Meanwhile, in the other anti-Reston: Imagine no religion (it's easy if you live in Columbia)

Those of us who've long followed Columbia, Reston's evil doppelganger to the north, with its awesome, almost-as-mauve planned communities, Satan Wood Drive, and a shopping mall which declared war on Christmas last winter, will hardly be shocked by the latest news from our fellow New Urbanists(tm):

The founders of Columbia were convinced that religion, like everything else in the planned community envisioned as a suburban utopia, should be harmonious and inclusive. So instead of a welter of churches all vying for space within the model township, the founders opted for interfaith centers.

Now, one congregation's plan to place a 16-foot cross on a new building at the town's oldest interfaith center in Wilde Lake Village has stirred an anxious response. Some guardians of local tradition see the cross as a challenge to the core values of Columbia.

"I think it's just wrong," said Robert Tennenbaum, a planner and architect who helped design Wilde Lake. "This is Columbia -- you are talking about a special place."

Too special for Baby Jesus? Apparently so!

The town's interfaith centers were another innovation. Instead of selling building sites to individual religious groups, the Rouse Co., which developed Columbia, made land available at a fraction of its market value to groups of at least two denominations that agreed to work together and build the centers.

Yet the ebb and flow of unity and separation between religions is a pattern woven through the centuries, said James Grubb, a professor of history at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Sometimes entire denominations have moved toward mergers, only to split again.

"The Columbia experiment has done better than most, but after 40 years of ecumenism, I'm not surprised it's fragmenting," he said. "Ecumenism is often followed by identity politics -- people adhering to their differences."

We simply can't imagine that!

I'll have a mauve Christmas without you...

As we enter the holidays, we thought we'd share a few earth-toned sights of the season.

• The Reston Town Center Hyatt's awesome gingerbread house village is back after last year's absence. Yay!

The kitchen and engineering staffs share the effort, Messina reported. And a demanding task it is. In addition to performing their ordinary duties, four or five people work 45 days to assemble the houses, and then another five to seven days to erect the village.

Sounds like a lot of extra work for Santa's ununionized elves, doesn't it?

• Reston-based Eastern Motors, home of the ever-sophisticated rappin' Redskins commercials, donated a car to a Fredericksburg woman who runs a shelter for abused women. Yay! But who knew they were based in Reston? If they tried to put up one of their mustard-yellow dealerships anywhere in Reston, the DRB would throw the mauve-colored book at them before they could say "Your job's your credit."

And finally, in the spirit of the season, we'll share this comment posted on our favorite message board:

With a footnote reminder -

*The Reston(r) Association specifies that residents may have a "Holiday Tree" (Tree) provided that such Tree is Forest Green and decorated with fruits and nuts for the birds and squirrels.

Report any violators using "The Complaint Form" available at [www.reston.org]. And, as always, use recycled paper.

We're assuming this is a joke. But the fact that we wondered for a moment or two says it all, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, in the other Anti-Reston...

When people talk about new urbanism and awesome, earth tone-intensive planned communities, they usually mention Reston and Columbia, Maryland, in the same breath. Like Reston, Columbia is a product of the 1960s, a planned community which features much of the same persistent earth tones and questionable contemporary architecture. Unlike Reston and its awesome fake downtown, though, Columbia opted to plop a generic shopping mall right in the center of town.

Well, maybe not so generic. For the first time, the Columbia Mall has ditched its Poinsettia Christmas Tree, this metal-framed thing that held up a bunch of potted plants prompting people to open their wallets a little bit wider at the nearby Bon-Ton or Orange Julius or whatever.

"The Tree was a symbol of how Columbia was different," said Dennis Lane, who grew up in the town, blogs about it and writes a column for the Business Monthly, a local paper. "It's a non-political statement, a thing of beauty. I live in Ellicott City now, and it has a definable center and a long history. Columbia yearns for that. It's a suburb on steroids that holds tight to any tradition it has."

So while Reston Town Center may hate America, Columbia apparently hates Christmas. Somebody notify this guy, pronto!

For all you doubters out there, just click this link on Google Maps, which takes you to Satan Wood Drive, right in the middle of... Columbia. Apparently, even pure evil has to abide by Design Review Board regulations.

Update: Columbia Mall management folded like a cheap pack of mauve-colored playing cards. The flower pot tree will be back next Christmas.