When I think of MoCo, I think of the homeowner who was royally boned by the insane landlord-tenant laws there.
An elderly woman owned a nice home in Bethesda, and noticed that there was a homeless woman living in and roaming the neighborhood. After helping the homeless woman with food and small amounts of cash from time to time, the homeowner decided to let the homeless woman stay for a few days in her home. Within a very short time, the homeowner became alarmed at the behavior of the homeless woman, and felt threatened. So she told the homeless woman that she would have to leave. At this point, the homeless woman began to threaten the homeowner with bodily harm, so the homeowner called the police to have them remove the homeless woman. The police came and advised the homeowner that it was a civil matter, and that she would have to go to court and have the homeless woman evicted, since the homeless woman was considered a "tenant" under Maryland law. The homeowner protested, saying that she was afraid to go back into her house. The police suggested that she get a hotel room for the night, and to contact her lawyer in the morning.
The homeowner did not want to leave the homeless woman in her house alone, fearing damage or theft of her possessions, so she want back into the house, and the police left.
During the night, the homeowner was stabbed to death by the homeless woman.

I'm a 10-year Bethesda resident. When I think of MoCo - I think it's just to darn big and bureaucratic. I wish it could be broken up into 5 or 6 smaller entities.

Anonymous wrote:I think of obscenely high taxes.

As someone who used to live in the Bay Area, I laugh at your post. Seriously.

Anonymous wrote:20 years ago, if someone said "Montgomery County" I would think "rich."

Today, I think "socialist."

I don't even live there, but this is what I think, and this is what the rest of the area thinks. You guys are like San Francisco without the tech industry, more like drab government employees who pretend to be woke. That's the reputation anyway.

I welcome differing opinions.

You don’t live there. But make this topic? K

Wannabe Fairfax. Not like thats a good thing either.

Here is the 1980 HS yearbook for Wheaton HS... so you can see how "diverse" it was.

https://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Wheaton-High-School/132481?page=14

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people live there? 900,000?

Why paint so many people with a broad brush. It’s stupid.

About 1.1 million.

What comes to mind when I think of Montgomery County is: home.

+1

+2

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think deterioration. I grew up here in 70s and 80s when there were several bars, clubs so you could go out, have fun, dance. There was a lot of diversity and I dont recall race being the big issue it is today. People got along. Schools were definitely better but part of that is that teachers had some power in the classroom, bad behavior was not tolerated and parents were stricter with kids and generally sided with the schools. There was more business, no one commuted to Virginia. One neighbor drove to DC and everyone thought that was rough. We lived in Wheaton. There were places to shop that catered to all incomes, much more open space and development was better thought out. We didnt have a gazillion retail stores, choices were less, but enough. We all lament the good old days, but its true, I would prefer my kids were growing up back then vs. today.[/quote]

MoCo was defacto segregated in the 1980s. There were not "race issues" back then from your perspective because you never really had to deal with a person of color as an equal. [/quote]

I lived in Wheaton. It was very diverse. Our neighbors on one side were black and in the other side were Koreans. We went to school with their kids, one worked for my dad when he was. between jobs.

declining schools. not real fun or lively commercial areas that are a pleasant walkable experence other than bethesda.

is in*

Anonymous wrote:High taxes. I think people only live there if they're too liberal for Virginia (even though VA counties aren't conservative near DC), black and want to be near other blacks, or Jewish and like the large Jewish community. None of those are bad things, but that's what 99% of the people i meet from MoCo say.

Everybody I know would say... my job is Montgomery county.

Anonymous wrote:I think of obscenely high taxes.

Howard County has higher tax rates than Montgomery. Their property tax rate is higher, as are personal property and ultility tax rates. Income tax rates are the same though.

High taxes. I think people only live there if they're too liberal for Virginia (even though VA counties aren't conservative near DC), black and want to be near other blacks, or Jewish and like the large Jewish community. None of those are bad things, but that's what 99% of the people i meet from MoCo say.

We just visited Potomac-dwelling friends. We hadn't seen them in forever. It struck me how poorly-maintained River Road is. All of the buildings and stores look like sets from Wonder Woman 1984. The Whole Foods parking lot looks like the lines were drawn for subcompacts. Everyone in the store seemed rushed and stony-faced.
Our friends' home has held on to its value from 1991. They've done a lot to it. I would live closer to downtown Bethesda but they like their space and the big yard. It sure does feels 1991 out there though.

Anonymous wrote:20 years ago, if someone said "Montgomery County" I would think "rich."

Today, I think "socialist."

I don't even live there, but this is what I think, and this is what the rest of the area thinks. You guys are like San Francisco without the tech industry, more like drab government employees who pretend to be woke. That's the reputation anyway.

I welcome differing opinions.

We've been here 30 years. MoCo was known for folks with $ and good schools back then. Now, it's a mix bag of low SES/some pockets of rich areas... Bad schools going terrible schools...

Yeah, it's gone down like crazy.