Beware The Rouse Project - Part 1
Hiruy Hadgu
This is part 1 of a three-part series on The Rouse Project. The reader may download the entire pdf version HERE.
The Rouse Project’s mission calls for addressing the growing division and lack of diversity in the Columbia community. It also laments the poor amenities and the failure of villages. It says “the significant investments we make in our shared quality of life…should be invested in ways that reflect our values…”
Bullshit.
Whenever a group of people fitting the profile of the steering committee talks about diversity, hold on to your wallets, because that all they are after. This project is all about gaining control of the Columbia Association for the sole purpose of siphoning taxpayer dollars for private gain.
It says so in their list or priorities, to “Create accountable systems that direct resources more responsibly and effectively.”
This three-part post will detail that the systems that members of this steering committee created while serving in public office has created less accountability and has allowed them do direct resources to help their campaign contributors.
The Rouse Project Steering Committee
The steering committee comprises of the who’s who of the Howard County political establishment. This group of people has been feeding at the trough of public funds and grown accustomed to easy access to unaccountable grants approved by some of the same politicians at the helm of the committee.
Take for example, Democrat Ken Ulman. There has been no elected official who was more invested in the enrichment of Howard County’s developers than former County Executive Ken Ulman. During his tenure (2006 to 2014), Howard County’s zoning laws were written and rewritten to fit the developers’ needs, constantly fine-tuning county code to create the most optimal and profitable environment while creating undue burden on the county budget and infrastructure.
The same goes for Republican Alan Kittleman, who oversaw the funding of the new courthouse through a shady public-private partnership (P3), the generous tax increment financing to Howard Hughes Corporation, and other disastrous zoning and land-use laws.
If it has not already occurred to the reader by now, Howard County is largely run by politicians who are beholden to wealthy developers. Mr. Ulman and Mr. Kittleman are prime examples of this bipartisan leadership toward continuous decline of the very infrastructure, which attracts families far and wide to settle here.
Today Democrat Calvin Ball has taken the reins and has not disappointed his campaign contributors as his administration contemplates hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate welfare via the General Plan update.
These are just the leading cast members of this audacious attempt to hijack the Columbia Association’s election process, under the guise of diversity and inclusion. There are former council members, former board of education members, a former state delegate, former Columbia Association members, a current Howard County Democratic Central Committee member, former county staffers, former President of Howard County General, and the business interests who are likely the beneficiaries of this operation.
The Political Establishment’s Diversity & Inclusion Con
The members of this steering committee are skilled at manipulating the public and they employ a very familiar and handy playbook.
Establishment politicians rely on this playbook to embellish their credentials. Just a few months ago, national leaders donned African Kente clothing to show solidarity with African Americans in reaction to George Floyd’s murder, while those same leaders were and continue to be the authors of some of the most egregious pieces of legislation that have created and exacerbated income inequality and mass incarceration.
Howard County politicians draw from the same playbook.
Mr. Ken Ulman is no different. Just google “Howard County Racist Sheriff.” Sheriff James Fitzgerald was elected the same year as the former county executive, in 2006. He received the endorsement of several prominent local democrats throughout his reign despite his widely known behavior. In an Office of Human Rights (OHR) investigation, one witness said “He’s gotten away with it his whole career!”
Mr. Alan Kittleman, who vetoed legislation that would have made Howard County a Sanctuary County, is known for throwing around his dad’s experience at the Howard County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to burnish his credentials with the African American voter.
Mr. Calvin Ball, the first African American Howard County Executive, elected at a time of intense hostility against undocumented immigrants, who when he was a Council Member introduced the Sanctuary County legislation that Mr. Kittleman vetoed, is just another elected official with hollow political rhetoric. His administration continues to maintain a detention center contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and so far he has declined to take action on implementing a police body camera program.
And yet, all three politicians have spent their entire careers collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy developers, while approving zoning laws and shepherding county-sponsored programs that asymmetrically accrue to the benefit of their developer backers. Sometimes in breathtaking ways.
So who are the rest of the key players of the Rouse Project cabal? Many of these people are responsible for the decline in the amenities and the diminished quality of life. Just look at the Downtown Columbia Plan and its giveaways to Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC).
The Rouse Project reeks of influence and self-dealing. It is a plot to take over the Columbia Association to clear the way for unhindered pillaging of taxpayer dollars in the name of “Rouse’s Vision.”
They have two interrelated possible motives. The first has to do with the Merriweather Post Pavilion. The other has to do with the General Plan. Why they are interrelated will become apparent in Part 2.