Unpopular Opinion: I like Marc Elrich

[Anonymous]

I am glad he is being more cautious but I don't agree with him opening up the restaurants and other places when we are spiking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am glad he is being more cautious but I don't agree with him opening up the restaurants and other places when we are spiking.

We aren’t spiking.

[Anonymous]

I wanted Floreen tbh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Elrich has done an excellent job. Better than Floreen or Ficker ever could have.

Eh, Floreen is mean, but she’s organized and gets the big picture. Elrich sits in his office all day with the union hacks. Clueless about anything else.

[Anonymous]

Can we all agree that Robin Ficker would have been a disaster

[Anonymous]

Just listened to the weekly MoCo Covid press briefing and this is why I like Marc Elrich:

He KNOWS people want an "everything back to normal, hooray!" date and he KNOWS that's not how it works. The politician-y thing to do would be to make a promise and give an arbitrary date, and then either sweep risks under the rug, or renege on the promise and push it back. So he'll take the mud people sling at him for not providing a date on certain things, deferring to the data and trends. This also provides an incentive for people to keep wearing masks, etc and following the rules so that the trends continue to go in the right direction so that we CAN open up.

Elrich, at age 70, has been there/done that when it comes to politics, he has no future aspirations so he just makes the right decisions, not the political decisions.

- OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we all agree that Robin Ficker would have been a disaster

LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just listened to the weekly MoCo Covid press briefing and this is why I like Marc Elrich:

He KNOWS people want an "everything back to normal, hooray!" date and he KNOWS that's not how it works. The politician-y thing to do would be to make a promise and give an arbitrary date, and then either sweep risks under the rug, or renege on the promise and push it back. So he'll take the mud people sling at him for not providing a date on certain things, deferring to the data and trends. This also provides an incentive for people to keep wearing masks, etc and following the rules so that the trends continue to go in the right direction so that we CAN open up.

Elrich, at age 70, has been there/done that when it comes to politics, he has no future aspirations so he just makes the right decisions, not the political decisions.

- OP.

+1 I like it when I know someone else is making the right decisions for us so we don't have to worry about it, or about their motivations. The virus is a huge inconvenience. Let those in charge decide when and how to open up based on what's best for us, not based on reelection chances (like the orange you-know-who, who clearly doesn't care about the health of others, not even his own base).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am glad he is being more cautious but I don't agree with him opening up the restaurants and other places when we are spiking.

You're delusional. We're doing the opposite of spiking.

There was no need for us to open more slowly than the rest of the state. No county in MD is experiencing a spike right now.

[Anonymous]

The County Executive's message tody provides an example of what I find frustrating with his response to the pandemic.

Elrich wrote:
I have been asked about Phase 3 of reopening. I cannot give you a date because, at this point, we are watching the data and following the science.

Look, I don't think we're ready to go to phase 3. We just moved to phase 2, and there's still a handful of things that will be reopening in the coming days, or as part of a phase 2B reopening, and we're certainly going to want to give that some time to see where the trends go.

So, I don't blame him for not setting a date. It's too early for that. But his message provides no value. It offers no view into his decision-making process. Is he just looking for time in the status quo? If so, he should say that, and set some expectations for what the time period would be. Does he want to see regional trends meeting following the same trends? National trends? Is it enough to maintain a plateau, or does he want to see further decreasing metrics (and if so, which ones)? What sort of things will remain closed until there's a vaccine? And what sorts of things might reopen until a phase 2B?

I realize that the decision is likely to be somewhat subjective based on looking at several factors. That's fine, but he should acknowledge that.

There's so many things he could say without suggesting any sort of date for Phase 3. But instead he's been quite secretative about his decision-making process.

[Anonymous]

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.

I totally agree with you. Also GGW is YIMBY to everything. That's just developer propaganda. Their view is all growth is better than the status quo and the funny part I'm for growth just not cutting corners or being wasteful.

[Anonymous]

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.

I totally agree with you. Also GGW is YIMBY to everything. That's just developer propaganda. Their view is all growth is better than the status quo and the funny part I'm for growth just not cutting corners or being wasteful.

PS I will turn on him in a heartbeat if he tries to raise property taxes.

[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.

I totally agree with you. Also GGW is YIMBY to everything. That's just developer propaganda. Their view is all growth is better than the status quo and the funny part I'm for growth just not cutting corners or being wasteful.

PS I will turn on him in a heartbeat if he tries to raise property taxes.

Well, he did! In the FY21 operating budget. But Council nixed it.

[Anonymous]

I wanted Nancy Floreen!!!