Building a town where people can live, work and play is possible. Building a community that is friendly to the environment is possible. It takes money and a good plan. It's tough trying to pry their hands off the steering wheel and get them into buses. Building a planned community takes longer than expected.
Economic recessions slow down construction.
Developers invoke the name of Columbia as shorthand for a community that is human in scale, developed from scratch according to a master plan, that is friendly to the environment and where people can live, work and play all in the same locale. The basic approach relies on small, private lots and big, generous public spaces. If it were a city , it would be the second biggest in Maryland after Baltimore. Columbia is a nice-looking place. Even on a recent raw April spring day, cold and wet, with the leaves not out yet, Columbia looks peaceful and manicured, with great swaths of open areas and woods.