Below are some initial thoughts on the issues raised here. I live just outside the Dist. 4 boundary but I find this race very interesting and pertinent nonetheless.
Here is a link to my “cribsheet” listing some basic information about each candidate, linked to each person’s campaign website, if available.
And click here for Maryland Politic Watch’s coverage of the race.
As far as Chamber’s “oversight” in not giving you a questionnaire, Hardman, perhaps that cadre of glad-handers is leary of your independent streak and your reluctance to put on a tacky pinstripe uniform.
* * *
Hardman states, “Montgomery is already a leader in biotechnology and medical research and this will continue into the future. We are part of a region that is a major driver of the global Information Technology industry.”
Now that the federal government is lifting restrictions on the use of stem-cell lines in federally-funded cellular microbiology research and hopefully investing greater money and resources in biotech, Maryland will hopefully be more competitive in the regional economy. Virginia profited disproportionately from the Doom Boom of the ’00s, maybe Maryland can finally catch up a bit here.
As far as IT in Maryland, the pols seem intent on dampening the digital economy in Maryland. This is why D.C., Virginia, and other localities will continue to beat out the Old Line State in terms of cultivating and nurturing computer/tech industry firms.
At least Maryland had the sense to cancel the computer services tax.
Here is an article from November 2007 that covered the original bill:
“Maryland To Tax Computer Support Services—
The computer industry is fighting the state's decision to add computer, data center, and disaster recovery support services to the state's new 6% tax rate.”
InformationWeek, 11/19/2007
They better not pull this stunt in 2010 when this issue comes back to the General Assembly.
* * *
Hardman says, “We have so much business in Montgomery County that nearly half of the workforce has to reside outside of our jurisdiction and we thus have the country's second-worse commute. Until and unless this is resolved satisfactorily, we have no business offering incentives to attract companies to relocate here to add to our current woes.”
I would have to respectfully disagree a bit here. Sure we have many businesses in Maryland, but the lousy climate for business (that Hardman alludes to under question #3) makes this area more suitable for plentiful “workforce housing” residential developments, including lots of sprawl, as well as tons of non-profits, as opposed to small or even medium-sized businesses.
And we certainly have a shortage of entry-level / cottage-industry innovation around here.
The questionnaire asks, “DO YOU BELIEVE THAT PROVIDING INCENTIVES FOR COMPANIES TO LOCATE IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY?”
Hell, yes! Why don’t we also help entrepreneurial Marylanders get their businesses off the ground without so much red tape and so many strings attached?
* * *
Hardman says, “... we shall have to harness the unparalleled intellectual resources and educational achievement of our community.”
Many entrepreneurial technologically oriented people who grow up in Maryland leave the state for California, Virginia, Texas, etc. This brain/talent drain is a big waste of our state’s educational investments; we are not reaping enough of the rewards of our purportedly excellent high-ranking “challenge index” public schools.
I personally think we should split the University of Maryland flagship campus at College Park into two schools.
The bottom 60-70 percentile of the student body should attend “Maryland State.” This would retain the Smith School of Business, the sports franchises, Greek life, etc. The top 30-40 percentile of students should attend an institution that retains the University of Maryland brand name, the honors program, and other top-notch academic/research initiatives, and this version of the school should be invested in as a highly competitive “state ivy” institution to rival the Universities of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, etc.
As for the “Maryland State University” idea proposed here:
Note that many élite public universities have at least one state counterpart that doesn’t practice as much admissions “gatekeeping” — VCU, Penn State, Mich. State, Cal State, etc.
This would go a long way toward the recruitment and retention of élite public school students in Maryland in college, grad school, and beyond. Many people end up living where they go to college / grad school during their early adulthood.
* * *
Hardman says, “Given the current economic conditions and the near total collapse of the housing market, any discussion at all of ‘economic development’ is premature at best.”
As long as Maryland pols feed hungrily at the trough of federal payroll, contract, and grant money, many MoCo public and private sector leaders will continue to be obsessed with simplistic, short-sighted visions of “growth” and “development” that neglect or even stymie a lot of innovation. We’ll also have more overcrowding, sprawl, and traffic nightmares.
Hardman adds: “... if we're going to be building or developing anything, we must build and develop affordable housing much closer in towards the business campuses and research/industrial cores.”
Before we start a fresh round of ingratiating handshaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies with residential developers, how about “thinking outside the box” a little more?
I wonder what people would say if somebody proposed subdividing some of those large mid-county condo units into affordable/“MPDU” housing for all of the poor families that Maryland is becoming so well known for.
* * *
Hardman states, “Montgomery is already a leader in biotechnology and medical research and this will continue into the future. We are part of a region that is a major driver of the global Information Technology industry.”
Now that the federal government is lifting restrictions on the use of stem-cell lines in federally-funded cellular microbiology research and hopefully investing greater money and resources in biotech, Maryland will hopefully be more competitive in the regional economy. Virginia profited disproportionately from the Doom Boom of the ’00s, maybe Maryland can finally catch up a bit here.
As far as IT in Maryland, the pols seem intent on dampening the digital economy in Maryland. This is why D.C., Virginia, and other localities will continue to beat out the Old Line State in terms of cultivating and nurturing computer/tech industry firms.
At least Maryland had the sense to cancel the computer services tax.
Here is an article from November 2007 that covered the original bill:
“Maryland To Tax Computer Support Services—
The computer industry is fighting the state's decision to add computer, data center, and disaster recovery support services to the state's new 6% tax rate.”
InformationWeek, 11/19/2007
One person wrote this comment in response to that article:
“I'm leading a small software company currently based in Silicon Valley. We've recently been looking to open an office in the Mid-Atlantic area to be closer to our East Coast customers. We'd been considering the Baltimore area, but with this development I can tell you we'll cross Maryland off the list. Why would we voluntarily choose to take an additional 6% off our service revenues when we could just as easily locate to another state?”
I guess Maryland pols also wanted “Geeks on Call” to get off their high horses and pick up their hefty share of the Maryland tax burden or something. Yeah, all the tech “geeks” I know of are disproportionately heavy users of state/local services, not.“I'm leading a small software company currently based in Silicon Valley. We've recently been looking to open an office in the Mid-Atlantic area to be closer to our East Coast customers. We'd been considering the Baltimore area, but with this development I can tell you we'll cross Maryland off the list. Why would we voluntarily choose to take an additional 6% off our service revenues when we could just as easily locate to another state?”
They better not pull this stunt in 2010 when this issue comes back to the General Assembly.
* * *
Hardman says, “We have so much business in Montgomery County that nearly half of the workforce has to reside outside of our jurisdiction and we thus have the country's second-worse commute. Until and unless this is resolved satisfactorily, we have no business offering incentives to attract companies to relocate here to add to our current woes.”
I would have to respectfully disagree a bit here. Sure we have many businesses in Maryland, but the lousy climate for business (that Hardman alludes to under question #3) makes this area more suitable for plentiful “workforce housing” residential developments, including lots of sprawl, as well as tons of non-profits, as opposed to small or even medium-sized businesses.
And we certainly have a shortage of entry-level / cottage-industry innovation around here.
The questionnaire asks, “DO YOU BELIEVE THAT PROVIDING INCENTIVES FOR COMPANIES TO LOCATE IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY?”
Hell, yes! Why don’t we also help entrepreneurial Marylanders get their businesses off the ground without so much red tape and so many strings attached?
* * *
Hardman says, “... we shall have to harness the unparalleled intellectual resources and educational achievement of our community.”
Many entrepreneurial technologically oriented people who grow up in Maryland leave the state for California, Virginia, Texas, etc. This brain/talent drain is a big waste of our state’s educational investments; we are not reaping enough of the rewards of our purportedly excellent high-ranking “challenge index” public schools.
I personally think we should split the University of Maryland flagship campus at College Park into two schools.
The bottom 60-70 percentile of the student body should attend “Maryland State.” This would retain the Smith School of Business, the sports franchises, Greek life, etc. The top 30-40 percentile of students should attend an institution that retains the University of Maryland brand name, the honors program, and other top-notch academic/research initiatives, and this version of the school should be invested in as a highly competitive “state ivy” institution to rival the Universities of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, etc.
As for the “Maryland State University” idea proposed here:
Note that many élite public universities have at least one state counterpart that doesn’t practice as much admissions “gatekeeping” — VCU, Penn State, Mich. State, Cal State, etc.
This would go a long way toward the recruitment and retention of élite public school students in Maryland in college, grad school, and beyond. Many people end up living where they go to college / grad school during their early adulthood.
* * *
Hardman says, “Given the current economic conditions and the near total collapse of the housing market, any discussion at all of ‘economic development’ is premature at best.”
As long as Maryland pols feed hungrily at the trough of federal payroll, contract, and grant money, many MoCo public and private sector leaders will continue to be obsessed with simplistic, short-sighted visions of “growth” and “development” that neglect or even stymie a lot of innovation. We’ll also have more overcrowding, sprawl, and traffic nightmares.
Hardman adds: “... if we're going to be building or developing anything, we must build and develop affordable housing much closer in towards the business campuses and research/industrial cores.”
Before we start a fresh round of ingratiating handshaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies with residential developers, how about “thinking outside the box” a little more?
I wonder what people would say if somebody proposed subdividing some of those large mid-county condo units into affordable/“MPDU” housing for all of the poor families that Maryland is becoming so well known for.
3 comments:
As to the idea of splitting up McMansions -- maybe one out of ten -- and making them into MPDU, I think I covered that in last year's Special Election. See this article and read the last paragraph.
Possibly I could strengthen this idea and re-prioritize it?
Thanks for the link, Hardman. Great photos, by the way. I didn't know so many monstrosities existed outside of Potomac.
Yeah, I was envisioning splitting up crass McCondos rather than crass McMansions, but you raise an intriguing possibility. The shift from focusing on larger housing units to smaller ones is inevitable now that the economy has soured.
However, it would be good to minimize the environmental (and physical) footprint as much as possible; hence the vertical push for high-rise condos/apartments, etc.
I have to wonder what the current regional stats look like as far as unoccupied / underoccupied housing units go: average square footage, structure age, distance from job centers and transit hubs, market price / rent, et cetera.
Realtors seem to jealously hoard a lot of this data and they obviously primarily use it for sales / rental / marketing purposes, not for planning/policy cues.
Housing is a huge issue right now, so if you address that in a way that gives people cause for hope, that might be good.
Housing has probably surpassed transit in some ways as far as voter preoccupations go, but the two issues are of course very closely intertwined.
You might want to take a look at "Not So Smart -- Land Consumption in Maryland After a Decade of 'Smart Growth'".
Oh, you want to see pile after pile of Egregious McMansionism?
Drive out Cashell Road to the intersection with Bowie Mill Road. Cross into the development and curve around to the right and then follow the road to the left. First you will then pass a loooong stretch of townhomes, oddly far from any town. "This ain't walkability." then the road will curve to the left, keep following it to the end.
Take pictures. Vomit. Do both. Did I use the word "egregious"?
As for me addressing housing issues... ah, all I can say is that the housing bubble has burst.
I am guessing that you got in at the wrong time mostly because you had no other choices, and so you are taking a bath, as the saying goes, through no fault of your own.
But there are a lot of people that made their bed and need to lay in it. That undeserving people have to suffer just to see that the richly deserving get their just desserts, that's sad and we must do what we can to ease their pain, even if what that "easing" amounts to is that we put them to camping in FEMA trailers lined up in rows in some of our larger parks while they refinance and get out from "underwater".
But the folks playing fast and loose with underregulated trades and unscrupulous real-estate deals? By whatever means necessary, they have to lose their ass so badly that nobody will even ever try that sort of thing again.
In the meanwhile, let's build up, not out, and develop high-density mixed-use walkable communities at or very near transit hubs, and let's not price them so that only the rich can afford to sell their cars.
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