I think it is pretty safe to say that there is a great county divide in Harford County. We have the “rural” north vs. the “urban” south. This is nothing new. It is not all that uncharacteristic compared to neighboring counties. We have northern Baltimore County with the Hereford/Parkton communities vs. the Middle River/Essex/Randallstown communities. They are vastly different and they have vastly different needs and concerns. In both Harford and Baltimore Counties we have a rapidly growing anti-growth movement. Harford County is probably about 5-10 years behind the anti-growth sentiment found in northern Baltimore County. GoldwaterGOP stated in a comment that our location between Washington and Philadelphia makes us prime real estate. We cannot stop the growth. We can slow it, we can protest it, but it will continue.

What I am concerned about is the political divide between the north and south. This is another reason why I do not support county-wide council elections. The way I see it we have 2 northern districts and 3 southern districts with 1 swing district. That swing district is District B which includes Fallston and Abingdon. It is interesting that in the District B primary we have an Abingdon candidate up against the Fallston candidate. We may begin to see the polarization of that district with the Abingdon vote going to Kane and the Fallston vote going to Chenowith. Chenowith consistently votes with a “northern” mind, that is when she makes up her mind. Kane seems like he is a little more concerned with Edgewood and may side with the “southern” minds on some issues. That makes it a 4 to 2 split. Let’s say Kazi is elected and just for the sake of argument he has a “northern” mind (pro-countywide, somewhat anti-development, etc…) that makes the council votes pretty close most of the time. If Chenowith beats Kane, the votes swing to the north. District B is the district that I am going to keep my eye on.

Abingdon is very different than Fallston. Abingdon kids go to Edgewood High School. Rt. 40 is in Abingdon’s backyard. With Rt. 40 come Rt. 40 problems that Fallston is, for the most part, isolated from. Yes, I know that drugs make their way up to Fallston from this area, so in a sense no one is isolated from Rt. 40, but I am talking about direct contact with the Rt. 40 area. District B stretches from I-95 in the south to Ebenezer Road off Mountain Road in the north. From top to bottom we have a very diverse district. I may be wrong but the kids in this district could attend any one of four (soon to be five with Patterson Mill) different high schools depending on where they live in the district.

With Twanmoh and Chenowith we had two Fallston choices. The very populated Abingdon area may finally get a representative of their own kind.