And while I now live in Portland, Oregon I grew up in Maryland. Specifically Columbia, MD. We moved there in the summer of 1975, from the Los Angeles area, when I was five-years-old. The first neighborhood we lived in was Owen Brown. In December of 1983 we moved to the Dorsey Hall neighborhood, which is still really Columbia though the mailing address is technically Ellicott City. I lived there all through college (commuted to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County). So from five to twenty-three I lived in this part of Howard County, Maryland.
Columbia was rather famous in its day. Situated about midway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. on Route 29 (though a bit closer to Baltimore), Columbia was a designed "planned community", the brainchild of developer James Rouse. It opened in 1967 and grew exponentially over the next two decades. Rouse's idea was to develop an entire town including schools and libraries, swimming pools and man-made lakes, bike paths and shopping centers and a variety of housing types and sizes, each growing around "village centers" that would serve each neighborhood and the city of Columbia at large. There were open space laws, meaning large pockets of green were set aside to remain for beauty and recreation and could not be developed commercially or for housing, and the businesses that were in Columbia, be it McDonalds or Exxon or Safeway or a small independent, had to abide by rules that limited signage and lighting so that the skyline was not dominated by consumerism. The streets are all named from literature, for example the Hobbit's Glenn neighborhood is all Tolkien (Rivendell, Proudfoot Place, Oakenshield Circle, etc.). It was also designed to be a beacon of tolerance, and families of all races and creeds lived side by side. The communities and schools would be completely integrated, and by the time we arrived in the 1970s there were all colors of the rainbow, including interracial couples and families. Remember, this was a founding principle in the late '60s and early '70s south of the Mason-Dixon Line, not many years removed from the Civil Rights era that amended laws on paper but was slow to change in practice and attitude in many areas (and still today, sadly). Columbia was a truly color-blind community. Columbia's symbol was The People Tree (see above), to remind us we were all branches of the same larger family, sharing common roots. In the city center, where the People Tree sculpture stands, there is even a building designed by famous architect Frank Gehry. Downtown Columbia in the 1970s reminded me a lot of
Logan's Run actually, only with sunshine and trees and no Sandmen shooting anybody of any age.
If it all sounds too ideal and too good to be true, it was and it wasn't. When I was growing up, Columbia was gloriously everything it aimed to be. By the late 1980s over-development to meet the constant influx of people including development of the open spaces that were never to be developed, in addition to a population in sheer numbers that made every community overcrowded and eventually all exactly the same, dissolved much of the charm and original intent of Rouse's grand idea. But I must say while it lasted and when I was a kid, it was an ideal if sheltered place to live. Somebody who left in 1982 would scarcely recognize it or be able to find anything including landmarks, other than maybe the remnants of that downtown, now partially obscured by signage and taller buildings that originally never would have been allowed. But oh, what it was....
Besides me there have been a handful of famous folk to come from Columbia, MD. Pultizer-Prize winning author Michael Chabon (
The Adventures of Cavalier & Clay,
Wonder Boys) grew up there in the late 1960s and through the 1970s. Oscar-nominated actor and current Hulk Edward Norton grew up in Columbia, and in fact made his professional stage debut at Toby's Dinner Theatre which is at the city center next to the main library branch. Norton is the grandson of James Rouse, by the by. Cartoonist Aaron McGruder (
The Boondocks) also grew up in Columbia. And no, I didn't know any of them. Chabon is seven years older than me so we never crossed paths, though through a friend I have met him a couple times and even went to lunch with him once where we reminisced about the glory days of Columbia. Michael has a nice piece about his memories and initial impressions of Columbia that can be found as the title essay in his recent non-fiction collection
Maps & Legends published by McSweeney's, which originally appeared in
Architectural Digest and can be found in its entirety on-line right
HERE. McGruder is four years younger than me, so I never interacted with him, either. Edward Norton is only a year older than me, but we went to different High Schools so I never crossed his path that I know of, either.
And though he didn't grow up there, you may spot Talking Head David Byrne in town, as his parents live there. David grew up in nearby Arbutus over the Baltimore County line (where the UMBC campus I attended sits), but his folks moved to Columbia after he left for college in Rhode Island and then of course landed in NYC and CBGBs. You may also see international moviestar Will Smith and his family, as wife Jada Pinkett's mother too lives in Columbia.
And Merriweather Post Pavillion is a concert venue in Columbia that lots of big acts over the years have played, and in fact Jackson Browne's bestselling live album
Running On Empty was recorded there in August of 1977. The first concert I ever went to was right there, The Little River Band opening up for Linda Ronstadt in 1976. Yes, that means I was six-years-old, and my parents and I sat on the lawn.
As far as I know no major movies have ever been shot in Columbia, certainly not while I lived there. I still go back a couple times a year: my parents still live there, though in a different house and neighborhood, as does my little brother with his wife and two kids.
So, that was my hood. I always try to explain the 1970s Columbia as Spielbergy suburban, similar in tone (if not geography) to the idyllic communities seen in
E.T. and
Poltergeist - you know, minus the space aliens and ghosts...although had either applied for home ownership, due to Columbia's non-discriminatory practices they would have been happily welcomed into the community.
Reply to Topic
how could I not 
Luckily I cant help but forgive you, just dont let it happen again :P
