The Slumburban Asphalt Jungle

This Wednesday we were treated to a Washington Post article with a photo featuring a familiar sight from Connecticut Avenue Estates here in west Wheaton:  an ugly parking slab that used to be a front yard.

The Post article covers the county’s proposed measure to prohibit people from converting their lawns into paved parking lots.  Here’s an excerpt:

“The Montgomery County Council began considering a proposal [on Monday, May 4] by County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) to limit pavement in front yards and restrict who could park there.  Violators could be fined as much as $500 a day for each offense, potentially rising to $750 a day for repeat offenders.  No matter how small your lot, however, you would always be allowed to have at least 310 square feet of pavement, enough for two short, tightly parked cars.

The proposal also would forbid parked vehicles on grass in the front yard, forcing drivers to either park on pavement, gravel or stone in the yard or park on the street.  But it doesn't mention the back yard, which means that still could be paved over in most single-family neighborhoods.”

—“Montgomery Council Considers Limits on Front Yard Pavement,” Washington Post, May 6, 2009

What the article doesn’t mention is that people here often pave over their front lawns so they can cram more renters/boarders in these houses.  Residential overcrowding is rampant in Connecticut Avenue Estates.

For example, my next-door neighbor uses her house as a cut-rate motel and dive lounge with cheap beer and cheaper music.  Her “patrons” rely on her ample parking lot to store their wheels while they carouse at her tacky slumburban dive.  They can fit four vehicles in her lot, but they often manage to accommodate six when they park in front of our lot as well.

A fair number of households have four to six automobiles, a lot of which are large vehicles, such as work vans and trucks.  Many of them are commercial/company vehicles, often unmarked.

The county has had so many complaints about oversized vehicles in residential neighborhoods that MCPD will start enforcing a new code prohibiting street parking of oversized vehicles starting on July 1, as mentioned in the article.  But before you start plotting to flag your obnoxious neighbor’s pickup or van, you should know that this covers only very large commercial and recreational vehicles, with gross vehicle weight (GVW) of 10,000 lbs. or greater, measuring at least 8 feet high and 21 feet long.  (For details on the new law, click here [PDF, 238K].)

As far as the Post article and comments in reaction to the county’s consideration of the measure, I was somewhat surprised at the passionate “don’t-tread-on-me” style mini-diatribes defending the right to pave over one’s patch of suburbia.

All I can say is that neighborhoods like Connecticut Avenue Estates make HOAs look very attractive.  I realize how arbitrary and inflexible these groups can be, but it’s a slippery slope to slumburbia, and libertarianism works much better out in the wilderness.

In the article’s comments section, Aspen Hill blogger Thomas Hardman eloquently articulates the position of residents like me:

Thank GOD!

In the recent District 4 Special Election, this was the cry that I delivered for Aspen Hill, the cry against people who cut down all of their trees, pave their yards, and illegally park their work fleets on their paved yard, and give the neighborhood the appearance of an industrial park illegally renting out their shop spaces to families of illegal aliens.

It is an offense to the neighbors, to the neighborhood, to the Chesapeake Bay watersheds, and to the aquifers under Maryland.

It has to stop.

Thank you, Montgomery Council.

If you learn nothing from this Special Election, learn this:

Stop PAVING MONTGOMERY.  Stop trying to PAVE the BAY.

I leave you with my own photographic illustration of the phenomenon of paved front lawns.  This is a section of Valleywood Drive in Connecticut Avenue Estates.  Here we have three different parking lot substrates in front of four different homes.  During the height of summer this area is an unwelcome miniature heat island.  Valleywood Drive runs right next to a stream that is part of the Rock Creek watershed.

The county council will hold a public hearing on this issue on Tuesday, June 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Council Office Building (100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville 20850).  The measure under consideration is called “ZTA 09-03, Home Occupations and Residential Off-street Parking.”  To give testimony, call 240-777-7931.

What the brick--?!?

In honor of “Script Frenzy,” I have written the following short dialogue, which takes place not far from lower slumburbia (southwest Wheaton, in this instance).

Boilerplate Disclaimer:  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious.  Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and derives from heretofore untapped psychic powers.

INT. CONSTRUCTION SITE TRAILER - EARLY SPRING, DAYTIME

The contractor, JOE, sits on a broken swivel chair, looking over change order forms and other assorted paperwork.  ELMER, a construction worker, enters the room and stands there until JOE notices him.

ELMER

Boss?  My family is growing very fast and I need more space right now.  I want to ask you--

JOE

--what, buddy?  You lookin’ for another bonus?  Or even more overtime?!  You know, work slowed down a bit in the off-season and I think you should really take it easy.  (Pauses.)  Hold on, didn’t you move out of that roach magnet and into a new house in the suburbs not too long ago?  What gives?

ELMER

Yes, but, you see, this house is very small, less than 900 feet.  My wife wants all our boys to have their own rooms and she wants a new kitchen and we have a corner lot, so I--

JOE

--well, why didn’t you say so?!  You want to take that surplus off my hands?  That stuff left over from the jobs last season?  Help yourself, buck.

ELMER

Thank you; I owe you big, Mr. Joe.

JOE

Sure.  Hey, you want those pallets of cinderblocks for cheap?  I really need to free up the space for some new shipments.

ELMER

Yeah, I take those.  Also, I see you have very many leftover yellow bricks--

JOE

--go ahead and help yourself to those, too.  And you’ll need some mortar mix.  Y’know, I’ve even got some manufacturer mortar dye samples you can play with, if you want ’em.

ELMER

Oh, very good!  Thank you, man!

JOE

No problem, charlie.  Show me some photos once you get things going.

ELMER

I will!

The result:

A Lower Slumburbia DIY McMansion —
Fugly Supersized Rear Addition / Re-McModel Variant

That’s right, folks, it’s just your average slumburban

“Surplus Supply Shotgun Special” :



Now let’s examine this aesthetically-challenged architectural hybrid from hell:

1. On the right we have an original Dutch colonial brick-and-frame duplex with a quirky mansard roof, circa 1950.

2. On the left we have a brick-and-block millenial monstrosity, circa 2000-2003.

Exterior Side Wall (Northeast Exposure):

Let’s call this creative color scheme “Adobe Sunset” (or perhaps “El Dorado ” or “La Casa Puesta del Sol ” if we’re marketing to Spanish-speakers).

This wall features:

• 1/5 pink brick with white mortar

• 2/5 pale yellow brick with pink mortar

• 2/5 pale yellow brick with dun mortar

• flimsy builder-grade windows/doors

The spouse calls this ample annex the “Pink Elephant.”  I’ve gotta admit that it does kind of resemble a pink elephant, with its rosy coloration and ear-like frontal overhang.  And if I were one of the itinerant neighborhood drunks, it might make me do a double take, too.



Check out the decorative bricklaying 8-9 feet above grade.  The manic masons decided to lay down a course of “soldiered” bricks just above the first floor windows and side entry door.  The outer ends of the lintel blocks are flush with the corners of the windows, so they provide absolutely no structural advantage over the standard running bond brick pattern, which would have been functionally superior in this case.  (These corners should be fine as long as they used steel lintels, but they really squandered an opportunity to combine form and function in the masonry here.)

The railings look like they’re interior-grade, untreated wood that is supposed to be primed and painted, or at least stained and sealed.  Using this interior millwork for entryways seems to be very popular here in lower slumburbia.  Hence, you tend to see split and rotting wood railings (sometimes with missing balusters) that were installed just within the last 5-10 years.

Exterior Rear Wall (Southeast Exposure):

(If this vivid spectacle is not yet seared into your brain, feel free to scroll back up to reference the top photos again.)

• cinderblock painted a dullish custard yellow

• more cheap builder-grade windows/doors

Other Tidbits:

• assorted junk, typical of casual slumburban living, including the obligatory molded plastic patio chairs

• rebar-embedded cinderblock retaining wall, topped off with a layer of cement (Quikrete or somesuch)

• not pictured: generously proportioned shed/outbuilding, free-roving collie

WASCally Wabbits, Cheap Chickens, and Bad Eggs...

No, that’s not my version of early Easter tidings.

Maybe this is, though:

(apologies to neb & fury)

WASC  ==  White Anglo-Saxon Capitalists

It’s a trendy slur in our era of global economic meltdown triggered by malfeasances committed in financial megacenters like New York and London.  (We won’t bother to get into the other end of the spectrum of deceit and delusion just yet, such as the shady dealings that took place in sketchier corners of American slumburbia.)

If you’ve been checking out news/commentary programming outside of the U.S. mainstream media these days, such as the BBC, you’ll occasionally hear a few veiled and not-so-veiled incriminations against WASCs.  Leftist Continental Europeans and others will sometimes carry on about how the delicate machinery of our global economy was tampered with and eventually wrecked by heartless “Anglo-Saxon” capitalists run amok.

A web search turns up a typical screed from a leftist heaping abuse on transatlantic Anglocentric Caucasian capitalists, sampled below:

“Just for the record, the portliness of most Americans is testimony to their malnutrition caused mainly by the ‘GDP-ization’ of every single possible activity including Motherhood by our White Anglo Saxon Capitalists.  The end result of malnutrition is generally a degenerative disease –a more or less slow and painful death — of which most all cancers, heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer’s etc. are examples.  (I believe but cannot prove, although the facts tend to support such, that beginning with Henry VIII’s barons takeover of the commons and the putting of their farmers on the road to make way for sheep and wool, leading to the British effort to run a navy on rum and salt pork which was only saved with the discovery of limes and proceeding to America’s unlimited faith in magic pills and medical intervention, that the ruling elite is committed to filling the hoi polloi with non-descript fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, all seasoned with sodium chloride — feaux [sic] food — with magic bullets to be supplied on the fly as they are found.)  The only real solution is real, unadulterated food.”

—some liberal named “Lee” on some conservative website

(While I agree with some of this food-fixated fool’s basic sentiments, this “Lee” person’s leaps in logic make you wonder whether he/she maybe needs to start hitting some “non-descript” carbohydrates after all, before his/her blood sugar runs down too low and deprives his/her brain of all coherent cognition.  I oughta know, after all.)

I was reminded of the surge in anti-WASCism when I heard a French journalist mention this lament on NPR’s “All Thing’s Considered” on Thursday evening during a segment covering the G20 summit.


And then I noticed Hardman’s post on his campaign blog on Thursday evening, where he mentions the wane of WASPs (among many other things).

For those of you who aren’t avid loco Moco politics hags, Hardman is from Aspen Hill and is running as a Democrat for the District 4 County Council seat.  (The seat was left vacant when well-respected civic activist and sitting District 4 Councilman Don Praisner died suddenly in January, following the passing of his predecessor, his own wife Marilyn — another tireless veteran county leader — by less than a year.)

The District 4 special election has turned out to be a pretty lively race with a rather broad array of candidates.

In his recent post, Hardman takes issue with a local politician’s statement endorsing the front-runner in the District 4 Council seat special election.

The sitting councilmember who extended the endorsement, the cherub-faced Mr. George Leventhal, is a Democrat holding an at-large seat on the council.  Leventhal resides in Takoma Park, an historic aging streetcar suburb in the far southeastern corner of the county that has a lot of verve and character.

For those of you unfamiliar with the county, Takoma Park is a very liberal enclave that extends into the District (somewhat like Chevy Chase).  Some Takoma Parkers even label their city the “Berkeley of the east” because of its liberal atmosphere.  (If they can make that ridiculous claim, let’s just call nouveau Silver Spring the “SF of suburban Maryland” and Wheaton can be MoCo’s own “Little Oakland” to round things out.)

Leventhal is endorsing a school board member who has unprecedented resources (seasoned campaign staff and funding) compared to most contenders in the District 4 field.  The majority of the county’s solidly left solidarists (who wield the lion’s share of the power in east-county politics) have effectively anointed the school board’s candidate as the new council member.

Leventhal included this appeal in his endorsement:

“We must do more to understand the needs and concerns of working and lower-income families, our younger population, and our Latino and African American population.  Although they represent the future of Montgomery County, they are badly underrepresented in our county’s political dialogue.”

To me this sounded like tired old rhetoric pushing the usual bromides of patronizing liberal tokenist tolerance, barely worthy of a yawn or a ho-hum.  But it elicited this pointed response by Hardman on Maryland Politics Watch:

“So, according to Mr Leventhal, Ms Navarro's most important qualification is her ethnicity?

Wow.

There's nothing left to say.”

* * *
Now, I grew up nestled pretty comfortably in the lap of luxe-liberalism here in MoCo, so I sometimes still find it difficult to turn a dispassionately critical eye on any local group of sympathetic solidarists.

However, Leventhal’s description is a very clumsy demographic caricature of the “future” of this county, which is genuinely diverse in many different aspects.

If I identified as latino/hispanic or African American, I might actually take offense at being singled out in this way, hastily categorized in the same breath as “working[-class]” and “lower-income” residents ripe for representative political affirmative action.

There are plenty of middle-class and affluent residents of Latin American and African American heritage thriving in this county.  They are busy creating prosperity for themselves and their children, with or without special ethnically targeted assistance from county government, business, and non-profit leaders. 
(Of course these folks may or may not wince at this Democratic party rhetoric as much as I do.  Maybe they really do hunger for these sorts of statements; I’ll have to leave it to them to express their individual reactions to this treatment.)

But there’s also the inevitable exclusion by omission that underlies Leventhal’s appeal.  I don’t mean to pick on Leventhal personally; after all, his statement is a very typical expression of current Democratic Party outreach agendas.  Hardman points out the inevitable exclusion in this cherry-picking endorsement, demanding:

“If that's the plan, where do the wealthy professionals fit in?  How about wealthy Asian-Americans?  Wealthy Indian-Americans?  What about Arab-Americans of whatever level of education or income?  What about the this-or-that-ethnicity?  Or, maybe since there aren't all that many of them, they don't need a voice?”

He pretty much nails it here.  I would go on to mention Caribbean Americans (whether they identify as hispanic or not), African immigrants (west, central, and east), eastern and central European immigrants, and so on.  And of course the middle class, including the rising middle class.  But this proliferation of diversity is too bewildering for many liberal Democratic party liners to wrap their heads around; they’d rather focus on the simpler demographic pigeonholing they’re used to.

I think it’s pretty clear that many liberals would prefer to analyze and court a very few massive ethnocentric voting blocs rather than embrace a broader array of diversity.  By that I mean an expansionary diversity that would be more international in scope and that also draws from various defining qualities beyond the obvious divisions of race/ethnicity/culture and gender.

These other facets might include, for instance:

• income level, educational background, socioeconomic class and level of mobility, trade/industry/profession

• age group, generational identity

• culture/continent of origin, immigrant generation

• political, philosophical, or spiritual orientation

• lifestyle arrangements (marital/partnership/relationship status/orientation, household size & features)

* * *

“Another ideal for which we fought was ‘equal justice for all.’  Somehow the history books in Country schools will tell you that the majority of the victorious Union army was ‘poor newly arrived immigrants’ but they don't tell you much more.  But college-level history texts, especially those written right near the time of the conflict, will tell you that the majority of those ‘immigrants’ were fresh off the boat from the Germanies, and some of those history books will flatly declare that the slaves of the Confederacy were freed by the point of German-American bayonets.  And for this, we don't get to be part of the future.  Now that's gratitude for ya.

Another ideal for which we fought was the ‘separation of church and state’ and ‘freedom of religion.’  Oh yes, Mr Leventhal.  Not just for the Amish and Mennonites and Methodists and Lutherans, but for the Catholics and Jews as well.  But, hey, we're dinosaurs, we aren't the future of Montgomery County.  And when at last we're gone, who will be left to fight for your religious freedom?  Nancy Navarro?  Can you even say ‘religious freedom’ in Spanish?”

I don’t know about the Councilman, but I think I know how to say “religious freedom” in Spanish, thanks to the county’s above-average public school system.  (That would be libertad religiosa, or something to that effect.)

It’s somewhat ironic that a number of young adults whose parents brought them to the United States illegally end up signing up for military service in order to secure U.S. citizenship, often after many frustrating years of living dual lives.

If we still engaged in wars that impressed the majority of Americans as urgent and imperative, wars that young people didn’t feel so deeply conflicted or apathetic about, then this might not be so tragically absurd.

* * *

And as far as the talk of “dinosaurs” and “extinction” goes, this recalls unsettling dichotomies of “winners”-vs-“losers,” “new”-vs-“old,” “vigorous”-vs-“weak,” “prolific procreators”-vs-“others” and the like.

These dynamics and the reactions they provoke get at the heart of the politics of population growth, rapid demographic change, and mass immigration.  All of this is very treacherous territory for Democrats, whether they admit it or not.

With the accelerating liberalization and democratization of public education throughout the United States, many children who attended public schools after the 1970s experienced very different visions of America and the world than the lessons and narratives presented to previous generations.

For instance, in suburban Maryland public schools, I learned a great deal about the Aztecs, the Mayans, the Olmecs, and the Incas.

I hardly learned anything about the Cherokees, the Navajos, the Chippewas, or the Sioux.

Over and over again during human history, those in power have found it expedient to marginalize or even eradicate cultures and subcultures under the mantle of political, economic, or social “progress.”

* * *

It’s also a bit quirky how Leventhal channels his inner Lloyd Bentsen at the beginning of his statement of support of Nancy Navarro:

“Much has been said about how best to carry on Marilyn Praisner’s legacy on the County Council.  I served with Marilyn Praisner.  I knew Marilyn Praisner.  Marilyn Praisner was a friend of mine.”

You half expect him to conclude this little progression with, “Delegate Kramer, you’re no Marilyn Praisner.”

(For those of you who don’t/can’t remember the late-’80s, this is lifted from the 1988 vice presidential debate where Senator Bentsen memorably dissed Dan Quayle for comparing himself (Quayle) to JFK.)

* * *

Alright, enough of all this rehashing of neoliberal identity politicking and precarious exercises in multi-culti tightrope-walking.

I’ll leave the “progressive” pissing contests to the pundits of MPW and MoCo’s coterie of bright-eyed MySpace/Facebook/Twitter Young Democrats.

For now, I’ll just throw my moral support behind the gutsy underdog politicos east of I-270 who still venture to be honest and open about the divisive leftist strategies and policies that contribute to chronic fragmentation and anomie in our suburban ’hoods.

Maybe I should start a new, unofficial pro-diversity PAC called Montgomery County Citizens for Left-handed Radical Centrist Pagan Tree-hugging Scientific Agnostics.

Here’s a stab at a campaign slogan:

“It takes a Hardman to tenderize so many soft-touch Democrats.”

(This goofiness is styled after the ’80s & ’90s ad campaign that featured Maryland’s poultry dynasty, the Perdues.)

Here in lower slumburbia we’ve had quite a few mom-and-pop poultry entrepreneurs who’ve launched their own ambitious chicken husbandry ventures from their humble slices of suburban gothic.  It got so crazy around here circa 2005 - 2007, that I really should’ve made a low-budget horror film about this phenomenon, titled something like Enter: The Conquering Chicken*, The Eggs-orcist, or Poultry-geist, of course.

Actually, it appears that some wise guys penned a script for an obscure indie horror film project called Poultrygeist: Attack of the Chicken Zombies as early as 2002, so it looks like that chicken has already flown the coop.

Whoa, Nelly...


Wow....  Longest... and Most Discursive... Post...  Ever!

If I were in a foamcore fantasy band...

I just ran across this local blog, “Foam Core Fantasy.”  I discovered it because the author (who goes by Cyndy) sometimes comments on Scenic Wheaton’s blog.  (My running joke about the difference between my own Wheaton blog and “Scenic Wheaton” is that mine could easily be titled “Splenic Wheaton.”)

When I first saw the phrase “Foam Core Fantasy,” it struck me as an excellent name for a band.  The band’s sound would be something like mildly spacey effects-heavy synth pop backed with hair metal guitar.

Like some unholy fusion of Esqu¡vel, Erasure, Pet Sh0p Boys, Def Leppard, and Poison, maybe.

It turns out that the foam core in question actually describes something along the lines of engineered pre-fab construction panels with extraordinary R-values.

I have no idea where the foam core blogger’s house is located or even whether it’s in Montgomery County, for that matter.  A few of the exterior photos suggest some semi-rural suburban gentrification haven like Olney or Burtonsville.  The house pictured exudes a sort of 21st-century farmhouse exurban boho chic.

I’ve stumbled across other similar blogs while searching for home improvement keywords and FCF falls under what I might call the “home remodeling fetish” blog genre.

Due to our current circumstances, I personally favor the “Xtreme DIY” blogs that get into the nuts and bolts of home improvement materials and practices.  The XDIY blogs are good sources of know-how and inspiration for people who can’t (stand to) pay other people to perform improvement & reconstruction work for them.

Anyways, the FCF blog inspires me to put more home “improvement” stuff up here in this sprawling blogspace, once the spouse and I get back into the low-budget demolition & seat-of-our-pants “design-build” renovation work later this spring.

More pictures + less blogorrhea  ==  less echo-chamber diarist blogging

(I was originally going to embed a video of “If I were a carpenter” in this post.  Ultimately, I just couldn’t bring myself to inflict any of the cheesy versions of that song on the few hapless souls who stumble on this junk heap of blogging damage.)

Foreclosure Fallout in the Mid-County

A foreclosed home on the corner of Turkey Branch Pkwy & Independence St in lower Aspen Hill.
This neighborhood is not included in the county’s new focused revitalization program.
(Saturday, March 28.)

The Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) held a community “charrette” for its new Focused Neighborhood Assistance (FNA) program last night at Wheaton High School.  This was basically a public feedback and discussion session.  Evidently the term “charrette” comes from urban planning circles; it was originally applied mainly to creative sessions run by planners, policy-makers, designers, architects, and other experts.

In the March 31st meeting, any experts in attendance mostly acted as facilitators and observers, except during the introductory and wrap-up speeches, where county leaders treated us with enthusiastic exhortations such as “Be a squeaky wheel!” and “Be an informed wheel!”  (I grew up in this county and I have to say that the shrillest “squeaky wheel” residents can be exhausting and occasionally mildy terrifying to put up with.  Maybe having a comfortable salary and an advanced degree in some optimistic field like urban planning makes dealing with the restless rabble more tolerable.  The planning/housing eggheads at the meeting certainly seemed to be perky, perpetually positive-thinking types.)

For information on the FNA initiative, visit the county housing authority’s informational webpage:
“Foreclosure Prevention”

Most of the maps listed on the DHCA webpage link to large, rasterization-intensive PDFs (>1.5MB each).  These graphics were generated in February based on information released by real estate data clearinghouse RealtyTrac.  If you open up the countywide map (~2.85 MB), you’ll see that the greatest concentration of foreclosures occurs along a southeast-to-northwest axis.  This pattern closely aligns with many declining neighborhoods that tend to attract lower-income residents, as well as those blocks hit particularly hard by recent population destabilization and densification.

If you’re interested in the incidence of foreclosures throughout the entire state, check out Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) website for its Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which features a map color-coded by foreclosure impact level.  A sum of $26.7 million has been allocated for this program; it’s unclear how much of that will find its way to Montgomery County.

The statewide residential stabilization program falls under Maryland’s Neighborhood Conservation Initiative (NCI), first rolled out in tandem with former governor Glendening’s statewide “Smart Growth” program.  Ultimately, Maryland’s push for “Smart Growth” fell far short of living up to its name, as Environment Maryland outlines in their sobering report, “Not So Smart: Land Consumption in Maryland after a Decade of Smart Growth.”

And yet even today, pro-growth advocates still caricature the opposition as “slow growth” obstructionists who stand in the way of economic “progress” and social “progressivism.”  This smear is pretty astounding, given the overwhelming evidence that the pro-development crowd that has dominated government and local politics over the last two decades has rammed through policies that have degraded quality of life measures throughout the county.  This trends have hit densely populated regions like swaths of the mid-county, as well as rapidly developing exurban regions that used to be more rural and rustic in character.  When pressed, a lot of long-term residents agree that this county has become a considerably less appealing place to live for much of the rising middle class.

And yet when you look at the District 4 Special Election, the few candidates in favor of more active measures to achieve residential population stabilization and safeguard the local environment are constantly sidelined and marginalized by the most well-funded Democratic campaigns, as well as local politics beat journalists.  It appears that the aggressive staffers and volunteers enlisted in these slicker campaigns have transferred much of the rhetoric, tactics, and funding streams used in the national political theater to a humble local council race.  They are counting on members of the usual lock-step, pamphlet-ready Democratic voting blocs to usher in their anointed candidates and shut out all of the other worthy contenders, many of whom are long-term residents and civic activists who have a much more direct ground-level appreciation of the history of this area and the steady decline many of these neighborhoods have experienced for decades.

“Growth is good” is about as sound a statement as “Money quells all ills” or “Poverty is ennobling.”

“Smart” growth in Montgomery County quickly devolved into shortcut growth-at-all-costs expansion and an explosion in construction/renovation projects driven by developers who seduced politicians and residents with their visions of economic invigoration and a transformed metropolitan landscape.  A lot of residents, particularly in the west county, have profited handsomely from these policies.

The decline in rising middle-class neighborhoods like mine has been swift and dramatic during the 2000s.  Top-down policies and planning measures that catalyzed fast growth starting in the late 1990s rapidly created thousands of low-end jobs with depressed/stagnant wages.  Loosening credit standards, misleading leftist political rhetoric, and an ever-expanding stock of cramped and crowded slumburban rental units and sub-units helped paved the way for this steady race to the bottom.

And unlike in places like northern Virginia, broad economic development and job growth hasn’t kept pace with the residential overpopulation and densification bubble in Maryland.  Now that county employees are increasingly missing out on perks like cost-of-living adjustments, they may finally develop a deeper appreciation of what so many other residents are struggling with right now.

And yes, “densification” appears to be a legitimate word.  Using it here only invites obvious slurs about the stupefication of local leaders and residents during the Dumb Money decade.  (Hey, I sipped half-heartedly at the Kool-Aid, too, until about 2004 or so.)

Well, well.  Google tells me that British tunesmith Graham Parker once wrote a song titled “Stupefication.”  This minor associative tidbit gives me the perfect pretext for including my gratuitous music vid embed of the day, an early new wave gem from three decades back:



This song — from Parker’s 1979 acclaimed LP Squeezing Out Sparks — arguably has a quasi-suburban feel to it, especially since the accompanying vid features plenty of goofy girl-next-door Londonettes along with the come-hither caddishness of Mr. Parker.

Ahem, now let me return to the weighty subject of mid-county suburban decay.

* * *

The county’s revitalization program targets a few key areas hit hard by foreclosures, including one upcounty region (Germantown).  Their mid-county target area is Glenmont.

I wish I could say that this is merely a pilot program, but it looks like county officials are being very cautious about the initiative because of their depleted budget and re-shuffled policy priorities.  Ms. Cantor of the Mid-County Regional Services Center used the word “scant” at least twice while describing the level of funding available for the effort.  Speaking for County Exec Leggett, one official emphasized that local priorities are currently ordered as follows: “public safety, education, and safety net services.”

It looks like Montgomery County has been monitoring preliminary and active residential foreclosure trends for several years, along with the socioeconomic and other demographic data they normally compile and analyze for policy guidance.

I excerpt one of these maps below; again, the data was current as of February.

This is a snapshot approximating foreclosure activity in west Wheaton and Glenmont during the 4th quarter of FY 2008.

FNA = Focused Neighborhood Assistance
CAE = Connecticut Avenue Estates

For the original maps this graphic is extracted from, again, see the DHCA’s foreclosure resource webpage.

The area surrounded in blue is the mid-county zone being targeted by this program.  The vast majority of people within this area identify as Glenmont residents.  (Glenmont and Wheaton share the same census-designated place, or CDP.)

My household falls within the triangular area outlined in red, which roughly comprises much of the the “Connecticut Avenue Estates” (CAE) legal subdivision.  (Portions of “Connecticut Avenue Park” and “Montgomery Highland Estates” are cordoned within this red boundary as well, albeit unintentionally.)  There are at least a thousand households with the CAE subdivision designation; at least a couple of hundred of them are located in the southern region of the county’s targeted area, north of Randolph Road.  CAE is an aging high-density subdivision that the county has targeted before in combatting mid-county suburban blight.

Too Little, Too Late?

We’ve got a mid-county landscape studded with foreclosures and overshadowed with many other manifestations of creeping suburban blight.  These trends have been worsening for the past fifteen years or so, accelerating during the last 5 - 7 years.

While we are grateful that the county is finally addressing these long-developing patterns after all these years of decay and neglect, it’s frustrating that officials can only muster up the resources to focus on this very circumscribed area for this latest round of revitalization efforts.  Even with these well-defined constraints, DHCA officials made sure to repeatedly temper residents’ expectations about the project at Tuesday night’s meeting, which is certainly a good idea during this lean fiscal era.

If anybody has any other ideas about how or why county leaders arrived at this particular targeting decision, I’d really like to hear it.  I think they may have been chosen in part because of an emerging groundswell of civic involvement within that neighborhood.  Congratulations to the men and women behind the new Greater Glenmont Civic Association (GGCA).  The county is obviously looking to capitalize on the energy and “human resources” within these neighborhoods in its FNA initiative.  Incidentally, GGCA seems to tilt toward the southeastern portion of the region highlighted in the map above, which is centered on the subdivision known as “Glenmont Village” near the Glenmont Metro station.  The western regions of the neighborhood seemed somewhat isolated from this civic movement (e.g. portions of “Glenmont Hills,” “Connecticut Avenue Park,” and “Stoneybrook Estates”).

Those of us in neighboring communities (e.g. west Wheaton, Aspen Hill & north Kensington) really ought to redouble our own efforts to resurrect and support our own flagging and oft-neglected neighborhood groups.

More “Me decade” Redux and Madness

Happy Friday the 13th for the second month in a row.

“I’m as mad as a hatter and I’m not going to take you any more...”

You may or may not recognize that as a corruption of the famous line screamed by apoplectic news anchor Howard Beale in Network (1976):

“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more...”

He builds up to this crescendo after saying other things that eerily resonate with our current climate of anxiety:
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad.
Everybody knows things are bad.
It’s a depression.
Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job.
....
Banks are going bust.
Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.
Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere that seems to know what to do and there’s no end to it.
....
We know things are bad, worse than bad, they’re crazy.
It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy so we don’t go out anymore.
We sit in the house and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller and all we say is,
‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms ... just leave us alone.’”

When the madman utters the climactic line, he is exhorting the Everyman, the Silent Majority impassively assembled in the anemic blue glow of their living room television sets, to literally get up out of their seats and go scream their outrage out their windows.

Paddy Chayefsky, the creator of this timeless American character, explained his attitude about Network like this:

“People say to me: ‘Jesus, you moved into some pretty surreal satire.’  I say:  ‘No, I still write realistic stuff.  It’s the world that’s gone nuts, not me.  It’s the world that's turned into a satire."  We never lied.  Everything in the movie is true—with some extensions.  It's very hard to describe simply and realistically what is going on without being grotesque.  I think the movie is right now. .... I think the American people deserve some truth—at least as much truth as we can give them—instead of pure entertainment or pure addiction.”—“Chayefsky: ‘Network Is True’,” Time, 12/13/1976

I was reminded of the Network rant scene for the umpteenth time recently while checking out “Silver Spring, Singular,” a downcounty blog that attracts a lot of attention because of its whip-smart & candid writing, topical currency, and its connectedness to the goings-on of greater Silver Spring.  Plus, it’s got plenty of photos and graphics and the blogger keeps comments open to Anonymice, which makes things livelier and more engaging.

SSS introduces a recent post with the following:

“I don’t know about on yours, but the locals on my neighborhood message board are mad as hell about the ‘melee’ in [downtown Silver Spring] this past Saturday and they aren't going to take it anymore!”
[Acronym expansion, formatting, & linking all added.]

SSS accompanies the post with a movie still from the Angry Man classic Falling Down (1993), which left me scratching my head over the madman movie mixed metaphors.

SSS: “... the regularly expressed opinion that ‘it's just like that in Bethesda’ is total bulls***.  Anyone who says this has clearly never been to Bethesda.”

Springular sure got that right.  Downtown Bethesda invests a lot of money in attracting the right crowd of self-actualizing professionals and big spenders.  BUP and friends do a bang-up job of keeping baggy-pants, saggy-seat crews out of their scrubbed urban districts.

The most aggressive people you’ll encounter in Bethesda generally include the Type-A jerks that jockey for the plummest parking spots in the downtown garages, the aging frat boy drunks that frequent “Caddies” on Cordell Avenue, and the Valet Parking Mafia that extort fat tips out of west-county and NWDC gentry flush with an embarrassment of disposable income.  While some of these potential rowdies may threaten bodily harm if you make the mistake of wasting their time or delaying their gratification, none of them is very likely to break out in fisticuffs with you.

123cartoon on WashingtonPost.com quips:
“The ‘Stop the Violence’ concert is over. You may now return to your previous violent nature. Thank you for coming.”

»»»

Sublime Magic theatre. Entrance not for everyone. For madmen only.

«««

Here’s an English etymological enigma.  “Mad” variously means angry, crazy, and a combination thereof.  Why and how did this come about?  Is there psychological research that bears out the observation that raging makes can make you raving?

SSS: “Also, while people certainly have every right to be upset, some use this as an excuse to prop up their bogus theories about how these miscreants will invade Silver Spring throughout the week once the Fillmore is open. Yes, because those Seal (actual Fillmore performer) crowds can get completely out of hand.”

Hey now, once Seal starts singing some of his more provocative lyrics, what if the crowd starts to take it a tad too literally:

“But we’re never gonna survi-i-i-i-ve unless, we get a little crazy...”

Now back to more madcap madness:

Thayer Avenue said [on SSS’s blog]:
How did you gain such a penchant for drawing in the crazy people to the comment board? I never cease to be amazed.

And “Thayer Avenue” said this before I added my damage to the mix.

I splenically snorted in return:
“‘Thayer Avenue’?  Perhaps this proud member of the Nouveau Silver Spring gentry should try on the address and blogger moniker ‘Woodmont Avenue.’  It appears that Thayer doesn’t much care for the untidy opinings of us ‘crazy’ east-county riff-raff.

Springular, how did you gain such a penchant for drawing in the downcounty gentry to act as such wet blankets on the comment board?  I never cease to be crazed, er, amazed.”
[more crazy stuff followed this jabbering....]

Thayer Avenue said:
“Wow, Sleepless. I make an off-handed, generalized comment and you end up attacking me, The X-Files, *and* linking to classic Bernstein all in one fell swoop? Very impressive.

I think my work here is done!”

Indeed!

Springvale Roader informs us:
“Well folks, this is timely. This coming Sunday and Monday, AFI will be screening the documentary, ‘Crips and Bloods: Made in America.’ http://www.afi.com/silver/new/nowplaying/events.aspx#crips

I plan on wearing my red bandanna...or should I go with blue?”

Thomas Hardman weighs in:
“I was more hoping for a screening of ‘Lord of the Flies’.”

Well, here in the south-central loco-en-MoCo ’hood of west Wheaton, I guess we would have to sport blue bandannas to this cultural event, as MS-13 claims to be the dominant “click” in these here parts.

Yeah, so I’ve heard that the AFI Silver is trying to make it in this recession just like a lot of others arts-and-culture institutions.  May I suggest the following quadruple feature, curated by myself:

“The All-American Angry Man Film Marathon”
…featuring conniptive classics from the 1970s through the 2000s…
Network — 1970s
Ruthless People — 1980s
Falling Down — 1990s
Gran Torino — 2000s
Why, this could even be the basis for yet another AFI superlative list...

...“100 Years, 100 Rages” !

Reaction to Hardman’s latest Dist. 4 race post

County Council District 4 candidate Thomas Hardman just posted his responses to the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce’s special election candidate questionnaire this morning.

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

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.

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.

Caught DUI/DWI? Don’t be caught DOA.

And we’re talking about political demise here as well.

* * *
This week many of us have done our level best to ignore how the Dow/S&P, the Nikkei, the Hang Seng, the DAX, the London Exchange, etc. are all plunging and anemically regaining value in paroxysms of wild panic.  Meanwhile the news on job losses and industry contractions is making many people seek oblivion in whatever form they can come by it, whether that’s a liquid, a capsule, a pulsating LCD display, or whatever.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been something of a train wreck these last few weeks.

So I fear that I have to resort to mordant humor and patent absurdity that may get me in trouble.  Please forgive this lunacy.

* * *
I tend to take drunk driving and alcohol abuse pretty seriously.  This position made me very popular among the carousers in my cohort of collegiate alcoholic conformists.  Well, if you grow up around a bunch of annoying gin-and-tonic-addled adults, the sXe lifestyle starts to look a tad appealing.  One only tends to get drunk to emulate Mom and Dad if one doesn’t hate their pickled guts too much.

You know, it’s a little like non-smokers who grow up associating foul ashtray smells with the rank stench of Mommy’s sweater or Daddy’s sportcoat.

* * *
Proud Papa-to-be Pagnucco over at MPW generously provides the text of Ike Leggett’s letter in support of stricter DUI/DWI enforcement measures using a clever ignition interlock device that only activates if the operator exhales a “clean” enough breath.

Are such devices hard to foil?  Can you get a (presumably sober) child to exhale into the thing, for instance?  Yes, it’s true, drunks will attempt stunts like this.  Let’s just hope they don’t try it in the Old Wine(-o) State.

* * *
We just have to make sure that these gadgets are simple enough that tipsy Maryland politicians like state Dels. Barve and Taylor can use them effectively.

Hmm, I think I feel a tickle of farce coming on.



Let’s start with the “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle” premise but replace the Jersey bit with some Old Line State flavor.

“Herman & Kumar Go to the House of Crabs” is more like it, the House of Crabs in question being the stale echo chamber occupied by Maryland Delegates.

Or what about the sequel: “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay”?  Man, that’s so ’07/’08.  The Gitmo goons are closing up shop and Barve and Taylor probably won’t get profiled as enemy combatants unless (a) they go on a drunk driving spree in Carroll County and/or (b) Bobby “Persecution Complex” Ehrlich gets voted back into the Governor’s Mansion and jumpstarts another spying & profiling program directed at his mortal enemies.

Nope, we need to adjust the tone for a new era of dope, er, hope.

“Herman & Kumar Escape from Annapolis Soirée.”  Yep, that’s much better, plus it sort of rhymes with “Bay.”  “Chesapeake Bay” would be another obvious possibility, although then we have to explain how these two pols ended up in that pfiesteria-infested pond to begin with.  Crumbling infrastructure anyone?  A few certifiably shoddy bridges would be like money in the bank for Maryland Democrats.  We’re talking Federal Stimulus paydirt here, kids.  But that’s a topic for another long-winded post.

But, ahem.  Back to our DUI duo.

We’ve got the promise of a narrative here.  Picture this for starters:

Herman & Kumar stagger out of a stultifyingly boring engagement full of hobnobbing Maryland muckety-mucks.  The open-bar drinks and phony praises are pouring forth freely.  Then they stumble into the leather-upholstered bucket seats of their respective luxury vehicles, now outfitted with this clever breathalyzer “interlock” ignition device.

After spending too many hours in the dense, soporific fog of Maryland Democratic politics, Herman & Kumar breathe hearty sighs of relief into their ignition interlock mouthpieces.  The dense vapors of their winey breaths immediately trigger the fuel cell contacts to close; their keys fail to budge.  After screaming invective at their vehicles that would make Mike Subin blush, they each whip out their BlackBerrys and implore their long-suffering wives to come pick them up.

Hey, this could be the setup for a brilliantly staged candid-camera press conference on the new device.

If such a press conference were to occur, we’d hope that Herman & Kumar wouldn’t louse things up by doing something embarrassing like inserting their car keys in the wrong car holes or something.

Paging Parris “thwarted-by-the-child-proof-safety-lock” Glendening, anyone?

“Save Wheaton Library,” say locals.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  But if the county’s broke, we may be fixin’ for a fight.

By “fight” I mean a good old-fashioned fracas about funding priorities.  Silver Spring got a sexy makeover, but it looks like homely stepsister Wheaton is going to have to settle for some delayed gratification now that times are lean around here.

Hats off to county residents who have stayed on top of the Wheaton library relocation proposal.  Local activist and social media strategist Noah Wolfe has started up a Facebook group in support of keeping Wheaton Library at its current location at the corner of Georgia and Arcola Avenues.  He makes a lot of sound, sensible arguments laying out why the library should stay where it is.

Also be sure to check out the related Save Wheaton Library website.  This site provides some background on how Wheaton redevelopment planning has been conducted.

Even though some of us missed the official public comment cutoff date, we can still make our voices heard about this.

I plan to learn more about Wheaton redevelopment.  Hey now, we can’t always trust politicians, pointy-headed urban planners, and other self-appointed know-it-alls to work everything out in our collective best interest, can we?

(My sister is actually an urban planning geek; let’s hope she doesn’t take offense at this.  Many urban planning/renewal thinkers are very bright and motivated about their work but I fear that they don’t always have entirely realistic views about urban/suburban blight and decay.  It’s probably one of the occupational hazards of being a visionary.)

Wheaton Redevelopment: Security First

(DRAFT)



In a recent post, Aspen Hill blogger and Council District 4 candidate Thomas Hardman has gotten me thinking about Wheaton Library and urban redevelopment in downtown Wheaton.

The county has been soliciting public opinion on whether to relocate the Wheaton library to the Central Business District (CBD).



Here’s my take on this.  Overall, it’s pretty simple:

Keep the library in its current location in east-central Wheaton.  This area straddles suburban and urban segments of Wheaton very nicely.  Instead of relocating the library as part of a costly and protracted construction project, give it a major overhaul and increase its accessibility to west-side and downtown Wheaton residents.  This latter goal could be met by broadening sidewalks/walkways and adjacent public spaces and by creating more pedestrian-friendly crosswalks and traffic patterns in the immediate vicinity, for instance.

As for the Wheaton library itself, give it a well-designed renovation with vigilant project cost oversight.  If the existing building is structurally sound enough, it can easily withstand a major renovation.  The county only needs to recruit architects and structural engineers creative and responsible enough to rise to the challenge of such a renewal project.

Wheaton does not need a cool, glittering edifice to rival the regional libraries of places like Rockville and Bethesda; we only need a comfortable, serviceable community library with enough upgrades to meet our population growth.

The county can use the funds saved to help relocate the “Wheaton” Police Station to Wheaton proper.

As it stands, the District 4 station is located in Glenmont, probably more for historical than logistical reasons.

The station would better serve county citizens if it were moved to downtown Wheaton.

1. Wheaton has become an unfortunate magnet for crime and other social ills in the county, being located along the southeast-to-northwest crime corridor.

Some Glenmont and Aspen Hill residents will object to moving the District 4 station south along Georgia Avenue.  If you are such a resident, keep in mind that criminals based in Wheaton and other points south/southeast often prey on your communities.  In addition, remember that well sited and coordinated community substations can very effectively meet local community policing needs and can also tailor their operations to your particular area.

Also note that many other urban MCPD stations are either located in or adjacent to downtown areas; Bethesda, Rockville, and Silver Spring are good examples.


2. MPD personnel based in Wheaton would be at the nexus of several major regional arteries:

MD-193 / University Blvd (W/E)
MD-97 / Georgia Ave (N/S)
MD-586 / Veirs Mill Rd (NW/SE)

A site like Wheaton Triangle might be a good option for a new police station.

A location along a key downtown street such as Grandview Avenue (N/S), Amherst Avenue (N/S), Reedie Drive (W/E), or Blueridge Avenue (W/E) would also provide good secondary routes for 4th district police.


3. Law and order are potentially good for business.

Image-conscious business interests helped eject the police substation out of Wheaton Mall several years back.

Some of us are old enough to remember when “Wheaton Plaza” was a place where more suburban county residents felt relatively safe (and you could enjoy free Fourth of July fireworks with family and friends, for that matter).

Mismanagement by offshore landlords (Westfield Group) allied with powerful county business/developer interests have helped turn this so-called “Shoppingtown” into a local crime haven.  Residents from all over the region routinely pan Wheaton Mall as a hangout for thugs, juvenile delinquents, and their groupies.  On top of the constant reports of shoplifting/thefts and other crimes that happen around the mall regularly, we have high-profile shootings, stabbings and gang displays at the mall that bring notoriety to the area and ward off many customers with higher disposable incomes.

Moving the police station to downtown Wheaton could help lower crime and disorder in the business district overall.  Ultimately, open-minded residents from surrounding areas would find Wheaton more welcoming for running errands, shopping, and dining.  This would potentially counter the creeping retail blight that has been afflicting Wheaton in recent years.

Many south-central county residents seem frustrated with the course of Wheaton “redevelopment.”  Does anybody have an inside line as far as what the Wheaton Kensington Chamber of Commerce, the Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee (WRAC), and other controlling business/development interests are really up to?  Much of the information out there seems to be mostly slick packaging and promises.

District 4 Special Elections — A Cribsheet

(DRAFT)

Special Election Timeline from Board of Elections

Council District Map linked to interactive PDF maps for each district.

Party	Candidate	Community or Neighbor­hood	Organizational Affiliations
Democratic	Thomas J. Hardman	Aspen Hill	• TJH Internet SP, owner-operated IT firm
	Ben F. Kramer	Derwood	• Maryland Delegate, Dist. 19 • Montg. Co. Liquor Control Task Force • Wheaton Redevelopment Steering Committee, Transportation and Public Safety Subcommittee Co-chair, ~2000 – 2001 • Kramer Enterprises, commercial real estate concern; (est. by father, Sid Kramer, County Executive, 1986 – 1990)
	Cary A. Lamari	Aspen Hill / Norbeck	• Montg. Co. Civic Federation, President 2002 – 2004 • Cary Electric Co., owner-operated electrical contracting firm
	Nancy Navarro	Colesville	• Montg. Co. Board of Ed., President 2006 – 2008; appointed 2004 – 2006, elected 2006 – present • Centro Familia, bilingual latino child-care non-profit, co-founder, 1998; co-director 1998 – 2004
	Chris Paladino	Layhill	• WITHDREW FROM RACE 3/2/2009; PERSONAL/FAMILY REASONS CITED • American Red Cross of the Nat’l Capital Area, Montg. Co., Exec. Dir. 2002 – 2005
Green	George Gluck	Norbeck	(unknown)
Republican	Lou August	Colesville	• Save the Children, Director of Tech. Development & Partnerships • Wilderness Technology Alliance, non-profit taking on the digital divide; founder
	Robin K. A. Ficker	Fairland*	• Robin Ficker Realty

* Ficker declared Fairland his place of residence in Feb. 2009; otherwise he makes his home in Boyds, Potomac, and apparently wherever else there is a hefty tax burden to crusade against.

Wheaton DUI driver: “I strike Ike.”*

* Okay, if you don’t get the cheesy pun here, try revisiting mid-20th century American political history.

A citizen who variously calls west Wheaton & West Virginia home has brought our downtrodden unincorporated area more unwanted distinction and notoriety.

Yes, Mr. Kendall S. Smith was apparently celebrating the end of the shortest month of the year with a few too many brewskis yesterday.  He plowed his pickup into the SUV carrying County Executive Ike Leggett and MoCo “First Lady” Catherine Leggett.

Here’s the story as reported in the Post and Gazette.

State court records indicate that Smith has racked up quite a few DUI/DWI and moving violations, like too many local drivers.

We hope that Mr. & Mrs. Leggett recover quickly and that they consider a push to tighten up state drunk-driving penalties and heighten enforcement measures.