Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Welcome to Columbia Now

My name is Ryan Ballengee and I'm a resident of downtown Columbia, in the Town Center village. I've lived here since December 2007 and have worked for Enterprise Community Partners (formerly Enterprise Foundation) since 2005.

I'm a young man - 25 - and have lived in Maryland my entire life. I grew up in Pasadena, Maryland, in Anne Arundel County. I attended Mount St. Joe for high school and then went on the University of Maryland for five years to get an undergraduate degree in business management and a Master of Public Policy degree.

Politically speaking, I am fairly centrist. On social issues, I lean to the left. On fiscal issues, I lean more to the right. I believe that morality should have no lean.

It is from that context that I will write about the issues facing Columbia. Previously, I poked fun at the Choose Civility movement in the County because (a) it was an easy target for jokes and (b) civility is a weak standard for our County. It is my opinion that this County should strive for much higher standards in not only the behavior of its people, but in everything that it does.

I feel that it is time to start talking about ways to achieve that higher standard.

5 comments:

  1. Welcome! Looking forward to what you have to say.

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  2. Ryan,

    Welcome. I look forward to reading your posts. I'll change the link on my blog.

    -wb

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  3. Thanks all! Really appreciate the welcome!

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  4. Welcome, Ryan. You're most welcome and encouraged to submit your blog over on hocoblogs.com. It's a free listing that will pick up your new feeds. Looking forward to reading your perspective and joining in on more conversations.

    Also, if you tweet, you may want to follow @hocoblogs.com

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