Economy
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A Plea for Responsible County Finances
Read more: A Plea for Responsible County Finances“We don’t have the money,” according to MoCo Exec Marc Elrich and Council President Natali Fani-González. They promise us they will talk about how to get more money, and they do not rule out increasing our taxes. In fact they warn us to expect taxes to be increased. Targeted tax increases. We all know who…
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Rezoned and Still Missing the Middle—Part 2: Dismantling the Colony
Read more: Rezoned and Still Missing the Middle—Part 2: Dismantling the ColonyIn 1632, King Charles I granted Lord Baltimore a charter to settle an area of new New World delineated by the Atlantic Ocean, 40th degree latitude, the Potomac River, and islands in the Chesapeake Bay. Charles named the area Maryland. Because Baltimore was chummy with Charles, he received very enticing terms of ownership. And we…
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Rezoned and Still Missing the Middle—Part 1: Cost Accounting
Read more: Rezoned and Still Missing the Middle—Part 1: Cost AccountingAnyone who cares about affordable housing supports rezoning—including President Biden’s administration and more recently the Senate’s bi-partisan ROAD to Housing Act. For my part, I’ve written dozens of articles in favor of blanket rezoning the acres upon acres of single-family lots throughout Montgomery County to increase the supply and lower the price. Unfortunately, recent experience…
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Feds, the progressives are your friends no longer
Read more: Feds, the progressives are your friends no longerIn Los Angeles there is an area between Westwood and Santa Monica that is home to several large federal installations (FBI, VA, various agency extension offices). If a fed gets laid off from one of those agencies, there is plenty of work available in LA’s entertainment, hospitality, manufacturing, and other industries. In New York there…
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ZTA 25-02: A Small Step Toward a New Age in Affordable Housing
Read more: ZTA 25-02: A Small Step Toward a New Age in Affordable HousingThe last attempt at zoning reform was ZTA 19-01, introduced by former council member Hans Riemer. The highlight of that reform was a blanket approval allowing homeowners to build accessory dwelling units (ADU) on their properties (subject to constraints). That reform did almost nothing to alleviate the cost of housing, so council members Andrew Friedson…
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Central Planners from MoCo at the Root of State’s Energy Crisis – and Your Skyrocketing Energy Bills
Read more: Central Planners from MoCo at the Root of State’s Energy Crisis – and Your Skyrocketing Energy BillsMaryland’s beleaguered taxpayers are also getting smacked with energy rate hikes and the resulting large power bills this summer as the mid-Atlantic electrical grid operator (PJM Interconnection) struggles to ensure reliable power to homes, businesses and families across the region. Since reliable energy is a lifeblood for business operations and production (food, retail goods, transport,…
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How Badly is MCPS Red-lined?
Read more: How Badly is MCPS Red-lined?I’ve mentioned several times that MCPS is redlined based on affluence: affluent families live in areas where the schools are successful, and struggling families live in areas where the schools struggle along with them. In this post I present a visualization of this claim. Step 1: Identify the schools’ rankings Niche.com provides a succinct ranking…
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David Stein, do you have one corpuscle of compassion?
Read more: David Stein, do you have one corpuscle of compassion?Within the last week over 1,000 employees were laid off from the State Department. More layoffs are coming at the Department of Education. According to “National Public” Radio (not much of either), as of June 6 this year 59,000 federal jobs disappeared since Trump entered office. There is surely more to come. For some of…
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Stop More Housing N.O.W. / ZTA 25-02!! – It Doesn’t Do What it Promises to Do
Read more: Stop More Housing N.O.W. / ZTA 25-02!! – It Doesn’t Do What it Promises to DoA growing number of County residents and community groups are speaking out against the “More Housing N.O.W.” legislation, specifically Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 25-02 scheduled to be taken up by the County Council in July. Some Council Members are promoting the bill as a step toward increasing affordable housing options for teachers, firefighters, nurses, and…
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Affordable housing: We need bulldozers, not corridors
Read more: Affordable housing: We need bulldozers, not corridorsGo to the soft-drink aisle of the supermarket, stand in front of the display for 16.9 oz Coca Cola bottles, and you will see something absolutely amazing. The level of the beverage inside the bottles is almost identical. You’ll probably never find a bottle with exactly 16.9 ounces, but all of them—millions of them—will be…