Anonymous wrote:It's not just SS/Wheaton.

Head up county.

And you can immediately tell when you cross over from MoCo into FredCo. Driving between Damascus and Mt. Airy, or Clarksburg and Urbana, and suddenly, the roads become so much nicer.

And you know you've left MoCo

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:So where exactly are all of the tax dollars going in MoCo if they tax so much yet cannot do basic things like provide paved roads for citizens?

Hucker and Friedson have a bill that gives $18 a year to the Greenbank.

Elrich promised millions in worker covid pay differentials, swearing they’d be reimbursed by the feds. And they don’t qualify. Like who thought giving VOLUNTEER firefighters a pay differential would qualify?

The greenbank is such a massive waste. There is no market failure for providing financing for renewables. It’s effectively being used as a slush fund for providing subsidies to existing building owners for upgrading their very old buildings. Perhaps instead the policy incentives shouldn’t be to retrofit crappy old buildings with tax payer subsidies but to encourage the private sector to invest in building new buildings that are more energy efficient without tax payer subsidies, which is what every other jurisdiction in the area is capable of doing.

This current group of county leaders, more than any other, cares much more about appearance than outcome. None of them are making the trains run. But they all get to tweet cool stuff about themselves.

Friedson is such a disappointment. Spends all his time mugging for the approval of people in Takoma Park instead of representing his constituents.

Takoma Park has road repaving in it's budget (as well as a schedule), and TP residents pay high taxes. If TP roads are better (and personally, i don't think they are at all), perhaps that is why.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So where exactly are all of the tax dollars going in MoCo if they tax so much yet cannot do basic things like provide paved roads for citizens?

Hucker and Friedson have a bill that gives $18 a year to the Greenbank.

Elrich promised millions in worker covid pay differentials, swearing they’d be reimbursed by the feds. And they don’t qualify. Like who thought giving VOLUNTEER firefighters a pay differential would qualify?

The greenbank is such a massive waste. There is no market failure for providing financing for renewables. It’s effectively being used as a slush fund for providing subsidies to existing building owners for upgrading their very old buildings. Perhaps instead the policy incentives shouldn’t be to retrofit crappy old buildings with tax payer subsidies but to encourage the private sector to invest in building new buildings that are more energy efficient without tax payer subsidies, which is what every other jurisdiction in the area is capable of doing.

This current group of county leaders, more than any other, cares much more about appearance than outcome. None of them are making the trains run. But they all get to tweet cool stuff about themselves.

Friedson is such a disappointment. Spends all his time mugging for the approval of people in Takoma Park instead of representing his constituents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So where exactly are all of the tax dollars going in MoCo if they tax so much yet cannot do basic things like provide paved roads for citizens?

Hucker and Friedson have a bill that gives $18 a year to the Greenbank.

Elrich promised millions in worker covid pay differentials, swearing they’d be reimbursed by the feds. And they don’t qualify. Like who thought giving VOLUNTEER firefighters a pay differential would qualify?

The greenbank is such a massive waste. There is no market failure for providing financing for renewables. It’s effectively being used as a slush fund for providing subsidies to existing building owners for upgrading their very old buildings. Perhaps instead the policy incentives shouldn’t be to retrofit crappy old buildings with tax payer subsidies but to encourage the private sector to invest in building new buildings that are more energy efficient without tax payer subsidies, which is what every other jurisdiction in the area is capable of doing.

This current group of county leaders, more than any other, cares much more about appearance than outcome. None of them are making the trains run. But they all get to tweet cool stuff about themselves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So where exactly are all of the tax dollars going in MoCo if they tax so much yet cannot do basic things like provide paved roads for citizens?

Hucker and Friedson have a bill that gives $18 a year to the Greenbank.

Elrich promised millions in worker covid pay differentials, swearing they’d be reimbursed by the feds. And they don’t qualify. Like who thought giving VOLUNTEER firefighters a pay differential would qualify?

The greenbank is such a massive waste. There is no market failure for providing financing for renewables. It’s effectively being used as a slush fund for providing subsidies to existing building owners for upgrading their very old buildings. Perhaps instead the policy incentives shouldn’t be to retrofit crappy old buildings with tax payer subsidies but to encourage the private sector to invest in building new buildings that are more energy efficient without tax payer subsidies, which is what every other jurisdiction in the area is capable of doing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So where exactly are all of the tax dollars going in MoCo if they tax so much yet cannot do basic things like provide paved roads for citizens?

Hucker and Friedson have a bill that gives $18 a year to the Greenbank.

Elrich promised millions in worker covid pay differentials, swearing they’d be reimbursed by the feds. And they don’t qualify. Like who thought giving VOLUNTEER firefighters a pay differential would qualify?

Anonymous wrote:So where exactly are all of the tax dollars going in MoCo if they tax so much yet cannot do basic things like provide paved roads for citizens?

Anonymous wrote:I moved to my House in Bethesda 7 years ago. The road had a lots of cracks and shallow pod holes. County came to fill them and then new cracks and podholes appeared the following spring. When I talked to the workers who came to fill the cracks and holes again, I was told that they new paving materials/chemicals are weak and only last for three years. BUT, they are more environment friendly. My guess is that you cannot have it both ways.

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Anonymous wrote:All I know is that my segment of Old Georgetown Rd in downtown Bethesda is ALWAYS full of potholes because there is simply too much traffic, and weighty at that, in the forms of buses and large trucks.

I imagine other areas with potholes have to deal with a lot of trucks.

Me again. I drive several times a week to Silver Spring, in parts around the downtown, and there are no potholes to speak of compared to my segment of Old G.

Again, aside from developers subsidizing portions of roads, and some highways being maintained on a different schedule by the state, I think it all has to do with the truck traffic, dependent on urbanization and construction flux. Some portions of lower-income but not necessarily densely urban neighborhoods have a lot of residents working in construction, who drive their own trucks, so that factors in as well.

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Anonymous wrote:Why is it that areas like Potomac, Bethesda, Rockville, Travaliah, etc. all have decent functioning roads in MoCo while many parts around Silver Spring, Wheaton, etc. have some of the worst roads imaginable? Holy Toledo has anyone ever driven around parts of Silver Spring closer to the border of PG? It is an unmitigated disaster worse than driving on the surface of the moon. Main roads are like a 3rd world country, and man neighborhoods have atrocious quality streets. Why does the county never have this problem in the much whiter and wealthier areas? I'll tell you why, because of racist road inequalities that perpetuate systemic racism. The county spends all of its money to make sure infrastructure is functional in all of the rich white areas while all of the brown people get stuck with roads that may as well be like they are from Mogadishu. It imparts more costs on people who are already poor because they end up having to pay more often for repairs to their cars from having to drive so often on the worst roads in the world. It's really time for the county to address this dispicable inequality. Pave the damn roads in the eastern half of the county already.

Who pays all the taxes? Where do they live?

Anonymous wrote:Why is it that areas like Potomac, Bethesda, Rockville, Travaliah, etc. all have decent functioning roads in MoCo while many parts around Silver Spring, Wheaton, etc. have some of the worst roads imaginable? Holy Toledo has anyone ever driven around parts of Silver Spring closer to the border of PG? It is an unmitigated disaster worse than driving on the surface of the moon. Main roads are like a 3rd world country, and man neighborhoods have atrocious quality streets. Why does the county never have this problem in the much whiter and wealthier areas? I'll tell you why, because of racist road inequalities that perpetuate systemic racism. The county spends all of its money to make sure infrastructure is functional in all of the rich white areas while all of the brown people get stuck with roads that may as well be like they are from Mogadishu. It imparts more costs on people who are already poor because they end up having to pay more often for repairs to their cars from having to drive so often on the worst roads in the world. It's really time for the county to address this dispicable inequality. Pave the damn roads in the eastern half of the county already.

Anonymous wrote:All I know is that my segment of Old Georgetown Rd in downtown Bethesda is ALWAYS full of potholes because there is simply too much traffic, and weighty at that, in the forms of buses and large trucks.

I imagine other areas with potholes have to deal with a lot of trucks.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone in the county can call 311 any time and report any pothole. It will be fixed within 3 days.

As far as traffic, have you been on Old Georgetown Road, River Road, Wisconsin Ave or Connecticut Ave? All are awful. But Planning Board and Council only care about pedestrians and busses, not cars, so nothing will ever be done and traffic will continue to get worse everywhere.