Intra-county rivalry in MoCo

[Anonymous]

Judging by some of the political posts on here about Montgomery County, is it fair to conclude that there is some kind of rivalry or animosity between upcounty vs. downcounty/Beltway, or maybe west vs. east, especially Silver Spring and Takoma Park? Does one section have more resources and services earmarked for them or disproportionate political influence? It does make sense that it somehow turns out that way since Silver Spring is more densely populated with politically involved people - are upcounty residents trying to get more involved in the political process themselves to balance things? Isn't Germantown actually the most populated area? Anyways, I tend to notice that a lot of people tend to resent the politics and/or politicians from Silver Spring and Takoma Park.

[Anonymous]

Yes, Op there is an intercountry rivalry and it tends to be along the following lines: the down-county area is densely populated with Takoma Park/Silver Spring. There are two populations in these areas: Small house, Antique houses and those in condos/apartments. The people in this section of the county are squished and packed like sardines in their need for walkability to metro access, jobs, etc. The other half have been priced out of other areas of the county.

Those of us in the up-county areas: Damascus, Olney/Brookeville, Germantown, Monacacy, Derwood, Potomac, etc. tend to pay more in taxes for those of you are squished into the DCC. We also tend to be retired and/or unable to get involved in politics. Unfortunately, those local politicians tend to shaft up-county areas unless they want to build dense houses. The divide would not be so great if up-county residents ran for office and if politicians from anywhere in the county saw the county as one unit rather than a divide....As the saying goes: United we stand, divided we fall.

[Anonymous]

You make me happy I don't now and never will live upcounty. You sound like a lovely person.

[Anonymous]

For reference:


The Takoma Park thing has nothing to do with upcounty/downcounty though. Those people are just plain wacko.

[Anonymous]

Yep, Tacky Park folks are just nuts.

[Anonymous]

Downcounty people think they’re smarter and better than the upcounty thugs and hicks. They look down their noses at us. It’s really obnoxious.

[Anonymous]

It's funny to see downcounty Bethesda and Takoma Park have so much animosity towards each other.

TP want so badly to not be Bethesda but they are just Bethesda people in thrift shop clothes and $150 Birkenstocks. Their attitude is exactly the same, just different window dressing.

Bethesda people don't even know how snobby and out of touch they are.... because they aren't they read it in a book or learned that in their top ranked college.

Downcounty people think everybody upcounty wishes they could move down country but people upcounty wish they could move further away from them without giving up amenities and jobs (which are mostly midcounty, not in DC)

[Anonymous]

MoCo is a complete mess. The past decade has been a disaster on all fronts. No new industries while VA, DC, Howard and even Frederick have been growing. Poverty is increasing in the east and up county areas. School system has dropped from being 1st in the state to being 9th in the state. Tax revenues are declining, debt service is increasing, no new funds for schools and the Kirwan commission is likely to reallocate 20-70% of state funding from MCPS to Baltimore so its all going to get worse.

The intra-county rivalry seems to be between the west which is sitting there wondering what happened and why they are still paying for all this and the east which keeps making dumb policies and thinks its deserves more and more resources from the west. The rural areas to the far west and north are basically ignored. I'd gather that no one in SS or Bethesda could find Dickerson on a map. They think Poolesville is in Potomac and no one ever traveled to Clarksburg before the outlets opened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MoCo is a complete mess. The past decade has been a disaster on all fronts. No new industries while VA, DC, Howard and even Frederick have been growing. Poverty is increasing in the east and up county areas. School system has dropped from being 1st in the state to being 9th in the state. Tax revenues are declining, debt service is increasing, no new funds for schools and the Kirwan commission is likely to reallocate 20-70% of state funding from MCPS to Baltimore so its all going to get worse.

The intra-county rivalry seems to be between the west which is sitting there wondering what happened and why they are still paying for all this and the east which keeps making dumb policies and thinks its deserves more and more resources from the west. The rural areas to the far west and north are basically ignored. I'd gather that no one in SS or Bethesda could find Dickerson on a map. They think Poolesville is in Potomac and no one ever traveled to Clarksburg before the outlets opened.

I agree with the second paragraph, not the first. The west county are the first to name call the west and the west county are the first to name call the east. Really, we all want the same things: strong economy, great schools, less traffic congestion, etc.

[Anonymous]

Whoops, typo - east and west both denigrate each other, but are probably more alike than disalike.

[Anonymous]

The school system is a big part of the problem. Some of the best schools in the DMV are on the west side of the county and some of the worst schools in the DMV are in the east. Crime is high on the east and low in the west. The needs are very different between the two areas.

Potomac really screwed itself years ago when it fought the second bridge crossing. The west didn't want VA commuters diverting through MD to get into DC. It never occurred to them that a decade later they would all be traveling to VA to work. Today a family that is looking in the 1M+ range is more likely to have at least one spouse working in VA rather than two working in DC. Now there is no money for a second crossing and the east has no interest in improving anything for the west so the west is declining.

The east has a huge problem with poverty and with DC /VA becoming more expensive the poverty is getting pushed into SS/MoCo and PG county. Despite all the investment in infrastructure on the east, building the ICC, and reallocating more and more school dollars to the east its gotten worse not better over the years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MoCo is a complete mess. The past decade has been a disaster on all fronts. No new industries while VA, DC, Howard and even Frederick have been growing. Poverty is increasing in the east and up county areas. School system has dropped from being 1st in the state to being 9th in the state. Tax revenues are declining, debt service is increasing, no new funds for schools and the Kirwan commission is likely to reallocate 20-70% of state funding from MCPS to Baltimore so its all going to get worse.

The intra-county rivalry seems to be between the west which is sitting there wondering what happened and why they are still paying for all this and the east which keeps making dumb policies and thinks its deserves more and more resources from the west. The rural areas to the far west and north are basically ignored. I'd gather that no one in SS or Bethesda could find Dickerson on a map. They think Poolesville is in Potomac and no one ever traveled to Clarksburg before the outlets opened.

This. So much this.

People don't seem to understand that to offer all the government services we MOCO liberals want, we need money for the government. That means a strong tax base. Like it or not, we need BUSINESSES and the rich property owners in Potomac, Bethesda, etc. But we've been driving all of them away. MOCO has very business-unfriendly policies and regulations. No one in their right mind would start a business in MOCO when they could go across the river and start it in VA. We might be able to get around that if we have a high enough individual tax base, but the two biggest factors for the wealthy when choosing where to buy a home are schools and commute. If they don't work here, because their business isn't here, they won't want to live here. For a long time it was the school system that saved us. MCPS was one of the best systems in the nation, so wealthy people wanted to live here anyway. That's no longer true.

MCPS is a disaster, even in Bethesda and Potomac. Central office is a mess. About 50% of the County's annual budget goes to MCPS and they're still a disaster. Schools are overcrowded and underfunded. Classes are too big. The physical buildings are crumbling. We don't pay teachers enough, and so the best ones don't want to work in MOCO. And the curriculum - I can't even. In attempting to close the achievement gap, we've dumbed down our better schools rather than lifting up those schools that struggle. We need a complete overhaul of the schools. We need to spend a few years cutting back on other programs and infusing cash into the schools (the actual schools, not central office). An "education surge" if you will. We need immediate construction/remodeling, better teacher pay, and better curriculum.

MOCO spends a TON of money on social service programs. Take a look at the Council's community grant awards. And we're the only County in MD that fully self-funds our Department of Health and Human Services. For everyone else, that department is a State office. And that's good - we are a County that wants to take care of each other, that doesn't want someone denied healthcare because they can't afford it, that doesn't want children to go hungry, and I want to live in a place like that.

But to do all those wonderful things, we need money. We get money by building a strong tax base. We build a strong tax base by: (1) being a place where successful businesses want to headquarter (and pay taxes, and employ people, who in turn pay taxes); and (2) having the best schools, which makes property values (and taxes) go up. It's really quite simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MoCo is a complete mess. The past decade has been a disaster on all fronts. No new industries while VA, DC, Howard and even Frederick have been growing. Poverty is increasing in the east and up county areas. School system has dropped from being 1st in the state to being 9th in the state. Tax revenues are declining, debt service is increasing, no new funds for schools and the Kirwan commission is likely to reallocate 20-70% of state funding from MCPS to Baltimore so its all going to get worse.

The intra-county rivalry seems to be between the west which is sitting there wondering what happened and why they are still paying for all this and the east which keeps making dumb policies and thinks its deserves more and more resources from the west. The rural areas to the far west and north are basically ignored. I'd gather that no one in SS or Bethesda could find Dickerson on a map. They think Poolesville is in Potomac and no one ever traveled to Clarksburg before the outlets opened.

Which is why it's more important than ever before to elect more of the same people to council and county executive as those who put us in this mess to begin with!!!

Because nothing is more guaranteed to get us out of this than voting the same way we have been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Downcounty people think everybody upcounty wishes they could move down country but people upcounty wish they could move further away from them without giving up amenities and jobs (which are mostly midcounty, not in DC)

^^^^ Absolutely nailed it. ^^^^

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo is a complete mess. The past decade has been a disaster on all fronts. No new industries while VA, DC, Howard and even Frederick have been growing. Poverty is increasing in the east and up county areas. School system has dropped from being 1st in the state to being 9th in the state. Tax revenues are declining, debt service is increasing, no new funds for schools and the Kirwan commission is likely to reallocate 20-70% of state funding from MCPS to Baltimore so its all going to get worse.

The intra-county rivalry seems to be between the west which is sitting there wondering what happened and why they are still paying for all this and the east which keeps making dumb policies and thinks its deserves more and more resources from the west. The rural areas to the far west and north are basically ignored. I'd gather that no one in SS or Bethesda could find Dickerson on a map. They think Poolesville is in Potomac and no one ever traveled to Clarksburg before the outlets opened.

This. So much this.

People don't seem to understand that to offer all the government services we MOCO liberals want, we need money for the government. That means a strong tax base. Like it or not, we need BUSINESSES and the rich property owners in Potomac, Bethesda, etc. But we've been driving all of them away. MOCO has very business-unfriendly policies and regulations. No one in their right mind would start a business in MOCO when they could go across the river and start it in VA. We might be able to get around that if we have a high enough individual tax base, but the two biggest factors for the wealthy when choosing where to buy a home are schools and commute. If they don't work here, because their business isn't here, they won't want to live here. For a long time it was the school system that saved us. MCPS was one of the best systems in the nation, so wealthy people wanted to live here anyway. That's no longer true.

MCPS is a disaster, even in Bethesda and Potomac. Central office is a mess. About 50% of the County's annual budget goes to MCPS and they're still a disaster. Schools are overcrowded and underfunded. Classes are too big. The physical buildings are crumbling. We don't pay teachers enough, and so the best ones don't want to work in MOCO. And the curriculum - I can't even. In attempting to close the achievement gap, we've dumbed down our better schools rather than lifting up those schools that struggle. We need a complete overhaul of the schools. We need to spend a few years cutting back on other programs and infusing cash into the schools (the actual schools, not central office). An "education surge" if you will. We need immediate construction/remodeling, better teacher pay, and better curriculum.

MOCO spends a TON of money on social service programs. Take a look at the Council's community grant awards. And we're the only County in MD that fully self-funds our Department of Health and Human Services. For everyone else, that department is a State office. And that's good - we are a County that wants to take care of each other, that doesn't want someone denied healthcare because they can't afford it, that doesn't want children to go hungry, and I want to live in a place like that.

But to do all those wonderful things, we need money. We get money by building a strong tax base. We build a strong tax base by: (1) being a place where successful businesses want to headquarter (and pay taxes, and employ people, who in turn pay taxes); and (2) having the best schools, which makes property values (and taxes) go up. It's really quite simple.

Great summary.