Blog

The event will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 7pm at the Owen Brown Community Center, 6800 Cradlerock Way. The featured speaker will be Rob Breymaier, executive director of the Oak Park Regional Housing Center, where he leads the nation’s most successful effort to promote integration and the affirmative furthering of fair housing in the private housing market.CA’s Community Building Speakers Series brings thought-provoking speakers on topics that stimulate us to discuss, engage and build our sense of community in Columbia. Columbia’s commitment to being truly integrated is at the heart of the community. Jim Rouse made this absolutely clear to all the developers and sales associates doing business when Columbia was being founded.

“It is important for all of us who are selling houses or lots or renting apartments in Columbia to understand that Columbia is a truly open city,” Rouse wrote in an August 1967 memo, employing the language of the time to emphatically state his intent to build a community based on equal opportunity.

Oak Park, Illinois is located just west of Chicago. Thanks to the Housing Center’s efforts and leadership, it has established and sustained an integrated community that is open, inclusive and prosperous. Breymaier has published articles and opinion pieces and has been interviewed on a variety of media outlets, including Marketplace, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR and the Chicago Tribune.

Advance registration is recommended at columbiaassociation.org/speakers. For more information, please contact Scott Templin at 410-715-3166 or Scott.Templin@columbiaassociation.org.

Columbia Association (CA) is a nonprofit community services corporation that manages Columbia, Maryland, a planned community that is home to approximately 100,000 people and several thousand businesses. Additional information about CA is available at columbiaassociation.org.