For example, if a woman noticed she was being followed late at night, this sign at the Cordell-St. Elmo public parking garage would direct her to the old police station site. Instead of losing her pursuer by approaching a police station, she would find herself at a dark construction site where the old station once stood.
In fact, she would actually be closer to the new police station at this garage than the old one. Now that wayfinding signage is more important than ever, since it is primarily used by pedestrians and cyclists, it needs to be kept current. Knowing the location of the downtown police station is particularly important for new residents, visitors and tourists, who are the most likely to refer to such signage.
We've learned in the last week that the Montgomery County Council intentionally decided to spend big money on their cronies over this past decade, rather than invest in updating the public safety communications system. That system has failed several times recently, putting first responders and the public in danger. The lack of funds and effort to address outdated wayfinding signage is another indication of putting political priorities ahead of the basic functions of government, such as protecting the public.
37 comments:
"The public safety communications system...has failed several times recently, putting first responders and the public in danger.
And guess who's been reporting on that this month. Hint: NOT "Suburban News Network".
5:15: WRONG - the Washington Post reported it only because the colluding reporter was given the information by Hans Riemer, who was trying to use it to score points against Marc Elrich, whom he plans to run against in 2022.
Riemer apparently never thought that the same information would also show that the Council deliberately chose not to upgrade the system from the time he took office in 2010, putting the public and first responders at risk.
#Oops
Dyer loves fat communist Marc Elrich. Cuz he's a fellow NIMBY.
Robbie complains about an outdated sign, yet he uses his five-year-old stock photo of the crappy "Betrayed By Save Westbard" sign.
5:25: A fat Communist calling someone a fat Communist - priceless.
5:28: The beauty of it is, "Betrayed by the County Council" will never be out of date until 9 smart, qualified and - most importantly - honest people like me are elected to the Council.
You should stand on busy Bethesda corners then with a whistle and made up signs correcting people to where they need to go.
5:31: You were so busy spamming for another website that you forgot to mention that Hans Riemer and the Council intentionally chose not to spend on upgrading the system for nearly ten years before Elrich was elected County Executive.
The Council created the problem, and Riemer stupidly thought it would be yet another exploitable issue in his Duchy Trachtenberg-redux 2022 campaign (which will implode when David Blair gets the Post endorsement in 2022, and likely wins).
The Bethesda UP sign budget went to those big red B signs around town.
Maybe budget next year for new maps?
The county has never known what to do with Bethesda.
Seems they still don't.
They might start with a cohesive plan, but after all the various alterations to that plan, the result is a hobnosh of unrelated crap.
Welcome to Bethesda.
"We've learned in the last week that the Montgomery County Council intentionally decided to spend big money on their cronies over this past decade, rather than invest in updating the public safety communications system. That system has failed several times recently, putting first responders and the public in danger. The lack of funds and effort to address outdated wayfaring signage is another indication of putting political priorities ahead of the basic functions of government, such as protecting the public."
This sign(age) is from the Bethesda Urban Partnership, Dummy.
Dyer! Great job on the MoCo Podcast yesterday! Very great insight! why don't ya post the link to share on the blog or twitter? it was awesome stuff.
6:03: You've made a fool of yourself for years claiming that BUP gets no money from the County.
6:10: Thank you - I did not see them tweet a link yet as of this moment.
Very important news. I don't understand why you feel the need to politicize your reporting.
WTF? I left the previous comment at 9:28 but the time stamp says 6:28.
6:28: How would government mismanagement not be political? Public safety is arguably the top priority of government.
BUP is in charge of these signs. They were able to put up those useless "Ugly B" signs all over the place, so not sure why they can't keep current and actually useful signs updated.
That said, I doubt someone being followed by a potential attacker is going to stop and study a map for the nearest police station while running to safety.
Oh you are so like really smart and such a stable genius.
The term is wayfinding not wayfaring. You must have dozed off during your one urban planning class.
So have you contacted the Bethesda Urban Partnership, Robbie?
"...until 9 smart, qualified and - most importantly - honest people like me are elected to the Council."
Who are the other 8?
"Roald", "Rugby", "Boyce Bowles" et al?
"The lack of funds and effort to address outdated wayfaring signage is another indication of putting political priorities ahead of the basic functions of government, such as protecting the public."
I think everyone prefers up-to-date maps over out-of-date maps, but I don't think they would consider it a high-priority item let alone a "basic function of government". Most localities don't have helpful maps such as these, at all.
8:39: LOL - want to put in a good word for the cable company, Barwood Cab, and the highly pleasurable license renewal process at the MVA while you're at it, tool?
8:39 AM My friend- Bethesda is competing with DC, Silver Spring and all of the new town centers around MoCo.
This isn't the time to get complacent and not make it a good experience for visitors to our downtown. The maps don't even have an accurate route for the circulator bus.
Wayfaring is the action of traveling by foot, wayfinding is the process of following a map or to utilize landmarks and visual cues to aid in traveling to a destination.
9:00 AM your complaint with Dyer is that he ate at Taco Bell once.
Meanwhile, we have a man with a legit motorized toilet car in our midst.
@ 9:19 - Lay off the Purple Drank.
9:59AM If someone wants to link to their site, I'd recommend just buying an ad here
Dyer is simply pointing out that these maps all over town are incorrect and have been for awhile (Post Office, Police Station, Bus Route are all wrong).
It's good constituent service.
11:58AM Dyer is kind of the unofficial mayor of Bethesda. Life long resident and no one covers everything happening around town like him.
Great constituent service!
I wish Dyer would quit complaining and about outdated signs and lobby Regency for a Laszlo Tauber statue at Westbard
@ 12:57 - or Dyer could just take a deep breath, get a sense of perspective and proportion, and not try to claim that an outdated "wayfaring" sign in Bethesda is indication that our County government has collapsed.
"Roald" @ 12:49: Good one. Now back to jiggling your cup of coins in front of Starbucks and shouting at the sky. And don't use a styrofoam cup - "Lefty Larry" has banned those!
"I'm being pursued. Let me stop and peruse this here map to find a police station. The pursuer won't catch me before I make it to what turns out to be an empty lot, where I will be disappointed to learn the map was incorrect."
12:57: That would be politically toxic now that there is evidence Tauber was involved in/aware of the desecration of the black cemetery on his property, according to those interviewed.
Who actually cares about that "cemetery" other than a handful of Green Party hacks and Westbard NIMBYs?
What rule, pray tell, does this post break?. The Gov's new laws were mentioned above (Styrofoam) and I'm mentioning another. Why delete it?
"Lefty Larry's Cyber-bullying law"
That's called Grace's Law. Named for Grace McComas.
Her mother, Christine McComas said, 'If you take her name; G-R-A-C-E, it could stand for Give Respect And Compassion to Everyone.'”
On this last day of May it's worth remembering:
The death of a teen, by their own hand, is tragic and has been on the rise. It's a tough thing for teens to understand and deal with.
National Suicide Prevention Hotline:
1-800-273-8255
5:55 AM
Somewhat Related to this post - Metro's website still refers to the "plaza/food court" level when describing escalator outages. Hasn't been a food court here for YEARS.
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