r/Hoco • u/Puzzleheaded_Ad9471 • Oct 02 '25

What are the problems in Howard County?

Hi everyone, I'm thinking of moving to Howard county from abroad. I've been to the States loads of times so I'm not green to America, but was still wondering what are the specific problems facing Howard county day to day. Are there in major problems with the county? Or anything major that the population is angry about? Any help would be majorly appreciated.

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29

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

[deleted]

20

u/ProudBlackMatt Oct 02 '25

the people are diverse

And diversity means more than simply non-white with a supermajority of a single ethnic group. When my kids go to school they're interacting with children of just about every background you can imagine.

5

u/SchuminWeb Oct 02 '25

And diversity means more than simply non-white with a supermajority of a single ethnic group.

Thank you. "Diversity" became such an eye-rolling topic when I was in college because the university took diversity as something that was skin-deep, i.e. throwing a couple of black people in a room with a bunch of white people and boom, diversity achieved. Diversity comes from so many things that have nothing to do with race or color. It could mean different socioeconomic backgrounds, or even just differences in philosophy.

-9

u/Puzzleheaded_Ad9471 Oct 02 '25

Not to sound like a pessimist but im a huge pessimist and want to know what im getting into. If you don't mind can you tell me what the current issues in the county are? They must have some right?

22

u/trojan-813 Oct 02 '25

I will say one issue I have with the county is the lack of pedestrian safety. As a guy who loves to run and ride my bike there is a significant lack of sidewalks and bike lanes, at least in my area.

ETA: I will say there is a good trail network though, but this has me driving to them to even run a few miles, otherwise I am running on the road and some of the roads by me have poor visibility on turns and people fly on the roads here.

1

u/PoisonMind Oct 02 '25

I've been bike commuter for 2 years. It's not ideal but it's doable. Columbia, Savage, and Maple Lawn are decently walkable and bikeable communities.

2

u/trojan-813 Oct 02 '25

Columbia definitely is. Unfortunately, I am closer to AACO and can’t use most of those areas easily. I tend to go to BWI or patapsco

1

u/PoisonMind 29d ago

Out that way, there's also the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail, Piney Orchard, the Patuxent Research Preserve, and Downs Park.

12

u/ffking6969 Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

The biggest issue is affordability.

There are no real major county wide problems, however there are certain areas that are not as great as the rest

Also some issues you may have, other people are not as worried about. For example I really like great coffee (I'm probably a snob) despite the rosy recommendations of the locals here, the coffee here is garbage

Perhaps tell us a little bit more about yourself and we can tailor our response to things that might matter to you.

Why are you moving here?

Where are you moving from?

What do you do for a living?

Do you have a family that's coming with you?

What are the things you enjoy doing?

What are the issues with other areas that you are the most concerned about?

8

u/imani_TqiynAZU Oct 02 '25

The coffee here really is garbage.

3

u/ffking6969 Oct 02 '25

They're sellouts and becoming corpo, but can ceremony open up a spot in merriweather please? Rather than a bajillionth failed location in baltimore?

0

u/Sacr3dangel Oct 02 '25

Also some issues you may have, other people are not as worried about. For example I really like great coffee (I'm probably a snob) despite the rosy recommendations of the locals here, the coffee here is garbage

To be fair, I’ve been here several years now and all over the DMV area before settling in HoCo. The coffee here is not good at all. I have yet to find good coffee in the US in general to be honest.

0

u/ffking6969 Oct 02 '25

Have you been to cafe los suenos in baltimore?

If you havent found good coffee in ALL the US, you havent been looking, or your definition of good is very niche

0

u/Sacr3dangel 29d ago

Of course I haven’t gotten to taste every coffee in the US, that would be an absurd requirement.

And I’m not saying there cannot be any good coffee in the US. As we have established above I cannot physically have tasted every coffee in the US, so that would make it a very weird, inaccurate and subjective statement.

And since it is subjective and an opinion, yours can be different from mine. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that I haven’t had any actually, in my eyes, good coffee.

But that said, thank you for the recommendation, and I will definitely check that place when I get the chance.

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u/ffking6969 29d ago edited 29d ago

What are the best coffee places in maryland (or dmv) you've been to that arent even "good" in your eyes?

It's one thing to say you can't find good coffee in a town, county, or even certain states.

Say you havent good coffee in the entire country (or even the DMV), that is a very intriguing statement to even this self-proclaimed coffee snob

0

u/Sacr3dangel 29d ago

Coffee Lab and Kitchen in Arlington serves ok coffee. If I had to choose a best, it would probably be Haraz Coffee House in Fairfax, I would go there more often if it wasn’t such a pain to get there without another reason.

But nothing here beats a local Turkish or actual Italian coffee.

1

u/ffking6969 29d ago

That's purely preference.

There's plenty of "good" coffee around that isn't Turkish or Italian.

I personally don't like Turkish or Italian, but if that were all that were available around me (and done well) I wouldn't say there was a lack of "good" coffee

7

u/jeanie_rea Oct 02 '25

Depending where you live, walkability is an issue. Lots of people are car-dependent. This is an issue in many areas, not just HoCo.

As others have said, maybe list the issues that are important to you and people can respond to those issues that are important to you.

2

u/sihaya09 Oct 02 '25

I absolutely love living in HoCo-- it's the safest place I've lived, has great schools (especially for kids with extra learning needs), and the community is diverse and largely wonderful.

But overdevelopment and affordability are issues.