Posted on 06/24/2010 9:01:12 AM PDT by freespirited
It’s that way all over.
This is the thing about Montgomery County. Someone will apply for a permit to put up a neighborhood of million dollar houses in Potomac, and the County Council will demand that a bunch of “moderately priced housing units” be included in the neighborhood.
Successful people must not be allowed to live among people like themselves. And social engineers must have projects to brag about at cocktail parties.
I forget the name of the main street downtown but it was very Mayberry ish.
Thanks for the explanation for the third-worlding of that town.
This is the thing about Montgomery County. Someone will apply for a permit to put up a neighborhood of million dollar houses in Potomac, and the County Council will demand that a bunch of “moderately priced housing units” be included in the neighborhood.
Can’t have the electoral balance of a community tilt too much away from those requiring subsidy, how else do you expect pols to buy votes when they really need to?
Illegal immigration and a millionaires tax have contributed to this decay in Montgomery Co..
The company I use to work for, based out of Bethesda, the management wanted me to move to Gaithersburg. I turned down the opportunity especially when the pay remained the same. I know the traffic is horrendous and the lifestyle is so alien compared to Colorado.
One of the people I worked with back in 1997 was there and got a new badge. When I saw him with the new badge, I asked him where he got it and he said G-burg. I asked him how he likeed the place. He mentioned that he hated the ****en place !
Yeah, that's what they say. It wasn't quite this bad when I was a kid. Come to think of it of my friends that still live in MD, none live in Montgomery County anymore.
Here’s Gaithersburg’s problems:
1) Rail line splits up the area, along with a wide state road to the west of the track.
2) Rail stop, no metro stop like Bethesda, Arlington [besides both of those places are much closer to DC]
3) Gaithersburg City management had major HUA [Head up you know what] and severely restricted development. One condo was built near the rail stop and it should have been a start of something positive, but I strongly suspect most of the units are owned by the MoCo housing coalition aka section 8 redistributors- who really gets the profit out of this outfit???
4) Don’t know how difficult it is/was to get a liquor license, but the area could have been planned as the entertainment/dining part of town. Wasn’t.
Don’t get me started on Montgomery Village, to the north of Old Town.
Bingo! If you are in an incorporated city in MoCo you just bend over further.
BOHICA
G’burg developed from a little cow town and small multi unit buildings popped up in the 50’s/early 60’s in a scattered pattern along main roads, built by smaller investors- not a planned unit development. 50 years later, these buildings are old, decrepit, and there is no real cohesion to the area. Perfect for becoming run down, low-rent district.
One little g’burg strip center had a ‘unfortunate’ fire a while back. Coincidentally, in old town Rockville, which is and always was much nicer [county seat] experienced a remarkable fire at Chestnut Lodge, an old historic building destined to be the center point in a high priced infill development area. Well, they didn’t get those condos finished off before the market went south. Sometimes things just work out a certain way...
All MoCo gov’t had a DADT policy. When I asked about county workers violating federal law if someone disclosed illegal status, I was informed that county employees were not to act on or pass along that information. MoCo public schools finally had to put some restraints on. Not just illegal, but folks sending over nieces, nephews, etc from other counties. Unsustainable.
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