Unpopular Opinion: I like Marc Elrich

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's a good old fashioned Union guy, and I think it's become much too ingrained in America to slam labor unions which have done so much for workers' rights. Like weekends? The 40 hour work week? Thank a labor union.

He's not sold on the trendy "smart growth" or "urbanist" arguments when it comes to developments or basing housing policy on blogs like Greater Greater Washington. I don't think you have to choose between YIMBY (build everything) and NIMBY (build nothing), but I think so-called "smart growth" is really just a bunch of developer bros trying to wrap gentrification in social justice rhetoric.

He's doing an awesome job handling the pandemic. Montgomery County has held its case increase rate to below one percent for over two weeks, thanks to his measured and cautious reopening. It's nice to have someone put science before politics. Red states are seeing a rise in cases after their hasty reopening, and we're probably going to see that in Maryland since Ocean City is a zoo right now.

He's also walking a very careful line on the policing issue. It's a very tough task to try and maintain a relationship with the police department so that you can try to work with them to reform, which is a very difficult task. Last year he tried really hard to bring in a new police chief from the outside, which didn't work, so it's important to be very careful with a carrots and sticks measure when you have some people whining over the Thin Blue Line flag and other people calling to Defund the Police.

Lastly, and most controversially - I am glad that a 70 year old with no future political ambitions is in charge at a time like this. We need someone who can make unpopular political decisions with no self-serving incentives. Harsh budget cuts will have to be made, future lockdown restrictions might be in store in the fall which will make people angry in the short term, and he will find himself on the wrong side of the issue du jour when it's the right decision for the long term. We need someone with the reverse side of a lame duck mentality who will just do the right thing to help the county when there is no personal or political benefit. Elrich will either win one more term (probably more likely than you think, given a pandemic and a crisis and the advantage of incumbency) or he will retire. He won't be running for governor, he won't be setting up a consulting firm, he won't be looking or a payout from a lobbyist career. So if anyone is going to take the fall for making unpopular but necessary decisions like lockdowns and budget cuts during a bad time, it's Elrich. Sounds perverse, but not really. I think he's just trying to be the best County Executive he can be, rather than a stepping stone to becoming a Governor or Congressman.

Are you his wife?

side chick

That explains his recent weight loss.

[Anonymous]

I like him, too. I don't that's an unpopular opinion at all. I think the shrill anti-Elrich group are super annoying. That's not an unpopular opinion, either!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I don’t know him at all, but I appreciate his measured stance on Covid-19 restrictions.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, that makes at least one of you, OP.

Everyone I know IRL is happy with the job he's doing. I have a feeling the same 5 or 6 malcontents keep posting about him here and shouted him down at his press conference. They looked like douche bags.

[Anonymous]

My biggest problem with Elrich before the pandemic was over development. There's legitimate reasons for wanting to be careful with development, but I don't think Elrich's motives are pure. When you look at the totality of statements and actions he's taken on development and housing policy, he seems far more interested in protecting affluent homeowners than he is at ensuring affordable housing with sustainable growth. And I think that's selfish and bad public policy.

Seriously, how can any elected leader in this county oppose affordable housing initiatives while acting in good faith for the county residents as a whole?

I personally think he's done poorly with COVID. And not over the lockdown itself. I didn't agree with every aspect of the lockdown, but the vast majority of it was needed. My problem is more on the communication side. He was slow to describe his reopening criteria, and some didn't really make sense (e.g., acute bed utilization was set way too low).

And beyond that, his own communication was poor. He keeps misstating his own policies. For example, he said we were under a stay-at-home order long after it was removed from the county's amended executive order, and said pools can only open for lap swim. He's not a reliable source of information for his own policies!

And he's terrible on webinars/press conferences. He's very quick to push questions to others. Sometimes that's OK. I'm glad he defers public health questions to a public health expert, for instance. But why does he defer economic policy questions to Dr. Gayles, too? He really needs to take more responsibility for his own decisions and be willing and prepared to defend them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My biggest problem with Elrich before the pandemic was over development. There's legitimate reasons for wanting to be careful with development, but I don't think Elrich's motives are pure. When you look at the totality of statements and actions he's taken on development and housing policy, he seems far more interested in protecting affluent homeowners than he is at ensuring affordable housing with sustainable growth. And I think that's selfish and bad public policy.

Seriously, how can any elected leader in this county oppose affordable housing initiatives while acting in good faith for the county residents as a whole?

Because "affordable housing initiatives" Greater Greater Washington style aren't actually affordable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My biggest problem with Elrich before the pandemic was over development. There's legitimate reasons for wanting to be careful with development, but I don't think Elrich's motives are pure. When you look at the totality of statements and actions he's taken on development and housing policy, he seems far more interested in protecting affluent homeowners than he is at ensuring affordable housing with sustainable growth. And I think that's selfish and bad public policy.

Seriously, how can any elected leader in this county oppose affordable housing initiatives while acting in good faith for the county residents as a whole?

Because "affordable housing initiatives" Greater Greater Washington style aren't actually affordable.

Certainly not in the short term. And certainly not for the new units that are constructed.

But you'll never address affordability long-term without addressing supply. And you can't address supply without appropriate upzoning and creative low-hanging fruit (e.g., accessory units).

[Anonymous]

I always found it funny how "smart growth" advocates are usually wealthy homeowners themselves (who want to make money from house flipping and/or investment properties they could get from upzoning policy)

[Anonymous]

We need way less development. We're bursting at the seams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need way less development. We're bursting at the seams.

We need more housing, but we need development to pay for the infrastructure new residents will need. And we aren't doing that. We need to get rid of development "opportunity zones" completely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, that makes at least one of you, OP.

Everyone I know IRL is happy with the job he's doing. I have a feeling the same 5 or 6 malcontents keep posting about him here and shouted him down at his press conference. They looked like douche bags.

There is a vocal minority on DCUM that is pro-opening at all costs.

They are the ones pretending nursing homes aren't part of the community and therefore should not factor into reopening data, conveniently ignoring the fact that nursing home employees (and those of prisons and all group homes) live in the community and have families too. They are also the ones posting about suicides, overlooking the fact that Covid-19 deaths are several degrees of magnitude greater than any year-to-year number of suicides we've had ever since tallies began.

Thankfully, most of us have more common sense than these trollish people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, that makes at least one of you, OP.

Everyone I know IRL is happy with the job he's doing. I have a feeling the same 5 or 6 malcontents keep posting about him here and shouted him down at his press conference. They looked like douche bags.

There is a vocal minority on DCUM that is pro-opening at all costs.

They are the ones pretending nursing homes aren't part of the community and therefore should not factor into reopening data, conveniently ignoring the fact that nursing home employees (and those of prisons and all group homes) live in the community and have families too. They are also the ones posting about suicides, overlooking the fact that Covid-19 deaths are several degrees of magnitude greater than any year-to-year number of suicides we've had ever since tallies began.

Thankfully, most of us have more common sense than these trollish people.

The sad irony is if the rest of the country weren't so petulant and selfish, we would be able to safely open right now.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/06/19/countries-keeping-coronavirus-bay-experts-watch-us-case-numbers-with-alarm/

Commentators and experts in Europe, where cases have continued to decline, voiced concerns over the state of the U.S. response. A headline on the website of Germany’s public broadcaster read: “Has the U.S. given up its fight against coronavirus?” Switzerland’s conservative Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper concluded, “U.S. increasingly accepts rising covid-19 numbers.”

Some European health experts fear that the rising U.S. caseloads are rooted in a White House response that has at times deviated from the conclusions of leading scientists.
“Many scientists appeared to have reached an adequate assessment of the situation early on [in the United States], but this didn’t translate into a political action plan,” said Thomas Gerlinger, a professor of health sciences at the University of Bielefeld in Germany. For instance, it took a long time for the United States to ramp up testing capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, that makes at least one of you, OP.

Everyone I know IRL is happy with the job he's doing. I have a feeling the same 5 or 6 malcontents keep posting about him here and shouted him down at his press conference. They looked like douche bags.

There is a vocal minority on DCUM that is pro-opening at all costs.

And I'll also add that it's not even about small businesses suffering and livelihoods being taken away. It's about swimming pools and playgrounds. Are you effing kidding me? Get a sprinkler. Toss a ball around in the yard or park. Use your imagination. Once upon a time, children used their own imaginations and made up games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, that makes at least one of you, OP.

Everyone I know IRL is happy with the job he's doing. I have a feeling the same 5 or 6 malcontents keep posting about him here and shouted him down at his press conference. They looked like douche bags.

There is a vocal minority on DCUM that is pro-opening at all costs.

And I'll also add that it's not even about small businesses suffering and livelihoods being taken away. It's about swimming pools and playgrounds. Are you effing kidding me? Get a sprinkler. Toss a ball around in the yard or park. Use your imagination. Once upon a time, children used their own imaginations and made up games.

Don't forget hairdressing and nail salons. Apparently life and death (emphasis on death).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always found it funny how "smart growth" advocates are usually wealthy homeowners themselves (who want to make money from house flipping and/or investment properties they could get from upzoning policy)

And I always found it funny that growth opponents are usually already older homeowners that don't care about affordable housing because of a "I got mine" mentality.

Did I say funny? I meant selfish.