Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Whipped by Fairfax, MoCo needs boardrooms, not bedrooms

A drive around the Capital Beltway tells you all you need to know about where the economic development action is in our region. Winding your way around the curves through Tysons, you marvel at the area's most impressive skyline. The region's tallest building - the Capital One headquarters - is under construction, towering over the freeway. Corporate logos are around every bend, including many that recently chose Tysons over Montgomery County, like Intelsat and Hilton Hotels. Snaking through the job-rich territory are major new transportation investments - Express Lanes and the Metro Silver Line; serious infrastructure compared to MoCo's laughably-lame future plans, which entirely consist of 12-miles-in-50-minutes Bus "Rapid" Transit, and bike lanes.

Driving the Beltway through Montgomery County, you'll see...trees. And more trees. Holy Cross Hospital. The Mormon Temple. A Marriott hotel. Extremely appropriately, the last thing you'll see before you cross the congested American Legion Bridge are two retirement communities on either side of the highway. Sad, but reflective of the message moribund Montgomery County would send to any international businessperson whose corporate limo happened to be traveling along the Beltway. An unlikely scenario, given that said businessperson will have already taken the Silver Line or direct highway access from Dulles International Airport into Tysons, signed the deal, and flown out of town again while you're still stuck in traffic going around the Beltway, thanks to our unfinished master plan highway system.

Realizing this, you probably wouldn't be surprised to learn that Fairfax County is still handing our impotent Montgomery County Council their briefcases when it comes to economic development. You wouldn't be surprised that the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that the average weekly wage paid in Montgomery County is $200 less than what you'd earn if you worked in Fairfax County. And you might not be surprised to learn that there are 588,000 jobs in Fairfax, and only 471,000 here in Montgomery.

But knowing all of that, what probably would surprise you, is that the Montgomery County Council and Planning Board believe we need more bedrooms, not more jobs. Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson recently went to bat on behalf of the developers he represents, adding even more last-minute luxury apartment height and density to the Westfield Montgomery Mall property, which sits alongside the I-270 spur in Bethesda. Not more office space, but more bedrooms. In one of the most overcrowded school clusters in the county, to boot.

This, despite the inescapable fact that adding thousands of new residential units countywide over the last two decades has proven the tax revenue generated by those bedrooms absolutely does not cover the costs in services, education and infrastructure they create.

This, despite County Executive Ike Leggett warning that we are becoming a bedroom community for the booming job centers elsewhere in the region.

And this, despite the fact that the only highway corridor in the county that has historically shown any sort of business development to interstate travelers - I-270 - is slowly being converted from corporate and business uses to residential and...self-storage. Yikes.

Office parks along I-270 and in Rock Spring near the mall are exactly the kind of places the most significant companies of our time are seeking for their headquarters - Apple and Google, for example, both have sprawling. low-rise, suburban campuses. High-wage aerospace and defense firms are seeking simiilar secure sites. Yet, companies like these aren't coming to Montgomery County. It's not because office parks went out of style, as Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai can tell you. It's because MoCo's taxes are too high, its regulation is extreme, the business climate is horrendously unfriendly, and the transportation system simply doesn't function - and doesn't go directly to Dulles Airport.

The last thing we need are more bedrooms around Montgomery Mall. Thanks to poor planning, and elected officials who are clueless about the world of international business circa 2017 (their few business trips have been taken exclusively to Communist countries, which probably explains a lot), we remain stuck significantly behind competing jurisdictions in economic development. Montgomery County is the only jurisdiction in the region to experience a net loss in jobs since 2000; all others around us gained jobs - even Culpeper County, for Pete's sake.

Government incompetence is costing you - in your paycheck if you work in MoCo, on your tax returns, and at the fuel pump and on your internet shipping charges, as traffic idles on the unfinished highway network of Montgomery County. Only by adding more boardrooms - not bedrooms - can we turn this around. Throw the bums out.

159 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fairfax has supplanted MoCo as the suburban gem of the DMV over the past 30 years. The change had been gradual, but consistent, such that if you looked at a "before and after" snapshot 30 years apart the progress Fairfax has made against MoCo would be stunning.

Business
Infrastructure
Schools

Anonymous said...

#FakeNews

Anonymous said...

Wow I'm shocked to see Dyer has for once actually quoted a legitimate, non-anecdotal source--the BLS. Of course he cherry-picked the one number that made Montgomery County look bad, but hey it's progress.

Maybe he should expand his horizons and look at the recent Census Bureau numbers showing stagnant population growth in Fairfax County --the worst in the entire metro area. Montgomery County added 7 times more people than Fairfax County last year.

If Fairfax is so great, why are so many people leaving? Why does the governor have to shell out tens of millions of tax payer dollars to every single major company that they attract? Why did AOL, ExxonMobil, and Sprint leave? Why is Montgomery County's office vacancy rate lower than Fairfax County's? Why does Bethesda have lower vacancy than Tysons? Why did Carly Fiorina recently say that Virginia business is "headed in the wrong direction"?

Anonymous said...

As someone who lives in Fairfax county and has to deal with all the congestion and also with the loss of trees brought on by too much development, I say the grass is not greener in VA.

Anonymous said...

Exactly my thought 6:56AM. I thought Maryland had made a priority to have buffers between the highway and development, as wanted by the voters.

From what I've read lately, MoCo is doing better than Fairfax with lower vacancy. I'm also not sure how helpful it is to compare the two. You know, at one point Alexandria was the gem of the DMV.

Robert Dyer said...

6:56: Your claim that there has been no loss of trees due to development in Montgomery County certainly proves you are a Fairfax resident. We have had explosive development here. We just haven't had the jobs Fairfax has been able to attract and create. You don't cut down a tree to create a job.

7:14: Go ahead and compare the two. Fairfax has much more office space because it has more jobs and economic activity than we do. That led to construction of more office buildings than in MoCo. So with the sequester impacting private defense contractors, and the recession, it's no surprise they would have vacancies - they have more space to fill.

But then look at how many jobs they have vs. MoCo - they easily win that comparison. Salaries. Corporate headquarters. Ahead of us in every meaningful comparison.

Anonymous said...

"So with the sequester impacting private defense contractors, and the recession, it's no surprise they would have vacancies - they have more space to fill."

Dyer's game of "heads I win, tails you lose", again.

Robert Dyer said...

7:58: Yeah, just like the County Council.

8:02: The data is definitive. We've lost to Fairfax.

Anonymous said...

Starbucks is moving to a new location within Pike and Rose ... You heard it HERE first.

RLPine said...

I live in Fairfax and all this development stinks. So much freaking traffic it's unbearable.

Roald said...

Makes sense to want more jobs in MoCo.

More jobs in MoCo would mean less folks having to commute into DC or Fairfax everyday. That would help reduce traffic congestion and increase quality of life.

Anonymous said...

We remember,King Philip

Anonymous said...

As always, it's fun listening to some unemployed dude who proclaims himself an expert on job creation.

Anonymous said...

Again, not sure it's helpful it is to compare the two. There are issues in Fairfax that I wouldn't want imposed on MC.
Why do you compare to only Fairfax County?

Anonymous said...

9:21 AM why hate small business people?

Anonymous said...

9:26 - Non-sequitur.

Anonymous said...

How many albums has Robert Dyer sold on Amazon?

How much revenue has he earned from ads on his YouTube videos?

Curious about his "business experience".

Anonymous said...

10:31 AM Clearly, you spend way too much time thinking about Robert Dyer.

Robert Dyer said...

6:46: Probably because she's running for office statewide? Virginia isn't Texas, and they've lost the bipartisan momentum toward a new Potomac River crossing that had been a goal of every governor up through McDonnell, but otherwise they're doing quite well.

You are the one cherry picking. We've already discussed how vacancy rate is falsely inflated by the greater surplus of office space in Virginia because of pre-recession demand - they have become victims of their own success in that respect.

The population influx into Montgomery County is mostly illegal immigrants predictably drawn by the free services and schools the Council has cynically deployed to lure them here. These are not the skilled millenials that are going to Pentagon City and the District.

Maryland and Montgomery County, as well as Ohio, Indiana, etc. are paying companies corporate welfare all the time. It's the cost of doing business in a competitive economy.

The best metric is remembering that we've lost every competition for a corporate headquarters to Virginia.

Robert Dyer said...

9:21: You know nothing of my employment status. I haven't publicly commented on my employment status for a decade. On what basis do you claim I am currently "unemployed?"

The reality is, I've created more jobs than the County Council combined. Most of the reporters around the table at Berliner's news conference have me to thank for their jobs.

Anonymous said...

How exactly do they have you to thank for their jobs? Did you hire them all first?

Anonymous said...

What kinds of jobs have you created?

Anonymous said...

If we had nicer developments like the one proposed in Westbard and White flint, more companies would come too. Lowering tax rates and other business critical features is needed too. Businesses come where people want to be, not just where the taxes are low. Tysons is a wasteland and ugly and disgusting. I hope we never ever end up like Tysons and NOVA. YEKH yuppy hell.

Anonymous said...

Amazing how much time "anonymous" man/former blogger spends thinking about Dyer and engaging in his defamation campaign against Dyer.

Meanwhile, Dyer doesn't spend a second thinking about this nut...

Anonymous said...

"Meanwhile, Dyer doesn't spend a second thinking about this nut..."

...types #UnsignedDyer, just 5 minutes later.

Anonymous said...

11:46 AM Your love of Robert Dyer is unrequited. It's been years pursuing Dyer...time to get on with your life.

Anonymous said...

I think we need more fast food franchises in Mo County.

ABerl said...

Can you qualify that statement? More jobs created? That would be pretty awesome if true.

Anonymous said...

11:53 They're not all the same person. And 11:46 and 10:31 and 11:12/14 are three different people. I am 11:12/14

Anonymous said...

12:08 PM Three different voices in your head or three different people?

Anonymous said...

#UnsignedDyer @ 11:53 AM -

7 minutes that time. LOL

Robert Dyer said...

11:14: Wrong! We've already put up several "nicer developments," and "more companies" chose Tysons and Northern Virginia over us. You've lost grip on reality, my friend.

Westbard doesn't even have a single square inch of office space ANYWHERE in either the sector plan or Regency Centers' plan. Even if the proposed development didn't look like a series of boxes along a road, there wouldn't be anyplace for a company that found it appealing to headquarter!

Tysons has the most impressive skyline in the region, definitely not "ugly and disgusting."

Robert Dyer said...

11:12: Many of their media outlets were created by the Montgomery County political cartel to compete with, and divert readers from, my successful websites. Had I not revolutionized hyperlocal news in 3-month-lead-time Montgomery County, many wouldn't have jobs angel-funded by the cartel today.

Robert Dyer said...

While our resident troll tries to sort out the numerous voices in his head, just ponder the devastating fact that if you work in Montgomery County, you make $200 less PER WEEK than those who work in Fairfax. #PayGap

Anonymous said...

Long before you were even a glimmer in your mother's eye, there was hyperlocal news reporting and hyperlocal news reporters. Even though they didn't call it hyperlocal then. Community or Neighborhood or Town News.

And there were news websites long before you started your blog.

I think crediting yourself for local reporters having jobs is a bit of a stretch. But, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this.

Anonymous said...

...says the guy who makes $0 per week.

Stop dragging the average down for the rest of us, Dyer.

Anonymous said...

We need to pay our county council more.
But... they just decided not to raise their pay this time around.
So we have to remember in 4 years to make sure they each get that $10,400 raise.

Anonymous said...

Robert Dyer changed the game in Bethesda media. There is B.D. and A.D. (before Dyer and after Dyer).

His brand of up to the minute, hyper local coverage of Bethesda simply didn't exist before he launched his website. Full stop.

Now Silver Spring and Rockville residents are embracing this brand of local coverage. Just in time, with the demise of the old media.

Anonymous said...

Someone's been drinking the KoolAid...

Anonymous said...

Someone's talking about himself in the third person again.

Anonymous said...

3:25 PM Your old, convenient crutch is to claim every positive comment about Dyer is Dyer posting about himself.

You're so angry about any positive comments about Dyer. Why is that?

Anonymous said...

"Now Silver Spring and Rockville residents are embracing this brand of local coverage."

No they're not. LOL

Anonymous said...

Adam Pagnucco on the state of the Media in Montgomery County on June 28,2016:

"We spent a lot of time discussing the near disappearance of local media coverage in our Politics After the Gazette series. The result of this is that people know a lot less about what their elected officials do than they did twelve years ago. Back then, the Post had multiple reporters covering county government and it competed vigorously with the Gazette and a daily, the Montgomery Journal, both of which are gone. Now, there are basically two people responsible for local news here: the Post’s Bill Turque and Bethesda Magazine publisher Steve Hull. That’s it, folks."

http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=6851

So much for the claimed Dyer revolution in local news.

Robert Dyer said...

2:25: There were no hyperlocal news sites about Bethesda, MD. Period. Mine was the first.

I was also first to bring this coverage of news, crime, retail, real estate and dining to Rockville, Silver Spring, Wheaton, and Gaithersburg.

Stop lying.

Robert Dyer said...

5:49: Big mistake to bring that up. Pagnucco well knows who I am. In a panicked Facebook discussion with MoCo cartel darling Dan Reed and fellow operatives years ago, Pagnucco informed them that "It's Robert Dyer" who was behind the east county's leading news source, East MoCo. Fully aware of my growing county media presence, Pagnucco said, "He's very active across many platforms."

Pagnucco is deliberately lying when he claims I don't exist in that blog post. He spoke of the one the cartel Dare Not Name - lest he finally receive the acknowledgement of their little Post+Washingtonian kingmaker-gatekeeper world - Robert Dyer, YEARS before he typed the malarkey you just quoted.

So much for your, and Pagnucco's, claim I didn't revolutionize local news.

Robert Dyer said...

2:25: And your evidence I make $0 a week is?

East Mucus said...

"the east county's leading news source, East MoCo."

LOL

Anonymous said...

"the east county's leading news source, East MoCo."

Dyer's rants on the MoCo machine copied and pasted from here, with the addition of one "token" article a week on restaurant openings and closings in Silver Spring and Wheaton.

And zero readers.

Anonymous said...

Maybe I'm too pro-Maryland (being a lifelong resident), but every time I go to visit my friends in Fairfax, I always get stuck in traffic on I-66, no matter if it's Saturday afternoon or during a weekday.

Then there seems to be little zoning -- you'll have a housing development on a highway and a strip mall right next to it. Just doesn't have much of a residential or walkable feel.

And I'm not even talking about Tysons -- that's an absolute mess.

Anonymous said...

So if I understand Dyer correctly - MoCo has no office buildings since they are not directly visible from the Beltway.

Anonymous said...

Dyer @ 7:14 PM - Has anyone else besides you (and this weird anonymous dude who responds to every critical comment within a few minutes) claimed that you "have revolutionized local news"?

Anonymous said...

Dyer @ 7:17 PM - So how much do you make per week?

Robert Dyer said...

9:26: Has anyone else besides you, who is the real "weird anonymous dude" too girlish to put his name on his comments, falsely claimed there was a hyperlocal Bethesda news site before mine?

Thousands of daily readers agree that I have indeed revolutionized local news in Montgomery County. Nobody was doing what I'm doing when I launched these sites.

Cash me outside, how bou dat.

Robert Dyer said...

7:39: You disgusting, fat liar - I've had several scoops this week on East MoCo. You obviously slept through them.

Fortunately, thousands of readers in eastern Montgomery County were awake, and they appreciate finally having a news site reporting on their neighborhoods.

Robert Dyer said...

9:09: No, dumbass. We don't have an energetic business presence along the Beltway, unlike Fairfax and Prince George's County. Befitting our super low energy County Council!

Anonymous said...

Nope. I stand my ground.

Long before you were even a glimmer in your mother's eye, there was hyperlocal news reporting and hyperlocal news reporters. Even though they didn't call it hyperlocal then.
And there were news websites long before you started your blog.

There were monthly mimeographed neighborhood newsletters in Bethesda communities in the 1960's. My parent's house was front and center one year with a hissing gas leak after a WSSC street repair. The really loud repair went all night long, much to the dismay of the neighbors.

I think crediting yourself for local reporters having jobs is a bit of a stretch.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this.

Anonymous said...

@5:33 AM - "I think crediting yourself for local reporters having jobs is a bit of a stretch."

Not a bit of a stretch, a bald-faced absurd claim to make.

And Adam Pagnucco did not state that you did not exist. He just states by omission that you and your blogs do not matter as an important source of local news.

Anonymous said...

I don't know who Pagnucco is, but he is ignoring several other sources of MoCo news: Dyer's hyperlocal sites, MyMCMedia and The Sentinel. Obviously Pagnucco is not a subject matter expert.

Folks like Pagnucco can have their favorite sites that align more with their partisan views or that they have financial interest in but they lose credibility when saying Dyer has "zero" readers. All of Dyer's readers here chuckle when reading that kind of stuff. Dyer's readership is growing and he's clearly expanding to cover more of the county. We should all welcome more local news coverage.

Roald said...

I'm glad we have Dyer's daily local news coverage. It's laughable to say the only source of Montgomery County news is the Washington Post and a quarterly print magazine. I laughed so hard reading that line that I almost spilled my Starbucks :)

Anonymous said...

Birdbrain, the areas adjacent to the Beltway in Montgomery County were already built up, as residential areas. In Fairfax and PG, those were all still cornfields.

Anonymous said...

"A quarterly print magazine."

Yesterday their website published eight useful local news articles while Dyer was ranting incoherently about the MoCo Machine. And two more just this morning.

I'm surprised that you missed this. Did Dyer install a North Korea-style firewall, to block your knowledge of the outside world?

Anonymous said...

@6:22, @6:26 You really have to read the whole 4-Part series, as multiple sources of local news are discussed, including local blogs: http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=6446

Pagnucco did not state that there were no other sources of news besides the Post and the glossy magazine. Read the whole series (it is not terribly long). His argument is that other available sources of news have serious issues.

Tim said...

"Yesterday their website published eight useful local news articles"

Here are actual headlines from Bethesda Magazine in the past 24 hours:

"Chevy Chase couple reports finding live scorpion inside bag of prepackaged spinach"
"Divorce: Should you Stay or Go?"
"Man runs Marathon"
"Silver Spring Man Buys Two Winning Scratch Off Tickets from Same Store"
"Get you Best of Bethesda Party Tickets Today!"


I really feel up to speed on what's going on in MoCo after reading this enterprising journalism. Thanks Bethesda Magazine!

(No wonder Dyer's audience is surging.)

Anonymous said...

From the second article in Pagnucco's series:

"Then there are the blogs. Whatever you think of them, there are several features that distinguish them from mainstream news outlets. 1. They tend not to have clear and consistent standards for publishing. 2. Most are driven by opinions, sometimes with facts to back them up and sometimes not. 3. Many posts are derived from mainstream news articles, which act as original sources of content. 4. None of them have the reach of news sources like the Gazette, which once dropped hundreds of thousands of papers in front of doors around the region."

Robert Dyer said...

5:33: A monthly, homemade newsletter is not a daily, hyperlocal news website. There was no such thing in Bethesda until I created it. The Post, Gazette and other papers never provided hyperlocal coverage of Bethesda or other individual towns. In its final months of life, in fact, the Gazette began to copy my model, as did Bethesda Magazine.

You can't "agree to disagree" when the facts don't support your assertions.

5:53: Pagnucco never made any such statement. What he did do was pretend my sites don't exist, even though the daily Bethesda Magazine site he does mention only exists as a copycat of my format.

6:59: You confuse quantity with quality and relevance. You also lie; they have only printed one actual article this morning, and it was misleading fake news pretending that retail stores will be selling liquor soon. All grocery, drug and convenience stores are actually barred from selling alcohol under the provisions of the bill being referred to. #FakeNews

7:01: The quote is right above here, in which he falsely claims that the only people covering Montgomery County are Bill Turque and Steve Hull. You know as well as I do that his statement is complete horse****. You're commenting right now on my site THAT COVERS MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

This is not just a "blog," it is a news site. It is not a "niche site." It reports on an almost unlimited number of topics related to Bethesda.

Stop lying, and start criticizing Pagnucco for being a liar, too.

Anonymous said...

7:13 AM Yes, I really miss the 2 Bethesda focused articles we'd get once a week in the Gazette :) Meanwhile, we get more than that daily from Dyer.

The hard fact is that no one under age 55 was picking up and reading all those print copies of The Gazette. Same thing with magazines. That's the past and they had their time in the sun. It's time to move along.

The Gazette did a good job in profiling candidates and election coverage but was slow to adapt to the type of digital news that Dyer ushered into MoCo. The Gazette suddenly was interested in covering the types of reports Dyer brought us, but it was too late.

Robert Dyer said...

7:13: More horse****. My sites have clear standards (unlike Bethesda Magazine, which doesn't cite me when using my content as the basis for stories on their site, which should be Journalism 101 reflex for a professional "journalist"), and I always have the facts to support my reporting.

I'll meet Pagnucco anytime, anywhere for a public debate on that. He can ask his old boss Riemer how good of a debater I am.

Anonymous said...

Let's let Dyer and his family (the atta-boy givers) own their silly little claims.

Anyone and everyone who reads this knows this is an opinion site.
Anyone and everyone who matters knows this is an op-ed without the ed.

Full-stop.

Anonymous said...

Robert, your problem is that you think your opinions are fact. They are not. The skyline of Tysons is not impressive and nice. You think so. I and many others do not. It's nauseating and much of those buildings are empty. Government Contractors mostly work out of Virginia and not even Tysons. As Bethesda modernizes, especially the crappy Westbard, it will make doing anything more attractive in Montgomery County. I do wish you would leave and go to dumpy Tysons though, if you love it so much. We're not here to be Tysons. I live and work in Mont. County specifically because i hate Tysons. I have lived there and it was a nightmare.

Anonymous said...

hey birdbrain! this site by definition is a blog....i'm writing this comment on "blogger.com" therefore by definition, you are a blogger! Stop pretending to be a journalist. Real journalists report facts, not unhinged rants about their "competition".

Anonymous said...

7:26 AM Sounds great. The Council should be working to bring more jobs to the County so more folks and can and work here like you! You agree with Dyer.

Anonymous said...

7:30 AM Yes, it's much better when Dyer's "competition" anonymously have their defamation campaign against Dyer here and elsewhere.

Plenty of "unhinged" anonymous comments about Dyer here from other Bethesda bloggers- past and present bloggers :)

But you're ok with those.

Anonymous said...

I'll agree there was no hyper-local daily website in the 1960's.

But you were not the first person to think of it, nor the first person to start it.

In the final months of their life the Gazette began following the national model for local news in the digital age. TRUTH. Ask the publishers. Seriously, pick up the phone and ask someone involved, let them explain it to you.

I'm going to take the high road and agree to disagree. You can take whatever road you like.

Robert Dyer said...

7:26: You say my problem is that I think my opinions are fact, and follow that with a barrage of opinions that are definitely not fact. The buildings in Tysons are very much full of workers. At night, the skyline blows away anything in Montgomery County to date.

Bethesda modernized a long time ago. We also have numerous upscale new developments like Pike & Rose and Downtown Crown. Guess what? We still can't attract a major corporation to move here. If you think the ugly, 7 boxes lined up along Westbard Avenue - with no office component, to boot - will attract Fortune 500s to come here, you're kidding yourself. Fortune 500s don't relocate to be near Chopt or Chipotle.

7:26: This is no more an opinion site than Bethesda Magazine or any other media outlet. You just happen to like their syncophant approach to the Montgomery County cartel and County Council. That doesn't make their opinion site factual.

For what Paul Harvey called, "the rest of the story," Bethesda residents tired of the corrupt County Council are now turning to my website. Journalists are supposed to be adversarial, not cozy with the politicians they cover. Wake up.

Anonymous said...

You are on "Blogger"

My tab reads:
Blogger:Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row

So, exactly how are you not a blogger with a blog?

Rugby said...

7:30 AM I was waiting for someone to pull out the old "My WordPress blog template makes me more official than Dyer's Google platform" line. :) 5+ years, and the same arguments.

There's no super secret journalist badge.
There's no certification to be a journalist.
Not all journalists or reporters have journalism degrees.
You don't have to publish a print edition to be a journalist.

Anonymous said...

Saith Dyer @ 7:22 AM:

"Misleading fake news pretending that retail stores will be selling liquor soon"

That's not what the article said, at all. Here is the headline:

"General Assembly Approves Bill To Allow Privately-Owned Stores To Sell Liquor in Montgomery County"

The move could end the Department of Liquor Control’s monopoly over the retail sale of spirits"

The article notes that only stores selling beer and wine would be able to sell liquor, if the bill becomes law. It says nothing about "grocery, drug and convenience stores".

Why do you lie when it's so easy to debunk your BS?

Robert Dyer said...

7:36: So, what was the daily, hyperlocal news site in Bethesda before mine? (Hint: there wasn't one)

The Gazette followed the "national model for local news?" Please. They posted their print articles online. Once a week. At the end, they desperately started trying to mimic my site's model, but failed miserably as I had already reported the same news days earlier.

The Gazette editors I met with as a political candidate were complete idiots, and cowards to boot. They couldn't meet face to face to explain why they had just endorsed a candidate who hadn't left her home all year, and skipped every single debate and forum, despite their endorsement guidelines clearly stating that the candidate's effort in those respects were a major criteria for endorsement.

Then they literally hid behind the skirt of their secretary when I asked them to explain their decision. They had zero grasp of the modern economy and economic development. I wouldn't pick up a phone to ask them if the sun was shining, much less for anything more complicated than that.

There's a reason why they're extinct, and I'm still publishing.

Robert Dyer said...

7:45: Read the headline you just quoted. It doesn't say anything about "beer and wine stores." It clearly says, "privately-owned stores," an attempt to fool people into thinking CVS and Safeway, and clicking on the link. Fake news.

Anonymous said...

"There's no super secret journalist badge."

"There's no certification to be a journalist."

"You don't have to publish a print edition to be a journalist."

Straw men. No one but you ever said this.

The critical traits of a good journalist are objectivity and accuracy, neither of which Robert Dyer has.

Anonymous said...

It says "private stores". It didn't say "ALL private stores". Currently no private stores are allowed to sell.

My God, you are desperate birdbrain. Is it at all possible for you to quote anyone accurately and in context?

Anonymous said...

Carry on with your silly little ego problem. You obviously think very highly of yourself. I love how you talk to minor players and think you get the story. Rookie move.

You weren't the first to come up with hyper-local news. Deal with it.

You write a hyper-local opinion and news blog.

Anonymous said...

7:52 AM Someone above said the Gazette was super official because they had a print copy thrown at every house.

That's like saying junk mail is super effective because it's in every mailbox. I don't know about you, but I discard that junk just like folks recycled the Gazette every week.

I'm not denigrating their work, or what Bethesda Magazine does, but they had their time. They're the past.

Anonymous said...

"Then they literally hid behind the skirt of their secretary when I asked them to explain their decision."

Do you understand what the word "literally" actually means?

Robert Dyer said...

7:56: Without qualifiers, just saying "private stores" indeed suggests all private stores. It's the clickbait headline that wasn't "accurate and in context."

7:57: I was the first to introduce hyperlocal news to Bethesda, and eventually the rest of the county with my other sites. I never claimed to be the first in the nation, just the first in Montgomery County. If this is blog, so is Bethesda Beef, which is in the exact same format.

7:58: Yeah, I do. You should have heard their cowardly voices coming from their secretary's phone.

Friends of Ajay Bhatt's Fence said...

So if Dyer's readership is "surging", and Bethesda Magazine "had it's time, but is the past" then how come Dyer only gets one-twentieth of the readers compared to the latter?

Anonymous said...

Brush on your debating skills.
You can't use distraction to change the topic.
Argue without using personal opinion
Basics are matter, method and manner.
This could be a problem for you.

Anonymous said...

Is there an official body that will anoint the true, pure journalists among us? :)

Come on, folks, get real.

Did Prince of Petworth have all this crap thrown at him from the legacy local media in DC? Seems like the old local legacy media only knows to attack when threatened.

Anonymous said...

Nope you weren't the first to offer hyper-local news to Montgomery County.

Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?

People have been providing hyper-local news and goings-on in many formats for decades.

Anonymous said...

Prince of Petworth is not rude and obnoxious. Robert Dyer is rude and obnoxious. He thinks he is Howard Stern and Woodward and Bernstein all in one. He is not.

He has a chip on his shoulder and I suspect always has. I am no fan of Hans Riemer, but Robert Dyer is in the same camp of lousy for me.

I also love that Prince of Petworth has positive contributions and posts light-hearted things like dogs and cats. Robert Dyer has zero soft skills.

Anonymous said...

8:11 AM There was a daily, hyper local news source about Montgomery County before Robert Dyer's sites?
Please provide a source to your claim.

If you don't have a source, then why is it so hard for you to give Dyer credit for bringing his brand of hyper local enterprising journalism to Bethesda and MoCo?

Being positive and complimenting people can feel good. Try it sometime!
Being negative all the time isn't healthy.

Anonymous said...

"Someone above said the Gazette was super official because they had a print copy thrown at every house."

Once again, no one actually said that. And The Gazette published electronically for at least 15 years before they closed in 2015.

I don't understand why you feel the need to fabricate stuff that no one actually said, and at the same time ignore that which is actually true

Anonymous said...

8:12 AM Dyer has positive contributions. You usually respond to them here with your same vindictive vulgar comments.

You still will never say what you think Dyer did to you that you feel so vindictive toward him. I think if you'd open up and talk about your personal pain, it'd he healthy.

Anonymous said...

"Being positive and complimenting people can feel good. Try it sometime! Being negative all the time isn't healthy."

Anonymous said...

"Attaboy, Dyer!"

Robert Dyer said...

8:11: So, what was the daily, hyperlocal news site in Bethesda before mine? You can't seem to answer that question, yet you claim I wasn't first.

8:12: A hard news site doesn't need "soft skills."

Anonymous said...

I don't know Pagnucco, but his comments about the Gazette shows how out of touch he is.
It has greater reach and influence because a print copy is thrown at every house?
Yes, greater influence among elderly folks.

My God...

Anonymous said...

I'm a reader. Others here are merely readers.

Dyer and his flunkies can't get it through their heads that more people post omments than only those from other sites. Many more.

What was it that Andrea Mitchell said recently?
“I have never seen anything like this where people just flat out lie,” Mitchell said. “You know, black is white and white is black, and they mislead you. It’s really disconcerting to see the podium in the White House briefing room being used to mislead or misdirect or obfuscate.”

Just replace "podium in the WH briefing room" with "Robert Dyer on @Bethesda Now"

Anonymous said...

I am not vindictive towards Robert Dyer. I just don't agree with his opinions or his way of communicating those disagreements. He is rude and obnoxious. Even if I agreed with him on some things, I would say that. I wouldn't want him in my camp anyway. I do appreciate the blog, and the dozens of pictures he will post about a shoe shop going out of business, but my opinion stands about his attitude and why he is far from a serious journalist.

Anonymous said...

8:23 AM If someone is committed to posting vulgar, negative comments here on a daily basis and seeks to disrupt Dyer's site, then they have some personal or financial reason to do so.

Usually most folks will just not visit a news site they don't like, not spend large amounts of their time on a personal vendetta against the writer.

Anonymous said...

8:25 AM Great, that's your opinion. But, again, no one annoints who is a journalist or not.

These Bethesda Blog Wars threads are always popular.

Anonymous said...

You are again trying to claim that you are the first to provide hyper-local news in Montgomery County Maryland in any format EVER in the history of the world.

I say no way.

By the way, the word daily was added by you and never used by me. You can't change what I said and then call me out for saying something I never said.
That would be wrong. And sloppy journalism.

Robert Dyer said...

8:23: The problem with your "make Larry Hogan talk about the Donald" detour into Trumpland is that this website only prints hard facts. I can defend every statement I make on here, because they are all based in fact.

8:25: No, I'm not rude and obnoxious. If you are the paid troll who posts here, you might feel that way. Otherwise, I'm no more obnoxious than David Alpert or Dan Reed.

What readers enjoy here, is that they finally have somebody like Alpert or Reed who is defending their neighborhood, instead of trying to level it to the ground like Alpert and Reed. I stick it to "The Man," whereas Alpert and Reed work FOR "The Man."

Big [Joe Biden] difference there.

Robert Dyer said...

8:30: You're pretty desperately seeking an out, as you realize there was no hyperlocal news site before mine in Montgomery County. Newspapers are not hyperlocal, they don't cover the full spectrum of topics and neighborhood happenings that a true hyperlocal site like mine does. And the fact is, this was the first hyperlocal site in Montgomery County. Period.

Anonymous said...

Hypothetically, I wonder how Dyer would be received if he praised everything the MoCo Council does, covered Reimer's pet projects with skepticism, wrote articles praising his favorite council members, donated to their campaigns, etc.

This wouldn't be journalism, but I bet the negative vulgar attacks here would go away and he'd have extensive profiles written up about him in the Washington Post, Washingtonian, etc. He'd probably be a regular on the Kojo show :)

Anonymous said...

8:29 but you are ASSUMING that. I have NEVER posted anything vulgar. 8:12 didn't post anything vulgar, yet you accuse both of us.

If you really, really think that thousands of people read this blog, can you really be small-minded enough to think that only one person posts comments? Honey, that's not how the real world works.

Have you ever tried to understand any of our points of view? Or are you just a yes-man?

I'm a fantastically kind, supportive, encouraging and positive person.

With zero tolerance for lies and BS.

Anonymous said...

8:36 AM Edit: covered Reimer's pet projects withOUT skepticism,

Robert Dyer said...

8:36: Ah, yes, Kojo. Where Roger Berliner, Dan Reed and the Coalition for Smarter Growth go to mercilessly mock Roger's own constituents. Best echo chamber on radio.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Robert. Look at you on that high horse trying to put your desperation on me. Not seeking an out. No need to. I stand by my words and YOU have yet to PROVE me wrong.

Telling the truth. Go back and read my posts. Never ever said daily. I went back and checked, Daily was your word. And I, unlike you, can't go back and edit words out of my comments.

If Dyer wrote only glowing things about the council, we'd still call him out on everything because it would still be heavy on opinion and light on fact.

Robert Dyer said...

8:47: So what was the hyperlocal news website covering Bethesda before mine? Daily is an essential aspect of hyperlocal news, and is one of innovations I brought to coverage of Bethesda. But even if you strangely insist on removing "daily," there still was no other website that qualified as hyperlocal before mine. Articles about divorce and Carol Sugarman restaurant reviews are not hyperlocal news. The Post and Gazette never did hyperlocal. So, what was the first hyperlocal site before mine? You are unable to answer.

Anonymous said...

And here's something else weird here.

Dyer and his lieutenants bring up these names like we're all supposed to know what they're talking about and what it means.

It's like they've got this little world they spin in and forget that most readers aren't part of it.

Do you think Dyer only wants the troll to post?

Anonymous said...

While Dyer was busy insulting his readers, the Magazine published two more stories. :)

Anonymous said...

And now you're inserting a NEW word into my comments? WEBSITE. Your word not mine. SITE. Your word not mine.

I stand by my comments. My post:
"Long before you were even a glimmer in your mother's eye, there was hyperlocal news reporting and hyperlocal news reporters. Even though they didn't call it hyperlocal then. Community or Neighborhood or Town News.
And there were news websites long before you started your blog.
I think crediting yourself for local reporters having jobs is a bit of a stretch. But, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this.
2:25 PM"

Anonymous said...

"The Man"

Sounds like Dyer is both

1) Stuck in another decade, and

2) Suffering from serious "daddy issues".

Anonymous said...

Another one of mine:
"You are again trying to claim that you are the first to provide hyper-local news in Montgomery County Maryland in any format EVER in the history of the world.
I say no way.
By the way, the word daily was added by you and never used by me. You can't change what I said and then call me out for saying something I never said.
That would be wrong. And sloppy journalism. 8:30 AM"

Robert Dyer said...

9:01: Have they gotten past the fake news reports promoting the campaigns of Charles Barkley and Ariana Kelly?

I didn't insult any readers, just you, the lone troll posting all these nasty comments. Readers are applauding me for wiping the floor with you.

Anonymous said...

Prince of Petworth is lucky he doesn't have a man who has been dedicated to disrupting his site for several years...

Friends of Skeletons in Westbard said...

If not for "trolls", Robert Dyer would have, at most, only one reader.

Anonymous said...

Dyer, you enumerate birdbrain! Do you really think it's just one "lone troll"? I would be any amount of money there are at least two, likely more "trolls" that don't always agree with you. I for one think it's funny when you your dumpster catches fire and you meltdown at your readers...but not everyone does, some get offended and complain, some may even taunt you. I've never seen any real journalist go bonkers on people like you.

Anonymous said...

9:23 AM You know how dumb you sound considering all of the people in Bethesda that read this site?

Anonymous said...

9:25 AM No one has ever seen a local journalist receive so many vulgar comments, personal attacks and threats.
And yet, you're quiet and accepting of those.

The old "I post crazy comments on Dyer's site so therefore he is crazy" tactic from years ago.

Betsy said...

It seems rational if Dyer claims there is only one troll then the same could be said for regular readers.

That being said, anyone with a brain will realize it's not just one troll and not just one regular reader.

Betsy said...

Rob, you insult readers all the time. If you don't consider trolls readers as your excuse for your logic of never insulting readers, it's silly but ok whatever, it's your blog and your image in the public eye that comes across as defensive and childish.

Maloney Concrete said...

It's a man with personal and financial reasons to troll/attack Dyer here everyday.

A normal, healthy person who just not visit a site they hated.

Betsy said...

"The best metric is remembering that we've lost every competition for a corporate headquarters to Virginia." - Robert Dyer

That's one metric, sure, but if you think Thad the best or only metric to matter, you may not understand business and local economies as well as you insist you do.

Anonymous said...

Robert,
You accused me of saying things I didn't say & I stood up for myself.
Attack me all you want. Insult me all you want. I'm going to stand up for myself when you put words in my mouth.

So, since I proved you wrong...

I believe it is me who has wiped the floor with you.

Respectfully, @9:03AM and 9:06AM

Oh, 9:33? I used to post that all the time too. Heck, I was the one who first brought "fanboys" into the discussion. Give it time. You'll see.


It's better to be hated for being honest, than it is to be loved for lying and telling half-truths. Those that matter will always care for you.

Anonymous said...

The nastiest comments here come from the same man. This man swore off his personal life, vacations, the whole thing...just to ride Dyer here everyday and try to disrupt this site.

Obviously, he failed. He continues his defamation campaign against Dyer however.

Anonymous said...

9:56AM

And that gives you and Dyer the right to treat every other person who posts here as poorly as you treat that alleged one person?

You can't even tell which posts, if any, are from him. Don't tell me you can because I get wrongly accused a lot. Enough that I've offered to prove myself more times than I care to admit.

Anonymous said...

10:05 AM It's not hard to tell which posts are from this man. They are often nasty, vulgar and use the same phrases and arguments.

The man had his chance with his blog, failed but still irrationally despises Dyer.

Anonymous said...

It's not one person, how idiotic is everyone here? I'm sure you're the same people that believe everything Trump says as well.

Anonymous said...

10:46 AM It's the same man. He outed himself by talking about particular public meetings he attended with Dyer.

Anonymous said...

Yet I've never posted anything vulgar and have been accused over and over of being said guy and told that you "know for a fact" I am him because I use the same phrases and arguments. Usually followed by a veiled threat or some victory for wiping the floor with me or slamming my head through a glass coffee table, or sending me to jail for two years or hitting me with a bat.

10:13AM Unfortunately, your reasoning doesn't work.

Anonymous said...

Robert, you say you don't "need" soft skills for a "hard" blog LOL. I didn't say you need them but you just admitted that you don't have them. You can certainly get by without them, but they definitely help. It's a tip that I'm sure you'll ignore ad infinitum.
This blog is more about you than it is about Bethesda. This blog is more about your personality and the quirky style. The tone is very over the top, but that's why many of us come here and comment on that. The sad part about this is that you don't see it that way. You're out of touch with how you are perceived and that's kind of like our President right now.

Anonymous said...

11:07 - One person may be that commenter, but certainly many are not that same person. I for one have never been to a public meeting and I comment all the time.

Anonymous said...

There may be one like that if you insist ok but definitely not everyone here is that same person you claim. Jesus Christ.

Anonymous said...

It's the same troll man, Dyer and Dyer's family. Those are the only readers of this blog.

For the rest of us, it's the Sixth Sense. We've died, but don't know it. Ghosts that will spend eternity reading Dyer's site and flipping back and forth between it and other local sites, counting time stamps. Time is meaningless to us now.

Anonymous said...

If it's all the same troll, then 12:29 must be robert commenting on his own blog. See I used the same flawed logic there.

Anonymous said...

1:23 PM Clearly you, Dyer and Dyer's parents are the only readers here.
Dyer does all this work for three people to consume everyday.

99.99% of people in Bethesda have never heard of Pagnucco, but he is telling us that Dyer is irrelevant one.

No offense to Pagnucco, but Dyer is much more widely read in Bethesda than he is.

Anonymous said...

1:43 PM Dyer is the one person who actually uses his name here.

Anonymous said...

Tomorrow, Dyer will post many stories with a picture, or a few stories with a plethora of pictures, or some combo of both to fill up the first page of the blog and send this story to the dreaded back pages, where it will die a lonely death as people's memory of it fades.

And nothing changes. We'll all still be the one lone troll.

Anonymous said...

1:56 PM And we'll all be there, starting every morning 7 days a week with Dyer's local news reports.

We couldn't do that with the Gazette, Mr. Pagnucco.

Anonymous said...

Hey, that was quick @2:03PM. Were you military? Not quick enough to be a Marine, but you could have been Army.

Robert Dyer said...

11:56: You're the one out of touch. I've met many readers in person, and not a single one has had anything negative to say. Yet, here you are, the lone troll, babbling on like Charlie Brown's teacher.

Wa wa wa wawa wa.

Anonymous said...

I get up extra early just so I can read about some weird green sculpture, the latest Salvation Army store opening, photos of Bethesda street scenes taken at 3 am on Tuesday nights, and most of all, 2-day-old recycled crime reports with absolutely no useful information at all!

Robert Dyer's blog is an oasis in the information swamp that is Bethesda!

Anonymous said...

6:11PM Watch out for those "live scorpions" inside your prepackaged spinach. The more you know...

7:05PM You're right, there are 15 people that all know the access code to the Norfolk Ave Starbucks bathroom and are obsessed with Dyer. Makes total sense.
I guess you're making progress. We went from you & Robert Dyer as the only readers to you, Dyer and Dyer's parents and now we're up to 15 people reading Dyer. You'll eventually get there!

Anonymous said...

11:56 Great comment. On point.

Dyer @4:38 - No one says anything negative *about* you *to* you? Well that's normal. When you meet someone do you tell them what you don't like about them?
Most people don't. I don't. Especially not Glenn Thrush.

Robert Dyer said...

4:06: Sorry, but most people aren't cowards like you. If they didn't like the blog, they just wouldn't say anything to me at all. You've got your talking points, but they just don't fit with reality.

Cash me outside, how bou dat

Anonymous said...

Ladies and gentlemen, your next county council candidate.

Anonymous said...

You like threatening people. You do know that means meet me outside to fight and that girl who made it famous is gutter trash?
Well, if that's what you want to say and if that's the group you want to cater to...

I have never said anything here that I wouldn't say to anyone's face. You can't say the same. I'd love for you to tell me to my face that you'd like to see my face smashed thru a coffee table. You'll get a chance...but will you threaten anyone in public to their face? Now who's the coward, little man.

That's rich. My points don't mesh with reality.

Robert Dyer said...

5:23: Now you're making stuff up again, and calling a girl "gutter trash." You might end up at the kids' table at the next Democratic Party dinner if you keep this up.

5:06: Compared to the clowns we have in there now, I'm the equivalent of George Washington.

Anonymous said...

Convenient memory lapses, Dyer?

Danielle Bregoli is her name. Quoting an out-of-control 13 year-old from Dr Phil. Classy. From yesterday.
http://www.wptv.com/news/region-s-palm-beach-county/delray-beach/cash-me-ousside-teenager-danielle-bregoli-appears-in-delray-beach-court-to-face-felony-charges

Why assume I'm a Democrat? I'm not. Was Republican for many years. Until the small-mindedness and hate took over. Registered as unaffiliated for past 10 years. Happy.

Anonymous said...

I guess when his teeth were out he also argued "argle bargle"

Anonymous said...

Robert now lumps himself in with George Washington? Dude needs to go to the psyche ward!

Also, yeah.."cash me outside" girl is pretty much straight up gutter trash, love that Dyer is using catch phrases from a 13 year old girl to threaten people!

Anonymous said...

George Washington owned slaves and was sterile.

Troll 421 said...

@12:37, judging by his behavior and the fact he lives in his mom's basement you would think Dyer is between 15 and 19 years old. However I suspect judging by the length of his pony tail, he's closer to 43

Anonymous said...

45 going on 46.

Robert Dyer said...

3:36: Hello, Stalker on Wisconsin. Thanks for proving my point, nutjob.

Iluvmd said...

Does Dyer understands that most of the trolls are bitter Virginia tax payers that likes to make fun of people that live in Maryland and they hate Maryland tax payers that openly admits yhat yhe reason why suburban Maryland is failing to attract new business/office growth is soley based on the Good Ol ' Boy network in Virginia that successfully in the past 40 years persuaded most businesses to relocate into Northern Virginia instead of Suburban Maryland.

Anonymous said...

Aaaccckkk! Don't add to his conspiracy theories! Have pity on us MoCo-ers!!!