High taxes, cost of living,
crime & poor health
sink state in national ranking
Just days after one of Montgomery County's top CEOs bodyslammed elected officials for failing to build the highway infrastructure needed to compete with Northern Virginia, those same County officials and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan were treated to a piledriver from Bankrate.com. The financial advice website ranked all 50 states from best to worst as retirement destinations. Maryland was named the absolute worst state in America to retire in, finishing dead last.
Bankrate cited Maryland's high taxes, high cost of living, unaffordable health care, high crime, and poor health as the primary reasons prospective retirees should steer wide and clear of our state. The last place finish is a national humiliation for our smug, corrupt and self-promoting elected officials. While our Draconian taxes, surging crime and high cost of living are already notorious, the survey especially stung because our elected officials have routinely crowed about how healthy Montgomery County is.
Not so, says Bankrate, which used Maryland health data from Gallup, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to evaluate the wellness of Marylanders, and their access to health care in the state. This isn't the first report to contradict false statements by County politicians on public health. A troubling percentage of residents in eastern Montgomery County self-reported they are in poor health in a County survey that was (not-surprisingly) ignored by all media outlets except this one. And just last year, Montgomery was found to have the highest and fastest-growing rate of sexually-transmitted disease in the state.
Where should you retire? Bankrate declared Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, Florida, and Kentucky as top destinations for those calling it a career. In dead last, Maryland is far behind Alabama, Tennessee, Texas and other states that are already destroying it in economic development. Along with more disastrous news on that front in recent weeks, will Montgomery County's Lake Wobegon fever finally break and bring serious change to the leadership of our moribund jurisdiction?
"High crime"
ReplyDeleteMaryland scored lower on crime than Missouri (#3), Kansas (#7), Arkansas (#11), Alabama (#16), Oklahoma (#21).
purple line and illegals will get us to 49.....
ReplyDelete7:34: The lower the number, the higher the crime in this survey, Einstein.
ReplyDeleteThere's a graphic right at the top of this article showing Maryland at #33 for crime, far worse than the safe states you listed.
Nice use of ‘Einstein’ Spectrum Boy
DeleteMaryland scored #47 on "Culture". But what exactly is that? The article doesn't say.
ReplyDeleteHere is your clue:
#1 Maine
#2 Montana
#3 Vermont
#4 New Hampshire
#5 Rhode Island
It's not about night life. It's about white life.
Dyer @ 7:36 PM
ReplyDeleteCrime
#1 - Vermont/New Hampshire (tie)
Reading comprehension is your friend.
"In September 2018, the former chief financial officer [of BankRate] Edward J. DiMaria was found guilty of committing accounting and securities fraud which led to over $25 million in shareholder losses. DiMaria was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and ordered to pay $21,234,214 in restitution. Former vice president of finance Hyunjin Lerner also pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy and was sentenced to 5 years in prison."
ReplyDeleteAffordability
ReplyDelete#1 Missouri/Michigan (tie)
I'm gonna retire in East St. Louis or Detroit. LOL
If you are considering retiring in Maryland, it means you are no longer working, so the absence of Fortune 500 companies is not a factor at that time in your life.
ReplyDeleteLifestyle choices like living in walkable and safe urban places like Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, and Rockville are becoming very important for seniors who want to live an active lifestyle, and still be close enough to Metro down to a big city like DC, full of free museums, great restaurants, sports venues and cultural events.
Good luck finding any of that in Omaha, Nebraska, number one on their list.
As long as Robert has access to fast food he could live anywhere. He despises public transportation and quality entertainment. He has no interests outside of himself and does not appear to have a social life. So some one bedroom across the street from an all night Burger King is all he needs.
DeleteThat's the real story...do you want to live in those places? This is the epitome of bedroom community here.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in this area and for all it's faults, it's also huge in cultural diversity with a cosmopolitan population and attitudes. It can be quite the shock living in Nebraska, South Carolina, Kansas or Kentucky. My family is from Kansas...I know. Great to visit, challenging to live in. (What do you mean there's only 2 grocery stores in 30 miles? Wha?)
I've had clients who retired from this area tell me they love their southern retirement community "It's mostly people from New York and DC." And others dislike theirs for the same reason.
Just stay here and we'll have the climate of Mississippi in 20 years.
"This isn't the first report to contradict false statements by County politicians on public health."
ReplyDeleteNothing to do with Montgomery County. These are statewide statistics which include Baltimore City and the other 23 counties in Maryland.
I'm not surprised...it's pretty common to hear about folks moving to the Carolinas and other points south for retirement. It's simply cheaper and the winters aren't as harsh.
ReplyDeleteUniversity towns usually provide lots to do.
We need to grow our moribund economy by wooing retirees. LOL
ReplyDelete9:02am The seems to have been an unintended result of the Nightlife Task Force. It certainly didn't make Bethesda nightlife more attractive for younger folks.
Delete9:45AM I'd love to see a follow-up to the Nightlife Task Force. What worked, what didn't, where to go from here.
ReplyDeleteThe task force seemed to have been a failure in general for Bethesda. Crowds are sparse and older than a decade ago even. I haven't seen any quantitative or even qualitative anecdotes that support the idea that Bethesda nightlife is better today.
Yes, people are going to DC but they were 10, 15 and 20 years ago as well. Arlington isn't have a problem. I think it goes back to jobs, jobs, jobs. Arlington and Fairfax have them and MoCo doesn't. People (young and old) will live where is convenient to commmute, which is the orange and silver lines for all the jobs in those counties. And now they have Amazon HQ2...
"Robert, if you hate this area so much, why do you stay?"
ReplyDeleteSince when does giving constructive criticism mean you "hate" this area? It seems the opposite- if you love the area but see areas to improve, why wouldn't you try to work towards improving things?
If you loved the area and just kept quiet about the problems, that is a bigger issue.
I haven't heard anyone claiming we've reached perfection yet :) MoCo is great, but could be greater.
Seems like an Anonymous Troll is claiming, without evidence, that Dyer "hates" MoCo.
ReplyDeleteLOL.
I needed a good laugh.
11:00 AM
ReplyDelete* The role of a free press historically hasn't been to publicize "positive" things the government does. The press should be skeptical of government.
Leave the attaboys and praise for opinion bloggers (there are many in the county if that is more to your liking).
* I think there are many people who live in MoCo that much prefer it to Virginia or DC. That doesn't mean we should stop working to improve things.
* Why shouldn't Dyer cover Hogan with skepticism? Again, that is the role of the press
* Building another bridge isn't realistic? Come on, man. Even the CEO of Foulger Pratt is pushing for that. There is pretty wide agreement the county needs to focus on transportation infrastructure.
11:12 AM I supported Shelly Skolnick since I thought we could use more women on the Council.
ReplyDeletePlenty of skepticism of our County officials in Adam Pagnucco's column in BB. I remember when Robert Dyer used to cite him regularly.
ReplyDelete"Why isn't he regularly praising government and our elected officials?"
ReplyDelete= This attitude encapsulates everything wrong in our local "media".
12:26 PM
ReplyDeletePro tip: Attack ideas, not people
And don't fall back into some conspiracy theory everyone that posts here that doesn't agree with you is Robert Dyer.
12:34 PM
ReplyDeleteHere's a weekend experiment for you: go to some other local site and post personal attacks against the publisher. See how long your comments are up before they're deleted and/or you're banned.
Dyer is actually much more open allowing other opinions, even when they're not respectful.
@Robert Dyer. Plenty of people agree with you. Annapolis is full of fascists and the reality of owning a business in Montgomery County is Graft, Taxes, and Regulation. The liquor control board is especially corrupt, and 90% of eateries in Bethesda are kept afloat by their liquor sales.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the problems is fraudulent inducement by developers and consulting firms. They drastically oversell the business prospects of a given location, focusing on say geography and not say... demand, or foot traffic.
Downtown Crowne in gaithersburg is an absolute travesty. 600k condos in a 'walkable' area featuring... nothing. You can rent one for 30% below market. Ditto for all the new construction in Bethesda, Gallery II still has 100% of its commercial storefront unoccupied and the interiors are still bare concrete.
People in Montgomery County are cheap, they generally have no taste or class and make good but not great money working for the federal government. They like phony French or British sounding names. Foodwise there are four things that sell: Chicken, Pasta, Salad, and Chardonnay.
Dyer's troll has zero sense of humor. Dyer is MoCo's most popular food reviewer.
ReplyDeleteAnd the talk of "junk food"...many local legacy sources like the Post are now reviewing the latest fast food. The Post's lifestyle/food reporter was live blogging going through the KFC drive through in an Uber to get this junk.
If Dyer got fast food from a gas station, would that excite you more?
Nobody looking at him would think he acts like that as a ‘joke’. More like he is a joke. It isn’t that he reports on junk food. It is because of how he does it. Nobody pretends to be that much on the spectrum.
Delete6:03am Again, many people are reporting on "junk" food from fast food joints and gas stations. I provided the example of the Post.
DeleteAnd if you can't handle humor, that's your problem. Maybe you've got a disorder? I know humor can be complex.
12:10: Pagnucco writes an opinion column; he's not a reporter. In fact, he is Hans Riemer's former chief of staff. He used to shill for the cartel, and was quite aware of my online presence in those days, as seen in a Facebook discussion about my network of news sites. Pagnucco apparently saw the error of his ways and began to speak the truth about the cartel. He remains in denial on two other points, however - his fictional delusion that Republicans cannot win in MoCo, and his refusal to admit publicly that my websites exist when he laments the lack of local news.
ReplyDeletePagnucco is the Tyrion Lannister of the MoCo cartel.
10:54. Prove it.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAll fake accounts set up
ReplyDeleteA. The cartel
B. Hans
C. The DEEP STATE
D. All of the above
E. None of the above
"Your collection of websites has less than 1% the readership of the local news sites."
ReplyDeleteHaters gonna hate
Hobos gonna ho
ReplyDelete@ 8:58 PM -
ReplyDeleteAre you saying that Dyer's brain-damaged appearance - speech, affect and mannerisms - are just a "humorous" act? Does he think that intellectual disabilities should be used for humorous effect?
10:14 AM
ReplyDeleteThere's a strong reason you don't have a profile photo. Thank you sparing us.
Your comments are making the case that you have devastating brain damage at the moment. Stroke?
11:38 AM
ReplyDelete"Us" = Dyer's large daily readership
You're answering me yet another question. If you believe you're the smooth talking Brad Pitt or Bradley Cooper of MoCo, please post your photo and video.
Problem is, you look like a hobbit and will never post a photo.
12:04pm sounds like Donald Trump. Raging against a journalist's coverage of government, telling Dyer to leave if he doesn't like it and the cherry on top is calling Dyer "brain damaged" because he has the same position on transportation and infrastructure as foulger pratt's CEO.
ReplyDeleteWe elect these folks in and they're attacking constituents on here.
"he has the same position on transportation and infrastructure as foulger pratt's CEO."
ReplyDeleteWRONG!! He shares a few of the same positions as Foulger's CEO.
This comment brought to you by the Committee for Truth in Reporting
*Gentle* reminder that our current MoCo leaders fumbled the ball in getting Amazon HQ2 and all of the workers that would have been moving into Bethesda, Rockville, Gaithersburg etc.
ReplyDelete"We elect these folks in and they're attacking constituents on here. "
ReplyDeleteNow that is quite the LIE. You've just accused elected officials of coming to this goofy little blog and posting against anonymous people?
That is what you have publicly accused.
How disgusting that you would knowingly lie like that.
All I can say is KARMA. Karma has a surprising way of taking care of situations. All you have to do is to sit back and watch.
But still too shy to use your real name. Because then it would be real and everyone would know WHO is so enamored of Dyer that they come here and degrade themselves by doing his dirty work ?
Challengers will use their real name, supporters won't.
What does that tell you?
I'm sorry if you don't like my honesty. But to be fair, I don't like your lies.
6:31 AM 7/15/19
8:35am is a typical bully. You bullied folks in school but never grew out of it all these decades later.
DeleteYour bullying now is laughable and sad. You're alone and need help.
8:35am is the bully I knew my whole life
ReplyDelete7:09 am is pretty adept and the whole bullying thing
ReplyDeleteWho is this weird anonymous dude who is having these fantasies about being a high school student, being beaten up by random commenters on Robert Dyer's blog?
ReplyDeleteHoney, what a hoot you are! I'm a short female who has been bullied my entire life.
ReplyDeleteWhat i learned was to speak up and not sit idly by when confronted by lies and intimidation.
The truth is "hate speech" only to those who have something to hide.