Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Annual Performance Reports Sustain Unremarkable Bs







4 comments:

  1. It's not that it's untrue that MoCo has developed along the river in a very different way than Fairfax and Loudoun have. It has. It truly has. But if Dan could've troubled himself to turn in his seat a little, he'd have gotten Clarksburg in the shot. And Germantown. And Gophershole. These are the places that put the lie to the significance of the difference, especially when the airplane makes that left turn--the turn the airplane just finished when Dan took that picture. Very shortly after that turn--and I've made that turn dozens of times, usually with a hand on the window and a tear in my eye, because about 8 seconds before that picture, and that turn, I can very easily spot my neighborhood, which I am dashing away from at about 500 miles per hour on my way to somewhere I really don't want to be--it's all green. The Loudoun/Fairfax development complex ends very, very abruptly, and is focused on the inner ring and on another complex centered on Dulles. And while Dan's not entirely wrong about suburban sprawl as opposed to urban concentration, he's misleading. The I-270 corridor is pretty densely developed, in a suburban way, all the way past Frederick. The I-95 corridor is almost entirely developed, except for that sweet spot up east of Laurel and north for a bit. But from the air, it's just a matter of what direction you're looking. Just look at Google Earth, centered on the city. Yeah, more of MoCo is green, and that's a good thing. But there's plenty of development on our side of the river, too--in places most MoCovians don't frequent.

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    1. To be honest, I did it just to take a cheap shot at my NOVA friends.

      We were on Sugarloaf on Sunday. Driving 270 saw the new sign for the "outlet" stores in Clarksmotherfuckingburg. The for sale sign on the Comstat campus is taken down, I suppose it's mcmansionist tract housing sooner then later. So yes. He should have looked out another window.

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    2. I keep threatening to take Ilse to the new Clarksburg outlets.
      BDR just howled laughing. For those of you who aren't inside Landru baseball: Ilse teaches at Clarksburg High School. The outlets are a veritable hive of students seeking her approval. I am not exaggerating too much when I say that she needs to wear pearls and a Betty Crocker hairstyle to visit a nearby Wegman's on Saturdays. I of course, enjoy cajoling her to wear a ballcap and sweats.
      But the outlets do make our County Council feel useful.

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  2. Thanks for the link to Remnick's piece.

    Cohen: His music and his poetry has been one of the constant stars in a constellation that's changed so much, winked out, or gone Nova in a new century. We show up here, we touch others; we go. No idea what it means or what purpose it serves; but occasionally we get to read or hear something reminding us for better or worse that the touching part is where the work and the good things are.

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