Carrolltown Hot Rod Show

Okay, I may be mistaken when I say that there is nothing good at the Carrolltown Center. Sure, there's the ghetto K-Mart, the ghetto Dollar General, the ghetto Big Lots!, and a snowball stand. But if you like to go somewhere that doesn't appear like you're in the middle of an inner-city transient neighborhood, Carrolltown Center is NOT the place for you.

For one brief period it was different. They had a car show there over Memorial Day weekend. The event was held behind the mall. What better way to celebrate the actions of our war heroes this weekend than to go look at hot rod cars? I wouldn't be surprised to hear Glenn Beck say our soldiers died for our freedoms - like freedom to attend hot rod shows.

There were no cars in the front of the mall where the stores are located. Rarely are there ever any cars in the front of the mall. And when they are, they're mostly beaters, meaning they ain't from 'round here.

Basically these cars are some of the ones that I plan on getting when I strike it rich. Muscle cars from the late 1960's and early 1970's.

For those of you who are at least in your 30's, you'll remember when the Maryland State Police cars were beige. (if you're clueless, they are now olive with a black stripe). You may also remember when they were yellow and had that single dome light on top. This state police car is a Chevrolet Caprice Classic, somewhere in the mid-to-late 1980's.



Looks like something from the Dukes of Hazzard. It's a 1972 Dodge Polara Maryland State Police car.


Not something that you usually see at a hot rod show - a 1968 Nissan 2000.



Smokey was there, but I wasn't able to find the Bandit. But his car was definitely there. Has there ever been another movie that helped to inflate the sale of cars like Smokey and the Bandit did for the Trans Am? I would totally drive this. This was the 1979 version. I think the original Bandit was a 1977 Trans Am.



Here's the blower from a customized Ford. Pretty cool, huh? It looks a lot cooler than the blower we have at the State House. I fully expected the members of ZZ Top to jump out of this car with hot girls in bikinis.



Another fine muscle car. A 1971 Camaro Z28. This came out the year I was conceived. But I doubt it was in the back seat of this fine candy apple red car. My parents had a VW Bug and a Fiat when I was born. Whoo-hoo!


Here's another 71 Camaro. Remember when it was cool to have chrome mags?



1970 Corvette Stingray. It was for sale for only $9400. I asked my wife if I could buy it. She didn't answer me. My 3 year old daughter said she likes it because it's a little car and she likes little cars.


A 1969 Mustang Fastback. One awesome car!



Another 1969 Mustang Fastback. This is what the Mustang looked like before Ford made them to look similar again. The new Mustang sounds like, "zig-zig-zig-zig". The old one sound like "jugga-jugga-jugga-jugga-jugga".



A pair of Firebirds. The one on the left is a 1968 and the right is a 1969 (I think).



A 1969 Camaro. I really seem to like 69. It must have been a good year.



No local car show would be complete without a showing from the local fire department. Here are the apparatus of the Sykesville Freedom Fire Department.



This is the aerial ladder. They use it to put out fires in all the tall buildings in Eldersburg. If you're from Eldersburg, you get it.

Here's one of those ENCALUBMA that you see on the road. Remember when ambulances were converted vans or pickup trucks? Now they're full-sized commercial trucks.

Evolution of Carrolltown Center Sign

Since I keep my camera with me often, I have the opportunity to take pictures of the deteriorating Carrolltown Mall while I wait at the light of Ridge Road and Liberty Road. Here are 3 pictures of the fabled sign with different stages of disrepair.

This is a picture of the sign after their landscaping upgrade. Note the lovely brown plants and the rotting timbers. The sign also provides a good display of the peeling letters of the Peebles sign.


Here's the sign without the side panel.


Here's a picture with the Big Lots! sign blown-out. When I first saw this I got really excited thinking that Big Lots! had gone out of business. Much to my chagrin, this was not the case. Fortunately, Black Oak Associates placed an orange (brown) cone in front of the sign to warn passer's-by of the dangers of shopping at this mall.

Future Fire Department in Eldersburg

I thought I had written about this before, but I couldn't find the posting. I take many pictures with the intention of writing about it, then never find the time to write, then can't remember if I wrote it or not, but I'm convinced that I did. Most likely I scripted it in my mind, but never put it on pixels, so to speak.

I was looking through the HOA websites of the local neighborhoods and found information on the zoning for the Carrolltowne and Carrolltowne II neighborhoods. They were part of a PUD (planned unit development). One of the conditions of the zoning was that several acres be reserved for a library, an elementary school, and a fire station. The school and the library were built (Carrolltowne Elementary School in 1977 and the library in the early 1980's). The fire station was slated for the corner of Hemlock Road and Liberty Road. It's current occupant is mostly grass behind Faith Lutheran Church, so obviously it was never built.

Will the county ever build a fire department there? I think it makes sense since there's been a lot of development since the 1970's, plus a lot more is to come. There is the Reservoir Ridge development next to Carrolltowne, which will bring in hundreds of new families. There is a large development on the books behind the VFW off of Arrington. Then there's the old farm off of Ridge Road after you pass Brangles. If I recall correctly, several hundred more homes are to be built on that property, too. Before you know it, Eldersburg will be competing with Glen Burnie and Bel Air for congestion.

Anyway, all fire calls in our area come from Sykesville Freedom Fire Department, which is at least 10 - 15 minutes from our house. There really is no direct route from there to here. Having another small fire department would make sense in that regard. On the other hand, we'd have to deal with the noise. And everyone knows that the only thing worse than putting out fires before your house burns down or getting an ambulance to your house before you die, is having a fire department with noisy vehicles going in and out.

Here is the current Sykesville Freedom Fire Department - the one where the hall next to it burned down after the snow storm in 2009. Remember that?


Here is the current site of the "future" Eldersburg" fire department looking west. That's Faith Lutheran by the trees and Liberty Road to the far right.

Blockbuster Express Comes to Eldersburg

I think this is the nail in the coffin for the brick-and-mortar Blockbuster located in the derilict Carrolltown Center Mall. I was at Food Lion today to buy overpriced milk and stand in a line that's way too long when I noticed this Blockbuster Express machine outside.

This will be competing directly with the Red Box, which incidentally was recently removed from the Hey-Y'all Wal-Mart. I think the only ones left are in Shoppers and McDonald's.

I drive by the Blockbuster at the mall all the time and I never see more than 3 cars in the parking lot. I can't imagine how that location is staying business, especially with the competition of said Red Box, and also Netflix and streaming movies on Comcast and FiOS. But perhaps Blockbuster has a golden lease like K-Mart. Who knows???

Carrolltown Carnival!!!

While dropping my son off at Carrolltowne Elementary School I noticed that the parking lot at the fabulous and world-famous Carrolltown Center Mall was packed with vehicles. A splits-second closer inspection revealed that the vehicles were all carnival trucks. The Carnies are in town!!!


A couple of thoughts came to mind. First, why would they be having a carnival in April? It is still about 45 degrees at night, sometimes even in the 30's still. I can't imagine getting on the Hurl-a-Whirl when it's that cold.

The second thought that crossed my mind was - what a fantastic use of a parking lot of a nearly abandoned mall! I mean - it's not like Black Oak Associates, the owner of the Carrolltown Center Mall, needs the parking spots for customers. They need about 10 spots per day in front of K-Mart and probably about 20 spots in front of Big Lots (Big T's). Other than that, it's just a lot of cracked asphalt surface.


We all know that K-Mart has some kind of golden lease with that mall, which is the reason no one can get them out of the mall in order to improve it (which seems to imply that Sears\K-Mart endorses ghetto malls). I speculate that the carnival will pay some sort of lease to Black Oak for use of the empty parking lot. This should increase the revenue generated by the mall for April many times over. All speculation, of course.

While driving to the bank today I also noticed the sign litter all around town. Do you think they'll clean up this crap when they leave?


So bundle up, bring your hand sanitizer, lock your cars, leave your valuables at home, and come join your fellow neighbors at the Carrolltown Carnival!!!

Gone from Eldersburg - K Bank

I heard a month or two ago that K Bank in Eldersburg was going to close, but noticed this week that there is a property sale sign on the premises now. You may remember a few years ago it was known as Key Bank, but they were sued by the other Key Bank in Cleveland and forced to change their name. They got creative and just dropped the 'ey'. Funny because the Key Bank here in Maryland had been Key Bank for a generation. All of a sudden they were infringing on the rights of some bank in Cleveland??? Does Cleveland really still exist? I thought it burned down. Anyway, not sure if any new banks will need to go there. I think we have plenty of banks in Eldersburg. Unfortunately, I think this one will end up sitting there for a while. Sort of like the empty Flagship Movie Theater in the ghetto-esque Carrolltown Center.

Fun Times at Big T's

I make it a point to go to the ghetto Carrolltowne Center as little as possible. This is the mall owned by Black Oak Associates that appears to be neglected. Well, this week we made an exception.

My son has been looking for different Star Wars Lego sets and has not been able to find them. Apparently the ghetto Wal-Mart in Eldersburg hasn't replenished its stock of Legos since Christmas.

So we went into Big Lots, whose sign has several lights out, as you see from the picture. What's a Big T? I can think of something. I entered the store with much anticipation. I could go for some Big T's!!! Much to my chagrin, it was actually still Big Lots. Anyway, as we walk in I tell my 2 older kids to push carts, but slouch over them like you see white trash do. You've seen those people at Wal-Mart pushing the cart, leaning on it so much that if the cart were pulled away from them they'd fall flat on the floor. Yeah, we did that.


As we're slummin' around the store, my wife is getting visibly irritated. "What are we looking for?"

I quickly glimpse around the store for something interesting and in a split second see a guitar-shaped container filled with popcorn with an Elvis sticker on the front of it. "I'm looking for a guitar-shaped container filled with popcorn with an Elvis sticker on the front of it!" I proclaim.

We walk around a bit longer and my 11 year old daughter comes running up to my wife and me, her face as red as a tomato, hysterically laughing, carrying a a guitar-shaped container filled with popcorn and an Elvis sticker on the front of it. "You're not going to believe this!!!!"

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Thank you, Big T's!!!

New To Eldersburg - Shell; Gone - Texaco

You probably have seen the face-lift the old Texaco is getting at the corner of Ridge Road and Liberty Road (Route 26). It's across the street from the ghetto mall - Carrolltown Center.

Gone is the Texaco Station. Here is the Shell station. You'll remember that prior to being a Texaco gas station it was a Crown gas station.

Previously, the closest Shell station was at the corner of Oakland Mills Road and Route 26 between the two Liberty Reservoir bridges. It is now a ghetto liquor store slash auto dealer - Liberty Reservoir Motors and Liquors I think it is called.

Open In Eldersburg - Virginia's Rose

This has been there for a while, but I recently visited this store and thought it worth noting.



Virginia's Rose is a consignment shop that opened in the Oklahoma Plaza where the ReMax used to be and is next to the Thai restaurant that I suspect is owned by the mob because no one ever eats there but they never go out of business. The entire Oklahoma Plaza recently underwent a renovation making it 2 billion times nicer than the ghetto mall across the street, Carrolltown Center I think it's called - owned by Black Oak Associates.

Black Oak Associates
10055 Red Run Blvd. Suite 130
Owings Mills, MD 21117

Phone - (410) 356-5820
Fax - (410) 356-5822

The store is nice, mostly crafty inside. There is a lot of nice older furniture. Don't expect to get cheap deals there. They sell nicer furniture, so expect to pay a couple of hundred dollars for a dresser. But it is a really interested shop and the owner is super nice.

Check it out!

What's Shaking in Eldersburg?

At 5:05 am this morning, I was sort of twilighting. You know - not awake, but not totally asleep either. Then all of a sudden a loud bang shook the house. The windows, the doors - everything shook loudly for a hot second, then stopped.

I jumped up out of bed and whispered to my wife, 'What the hell was that?" She had no idea. I ran to the window and threw up the sash. And what to my wondering eyes should appear? Wait, wrong story. I expected to see birds fleeing the trees, or a big truck going down the road. Or a low-flying jet. None of that was to be seen.

My wife demanded that I go check on the kids. After a quick peek I determined they were okay. I went downstairs to check out the house. I flicked on the spotlights. Nothing outside.

Well, I'm awake now. I turned on the television and decided to look at the news. I jumped on the computer (not literally. It couldn't take that kind of abuse) I got on Facebook and had several friends that posted "WTF was that?" and "Did we just have an earthquake?" Okay, so I wasn't the only one.

A few minutes later WBAL reported that a small earthquake centered around Gaithersburg had indeed shook (shaken?) the area. And then the flood gates opened. Some of my nerdier friends posted links to the U.S. Geological Survey's website declaring that we had an earthquake. Other links pointed to the site where you could input your information to help determine the magnitude of the quake and any possible damage.

This was the first time that I consciously experienced an earthquake. Scary at first, but now I find it intriguing and exciting. (BTW - Blogger's spellcheck does not recognize 'consciously' as a word. Huh????)

And I'm sad to report that it did not cause the Carrolltown Center to collapse.

Faith Lutheran Church's New Electronic Sign

There are signs that Black Oak Associations is not the only ones that are trying to bring Randallstown to Eldersburg. Faith Lutheran Church on Liberty Road, ironically, right next to the ghetto dead mall Carrolltown Mall, recently put up this lit sign.

Like other low-class fly-by-night establishments offering check cashing and bail bonds, Faith Lutheran installed this red-lit sign on their front lawn facing Liberty Road.

Now we'll be able to see from a mile away what the message of the Lord is as it scrolls by with its flashing yellow-ish lights.

Carrolltown Mall Update

It's been a couple of months since my last update, so I know that you're anxious to know about all of the renovations and new tenants at the Carrolltown Mall owned by Dixon Harvey's company Black Oak Associates.

Closed:

Unfortunately, the renovations have not started. And there are no new tenants. And Black Oak Associates seems to have forgotten that they own the property. They have chosen to let the opportunity of owning prime shopping destinations in the upper middle class neighborhoods around Eldersburg disperse in the wind.

In fact, Black Oak Associates seems to be going out of their way to make the mall as horrible as they possibly can. Perhaps they are hoping that their next tax assessment will prove that the mall is useless. To those of us who have lived in Eldersburg for at least 10 years, we know that the mall has been useless for a long time.

What spurred this series of pictures is that I was in a hurry one day and needed something quick so I regrettably stopped into the ghetto K-Mart. I quickly got what I needed and raced to the cash registers. And wouldn't you know it? Only 1 lane open. The lady in front of me had many items. The cashier rang them up. The customer handed her a coupon and the cashier says, "Sorry. We don't accept coupons at this K-Mart." What????? She informs the customer that there isn't enough sales volume to accept coupons. So do you think not accepting coupons will help generate more volume? It's a downward spiral and we can do nothing. Here's an idea - close the K-Mart!!!

Take a look at the landscaping updates. There are some new dead trees. Some older dead trees were cut down and the stumps left in the ground. Because why should they go through the whole process of properly removing the tree when they can do it half-ass for one quarter of the money?



There was a fitness place in the back of the mall where Manco used to be. They had a nice canopied sign. It's gone now. Some low-budget operation has taken it's place and a skeleton of the canopy remains.


You know a mall is going downhill when they start advertising churches and other religious centers that operate in former shops. You know a mall is a dead mall when those churches and religious have front-facing store-front.


So when do you think Dixon Harvey and his Black Oak Associates will do something about this nearly abandoned ghetto mall? Unfortuntely, it looks like it won't be for a while. Instead, it will sadly continue to crumble and be a false image of what a nice community Eldersburg is. Shame on you Black Oak Associates.

If you're getting tired of the nonsense, please call and complain to them:

Black Oak Associates
10055 Red Run Blvd. Suite 130
Owings Mills, MD 21117

Phone - (410) 356-5820
Fax - (410) 356-5822

Eldersburg Wal-Mart Make-Over

I was driving to my son's baseball game this weekend and I noticed that the Wal-Mart got a paint job. I went from the eye-sore battleship gray, blue, and red to the more subtle tan and beige.

I went in there 2 weeks ago to buy some unicorn blood disguised as a printer cartridge and noticed that they were doing a make-over on the inside. It actually looked fairly nice. Not as nice as a Target, mind you, but nice for a Wal-Mart.

Maybe Dixon Harvey will take notice and start to do something about the super eye-sore called Carrolltowne Mall that his Black Oak Associates owns. But I doubt it. I'm convinced that he hates Eldersburg and hopes that the town turns into a ghetto so that it matches his mall.

Qdoba to Eldersburg

Good news from Eldersburg.net. I cross-verified this in the Baltimore Business Journal. Qdoba is opening a new store in Eldersburg. It will occupying the old Hollywood Video store that's next to the Papa John's on Liberty Road.

I think this is fantastic news. I really like Qdoba. It's no Chipotle, but Qdoba is a good second choice.


Also in the restaurant news, the A&W \ KFC will no longer offer the A&W portion. It will now be a stand-alone KFC. This is a shame because I really like their burgers. But then again I can't remember the last time I went there to get one. The problem with the A&W \ KFC in Eldersburg is that you wait in line for 15 minutes to order, then you stand there and wait another 20 minutes to pick it up. And one time they even told me they had no chicken. Are you kidding me? KFC has no chicken? That's be like the Maryland General Assembly not having any crooked politicians.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to list all of the new stores and restaurants that are coming to the Carrolltown Center, also known as the Dumpster Mall.

The new stores are:

*
*
*

That's right. Nothing. Black Oak Associates has been busy doing a lot of nothing. But then again, we're kind of used to that.

Carrolltown Mall Update - December 2009

I know you've all been dying to see what's new and exciting at Carrolltown Mall since that big renovation started. However, I am sad to inform you that we've been duped.

Fortunately there is some good news. You may recall that the mall had leased space to a beat-up storage trailer. Well, they've upgraded to 2 new shiny pods. So if you need storage space, please contact Pack Rat at 1-800-Pack-Rat.


Speaking of rats, we all heard that the Flagshit (oops, Flagship) Cinema, the only movie theater in the South Carroll (Eldersburg \ Sykesville area) closed. I decided to capture a picture if it before it collapses from neglect.


Remember the dead trees in the parking lot next to Hemlock Drive across from the Eldersburg Library that I complained about recently? Well they finally cut them down. Unfortunately, in typcal Black Oak Associates-style, they only paid them enough money to cut them down, not haul away the wood. So in an effort to save money, I suspect Dixon Harvey requested that the tree company strew the dead branches all over the parking lot. Oh, and leave the stumps. That way the thousands of people that visit the mall each day will have a nature-like place to sit.



Remember the liquor store that was in the Carrolltown Mall? That space is now empty, like 90% of the mall. However, if you look across the street, you will see the new liquor store. And next door to the liquor store is a new pharmacy. Now Eldersburgers can conveniently get their liquor and drugs at one stop.

Carrolltown Center - Dixon Harvey & Smelly Rhetoric

Black Oak President Dixon Harvey must be practicing to be a politician because he's so full of smelly poop.

In an article posted Sunday in the Carroll Eagle and cross-posted on The Sun, Harvey commented about the closing of the Flagship Cinema by stating that they are in the early stages of planning a new theater.

Early stages? If anyone understands rhetoric, 'early stages' means that he thought of it on the spot when asked about a replacement. The thought being in his head. I seriously doubt there's anything on paper. If there is - Mr. Harvey, I challenge you to share that with the community.

I'm in the early stages of planning my vacation in 2025. I'm in the early stages of buying presents for my grandchildren. I'm in the early stages of planning my move to South Carolina.

The Flagship Cinema in Eldersburg was closed on November 30th amid health concerns with moisture. I guess I should hope that K-Mart and the rest of Carrolltown Center Mall needs to close because of health concerns. Every time I go in there it makes me sick. And the condition of the mall and the stores it offers the citizens of Eldersburg makes us all sick.

Eldersburg's Only Theater Closes

In an effort to keep Eldersburg as ghetto as possible, Carrolltown Mall owner Black Oak Associates has decided to close the theater.

The closing is officially due to concerns about health and safety in the building. In an article in the Carroll County Times, patrons complained about water leaking from the ceiling while rows within the theater were roped off or blocked with cones.

I was hoping that Black Oak would let the roof collapse and we could have an outdoor theater. How many open roof theaters are there in the area? I think none!

Additionally, just like the other crumbling buildings in the Carrolltown Center, Black Oak Associates President Dixon Harvey said he has no immediate plans to repair the derelict building and it will remain closed. I love it when my friends come to visit me and they comment about having a ghetto mall in such a nice area of Carroll County. Dixon - can I give them your number every time I get that comment?

No word on the rat problem at the theater either. Perhaps if no one talks about it then it doesn't exist.

UPDATE
Two of the dead trees that face the Eldersburg Library were taken down. Fortunately they didn't remove the stumps and most of the limbs and sticks are still strewn across the parking lot. I would hate to think that Black Oak would spend money and actually hire professionals to do the job. They came through for us and I think they hired the weasels from Who Framed Roger Rabbit to do the tree work.

National Night Out

If you don't already know - August 4th is National Night Out. In Eldersburg, festivities will be held in back parking lot of the derelict Carrolltown Mall. Get there early because half of the parking lot lights are burned out, so when it gets dark, you won't be able to see anything.

The event will be jam-packed with exciting activities like the self-defense demonstrations near the walls of graffiti of the abandoned stores, emergency preparedness lessons by the Lions Club near the abandoned storage trailer by the theater, and an exciting moon bounce on the cracked and crumbling asphalt near the dead trees that line the parking lot.

And to help with deal with massive parking problems that the mall deals with on a daily basis, CATS, the Carroll Area Transit System, will be providing free transportation to the event. Additionally, overflow parking will be available at Faith Lutheran Church.

Local politicians also plan on attending the event to drum up support for the upcoming campaigns.

This will also be a prime opportunity for Carrolltown Mall owner, Black Oak Associates, to showcase their property: Carrolltown Mall - the diamond in their crown. I recommend they have a representative on site, such as president Dixon Harvey, to discuss the advantages of Carrolltown Mall over other ghetto malls such as the ones in Randallstown and Woodlawn.

Harvey could explain why spending money to keep up the appearance of the mall is a fruitless effort and why it makes more sense to let the mall decay to the point where it just collapses. He could explain why his mall is geared to residents not of Eldersburg, but to those of western Baltimore County. Harvey can gleefully detail the benefits of dead trees abutting our community and the opportunities he's providing to suburban gangsters to showcase their graffiti skills and territorial markings.

The event is free, but because of the thousands of people expected to attend, I recommend that you camp out tonight so that you can be guaranteed entrance to the event.

Carrolltown Mall Update

Carrolltown Mall in Eldersburg, owned by Black Oak Associates, continues to sit in a vat of its own filth, slowly decaying into a suburban slum. Unconcerned Black Oak continues to let the mall rot and die like an unwanted 3-legged runt with a stomach virus.

This past weekend I drove around the mall and took some pictures to show you the continued decline. However, not everything looked bad. Here's the new landscaping theme of the Carrolltown Mall. The theme is either Death of Nature or Year-Long Halloween. Here are two former trees in the rear parking lot. This is on an island in the parking lot. It's easy to spot this island in the parking lot. It has all of the surface cracks in the asphalt full of grass leading up to it. And the mall groundskeeping team is allowing nature to run its course by leaving fallen branches strewn about the parking lot.


You have to give it to the expert groundskeeping team. They went above and beyond with this tree repair. You'll notice the duct tape used to hold the broken top of the tree to the main trunk. This repair easily costs in the hundreds of cents.


Not all of the parking spaces at the Carrolltown Mall are safe for parking. Fortunately for us, the security team at Carrolltown Mall used this 20 ft dropped tree limb to mark off some spots that are unsafe. If you haven't read the safety policy of Carrolltown Mall, section 8 reads, "Do not park in spots containing 20 ft dropped dead tree limbs. These spots are unsafe."


On the west side of the mall between the empty and decaying K-Mart and Hemlock Drive near the Eldersburg Library, you'll notice a row of dead evergreen trees. Ironic that they call them evergreens. They're all black and brown. Perhaps they are now black oaks. I suspect that Black Oak has decided to keep the dead trees there as it offers a natural barrier between the mall parking lot and the street. This will help keep the throngs of pedestrians and car traffic from making inadvertent ingresses and egresses.


Black Oak, not satisfied to just offer the upper middle class Eldersburg fine Class-A shopping establishments like Big Lots, K-Mart, and Dollar General, they now offer top tier 1 storage. This desirable rusted mobile storage unit is located next to the derelict movie theater. If you are interested in storing your personal treasures in this convenient parking lot storage unit, please contact Storage Trailers at 410-287-5277.


So the next time you're in Eldersburg, take a minute and thank Black Oak Associates for the wonderful unused crumbling pile of shit mall laying in the middle of our town. You can call them at (410) 356-5820 and ask for Dixon Harvey or send an email to steve@blackoakusa.com. I'm sure they'd love to hear from you!

Carrolltown Center

People always bitch about how they have no real say in politics or the government. To a degree, this is true. Martin O'Malley and the Maryland General Assembly will continue to do what's in their political careers' best interests rather than what's best for the people. But there are things that you can do to make a difference. Tonight is one of those times.

If you live in Eldersburg, Maryland, then you are familiar with that dump in the middle of the Liberty Road. The dump is named the Carrolltown Center. None of us shop there. We drive to Westminster or Columbia. No, this dump is reserved for the residents of Randallstown.

As I have mentioned before, Black Oak wants to tear that shit-hole down and replace it with something nice. Sears Holding Company, the owner of K-Mart, seems to prefer Carrolltown Center as an absolute shit-hole. And can you blame them? Cheap rent. Plenty of hons and thugs from Randallstown to make it worth keeping.

The problem, as I have also mentioned, is that this shit-hole shopping center does not serve the local residents. If this shit-hole was in Randallstown, no one would give a rat's-ass. But it's in Eldersburg, an upscale community. They wouldn't build a Nautica store or a Wegman's in Randallstown. Why? It doesn't fit the demographics. Then why are subject to shit-crap stores?

So the tug-of-war continues. Sears doesn't want to negotiate. Black Oak can't tear down the crap stores. And in the meantime the stores are not being upkept and it's looking worse and worse. Now we get to look at white-trash flea-markets on weekends and the occasional hot-rod show.


If I was looking for a new home and saw that, I would immediately drop the price I would expect to pay for a house in Eldersburg. Why would anyone want to live near that shit-hole? I would think that the people of Eldersburg don't give a crap for their town if this shit-hole shopping center was right in the middle of town.

This evening, the Freedom Area Citizen Council will be holding their monthly meeting at the South Carroll Senior and Community Center, 5645 Bartholow Road at 7:30pm (Thursday, September 18th). At this meeting, there will be a petition requesting a compromise between Sears, the owner of K-Mart, which in total disrepair, and Black Oak Associates, the owner of the Carrolltown Center Eyesore.


So get out there and attend that meeting and sign the petition. Let your voice be heard. Tell them you are not pleased.

And if you REALLY want to heard, contact Black Oak:

Black Oak Associates
10055 Red Run Blvd.
Suite 130
Owings Mills, MD 21117
Phone - (410) 356-5820
Fax - (410) 356-5822
steve@blackoakusa.com

And contact Sears:

Sears Holdings Corporation
3333 Beverly Road
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179
(847) 286-2500