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Wednesday, May 11, 2016

The Carver Coalition Demands Answers on the Bus Depot and Gets

A big turnout at their meeting tonight. A lot of emotion.   A lot of politicals.



But did they get anything else?

Maybe, maybe not.

Kumar Barve spoke on behalf of the District's State Representatives.  The four reps, Delegate Barve, with Del. Gilchrist and Del. Platt, and presumably Senator Kagan, are writing the County Council to let them know that they are opposed to the plan to relocate the MCPS bus depot partially to Carver.  Barve, Glichrist, and Kagan were in attendance tonight.I say presumable to Kagan because she sent a letter to many homes last weekend saying that the matter was no longer "urgent,"  She then posted on her website (how many read her website?) that she made a mistake and was misinformed.  Lets hope that the District 17 reps don't make another mistake.  But do they have any say in the matter?



The County Council was also represented - by Councilmembers Sid Katz, Marc Elrich, and George Leventhal, who stated that they are opposed to the Carver site as a bus parking lot.  According to Leventhal, the numbers don't add up, and he doesn't see any urgency to relocate the buses.

Rockville Mayor Bridget Newton also stated that the City of Rockville is opposed to locating the bus depot at Carver.  She was accompanied by Councilmembers Julie Carr and Mark Pierzchala.  Mayor Newton also asked that the deciding powers NOT pit Rockville neighbors against each other.  Good for Mayor Newton.  Rockville residents successfully fought off relocating the site on Avery Road, and are now told that the remaining buses that don't fit on the Carver site will be relocated to the Lincoln Park neighborhood - on the other side of the Red Line Railroad tracks.

And then the Board of Education spoke up - Phil Kaufman, accompanied by Rebecca Smondrowski and Jill Orman-Fouse, also are apparently in opposition to the relocation of the bus depot to Carver.  But what will they do with 100 buses if the County Council orders them off the property - maybe not on January 1, but some other future date when they don't have a plan?


So - who gets the deciding vote?  Why hasn't anyone offered a resolution to stop this circus?  How will these elected officials really vote - we know the County Council unanimously voted a few days ago to give MCPS money for preliminary studies.  We also know that despite all the mandatory referrals and other procedural nice things said in public, when push comes to shove, MCPS ignores the City of Rockville (as folks from Wootton and RM Clusters well know). Why study if this is dead in the water?  Why vote for the funding if you think this is a bad idea?

Bigger question.  How did we get here?  Remember, a developer wants the current bus depot site, so MCPS has to relocate 450 buses to another location.  Why are we still giving public land to developers?  We know here in MoCo our kids are educated in "learning cottages" - and now our buses need to find a new home too, because some developer has decided that housing is the way to go.






11 comments:

  1. We hear about which representatives are against the plan, but did not hear tonight who is FOR the plan (other than one name- Ike Leggett I believe?). Would love to see a list of every person voting for this plan- so we all know who NEVER to support again, and also who to try to persuade to change their minds... I think a good "study" would be to have 100+ people show up at Ike Leggett's house every morning at 5am and blare on air horns a few times, just to see if he finds it bothersome. Bonus points if we could bring in 100 diesel generator engines or bus sized vehicles to simultaneously run for 15-20 minutes while blaring said air horns...

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    1. Oh man that's an awesome idea. I also get the impression this has Ike Legget's fingerprints all over it. But I also suspect that he's kind of a Frank Underwood type who likes to get his way no matter what, and is good at it.

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    2. Would that be the same Ike Leggett that you voted for THREE TIMES?

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    3. Comfort is addictive: http://oliverwillis.com/2008/03/20/montgomery-county-maryland-county-exec-ike-leggets-65000-bathroom/

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  2. I apprecaite the (Sorta) humor in the post about air horns at Mr. Leggett's home. On a more serious note, I believe we must seriously bombard him with emails, letters and visits to places he is. Civilly, but very clearly we must engage him in the issue and let him know that we weren't happy that something like 500 (do we have a number? we should all use the same number) constituents were there and he wasn't. Can someone draft a template email that many of us can resend?

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  3. You can add Montgomery County Councilmember Nancy Floreen to that list. Floreen is VERY much FOR the plan to put 100 busses at the Carver site. After stating her support for this "project" she then refuses to discuss it with constituents or other elected officials. Floreen is an "At-Large" Montgomery County Councilmember... she will be on the 2018 ballot running for Montgomery County Council, OR... are you sitting down... Montgomery County Executive. BTW, Floreen is 75% developer funded, which may be part of the reason she supports the Carver Bus Depot. DON'T VOTE FOR FLOREEN. Vigorously support her non-developer funded opponents.

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    1. There are no 'non-developer funded opponents.

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  4. Okay, so who is writing a letter to her and Leggett?

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  5. The entire county council is '75% developer funded.' Alll of them. Look closely. The developers may not be explicitly on the donor list but ther planners, attorneys, relatives, pets and other LLCs will be.

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    1. Do these statistics extend to the state and national levels as well?

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    2. You'd have to do some research, when you do please post here!

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