Bobo's Questions

Del. Liz Bobo asks lots of questions about plans for downtown Columbia in a commentary published by the Sun. What is to be done about schools, the environment, traffic and the like? Give them a read here.

She concludes:

Some have labeled those who raise these questions as anti-growth and afraid of change. Looking around at the many examples of development gone awry, I call these voices wise. We must realize that as much as Town Center can be improved through well-planned and well-executed development, it could also be seriously damaged by poor planning. In Columbia's Town Center we have the opportunity to plan thoroughly and well, and we have the responsibility to do so as a model others can follow.

General Growth has clearly put much effort into its proposals. In doing so, it has also reopened to the public the beautiful Spear Center in its building overlooking Lake Kittamaqundi. I am grateful for this. Now, we need a plan for the first five years of development that could be well monitored from a social, environmental and economic perspective.

There has been much discussion, and some disagreement, in Columbia of late about who represents our beloved Jim Rouse's vision. One of his many meaningful quotations comes to mind now: "What ought to be, can be, with the will to make it so."

Smart answers to the questions above can "make it so" for Town Center if we neighbors and friends work together respectfully for our community to be a model of inclusion and excellence.