Wednesday, April 14, 2010

What Do We Need In Eldersburg?

I saw a group of a similar name that was created on Facebook yesterday. If you've never been to Eldersburg in Carroll County, it is more or less the cross-roads of Route 26 (Liberty Road) and Route 32. Neighborhoods have sprung up around those roads, but there isn't much to a transportation infrastructure in the town. The commercial district basically runs straight down these 2 roads.

South of Eldersburg is Sykesville, the older little brother of Eldersburg. With it's quaint downtown district, Sykesville lacks the commercial interests of Eldersburg. You can't go grocery shopping in Sykesville.

Eldersburg basically consists of several grocery stores (Martin's, Safeway, Food Lion, and Shopper's Food Warehouse), a few chain restaurants (Chili's, Bob Evans, and the various fast-food chains), and a few stores (Wal-Mart, and some claim K-Mart and Big Lots, but I think those are actually in the Randallstown section of Eldersburg).

"Fans" of this new group threw out suggestions - more restaurants, Costco, Target, Barnes & Noble, Staples, Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, and a movie theater to name a few.

Now, I don't know if you've ever been to places that have these stores. You can look at Columbia, Westminster, Owings Mills, and Bel Air. These ex-burbs are loaded with them. And what to all of those places have in common? HORRIBLE traffic problems. Lack of identity. Transient crime. And lower property values.

Why do people move to Eldersburg? It's certainly not because of the great selection of stores and restaurants. People move to Eldersburg because of its small-town feel. It's bucolic. We don't need all that other crap. If we need anything that cannot be sold in Eldersburg, we are a quick 20 minute drive to Owings Mills, Westminster, or Columbia\Clarksville to get it.

Do we need to add more to Eldersburg to make it a better place to live? No. On the contrary. It's the best place to live because we don't have everything here. Let's keep it that way.

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