Master of Montgomery doesn't get Baltimore Guy
Adam Pagnucco of Maryland Politics Watch does a great job of covering Montgomery County, but his reply to Monday's Getting There column -- in which my cranky Baltimore Guy alter ego took over and went on a rant -- shows that he just doesn't understand the Mobtown mentality.
Basically, Pagnucco's premise is that Baltimore benefits from a $4.6 billion widening of Interstate 270 more than Montgomery because Montgomery County generates so much tax revenue that it generously shares with dependent jurisdiction such as Baltimore. Much of his article is taken up with statistically proving how grateful Baltimore should be for the largesse Montgomery bestows on its client city.
(Pagnucco also goes to lengthy extremes to show that Montgomery went through years of angst before demanding that the state build it the $2.6 billion Inter-county Connector. Irrelevant. By 2002, county government -- led firmly by its business community and its dollars -- came down decisively on the side of the ICC. That's what matters, not the years of dithering that preceded it.)
But about this premise that Montgomery deserves to get its precious $4.6 billion project because it currently foots so much of the bils, I think Pagnucco misses the point. I'll let Baltimore Guy explain:
What is this Montgomery tofu-head trying to put over on me, anyway? Has all that brie rotted his brain? Does he think Baltimore wants to keep feeding on crumbs from Montgomery's table? Shove that! We want more of the feast. We can take all the growth that comes our way without whining about traffic.
And if we don't get high-tech jobs in Baltimore, we want them a lot closer than freaking Montgomery County. My kid, who just graduated from UM with a computer sciences degree, doesn't want to commute to Gaithersburg even with the ICC because the tolls will cost an arm and a leg. He'd rather get a job somewhere on Interstate 95 where people won't look down on him because he drinks Natty Boh instead of Cos-mo-pol-i-tans.
And why does this guy keep going on about Baltimore city? Doesn't he realize he's up against Baltimore County and Howard County and Harford and Anne Arundel too? None of us get squat from new jobs along I-270. We want them on the eastern end of their precious ICC. And it just so happens we have pals in Prince George's and Southern Maryland and on Kent island who feel the same way. So why don't we all have a meeting in Annapolis and let these Montgomery County folks explain to us all again how much we owe themand how only Montgomery is worthy to be a job creator and how they're generously offering to absorb more traffic for the good of the state? We'll show them gratitude.
OK, Baltimore Guy, back in your box. We want to keep it civil here.
Sorry, Adam, Baltimore Guy's been a little touchy since his industrial base went away.
Comments
Well, Baltimore's been waiting for its St. Paul St. transit tunnel, envisioned for over 100 years now, a much longer wait than the ICC, and when lower MoCo was mostly agriculture.
Nate Payer
TRAC
Posted by: Nate | July 28, 2009 9:13 PM
Arguing that giving 4.6 billion to road projects in Montgomery County will be more beneficial to Baltimore than spending that money within the city limits...
Well, that's just pretty darn hard to swallow. Good luck with that one, Adam.
Posted by: Jed | July 28, 2009 11:40 PM
all 270 widening will do is induce more sprawl development in Clarksburg, thus draining money and people away from other surrounding areas. Sprawl can only be a bad thing for Balimore. What will benefit the city is rail transit. If only we could find the transportation money to double-track that Red Line tunnel...
Posted by: lee.watkins | July 29, 2009 7:12 AM
MoCo pundits inevitably and interminably gripe about how they're funding every last thing that happens in the rest of the State of Maryland.
To hear them tell it, you'd think that they paid to have the Atlantic wash waves on the beach at Ocean City, and for the sun to shine on that very same beach.
Well, now the truth comes out, at least as seen from Rockvile. All of reality is paid for by MoCo. Nothing exists without it. Baltimore itself has no past, present, or future -- especially not a future -- except as MoCo deigns to bestow. And all of this, of course, is controlled by the blogging of one Adam Pagnucco.
But seriously now: I personally believe that there is extreme under-development -- by intention and design -- along the US-29 and I-95 corridor between MoCo and Baltimore. Seriously, the Rockvile crowd seems to think that BWI is all of the political bestowment that the BalWash Corridor deserves or should have. Hey, they refuse to contemplate a Second Crossing bridge ("Rockville to Reston TechWay") so as to prop up BWI and exclude Dulles Intl Airport from the easy-choices list for jet travel.
But the rising forces in East MoCo politics demand new job creation along the US-29/I-95 corridor and the Prince Georges County folks up around Laurel concur. It's time that we got what we want, and Baltimore folks can only benefit when more research, development, and industry are established. Heck, this corridor used to be the industrial and economic powerhouse of the Mid-Atlantic region.
Ignore all of these pretend pundits who claim to be "all about East Montgomery" when in fact they aren't about anything other than more and bigger Rockvile.
Baltimore shouldn't beg for more crumbs from Montgomery's table.
You need to TAKE them.
Posted by: Thomas Hardman | July 31, 2009 10:00 PM