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Federal dollars bring private dollars. Just look at Virginia. Imagine the commenwealth without U.S. Patent and Trade, INS, DISA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Science Foundation, the U.S Marshalls Service, DOD, the TSA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the Office of the Inspector General, and several more. All of those employees in Virginia every day, just waiting to spend those hard earned dollars. Business followed the money.
Few developments in the county have been so successful. The 534,000-square-foot development, at the corner of Arlington Road and Bethesda Avenue, blends three uses — retail, office and residential — charges high rents, and is the hub of nightlife for a community whose households within three miles take home on average more than $150,000 a year.
There isn’t going to be another Bethesda Row. But there is White Flint in Rockville. Comprised of 430 acres bisected by Rockville Pike, all within three-quarters of a mile of the White Flint Metro Station, it is a sea of parking lots, older office buildings and strip shopping centers.
Montgomery County is targeting the jumble to create a new county model for city living that could drive its commercial development for coming decades. The county’s plan — similar to Fairfax County’s vision for Tysons Corner — is to turn the traffic-riddled corridor into an urban, walkable place. But now it will largely fall to a half dozen major land owners to turn that vision into reality.
I'm sorry to hear about her experience. Bad things can happen anywhere from the places that everyone considers safe to the places that are best to avoid. I myself am guilty of focusing on the negative too much instead of recognizing the positive (and I apologize). There are bad areas in every county that are best avoided, but there are also good areas that are idea to raise a family. If a person avoids the bad areas and uses common sense, then they should be just fine in PG. These kinds of stories do not help the county, but the media latches on to them instead of also highlighting the good things that are actually happening. You know the old saying "if it bleeds it leads". There is a lot of spill-over from DC along the MD/DC border, so a lot of the crime is actually being committed by people who don't even live in the county to begin with.
I guess her point was that one MUST drive through the bad parts to get into the good parts.
My thought on her comment is it is walking your way through hell to get into heaven... lol
Although, I was in PG all weekend and never felt unsafe... last weekend, someone busted out a couple of car windows to steal bags, at a party I was attending in Upper Marlboro... odd since the party was at a mega mansion, in the middle of the woods. But as someone pointed out, we had "x" (whatever the name was) on the other side of the woods... place you could not even see.
But the house we were at looked and felt like it was in the remote moutains someplace.
I guess her point was that one MUST drive through the bad parts to get into the good parts.
My thought on her comment is it is walking your way through hell to get into heaven... lol
Although, I was in PG all weekend and never felt unsafe... last weekend, someone busted out a couple of car windows to steal bags, at a party I was attending in Upper Marlboro... odd since the party was at a mega mansion, in the middle of the woods. But as someone pointed out, we had "x" (whatever the name was) on the other side of the woods... place you could not even see.
But the house we were at looked and felt like it was in the remote moutains someplace.
I remember reading somewhere that Black middle class areas have more crime than comparable white areas because of the simple fact that the crooks can "blend" in more in black middle class areas.
I guess with racial profiling white areas can keep more of a lid on crime.
I remember reading somewhere that Black middle class areas have more crime than comparable white areas because of the simple fact that the crooks can "blend" in more in black middle class areas.
I guess with racial profiling white areas can keep more of a lid on crime.
First part seems to suggest that only the black middle class have criminals...
Second part seems to suggest that white people don't commit crime.
Sure that is not what you meant... if so, it would be shocking.
To your first part, I'd suggest that poor/uneducated blacks have moved into neighborhoods of the middle class blacks. That was at least the suggested reasoning behind the windows being busted out. True? Heck, I don't know. I don't even really know where the party was... except upper marlboro.
Some lady said (bunch of us standing outside looking at the cars) said that the neighborhood shipped in many from inner DC and they have had issues. Again, true? I don't know. I don't know her.
There are SO many issues at work there... land, area, family moving in, lower house prices, etc.
I think one poorer black person from DC would have an easier time moving into PG than Potomic. Just my guess.
Far as "racial profiling", not sure what that means... I don't have an issue with police going into Potomic, Bethesda, Gaithersburg, Rockville, etc. I sometimes shop in these areas and still have tons of friends in these areas. I see enough black people. I personally think they do a better job of keeping the housing prices higher and passing local laws to keep out people.
Then again, if another areas of more "friendly" to your kind (whatever you are), that is where you will move. Put up a junk car in Bethesda and you might have it towed... wheaton laws might allow it to sit for years. But I don't know for sure...
So many issues/reasons... not to say racial profiling won't be a factor, but it seemed an odd factor for you to bring up.
Konterra up in Greenbelt is private; National Harbor and the planned additional developments there are private; on a much smaller scale, there are the developments on Route 1 in Hyattsville, Riverdale Park and College Park ... Some of these are still in discussions/planning and may not move forward and none are Science City, but it's a start ...
I follow developments in northern PG and I can tell you that Konterra is moving forward and will start to gain speed once the access roads to the ICC are built. The ICC is currently ahead of schedule and the east leg will open sometime in the winter. So, it is not too much longer when we will see some activity there.
The redevelopment of Laurel Mall has started as we speak. Demolition has either started or will start in the next 30 days.
East Campus is still moving along. The University just got an infusion of cash to complete the relocation of its transportation facilities to the old Washington Post plant.
The Cafritz Property in Riverdale Park is still in the planning stages. And due to the fact that Whole Foods has put its name in the ring for that development, I'm not sure WWIII will keep that development from moving forward. I imagine PGC will use some of its EDI funds to move the project along if it ever got close to stalling due to lack of private funding.
EYA Arts District is still continuing and residential construction on the east side of Rt. 1 has been going on for months. I imagine that side will be completed in the summer of 2012.
The Varsity further up RT. 1 is complete. Looneys Pub is a great success. Bob's Burger Palace is pretty cool.
The Enclave is complete.
There are a few other developments in the works as well for Hyattsville:
Belcrest Plaza Redevelopment
Landy Property
So, for the most part, things haven't really stalled. They are moving forward as planned. No, they are not like science city. Although College Park does have M-Square. But it certainly isn't on the scale of Science City. There's talk of building a sister Science City in east Silver Spring along the boarder of PGC and MC, which I think is a win for PGC just as it would be for MC job-wise.
That sounds like one of those 50-year plans. It will be at least 25 years before we see drastic changes to that area. These things take time. I do believe that the influx of people to the D.C. area will push development for the next 20 years or so. It is becoming a popular place for young professionals.
Federal dollars bring private dollars. Just look at Virginia. Imagine the commenwealth without U.S. Patent and Trade, INS, DISA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Science Foundation, the U.S Marshalls Service, DOD, the TSA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the Office of the Inspector General, and several more. All of those employees in Virginia every day, just waiting to spend those hard earned dollars. Business followed the money.
This idea is lost on so many people when thy look at PGC and wonder why there are no jobs or any good retail. Most of us are adults here and we understand that there can be underlying factors that can create certain situations. We all know that PGC was full of working class people 50 years ago and that the Fed chose to locate most of its agencies where more affluent and educated employees lived.
Why do you think the GSA is fighting tooth and nail not to locate the HHS in PGC? Their employees are screaming bloody foul. Because all they see on the news is crime in PGC. You don't think they aren't petitioning the agency to stay in Rockville so they won't have to go to work in fear and not have anywhere to shop for high end food or clothing after work? Let's face it, if you have worked in Bethesda for 20 years and your office was considering moving to Anacostia, what would be running through your mind? Especially if they encouraged using public transportation as they did in the proposal.
At face value, the GSA has been wrong and unfair. This is mainly because we all pay Federal taxes. We pay taxes just the same as the other counties do. In a perfect world, there should have been equal distribution of Federal agencies in the area. Unfortunately, this is now not the case and there continues to be prejudice in the GSA. And that's how it has been for years. Old habits are hard to change.
The good news is, there are people who are fed up and are not going down without a fight. The HHS episode has exposed this long ignored fact about the processes within GSA. I do think good will come of it and in the future, PGC will start to benefit from a more fair selection process.
Lastly, isn't it fitting that the GSA has now froze all new leasing activity and has pulled out of the DHS in Suitland? Perfect timing.
This idea is lost on so many people when thy look at PGC and wonder why there are no jobs or any good retail. Most of us are adults here and we understand that there can be underlying factors that can create certain situations. We all know that PGC was full of working class people 50 years ago and that the Fed chose to locate most of its agencies where more affluent and educated employees lived.
Why do you think the GSA is fighting tooth and nail not to locate the HHS in PGC? Their employees are screaming bloody foul. Because all they see on the news is crime in PGC. You don't think they aren't petitioning the agency to stay in Rockville so they won't have to go to work in fear and not have anywhere to shop for high end food or clothing after work? Let's face it, if you have worked in Bethesda for 20 years and your office was considering moving to Anacostia, what would be running through your mind? Especially if they encouraged using public transportation as they did in the proposal.
At face value, the GSA has been wrong and unfair. This is mainly because we all pay Federal taxes. We pay taxes just the same as the other counties do. In a perfect world, there should have been equal distribution of Federal agencies in the area. Unfortunately, this is now not the case and there continues to be prejudice in the GSA. And that's how it has been for years. Old habits are hard to change.
The good news is, there are people who are fed up and are not going down without a fight. The HHS episode has exposed this long ignored fact about the processes within GSA. I do think good will come of it and in the future, PGC will start to benefit from a more fair selection process.
Lastly, isn't it fitting that the GSA has now froze all new leasing activity and has pulled out of the DHS in Suitland? Perfect timing.
I'm glad you pointed this out and I think this is a big factor and impediment to private development in PGC. Yes PG has arguably one of the best locations in the area, close to downtown, 15 Metro stations within 45 minutes of three major airports with favorable traffic.
Yet at the end of the day if a developer builds an office tower near one of these Metro stations he'll have a hard time attracting top flight employers because the employees, many if not most live outside the county will balk at the commutes and won't even consider moving closer to new development because of the crime and quality of schools.
This is why it is imperative PG aggressively address these issues or it will continue to lose out commercial tax dollars.
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