"Colombia" Is The New Towson

We just had to smile at this reference on the Baltimore City Paper's Web site. We don't know what's sillier, the misspelling or the comment about reporters not needing to be based near the seat of county government.

The Baltimore Sun is closing its news bureau in Towson to make room for a new publication aimed at “Generation Y,” a spokesman confirmed.

About eight reporters and editors based in the Baltimore County bureau were told today that their office will be closed and their desks moved either downtown or to the Howard County office adjacent to the Mall in Colombia, according to Sun spokeswoman Linda Yurche.

“They’re not in their office most of the time anyway," Yurche says. "They can go out to Glen Burnie or Reisterstown from here just as quick as they could from Towson. We’re not cutting back on that coverage at all. Their desk[s] will be in a different spot.”

The City Paper's reporter does add later:

Linda Yurche says I misquoted her, though she is unsure of her own exact words. “The way you’ve represented it makes it sound much worse than the way I said it to you,” she says. “I want to make it clear that it is a big deal for the people who are being relocated.” She also points out that “being centrally located in a place will allow [the reporters] to cover a county that wraps around the city,” which is very close to what she told us in our first conversation.