taking care of the little things

In aiming to bike to the Snowden River Park and Ride as often as I can, I tried to make it as easy as possible for me to do it so I would have fewer hurdles (read: excuses) to keep me from riding.  That meant bike-friendly, work-appropriate clothes, a separate key ring for my bike lock and house key, a nice bag that goes on and off my rack easily and quickly, and of course, a cute helmet.

One small hurdle is getting my bike out of the house.  We store our bikes in the basement storage area.  Like many Columbia townhouses, there are two ways out of the house-- the front door off the main level or the basement's back sliding glass door / gate.  Until today, Chris or I would lug my bike upstairs and park it in the living room the night before so that when 6:35 am comes, I can just go.  I tried convincing my husband that my stickered, dated-looking bike is art and should just stay in the living room all the time.  That wasn't an effective argument against someone who has an art degree.

In any case, lugging my bike upstairs requires traversing these stairs.  I can't get a good picture of it, but our poor wall has battle scars from me banging tires into it.

They are there, I promise.

Did I mention that my bike is a heavy mid-90s mountain bike with some road tires and a rear rack?  It wasn't built to be light.  I would use the back entrance, but our doors are equipped with one-way locks.  If I wanted to leave out the back, I would have to do so, then go back inside to lock the doors and leave through the front door, which I can lock with a key.

Until now.

A little research, two new locks, and some adept power tool use (the power tool part was all Chris-- credit where credit is due) later, our back entrance is now lockable and accessible from both sides-- the gate and the sliding glass door.  So, on my way home, instead of wheeling my bike through our living room and down the stairs, I can wheel around the back, unlock the gate, enter the backyard, unlock the sliding glass door, and enter the basement!  Relocking the gate and the sliding glass door behind me, of course.

The locks.

Success!  Well, almost-- I left the Charley bar down so I had to run around the house anyhow this afternoon.  But mostly a success!

A little bit on safety: we were a little concerned with having locks on both sides, and keeping the sliding glass door's Charley bar up.  But y'know, you figure if someone wants to break in the house to steal our meager belongings, they'll just smash that glass door in.  Or smash a window in.  Or smash the window panel on our front door in.  Our house has a lot of glass for smashing.

One of my friends has a saying-- when you take care of the details, the big stuff sorts itself out.  I don't necessarily think that's a phrase to live by for everything, but it certainly has applicability here.

moving forward on the CA pathways

On Wednesday night, I attended CA's open house on the preliminary finding for Connecting Columbia, which aims to "to create a more interconnected bicycling and walking circulation system in Columbia for health, recreational, and transportation purposes."

I'll go ahead and say upfront that I'm excited about the findings and recommendations that Toole Design Group, the Task Force, and CA staff have come up with.  None of it is particularly earth shattering (except for the paragraph below), but the fact that there will be a plan with how to leverage our awesome pathway system into something that can be used more broadly for connectivity and transportation.

Second-- my favorite recommendation about last night! I've written in the past about my concerns with Bridge Columbia, and one assertion I disagree with is the idea that the bridge would be a connection between East and West Columbia rather than between Oakland Mills and downtown Columbia.  Apparently, there is an existing sewer connection that runs between Lake Elkhorn and Lake Kittamaqundi.  As part of the recommendations, a 2.5 mile pathway is proposed along that connection, and that's a connection I'm very excited about.  Kings Contrivance and Savage have fairly easy access to Lake Elkhorn and I think that would be a more direct path downtown for those areas than through Oakland Mills.

A few other things I applaud-- they are proposing adding 50 miles of pathways to improve connections throughout Columbia.  I am really hoping that they post the preliminary findings on the Connecting Columbia website-- there was only one map posted at the open house and it was crowded for much of the time.  It looks like a previous presentation is posted at the Connecting Columbia website here, and there is some good info there, though it's not the presentation that we saw last night.  I'm sure it'll be up soon.  Pages 5 and 6 of this presentation from April on CA's Connecting Columbia website were some of the cool stuff presented, focusing on inter-village connectivity and lack thereof, as appropriate (not sure if it's the exact same of if they were updated in the interim).

Jennifer Toole said that other areas would kill for a system like we already have in place.  (That's paraphrased.)   We are lucky that our houses and neighborhoods were built around the pathways because to retrofit that after the fact is nearly impossible.  It's a "great backbone of a system," she said, but it's also forty years old, meaning that while it's been well maintained (and I would agree with that statement), the pathway widths and elevations reflect a time before pathway standards were really in place.  Some of those places can't really be improved upon simply because CA doesn't really have any space.  For example, think of connections to cul-de-sacs where it's a skinny little pathway between two houses.  It's likely that CA only owns the pathway and the two private property owners own the area right up to the pathway zone.

They also talked a lot about signage and the different treatments that could be applied to primary, secondary, and tertiary pathways.  One example they used as appropriate signage was signage that the National Park Service uses.  My feeling is that if it's good enough for the National Park Service, it's good enough for CA Pathways.  They also discussed including embedded signage in the pathways-- things like mileage markers, which would be nice so you have some idea of where you are and how close you are to the next intersection or your destination.

Funding, programmatic recommendations, and prioritization are still in the works.  Funding, I think, will be a biggie.  I'm glad this planning process is going through, but getting these improvements on the ground is the solid next step that needs to happen once the planning process is complete.

The first comment from the crowd was regarding safety.  A gentleman (and I didn't get his name, unfortunately) mentioned safety concerns with regard to the pathways from seniors.  When asked if he meant physical safety or concerns with crime, he answered "Mostly crime."  Jane Dembner said that according to the Howard County Police Chief, the pathways are actually pretty safe. There is a perception problem that the pathways have, she said.  I can see that; they feel remote and can be dark, etc.  Another meeting attendee, Sandy Bartolo (I hope I got her name right), said she's been using the pathways for fifteen years and has had no problem.  She added that it "bothers [her] when people see these pathways as hallways of crime," which just so well-said.  I've also never had a problem on the pathways, and I've used them in the morning, afternoon, evening, and at night, even, when I've needed a flashlight just to see.  Sure, people get robbed on the pathways.  And in village/shopping centers, and at the mall.  That's not a reason to shun entire areas and stay at home.  (Houses get robbed as well, anyhow.)

All of this fits into Howard County in the sense that CA is looking at pathways and the County's Bike Master Plan will be looking at the streets.  I'm sure the Howard County plan will be taking the CA Plan into consideration and leveraging the connectivity that CA is looking to make, and hopefully CA and Howard County will continue to partner on projects like the bikeshare feasibility study they'll be doing.

So yay!  I am eager to see how the rest of the Connecting Columbia planning process plays out, and I will be excited to see this extensive planning process come to life.

mulberry season!

Mulberry season is here and lucky for you, they apparently grow all over.

Usually pulled as a weed, we've got trees here that have made it to maturity and are now growing wild.  And delicious.

Wikipedia has an extensive article on mulberries, so I'll just link there for all the background.  It also includes the name I was familiar with when I was little-- the Farsi word toot.  It took a little Googling to make that connection.  (I was glad to see that searching for "toot fruit" got me the result I was looking for and not just beans.)

So have you seen these by your house?

Pick dark-colored berries that practically fall off.  Leave the pinkish and white berries-- they aren't ripe yet.

So... maybe some of these are a little unripe.  I was excited.

They are a fairly mild tasting berry.  You can use them in the same way you'd use any other berry-- baking, cooking, eating raw.


hocofood@@@

gardening success!

So, I've written about our attempts at growing plants before.  We have a small backyard, and much of it is shaded for most of the day due to trees that grow behind our yard and a deck off the main floor.  Our backyard is completely landscaped and we have plants that seem to do well in the shade-- lilies, an azalea bush, hostas, and daffodils (well, in the spring).

Last year's attempt didn't go so well, if only because I didn't have enough containers and veggies just don't do well on our deck.  The plants that did well?  Herbs.  As the commenters said.  Smarties.  Actually, the chives and mint plants below came back from last year, so that was really cool.

With the CSA (which we re-upped this year again), we don't really need more veggies.  We just don't.  Eight items per week for two of us is plenty.

We do, however, love herbs.  Fresh, frozen, dried-- they make the difference between "this is good" and "this is great" in cooking anything from soup to fish.

So this year, we scrounged up more 5 gallon buckets, spray-painted them and planted only herbs.  The spray-painting is not a terribly clean job, but enough that it looks nice.  And the "DANGER: drowning hazard" labels complete with diagram are no longer obvious on the buckets.

Plants!  Clockwise from the far left: oregano, dill, thyme,
rosemary, mint, coriander, chives, and basil is in the middle.

The herbs are already doing much better than last year's attempt. (Yay!) We've even used some of the herbs-- just a little because I'm still a little gun shy on using them just yet.

But count me cautiously optimistic.  We'll be following the recommendations from The Bountiful Container and helpful advice, like from last year's comments.  If you've got any more, please share-- I'm excited about this third attempt at gardening within the constraints of our lil backyard.

How are is your garden growing/going?

hocofood@@@

going to Wine in the Woods? Give Howard Transit a try

Wine in the Woods is this weekend, and lots of people are going to go out and enjoy weather, food, and wine at Symphony Woods.

If you are one of those folks, why not give Howard Transit a shot this weekend?

It's the perfect time to give our transit system a whirl.  You don't have to stick to a strict timeframe.  You don't have to fight over who will drive.  You won't have to search for parking.  You are heading toward the Mall and downtown Columbia, where most routes begin and end.  The hours of the festival work within the hours of operation.  That is, unless you are staying for the Route 29 Revue at Merriweather, which amazingly is included in Saturday's ticket price; you probably wouldn't be able to stay for the whole show with the last buses from downtown leaving around 10 pm.

With all the buzz about what our future here in Howard County will be along with the major role transportation will play, it seems like a good idea for more people to understand where we are now.  John Powell Jr., our new transportation chief, is tasked with creating the plan for moving our transit system forward, balancing current demands and budgets and future needs for the county.  The best way for us to advocate for what we want as citizens is to experience what we've got now and how it would need to improve for us to use and depend on it if we don't already.

If you've never ridden Howard Transit, a few helpful hints:

• Maps and schedules can be found here.  The maps don't show all the stops, so scout out around your house to figure out where the closest or most convenient stop is.  It doesn't look like Howard Transit is in Google Maps, but see the hint below about Nextbus.
• Fare is $2 per person, no change given.  If you are a student w/ID or over 60, it's $1.
• Show up to the stop ten minutes early.
• If you have a smartphone, bookmark nextbus.com.  Howard Transit buses have GPS that will tell you when the next bus is predicted to arrive.  They also have maps that look like they show all the stops on there, so you might be able to figure out the best stop for you.
• If you see a bus coming, make it obvious that you intend to board.  Wave or step up.  Be sure to pay attention to look for the bus.
• If you need help, ask fellow passengers or the driver.  Everyone had a first time riding the bus.

If you do it, let us know!

a new walkscore to consider

Bill Santos tweeted yesterday about Walkscore's new Bikescore index, which spits out a numeric score of bike-friendliness in the same style that Walkscore does. So far, they have calculated a Bikescore for ten large US cities, including DC, which was ranked seventh. (Tweet to get Columbia on the next round of Bikescoring!)

Anyhow, they have also introduced a new(ish) "Street Smart" Walkscore, which "gives more weight to amenities that are highly correlated with walking." It also includes pedestrian friendliness measures, including block distance (though I'm not sure how that really translates in a suburban environment) and the number of intersections (also not really sure what this means on the ground in terms of walkability but okay).

Our house's "regular" Walkscore is 46, Car Dependent.

Our Smart Street Walkscore is 56, Somewhat Walkable...?

Which confirms what I already knew!  Sure, we can't walk to everything.  But the Owen Brown Village Center has a lot of daily-type amenities within a short, pleasant walk-- grocery store, dry cleaner, a few food places, Sonoma's (which we love), Dollar Tree, our bank, the East Columbia Library, Cradlerock Elementary and Lake Elkhorn Middle Schools, Lake Elkhorn Park... the list goes on.  Sure, it's not as dense as a city neighborhood, but it serves our needs.

Our percentages aren't too bad either, though we are clearly lacking in coffee places (which I think probably are supposed to represent more than just coffee) and entertainment.  Shopping within walking distance of my house is pretty much limited to Dollar Tree, though there are a few more things in that category that don't really belong, like the Giant Pharmacy.

From Walkscore.  This graph is for my house located in Owen Brown.

The pathways play a huuuuge role here, where the walking path to our amenities is far shorter than the driving distance, especially with respect to places we are likely to walk (y'know, as opposed to Home Depot).  Give your home or work address a shot, and see how it compares to the traditional Walkscore.

This is why I'm excited to see what our Bikescore would be.  Chris and I have biked to Rams Head in Savage, Costco, Columbia Mall, and many places in between from our house.  As Gil Peñalosa said, Columbia is roughly eight miles at its longest width-- a totally bikeable distance, if the streets were more bike friendly.  Shorter trips could be completely walkable, if we had more sidewalks and walker-friendly streets.  It would be interesting to see where we are now to help inform where we need to go.

Why don't we worry about traffic fatalities in Howard County?

Earlier this month, the tragic double-murder and suicide at St. Peters Church in Ellicott City grabbed local headlines.  Stories written on what unfolded (like this one in the Sun by Kevin Rector) were peppered with quotes from residents about how it's a quiet area, that no one expected something like this to happen here.  You also get the "what is Howard County coming to?" reaction.

It's interesting how our worlds are rocked by an event such as this-- to many, our neighborhoods seem a little more dangerous, a little more unpredictable than the day before.  We try to comfort our worrisome selves-- they caught the guy, it was an argument gone wrong, it was a domestic dispute.  Just to be safe, we shield ourselves from danger in so many ways-- telling kids not to talk to strangers, setting home alarms when we leave in the morning, avoiding certain places at night.

From 2006 - 2010, Howard County has had over five times the number of traffic fatalities as homicides.  We don't see traffic fatalities as community-rocking, and that it's a quiet neighborhood so they shouldn't happen here.  It's not seen as a threat to our well-being, as an indicator that our high quality of life is suffering.  They are accepted on some level and seen as part of our lives even though traffic fatalities have the same unexpected tragic loss of life as homicides.

Homicide data from 2010 Annual Report via Howard County Police.  Traffic data from Maryland fact sheet via FARS. 

Since the vast majority of us use our roads regularly, you'd think traffic fatalities would hit us closer to home.  It's said that the riskiest thing we do on a daily basis is drive.  But heck, a recent article in the Washington Post featured parents who admit to setting a bad example for their kids when it comes to distracted driving, as if they're not steering a one-ton machine down a road with other one-ton machines.

But for some reason, traffic deaths don't hit home.  They don't incite the same interest, the same discussion.  Communities don't come together over traffic fatalities and casualties in the same way.  We don't try to reassure ourselves that we're safe because we don't feel threatened.  Maybe we think that people behind the wheel are like us while people behind a gun aren't.  We understand drivers but not murderers.  But does that matter?  Does intent make a difference?  Should it?

Why do you think violent crimes attract so much attention while fatal traffic crashes don't?

the Whole Foods effect and us

I knowwww the time for Whole Foods in downtown Columbia has passed, but an article in Salon about Whole Foods makes me want one downtown.  Not because I need "goat cheese and ostrich eggs" because of the Whole Foods effect.

Will Doig breaks it down into two parts--

 [T]he Austin, Texas-based retailer has made a science of putting down roots in urban locations at what often seems to be just the right moment. In Washington, D.C., near Logan Circle in 2000, Uptown New Orleans and the East Liberty section of Pittsburgh in 2002, Boston’s “Latin Quarter” in Jamaica Plain in 2011 — areas that other specialty grocers might have considered unworthy of goat cheese and ostrich eggs, but that were actually on the verge of a boom that, lo and behold, kicked into high gear as soon as Whole Foods moved in. 

Whole Foods is opening a store in midtown Detroit and passed up putting one in Columbia.  Or, as it says to me, it's the right time for midtown Detroit and not for Columbia.  (Then again, Detroit did offer Whole Foods $4.2 million to open a store there, so there is that.)

How does the Whole Foods effect work?

What something like a movie theater or a Whole Foods does is it creates an extended-hours district,” says Reid ["a principal at the Portland, Ore., land-use consultancy Johnson Reid"]. “Lots of downtowns close up shop at 6, but there are certain amenities that can make a downtown go from being a 10-hour thing to a 16-hour thing.” When this happens, evening foot traffic arrives, and new types of business can thrive. When Whole Foods moved onto P Street in Washington, D.C., 13 years ago, the only nightlife on the block was a divey (and awesome) rock club called the Vegas Lounge. The Lounge is still there, but it’s since been joined by a popular burger joint called Stoney’s, a “food-to-fork” locavore restaurant called Logan Tavern that owns a farm 30 miles south of the city, a Starbucks (open till 8 p.m.), a coffeehouse-slash-bar called Commissary and several retail stores, all squeezed onto the same block as Whole Foods. 

We have a downtown that doesn't extend past 6 pm unless you're at the mall or Merriweather at a show, though there is little "extended-hours district" effect for those two destinations.  But it's not because it's a divey area-- there's just little to do in empty office buildings and parking lots.  I wonder if placing a Whole Foods would have the same real estate effect on downtown Columbia as it does in actual urban areas.  I mean, is gentrification even an issue for downtown Columbia?  If Whole Foods were to locate downtown, what kind of connection would it have to the rest of the area?  Would a Whole Foods in downtown Columbia create the same kind of real estate Bat-Signal as a Whole Foods in an urban area?

bikeshare grant for Howard County + more!

Bike picnic dinner at Lake Elkhorn!

Howard County has received a second bike-related grant from the Cycle Maryland initiative-- this time, for a feasibility study into a bikeshare program!  I know I relayed some concerns about having a bikeshare program here a while ago, so I'm glad a study is being funded to see what we can do.  A few months ago, it was announced that we got money for a few bike projects in our area, so this is the second good piece of news.  Relatedly, DC Streetsblog recently recapped a study on the fantastic data-backed returns achieved by investing in biking and walking in places like Columbia (uh, Missouri).

Now, Friday, May 18 is Bike to Work Day, and registration for our local Howard County event here is open.  It takes place at the Columbia Mall behind Sears from 7 am to 9 am.  My normal bike commute doesn't take me anywhere near the mall, but I'm thinking I could catch the 310 bus from the mall that day instead of Snowden River Park and Ride.  Y'know, for a t-shirt and a bagel and to rally.  I'm still thinking, though.  Get more info on the events in our area here, and RSVP for the Howard County event here.

And last but not least, CA is holding their third and final open house for Connecting Columbia to present their preliminary plans an active transportation agenda.  They've done surveys and mapping and have consultants and a task force and I'm excited to see what they have to get Columbia more walkable and bikeable.  RSVP and get more information at http://connecting-columbia-preliminary-recommendations.eventbrite.com.

The weather is getting beautiful outside, and it's National Bike Month!  Go go go!

picked, cooked and ate invasive garlic mustard!

Inspired by HocoConnect's blog post from a few days back, I pulled and cooked and ate garlic mustard today.  And it's good.

Garlic mustard is an invasive species in our area that is growing like gangbusters and chokes out native plants.  Pulling it (especially before it flowers) helps with trying to cull its growth.  The leaves are edible and have a strong greens flavor (y'know?) with some garlickyness and spicy bite at the end.

We'd seen the plants everywhere along the trails to Lake Elkhorn and didn't remember seeing it last year.  While doing yardwork today, lo and behold, we saw it's also growing behind our house.

Have you seen these plants?

I pulled about twenty of the plants out and removed the leaves.  (If you are eating the greens, make sure you're picking in an area that's unsprayed.)  While picking the leaves off, I tried a few-- small and big.  Smaller leaves tend to have a lighter flavor.  I was worried that the larger leaves would be too bitter, but they weren't.  The garlic mustard behind our house hasn't flowered yet, so maybe that has an effect on the level of bitterness.  I picked more than I thought we'd need because greens cook down so much.

The internet has all sorts of ideas for garlic mustard.  This collection of recipes from Patapsco Heritage Greenway looks fantastic.

Today, we picked up rainbow trout from Frank's Seafood to grill, and had wilted garlic mustard on the side.

I caramelized some sliced onions (olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little sugar because I cheat).  Then added the garlic mustard greens a handful at a time; adding small amounts at a time help keep the pan hot.  I also added a little water from time to time to ensure they steamed.  I added a little more salt and pepper and squeezed some lemon in there.

Cooked greens never look awesome, but trust me, these were good.

Deeeeelicious.  I have lots of ideas for these greens, and I want to try some of those recipes linked above.  Try some garlic mustard and tell me how you make out!

hocofood@@@