulation on pipes in this era home. You might see asbestos in siding, I don’t know if it’s common in Columbia, but we had it on a house in Havre de Grace. Again, as long as it’s not crumbling, encapsulating it with vinyl is generally considered ok.

Sometimes it can be found in popcorn ceiling. I haven’t heard of it locally, but it can be a problem.

But, you home inspector will point out anything questionable. You can have it tested if you are worried.

So redistricting can make some areas that were previously unfavorable to development suddenly favorable to it since those areas are now in a "better" school district? Which would naturally increase profits for developers. If so, do you have any past examples to share?

I live in Columbia, earning a phd in political science, manage a pac, work with several politicians, always happy to chat and grab coffee—I really like coffee.

There is a lot of Columbia developed in the late 60s and 70s.

There was one after the Dobbs decision in June. There were hundreds down by the lakefront.

The best way to lower housing costs for all but especially for people on the lower income ladder is to increase the supply of housing. The White House recognizes that the housing shortage increases home prices for everyone. The most expensive type of home to build and therefore buy is a single detached home. Townhomes are cheaper and apartments less than that. And yes affordable is relative to the costs of housing in the community and that cost is very high, median price 570k in HoCo.

Shoot, that’s scary, too! How would I even know if the house had asbestos?

> That racism reared its ugly head in the school redistricting fights.

I am not saying there isn't racism, but just because some schoolboard and county council members tried to make redistricting about race does not mean that opposing that redistricting plan is racist.

If you look at the results of that "successful" redistricting you'll see that it had basically no impact on school diversity but it opened up a bunch of new areas for fresh developments. It all goes back to developer money in this county.

> such as townhomes

Dude, townhomes in Columbia are >$600k now. IDK about new apartment complexes, but I doubt anyone living in the Merriweather District or Ten.M or whatever is going in there because it is cheap.

"High density" housing (townhomes and apartments) is not automatically "affordable". People need to realize it so we can stop gifting this stuff to developers and then scratching our heads when it's still impossible for non-rich people to live in the county.

Agreed. I would much rather have increased density on already developed land such as allowing development of duplexes, quad plexus or mid-rises on single family lots. Unfortunately that has even less of a chance of happening.

Columbia is a wonderful place to live, but there is also racism. That racism reared its ugly head in the school redistricting fights. This is not just something in the news, it’s something I’ve heard in private conversations and basically anytime I just look at NextDoor. Relative to most parts of the country, I think the racism is relatively low, but I do argue that there are systems (school districting as well as the systemic blockages of new/affordable housing) that are racist in the county.

Most of the homes in Columbia weren't developed when lead paint was primarily used. The oldest houses are the ones owned by the families who had the farm land, and pretty much any other development was built post 1980. Even my parents home where they were one of the first from the Dorsey's/Vollmerhausen plot lands, wasn't made until 1986.

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I see where you're coming from. Relative to single family zoning, low income housing is more environmentally friendly. But clearing dense vegetation areas rather than building on previously developed land isn't the way to go about it. In addition, we need to ensure that we aren't introducing too much impervious surface -- or at least offsetting it through planting more vegetation/constructing pervious surface and introducing flood mitigation measures