Montgomery County - What Happened?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington County - What Happened?

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/12/27/developing-police-investigating-shots-fired-near-courthouse/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/11/10/acpd-investigating-shots-fired-in-halls-hill-neighborhood/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/10/15/police-investigating-gunfire-that-damaged-window-in-green-valley/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/04/30/just-in-schools-secured-as-acpd-investigates-shots-fired-call-near-ballston/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/04/28/one-arrested-after-report-of-shot-fired-outside-of-wakefield-hs-on-saturday/

+1. I live in Arlington and crime is a real problem here. The criminals know that our leadership is soft on crime and that there is no real punishment for what they do. We have tons of stolen packages and cars broken into into my neighborhood. And we're not immune from gun violence, as the links above show. We even have a well-known gun store right in the heart of Clarendon.

The crime is from all the low income housing and apartments that Arlington is approving for development/subsidizing. The bottom 40% of the income distribution commits more than 2/3rds of the violent crime. The top 40% of the income distribution only commits 18% of the violent crime. If the income composition of the county changes, the crime rate changes with it. Combining this with criminal justice reforms that remove three strike laws for felonies and expunging Minors criminal records is a recipe for disaster. The reality of it is that most of the crime is committed by an especially violent 1% of the population. Mandatory life sentences for violent criminals with prior felonies would reduce the crime rates by more than half.

Unfortunately, Arlington keeps wanting to build more of that housing, including in North Arlington. Check out Plan Langston Boulevard. Arlington had a good run, but unfortunately it will continue to change for the worse as there's a push for more density everywhere and fewer SFHs.

This is happening in MoCo too. The Council just passed the University Boulevard Plan despite overwhelming opposition from the community (because who cares about voters and residents, right Natali Fani Gonzalez, Evan Glass, and Andrew Friedson?) and basically spelled the end for SFH zoning in that area, though consider it a model for the rest of the county.

Meanwhile, the council has also passed 20 year tax abatements for developers. So infrastructure and schools will suffer, property taxes go up, and more of the same decline for MoCo.

10 angry old people yelling at a community meeting is not "overwhelming opposition".

Get a clue, dud. 99% of people have something called a "life" and don't attend those silly meetings.

And those people want more housing.

You lost. Get over it.

Wow more invisible support that the YIMBY kiddies cant show.

Here is the thing, though, the affordable housing plan was what we tried to avoid. Remember that, and all of your big boy tears that they couldn’t upzone the entire county? And now it’s in a small corridor that’s getting smaller all of the time? Height restrictions and areas reduced?

A few lawsuits should slow even that down a bit.

So, yes, they threw the losers a couple of scraps that we might still be able to clean up

What a BIG BOY you are, lmao.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do MoCo residents even create threads like this about Nova? I think that speaks volumes.

Right, NoVa people are massively insecure, which is why they create these threads about MoCo.

You guys are both insecure, uncultured suburbanites. MoCo is an increasingly poor dump, and NoVa is heinous suburban sprawl. You guys both suck lol

I posted above. I’m in MoCo (Silver Spring). Spent a fair bit of the last two weeks in NoVa visiting with friends and family for holiday gatherings. If I could do it all again in terms of buying a home, schools, etc, I’d go with NoVa or Howard County. MoCo has gone downhill and the council seems committed to undermining the quality of life for middle class residents.

Bigger picture I like that MD and MoCo are largely blue but there’s a tipping point at which “progressive” policies just mean more crime, more trash all over, crumbling infrastructure, schools falling apart under the weight of the result of less tax income, massive tax breaks to developers just to build in the county, no job market, and an influx of kids in public schools over the last 20 years who need more support than the county can truly afford to provide. “Progressive” has meant an erosion of the quality of life and it hits middle and working class people the hardest.

Gives me no joy to say I made the wrong move when I settled in MoCo. And maybe I’d feel differently if I was wealthy, living in Chevy Chase or Bethesda or Potomac and my kids were in private. Those people seem really happy.

This x 1,000. MoCo boosters are mostly blue bloods who send their kids to private schools, go to country clubs, and can isolate themselves from all the county’s problems. For actual people who work for a living and don’t have inherited wealth and who have to go grocery shopping, go to a gym, go shopping and not have an assistant shop for us, etc., the quality of life has gotten noticeably worse over the past 10 years.

Ask yourself this. Are Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, or McLean nicer, have less crime, better schools, and have more amenities than they did in the 1990s? Can you say the same thing about Silver Spring, Wheaton, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, etc.?

The answers to all the VA burbs is a resounding yes.

You guys nailed it. For wealthy people who stick to Bethesda / Potomac / Chevy Chase, all is gravy. The W schools are elite, downtown Bethesda has gotten nicer, Chevy Chase is crystallized in time with its beautiful historic character, and the country clubs are still there humming along.

It’s the middle class that has evaporated in MoCo. Those that remain are left with lesser quality schools, more crime, and higher taxes to support a growing poor population in need of heavy services.

HoCo, and to a lesser extent Frederick and AA have essentially taken over as the go to middle class areas of Maryland post MoCo’s decline.

Hopefully it will be slow going in MoCo…maybe a lawsuit will get filed to gum up the works for a few years. We liked underbuying as far as housing because it allowed us financial freedom to do other things, but I think that we will move to a better part of the county sooner than we had planned.

lol. This is how MoCo ended up stagnating.

It’s a lovely level of stagnation, housing wise. It’s fine, I can pave the front yard for parking (because I don’t despise my neighbors) and turn my house into 3-4 units, but I don’t have to live here, thank god.

[Anonymous]

Being a sanctuary location?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was looking at FARM rates at mcps and was shocked by how high they are across the board. Here is a snapshot from 2024: https://www.creativemoco.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2022-2023-MCPS-Schools-at-a-Glance.pdf

So I was curious and looked up fcps rates. There is no good summary sheet for FCPS but when I look at individual schools, they seem magnitudes lower than MCPS: https://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108%3A8

Am I looking at this right? Comparing apples to apples? I am a long time Moco resident and this data really makes me want to flee.

Importing vast numbers of poor people who need government assistance and simultaneously discouraging business growth is the recipe for success as a county. Economics and public policy 101.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do MoCo residents even create threads like this about Nova? I think that speaks volumes.

Right, NoVa people are massively insecure, which is why they create these threads about MoCo.

You guys are both insecure, uncultured suburbanites. MoCo is an increasingly poor dump, and NoVa is heinous suburban sprawl. You guys both suck lol

I posted above. I’m in MoCo (Silver Spring). Spent a fair bit of the last two weeks in NoVa visiting with friends and family for holiday gatherings. If I could do it all again in terms of buying a home, schools, etc, I’d go with NoVa or Howard County. MoCo has gone downhill and the council seems committed to undermining the quality of life for middle class residents.

Bigger picture I like that MD and MoCo are largely blue but there’s a tipping point at which “progressive” policies just mean more crime, more trash all over, crumbling infrastructure, schools falling apart under the weight of the result of less tax income, massive tax breaks to developers just to build in the county, no job market, and an influx of kids in public schools over the last 20 years who need more support than the county can truly afford to provide. “Progressive” has meant an erosion of the quality of life and it hits middle and working class people the hardest.

Gives me no joy to say I made the wrong move when I settled in MoCo. And maybe I’d feel differently if I was wealthy, living in Chevy Chase or Bethesda or Potomac and my kids were in private. Those people seem really happy.

This x 1,000. MoCo boosters are mostly blue bloods who send their kids to private schools, go to country clubs, and can isolate themselves from all the county’s problems. For actual people who work for a living and don’t have inherited wealth and who have to go grocery shopping, go to a gym, go shopping and not have an assistant shop for us, etc., the quality of life has gotten noticeably worse over the past 10 years.

Ask yourself this. Are Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, or McLean nicer, have less crime, better schools, and have more amenities than they did in the 1990s? Can you say the same thing about Silver Spring, Wheaton, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, etc.?

The answers to all the VA burbs is a resounding yes.

You guys nailed it. For wealthy people who stick to Bethesda / Potomac / Chevy Chase, all is gravy. The W schools are elite, downtown Bethesda has gotten nicer, Chevy Chase is crystallized in time with its beautiful historic character, and the country clubs are still there humming along.

It’s the middle class that has evaporated in MoCo. Those that remain are left with lesser quality schools, more crime, and higher taxes to support a growing poor population in need of heavy services.

HoCo, and to a lesser extent Frederick and AA have essentially taken over as the go to middle class areas of Maryland post MoCo’s decline.

Hopefully it will be slow going in MoCo…maybe a lawsuit will get filed to gum up the works for a few years. We liked underbuying as far as housing because it allowed us financial freedom to do other things, but I think that we will move to a better part of the county sooner than we had planned.

lol. This is how MoCo ended up stagnating.

No, MoCo stagnated when economic policy became fixated on bailing out land speculators who overpaid for land. The council has spent far more effort and money on bailouts for real estate companies who paid too much for land than it has on attracting businesses and jobs. If the heart of your economic policy is bailouts you’re going to stagnate and nothing will be affordable. Sidney Katz, Will Jawando, and Kristen Mink get this. The rest of them don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being a sanctuary location?

+1

Not just this, but shifting county resources away from the quality of life things like libraries, parks and rec, roads, etc. to welfare. For the average taxpayer, we've paid a lot more and gotten a lot less than back in the 90s, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington County - What Happened?

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/12/27/developing-police-investigating-shots-fired-near-courthouse/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/11/10/acpd-investigating-shots-fired-in-halls-hill-neighborhood/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/10/15/police-investigating-gunfire-that-damaged-window-in-green-valley/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/04/30/just-in-schools-secured-as-acpd-investigates-shots-fired-call-near-ballston/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/04/28/one-arrested-after-report-of-shot-fired-outside-of-wakefield-hs-on-saturday/

+1. I live in Arlington and crime is a real problem here. The criminals know that our leadership is soft on crime and that there is no real punishment for what they do. We have tons of stolen packages and cars broken into into my neighborhood. And we're not immune from gun violence, as the links above show. We even have a well-known gun store right in the heart of Clarendon.

The crime is from all the low income housing and apartments that Arlington is approving for development/subsidizing. The bottom 40% of the income distribution commits more than 2/3rds of the violent crime. The top 40% of the income distribution only commits 18% of the violent crime. If the income composition of the county changes, the crime rate changes with it. Combining this with criminal justice reforms that remove three strike laws for felonies and expunging Minors criminal records is a recipe for disaster. The reality of it is that most of the crime is committed by an especially violent 1% of the population. Mandatory life sentences for violent criminals with prior felonies would reduce the crime rates by more than half.

Unfortunately, Arlington keeps wanting to build more of that housing, including in North Arlington. Check out Plan Langston Boulevard. Arlington had a good run, but unfortunately it will continue to change for the worse as there's a push for more density everywhere and fewer SFHs.

This is happening in MoCo too. The Council just passed the University Boulevard Plan despite overwhelming opposition from the community (because who cares about voters and residents, right Natali Fani Gonzalez, Evan Glass, and Andrew Friedson?) and basically spelled the end for SFH zoning in that area, though consider it a model for the rest of the county.

Meanwhile, the council has also passed 20 year tax abatements for developers. So infrastructure and schools will suffer, property taxes go up, and more of the same decline for MoCo.

10 angry old people yelling at a community meeting is not "overwhelming opposition".

Get a clue, dud. 99% of people have something called a "life" and don't attend those silly meetings.

And those people want more housing.

You lost. Get over it.

Wow more invisible support that the YIMBY kiddies cant show.

Here is the thing, though, the affordable housing plan was what we tried to avoid. Remember that, and all of your big boy tears that they couldn’t upzone the entire county? And now it’s in a small corridor that’s getting smaller all of the time? Height restrictions and areas reduced?

A few lawsuits should slow even that down a bit.

So, yes, they threw the losers a couple of scraps that we might still be able to clean up

What a BIG BOY you are, lmao.

Invisible support?

Do you really think the elected officials are all conspiring against the wishes of the majority? Why would they do that? What incentive do they have?

Take off the tin foil hat chud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was looking at FARM rates at mcps and was shocked by how high they are across the board. Here is a snapshot from 2024: https://www.creativemoco.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2022-2023-MCPS-Schools-at-a-Glance.pdf

So I was curious and looked up fcps rates. There is no good summary sheet for FCPS but when I look at individual schools, they seem magnitudes lower than MCPS: https://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108%3A8

Am I looking at this right? Comparing apples to apples? I am a long time Moco resident and this data really makes me want to flee.

Arlington is really high also:
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/03/FreeReduced-20242025.pdf

Note that anything on the chart that is CEP (Community Eligibility Provision) means that the school is so close to 100% that they just give free meals to everyone. It's kind of interesting that they're too scared to indicate what the actual % is. If you go back a few years, they didn't hide the percentages:

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2023/05/FREE-REDUCED-OCTOBER-31-2022-V3.pdf

So as you can see, at least 30% of Arlington is poor people.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in MoCo and most of my friends who graduated from UMD computer science did too, now we all live in NoVa working at tech companies. Obviously a bunch left the area for West coast employers as well. Just a data point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in MoCo and most of my friends who graduated from UMD computer science did too, now we all live in NoVa working at tech companies. Obviously a bunch left the area for West coast employers as well. Just a data point.

Thanks for this earth-shattering observation. I really couldn't have guessed that NoVa would be better for people in tech. Really astonishing stuff.

I'll make another earth-shattering observation: I've noticed that people who are in biotech and life sciences are more likely to live in MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MoCo have data centers like NoVa? If not, did we miss out?

Sure if you want Cancer, major environmental problems and even larger electric costs.

This!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do MoCo residents even create threads like this about Nova? I think that speaks volumes.

Right, NoVa people are massively insecure, which is why they create these threads about MoCo.

You guys are both insecure, uncultured suburbanites. MoCo is an increasingly poor dump, and NoVa is heinous suburban sprawl. You guys both suck lol

I posted above. I’m in MoCo (Silver Spring). Spent a fair bit of the last two weeks in NoVa visiting with friends and family for holiday gatherings. If I could do it all again in terms of buying a home, schools, etc, I’d go with NoVa or Howard County. MoCo has gone downhill and the council seems committed to undermining the quality of life for middle class residents.

Bigger picture I like that MD and MoCo are largely blue but there’s a tipping point at which “progressive” policies just mean more crime, more trash all over, crumbling infrastructure, schools falling apart under the weight of the result of less tax income, massive tax breaks to developers just to build in the county, no job market, and an influx of kids in public schools over the last 20 years who need more support than the county can truly afford to provide. “Progressive” has meant an erosion of the quality of life and it hits middle and working class people the hardest.

Gives me no joy to say I made the wrong move when I settled in MoCo. And maybe I’d feel differently if I was wealthy, living in Chevy Chase or Bethesda or Potomac and my kids were in private. Those people seem really happy.

This x 1,000. MoCo boosters are mostly blue bloods who send their kids to private schools, go to country clubs, and can isolate themselves from all the county’s problems. For actual people who work for a living and don’t have inherited wealth and who have to go grocery shopping, go to a gym, go shopping and not have an assistant shop for us, etc., the quality of life has gotten noticeably worse over the past 10 years.

Ask yourself this. Are Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, or McLean nicer, have less crime, better schools, and have more amenities than they did in the 1990s? Can you say the same thing about Silver Spring, Wheaton, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, etc.?

The answers to all the VA burbs is a resounding yes.

You guys nailed it. For wealthy people who stick to Bethesda / Potomac / Chevy Chase, all is gravy. The W schools are elite, downtown Bethesda has gotten nicer, Chevy Chase is crystallized in time with its beautiful historic character, and the country clubs are still there humming along.

It’s the middle class that has evaporated in MoCo. Those that remain are left with lesser quality schools, more crime, and higher taxes to support a growing poor population in need of heavy services.

HoCo, and to a lesser extent Frederick and AA have essentially taken over as the go to middle class areas of Maryland post MoCo’s decline.

Hopefully it will be slow going in MoCo…maybe a lawsuit will get filed to gum up the works for a few years. We liked underbuying as far as housing because it allowed us financial freedom to do other things, but I think that we will move to a better part of the county sooner than we had planned.

lol. This is how MoCo ended up stagnating.

No, MoCo stagnated when economic policy became fixated on bailing out land speculators who overpaid for land. The council has spent far more effort and money on bailouts for real estate companies who paid too much for land than it has on attracting businesses and jobs. If the heart of your economic policy is bailouts you’re going to stagnate and nothing will be affordable. Sidney Katz, Will Jawando, and Kristen Mink get this. The rest of them don’t.

Yup to all of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in MoCo and most of my friends who graduated from UMD computer science did too, now we all live in NoVa working at tech companies. Obviously a bunch left the area for West coast employers as well. Just a data point.

Thanks for this earth-shattering observation. I really couldn't have guessed that NoVa would be better for people in tech. Really astonishing stuff.

I'll make another earth-shattering observation: I've noticed that people who are in biotech and life sciences are more likely to live in MoCo.

There are a fraction of these jobs in MoCo as compared to NoVa tech jobs. And NoVa has its own biotech companies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington County - What Happened?

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/12/27/developing-police-investigating-shots-fired-near-courthouse/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/11/10/acpd-investigating-shots-fired-in-halls-hill-neighborhood/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/10/15/police-investigating-gunfire-that-damaged-window-in-green-valley/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/04/30/just-in-schools-secured-as-acpd-investigates-shots-fired-call-near-ballston/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/04/28/one-arrested-after-report-of-shot-fired-outside-of-wakefield-hs-on-saturday/

+1. I live in Arlington and crime is a real problem here. The criminals know that our leadership is soft on crime and that there is no real punishment for what they do. We have tons of stolen packages and cars broken into into my neighborhood. And we're not immune from gun violence, as the links above show. We even have a well-known gun store right in the heart of Clarendon.

The crime is from all the low income housing and apartments that Arlington is approving for development/subsidizing. The bottom 40% of the income distribution commits more than 2/3rds of the violent crime. The top 40% of the income distribution only commits 18% of the violent crime. If the income composition of the county changes, the crime rate changes with it. Combining this with criminal justice reforms that remove three strike laws for felonies and expunging Minors criminal records is a recipe for disaster. The reality of it is that most of the crime is committed by an especially violent 1% of the population. Mandatory life sentences for violent criminals with prior felonies would reduce the crime rates by more than half.

Unfortunately, Arlington keeps wanting to build more of that housing, including in North Arlington. Check out Plan Langston Boulevard. Arlington had a good run, but unfortunately it will continue to change for the worse as there's a push for more density everywhere and fewer SFHs.

This is happening in MoCo too. The Council just passed the University Boulevard Plan despite overwhelming opposition from the community (because who cares about voters and residents, right Natali Fani Gonzalez, Evan Glass, and Andrew Friedson?) and basically spelled the end for SFH zoning in that area, though consider it a model for the rest of the county.

Meanwhile, the council has also passed 20 year tax abatements for developers. So infrastructure and schools will suffer, property taxes go up, and more of the same decline for MoCo.

10 angry old people yelling at a community meeting is not "overwhelming opposition".

Get a clue, dud. 99% of people have something called a "life" and don't attend those silly meetings.

And those people want more housing.

You lost. Get over it.

Wow more invisible support that the YIMBY kiddies cant show.

Here is the thing, though, the affordable housing plan was what we tried to avoid. Remember that, and all of your big boy tears that they couldn’t upzone the entire county? And now it’s in a small corridor that’s getting smaller all of the time? Height restrictions and areas reduced?

A few lawsuits should slow even that down a bit.

So, yes, they threw the losers a couple of scraps that we might still be able to clean up

What a BIG BOY you are, lmao.

Invisible support?

Do you really think the elected officials are all conspiring against the wishes of the majority? Why would they do that? What incentive do they have?

Take off the tin foil hat chud.

DP here. Yes, in the case of the UBC, there was overwhelming opposition to thr plan. The council voted against their constituents with the notable exceptions of Mink, Katz, and Jawando. They saw the UBC for what it is: a handout to developers.

Friedson and Fani Gonzalez are in the pockets of developers and did not give AF that neighborhoods affected were vastly opposed. Hope both of them are voted out in the next election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in MoCo and most of my friends who graduated from UMD computer science did too, now we all live in NoVa working at tech companies. Obviously a bunch left the area for West coast employers as well. Just a data point.

Thanks for this earth-shattering observation. I really couldn't have guessed that NoVa would be better for people in tech. Really astonishing stuff.

I'll make another earth-shattering observation: I've noticed that people who are in biotech and life sciences are more likely to live in MoCo.

There are a fraction of these jobs in MoCo as compared to NoVa tech jobs. And NoVa has its own biotech companies.

Why don't you give us some citations as opposed to your baseless statements? Here, I'll help you get started:

https://cardinalnews.org/2025/08/20/economic-forecast-says-virginia-will-lose-jobs-this-year-have-virtually-no-job-growth-in-2026/