"And it's not like the white people around here aren't getting arrested or selling dope as much as anyone else."

If only that were actually true.

"Aaaaaand there are regular visits by the police, and young men hanging out smoking marijuana outside one of the end units, and cars that pull up for five or 10 minutes at all hours of the day and then screech away."

Do you really want your children to grow up thinking that's the norm in the world? I live in Howard County but I don't have regular visits by the police or drug issues. Sounds like you are defending living in a relatively dangerous neighborhood.

Courtney, I can't speak to the demographics of arrest or drug trafficking in Columbia writ large, but my neighborhood dealers are predominately white. Their partners and clientele are a mix of ethnicities. The last few people arrested here were also white.

Gert, my point isn't that I think it's great to share my neighborhood with dope dealers. My point is that the presence of petty crime here and poverty there doth not a ghetto make. I want my kids to grow up understanding the difference between a neighborhood like ours, which has problems but also has a lot decent people and amenities, and a place where people are isolated by poverty and prejudice. I don't consider this a dangerous place. And drugs are everywhere in Howard County, not just in places where the dealers conveniently make themselves visible.

Mark, my neighbors (and I, though not as often as I should) do precisely that - cleaning up, demanding respect for where our kids play, just being outside. It makes a huge difference.

I don't think we have a "ghetto tidal wave," though. I think we have a dwindling pool of affordable housing stock in the region, a lot people struggling to make ends meet, and a broader community that has too much of its identity vested in being affluent to devote resources to meeting the needs of its poorer residents. My neighborhood library is flooded every afternoon with kids who don't have any place to be after school. The upper school at Cradlerock (soon to be Lake Elkhorn Middle) has no afterschool sports teams or clubs that might occupy the time and attention of kids whose parents don't have money and time to chauffeur them to lessons and private league teams. If we don't want our town's run-down neighborhoods to turn into real ghettos, these are issues Columbia and Howard County need to address.

We lived in Hickory Ridge and had many of the same issues that you are experiencing. Drugs, fights, etc. When there was a murder in Wilde Lake, they came to our neighborhood looking for the suspect. We were not apathetic, but, when you said something to people tossing trash, using language inappropriate for the little ones playing outside, etc., you were pretty well guaranteed to have your tires slashed, fence broken, house robbed, etc. Call the police you say, well, they either wouldn't come or would do a drive through and that was it. Eventually, folks not involved in these behaviors have moved. You just get tired of picking up other people's trash, getting contact highs when you go to your car and ignoring everybody else's behavior.

Thanks for sharing this, Kate, and for talking to your kids about it. When I moved to Columbia (and Howard County) seven years ago, I remember an evening early on when I tried to order a pizza. "Oh," the pizza place told me on the phone, "We don't deliver to that neighborhood after dark." I had only lived in my Stevens Forest Road apartment a month or so at that point, but I am afraid I laughed out loud at that. Compared to so many places even very, very close by, so much of Columbia is a bit of a wonderland.

That is not to say that it's okay that we rough it up a bit, but I think you are onto something in that there are some teaching moments here for young people, especially young people who have had the great good fortune to grow up in our very affluent community.

Maybe Columbia isn't technically not a "ghetto", but it is a poor, run-down, dirty, drug-infested, failed planned community with residents who are snobby when they have ZERO reason to be. I actually prefer to avoid Columbia in my travels. Just because it was nice 20 years ago, doesn't mean it is now, and it would take serious reforms to make it even comparable to the rest of the county. Everyone used to talk bad about my town, Elkridge, the place with the strongest sense of community in the county, and now everyone seems to want to move here or to western Howard County.

Corey, your put-downs offend me. My neighborhood is NONE of those!!! It's pretty, average-wage, clean, no drug activity noticable (within 1/2 mile), and healthy, definitely NOT failed.

And yet, snobs like you call my neighborhood a ghetto.

Check out the race & class statistics - I saw a correlation between neighborhoods that are integrated and middle-income and those that are unfairly being called ghettos, primarily by the kids from nearly-all-white, rich neighborhoods.

My problem as a parent is that my Columbia babies, who live in our integrated and middle-income neighborhood, are the ones calling it a ghetto. My husband, who's never lived anywhere in the US except Columbia, shares Corey's assessment. I don't agree with them (except about the "snobby" part, but I have that complaint about the greater DC metro area in general).

kate, i think you and i are kindred spirits. thank you for this. i live over off of carved stone, not far from minstrel way, which has its share of robberies. we do have a neighborhood drug dealer. we also have kids who play all over the neighborhood every day, including my own son. many of the adults are out chit-chatting too. it's a friendly place, the houses are beautiful, and i love it here. i grew up out in carroll county, and i moved my family to howard county (after living in salt lake city, new york, city, and takoma park) for good schools, lovely neighborhoods, and racial and socioeconomic diversity. i didn't understand the racial aspects of the world i lived in until i got out of carroll county and went to umbc.

i have a neighbor who sends her kids to private school because too many kids who need free and reduced lunch go to talbott springs. personally, i don't automatically think that something is wrong with poor kids. i think my kid will learn from all the kids he meets. i'm glad we live here.

I know this is late BUT I just had to comment on something Andrew Kanicki said that has my blood boiling! I spent most of my 50+ years of living in PG County and moved to Howard County about 5 years ago, Jessup in particular. I moved to HoCo at the recommendation of many of my friends that have moved here over the past 10 years. I myself didn't know much about HoCo but have learned a lot and love living here. Due to a serious back disability I had to live on one level and did not want to be in an apartment/condo, been there done that. Plus I'd owned my own home and wanted some space and peace. My home sold quickly and I didn't have the luxury of time to find another home to buy. Due to the lack of knowledge on my part I bought a mobile home located in a park. It happens to be so much nicer than you could ever believe. It's clean, well kept and safe. Neighbors take great pride in maintaining their homes and yards. Every single person that has come to my home has been pleasantly surprised at how wonderful it is here. I feel very safe here and can't think of a single incident causing the police to come. I have one neighbor that owns a big beautiful boat even. Many of my neighbors are professionals that have many housing options available to them, but they choose to live here. Your uneducated, misinformed, malicious comment about mobile home parks reflects your ignorance. I am offended. Its getting harder for me to maintain this place, perhaps you might want to buy it? Never mind

Corey we all know you are full of BS. You made similar comments on explore howard last year and caused a huge firestorm and got called out.

On the one hand, I have to concur that Columbia is not a ghetto. It has some bad patches, but overall it is a decent community. Whoever thinks Columbia is a ghetto obviously has not lived elsewhere. I grew up in PG County; I attended school in Glenarden, Landover, and Forestville; I worked in Riverdale, Bladensburg, and Clinton. Howard County is a hundred times better than anything I ever had to deal with on a regular basis.

However... that doesn't mean Howard County can't be "ghetto" or that it is appropriate. I'm not using the term "ghetto" to mean poor, African-American... I'm using the term I grew up with on the streets of PG, to mean trashy, crime-filled, and with an attitude. There are neighborhoods, or even specific streets in nicer areas, where that ghetto 'tude is rampant. Groups of teenagers and 20-somethings hanging out and shooting nasty looks at passers-by. Drug use and dealing, both subtle and not quite so. Assault and robberies, theft and burglary, etc. I know these things quiet well, because I used to be involved with aspects of this side of things.

Columbia is not a "ghetto" and I'm glad I'm raising my children here. However, it is not the safe utopia everyone makes it out to be and my children shouldn't have to experience even a modicum of what I dealt with when I was their age.

@Corey--as you WERE able to delete your comment suggesting Robert Rhodes was stealing from the school system since he disagreed with you?

So Corey do you still think that Columbia is a "poor, run down, drug infested, failed planned community..." ??? Hey if you do thats ok. We don't like you either.

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