1. The Purple Line won't create the jobs Montgomery County needs to stay competitive in the region
The overly-rosy job-creation predictions given by Purple Line advocates aren't the only problem. Even if you pretended that all of those jobs would actually materialize, you would have to consider what type of jobs they will be. As virtually all of the development spurred by the Purple Line would be residential, with ground floor retail, the vast majority of jobs created will be in retail and restaurants.
That's not the job creation we need to stay competitive with Fairfax, Loudoun and Arlington counties, or the District. We need high-wage jobs, and the large corporations and research facilities that provide those. To attract those jobs, we need to address our unfriendly business climate, and provide direct access to Dulles International Airport. Tysons has that direct access, and that's only one reason they are cleaning our clock in the economic development category.
Moreover, none of the job creation projections are taking into account the existing jobs that will be destroyed by the Purple Line. Well-trained auto mechanics make far more than those who serve coffee or fold jeans. While elitists may have no qualms about demolishing strip malls and gas stations, the truth is that retail square footage will shrink, and trades and professional positions will be reduced along the Purple Line route if it is built.
2. We don't have the money
With a moribund county economy, and a structural budget deficit at the county and state levels, we have no choice but to focus infrastructure funding where we get the most bang for the buck. The latest Supreme Court decision only emphasizes the budget challenges ahead.
Funding additional capacity on the Metro Red Line, the Midcounty Highway Extended (M-83) and a new Potomac River crossing will bring far more economic development benefit than the Purple Line. The traffic congestion on the Beltway at the American Legion Bridge is a far higher transportation priority to solve than traffic between Silver Spring and New Carrollton.
The economic development generated by the Purple Line will only make Montgomery County more of a bedroom community, rather than a magnet for young professionals seeking employment with high wages. That will have a severe impact on already weak tax revenues.
We have found - definitively - that real estate development alone creates a budget deficit, rather than "expanding the tax base" as developer-funded politicians tell us. Montgomery County has built like mad over the last 13 years. Clarksburg increased its population by 800% in a decade. Damascus will have tripled in population by the end of this decade. Olney, Gaithersburg, Germantown, and other development hotspots continue to explode with new housing units. Yet we have a budget deficit, and County Executive Ike Leggett has promised a tax increase next year. The results speak for themselves.
3. Baltimore is no longer the seat of power in Maryland - but you wouldn't know it from the Purple Line project
Any genuflecting to politicians from the Baltimore area is more political than having basis in fact. Montgomery County is arguably the new center of power in the state. So why does Baltimore's Red Line project have more consideration for neighborhoods than the Purple Line? Specifically, the Baltimore Red Line plan would fund far more tunneling underground than the Purple Line. That's despite the fact that the Red Line will travel through downtown streets, while the Purple Line passes through suburban residential neighborhoods in Chevy Chase and Long Branch.
4. The Purple Line will destroy affordable housing
Unlike the primarily greenfield, new development around the Corridor Cities Transitway upcounty, the development spurred by the Purple Line will occur in already-developed communities. The gleaming new luxury apartments will have to displace what is already there between Silver Spring and New Carrollton.
Whereas most development along the Corridor Cities Transitway will create a net increase in affordable units within projects, those along the Purple Line will ultimately create a net loss of such units. Entire buildings of naturally-occuring affordable housing will be replaced by handfuls of affordable units in new luxury buildings. That does not address our affordable housing crisis.
5. Approving the Purple Line will put his already-challenging reelection in serious jeopardy
The bottom line is that Hogan's victory came in part from his opposition to the Purple Line. He had support in the Town of Chevy Chase and Long Branch that he otherwise would not have enjoyed in those Democratic-dominated areas. Those people cast their votes believing Hogan would indeed stop the Purple Line. So did many others across Maryland.
Approving the Purple Line not only arms his political enemies with a ground-breaking photo op "victory" they can grandstand on through the 2018 campaigns statewide, but instantly causes a major segment of his bipartisan coalition to evaporate overnight. Whether it's the unemployed manufacturing sector employee in Cumberland, or the Chevy Chase lawyer, they'll have less reason to come out and vote if the Purple Line outcome is identical to that expected under an Anthony Brown administration. A recent article by Ben Ross in Greater Greater Washington - intended to highlight the influence of the Columbia Country Club in efforts to thwart the Purple Line - made abundantly clear the political cost if Hogan approves the project. "In January," Ross wrote, "Governor Hogan came to Bethesda for a fundraiser where club members raised $47,000 for his political committee." Guess where that $47,000 will go in 2018 if Hogan allows the Purple Line? (Hint: Not to Hogan)
It would be hard to describe a Hogan veto of the Purple Line as "antagonistic toward this community," to use the words of Montgomery County Council President George Leventhal on Monday. A recent poll found only about 40% of respondents even knew what the Purple Line was. A Washington Post poll showed that less than half of Marylanders support building the Purple Line. While 20% of Montgomery County residents polled said they would ride the Purple Line frequently, 52% said they would "rarely or never" ride it. Think about the cost vs. ridership issue in that context.
The fact is that Purple Line supporters made a mistake in not courting Gov. Hogan during the 2014 election. Rather than make the arguments they are making now to Hogan, they relied on developer money to determine the outcome. Those development interests funded his opponent in the last election, and as President Obama said, "Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won."
WMATA apologist Dr. Gridlock even attempted to make the argument that the term "conservative" can be defined as an elected official who does not cancel an expensive, taxpayer-funded transit project. Was Gridlock just desperate to get it built, or does he need a Political Science 101 refresher?
Hogan has nothing to gain in 2018, and everything to lose, if he doesn't stop the Purple Line. The political opponents pretending to talk reasonably now will be doing everything they can to defeat him in three years, even if he gives them what they want today.
In short, Hogan faces a very simple decision. Does he blow up his coalition of voters, go against the message of his campaign, and put a nice-to-have project over must-have infrastructure for economic development by approving the Purple Line? He should stick to his guns.
125 comments:
Does the purple line go through DC?
I'll start with the three easiest points:
1) "...Purple Line - #Bethesda #DC"
Why the "#DC" tag? The Purple Line does not go through DC, only Maryland. It won't even be run by WMATA.
2) "With a moribund county economy..."
Stuck in 2009, are we?
2) "the Baltimore Red Line plan would fund far more tunneling underground than the Purple Line. That's despite the fact that the Red Line will travel through downtown streets, while the Purple Line passes through suburban residential neighborhoods in Chevy Chase and Long Branch."
It really shouldn't be that hard to figure out why a downtown street would need underground rail more than a suburban neighborhood. Did you actually think about this before you typed?
Fuck off Dyer .... You're such an asshole.
In reading your first and second points, I notice that, once again, you are in the habit of presenting your own assumptions and speculations as though they were established fact, with zero reference to actual research on the subjects involved.
You'd think with all the "knowledge" Dyer has about what Montgomery County residents want, he wouldn't have lost the council election in such a resounding fashion.
I can see how M-83 and another crossing that ties to Dulles could help areas of Montgomery County like the Pike District/White Flint and Rockville, but I do not see how it will help the transportation infrastructure of Bethesda, Silver Spring, or PG County.
All these areas (as well as DC) are adding people and hopefully jobs but the roads aren't going to be expanding anytime soon. According to the Bethesda Downtown Plan staff draft they are going to zone more residential areas and building with greater heights.
If the Purple Line won't be built what transit improvements do you propose for those of us that want to live and work inside the beltway in the next 20 years as the area continues to add more people? What are the costs of those improvements?
Dyer wants Hogan to appoint him Fuehrer of Montgomery County.
I agree we need the M-83 and another Beltway crossing, but those projects are not ready to go.... it would be at least a decade just to put those plans in place.
Meanwhile the Purple Line is ready, and there is an enormous amount of funding already approved by the federal gov't on this, ready to go.
We know Bethesda and Silver Spring will grow in population, just like the rest of the county and region is growing in population. There is also no easy way to get between those two major centers. East-West Highway is frequently backed up, and I see no proposal to widen it. Going between SS and Bethesda by Metro takes forever as it goes through DC.
Purple Line seems an easy way to address this. It's on an existing rail right of way, and will connect the a top-5 busiest metro station (SS) and the busiest non-terminus metro station in Maryland (Bethesda).
If you oppose those, how do you propose to solve this problem?
Would the east west highway drivers take public transportation if the purple line was there? Not sure those specific commuters would get out of their cars.
It's not just about the commute between Bethesda and Silver Spring. It's about all the stations between Bethesda and New Carrollton, and potential transfers from every bus route connecting to those stations.
I lived right near the ROW for M-83 from 2001 to 2008 before moving to Bethesda. At this point it would not help all that much except bring people to an already full garage at Shady Grove faster.
The whole meme of "oh Lord the business climate in MoCo sucks" is, as noted by Anon @5:26 AM, basically a big pile of bullcrap. Folks, it's 2015 and if you're stuck on this theme then you are ignorant, at best. I mean, geez, all the construction in Downtown Bethesda, Crown Farm, and Pike & Rose to name three should be indicative in and of themselves that there is confidence in the economy of MoCo.
It should also be noted (once again) that Dyer's trope about attracting large corporations doesn't match with economic reality. We actually already have several major research institutes, both at the Fed and University level in this area. The Purple Line would provide a direct linkage between MoCo and one of the most dynamic resources we have, UMD.
Since knowledge-intensive start-ups disproportionately drive high-wage job growth (doi.org/10.3386/w16300), we should worry more about issues like technology transfer and start-up funding strategies than building roads to an underperforming airport.
Peter, I would make an important distinction between construction of housing, and economic development. Housing does not generate high-wage jobs once construction is completed. Corporate headquarters, research facilities and high-tech manufacturing do.
"all the construction in Downtown Bethesda, Crown Farm, and Pike & Rose to name three should be indicative in and of themselves that there is confidence in the economy of MoCo."
Isn't most of that building residential and retail? What does that have to do with how business-friendly the area is for large corporate employers?
Starbucks jobs are not the answer to the county's funding woes.
5:26: Never said it ran through DC. The county economy is indeed moribund. Not a single large corporation has moved here in over a decade.
I did think about it before I typed. Can you tell me which would be more expensive - cut-and-cover tunneling under the Capital Crescent Trail, or under busy urban streets in a major city? Why would the more expensive tunneling project get money instead of the Purple Line? Light rail already runs on streets in Baltimore. Conversely, the physical impact on Long Branch residents is therefore greater - again, why would tunnel funding go to Baltimore in that case? Not a financially sound decision. So it must be a political one, for the old Baltimore machine.
5:33: You're not familiar with the current trends and facts about economic development in the DC region, and what jobs are going where?
G.Money, if that's true, why do we have a structural budget deficit, and why is College Park basing its future on residential high-rises instead of research facilities and corporate headquarters?
"cut-and-cover tunneling under the Capital Crescent Trail"
What would be the point of putting a subway where the right-of-way is already segregated and grade-separated? That would be an insanely stupid waste of money.
5:46: The MoCo political machine controls the local media. When can we expect an investigative report on whether Hans Riemer knew about criminal activity in the DLC before election day, and kept it quiet? Hint: Never.
11:38: Maybe because the Purple Line project evolved into a much bigger project with greater physical impact than the original concept of single-track commuter rail on that right-of-way?
8:45: M-83 will do more than that. You have to consider the traffic relief it would provide on I-270, and as a bypass for the congestion at Germantown and the section between there and Frederick.
Steve D., you are right on the money in that analysis.
The M-83 may help those who live up there, far from Bethesda. Lets find a way to make it happen. We all pay into the collective pot to raise up the state and county as a whole.
But what about us that never have a reason to go up that way? Bringing the topic back to the Bethesda proper. Traffic is getting worst here in Bethesda and along the Beltway. What are alternatives or new options for for us?
Not an argument but a question. So what's wrong with residential and retail? More tax base seems good however it comes?
Dyer is still trying to compare two guys drinking beer on the job to a president ordering a break-in on the headquarters of his opponent's election campaign.
He should move to Texas, Oklahoma, or Carrolltucky. People there might actually be dumb enough to vote for him.
@ 12:06 PM - Here's a road project that will benefit Bethesdans: Build Little Falls Parkway as it was originally planned, four lanes divided for its entire length, extending south to the Clara Barton Parkway, and with a freeway interchange at River Road.
12:24 PM I thought smart growth was about living and working in the same place?
So, if there's no office space or jobs in a community, it creates more transportation challenges.
12:06: That's the point of my suggestion to prioritize additional capacity on the Red Line (8-car trains, better service, less turnarounds at Grosvenor), and a new Potomac River crossing (about 25% of traffic on the American Legion Bridge is traveling to or from the Dulles area).
Both would really help relieve traffic congestion on highways in Bethesda.
12:49: Is there still time to get that in the Westbard Sector Plan?
12:27: No, the similarity is in the cover-up. What did the Councilmember know, and when did he know it?
I doubt you could find a Texan who thinks there's a state called Carrolltucky. Sounds like they could school you on geography.
12:49: Exactly.
"Housing does not generate high-wage jobs"
But it does attract high-wage earners. I don't know why you think taxable income from businesses is worth more than taxable income from individuals.
1:55: So why after a decade of major population growth in MoCo do we have a budget deficit?
12:24: I think the best example of what's wrong, is the structural budget deficit we have after explosive residential and retail growth over the last decade.
Haven't we had a budget deficit for a while now? And Leggett cut a bunch to balance it? No party here so
Oh I didn't think it did go through DC, I was just confused because you had a #DC hashtag in your title. How come you do?
Dyer only lost because the media didn't give him favorable coverage!
Does NoVa have a budget surplus with all their purported pro-business policies?
3:45: Well, that's my point - if residential growth "widens the tax base", why do we have a deficit that requires cuts and tax hikes after massive residential growth?
3:48: No, because they've allowed massive residential growth like MoCo has, which drives up the cost of services beyond revenue. DC had a deficit too this year. Same problem. That's why it's better to focus on high-wage job growth than housing in developed areas.
3:47: Excellent analysis.
@ 3:47 PM & 4:05 PM -
Get a room, you two.
In the past six years, tens of thousands of new residents entering all three jurisdictions, there has been no job growth, yet unemployment has mysteriously fallen.
It is a mystery...
5:25: You seem to have forgotten that the unemployment rate measures the employment of residents, *not* the number of jobs within a jurisdiction. The job growth has been in NoVa and DC, and those high-wage jobs allow those job holders to live in MoCo. The numbers are black and white on this issue.
You really think that is the singular reason you never win when you run?
So sad that the newspaper that broke Watergate is part of the MoCo Machine. What a dilemma for Dyer.
Why does 7:12 PM have so much contempt for someone who runs for public service? I wonder if you ever volunteer for anything or are involved in the community at all?
Commenting on local news sites doesn't count :)
Dyer is creating value with his news site.
^ ^ ^
slurp slurp slurp
7:12: Absolutely. Same reason a lot of qualified Democrats lost in 2014 and 2010.
"1:55: So why after a decade of major population growth in MoCo do we have a budget deficit?"
Huh? MoCo's budget situation is about as healthy as it gets. You don't have much of a grasp on the nation's economic state if you think MoCo's in the crapper. Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville, North Bethesda, etc. have never been stronger, thanks to the mass transit that serves them. The PL adding another mass transit option and providing an east-west connection across 4 metro lines is an economic no-brainer. There's a reason the business community strongly endorses the project.
More density in these quasi-urban areas means more democratic voters. Hogan obviously wouldn't want that.
10:22: "As healthy as it gets...never been stronger"??
Are you talking about the same county that just had to cut budget items, maintain the energy tax rate, and add new taxes just to close a deficit? And the same county where the executive has promised a property tax hike over the cap next year, because revenue is down and economic times are tough?
Whatever you're smoking, George Leventhal wants to legalize (and tax) it.
P.S. Not 1 single major corporation has relocated its headquarters to MoCo in over a decade. Every Chamber of Commerce in the county declined to endorse any of the incumbent councilmembers last year. Stronger "thanks to mass transit"?? The hard numbers don't back up your rosy description.
3:15: Hogan doesn't need MoCo or Prince George's to win reelection. That's why he has nothing to lose by killing the Purple Line.
Dyer @ 11:37AM - I haven't been through the MoCo budget, so I won't speak to specifics, but the reason why there is a deficit is that the outlays are higher than the receipts. That's obvious, and it's the only causal link that can be made without further analysis. If you're going to assert other causal factors, like the lack of corporations moving here, you'll need to provide substantiating evidence of that.
I'm not sure what you're talking about regarding College Park. UMD has some of best scientific and engineering research in the country. On the other hand, College Park has been a shithole for years, making it difficult to attract quality people there who aren't directly involved in UMD. By developing that area, they are creating the opportunity for future growth of high tech startups. Successful people want to live in nice places, not where strip malls go to die.
Dyer says that the County's deficit is caused by a "moribund economy", yet in the next breath he calls it a "structural deficit". Which strongly suggests that he doesn't have the slightest idea what the latter term actually means.
"And the same county where the executive has promised a property tax hike over the cap next year, because revenue is down and economic times are tough?
The property tax rate isn't going up. Assessments are going up, because property values are going up. This is NOT the result of "tough economic times". But keep spinning so desperately.
Sounds like an agenda to increase property values in the suburbs and push low income residents to the exurbs. A big giveaway to suburban development companies.
Keep looking for that cloud behind the silver lining, 6:11 AM.
@6:16 The Purple Line opponents shouldn't get to have all the fun.
"While 20% of Montgomery County residents polled said they would ride the Purple Line frequently, 52% said they would "rarely or never" ride it. Think about the cost vs. ridership issue in that context."
That's like polling every state in the Eastern US and asking if they'd ride the Amtrak between DC and NYC.
A more accurate poll would only survey residents within 1/2 mile of proposed Purple Line stations.
This is the first piece I've read in the media making a case why Hogan should cancel it.
There's a steady drumbeat of blog posts, opinion pieces in the Post, etc. but they're all pro-Purple Line.
I'm in favor of it, but I wonder why more folks aren't arguing both sides?
Think about how many UMD students that commute from Montgomery County or other parts of Prince George's County could use the Purple Line and reduce beltway traffic
For longer commutes, such as from Rockville to Silver Spring or points east, the Purple Line could reduce traffic on Veirs Mill Road as well as the Beltway.
"While 20% of Montgomery County residents polled said they would ride the Purple Line frequently, 52% said they would "rarely or never" ride it. Think about the cost vs. ridership issue in that context."
200,000 County residents saying that they will this single transit line frequently is a damned good statistic, don't you think?
So many UMD undergrads looking for internships and grad students looking for jobs that are transit-accessible. Instead of all of them going to DC, they can now have options in Bethesda, Silver Spring, and New Carrollton.
How many thousands of jobs are coming to NIH? Instead of all of them adding congestion to our roadways, how about they have options for housing along the Purple Line.
@7:07 shhh... a bridge and a highway miles away as well as 8-car red line trains will relieve all congestion on Connecticut, Wisconsin, East West Hwy, Jones Bridge, and the beltway between I-95 and Georgia Ave.
G. Money, "what I'm talking about regarding College Park" is, if the university is such an economic catalyst, why is College Park's blueprint for the future based on residential and retail, instead of corporate headquarters and research parks?
Yes, there is a deficit, and the massive development of retail & residential has failed to generate the revenue to cover the services those new residents require. Why would we double down on a failed strategy?
5:03: The structural deficit means that it is a perennial shortfall unlikely to be corrected in the coming years on our present course. We're simply taking in less than we are giving out.
5:42: Whoa - you are fundamentally wrong. How did you miss the words "next year" in the excerpt you reprinted? The property tax hike is threatened for next year.
Secondly, you need to talk to Ike Leggett, because his assessment of the economy is much less rosy than yours. He's the one who has been warning that money is tight. You're the one "spinning" here.
6:46: Why aren't they using Metro now?
7:06: I don't think you can extrapolate a number like 200,000 from a poll. The whole Metro system carries only 700,000 per day. Secondly, as the above commenter noted, polling people in Clarksburg or Germantown about the Purple Line isn't very accurate. Then you have the issue of people who historically say they will bike, walk or use transit, but our traffic congestion suggests they lied to us in those rosy assessments planners and developers sold us in the past.
7:06: Those are all Metro-accessible now. Secondly, we need the companies to relocate here that can provide the jobs those students are looking for. Right now, those companies have no interest in Class A office space that is currently vacant steps away from the Bethesda Metro station. If we don't address our poor business climate and lack of access to Dulles Airport, we'll continue to devolve into a bedroom community.
7:07: They have a more direct option now in the Red Line, with all of the new housing coming to downtown Bethesda, White Flint, and Rockville (and Gaithersburg).
7:28: If you reduce congestion on the Beltway further back, then yes, you will have more capacity. To "relieve all congestion" would require the Northern Parkway, and running I-95 through the District, like it was planned to. The Beltway was never designed to carry East Coast traffic.
Robert Dyer said...
6:46: Why aren't they using Metro now?
Are you joking? It's an insane trip for people on the Red Line to metro to College Park. It would take 90 minutes. A direct route from Bethesda to College Park would actually be a feasible alternative to driving for students, faculty, and staff of the university.
Horrible experience as a student.
Metro sucks to get to school. Takes forever going through DC and having to shuttle from the stop to campus.
3:47 was being sarcastic.
So if everyone has a deficit, then how does one say residential development only is what's causing the deficit in MoCo? NoVa is bullish on commercial development and still has the same budget problems it appears?
@ 11:55 AM:
Do you seriously believe that re-routing I-95 so that it runs along the Southwest Freeway and the 14th Street Bridge would IMPROVE the flow of traffic?
Routing long-distance traffic through the hearts of cities, rather than bypassing them, was a huge mistake that many cities in the USA made. Other countries were smart enough not to do this, and thankfully DC was too.
"Anonymous said...
Huh? MoCo's budget situation is about as healthy as it gets. You don't have much of a grasp on the nation's economic state if you think MoCo's in the crapper. Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville, North Bethesda, etc. have never been stronger,
10:22 PM"
Hahahaha.... That's a good one. From the Post: "Leggett said he was “tempted” to propose a major property tax hike this year. He added that declining income tax revenues, a sluggish economic recovery and possible cuts in anticipated state funding will make an increase almost unavoidable next year."
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/leggett-proposes-same-services-2016-budget-with-no-property-tax-hike/2015/03/16/6fddb226-c993-11e4-b2a1-bed1aaea2816_story.html
1:56: Running I-95 through DC absolutely would improve the flow of traffic on the Beltway. "Smart" is the last word that comes to mind when one considers the sabotage of our region's planned freeway system by "leaders" in the past (and present).
You're even crazier than Doug Willinger.
Interesting how folks who have good jobs in NoVa and DC would rather live in Montgomery.
4:26: What's "crazy" about trying to have a functional transportation system? What was really crazy was trying to route East Coast traffic onto the Capital Beltway. Nuts. And then gutting the rest of the freeway master plans. Obscene.
The Beltway is far more appropriate for long-distance traffic than the Southwest-Southeast Freeway and the 14th Street Bridge. I'm sorry that this concept is so difficult for you to grasp.
And, in addition to causing horrendous congestion, routing I-95 through downtown DC would do nothing to relieve traffic on the Beltway between Montgomery County and Northern Virginia.
8:50: "The Beltway is far more appropriate for long-distance traffic than the Southwest-Southeast Freeway and the 14th Street Bridge."
A traffic engineer (apparently in short supply these days) would scream like Jacques Pepin in a college dining hall if he or she heard that.
The Beltway was designed for local traffic, not for pass-through I-95 traffic. That's one reason the Wilson bridge became obsolete when it did. It was never meant to carry I-95 traffic.
How would taking I-95 traffic off the Beltway make the Beltway more congested? It would be just the opposite.
I-95 through DC would be no more congested than I-95 north or south of DC. It would be grade separated the whole way through.
12:27: I just mentioned Fairfax, Arlington and DC because, while all three are killing us in the economic development department, they are also increasingly as reckless and spendthrift as our amazingly-talented Montgomery County Council.
Loudoun County is also cleaning our clock. But by contrast, they passed their budget with a tax *cut*, and fully-funded the budget request by LCPS.
Getting the jobs and revenue is only part of the equation. Then you have to have fiscally-responsible leaders who can manage the money.
@ 8:51 PM:
The Beltway was designed explicitly as a bypass. It was the volume of local traffic that was unanticipated and which causes the current gridlock on the Beltway.
Keep trying to re-invent reality, and wonder why no one takes you seriously as a journalist.
I thought a lot of modern city and traffic planners agreed that the old practice of running highways through cities was an overall negative?
Instead of thinking of what we can do now for the dense areas of Montgomery County to plan for the future, we can lament on what highways weren't built in the past and shrug our shoulders.
If we neglect these area's needs enough maybe people and business will move away so the streets will be clearer. A great vision for the future.
@ 5:32 AM - not just modern planners in the USA but planners in every single other country, from the start. Even Ike envisioned the Interstates bypassing the urban cores, as the Autobahn on which they were modeled did.
Dyer @ 11:28AM - Really, "College Park's blueprint for the future based on residential and retail, instead of corporate headquarters and research parks?"
Maybe someone should tell these guys:
https://cmns.umd.edu/psc
Or these guys:
http://www.eng.umd.edu/html/news/news_story.php?id=8679
Or these guys:
http://www.eng.umd.edu/facilities/kim-building-intro
Or these guys:
http://msquare.umd.edu/
But yes, clearly because they are making the area more livable, their blueprint for the future is retail. Brilliant.
Ooh, cited sources. Love it!
Yeah that was sarcasm. But it's funny anyone could actually believe that was the only reason.
5:45: If you were a regular reader of this blog, you would know that I am doing anything but shrugging my shoulders. I've been advocating numerous transportation projects that would reduce gridlock and boost (real) economic development countywide.
G. Money, where among these public university websites is there an announcement of a private, Fortune 500 company that will be building its headquarters on Route 1? The question is not whether the university is involved in research, but whether that and the Purple Line are enough to attract high-wage private firms to relocate to College Park and other areas along the Purple Line route.
@11:16 - Why does an existing Fortune 500 company need to build its headquarters on Rte. 1? If you read the link I provided in my original post in this thread, you'd see that job creation is disproportionately driven by new SMEs. Therefore, creating high wage job growth would be best served by reinforcing and broadening the appeal of the College Park area and surrounding region (including MoCo partners such as NIH and NIST) by funding incubators and providing transportation infrastructure linking those partners (which the Purple Line would help with).
4:31: People do take me seriously as a journalist for many reasons - including the fact that I don't make up alternative history, like you just did.
The Beltway was absolutely not designed as a bypass. It is a circumferential highway.
No original freeway plan had the Beltway as a bypass. The original design was always for I-95 to go through the District along the B&O corridor starting near Fort Totten.
Then the developer-backed astroturf "freeway fights" stopped that, and many other Interstates, from making these essential downtown connections.
Yes, there was debate among Eisenhower and others regarding this issue, but the actual plan documents that eventually emerged show I-95, I-66, and I-70S all accessing or running all the way through the District.
An easy bit of evidence anyone can quickly call up is Google Maps. Look where I-95 meets the Beltway coming in from the N. Look at where I-70 stops short of Baltimore. Whoops! Those aren't clean connections. They are stubs, and you can see the (still-existant) rights-of-way where each was designed to enter the urban core. They are now monuments to past "leaders'" abdication of their fundamental responsibility to provide a functioning transportation system. Instead these developer-funded imbeciles left us with the mess we have today. A mess now being used as - surprise! - a justification to build denser growth, and boot lower-income residents out of there homes in DC and the surrounding suburbs. It's outrageous.
G. Money, I'm all in favor of having those types of companies, but I think the numbers show that states like Texas are destroying us in economic development. They are getting the corporate headquarters, the manufacturing facilities and other large-scale job creation that has greater impact than what we're doing now. We have NIH and the Metro Red Line, but we can't get halo corporations to anchor vacant, Class A office space near the Bethesda station. How will the Purple Line - which doesn't even connect directly to any international airport - perform any better than downtown Bethesda?
4:31: Also, I have to point out that it was not the "volume of local traffic" that was a "surprise", and caused the Beltway to be congested. It was the idiotic "surprise" of suddenly rerouting east coast traffic onto the Beltway, which wasn't designed to handle that volume. It was also the equally-idiotic surprise of cancelling all the feeder highways and circulatory routes around and within the District. Sheer idiocy, but not accidental or coincidental for those with a political and financial interest in crippling transportation in the DC region and elsewhere.
5:32: There was indeed debate on that point, but the ultimate plans in DC and Baltimore all had interstates shown running through the urban core. They "divide communities" no more than the Metro Red Line does in Rockville, or the Silver Line does in Tysons. I never hear anybody accuse transit facilities of dividing communities. Fascinating.
Why does Dyer seem to think that the only entities that provide jobs are Fortune 500 companies?
"The Beltway was absolutely not designed as a bypass. It is a circumferential highway."
LOL.
"the developer-backed astroturf 'freeway fights'"
LOL again.
"the ultimate plans in DC and Baltimore all had interstates shown running through the urban core."
Yeah? No one denies that. They were dumped because the citizens didn't want them. Now you quit denying that.
They "divide communities" no more than the Metro Red Line does in Rockville, or the Silver Line does in Tysons. I never hear anybody accuse transit facilities of dividing communities. Fascinating."
Are you seriously comparing the impact of a two-track transit line to that of a ten-lane freeway ?
I challenge you to stand at the corner of Connecticut and Florida Avenues NW, or at the corner of Blair Road and Cedar Street in Takoma and tell me, with a straight face, that building six-, eight-, or ten-lane freeways through those neighborhoods, wouldn't have totally destroyed them.
12:27: I can't take anyone "seriously" who is in denial regarding the original purpose of the Beltway - which was 100% not to carry I-95 traffic.
Or who denies there were outside actors providing astroturf "community opposition" to freeways, and trying to create hysteria about the scale of demolition that would be involved.
Have you measured how wide the Purple Line + trail + buffer + fence will be between Silver Spring and Bethesda? Have you ever tried to cross the Red Line to East Rockville? Hint: You can't. It's entirely fenced off! Metro divided communities! Oh, the humanity! The horror! In fact, even more of a solid wall than any freeway. "Seriously".
12:32: Were Bethesda and Silver Spring "destroyed" by the Beltway?
The total right-of-way for the Purple Line between Bethesda and Silver Spring is between 49 and 66 feet. That's less than Wisconsin Avenue.
The right-of-way for the Southwest Freeway is an entire city block wide - between 200 and 300 feet.
The Beltway was built primarily through undeveloped areas, but hundreds of houses were taken for the right-of-way between Wisconsin Avenue and Colesville Road, and through southern Alexandria.
"Metro divided communities! Oh, the humanity! The horror! In fact, even more of a solid wall than any freeway."
Gibberish. The corridor for the railroad and the Metro line is much narrower than for any superhighway, and has much less noise and pollution.
"Have you ever tried to cross the Red Line to East Rockville? Hint: You can't. It's entirely fenced off! Metro divided communities!"
Wrong again. There were only two crossings that were closed as a result of the construction of the Red Line between Twinbrook and Shady Grove - Lincoln Avenue and Westmore Avenue. The former was replaced with a pedestrian bridge and the latter was to an industrial area which was replaced by a longer approach via Gude Drive.
Correction to previous - Frederick Avenue, not "Lincoln Avenue".
4:09: I don't get what the argument is. I would have supported the demolitions proposed for the freeway system, had I been alive at the time. The total number of homes to be taken was greatly overexaggerated by "opponents".
Regarding the Red Line in Rockville, the width is irrelevant - it divides East Rockville from the rest of the city. Even more than an elevated or trench freeway would.
4:35: The bottom line is that it divides Rockville, but no one ever lashes out at transit for dividing communities in the "smart" growth movement. Just freeways, conveniently.
Do you not realize that "East Rockville" was built AFTER the railroad line was built?
"Even more than an elevated or trench freeway would."
What does this mean? You keep saying this but it makes no sense.
6:09: East Rockville was not built after the Metro Red Line.
What "this means" is that transit facilities can "divide communities" as much or more as freeways.
The Red Line was built along the railroad line (B&O Metropolitan branch) which was built between 1866 and 1873, well before "east Rockville" was built. It "divided" nothing.
As I said previously, only two crossings along the entire six-mile stretch between Twinbrook and Shady Grove were closed because of construction of the Red Line, and one of these was replaced by a pedestrian crossing. And several of the existing crossings were substantially improved as a result of the construction.
Idiot.
The beltway doesn't go through either of these places...?
8:02: I said the Red Line - the thing that's fenced off and has a live third rail. East Rockville was built before the Metro Red Line, which effectively walled off that side of the city from the downtown.
8:04: Through either of what places?
You said the beltway goes through Bethesda and silver spring. I guess it technically does, but in spots that don't really affect the two areas.
Dyer @ 11:43AM - I know you are obsessed with Texas, but you need to be more specific with what you are trying to compare, and how it relates to your proposed solution.
First of all, Maryland has consistently outranked Texas in per capita GDP since 1997. Texas has had higher growth recently, but they also lagged Maryland significantly in 10 of the last 15 years. It's always easier to grow when catching up than when leading (which is why China will continue to slow as it gets bigger).
Second, Texas has abundant oil resources, which accounts for about half of the 52 Fortune 500 companies that are headquartered there. Nothing that we could possibly do in Maryland would provide an incentive for those companies to move. So when you're talking about a per capita difference in Fortune 500 companies, it's not even but it's pretty close.
Third, you still have never demonstrated that building the transportation infrastructure you promote would induce Fortune 500 companies to move here. Dulles is underperforming and there are two other airports in the area. Further, Dulles will soon have direct metro access. Finally, there is a good deal of unoccupied office space within spitting distance of Dulles, and that would be occupied if proximity to Dulles was considered such a major draw.
* Should have said "when you're talking about a per capita difference in non-oil-based Fortune 500 companies..."
Dyer seems to think that all employees Fortune 500 companies take international flights as part of their daily commute.
He also seems to think that there was a complete street grid connecting Route 355 and areas east of the railroad tracks, before the Red Line was built. He's wrong. There were no crossings at all between Middle Lane and Frederick Avenue.
Following up on 8:23AM - Maryland's median income is $74k, Texas' is $52k (and is still lower even when accounting for cost of living differences in most cities).
Maryland has a much higher percentage (37% vs 27%) of the population with at least a bachelor's degree.
Maryland has a much lower percentage (10% vs 18%) of people below the poverty line.
Finally, the point that should really be made is that Texas is largely doing well because of the increased production of oil and gas - which of course have enormous negative externalities that are not being properly accounted for via taxation. At the same time, the Maryland economy relies heavily on Federal spending, which has been driven down in recent years by the sequester. If a carbon tax were to be put in place, maybe you'd see a bit more growth in Maryland, a lot less growth in Texas, and a lot less environmental damage over the long term. But that would be reasonable policy, and our government doesn't seem to be up for that these days.
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