OFFENSIVE COMMENTS, ORWELLIAN DOUBLESPEAK ON BETHESDA PLANNING RADIO

Yesterday there was an interesting discussion of the Bethesda Downtown Plan on the Kojo Nnamdi Show, and you can read an entire transcript here.

But I wanted to respond to a couple of misleading statements made during the broadcast by Washington Post columnist Roger Lewis, and Montgomery County Planning Director Gwen Wright.

I found Roger Lewis' comments offensive and troubling. Regarding "urbanization" (which is nonsensical, because downtown Bethesda is thoroughly urban already! We're not "urbanizing" Bethesda - we already did that), Lewis made the following statement:

Roger Lewis: "I think loading the dice against urbanism is usually motivated by either resistance to change, as we talk about all the time, or concern that I'm not going to find a parking space and I'm going to sit through four cycles of this signal at this intersection.

"I mean, I think traffic congestion -- I think a lot of what we hear are essentially code words, if you will, for what people directly experience and perceive and worry about urbanism, which is both -- well, it's traffic congestion. It's also the arrival of people who maybe are different. I mean there's a sociological dimension to this. I mean, that's my interpretation. Whenever I hear, if you will, the nimbi (sic) argument, it's almost always based on that."

This is complete hogwash. Along with Planning Director Gwen Wright's assertions that affordable housing will be magically-increased in the Bethesda Downtown Plan, and that millennials will be able to afford Bethesda, this was a truly 1984-esque moment in yesterday's broadcast. What is happening now, and unless there is a policy change that accompanies the passage of the new downtown plan, is the exact opposite.

We just witnessed - especially readers of this blog - the demolition of The Hampden apartments on Hampden Lane. Those are being replaced by The Lauren, an ultra-luxury condo building with units "from the several millions." The end result is a net loss of affordable units on that site (not to mention several mature trees).

Battery Lane will soon have several demolitions, again with a net loss of affordable units. The same is coming for a building on MacArthur Boulevard, and - potentially - along Bradley Boulevard.

All of those threatened buildings had, or have, something in common. They were, and are, among the last buildings that an actual millennial could afford to rent in.

Much as in similar demolitions across the county, such as in Wheaton, Glenmont and at Halpine View, they will be replaced with luxury housing, not equal or greater racial and economic diversity. The "arrival of people" resulting from this will be a group very much like the one that dominates Bethesda today - rich, white people. Roger Lewis himself admitted long ago that the DC area building boom is not going to generate the adequate amount of affordable housing it promised. Instead, we are getting luxury buildings, with a handful of MPDUs in each. At the same time, we are demolishing more affordable units than we are building.

Res ipsa loquitur. But don't come on the radio and mislead people about affordable housing. And absolutely don't come on and accuse the people trying to maintain diversity and affordable housing in Montgomery County of using "code words," or having a fear of people who are "different." That is Orwellian doublespeak at its worst (or, best?). Mr. Lewis should be embarrassed about that, given his previous admission that the building boom indeed will not provide the affordable housing he claims Bethesda fears.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE DOWNTOWN BETHESDA PLAN DOCUMENT RELEASE

The "scope of work" downtown Bethesda plan document released yesterday by the Montgomery County Planning Department contained no surprises, primarily restating familiar Census data and geographical boundaries. We're great, we're smart, we're rich, etc.

Here are my thoughts thus far:

1. Why did I not receive any emails regarding the document release, and related public meeting? I filled out a form when I attended the "kickoff" meeting a few months ago, including an email address. Of course, I knew about the document and meeting because I am actively following the process. But had I been a citizen not doing so, I would have had no idea - as of this hour - that these two items had been announced.

2. The document refers to 26 approved development projects in downtown Bethesda. What are those projects? Is there a list they can link to, and what is the criteria for terming something a "project?" I know a lot of projects are left over from the real estate bubble. But 26? 26 new residential or office buildings? That sounds a bit exaggerated. Where are they?

3. The scope of work document also provides no evidence that the Post-It notes filled out by attendees of the kickoff meeting were thus far taken into account. What I see listed under "The Plan Process" are the same things that were "allowed" to be verbally announced at the meeting, and then were parroted in most local media reports in the days afterward. If a Post-It note falls in the middle of the forest... At some point, other issues have to be addressed, such as the vanishing gas stations of downtown Bethesda.

4. I think when we are talking about public space, the number of public plazas under development has been left out of the discussion. There are several pedestrian plazas on the boards, including the just-opened plaza at the Gallery Bethesda apartments, the Bainbridge Bethesda plaza between St. Elmo and Fairmont Avenues, the Westin Bethesda hotel complex and the JBG project between Wisconsin and Woodmont Avenues. In my opinion, we need a greater focus on how the plaza at the Bethesda Metro Center was unceremoniously stripped of its use as a gathering space - including the embarrassing shutdown of the ice rink. And how that is going to be corrected. The lapse of the Metro Center plaza is one of several ways downtown Bethesda has shifted off course since the turn of the century.

Public parks, and making sure any redevelopment of the Apex Building site retains or expands the quasi-public space at the corner of Wisconsin and Elm Street outside the Regal Cinemas, and the Woodmont plaza at Bethesda Row are other major public space issues to be discussed in detail.


The schedule laid out suggests formal public input will be limited to none, before a set of recommendations are presented for public comment in the Spring. Hence my concern about the Post It notes and gas stations, among other things. The next formal opportunity for official public comment, according to the document, is the public hearing on the plan draft before the Planning Board in October 2014.

Based on the schedule, the plan will be approved or denied by the next County Council in 2015.