Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is some hyperbole in this thread.

What I think would be a fair criticism of Dan is-

-he drastically favors East county to west. That means among other things he is anti transit except public transportation. The reality is a lot of us in Gaithersburg and beyond depend on cars. We all cant afford to just live in DTSS. Sure, changing the zoning would help (for FUTURE people), but some of us made the decision to sprawl by sheer neccessity.

-He generally refuses to even consider the opinions of people who do not agree with his far left views, across the board.

-Not every neighborhood wants tons of density. Those of us who chose to move farther out of city centers for more land, more space, etc- dont neccesarily want tons of density right in our backyard. Again- it's fine that he does, but he seems to never consider the viewpoints of those who dont agree with him in lockstep.

BTW- the idea from an above poster that Marc Elrich somehow isnt progressive *enough* is borderline scary. He has at times referred to himself a socialist for godsakes.

Great - than you alone should pay for widening 270 AND all the downstream roads that will also need to be widened to accommodate the greater volumes of traffic. I take (took) Metro into work and barely use my car and my down county neighborhood is overwhelmed by up county cars everyday making it less livable so you can at least pay for your stupid choice to live in the hell of G'burg.

Anonymous wrote:There is some hyperbole in this thread.

What I think would be a fair criticism of Dan is-

-he drastically favors East county to west. That means among other things he is anti transit except public transportation. The reality is a lot of us in Gaithersburg and beyond depend on cars. We all cant afford to just live in DTSS. Sure, changing the zoning would help (for FUTURE people), but some of us made the decision to sprawl by sheer neccessity.

-He generally refuses to even consider the opinions of people who do not agree with his far left views, across the board.

-Not every neighborhood wants tons of density. Those of us who chose to move farther out of city centers for more land, more space, etc- dont neccesarily want tons of density right in our backyard. Again- it's fine that he does, but he seems to never consider the viewpoints of those who dont agree with him in lockstep.

BTW- the idea from an above poster that Marc Elrich somehow isnt progressive *enough* is borderline scary. He has at times referred to himself a socialist for godsakes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you complaining about upcounty residents who drive cars -- you realize this was by design, from the progressives? We have a massive agricultural reserve that takes up 1/3 of all of MoCo, which is beautiful, and people live there on land plots that _cannot_ be smaller than a certain size by design, to _prevent_ density. This was all in the plan. Public transport simply isn't viable there.

https://visitmontgomery.com/explore/ag-reserve/

I think Reed is fine for promoting Silver Spring. I worry that he, like many politicians from TP and SS, forget that there's more to MoCo than just downcounty. Germantown, Damascus, Boyds, etc are all lovely places with residents whose voices also need to be heard.

You are really struggling to understand out how this works and who is to blame.

People who care about land use and the environment want new housing built in locations that minimize the need for driving and all of the destructive infrastructure needed to support it.

So new housing should not be built at all in the ag reserve and that should preclude all the needed associated road infra and endless driving and the areas closer in should be upzoned which also precludes the need for all the associated road infra and endless driving.

All of which by the way costs less than the current sprawl housing which requires enormous hidden subsidies.

If you want a house on a big plot of land fine - pay for the infra needed to support it directly rather than expecting the rest of us to subsidize it.

And there it is again. Even with the nasty tone.

Live where we tell you to. Work where we tell you to. Anything else is destructive.
Upzone as much as you want. It's great, I'm all for it.

But not everyone wants to live in a high rise apartment or condo. Don't make that decision out to be racist, or selfish, or destructive.

People can have and disagree with housing options without the need for all the smugness and name calling. There isnt ONE correct, and only way to live.

Anonymous wrote:

Because he wants to smash every old neighborhood and subdivision and turn them into muliplex forests. Like this:

https://twitter.com/justupthepike/status/1309267858371870722

Because he incessantly bemoans about the East-West divide in Montgomery County while being completely clueless as to why it came to be, and while also being ignorant of the fact that there has been an East-West divide for 50 years. The only thing that has changed is that county has gotten bigger and multi-colored.

Because he is a bigot.

Anonymous wrote:There has been a strong movement to promote walkable, environmentally-friendly, transit-oriented cities and suburbs for some time. A lot of the conversation started after Richard Florida's 2002 Rise of the Creative Class and the backlash to it. You may have seen journalism in the past couple of years around the "five minute city" concept, an idea to improve cities by making sure it us possible for people to have the retail and services they need within a five minute walk or bike ride of their homes. Locally, there are also advocacy and advisory groups like Coalition for Smarter Growth, Greater Greater Washington, Tysons Partnership, DC Sustainable Transportation, Action Committee for Transit, and others. Many of us know Dan because we have been affiliated with Greater Greater Washington in one way or another since its founding in 2008. A lot of local urbanists have, at one time or another, take a turn writing for Greater Greater and/or attending the organization's events.

As an urban planner and real estate agent, staying involved in urbanism is, quite literally, Dan's job. (Indeed, he has a degree in urban design from an Ivy League university.) Also, as someone who is a media personality, Dan is leveraging social media to bring additional attention to his Washingtonian column and occasional radio appearances (probably a better use of one's online time budget than the time it's taking me to post here). Surely those posting on this thread know many people who advocate passionately for their favorite causes, especially when those causes are adjacent to the paid work that they do --be it politics, racial justice, or fundraising for disease research. Surely you also know people who use social media to advance their personal brands and amplify the reach of their work. And when you're not interested in what those people have to say, you mute or block and move on.

Dan's Twitter followers are calling you b*tchy Karens because you are engaging in a lot of negativity without seeming to know anything about Dan's qualifications or his cause. It looks like seeking drama, gossiping, and putting someone else down --pettiness that is a bad look. (But these actions are really a bad look when you're coming after a gay, black man.) If you want to have a similar level of reach and influence, you too are welcome to put in the work earning a degree in a field that interests you, getting to know people in your community, attending meetings, and advocating for your beliefs. Should you ever run for planning board or other local office, maybe you too can experience the delight of petty backlash on DCUM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So new housing should not be built at all in the ag reserve and that should preclude all the needed associated road infra and endless driving and the areas closer in should be upzoned which also precludes the need for all the associated road infra and endless driving.

All of which by the way costs less than the current sprawl housing which requires enormous hidden subsidies.

If you want a house on a big plot of land fine - pay for the infra needed to support it directly rather than expecting the rest of us to subsidize it.

The Ag Reserve already exists. We need roads to access it. Farmers need a way to get their goods to market. People need to go there to enjoy the outdoors -- that's the whole purpose of it.

The county has a growing population. Farmers are producing more. More people are visiting the Ag Reserve.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you complaining about upcounty residents who drive cars -- you realize this was by design, from the progressives? We have a massive agricultural reserve that takes up 1/3 of all of MoCo, which is beautiful, and people live there on land plots that _cannot_ be smaller than a certain size by design, to _prevent_ density. This was all in the plan. Public transport simply isn't viable there.

https://visitmontgomery.com/explore/ag-reserve/

I think Reed is fine for promoting Silver Spring. I worry that he, like many politicians from TP and SS, forget that there's more to MoCo than just downcounty. Germantown, Damascus, Boyds, etc are all lovely places with residents whose voices also need to be heard.

Our down county neighborhoods are swamped by your SUVs every single day - no one is unaware of your toxic presence.

And FWIW the budget disproportionately goes to subsidizing your bad choices so it is laughable to hear you complain about the politics of this.

BTW what are you even doing on DCUM? Surely someone can start a DC Exurban Hellscape Moms page for you?

Yikes, some people are really nuts about this. Do you really think all the SUVs driving around Chevy Chase and Bethesda are people coming every day from Germantown? I live in Bethesda, and I can assure you most of them are locals.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see Dan Reed and his fan club found this thread. Everybody I know thinks he’s annoying.

Oh, they most certainly have and are circle jerking furiously over it.

https://twitter.com/justupthepike/status/1318540063899308033

Of course, they are completely oblivious to the fact that they are doing exactly what many posters here are criticizing about them.

AhHAhaaa! What a bunch of Karens! Let's laugh at them and drink their tears!!!

A left wing version of Trumpsters ~ "Love to drink those liberal tears." Good times.

Dear Lord, I wish I had enough free time in my day instead of working and raising a family to write blogs and post on social all day and night.

And there it is. Their tiny little echo chamber. Where they can laugh about how right they are, and how stupid/racist/bigoted (did I miss any?) the other 99% of Moco is. We'll just go on with our lives, jobs, houses, cars, roads... while they yell into the abyss.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see Dan Reed and his fan club found this thread. Everybody I know thinks he’s annoying.

Oh, they most certainly have and are circle jerking furiously over it.

https://twitter.com/justupthepike/status/1318540063899308033

Of course, they are completely oblivious to the fact that they are doing exactly what many posters here are criticizing about them.

AhHAhaaa! What a bunch of Karens! Let's laugh at them and drink their tears!!!

A left wing version of Trumpsters ~ "Love to drink those liberal tears." Good times.

Dear Lord, I wish I had enough free time in my day instead of working and raising a family to write blogs and post on social all day and night.

Anonymous wrote:I see Dan Reed and his fan club found this thread. Everybody I know thinks he’s annoying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue with Reed and his GGW ilk is that if you simply disagree with them, you're immediately painted as a bad person. I realize they do this to raise money from the sycophantic rubes in the GGW comments section, because they need a boogeyman to rail against. But it's not hard to see how their ideas often fail to gain much traction, considering some of their unseemly tactics.

The whole "agree with me or you are racist/a bad person" bit is really tired. A lot of these are nuanced issues with more than one "acceptable" opinion. And it doesnt make someone a bad person in the slightest to care about the value of the biggest purchase/investment of their lifetime.

A lot of his opinions are pretty far out there on the political spectrum (which is OK!), but the complete lack of respect for diverse opinions does not win over any minds.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you complaining about upcounty residents who drive cars -- you realize this was by design, from the progressives? We have a massive agricultural reserve that takes up 1/3 of all of MoCo, which is beautiful, and people live there on land plots that _cannot_ be smaller than a certain size by design, to _prevent_ density. This was all in the plan. Public transport simply isn't viable there.

https://visitmontgomery.com/explore/ag-reserve/

I think Reed is fine for promoting Silver Spring. I worry that he, like many politicians from TP and SS, forget that there's more to MoCo than just downcounty. Germantown, Damascus, Boyds, etc are all lovely places with residents whose voices also need to be heard.

Our down county neighborhoods are swamped by your SUVs every single day - no one is unaware of your toxic presence.

And FWIW the budget disproportionately goes to subsidizing your bad choices so it is laughable to hear you complain about the politics of this.

BTW what are you even doing on DCUM? Surely someone can start a DC Exurban Hellscape Moms page for you?

The horror! These (gasp) SUVS! They are all from upcounty mind you! Not a one inside the beltway I guess.

Your very presence is TOXIX.

Anything other down down county is apparently a Exurban Hellscape!!!

Keep internet high fiving each other guys!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you complaining about upcounty residents who drive cars -- you realize this was by design, from the progressives? We have a massive agricultural reserve that takes up 1/3 of all of MoCo, which is beautiful, and people live there on land plots that _cannot_ be smaller than a certain size by design, to _prevent_ density. This was all in the plan. Public transport simply isn't viable there.

https://visitmontgomery.com/explore/ag-reserve/

I think Reed is fine for promoting Silver Spring. I worry that he, like many politicians from TP and SS, forget that there's more to MoCo than just downcounty. Germantown, Damascus, Boyds, etc are all lovely places with residents whose voices also need to be heard.

Our down county neighborhoods are swamped by your SUVs every single day - no one is unaware of your toxic presence.

And FWIW the budget disproportionately goes to subsidizing your bad choices so it is laughable to hear you complain about the politics of this.

BTW what are you even doing on DCUM? Surely someone can start a DC Exurban Hellscape Moms page for you?