Washington Post endorses David Blair for Montgomery County Exec

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone but Marc Elrich.

Preferably Blair or Frick.

+1 billion. And I live in Takoma Park.

[Anonymous]

This new interview with Frick convinced me to support him: http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2018/Q-A-With-County-Executive-Candidate-Bill-Frick/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He is not at all like Trump. He doesn't think he know everything. Point is county needs new ideas.

Not quite.

The reality is that there simply isn't a lot of room for new ideas. The majority of the budget goes towards things like schools, cops and firefighters. Then everyone else fights over what are essentially scraps (for human services programs, the courts, etc.).

There's a great deal of time and energy invested in sustaining what we have. It's a tremendous balancing act, and a thankless job quite frankly.

The biggest issue I see is too much growth. Too many buildings (many of which are empty). Too much traffic (my commute went from 1 hour to closer to 2 hours in the course of the last 8 years).

Next issue: poorly performing schools. Yes, I realize our schools are highly ranked and better than most across the state and country. But I also realize that 2.0 was a big, expensive mistake that not only screwed students but also prompted people to pick DC, Howard County, Frederick or NoVa over MoCo. Facts don't lie: we've lost wealthy residents to DC and VA. This was prompted by schools and taxes...and our tax revenue has taken a big hit...and will continue to unless/until something changes.

I'm a liberal BTW. I'm cool with paying taxes as long as I'm seeing a ROI in terms of benefits, services, community improvement, etc. But I'm not seeing it. All I'm seeing is a seemingly downward death spiral in mcps. All I'm seeing is more growth...more big, empty apartment and condo buildings. And more traffic.[b]

But I'm not sure a new guy can fix the problems that the county councilmembers have struggled with. They can't control the BoE or Mcps superintendent (nobody can). A new guy will face a steep (one term) learning curve. It will be a very scary amateur hour for an entire term. Is that what we really want?

This is a HUGE problem for MoCo, IMO. The development over the past decade is RIDICULOUS. All the high rises are changing the feel of the county. And, when all this increased housing remains empty, it does not led to an increase in tax revenue. There needs to be more thought put into how many buildings to up and when.

[Anonymous]

PP

And, along those lines, if there are any candidates who are promising a more thoughtful approach to development, please let me know. He/she would have my support in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP

And, along those lines, if there are any candidates who are promising a more thoughtful approach to development, please let me know. He/she would have my support in a heartbeat.

Blair wants to lease the air rights over county parking lots. What would that look like?

[Anonymous]

Not to mention Blair has all these great ideas and no way to fund them. Extremely disappointed with this endorsement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to mention Blair has all these great ideas and no way to fund them. Extremely disappointed with this endorsement.

Isn't that how it works though? Voters want to hear about all the great things that are going to happen. Most voters don't give much thought to where the money will come from. Universal PreK sounds like a fantastic, amazing idea, until you realize that MCPS is already so incredibly underfunded, that to fund universal free preK, the money would just mean more cuts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He is not at all like Trump. He doesn't think he know everything. Point is county needs new ideas.

Not quite.

The reality is that there simply isn't a lot of room for new ideas. The majority of the budget goes towards things like schools, cops and firefighters. Then everyone else fights over what are essentially scraps (for human services programs, the courts, etc.).

There's a great deal of time and energy invested in sustaining what we have. It's a tremendous balancing act, and a thankless job quite frankly.

The biggest issue I see is too much growth. Too many buildings (many of which are empty). Too much traffic (my commute went from 1 hour to closer to 2 hours in the course of the last 8 years).

Next issue: poorly performing schools. Yes, I realize our schools are highly ranked and better than most across the state and country. But I also realize that 2.0 was a big, expensive mistake that not only screwed students but also prompted people to pick DC, Howard County, Frederick or NoVa over MoCo. Facts don't lie: we've lost wealthy residents to DC and VA. This was prompted by schools and taxes...and our tax revenue has taken a big hit...and will continue to unless/until something changes.

I'm a liberal BTW. I'm cool with paying taxes as long as I'm seeing a ROI in terms of benefits, services, community improvement, etc. But I'm not seeing it. All I'm seeing is a seemingly downward death spiral in mcps. All I'm seeing is more growth...more big, empty apartment and condo buildings. And more traffic.[b]

But I'm not sure a new guy can fix the problems that the county councilmembers have struggled with. They can't control the BoE or Mcps superintendent (nobody can). A new guy will face a steep (one term) learning curve. It will be a very scary amateur hour for an entire term. Is that what we really want?

This is a HUGE problem for MoCo, IMO. The development over the past decade is RIDICULOUS. All the high rises are changing the feel of the county. And, when all this increased housing remains empty, it does not led to an increase in tax revenue. There needs to be more thought put into how many buildings to up and when.

Nothing is more "NIMBYism pretending to be liberalism" than opposing more housing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He is not at all like Trump. He doesn't think he know everything. Point is county needs new ideas.

Not quite.

The reality is that there simply isn't a lot of room for new ideas. The majority of the budget goes towards things like schools, cops and firefighters. Then everyone else fights over what are essentially scraps (for human services programs, the courts, etc.).

There's a great deal of time and energy invested in sustaining what we have. It's a tremendous balancing act, and a thankless job quite frankly.

The biggest issue I see is too much growth. Too many buildings (many of which are empty). Too much traffic (my commute went from 1 hour to closer to 2 hours in the course of the last 8 years).

Next issue: poorly performing schools. Yes, I realize our schools are highly ranked and better than most across the state and country. But I also realize that 2.0 was a big, expensive mistake that not only screwed students but also prompted people to pick DC, Howard County, Frederick or NoVa over MoCo. Facts don't lie: we've lost wealthy residents to DC and VA. This was prompted by schools and taxes...and our tax revenue has taken a big hit...and will continue to unless/until something changes.

I'm a liberal BTW. I'm cool with paying taxes as long as I'm seeing a ROI in terms of benefits, services, community improvement, etc. But I'm not seeing it. All I'm seeing is a seemingly downward death spiral in mcps. All I'm seeing is more growth...more big, empty apartment and condo buildings. And more traffic.[b]

But I'm not sure a new guy can fix the problems that the county councilmembers have struggled with. They can't control the BoE or Mcps superintendent (nobody can). A new guy will face a steep (one term) learning curve. It will be a very scary amateur hour for an entire term. Is that what we really want?

This is a HUGE problem for MoCo, IMO. The development over the past decade is RIDICULOUS. All the high rises are changing the feel of the county. And, when all this increased housing remains empty, it does not led to an increase in tax revenue. There needs to be more thought put into how many buildings to up and when.

Nothing is more "NIMBYism pretending to be liberalism" than opposing more housing.

I’m an Independent voter but if the liberals are the ones advocating for all this rampant development then count me out. Why do we need to pave over every inch of green space in this county? And why the push for all the high density development? Nowhere near transit centers.

Also I thought liberals want to protect the environment? Someone just posted in the Schools forum about the Ten Mile Creek development. How do the liberals justify development over protecting our back up water supply?

Don’t think this is a liberal/conservative issue. YMMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I’m an Independent voter but if the liberals are the ones advocating for all this rampant development then count me out. Why do we need to pave over every inch of green space in this county? And why the push for all the high density development? Nowhere near transit centers.

Also I thought liberals want to protect the environment? Someone just posted in the Schools forum about the Ten Mile Creek development. How do the liberals justify development over protecting our back up water supply?

Well everyone on the Council is Democrat, and they appoint the members of the planning board, so I guess you know who to blame.

Their theory on it is that we should build high density, especially near transit, which is why you see all the condo towers going up in Bethesda. Then, they won't touch even an inch of the Ag Reserve, which means no 2nd Potomac crossing, as that would need to enter a corner of it for a mile or two as it connects to 370/270/ICC interchange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP

And, along those lines, if there are any candidates who are promising a more thoughtful approach to development, please let me know. He/she would have my support in a heartbeat.

Blair wants to lease the air rights over county parking lots. What would that look like?

A building on top of a parking lot. Actually there's the Air Rights Building in Bethesda, built over the train tracks (now the capital crescent/trolley trail, soon to be the Purple Line also).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will the top two candidates advance to a run-off or is it winner-take-all on primary night?

Winner take-all, and only Dems can vote in that primary, so it leaves out the 30% of MoCo registered voters with no party affiliation (we do get to vote on school board though).

When Leggett won the primary in the last non-presidential election year, he won with votes from 6% of all registered voters in MoCo. Yes, 6% of registered voters chose our current CoExec.

That's why I'm worried Elrich will win this one. He just needs to get the unions out to the polls and he's got it, as there are 6 people running and the rest of the votes will be spread across the other 5.

[Anonymous]

Vote for Blair to keep Elrich out. With The Post endorsement, he is the only one with a shot. This county will be driven into the ground with Elrich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He is not at all like Trump. He doesn't think he know everything. Point is county needs new ideas.

He doesn’t know how government works. Just like Trump. He thinks he’s entitled to a high office with no experience. Just like Trump. I would have much more respect for him, and would have taken him more seriously, if he’d started off at a lower office like Councilmember. And you can bring new ideas to the Council level. He just wants the power.

The people who know how the government works are corrupt jerks who profit from
that knowledge. Look at the mass building mess going on in Bethesda now or swarmy Roger Berliner and not agreeing to streamline the process for environmental stormwater management. What that man knows is kickbacks and we’re all paying for it. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vote for Blair to keep Elrich out. With The Post endorsement, he is the only one with a shot. This county will be driven into the ground with Elrich.

How much further down can it go??