City Council to Destroy Town Square

In what has to be the dumbest fucking idea I have heard in a long time, the City Council will begin charging for parking in Town Square. News flash to all the small shops: YOU ARE FUCKED. This is only going to cause people to stop coming to the stores. Thankfully, the proposal by Councilman Piotr Gajewski (who by the way comes off as a total asshole--I guess that happens when you are an ex-commi) was rejected. In case you weren't following, he actually wanted to charge for parking until 10 pm and 7 days a week. Never mind that THERE IS NO GARAGE IN MOCO THAT DOES THAT. So what will happen? Some people will continue to go to Town Square but more will park in the West End neighborhood. (that should piss people off) The shops will start hurting. And my guess is that MoCo will take back the library in order to ensure free parking for the users of it. And another thing, IF the Rockville tax payer really is paying for the current parking (and yeah we are) is the City going to give a tax rebate based on the amount they get from the parking fees? Hell, why not end all debate. Put this up for a referendum vote. That's right, put the question on the next ballot and let the people decide. Oh that won't happen sorry readers (what few of you there are) Mr. Gajewski doesn't believe in democracy I forgot.

There may be more later but till then please give me your thoughts.

Down by the River takes on Rockville

As some people may know had they read my last post, I am now residing in Rockville. This is a bit of a homecoming for me as I grew up basically across MD 28 ( my grandparents still live there) and up MD28 a bit ( my parents still live THERE) That said I hope to keep up the blog. I hope to more or less cover the same topics but more centered on what's going on in Rockville.
This is not all bad for East County. First and foremost damn few people read this blog so who cares. Second, a lot of what happens up here effects the rest of the county. Even the Land Rockville Forgot (ok I thought that was a funny description of East County) All that said I would like to give my thoughts to the parking situation in the new Rockville town square. It's really very simple. Keep it free. Silver Spring is learning this the hard way. We are rather lucky to have quite a few small, family owned stores in town square. If the city charges for parking the people that visit these stores will stop going. The stores can't survive without their customers and guess what Rockville--there goes your tax base. Honestly what the hell are you thinking? You are saying that you believe you will get more money in parking fees than you collect in taxes levied on the businesses? Now, I very well may not know the whole story here but that's what it looks like on first glance. That should mean something to the Council. At least I should hope. By the way as a point of reference, I remember when Town Square was a dump, the best new thing to come in there was the Regal, Fallsgrove was a WORKING farm and MD28 was one lane each way....my how things have changed

Moving

The eastern most part of MoCo is so utterly fucked that we can't take it anymore. Crime has sky rocketed in our 13 months here and there seems no end to that. There is little to no police presence even though we've had car thefts, break ins, and even a few dumb asses firing off weapons! It's just not safe anymore. Traffic (the subject that really started this blog) sucks. It just sucks and it's not getting any better. It's getting worse by the day. There is a lack of citizen involvement, and really that is in part why crime is so bad. This is not to say that I am killing my blog--not that it would really matter too much, no one reads the damned thing. I am going to keep ranting if anyone cares to read it. I'm going to rename it I think but that will come later. I also hope that, with the move to Rockville (yes the epicenter of all MoCo ills) I will have the chance to get more involved with local politics and perhaps make a small difference. I highly doubt that I will be able to but hey, a man's gotta dream right? This is will be busy time so the blog may be quiet for a while. Dan of JUTP if you do read this, you do a good job of covering East County. Please remember, however, it's a blog, not a news service. While I appreciate you trying to cover stories that do get overlooked by the main media, a blog is a place to express your opinion not to play journalist. Leave that to the Gazette and the Post. That said, I will try to keep you apprised of what's coming out of Rockville as much as able.

In closing, I'd say it's been a fun ride but it's been utter hell. I'm glad to be leaving the shit hole that East County has become. I hope that those left will sit up and take notice. Take some pride in what's there. Get involved. If you do, you'll find that crime will go down, Rockville will know you exist and may even help you out some, and people may just come back and say "wow this is a nice place to live now". If not, rest assured that the area will go the way of Langley Park. Yeah, that used to be a really nice area that people went to and *gasp* felt safe at. Now look at it. Don't let what's left of East County become that.

S