Tuesday, February 10, 2009

what's up the pike: fired up, shields ready

Living in Wheaton = need armored vehicle?

- This rendering of MetroPointe, a new apartment complex literally atop the Wheaton Metro, shows a Hummer driving by the building. Not the cute, yuppie-friendly Hummer H3, but the Humvee you see navigating the streets of Baghdad, not Montgomery County. What are they implying? Are they saying Wheaton is SO dangerous that you need an armored vehicle to leave your $2,000-a-month apartment, or is Wheaton so nouveau riche that its new residents can afford to drive such a car? Very confusing.

- The District 4 race heated up over the weekend, with four candidates already throwing their hat in the ring. Maryland Politics Watch has been on top of the story, announcing the candidacy of Chris Paladino and Layhill activist Cary Lamari along with the ensuing fight between the Board of Elections and Montgomery County Public Schools over when the election should actually be held. In addition to Paladino and Lamari, State Delegate Ben Kramer (D-Dist. 19) and School Board President Nancy Navarro (D) are also running to replace Councilmember Don Praisner, who passed away earlier this month.

- Speaking of District 4: Thomas Hardman asked us to make a plug for District 4 Wiki, the user-generated website all about East County where you can eventually read (and write, of course) about the ongoing campaign. The Wiki was started last summer by Hardman, who ran in last year's special election and Eileena York from Citizens Involved.

- Delegate Herman Taylor (D-Dist. 14) was found guilty for DUI last week. Taylor, seen above (center) at a District 14 delegation dinner last year, was charged with drunk driving last May when a police officer discovered him slumped over in his car while parked at the 7-Eleven in Hillandale.

6 comments:

Thomas Hardman said...

Thanks for the plug, Dan, but it's a real change of pace for the sort of people who prefer drama to research.

What I'd really love to see someone do is to list at least all of the major churches and other congregations all up and down New Hampshire Avenue, for a start. It's easy to forget that District 4 has one of the largest collections of Houses of Worship all on one throughfare anywhere on the East Coast. You could do one forum a night, each in a different church/synagogue/mosque and still not have time even in the regular election cycle to do them all.

Terry in Silver Spring said...

The Metropointe web site shows that they're offering 2.5 months free rent on one bedrooms and 1 month free on 2 bedrooms. Apparently, we aren't the only ones who think the place is a wee bit pricey.

Sligo said...

That's actually an original Hummer, the one modified from the military version.

Sligo said...

Oh, and that's a drug dealer driving the Hummer, BTW.

Robin Ficker said...

A major concern is that the council members are treating the homeowners of District 4 as second-class citizens by allowing a new homeowner-friendly council member from district 4 take office only after the budget battles have been voted on.

The smaller the piece of the budget pie for District 4, the larger the piece of the budget pie for Districts 1, 2, 3 and 5. No wonder the homeowner-unfriendly council members of Districts 1, 2, 3, and 5 do not want a homeowner-friendly new council member from District 4 to vote on the budget.

Thomas Hardman said...

Dan and I hung out for my interview for the Council Special Elections in 2008, right across the street from this place.

They were going to build another chunk of real-estate right about that size, right across Georgia Avenue atop the bus-station at Wheaton Metro. That sure got put on hold.

Hmm, Down down nearly 400 even as I type.

I suspect that housing prices will be dropping sharply in the forseeable future.

Last week the _Post_ business section cited some 19 millions of vacant residential units, some sort of all-time record.

Not much work for construction workers here, is there.