Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Residents pan new Montgomery County snow plow tracker, fake news on sidewalks

The new Montgomery County "snow portal" touted by County Councilmember Hans Riemer and other officials got a failing grade from residents I spoke to, and on social media, after yesterday's storm. Not only is there no longer a map to view snow operations countywide, or even in your area, but the consensus opinion was that the time estimates were no more useful than the old map. Not to mention that switching to a primitive text format, instead of a graphic map, was like going from iPhone to DOS.
Constituent gives Councilmembers
Hans Riemer and Roger Berliner his
blunt assessment of their new "snow portal"
on Facebook
Riemer provided some additional fake news about his sidewalk shoveling bill, which cost taxpayers $6,458,000, but came up even shorter than the snow portal. In a blog post, he boasted that since the bill passed two years ago, "I find that the County is doing a much better job clearing snow from sidewalks where the County (or Parks) is the responsible party as well as helping clear snow from sidewalks where there may be a public safety concern."

"It's just as useless
as past versions. #FAIL"

This is simply not true, as I well-documented last winter. On Westbard Avenue alone, sidewalks fronting both Montgomery County (Little Falls Library) and Montgomery County Public Schools (Westland Middle School) property remained unshoveled a full month after the largest storm. Embarrassingly, Riemer himself passed by these very sidewalks after the storm on a carpetbagger's bus tour for the Westbard sector plan, and took no action to get them cleared.
What happened?
Riemer's claim earns him the Four Pinocchios/Pants-on-Fire awards.

41 comments:

Robert Dyer said...

6:24: You just proved you're the same paid troll trolling all of my news sites. What a moron. You were laughing about 5 minutes before this brass knuckle snow portal special report wiped the smile off your face.

Anonymous said...

This is what happens when the editor is snowbound in mommies basement. You get psycho-babble, endlessly. Go sleigh ride down Westbard Avenue toward the #45.

Barwood Sucks said...

Did they really get rid of the map?
Lol..Bad idea.
Could have been a disaster if we had more snow.

Anonymous said...

6:42am is fantasizing about being "snowbound" with Dyer. Oh, my.

Anonymous said...

The MoCo Machine has a brass knuckle snow portal?

Awesome!

Anonymous said...

Who is Dyer even talking to?

Anonymous said...

Why did you delete my comment from 15 minutes ago?

I simply pointed out that the amount you tout was for more than just sidewalk shoveling and that it wasn't clear in your post.

I also mentioned that Mr Riemer's comment didn't imply it was perfect, just better.
And I asked you why you felt differently.

And I correctly pointed out that your piece was more of an opinion piece since your disdain for Mr Riemer was quite evident.

Are we starting this again? I post, you delete, I post, you delete?

You know, what I ask is no different than what you would be asked if you were running for office.

Why are you so frightened of me?

Robert Dyer said...

8:00: I didn't delete any such comment, you must have deleted it yourself or it failed to post for some reason. The amount given is the dollar amount the bill cost taxpayers when it was passed two years ago. Facts. Kind of like the article. There are no facts in dispute in the article.

Riemer touted this as an improvement, when in reality it was not. Was just informed of unshoveled sidewalks at County garages yesterday in Silver Spring.

I'm not frightened of you, but our resident troll is frightened of me - that's why he hides and posts anonymous attacks from behind his keyboard, instead of confronting me in person at the meetings he claims he is stalking me at. What a nutjob.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for confirming that it was for more than sidewalk shoveling. It was the entire snow removal cost. Your readers would benefit to understand this important point.

The non-shoveled sidewalks at the county garages don't count, since it snowed yesterday and you have 24 hours for removal.

Robert Dyer said...

8:22: Wrong. I didn't confirm anything. The sidewalk shoveling bill cost over $6 million. We already had a budget for regular snow removal. This was to cover the cost of Riemer's failed scheme.

Why would the County need 24 hours - what else are they doing? It's not like the businesspeople and residents who have to do both. Is this how the County inspires compliance? By being the last people in downtown Silver Spring to clear their own property?

Humiliating. Helpless Hans swings and misses again. Is he going to have to beg Trone to add him to his Sugar Daddy Slate?

Anonymous said...

Dyer @ 8:37 AM -

"The sidewalk shoveling bill cost over $6 million. We already had a budget for regular snow removal."

So how much was the budget for "regular snow removal"?

Anonymous said...

"Residents pan new Montgomery County snow plow tracker"

I see just one resident doing the "panning".

Who were the others?

Anonymous said...

9:58 -

Four residents "panned" at The Other Place, 15-17 hours before Robert Dyer published this article.

Breaking news, for when you want to be the first to know. :)

Robert Dyer said...

10:09: "The Other Place" was the one that had a fake news piece on the snow portal, even gratuitously linking to Helpless Hans' blog as an inexplicable source for the shocking news that the County was pretreating roads(!!).

The Other Place did not do an expose on the failed rollout of the new site. For that, Bethesda indeed had to rely on me to be "the first to know."

Had Robin Ficker been behind the new snow plowing page, the expensive failed rollout of the site would have been the lead story on the small and slightly-failing magazine this morning.

Anonymous said...

"the small and slightly-failing magazine"

Lol at the jealously. He can't stop talking about them.

Dyer wishes he had 5% of the readers, revenue, staff, and credibility of the "magazine."

Friends of Woodmont Triangle said...

Why does Dyer's troll turns every article into a discussion about Bethesda Magazine?
Until he worked at the Magazine, he turned every article here into a debate about BethesdaNow.

Move on with your life, troll. The troll is always fighting an old war that has ended.

Anonymous said...

11:22 AM One, crazy troll at Bethesda Magazine hates Robert Dyer. One troll doesn't mean much in the scheme of things.

Get out in the community and actually talk to folks. You'll quickly find out how much loyal readership Dyer has.

Robert Dyer said...

10:24: Stealing my content without attribution, and undisclosed angel investors, leaves the magazine with very little "credibility." Look how I transformed the media marketplace in Montgomery County without even 5% of the large staff and angel funding of the magazine. In fact, the magazine had to drop its original successful model, and clone itself after mine. A lot of people across Montgomery County have me to thank for their jobs. Who's your daddy?

Anonymous said...

Dyer if you have evidence the magazine has an "angel" investor and doesn't rely on advertising revenues to pay its reporters - you should report that. If not, stop saying it, because it will get you sued.

Anonymous said...

"Look how I transformed the media marketplace in Montgomery County... A lot of people across Montgomery County have me to thank for their jobs."

Out and out delusional.

The magazine had to drop their successful model, and clone itself after mine."

More delusion. No one "cloned" your moribund model. LOL

Anonymous said...

Beware when Bethesda Magazine posts how successful they are here.

BethesdaNow claimed to have a "strong foothold" in Bethesda, page views increasing 250% a year, etc. It quietly shuttered.

Anonymous said...

Medium Rare opened today in Woodmont Triangle.

Anonymous said...

Angel funding. You mean investors?

Anonymous said...

Thanks to our wonderful new President Trump there is going to be a revival of the American made muscle cars, made in the USA by American workers. It's going to be huge.
No more ridiculous mpg regulations placed on automakers and an abundance of gasoline to burn in them. Ditch your electric Teslas people cause you'll just get run over or left in the dust with no charging station.

Anonymous said...

That's funny, I don't remember BethesdaNow being "quietly shuttered". I do remember them being bought by Bethesda Magazine, with plenty of public announcement - "fanfare", even.

Malignant narcissists like Dyer (signed or not) and Trump have an infinite capacity for self-deception.

Anonymous said...

Dyer rushes in where angels fear to tread.

Anonymous said...

@ 2:06 - And Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Roger Berliner just admonished the State for delays in improving safety at that intersection next to Walt Whitman.

Busy day in Bethesda. Good thing there is a place to get Bethesda's breaking news.

Anonymous said...

"Gratuitously linking to an inexplicable source for the shocking news..."

LOLwut???

Robert Dyer said...

12:23: They acknowledged they have angel investors in a Washington Post article. Why would I be "sued" for repeating something they themselves stated?

Robert Dyer said...

4:52: You mean they're finally reporting on that a week later, after failing to send any of their 3 full-time reporters to cover the meeting I reported on the morning after? And you think that's something to brag about?

2:06: I'm the one who broke the story about Medium Rare. My readers were first to have all the details directly from one of the owners himself.

Robert Dyer said...

3:23: Wrong. They bought it for $1, and the social media accounts which the previous owner had poured hefty cash into to artificially create large followings on Twitter and Facebook. The previous owner acknowledged the site failed financially. Everyone tried to spin going out of business as a success, in their "infinite capacity for self-deception."

12:28: You are the delusional one. I've been publishing since 2006. The magazine switched their old model for a clone of mine only a few years ago. People are laughing at you right now.

Anonymous said...

Dyer, did you ever figure out the difference between "SafeTrack Surge" and scheduled track maintenance?

Anonymous said...

Not content to merely distort quotes from The Washington Post (see "moribund"), he now completely fabricates stuff.

Robert Dyer is Bethesda's Jayson Blair.

Robert Dyer said...

9:17: Anybody can read the Post article by Thomas Heath to confirm Bethesda Magazine has angel investors they won't reveal the identity of. You are Bethesda's Pee Wee Herman.

Anonymous said...

Why are Bethesda Beat and Bethesda Magazine such nice publications - robust website, working links, etc if your Wordpress blog is the be all reporting source for how a hamburger tastes? Oh the irony.

Anonymous said...

Can you point out the article in the post? I've read a couple from April 2015 by Heath and don't see anything about angel investors. It mentions an original LOC loan that was paid back, but nothing about angel investors.

What article are you referring to?

Robert Dyer said...

4:03: I think the rest of us need a translator to make sense of your rambling word salad. The only part that's even in English is the first half, and it's a false statement. All the links work on my site, and it's so robust that readers spend more time per visit, and click further through the site, than on Bethesda Magazine/Bethesda Beef, according to the stats.

Anonymous said...

Can you point out the Post article to me? Like I said, I've read the two April 2015 stories, 4/20 and 4/26, which didn't have that angle and my searches haven't turned up anything else germane.

I was disappointed you didn't answer my question. I'm trying again.

I'd like to read it. You suggest @9:58 that I can read it. But I can't find it.

Can you help? Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Of course he can't - Robert Dyer is a scumbag human being. The world would be better off if he was sent to a prison camp in North Korea and never heard from again.

Why oh why don't we live in a world where justice like that can happen?!

Anonymous said...

I'm starting to wonder if this elusive WaPo article even exists.

Was it buried in another article and not obvious from the headline?
Can you give me a date or date range?
Are you sure it's by Thomas Heath?

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