How do we end Montgomery County socialism?

[Anonymous]

Here's a great example. MoCo had to cancel all county-run July 4th fireworks displays, because they couldn't plan in time:

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/entertainment-events/no-fireworks-for-montgomery-county-some-municipalities-this-year/

Meanwhile, in Frederick they will have an event -- modified so you view from your car -- but they are still having one:
https://www.celebratefrederick.com/events/july-4th-parking-lot-party-and-free-fireworks-display/

Over in NoVa, they have plenty of such events -- in Great Falls, Herndon, Fairfax, and more:
https://www.funinfairfaxva.com/july-4th-fireworks-northern-virginia/

Same with libraries. MoCo reopened the first libraries on 6/1. Fairfax had theirs open for months before.

Same with schools -- MCPS only reopened based on a governor's order, and refused to allow any adjustments to allow more kids back in, unlike Fairfax that readjusted schedules once they realized they had more capacity. MCPS Superintendent Smith claimed in a BOE meeting it would be too "disruptive" to children if they were able to attend school more days per week than their current 2 days/week.

It's just utter failure by the MoCo government. Counties around us are able to pull things off, and provide services for their citizens, but MoCo isn't. It's like there's a culture of finding reasons to say "No" instead of "Yes".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a great example. MoCo had to cancel all county-run July 4th fireworks displays, because they couldn't plan in time:

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/entertainment-events/no-fireworks-for-montgomery-county-some-municipalities-this-year/

Meanwhile, in Frederick they will have an event -- modified so you view from your car -- but they are still having one:
https://www.celebratefrederick.com/events/july-4th-parking-lot-party-and-free-fireworks-display/

Over in NoVa, they have plenty of such events -- in Great Falls, Herndon, Fairfax, and more:
https://www.funinfairfaxva.com/july-4th-fireworks-northern-virginia/

Same with libraries. MoCo reopened the first libraries on 6/1. Fairfax had theirs open for months before.

Same with schools -- MCPS only reopened based on a governor's order, and refused to allow any adjustments to allow more kids back in, unlike Fairfax that readjusted schedules once they realized they had more capacity. MCPS Superintendent Smith claimed in a BOE meeting it would be too "disruptive" to children if they were able to attend school more days per week than their current 2 days/week.

It's just utter failure by the MoCo government. Counties around us are able to pull things off, and provide services for their citizens, but MoCo isn't. It's like there's a culture of finding reasons to say "No" instead of "Yes".

While I don't disagree with PP, this is not a display of socialism, but rather how MoCo leaders are uber careful about covid. Their fear level is unreasonable, almost to the point of fear paralysis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we end NIMBYism first? thx

Anybody who owns a home in this area is automatically considered a NIMBY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's not socialism, but the whatever you call it, the county is being run into the ground and as a life-long resident, it's sad. The county is so anti-business that they can't even fill existing office parks -- look at Rock Spring over by Montgomery Mall and how that's all being converted to housing or nursing homes (I'm not making this up -- the Marriott headquarters will be torn down in favor of an old folks home!).

The problem is most of the county is run by people from Takoma Park/Silver Spring, and they don't represent the views of the county overall. Even the at-large council members are from that area. There was an effort on the last ballot to change it so the 9 council members each represent a specific district. That was the result of people gathering tens of thousands of signatures to put it on the ballot. What happened? The Council got scared, and added _their own_ question to the ballot and placed it before this one, and the Council's version would just add more district-specific seats, thus enlarging the council, and keeping all at-large seats in place. That won -- first on the ballot and it probably confused voters. If the Council really cared about that, why did they wait only until _the people_ added a ballot question to react?

Anyway, I think a realistic solution is open primaries. Right now, whoever wins the D primary wins the general. Most voters don't vote in the primaries, so a candidate just needs to cater to one fringe group that votes heavily, to win in the primary. That's how Elrich did it -- he beat Blair by less than 100 votes, among a sea of moderates. The moderate vote was spread across a few candidates, so Elrich just courted 1-2 ultra-progressive votes and swept up all those votes.

If we had an open primary, then you'd end up with 2 (D) candidates on the general ballot and at least one is likely to be moderate.

It's justifiable because 1/3 of registered voters in MoCo are indepdendents, and all candidates can join in taxpayer-funded campaign financing. That means you could have R and D candidates both receiving your money, but no way to vote for/against them because primaries are closed.

Next time you're in Bethesda, drive by the Bethesda (Morella) library. It's named after Connie Morella, a moderate _Republican_ congressional representative. Imagine that -- we used to elect Republicans to office in this area!

Office parks are dead. Marriott is building a new HQ in Bethesda to give up it's office park.

Office parks are only dead in Montgomery County because we are losing jobs. I seriously recommend that you get off your bike, rent a car and go drive out along 66 out to Leesburg. You have no idea what’s going on outside of your own little world.

66 is a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we end NIMBYism first? thx

Anybody who owns a home in this area is automatically considered a NIMBY.

These folks here represent another cog of the toxic stew that is Montgomery County politics. Serious thinking of moving to VA just to get away from it all. There’s no “team normal” here, just different versions of annoying crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a great example. MoCo had to cancel all county-run July 4th fireworks displays, because they couldn't plan in time:

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/entertainment-events/no-fireworks-for-montgomery-county-some-municipalities-this-year/

Meanwhile, in Frederick they will have an event -- modified so you view from your car -- but they are still having one:
https://www.celebratefrederick.com/events/july-4th-parking-lot-party-and-free-fireworks-display/

Over in NoVa, they have plenty of such events -- in Great Falls, Herndon, Fairfax, and more:
https://www.funinfairfaxva.com/july-4th-fireworks-northern-virginia/

Same with libraries. MoCo reopened the first libraries on 6/1. Fairfax had theirs open for months before.

Same with schools -- MCPS only reopened based on a governor's order, and refused to allow any adjustments to allow more kids back in, unlike Fairfax that readjusted schedules once they realized they had more capacity. MCPS Superintendent Smith claimed in a BOE meeting it would be too "disruptive" to children if they were able to attend school more days per week than their current 2 days/week.

It's just utter failure by the MoCo government. Counties around us are able to pull things off, and provide services for their citizens, but MoCo isn't. It's like there's a culture of finding reasons to say "No" instead of "Yes".

While I don't disagree with PP, this is not a display of socialism, but rather how MoCo leaders are uber careful about covid. Their fear level is unreasonable, almost to the point of fear paralysis.

It's really a bad situation. MoCo and MCPS are run by low-IQ bureaucrats. They LOVE rules. And the dumber the rule, the better.

I'm actually quite worried about what things will be like after MD loses Hogan.

[Anonymous]

Ending "socialism" in Montgomery County is super easy. All you have to do is go learn the actual definition of Socialism then you'll realize that Fox News and the GOP outrage machine lied to you and you have literally no idea what socialism actually means, because MoCo sure as hell isn't socialist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ending "socialism" in Montgomery County is super easy. All you have to do is go learn the actual definition of Socialism then you'll realize that Fox News and the GOP outrage machine lied to you and you have literally no idea what socialism actually means, because MoCo sure as hell isn't socialist.

Wait, you're trying to suggest that one of the wealthiest areas in a capitalist country is *not* socialist??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we end NIMBYism first? thx

Anybody who owns a home in this area is automatically considered a NIMBY.

These folks here represent another cog of the toxic stew that is Montgomery County politics. Serious thinking of moving to VA just to get away from it all. There’s no “team normal” here, just different versions of annoying crap.

Who are “these folks here”?

[Anonymous]

OP - I am amazed at your stupidity.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery County's problem is not "socialism" It's socialism for real estate developers.

I would instead love to see MoCo lead the way with a high tax/high reward system like Northern Europe has.
You can lure big companies here with good infrastructure and things to make it a thriving place for high skilled employees. Virginia is beating us because they actually have this infrastructure. They've got the Silver Line, they have two airports, they have a feeder system of IT professionals and lots of amenities. Unfortunately, they have a lot of highways and traffic and soulless planned office park-type communities, which - if that's your thing, then whatever.

Montgomery County has more character, but it can't get its ish together. We can't even build the Purple Line because every real estate developer wants to see how much they can profit off of it and that causes pushback from residents. Rather than letting the rail be integrated into the communities. We could have a high speed monorail down 270 but instead Larry Hogan and his asphalt company buddies want to expand highways. We don't have enough good infrastructure to lure in companies and their employees, so the only bait we can come up with is tax breaks and corporate welfare - not good.

At the root of this problem is our socialism for developers, rugged F-You capitalism for everyone else including small businesses. We roll out the red carpet for developers with low taxes, breaks on impact fees, and rezoning the crap out of everywhere when we're not even building the units we zoned for. The last thing MoCo needs is another high rise development with bottom floor retail and high end single bedroom units. The housing crisis is not for single young professionals looking to rent a luxury apartment for $2K+ a month - the housing crisis is for families looking for a place to purchase and to settle down. There is a lack of affordable, multi-bedroom family style units. We can and should build more duplexes and townhouses, yes, but the type we have are prohibitively expensive and are usually from teardowns of older single family homes that were cheaper. We are zoned beyond carrying capacity for the infrastructure we have built it's not NIMBYism to want those who profit from real estate development to, god forbid, help PAY for the infrastructure and social services that attract diverse taxpaying residents here.

But instead, we keep electing the same type of councilmembers - people bought off by developers, offering them tax breaks, claiming if we just zone for X more units and offer Y tax incentives then we'll help the housing crisis, when the only type of housing that comes with it is not the type of housing there is an actual demand for. So we instead get a lot of glitzy high rise apartments that no one who actually wants to STAY in Moco can afford or wants to live in long term, with retail space that small biz can't afford to rent and then ends up being filled with more Chipotles and Starbucks. It's quite sad.

He's not perfect, but I'll be voting for Elrich again because he's the ONLY politician that has pushed back against this developer grift. He's the only thing standing between MoCo and some nondescript soulless asphalt hellscape.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's not socialism, but the whatever you call it, the county is being run into the ground and as a life-long resident, it's sad. The county is so anti-business that they can't even fill existing office parks -- look at Rock Spring over by Montgomery Mall and how that's all being converted to housing or nursing homes (I'm not making this up -- the Marriott headquarters will be torn down in favor of an old folks home!).

The problem is most of the county is run by people from Takoma Park/Silver Spring, and they don't represent the views of the county overall. Even the at-large council members are from that area. There was an effort on the last ballot to change it so the 9 council members each represent a specific district. That was the result of people gathering tens of thousands of signatures to put it on the ballot. What happened? The Council got scared, and added _their own_ question to the ballot and placed it before this one, and the Council's version would just add more district-specific seats, thus enlarging the council, and keeping all at-large seats in place. That won -- first on the ballot and it probably confused voters. If the Council really cared about that, why did they wait only until _the people_ added a ballot question to react?

Anyway, I think a realistic solution is open primaries. Right now, whoever wins the D primary wins the general. Most voters don't vote in the primaries, so a candidate just needs to cater to one fringe group that votes heavily, to win in the primary. That's how Elrich did it -- he beat Blair by less than 100 votes, among a sea of moderates. The moderate vote was spread across a few candidates, so Elrich just courted 1-2 ultra-progressive votes and swept up all those votes.

If we had an open primary, then you'd end up with 2 (D) candidates on the general ballot and at least one is likely to be moderate.

It's justifiable because 1/3 of registered voters in MoCo are indepdendents, and all candidates can join in taxpayer-funded campaign financing. That means you could have R and D candidates both receiving your money, but no way to vote for/against them because primaries are closed.

Next time you're in Bethesda, drive by the Bethesda (Morella) library. It's named after Connie Morella, a moderate _Republican_ congressional representative. Imagine that -- we used to elect Republicans to office in this area!

Office parks are dead. Marriott is building a new HQ in Bethesda to give up it's office park.

Office parks are only dead in Montgomery County because we are losing jobs. I seriously recommend that you get off your bike, rent a car and go drive out along 66 out to Leesburg. You have no idea what’s going on outside of your own little world.

66 is a disaster.

Yes. Congested with more and more people who both live and have good paying jobs in Virginia.

[Anonymous]

There’s a reason 70% of the world’s internet traffic goes through northern Virginia.

And that reason, is Montgomery County, MD.

[Anonymous]

get rid of zoning. allow for homeowners to do whatever they want with their property free from government interference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ending "socialism" in Montgomery County is super easy. All you have to do is go learn the actual definition of Socialism then you'll realize that Fox News and the GOP outrage machine lied to you and you have literally no idea what socialism actually means, because MoCo sure as hell isn't socialist.

Wait, you're trying to suggest that one of the wealthiest areas in a capitalist country is *not* socialist??

Don't let common sense win out here.

Just because we can barely afford child care, and have to make at least 80k a year to even be able to house and feed ourselves here...apparently that's what constitutes a socialist utopia for the workers. That and not having fireworks.