Leggett, who correctly did not want to delay construction of the road at all initially, stated that the one-year delay of the highway would be used to make design changes related to bicycles and pedestrians. He did not specify what those were, or who would approve those changes, and under what public oversight.
What we do know is that developers have wanted to kill the road outright, because it only benefits residents and commuters. It does not help developers, because it is a relief valve, rather than a road that lets developers build more "stuff." Developers want the money from the Montrose Parkway East to go to projects across the County that will allow them to build more stuff, the taxpayers who forked over the highway money be damned.
What we also know, is that several developer tools on the Planning Board have long dreamed of canceling the elevated portion of the parkway over Parklawn, in order to allow developers to build up to the edges of what would be an ordinary urban street. I was able to stop this attempt singlehandedly in 2013, when my testimony changed the votes of several commissioners, who were poised to cancel the grade-separated design for Parklawn at the behest of now-chair Casey Anderson. They also want other sabotage design changes that would similarly increase traffic congestion and lengthen travel time for commuters using the parkway. Such changes would ensure drivers in Rockville, Aspen Hill and other points east of a much-longer trip to and from I-270. Day after day after day.
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It's critical we elect a Council that will cancel any sabotage design changes to the Montrose Parkway East, and will begin construction on that project and M-83 immediately.
28 comments:
All of this "kicking the can" down the road and not making tough decisions now is why we are in gridlock.
Is this supposed to be journalism or a campaign ad?
So Mr Dyer simultaneously complains about “moribund MoCo” and brags about his accomplishments stopping development?
Good. Hopefully it will never be built.
You know that's not a bad picture of Dyer that he's using, but, to me, it looks like someone walked into the room and surprised Dyer. Like he's thinking "hey, what are you doing here?"
Mr. Dyer is on point about the MPE and M-83 projects. Montgomery County has a long history of Maryland hating Scumbag politicians trying to keep Suburban Maryland from developing like Northern Virginia....
Your such a Maryland hating Virginian. People are starting to figure out that the people that speak out against Highway building in Suburban Maryland are from Virginia and it is known that most people in Virginia do not want Suburban Maryland develope like Northern Virginia with Major Highways, Upscale Retail Sh op pping Malls, Glassy Office Towers, and 5 star Hotels. However you people want to force dense housing and fake transit aka BRT and Lightrail in the Maryland suburbs and try to trick Maryland tax payers in to believing that is a sign of economic growth but in reality it is a sign of economic destruction for Suburbsn Maryland....
"You know that's not a bad picture of Dyer that he's using, but, to me, it looks like someone walked into the room and surprised Dyer. Like he's thinking 'hey, what are you doing here?'"
When a couple of members of the Council went for a bathroom break, Robbie took a selfie at the Council table before they chased him away.
5:28/5:37: This is some absurd paranoia on display. Virginians infiltrating local blogs with false-flag concern trolling so they can hoard all the development dollars for themselves!! Give me a break.
"Tim" posted at 5:03 AM (Dyer Standard Time), just 3 minutes after the article was posted. That's a rather brief interval to reload the homepage, see that a new article is up, read said article, and then post a comment.
I'm hoping to God that 5:37 AM is parody.
"What we do know is that developers have wanted to kill the road outright, because it only benefits residents and commuters."
This statement is utterly idiotic. It's residents, not "developers" who oppose this road.
Robbie loves his Roads To Nowhere.
8:04: You might want to talk to the residents of Aspen Hill, who strongly favor the MPE.
8:39: The Montrose Parkway will eventually extend to the ICC - hardly a "road to nowhere."
5:08: Economic development is more than residential development. We haven't attracted a single major corporate HQ in two decades.
How many counties in the past two decades actually have attracted a major corporate HQ I am curious? What is the baseline here?
@6:04: Don’t hold your breath waiting on an answer.
6:04: Lol - ever heard of Fairfax County? Volkswagen, Hilton Hotels, Northrop, Intelsat and more, in only the last decade alone!
Why does Dyer consider poaching Fortune 500 headquarters from other jurisdictions, to be a valid metric for job creation?
7:41 don’t be a jerk I’m 6:04 and that was a real question. So fairfax county attracted four or more in the last decade? Which counties lost those headquarters? Has anyone else gained/loss? And isn’t this just reshuffling the deck chairs for the national economy?
"M-83, like MPE, is an old road"
Um, no, it's not. It was never built. Saying "...was proposed a long time ago" would be correct.
6:13: What would it matter who lost those HQs? We lost to Fairfax in the competition to get those thousands of jobs.
Would it not just be reshuffling the deck chairs for the US economy?
Those HQs that moved to Fairfax moved from sormwhere else, right?
Volkswagen USA HQ - 400 employees
Northrop Grumman HQ - 300 employees (moved to former Exxon Mobil headquarters after they were poached by Texas)
Intelsat HQ - 430 employees
(I could not find the numbers for Hilton or the others.)
Seems like there are far more efficient ways to create 1,130 jobs, than to try to poach three corporations' headquarters from other states. And as we've seen many times, these jobs are the first to disappear following mergers and acquisitions.
Hi Robert, I like the idea of more Fortune 500 headquarters but can you address the points made by 8:39am?
8:39: What are the salaries of those 1130 jobs? A lot more than the jeans-folding, latte-making jobs Helpless Hans Riemer thinks are the future. Large HQs also generate associated jobs around them, ranging from contractors to restaurants.
7:03: No one has ever described economic development and relocation of major companies as "reshuffling the deck chairs for the US economy." You sound like someone who doesn't understand the world of international business, more like an anarchist or something.
"What are the salaries of those 1130 jobs? A lot more than the jeans-folding, latte-making jobs Helpless Hans Riemer thinks are the future."
I thought you were the one wringing your hands over "Montgomery County losing 2,000 retail jobs since 2000"? A claim which you have never documented.
"Large HQs also generate associated jobs around them, ranging from contractors to restaurants."
So do all large work sites. But why the fixation on Fortune 500 headquarters? Given the amount of air travel you claim is needed for their staff, it would seem that the staff would spend too much time off-site to support nearby restaurants.
"No one has ever described economic development and relocation of major companies as 'reshuffling the deck chairs for the US economy'."
Poaching Fortune 500 headquarters from other jurisdictions is most definitely a zero-sum game and "reshuffling the deck chairs" is an accurate description of it. And it is certainly not the only form of "economic development" available to our County, yet you seem to think that it is.
"You sound like someone who doesn't understand the world of international business, more like an anarchist or something."
You sound like someone who is desperately trying to divert from your lack of expertise or experience in any field, or lack of any sort of gainful employment since at least 2006, through childish insults to any one who challenges your bullshit which you pontificate from Mom's basement.
11:16: Retail jobs are necessary for entry-level job-seekers, which is why our net loss of retail jobs has been so devastating. However, only idiots would suggest retail jobs are the foundation of economic development.
Large work sites are only temporary, until the building is finished. The Northrop HQ generates decades of high-wage jobs.
The idea that we would just sit back and let the HQs go elsewhere - which is what your bosses on the Council have been doing - is, again, some kind of anarchist/extremist position. You agree with Hans Riemer that farmers markets and 9-person tech startup offices are the future of economic development?
You are the BS artist, old sport! The vast majority of people, and mainstream business organizations across the region, agree with my position on attracting corporate HQs. Your position sounds like something from the Ted K. manifesto.
Dyer, are you so stupid that you think that "work site" means "construction site" and absolutely nothing else?
8:39: The Montrose Parkway will eventually extend to the ICC -
Huh? The 1970's called - they want their plans back.
The Montrose Parkway is an obsolete "road to nowhere" that was once envisioned as an outer beltway, but that was long, long ago. The ICC is a more updated version of what the Montrose Parkway was originally supposed to be. Because of the unfortunate NW-SE alignment of the ICC is does almost nothing for those living in lower MoCo.
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