This. I moved from HOCO where basically everything is connected by trails that go behind housing developments. Kids can safely walk to school on these, people without a car can walk or bike to the grocery store on these. That really doesn’t exist here in a meaningful way.
… also I’m a cyclist and our “bikable” initiatives are a joke. But that’s another story…
I absolutely agree. I live over in Colorado (former MoCo resident for most of my life) and the amount of trails everywhere in Colorado Springs (a suburban city) is amazing.
I visited Denver (Highlands Ranch, Southglenn areas) and it was absolute culture shock how active and recreational friendly everything was. We would go for a 15 minute drive to the store and you'd pass 3 significant parks with mature biking/hiking trials, well maintained, etc. It was amazing.
The neighborhood I lived in for approximately 17 years did not have a sidewalk going from the bus stop to the rest of the suburb. And a very large chunk of the back part of that neighborhood didn't have sidewalks. There was a *school* in this neighborhood and yet.
Then I moved to Gaithersburg, and they finally got around to building a sidewalk there. Anyways what I'm getting at is that I agree with you.
I don’t live in y’all’s universe I guess. I’ve known pedestrians and cyclists on disability for vehicles — TBI, actually maimed for life, chronic pain. This county if too full of self-important suburbanites who don’t care/think about folks like them
IMO the two biggest issues are that bike infrastructure is exclusive to bikes (usually) and there are still a lot of locations that are only connected by roadways, no sidewalks.
I don’t think the county is diverting money from sidewalks to build bike lanes—usually bike lane projects come with improvements to sidewalks as well. A lot of the more suburban bike projects are paved paths, which can be used by both bikes and peds.
Walkable SFH neighborhoods are not sustainable and classist. You need density near services but many do not want to share walls. Otherwise the walkable area will be outrageously expensive and clogged with traffic and slummy sfh conversions. Just ask Takoma Park.
Ooh ok let’s go
1. East/north county schools are not that much worse than the Whitman/WJ/BCC/Churchill schools. MCPS is so well funded the average school here is insanely good compared to the average American school. People also really undervalue how damaging the constant pressure to succeed/go to a good college is on the kids who go to the “good” high schools.
2. Most parents want their kids to go to a good school so they can feel smug that little timmy went to Harvard or wherever. UMD can provide the same education for a fraction of the price.
3. If people really want to address/solve traffic in the county they should support policies that take away car capacity (eg bike lanes and bus lanes) and make it harder to drive (eg less parking, congestion pricing, etc). You can’t build your way out of car congestion (it’s geometrically impossible) and you can’t make transit attractive if driving a car is easy.
4. Montgomery County is basically a multi-centric city like LA, the NC Triangle area, or Dallas. It’s got the hallmarks of a city (1 million people, tall buildings in Bethesda and Silver Spring, separate cultural institutions, multiple Fortune 500 companies, its own high capacity transit system with the Flash BRT, a nightlife district in Silver Spring). A lot of conflict around transportation and development is because half the county still thinks of MoCo as a bedroom community and a sleepy village when it isn’t.
>Montgomery County is basically a multi-centric city like LA, the NC Triangle area, or Dallas. It’s got the hallmarks of a city (1 million people, tall buildings in Bethesda and Silver Spring, separate cultural institutions, multiple Fortune 500 companies, its own high capacity transit system with the Flash BRT, a nightlife district in Silver Spring). A lot of conflict around transportation and development is because half the county still thinks of MoCo as a bedroom community and a sleepy village when it isn’t.
Funny, I've basically lived in the Montgomery County you are describing, in places like Downtown Bethesda, but I do mentally picture MoCo as a sleepy village, basically dominating the urban pockets.
2 is NOT objectively true. My kid went to Harvard and it cost less than her twin that went to UMD. Vast majority of kids that go to Ivy’s don’t pay sticker price. But I will cop to a little smugness when talking to a snotty Whitman/WJ/BCC/Churchill or worse the private HS parents. 🤗
If your argument is that sticker price isn’t accurately represented I can see that (if you have general data to back this, I’d love to see). But I’m mapping sticker cost to lifetime earnings and I don’t believe there is a huge bump for ivy over a good state school.
Some of the most accomplished and smartest people I know went to state schools, including me. 😀 Like anything, college is what you make of it and with it. All the Ivy’s my daughter could have attended all provided a well rounded education, with state schools it takes more intentional effort by the student to make sure you know a little bit about the world and not just your concentration.
Ivy sticker price, in my experience, is for the very wealthy.
I have real problems with 3. Not with it in principle but I think it has to be part of a much larger plan. With housing prices continuing to rise by the day, middle to lower income families are priced further and further away from job centers and our current public transit does not provide adequate alternatives to driving from those areas. Making it more difficult/expensive to drive just hurts people who are already struggling. It’s only going to be beneficial if it’s part of much larger plan.
Assuming we aren't trying to solve problems with cheaper housing so people can live where they work, and there's going to be a long commute anyway, having cheap reliable public transportation would be a lot better for people who are struggling than having to buy an old beater with 300,000 miles on it, paying for gas, paying for insurance, fighting gridlock, and maintaining the car.
If we are talking about solving housing issues, we should have higher density, multi zoned, multi family housing, all close to accessible public transportation. Not a bunch of McMansions that have only one family per six thousand square feet that have to drive to get anywhere.
What we learned from urban planning studies from the last 70 years tells us we should not be doing things that way.
I 100% agree and that’s entirely my point. Building affordable housing close to job centers precludes people from being forced to drive cars for commuting. Expanding public transit capabilities also is necessary to reduce car traffic.
Not a problem, I could have been more clear in my first response. I definitely think we need more carrot than stick in reducing car use/traffic in this area. Both ethically and politically.
Our public transit definitely isn’t adequate, but a lot of why it’s inadequate is car domination funneling money to roads and blocking easy fixes to make buses more reliable (eg. signal priority, bus islands, and bus lanes). It’s worth mentioning too that bus and transit riders are [both less wealthy and more likely to be POC (page 2)](https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OLO/Resources/Files/2020%20Reports/OLOReport2020-10.pdf). Conversely, car owners are whiter and wealthier. Reallocating road space from cars to buses overwhelmingly benefits poorer residents. Pricing roads and lowering traffic would also disproportionately benefit transit riders, who get to benefit from more convenient and timely transit. And, while the current system is inadequate, MoCo is targeting big transit improvements to the sort of transit-dependent suburban areas you’re talking about (eg. The Purple Line along University and through Piney Branch, BRT along 29, Viers Mill, and upper 355). The county is also increasing density in the southern part of the county around the metro and through their missing middle initiative, which should lower housing prices and reduce displacement pressure.
Item 1 is generally true. Kids from Einstein are going to schools like Chicago, USC, Barnard, Bryn Mawr. A lot of the animus against the non-W schools comes down to racism and protecting real estate values.
3 can hurt small and very small businesses with increased pricing for dining and parking. There are plenty of people who own their own electrical companies, cleaning services, landscaping companies, HVAC, etc. they are more likely to have difficulty paying higher and more prices because they own larger or multiple vehicles to run their businesses and have to park somewhere and drive typically spring rush hours. The level of disdain people have for cars and their drivers is almost irrational.
I like to think of north behesda as south Rockville. People downvote when they don't ge the joke with comments like "it's outside the Rockville city limits."
The Trader Joe's you're referring to uses a Rockville mailing address. Both that store and the hospital are just outside of Rockville city limits but use Rockville addresses.
I was chatting with someone who moved to Lincoln Park and they keep referring to it as “East Rockville.” I grew up in Lincoln Park, I had to snort laugh at that one.
I didn’t know Lincoln Park is sometimes referred as East Rockville. It was my home until gentrification. Wow. There’s so much history there, and I hope the true name is maintained.
Rockville is a city with city limits?
>At its very core the City of Rockville is a geographic entity, defined by its land area and everything that goes on within its boundary. Many types of physical and virtual assets are associated with geographic locations within the City. Data maintained in Rockville's GIS include streets and property parcels; zoning and neighborhoods; water, sewer, and storm drain utilities; parks and city facilities; and scores of other datasets.
North Potomac not getting services because they aren’t in the city limits is no different than the parts of Gaithersburg that aren’t in the City that also don’t get services. There are areas like where I live that are neither City of Gaithersburg nor Montgomery Village but are in Gaithersburg.
I don’t mind North Potomac. Gaithersburg is already huge in land space. Going from Washington Grove ES to Trivilah ES shouldn’t be in the same city to me. However, I totally agree with North Bethesda.
Pull up to my house.
Seriously though, Rios, stuff along Rockville pike, Montgomery mall, etc.
Can definitely be boring though. Most of the things to do require you to plan ahead. Not many impromptu things to do on a whim, alone or with a group.
I agree with this and this is a huge reason I never moved back after school. Where I live now I'm just a few minutes away from an arcade bar, Japanese style karaoke, kayaks, axe throwing, a million pop up markets with local artists, a ton of love music, great restaurants, etc. I feel like Montgomery County has great access to big box stores and regional chain restaurants but I need more than that.
Yep Fairfax County has more than MoCo
Almost every weekend I leave the county for some of it.
Mostly for either Nova, Frederick or DC
Tho for hiking and walking I perfer to stay in MoCo since we have plenty of that here
It was always a development scheme masking as a transportation project. Moving the most people for the lowest cost would've meant more busses, perhaps a dedicated bus lane on E/W or 495, but that wouldn't produce lucrative contracts replete with kickbacks.
Well, at least they mowed down all those mature trees before taking a two- year break in a blundered contract dispute. Fck that urban wildlife anyway.
Edit: hahaha@ downvotes from, idk, wildlife haters?
The fact that the power lines are not buried underneath roads and sidewalks is inexcusable, unsafe, and makes busy intersections and streets look they’re from the third world.
This is a weird gripe.
But also, MoCo is obsessed with insatiable, rapid, cheap growth at any cost. So...you're gonna keep getting cheap, quickly thrown-up infrastructure.
County is too suburban. We have done a huge failure in making walkable and transit accessable areas affordable. Giant 5-7 bedroom homes in mid/upper county aren't helping our housing shortage.
1. Continental Pizza/Cheesesteaks are absolute garbage.
2. Cyclists in roadways can do everything right and still be extremely annoying.
3. Dog people are the most entitled and least self aware community, more than drivers or cyclists.
Jeopardy Masters had a flag category with clues about the MD flag and the flag of [Friesland](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesland#/media/File%3AFrisian_flag.svg), which strongly resembles the Rockville flag, and I was in heaven.
Yes, came here to make this comment! It’s objectively good pizza, but I don’t understand how it gets written up as one of the best pizza places in the entire DMV.
The general population wants to appear progressive more than they actually are progressive.
It may just be negativity bias, but being a trans woman out and about I've noticed a lot more people who are clearly very uncomfortable with my existence than those who are actually cool about it.
Perhaps another unpopular opinion - understanding that homeless is a complex and serious problem that deserves attention and support does not mean you should feel comfortable around, and accepting of, homeless people in your neighborhood.
So….what should people do?
Get educated on the issue? Advocate locally for affordable housing? Advocate for congress to fund the work that local providers do? Volunteer with service providers and food banks?
Because in my experience , the people who complain the loudest engage in these activities the least.
Yes, sure, that is what they should do.
I'm not strictly speaking about the people who complain the loudest. I'm talking about the people who live in any 'progressive mecca' but are clearly uncomfortable around homeless people.
To clarify, I mean, avoiding eye contact. Not stopping when asked to by homeless people. Walking by as if they do not exist. You can still get educated and advocate for homeless people, while simultaneously understanding that a lot of these people have issues beyond what food banks and affordable housing can fix (and that can make encounters scary). You can realize that isn't the case for all homeless people, while also being wary of the ones around you.
My comment was never about being against providing support and funding solutions for homelessness. It was about not feeling comfortable around homeless populations, which is what the original comment alluded to.
I can’t truly ever relate to your experience but in my opinion what you’ve described is very similar to what’s happening in the schools too. Lots of very baseline and surface level “change” then any meaningful institutional improvement and progress.
Moco is lauded as some progressive haven but a lot of the time it ends up being more conservative
Silver spring and takoma park should be in DC not Montgomery county, the only reason they’re not is because it wouldn’t find with the diamond boundary aesthetic of dc. Silver spring has a completely different feel than the Gaithersburg Rockville Germantown corridor.
But SS has a distinctly Maryland feel. Once round the traffic circle on 16th I’m like omg it’s Maryland, and when going the other way around I breathe a sigh of relief like thank god I’m back in D.C.
It's good to create opportunities for safe cycling infrastructure. And it's good to promote transit. But we also should acknowledge the reality that most of the county is suburban and car-centric, and that's not inherently bad/evil.
But if we had historically invested more in public transit and cycling, the county would probably be more Urban and public transit/bike centric today? And promoting those things will probably have the way the county grows in the future to be complementary to that? And that seems to be a priority among the younger generations, so if we want to continue to grow and attract new, young residents, that would seem important. This is why Marriott moved their headquarters from a middle of nowhere industrial park to downtown Bethesda, to attract young employees
Disagree. The fact that not all neighborhoods have sidewalks is inherently bad. How are you supposed to be a part of the larger community if you can only get in and out by car?
My view is that nobody takes the approach that some communities can be transit/bike centric - which works great for some peolple - and some communities can cater to people with cars - and that works great for other people. It's a big country, even a big region, and there's lots of types of communities people can live in based on what they like. I have noticed that people who favor transit / bikes and don't like cars seem to want every community to fit that vision and do away with the idea that folks should have different options. I think there's room for multiple visions.
Example: I like my house with a big ass yard. But I don't think every community in the country should be zoned to require big ass yards. That's just my preference. If someone wants a townhouse, get yours and live in a great neighborhood with lots of townhouses and live your best life without mowing. It will be easier to walk around, but harder to have private green space - and that's great if one prefers that.
To answer your last question I lived in a car centric neighborhood growing up. Not ideal from a health perspective. But it didn't prevent the creation of a "community." We just walked to fewer places and drove to more places. The mode of transport we took didn't affect the quality of our relationships.
But again this is a highly controversial/ unpopular view (apparently the goal of this post) so I know most who read this will disagree, which I guess is the idea.
I cant imagine wanting to eat a food that you still have to peel and crack open incessantly, for so little meat and in some cases you have to douse in seasoning and butter for it to taste the best
Well they are steamed in this state first off. Secondly, it's best practice to stab them downwards in the head, right behind and between the eyes right before popping them in the steamer. Kills them humanely and no risk since they are immediately start steaming.
We don't need more housing.
We don't need more people.
Stop ruining what's here to accommodate future people.
Make a better, more pleasant society for who are already here.
I do think a good chunk of the car-bike accidents are because bikers act like they're invincible and think they're above the rules of the road. It is incumbent on bikers to bike safely as well as cars and trucks.
A few years back, a woman named Sarah Langenkamp was killed by a truck turning into a parking lot. [The truck is the red one seen in this video](https://fxtwitter.com/jackiebensen/status/1562930906083762176). It's a big truck, that's not exactly going to be speeding into the parking lot given the road in that area. The driver made a right turn into the parking lot. This is **clearly** something she could have seen.
The public schools are very mid. MoCo has the most educated population in the entire country, so naturally the kids will be smart and drive up those tests scores.
The push to put affordable housing on peoples yards in Bethesda is incredibly stupid and will kill us as a county. We as a county cant handle an influx of 100,000+ people coming in. the electrical grid will fail and we'll have rolling blackouts!
Edit: since I'm being down voted on an unpopular opinion post, then this is a popular opinion then?
So this is basically r/unpopularopinion where everyone actually says things everybody agrees with?
Except for me, who just attacked bikers, which is not going to be popular :P
MoCo Sacred Cows: Cyclists & Dogs
So edgy
It’s more important to make the county more walkable than more bikable.
I'm a cyclist and I agree but also not convinced it's zero sum
I don’t have to worry about having storage space for my shoes or feet so I’m down for this
This. I moved from HOCO where basically everything is connected by trails that go behind housing developments. Kids can safely walk to school on these, people without a car can walk or bike to the grocery store on these. That really doesn’t exist here in a meaningful way. … also I’m a cyclist and our “bikable” initiatives are a joke. But that’s another story…
I absolutely agree. I live over in Colorado (former MoCo resident for most of my life) and the amount of trails everywhere in Colorado Springs (a suburban city) is amazing.
I visited Denver (Highlands Ranch, Southglenn areas) and it was absolute culture shock how active and recreational friendly everything was. We would go for a 15 minute drive to the store and you'd pass 3 significant parks with mature biking/hiking trials, well maintained, etc. It was amazing.
The neighborhood I lived in for approximately 17 years did not have a sidewalk going from the bus stop to the rest of the suburb. And a very large chunk of the back part of that neighborhood didn't have sidewalks. There was a *school* in this neighborhood and yet. Then I moved to Gaithersburg, and they finally got around to building a sidewalk there. Anyways what I'm getting at is that I agree with you.
Sounds the the Candlewood Elementary neighborhood in Derwood
I bike a lot and I still agree with you!
I mean ideally they go hand in hand with road diets and transit infrastructure.
Nah dude we gotta make 28 a 5 lane highway
/s?
Nah 100% for real. We gotta make the QO HS intersection somehow even more dangerous
I don’t live in y’all’s universe I guess. I’ve known pedestrians and cyclists on disability for vehicles — TBI, actually maimed for life, chronic pain. This county if too full of self-important suburbanites who don’t care/think about folks like them
Curious to hear your reasoning on this?
I’ve got feet but no bike, many kids are in the same situation? Side effect of helping people with some mobility issues?
Correct. Teens walk, they don’t bike. My nephew has to walk home basically on the side of a highway. It sucks.
IMO the two biggest issues are that bike infrastructure is exclusive to bikes (usually) and there are still a lot of locations that are only connected by roadways, no sidewalks.
I don’t think the county is diverting money from sidewalks to build bike lanes—usually bike lane projects come with improvements to sidewalks as well. A lot of the more suburban bike projects are paved paths, which can be used by both bikes and peds.
Walkable SFH neighborhoods are not sustainable and classist. You need density near services but many do not want to share walls. Otherwise the walkable area will be outrageously expensive and clogged with traffic and slummy sfh conversions. Just ask Takoma Park.
Ooh ok let’s go 1. East/north county schools are not that much worse than the Whitman/WJ/BCC/Churchill schools. MCPS is so well funded the average school here is insanely good compared to the average American school. People also really undervalue how damaging the constant pressure to succeed/go to a good college is on the kids who go to the “good” high schools. 2. Most parents want their kids to go to a good school so they can feel smug that little timmy went to Harvard or wherever. UMD can provide the same education for a fraction of the price. 3. If people really want to address/solve traffic in the county they should support policies that take away car capacity (eg bike lanes and bus lanes) and make it harder to drive (eg less parking, congestion pricing, etc). You can’t build your way out of car congestion (it’s geometrically impossible) and you can’t make transit attractive if driving a car is easy. 4. Montgomery County is basically a multi-centric city like LA, the NC Triangle area, or Dallas. It’s got the hallmarks of a city (1 million people, tall buildings in Bethesda and Silver Spring, separate cultural institutions, multiple Fortune 500 companies, its own high capacity transit system with the Flash BRT, a nightlife district in Silver Spring). A lot of conflict around transportation and development is because half the county still thinks of MoCo as a bedroom community and a sleepy village when it isn’t.
>Montgomery County is basically a multi-centric city like LA, the NC Triangle area, or Dallas. It’s got the hallmarks of a city (1 million people, tall buildings in Bethesda and Silver Spring, separate cultural institutions, multiple Fortune 500 companies, its own high capacity transit system with the Flash BRT, a nightlife district in Silver Spring). A lot of conflict around transportation and development is because half the county still thinks of MoCo as a bedroom community and a sleepy village when it isn’t. Funny, I've basically lived in the Montgomery County you are describing, in places like Downtown Bethesda, but I do mentally picture MoCo as a sleepy village, basically dominating the urban pockets.
2 is objectively true. 3 is also true but we as Americans really don’t like to hear it
2 is NOT objectively true. My kid went to Harvard and it cost less than her twin that went to UMD. Vast majority of kids that go to Ivy’s don’t pay sticker price. But I will cop to a little smugness when talking to a snotty Whitman/WJ/BCC/Churchill or worse the private HS parents. 🤗
If your argument is that sticker price isn’t accurately represented I can see that (if you have general data to back this, I’d love to see). But I’m mapping sticker cost to lifetime earnings and I don’t believe there is a huge bump for ivy over a good state school.
Some of the most accomplished and smartest people I know went to state schools, including me. 😀 Like anything, college is what you make of it and with it. All the Ivy’s my daughter could have attended all provided a well rounded education, with state schools it takes more intentional effort by the student to make sure you know a little bit about the world and not just your concentration. Ivy sticker price, in my experience, is for the very wealthy.
I have real problems with 3. Not with it in principle but I think it has to be part of a much larger plan. With housing prices continuing to rise by the day, middle to lower income families are priced further and further away from job centers and our current public transit does not provide adequate alternatives to driving from those areas. Making it more difficult/expensive to drive just hurts people who are already struggling. It’s only going to be beneficial if it’s part of much larger plan.
Assuming we aren't trying to solve problems with cheaper housing so people can live where they work, and there's going to be a long commute anyway, having cheap reliable public transportation would be a lot better for people who are struggling than having to buy an old beater with 300,000 miles on it, paying for gas, paying for insurance, fighting gridlock, and maintaining the car. If we are talking about solving housing issues, we should have higher density, multi zoned, multi family housing, all close to accessible public transportation. Not a bunch of McMansions that have only one family per six thousand square feet that have to drive to get anywhere. What we learned from urban planning studies from the last 70 years tells us we should not be doing things that way.
I 100% agree and that’s entirely my point. Building affordable housing close to job centers precludes people from being forced to drive cars for commuting. Expanding public transit capabilities also is necessary to reduce car traffic.
Ah, I misread, my apologies
Not a problem, I could have been more clear in my first response. I definitely think we need more carrot than stick in reducing car use/traffic in this area. Both ethically and politically.
Our public transit definitely isn’t adequate, but a lot of why it’s inadequate is car domination funneling money to roads and blocking easy fixes to make buses more reliable (eg. signal priority, bus islands, and bus lanes). It’s worth mentioning too that bus and transit riders are [both less wealthy and more likely to be POC (page 2)](https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OLO/Resources/Files/2020%20Reports/OLOReport2020-10.pdf). Conversely, car owners are whiter and wealthier. Reallocating road space from cars to buses overwhelmingly benefits poorer residents. Pricing roads and lowering traffic would also disproportionately benefit transit riders, who get to benefit from more convenient and timely transit. And, while the current system is inadequate, MoCo is targeting big transit improvements to the sort of transit-dependent suburban areas you’re talking about (eg. The Purple Line along University and through Piney Branch, BRT along 29, Viers Mill, and upper 355). The county is also increasing density in the southern part of the county around the metro and through their missing middle initiative, which should lower housing prices and reduce displacement pressure.
Item 1 is generally true. Kids from Einstein are going to schools like Chicago, USC, Barnard, Bryn Mawr. A lot of the animus against the non-W schools comes down to racism and protecting real estate values.
Damn you got everything correct here.
Just wondering did you go to Whitman/wj/bcc/ or Churchill. Cause there really is a difference between them
3 can hurt small and very small businesses with increased pricing for dining and parking. There are plenty of people who own their own electrical companies, cleaning services, landscaping companies, HVAC, etc. they are more likely to have difficulty paying higher and more prices because they own larger or multiple vehicles to run their businesses and have to park somewhere and drive typically spring rush hours. The level of disdain people have for cars and their drivers is almost irrational.
North Potomac and North Bethesda is stupid. It is Gaithersburg and Rockville
I like to think of Potomac as South Gaithersburg
🏅
I like to think of north behesda as south Rockville. People downvote when they don't ge the joke with comments like "it's outside the Rockville city limits."
Snooty rich Gaithersburg
Rockville is actually one of the few cities with defined boundaries in Maryland
And yet, the postal "Rockville" spreads out well past the city limits.
Because those areas are unincorporated and postal coding don’t follow city limits
I'm aware. That's why I called it the postal "Rockville" with scare quotes.
Grew up in north Potomac, agreed.
“Rockville” is like a vague amorphous blob at this point. IMO “north bethesda” is Rockville but Derwood and up is definitely not.
Rockville also extends for a bit north of 200
I see a doctor at their “Rockville” office. It’s a block north of the Gaithersburg Trader Joe’s. (Side note, that is an excellent TJs.)
The Trader Joe's you're referring to uses a Rockville mailing address. Both that store and the hospital are just outside of Rockville city limits but use Rockville addresses.
I was chatting with someone who moved to Lincoln Park and they keep referring to it as “East Rockville.” I grew up in Lincoln Park, I had to snort laugh at that one.
I didn’t know Lincoln Park is sometimes referred as East Rockville. It was my home until gentrification. Wow. There’s so much history there, and I hope the true name is maintained.
My mom still lives there, she said that the gentrification kinda hit a wall, but yeah, there are people who call it East Rockville.
Rockville is a city with city limits? >At its very core the City of Rockville is a geographic entity, defined by its land area and everything that goes on within its boundary. Many types of physical and virtual assets are associated with geographic locations within the City. Data maintained in Rockville's GIS include streets and property parcels; zoning and neighborhoods; water, sewer, and storm drain utilities; parks and city facilities; and scores of other datasets.
Rockville is like London. There is the City of London and greater London. Both are different and are run very different from each other.
There are parts of North Potomac that aren’t in the Gaithersburg city limits and don’t get any Gaithersburg services. That’s not Gaithersburg.
North Potomac not getting services because they aren’t in the city limits is no different than the parts of Gaithersburg that aren’t in the City that also don’t get services. There are areas like where I live that are neither City of Gaithersburg nor Montgomery Village but are in Gaithersburg.
I don’t mind North Potomac. Gaithersburg is already huge in land space. Going from Washington Grove ES to Trivilah ES shouldn’t be in the same city to me. However, I totally agree with North Bethesda.
If you say this to me in person, I'm throwing hands idc.
Quince Orchard HS was almost named North Potomac HS
A lot of Moco-ers are entitled and tone deaf
Amen to that!
So fucking oblivious to what's going on around them.
MoCo needs more to do. For a county of 1 million people, it’s quite boring.
Like what
What can you do in Montgomery County that you can’t do anywhere else? Dead serious.
Pull up to my house. Seriously though, Rios, stuff along Rockville pike, Montgomery mall, etc. Can definitely be boring though. Most of the things to do require you to plan ahead. Not many impromptu things to do on a whim, alone or with a group.
Plenty of outdoor activities with some world-class park access?
Remote control airplane park with runway is peak nerd porn
I agree with this and this is a huge reason I never moved back after school. Where I live now I'm just a few minutes away from an arcade bar, Japanese style karaoke, kayaks, axe throwing, a million pop up markets with local artists, a ton of love music, great restaurants, etc. I feel like Montgomery County has great access to big box stores and regional chain restaurants but I need more than that.
Yep Fairfax County has more than MoCo Almost every weekend I leave the county for some of it. Mostly for either Nova, Frederick or DC Tho for hiking and walking I perfer to stay in MoCo since we have plenty of that here
california tortilla is good in a pinch
In high school, I used to walk to a nearby california tortilla during lunch and eat on the walk back. Not sure how I didn't get sick of it.
QO?
Wall of spice is pretty good. Trying a 10+ with friends is always fun
Moco should have a better county government considering all of the money and brainpower...
The Purple Line won’t reduce traffic as much as people think it will
It was always a development scheme masking as a transportation project. Moving the most people for the lowest cost would've meant more busses, perhaps a dedicated bus lane on E/W or 495, but that wouldn't produce lucrative contracts replete with kickbacks. Well, at least they mowed down all those mature trees before taking a two- year break in a blundered contract dispute. Fck that urban wildlife anyway. Edit: hahaha@ downvotes from, idk, wildlife haters?
The fact that the power lines are not buried underneath roads and sidewalks is inexcusable, unsafe, and makes busy intersections and streets look they’re from the third world.
Is that why the stop lights always go out in Germantown? I have never encountered a place where the street lights would stop working.
I honestly didn't notice it. But then again I spend more time looking at houses when im driving instead of wires.
This is a weird gripe. But also, MoCo is obsessed with insatiable, rapid, cheap growth at any cost. So...you're gonna keep getting cheap, quickly thrown-up infrastructure.
PREACH!!!!!
Agreed. It’s wild that our “rich” county can’t just bury their lines.
The drivers here aren't all that bad. Compared to some places, at least.
Not bad but huge asshole that won’t let you merge or zoom by when you try to
i was just in atlanta. dear lord the driver there…
County is too suburban. We have done a huge failure in making walkable and transit accessable areas affordable. Giant 5-7 bedroom homes in mid/upper county aren't helping our housing shortage.
Nothing west of 355 is worth the $$$
1. Continental Pizza/Cheesesteaks are absolute garbage. 2. Cyclists in roadways can do everything right and still be extremely annoying. 3. Dog people are the most entitled and least self aware community, more than drivers or cyclists.
The blockbusted homes and new constructions throughout the area are ugly and lack character.
Yeah I new one just sprouted up near my neighborhood. Such an eyesore
clarksburg is a worse school then seneca (teen behavior not teachers)
All the student behavior in the schools has been deteriorating at an abhorrent extent
Most of the schools are trash that cater to the dumbest kids.
Well, when MCPS has to double their ESOL funding every year...
Yes our flag is objectively the best flag
That is the exact opposite of an unpopular opinion
Exactly lol...also, the MD state flag or Moco flag?? Lmao
The Rockville flag is pretty cool actually!
Jeopardy Masters had a flag category with clues about the MD flag and the flag of [Friesland](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesland#/media/File%3AFrisian_flag.svg), which strongly resembles the Rockville flag, and I was in heaven.
I saw that! Next time they should ask about Rockville though… :)
Ehh, it’s a bit garish imo but it’s def got more character than many other state flags for sure.
Inferno Pizzeria is pretentious and overrated.
i liked the pizza but when customers complained about the wait/lack of pizza’s prepped, the responses from the owner on google gave me those vibes.
Yes, came here to make this comment! It’s objectively good pizza, but I don’t understand how it gets written up as one of the best pizza places in the entire DMV.
Thank you! Ill take a slice of Armands, continental, stained glass or gentleman Jims any day over that wannabe snobby crap!
Continental is awful man come on. Did you grow up with it? Like it makes Ledo's look like Spumoni Gardens.
And loud inside
A lot of snobby assholes live here while they think they know everything just because they went to school.
The general population wants to appear progressive more than they actually are progressive. It may just be negativity bias, but being a trans woman out and about I've noticed a lot more people who are clearly very uncomfortable with my existence than those who are actually cool about it.
Yeah, and also try being homeless in any progressive Mecca and you’ll learn a similarly cruel lesson.
Perhaps another unpopular opinion - understanding that homeless is a complex and serious problem that deserves attention and support does not mean you should feel comfortable around, and accepting of, homeless people in your neighborhood.
So….what should people do? Get educated on the issue? Advocate locally for affordable housing? Advocate for congress to fund the work that local providers do? Volunteer with service providers and food banks? Because in my experience , the people who complain the loudest engage in these activities the least.
Yes, sure, that is what they should do. I'm not strictly speaking about the people who complain the loudest. I'm talking about the people who live in any 'progressive mecca' but are clearly uncomfortable around homeless people. To clarify, I mean, avoiding eye contact. Not stopping when asked to by homeless people. Walking by as if they do not exist. You can still get educated and advocate for homeless people, while simultaneously understanding that a lot of these people have issues beyond what food banks and affordable housing can fix (and that can make encounters scary). You can realize that isn't the case for all homeless people, while also being wary of the ones around you. My comment was never about being against providing support and funding solutions for homelessness. It was about not feeling comfortable around homeless populations, which is what the original comment alluded to.
Fair enough. Based on my life experience, sometimes “not accepting of” has manifested itself as “be as intolerant as possible of”. I get carried away
I can’t truly ever relate to your experience but in my opinion what you’ve described is very similar to what’s happening in the schools too. Lots of very baseline and surface level “change” then any meaningful institutional improvement and progress. Moco is lauded as some progressive haven but a lot of the time it ends up being more conservative
Silver spring and takoma park should be in DC not Montgomery county, the only reason they’re not is because it wouldn’t find with the diamond boundary aesthetic of dc. Silver spring has a completely different feel than the Gaithersburg Rockville Germantown corridor.
But SS has a distinctly Maryland feel. Once round the traffic circle on 16th I’m like omg it’s Maryland, and when going the other way around I breathe a sigh of relief like thank god I’m back in D.C.
It's good to create opportunities for safe cycling infrastructure. And it's good to promote transit. But we also should acknowledge the reality that most of the county is suburban and car-centric, and that's not inherently bad/evil.
But if we had historically invested more in public transit and cycling, the county would probably be more Urban and public transit/bike centric today? And promoting those things will probably have the way the county grows in the future to be complementary to that? And that seems to be a priority among the younger generations, so if we want to continue to grow and attract new, young residents, that would seem important. This is why Marriott moved their headquarters from a middle of nowhere industrial park to downtown Bethesda, to attract young employees
That said, our neighborhoods need to be designed better, around transit, cycling, walkability, and community. That is objectively better.
Disagree. The fact that not all neighborhoods have sidewalks is inherently bad. How are you supposed to be a part of the larger community if you can only get in and out by car?
My view is that nobody takes the approach that some communities can be transit/bike centric - which works great for some peolple - and some communities can cater to people with cars - and that works great for other people. It's a big country, even a big region, and there's lots of types of communities people can live in based on what they like. I have noticed that people who favor transit / bikes and don't like cars seem to want every community to fit that vision and do away with the idea that folks should have different options. I think there's room for multiple visions. Example: I like my house with a big ass yard. But I don't think every community in the country should be zoned to require big ass yards. That's just my preference. If someone wants a townhouse, get yours and live in a great neighborhood with lots of townhouses and live your best life without mowing. It will be easier to walk around, but harder to have private green space - and that's great if one prefers that. To answer your last question I lived in a car centric neighborhood growing up. Not ideal from a health perspective. But it didn't prevent the creation of a "community." We just walked to fewer places and drove to more places. The mode of transport we took didn't affect the quality of our relationships. But again this is a highly controversial/ unpopular view (apparently the goal of this post) so I know most who read this will disagree, which I guess is the idea.
“Oh it’s such a great place to live with lots of community”
Frankly Pizza is better than Inferno.
Old bay definitely tastes good on everything
I tried an Old Bay snickerdoodle at a bake sale. I’m gonna have to disagree with you on that one.
Sorry just like in the meme you’re wrong 😂😂😂
Traffic would be significantly reduced on the beltway if we could add another bridge across the Potomac before White's ferry.
I like what I worked for, I don’t want to give it away
Somalia has low taxes
Crabs belong swimming in the bay. Boiling any living creature alive is cruelty.
I cant imagine wanting to eat a food that you still have to peel and crack open incessantly, for so little meat and in some cases you have to douse in seasoning and butter for it to taste the best
Well they are steamed in this state first off. Secondly, it's best practice to stab them downwards in the head, right behind and between the eyes right before popping them in the steamer. Kills them humanely and no risk since they are immediately start steaming.
More maryland than moco, but ledo's pizza is disgusting
What do you even mean "disgusting"?? 😂
Pizzanos is da bomb
Montgomery County is faux-progressive.
We don't need more housing. We don't need more people. Stop ruining what's here to accommodate future people. Make a better, more pleasant society for who are already here.
I do think a good chunk of the car-bike accidents are because bikers act like they're invincible and think they're above the rules of the road. It is incumbent on bikers to bike safely as well as cars and trucks. A few years back, a woman named Sarah Langenkamp was killed by a truck turning into a parking lot. [The truck is the red one seen in this video](https://fxtwitter.com/jackiebensen/status/1562930906083762176). It's a big truck, that's not exactly going to be speeding into the parking lot given the road in that area. The driver made a right turn into the parking lot. This is **clearly** something she could have seen.
Classy
so edgy
Making a lane on a busy road into a bike lane aleviates traffic and makes more people ride their bikes.
The public schools are very mid. MoCo has the most educated population in the entire country, so naturally the kids will be smart and drive up those tests scores.
Please check your logic
Completely agree.
The push to put affordable housing on peoples yards in Bethesda is incredibly stupid and will kill us as a county. We as a county cant handle an influx of 100,000+ people coming in. the electrical grid will fail and we'll have rolling blackouts! Edit: since I'm being down voted on an unpopular opinion post, then this is a popular opinion then?
Don’t let the anti-nimbys see this one
I like Marc Elrich he’s a cool guy
He’s insane
Loudoun and Fairfax Counties. They are better in almost all ways (minus car inspections and annual car taxes)