Reply to When will Hans Riemer Drop Out?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Recent polling shows that Riemer is hopelessly behind and he is also out of money. He has no chance to win and the only thing he can do now is spoil it for Blair. But if he helps get Elrich re-elected doesn’t that negate the whole animating purpose of his campaign?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/politics/political-notes-blair-expands-paid-tv-ad-campaign-to-d-c-s-four-broadcast-stations/[/quote]
It’s a bit like how he undermined Jawando’s ZTA. He doesn’t seem to believe in anything more than he believes that he should be the one doing it. Very narcissistic behavior. [/quote]

Riemer set the cause of more affordable housing back by maybe a decade because of his own ego. If Jawando’s ZTA had passed, developers would be delivering some multiplexes by now. That’s shameful. Riemer also submarined the DTSS and adjacent communities plan by supporting Hucker’s proposal to remove almost all of the adjacent communities. Why? Because Riemer, like Hucker, knows he needs the Woodside NIMBYs to win. Riemer will always do what’s best for Riemer at any given time. [/quote]

Affordable housing and new multiplexes are apples and oranges. Jawando's ZTA called for market rate housing near metro, if you've seen sales comps recently, market rate is an $800K+ townhouse or $400K condo. For example the existing zoning language for R60 already allows higher density (including townhouses and triplexes) as long as affordability criteria are met. What Jawando did was remove the affordability criteria, open it up to market rate by-right development. Very often what happens when you do this is that you replace affordable, moderately sized starter homes with expensive, luxurious millenial-appealing duplex/triplex housing that is not affordable, so the net effect is a reduction not increase in affordable housing. What Hans Riemer wants/wanted was to give additional tax breaks to developers (not only by-right development, not only remove affordability criteria, but get tax breaks on top). Riemer is offering these tax breaks after developers have already purchased and are sitting on developable properties near metro. If they can't afford to develop why did they buy the properties in the first place?

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The ZTA did not remove the affordability requirement, but most projects developed as a result of it would have been too small to require affordable housing. If we had $400k units in multiplexes going up now, then we would have new housing on the market at a 30 percent discount from the current median sales price.

Otherwise, you’re right. Riemer isn’t interested in affordability. He’s interested in helping developers make money. The last thing Riemer wanted was $400k units in multiplexes because it would have killed his big developers’ profits. Riemer would not even allow the Jawando ZTA to be discussed in committee.

It’s puzzling why anyone would believe that Riemer will bring affordable housing. Nothing he’s done has made housing affordable, and his whole plan is to help developers get bigger profit margins. Nothing more and nothing less. [/quote]
One small correction is that his big plan is to further his career. He thinks that by giving developers profits at the expense of the county that he can fundraise to further his political career. He similarly used to pimp for David Trone to be his sugar daddy. What’s wild to me about Riemer is not what he does, which is the most mundane and average small c municipal corruption that you will find everywhere but how he tries to spin it as a positive, progressive political “movement” and how there are so many gullible people (but thankfully not enough) who are so easily suckered. [/quote]

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