Over the past seven months, Just Up The Pike has talked the talk and walked the walk with the People Who Start Things in Montgomery County. What I haven't done yet, however, is get to know the People Who Finish Things; i.e. our elected officials. Sure, I've yelled at Ike Leggett once or twice, but do I know him as a person? Not at all.
Questions are being prepared and the emus are being corralled as Just Up The Pike heads to Rockville to sit down with our County Councilmembers and County Executive Ike Leggett and talk about whatever's bothering East County. Hopefully, we'll learn a little about them, too. (Did you know Nancy Floreen recently spent a week biking in Vietnam? It's true.) Here's a side of your elected officials you can't see on County Cable 6:
NANCY FLOREEN (D-AT LARGE)
"Montgomery County people cannot come to any collective agreement - and probably never will - on whether we will be urban or suburban."
GEORGE LEVENTHAL (D-AT LARGE)
Part One | Part Two
"My sense about Silver Spring . . . is that young people dig it. I think younger people want stuff to do . . . excitement! Activity!
IKE LEGGETT (D-COUNTY EXECUTIVE)
"If you look at every election over the past sixteen years . . . I was probably the person favored to win. At no point in time was [Steve Silverman] ever ahead."
MARILYN PRAISNER (D-CALVERTON)
"Folks tend to get the perception that their corner of the County is unique . . . when we all have the same problems."
VALERIE ERVIN (D-SILVER SPRING)
"We could be finding a cure for cancer if we're able to connect FDA to Johns Hopkins to biotech corridors in Shady Grove."
MARC ELRICH (D-AT LARGE)
"We never proposed a moratorium. It was a word used by the press and developers to start a panic and scare people."
DUCHY TRACHTENBERG (D-AT LARGE)
Part One | Part Two
"Do we make the maintenance of our infrastructure a higher priority? I would like to see the social ills in this County make it on the map."
ROGER BERLINER (D-POTOMAC)
Part One | Part Two
"Those of us who are blessed with abundance have a duty to work for the community who have less."
The big question is whether or not the People Who Finish Things will take me seriously. Can a college kid sit down and talk shop with a four-term politician? We're about to find out.
9 comments:
Yeah it's another transit thing, but could you ask them about Doug Duncan's proposed BRT route up 29?
Haven't heard anything about it in a while.
Thanks
You could try to find out about any real development plans they have for Long Branch. Someone said they were giving LB the authority to go after funding... but there's a sense that the county is just shrugging their shoulders. You'd think there'd be a plan.
Development.
We're seeing little bits and pieces of a puzzle with projects here and there.
Is there really a master plan as to what downtown SS will look like? Mixes of development? Are there enough buffers and transition areas to the well established neighborhoods? It's the neighborhoods that are close to downtown that make it a greener and more livable area and it would be nice to see what is being done to protect them.
Two cases in point will be the Silver Place Park and Planning expansion and what eventually will happen to the old library when the new library is built.
Please ask about building height. If we increase the height of buildings, then there are more moderately priced units and more reason for businesses to open shop on the lower level. This would create true mixed development.
I've had a few one-on-one's with Nancy Floreen, and she was always quite clueless about just about everything other than development.
Maybe you'll do better with her.
Dear MoCo, did you ask Nancy Floreen to send all the illegal immigrants back to Mexico? If you asked her about your obsessive preoccupation with illegal immigration, no wonder she gave you a non-committal response. You are a grade-A nutcase and she probably wanted to get away from you as quickly as she could.
Enrique Hernandez said...
Dear MoCo, did you ask Nancy Floreen to send all the illegal immigrants back to Mexico? If you asked her about your obsessive preoccupation with illegal immigration, no wonder she gave you a non-committal response. You are a grade-A nutcase and she probably wanted to get away from you as quickly as she could.
1/29/2007 8:51 PM
RE: Those Maryland hating redneck closet racist Democrats must've put you up to this.
Ask ALL OF THEM if they will continue to stick their heads in the sand about the job situation in the county.
Is there a plan to embrace office development over residential?
How about 70/30 split a this time?
Post a Comment