Montgomery County - What Happened?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

Spot on.

Empty bike lanes, anyone?

[Anonymous]

MoCo does a remarkable job combining all the negatives of the city and the suburbs in one jurisdiction. They should be proud of themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ronald Reagan campaigned as a fiscal conservative, but once in office, he funneled a lot of money into defense contracts, some of them worthwhile, but many less so ("Star Wars") that were conducted by contractors in Va. We called them "Beltway Bandits" but they were almost all on the VA side. See the DCUM thread on "FFRDCs." Bush the younger doubled down with more money, and huge deficits, to contractors like Booz-Allen and CACI (waterboarding anyone?). The DoD financed a networking scheme that led to the Internet --- designed at a building on Wilson Blvd. in Rosslyn, where there is a plaque. SAIC bought the rights from Network Solutions in what may have been a very shady deal to allow them to charge a fee for registering a dot.com address. A license to print money. Bottom line: Defense money, paid for by taxpayers, made NOVA.

Maryland is no different but it’s government health money instead of defense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

I really have no clue what this means (and I'm a MoCo resident), but I think you might be reading and watching too much right-wing media. MoCo is actually a leader in health sciences, pharma, and biomedical research, and there is tons of business formation around those industries. That might not be as splashy as Amazon, but Amazon wants to eliminate basically all jobs in favor of AI, so I'm fine with MoCo not catering to different industries besides tech and data centers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

I really have no clue what this means (and I'm a MoCo resident), but I think you might be reading and watching too much right-wing media. MoCo is actually a leader in health sciences, pharma, and biomedical research, and there is tons of business formation around those industries. That might not be as splashy as Amazon, but Amazon wants to eliminate basically all jobs in favor of AI, so I'm fine with MoCo not catering to different industries besides tech and data centers.

DP. There is almost no net business formation in Montgomery County. The employment metrics are all terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

I really have no clue what this means (and I'm a MoCo resident), but I think you might be reading and watching too much right-wing media. MoCo is actually a leader in health sciences, pharma, and biomedical research, and there is tons of business formation around those industries. That might not be as splashy as Amazon, but Amazon wants to eliminate basically all jobs in favor of AI, so I'm fine with MoCo not catering to different industries besides tech and data centers.

DP. There is almost no net business formation in Montgomery County. The employment metrics are all terrible.

Can you please post whatever metrics you're talking about as compared with whatever jurisdiction you idolize?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

I really have no clue what this means (and I'm a MoCo resident), but I think you might be reading and watching too much right-wing media. MoCo is actually a leader in health sciences, pharma, and biomedical research, and there is tons of business formation around those industries. That might not be as splashy as Amazon, but Amazon wants to eliminate basically all jobs in favor of AI, so I'm fine with MoCo not catering to different industries besides tech and data centers.

There is more in Virginia than Amazon. Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Falls Church City were ranked higher in per capita income way before data centers and Amazon. Montgomery County started going down the tubes 10-15 years ago.

And this has nothing to do with “right wing media.” Angela Alsobrooks is 1,000x the leader that that bozo Elrich is. She and her predecessors have made PG County much nicer and more prosperous than it was in the 90s and the early 2000s. Ehrlich has done the opposite. Same thing with Arlington’s leadership and Arlington votes at least 80/20 Dem. It’s about competency and vision, not politics. Stop spinning your County lagging behind literally every other jurisdiction in the DMV, including PG County, in becoming nicer and welcoming more investment since the 80s and 90s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

I really have no clue what this means (and I'm a MoCo resident), but I think you might be reading and watching too much right-wing media. MoCo is actually a leader in health sciences, pharma, and biomedical research, and there is tons of business formation around those industries. That might not be as splashy as Amazon, but Amazon wants to eliminate basically all jobs in favor of AI, so I'm fine with MoCo not catering to different industries besides tech and data centers.

There is more in Virginia than Amazon. Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Falls Church City were ranked higher in per capita income way before data centers and Amazon. Montgomery County started going down the tubes 10-15 years ago.

And this has nothing to do with “right wing media.” Angela Alsobrooks is 1,000x the leader that that bozo Elrich is. She and her predecessors have made PG County much nicer and more prosperous than it was in the 90s and the early 2000s. Ehrlich has done the opposite. Same thing with Arlington’s leadership and Arlington votes at least 80/20 Dem. It’s about competency and vision, not politics. Stop spinning your County lagging behind literally every other jurisdiction in the DMV, including PG County, in becoming nicer and welcoming more investment since the 80s and 90s.

This isn’t on Elrich. Ironically, it’s the fault of the people who have been the loudest about promoting growth. Those are the people who have actually set growth policy for 20 years and counting. Elrich has always been on the losing side.

The problem is the smart growth crowd focused on the wrong things and none of the things they did focus on actually worked the way they said they would.

[Anonymous]

I am always surprised when these posts come up how many people praise nova. I get that it is developing fast and home prices are rising maybe faster than MD but does anyone actually enjoy living in nova? I have lived in both places (though much longer in MoCo to be fair), and I find Nova to be unbearable. Everything is so far away. Traffic is awful. Concrete jungle everywhere. Non stop construction and road chances. And freaking toll roads everywhere. How do people in nova actually get into DC (outside of McLean, Arlington, and alexandria)? Metro takes forever since you have 3 lines sharing one track. 66 is horrendous and now cost a fortune. And now with 495 and GW parkway construction, is there any normal road in nova? I truly don't get the hype.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

I really have no clue what this means (and I'm a MoCo resident), but I think you might be reading and watching too much right-wing media. MoCo is actually a leader in health sciences, pharma, and biomedical research, and there is tons of business formation around those industries. That might not be as splashy as Amazon, but Amazon wants to eliminate basically all jobs in favor of AI, so I'm fine with MoCo not catering to different industries besides tech and data centers.

There is more in Virginia than Amazon. Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Falls Church City were ranked higher in per capita income way before data centers and Amazon. Montgomery County started going down the tubes 10-15 years ago.

And this has nothing to do with “right wing media.” Angela Alsobrooks is 1,000x the leader that that bozo Elrich is. She and her predecessors have made PG County much nicer and more prosperous than it was in the 90s and the early 2000s. Ehrlich has done the opposite. Same thing with Arlington’s leadership and Arlington votes at least 80/20 Dem. It’s about competency and vision, not politics. Stop spinning your County lagging behind literally every other jurisdiction in the DMV, including PG County, in becoming nicer and welcoming more investment since the 80s and 90s.

Show us one Republican that has run for office in any race in MOCO that has a brain. The BOE elections showed us Republicans are liars and yes I know that is supposed to be bipartisan Diaz and Mandel & Mui were not. There isn't one republican that ever ran for one office in MOCO that had a brain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

I really have no clue what this means (and I'm a MoCo resident), but I think you might be reading and watching too much right-wing media. MoCo is actually a leader in health sciences, pharma, and biomedical research, and there is tons of business formation around those industries. That might not be as splashy as Amazon, but Amazon wants to eliminate basically all jobs in favor of AI, so I'm fine with MoCo not catering to different industries besides tech and data centers.

There is more in Virginia than Amazon. Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Falls Church City were ranked higher in per capita income way before data centers and Amazon. Montgomery County started going down the tubes 10-15 years ago.

And this has nothing to do with “right wing media.” Angela Alsobrooks is 1,000x the leader that that bozo Elrich is. She and her predecessors have made PG County much nicer and more prosperous than it was in the 90s and the early 2000s. Ehrlich has done the opposite. Same thing with Arlington’s leadership and Arlington votes at least 80/20 Dem. It’s about competency and vision, not politics. Stop spinning your County lagging behind literally every other jurisdiction in the DMV, including PG County, in becoming nicer and welcoming more investment since the 80s and 90s.

Show us one Republican that has run for office in any race in MOCO that has a brain. The BOE elections showed us Republicans are liars and yes I know that is supposed to be bipartisan Diaz and Mandel & Mui were not. There isn't one republican that ever ran for one office in MOCO that had a brain.

This has nothing to do with Republicans. Every jurisdiction in the DMV is run by Dems and literally every other county has done a better job at attracting new businesses and making their jurisdictions more economically vibrant and dynamic in the past 20-30 years except MoCo. PG County and DC are far nicer than they were 20-30 years ago and have nicer public amenities that are paid for in part by all the new business and residential development they’ve welcomed. MoCo hasn’t kept pace with anyone in the region over the past 20-30 years, not just NoVa. And again, these places are all
run by competent Dems who don’t do whatever they can to stymie or mismanage economic development.

And I have never seen public infrastructure oversight and planning that was so incompetent as what had happened in MoCo with the Silver Spring transit center and then the Purple Line fiasco. It is astounding.

[Anonymous]

My perspective is that there MoCo has a huge, and ever growing, population of low-income illegal immigrants.

Also, Maryland and MoCo are anti-business, pro-tax jurisdictions. It would defy logic for any major business operation to stand up operations in MoCo.

[Anonymous]

What happened?

1) We mostly left - to NOVA or NC

2) All the "luxury apartments" or luxury condos are no longer luxurious.

Both will happen to NOVA as well. Just imagine all the strip centers gone, replaced with 40 year old dumpy apartment/condo/townhome complexes, retail deserts. . except the old malls, with a dollar store or target as anchor stores rather than Macys. You'll see. The transition is underway. Retail centers are being plucked off all over. And the county keeps approving. Yes, yes, tear it all down.

[Anonymous]

oh, and add a casino on top next to public transit. enjoy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is missing the point comparing moco to nova and talking about the county becoming “poor”. The issue is the local government is obsessed with spending large amounts of tax money on performative virtue signaling catered parties than figuring out a strategy to lower taxes and increase business formation in the county. This will lead to lower growth, higher and higher property tax increases, a decline or stagnation in overall population, and a decline in high net worth families remaining in the county due to burdensome tax obligations. I.e basically exactly what has happened to Baltimore city. This has nothing to do with race or whatever other partisan crap people want to throw around - it’s about inept leadership. If my neighbors in moco are fine with that - great - but the area will suffer and decline over time unless changes are made

I really have no clue what this means (and I'm a MoCo resident), but I think you might be reading and watching too much right-wing media. MoCo is actually a leader in health sciences, pharma, and biomedical research, and there is tons of business formation around those industries. That might not be as splashy as Amazon, but Amazon wants to eliminate basically all jobs in favor of AI, so I'm fine with MoCo not catering to different industries besides tech and data centers.

There is more in Virginia than Amazon. Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Falls Church City were ranked higher in per capita income way before data centers and Amazon. Montgomery County started going down the tubes 10-15 years ago.

And this has nothing to do with “right wing media.” Angela Alsobrooks is 1,000x the leader that that bozo Elrich is. She and her predecessors have made PG County much nicer and more prosperous than it was in the 90s and the early 2000s. Ehrlich has done the opposite. Same thing with Arlington’s leadership and Arlington votes at least 80/20 Dem. It’s about competency and vision, not politics. Stop spinning your County lagging behind literally every other jurisdiction in the DMV, including PG County, in becoming nicer and welcoming more investment since the 80s and 90s.

Show us one Republican that has run for office in any race in MOCO that has a brain. The BOE elections showed us Republicans are liars and yes I know that is supposed to be bipartisan Diaz and Mandel & Mui were not. There isn't one republican that ever ran for one office in MOCO that had a brain.

This has nothing to do with Republicans. Every jurisdiction in the DMV is run by Dems and literally every other county has done a better job at attracting new businesses and making their jurisdictions more economically vibrant and dynamic in the past 20-30 years except MoCo. PG County and DC are far nicer than they were 20-30 years ago and have nicer public amenities that are paid for in part by all the new business and residential development they’ve welcomed. MoCo hasn’t kept pace with anyone in the region over the past 20-30 years, not just NoVa. And again, these places are all
run by competent Dems who don’t do whatever they can to stymie or mismanage economic development.

And I have never seen public infrastructure oversight and planning that was so incompetent as what had happened in MoCo with the Silver Spring transit center and then the Purple Line fiasco. It is astounding.

NP.

Agree 100% ! This has absolutely NOTHING to do with republicans because MoCo has been in D hands for over a decade.

The PP bringing up republicans is just trying to deflect deflect deflect to cover up for bad management by the people actually elected to lead (or mislead) MoCo.