Columbia - Feels fake (Baltimore, Silver Spring: homes, schools, living in)

[itlchick]

Originally Posted by TuborgP

Sure is if you can afford to live in the right neighborhood with the right neighbors.
Best places to live 2008 - Top 100 City details: Ellicott City, MD - from MONEY Magazine

Number 8 last year.

Yeah, it ain't cheap for sure!

[TuborgP]

Originally Posted by itlchick

Yeah, it ain't cheap for sure!

Might not be sustainable as this economy is testing it. The social fabric is being challenged and some neighborhoods are great and others are feeling the pain of change. I suspect housing prices will NEVER return to 2006 levels in some communities as the schools have changed and people won't pay 2006 prices to send their kids to some of the schools as they are now becoming. Not bad not good but the reality of what determines where people move will and is becoming more of a factor and that is just the reality of human nature.

[Peggy Anne]

I have often maintained that some places have no soul, charm, class, or ambiance. I know it when I see it. And I get away as quickly as possible. I won't set foot in the big box stores, or the fad places that charge you an arm, leg, and half your torso for a cup of coffee and sugar bomb muffin.

[Alicia Bradley]

Hmm.. I've only been in Columbia a couple times, and it felt to me like 1.) some big roads with the usual chain/big box stores, and 2.) a larger number of very winding, forested roads going off of the big roads, with lots of homes (and a surprising number of small office complexes) hidden in the trees.

Negative charm. Unless maybe you're standing in the middle of one of those areas of trees - I love the trees!

[.45acp]

I lived in Ellicott City and worked in Columbia/Skaggsville for about 18 years. I wouldn't live there (Columbia). Fake is a fair description. Ellicott City has a nicer 'feel'. Since that whole area is goin' to hell inna handbag, we pulled the plug for the 'old west' of the Sonora Desert, never to return.

[pastasmom]

I am meeting a realtor Wed to look at house in Howard Co., probably Columbia, and I'm scared.....

[ksmoe]

Originally Posted by ChosenGSR

I feel that Columbia is extremely over hyped. The only nice areas are extremely expensive. I don't know what "nice" apartments people find here that go for a reasonable price. There are plenty of section 8 housing around.

I agree. There is no "nice" apt in Howard county with reasonable price. Howard county is second most expensive county in MD. (Mo co is first)

[RYAN723]

As a Columbia homeowner, I feel that Columbia's attempt to be diverse is its demise. With already exuberant Maryland and Howard County taxes in addition to Columbia Association taxes, my annual tax bill is nearly $6k. However, in Baltimore County for a similar assessed home I paid $3400 annually. I expect a huge increase in taxes to pay for top ranked schools, well maintained parks/roads, over paid CA board members and other amenities. However, it is tragedy that section 8 vouchers are accepted in this area. I spoke with a woman years ago who use to live in the city. She stated that she worked two jobs for years in order to move to Columbia to have a better life for her children. She moved into an apartment complex in Long Reach and she stated that the hooligans within her complex were so bad (drugs, loitering, theft, etc.) that she should have stayed in the city. Subsidizing American's only creates reliance on those government subsidies. Why should I have to work hard to pay may share just for it to be distributed to others. Before I moved to Columbia I lived in Ellicott City for years. These pockets of crime do not exist in the same magnitude as they do in Columbia. No wonder why more and more people move to Carroll County and even Frederick County. I am also concerned about the future of Columbia and the creation of this "new" city. I hope the mall doesn't turn into Arundel Mills mall, where there have been half dozen muggings in the last 6 months

[longboarder]

I got out here about a year ago. I rent here in Columbia, and it is VERY expensive. My 1BR here is about $100 less than the larger 1BR I had in Southern California, and that apartment was a block from the Pacific Ocean.

The people here mostly keep to themselves. The storm this week was pretty much the first time I talked with a lot of my neighbors...probably because I was helping them dig their cars out. People here seem very distrustful of strangers in general. That being said, they were very nice and appreciative of any help offered.

Columbia as a planned community: Well, I would not be advertising that quite so much. I have lived all over the country, and I have never seen an area with such poorly designed traffic flow, both pedestrian and vehicular. Wow. Many commercial sites have poorly-designed single entrance access that make them darn near infuriating to get around. (Wal-Mart on Dobbin, anyone?)

My one-year assessment? Not a bad place, but in NO WAY worth the price.

[$mk8795]

Originally Posted by MDDCtoATL

You are correct in your assesment, the problem is not only that Columbia was a planned community like others have said, it's also the fact that it was a planned community in the 1960's.

Much of the older housing stock looks very dated or did not age well like something in Montgomery Village. In fact I would say that looking at Montgomery Villae/Lakeforest is like looking into the future of what could happen to Columbia. The two are very similar in physical setting.

The age of the indoor mall is dead, too much housing and not enough mixed-use are big problems in Columbia.

Columbia does not know what it is or what it wants to be. They need to make a choice of what they want to be cause what they have now is not anything unique, just an odd hodgepodge of things.

Just like the suburbs in Atlanta was not planned right and feels like their developments were thrown all over the place with miles of Sprawling Fast Food Joints, houses too damn far apart, poor road/highway infrastructure, and no proper planning for Rapid Transit...........

As for "The age of the indoor mall is dead" Comment, Atlanta is known for their Sprawling Multi-Level Indoor Shopping Malls like Lenox, The Perimeter, that new mall they built off I-20 East of the I-285 Atlanta Beltway, Mall of Georgia, etc........