Economy
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The Limits of Affordable Housing Initiatives—Part 1
Read more: The Limits of Affordable Housing Initiatives—Part 1Today I rejoice, because I was proven wrong by someone with more wisdom and experience than I. Moments like that are as humbling as they are liberating. I’ve written quite a few posts about affordable housing, and my claim has been that the way to achieve an inventory of affordable housing is to re-zone. Throw…
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MoCo Boost “Storytellers” Video Features Jose, Is Fully in Spanish, and Doesn’t Confirm If Recipient is an American Citizen
Read more: MoCo Boost “Storytellers” Video Features Jose, Is Fully in Spanish, and Doesn’t Confirm If Recipient is an American CitizenA brief follow-up here on MoCo’s ongoing “Boost” UBI (partly paid for by you, the hardworking taxpayer or you, the business owner, or you, the public school teacher) that caught my eye as I went back to the county’s MocoBoost.org website to see if new data or – gasp- an actual report on the efficacy…
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The New Needy in MoCo
Read more: The New Needy in MoCoToday, CE Elrich and a handful of Council Members held an event touting the new MC Groceries Program. The program seeks to provide families (noted you do not have to be a legal resident; you only have to reside in MoCo) access to shelf stable food via a partnership with Instacart. We applaud, especially during…
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So You’re Saying It Can Be Done? Contrary to MoCo’s Tax-Hiking CE and County Council, a Midwest Town Hasn’t Charged Property Tax in 37 Years
Read more: So You’re Saying It Can Be Done? Contrary to MoCo’s Tax-Hiking CE and County Council, a Midwest Town Hasn’t Charged Property Tax in 37 YearsInteresting story today that caught our eye, this one from Realtor.com in their “trends” post: Per this writer Julie Gerstein for Realtor.com, it sounds like a town in Missouri outside of St. Louis is doing just fine for its residents — without levying a property tax at all. Who knew? Well, some of us did. …
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The Real “Gold Bar Scam” is the Government Pretending Gold Isn’t Money (MoCo/Maryland Govt Included)
Read more: The Real “Gold Bar Scam” is the Government Pretending Gold Isn’t Money (MoCo/Maryland Govt Included)County Exec Marc Elrich came out on Saturday, August 17th with his latest “Message from the County Executive” video. In it, the chief exec of Montgomery County updated residents on what was deemed “The Gold Bar Scam” and impacted several people in the Bethesda area: “The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office has filed criminal charges…
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MoCo Bringing Up the Rear in Housing
Read more: MoCo Bringing Up the Rear in HousingSince elected officials harp on and on about the housing crisis in Montgomery County I was surprised to find these recent area stats when looking through Reventure App. First up is the for sale inventory. This metric shows the number of available listings on the market. You will see in looking at the map that…
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Marilyn Balcombe puts a soft touch on zoning reform
Read more: Marilyn Balcombe puts a soft touch on zoning reformWe often hear about the struggle between progressives and centrists in the Democratic Party. Among MoCo’s Democrats, the progressives demoralize the police force and reward cover-ups of sexual harassment with severance pay. The centrists focus on policies that get resources to those who need it, such as bus service. That’s not a hard and consistent…
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Montgomery History Lauds 90 Years of “Potomac River Ferries” as MoCo Residents Still Don’t Have a Functional Way to Cross the Potomac, North of Beltway
Read more: Montgomery History Lauds 90 Years of “Potomac River Ferries” as MoCo Residents Still Don’t Have a Functional Way to Cross the Potomac, North of BeltwayYou still can’t cross the Potomac River in your car or bike or moped in any coherent, quick, functional way north of the American Legion Bridge in Montgomery County in 2024. Need to go to Dulles airport? You’ll have to go down to the beltway, fight traffic around it, and then back up, along the…
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Rent Control: The Data Collection Begins
Read more: Rent Control: The Data Collection BeginsIt’s hard to believe that a full year has passed since rent control was passed by the County Council at the behest of Will Jawando and Kristin Mink. On July 18, 2023 I published the first snapshot of the county’s rental market. On October 7, 2023, I published a second snapshot. Since then I’ve been…
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MoCo’s “Boost” UBI-Test Program, Pushed by CM Jawando, is Getting Scaled Back — And We Still Don’t Have a “First Draft” of the Urban Institute’s “Evaluation”
Read more: MoCo’s “Boost” UBI-Test Program, Pushed by CM Jawando, is Getting Scaled Back — And We Still Don’t Have a “First Draft” of the Urban Institute’s “Evaluation”Remember the no-strings “free cash” pilot program started in FY 2023 (calendar year 2022) by the Montgomery County Council? Funded in part by your tax dollars (over $3 million, although part was provided by a private grantor), the pilot program was another attempt by some on the County Council to “be like DC” and hand…