Columbia [Maryland] in the 1980s

Chapter 9 of the book: New City Upon A Hill: A History of Columbia, Maryland, Published 2007, pages 124-138.

When Jim Rouse left the company he founded and loved, he was replaced by a meaner and less-sensitive Rouse Company. As Jim Rouse went on to engage in new and more civic-minded projects, the Rouse-less Rouse Company began hardening its corporate ways.

EXCERPT: "...A similar situation occurred with [small businessman] Robert Harper, who operated a dry cleaning establishment in one of [Columbia's] village centers, and [Harper responded by hiring a top antitrust trial attorney, Charles Jerome Ware, who resided in the community]. Ware filed a $28-million antitrust lawsuit against the [Rouse] company. The civil lawsuit accused the company of refusing to renew [Harper's] lease or allow him to retire by selling his store." [page 126]

The case, filed and litigated in the Howard County Circuit Court in conservative Ellicott City, brought unfavorable publicity to the Rouse company, a situation compounded by the fact that Harper was a minority entrepreneur. Someone that Jim Rouse would have tried to help.