Will Montgomery County ever elect a Republican?

[Anonymous]

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On one hand, I am curious about the decision to use one mile, because except in areas with good bus connections, one mile from the metro is still pretty car dependent. However, that stretch of Georgia Avenue between the Wheaton and Forest Glen stations is so fugly- I can only imagine that most of those homes are rentals to begin with, they just look so worn down. Why not buy out the owners, raze them and put in attached housing along that ~mile stretch?

Whom do you have in mind for doing this?

What mostly makes the stretch of Georgia Ave between Wheaton Metro and Forest Glen Metro ugly is Georgia Ave. If the state would agree to transform it from Polluting Killer Speedway to something people would choose to live along and use, things would be different, but the state shows no sign of agreeing to do that.

Well wouldn't attached housing be allowed along there now? Or does it not apply to state roads? Like I said, may as well raze the whole thing than piecemeal, just give some developers and homeowners some incentives. If an ugly area like this isn't what the council has in mind for transforming, I don't know what is!

I looked it up. Those houses you find ugly, are on properties zoned R-60. Detached only.

http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/development/zoning/documents/R-60ZoningFactSheet5.2.13.pdf

Ok, so clearly I’m not understanding where exactly this new zoning applies, because that stretch is clearly within 1 mile of the metro stations.

Is there something in the bill to ensure the new structures are priced to the “missing middle” demographic? Because most of the new townhomes in the county in recent years are pretty high end. A far cry from the townhouses/duplexes of our childhood. Everyone we know that lives in one bought one because they did not want to deal with upgrades to an older home and/or deal with yard upkeep. Who’s to say that’s not what would continue? How are they proposing to ensure the new structures are affordable?

That's just factually incorrect. All things being equal, an attached house has a lower price than a detached house.

Under the Zoning Text Amendment proposed by Will Jawando, yes, property owners would be allowed to build multi-family (e.g., duplex, triplex, etc) housing in those R-60 zones along Georgia Ave within 1 mile of Forest Glen and 1 mile of Wheaton Metro. Current R-60 zoning does not allow that.

And again, the intent is not directly to create more affordable housing near transit. The intent is to allow the creation of more housing near transit, period.

[Anonymous]

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There are two types of politicians in the county right now. Those who came before term limits and those who came after. Those who came before were more likely to truly have public service at heart (whether we agree on their approaches or not). Those who have come after often care much more about developing name recognition so they can move on to another office. So Rice is one of the old school folks who don't feel a need to put out massive numbers of bills and resolutions and hold tons of media availability events like the newbies do. Rice is one of the last ones around who wasn't being proactive unless there was an identified need. He wasn't introducing bills for no reason other than getting his name out there.

But he's been a huge advocate of education in the county, and while the council can't do much in terms of MCPS due to state law, Rice has significantly aided Montgomery College in its growth and ability to stay well-resourced. Both in terms of operating budget and capital projects.

He's acted in other areas, too, taking the lead on things like property tax credits for surviving military spouses, tax exemptions for enterprise zones, public campaign financing, tax credits for historic preservation areas, storm water management, regulating e cigarettes. He was a lead sponsor on several other tax credit or tax exemption bills, with Floreen mostly, but those bills didn't get enough Council support and never went anywhere.

He's definitely a liberal, but he's more moderate in that he understands businesses are getting suffocated. He is able to see the nuances of proposed policy changes, and he's able to build consensus among other decision makers. He's not a bull in a china shop kind of leader -- like Elrich or Jawando. For them it's my way or the highway.

He's not perfect, and he's likely too moderate for the Silver Spring/Takoma Park crowd. But he is much more of a leader (and effective one at that) than anyone else in local politics right now. Albornoz and Friedson are good too, but they are new and need more experience for any higher office like CE. Give them some time.

If you say so. Every time I have asked Councilmember Rice to do something, and he's said he'll do it, he hasn't done it.

What did you ask him to do?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

If you say so. Every time I have asked Councilmember Rice to do something, and he's said he'll do it, he hasn't done it.

What did you ask him to do?

Things he said he'd do, which were 100% within his power of doing (e.g., sending an e-mail), and then he didn't do them.

[Anonymous]

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If you say so. Every time I have asked Councilmember Rice to do something, and he's said he'll do it, he hasn't done it.

What did you ask him to do?

Things he said he'd do, which were 100% within his power of doing (e.g., sending an e-mail), and then he didn't do them.

OK, well, I can't speak to constituent services. Some politicians are good at this, some aren't. I'm talking about broader budgetary and policy impacts on the entire county.

[Anonymous]

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If you say so. Every time I have asked Councilmember Rice to do something, and he's said he'll do it, he hasn't done it.

What did you ask him to do?

Things he said he'd do, which were 100% within his power of doing (e.g., sending an e-mail), and then he didn't do them.

OK, well, I can't speak to constituent services. Some politicians are good at this, some aren't. I'm talking about broader budgetary and policy impacts on the entire county.

If you don't follow through on very simple actions, it seems unlikely that you'll follow through on the more complicated ones.

[Anonymous]

I’m only voting for republicans going forward after only voting for democrats in the past. But we’ll eventually just move out of the area taking our money with us. Only staying for jobs for now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m only voting for republicans going forward after only voting for democrats in the past. But we’ll eventually just move out of the area taking our money with us. Only staying for jobs for now.

Montgomery County is not an airport, you don't have to announce your departure.

[Anonymous]

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When does the council vote on that bill? I think it is a poor one-size-fits-all proposal that will not really accomplish what they are going for, and in the process destroy actual relatively affordable SFH neighborhoods around forest glen, Wheaton, and glenmont. And nice (but more expensive) neighborhoods in silver spring and takoma park.

When you say that it will destroy the neighborhood, are you referring to the possibility of property owners building duplexes and other attached houses in those neighborhoods? Is that what you think will destroy the neighborhoods?

I have no problem with attached housing, I just think this blanket approach to refining is lazy and inappropriate. What works for one metro station may not be the best for another. At many of these stations there is underutilized land very close to the metro, why not work on those areas first before moving into existing residential neighborhoods? For instance, there is a redevelopment plan for the GA ave corridor by forest glen that includes rezoning some areas and building more housing- tons of opportunities there to make sure affordable housing is included. Of course, that sort of thing takes time. I think Jawando’s intentions are good but this is a lazy approach.

Have you ever lived in a tear down neighborhood? I guess in this case everyone thinks it’s ok because it will be duplexes/quadplexes interdispersed among existing homes rather than SFH mansions? I agree destroy was probably not the right word, some people like these sort of changes. But considering that the townhomes built by the metro stations are often more expensive than the nearby older SFH, I’m not sure this really addresses this middle housing gap. But I’m sure Jawando will find support from his pro development colleagues on the council.

Why not both? Owning property in your neighborhood should not come with the expectation that your neighborhood won't change.

Prices of new attached houses next to Metro stations, vs old detached houses in nearby neighborhoods, is apples vs oranges. Which do you think would cost less per unit, a new detached house replacing an old detached house, or a new duplex replacing an old detached house?

I’d rather zoning changes go through the existing process, rather than changing everything within an arbitrary distance in one full sweep. But if this is the route they want to take, they should consider doing the same for a radius around the future purple line stations too. I’d imagine a new duplex in the Ling Branch neighborhood would be cheaper than a new duplex right by the Takoma or Bethesda metro stations.

This is the existing process. I agree that Purple Line stations should be included.

DP. Can you elaborate? I probably haven’t been here long enough but the zoning changes I know of were much more limited in scope and took into consideration changes in traffic, parking, and school capacity. Has this thoroughly been done for this proposed change, given how many metro stations are in play? I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the potential timeline and how soon we’d see big changes. The redevelopment at white flint, twinbrook seems to be moving at a snails pace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the county level, would MoCo ever seriously consider electing a Republican?

It just seems that everybody hates the council & executive. Complaints about every policy of theirs every which-way.... they are either too NIMBY or too beholden to developers (pick one), too anti-business, too pro-union, or not enough, they are opening up too quickly or not quickly enough, they go against LArry Hogan too much or they aren't standing up to him enough, blah blah blah. People on DCUM especially love to hate Marc Elrich, who won every race for council at large and then won handily over Floreen AND Ficker, combined.

So if the council and executive are so universally despised.... why do you keep re-electing them?

Contrary to popular belief, there is more than one political party. As Hogan (at least before the covid vaccine debacle) is relatively popular and moderate, why can't a Republican of the Hogan model run and compete in Montgomery County? Not a nutter like Ficker. Is there any chance that a non-corrupt, never-Trumper, sane, moderate Republican could win a GOP primary and win a general election for Council or Executive? Or is the R label too toxic here?

Like the ones who voted to acquit Donald Trump? Hope not!