Cheap Shots

The Haves, The Have Nots and Those Who Never Will

Every four years we go through a political cycle in which those folks who want to run things don plaid shirts and suddenly develop a yen for walking, shaking hands at any gathering with more than three people in attendance and eating endless amounts of chicken. It’s called politics. Those who run for office try to make the voters think that they are regular guys and gals. Some are, some aren’t, some fool us all.

This past week we saw Merle Evans make a pitch for a developer, a guy who was pitching for lots of candidates with his wallet last year. Now donating developer money to candidates, as long as it conforms with the law, is perfectly legal. In fact, its nice to see those fat cats spend their money, its good for the economy. Its just helpful if we know where its coming from and there shouldn’t be any limit at all on how much they spend. Look at ole Hambone. He got his developer pals to shell out a half million bucks to pay for his campaign which was going to lead to the Governor’s Mansion. Instead it led to a new grocery store in Leonardtown, which was a good bargain for everyone, as Leonardtown needed a nice store and sure got one.

With all the grief that the fox-hunting elitist from New Jersey, Shelby Guazzo has gotten from this column over the years, it has to be pointed out that she is turned in to one of the best planning commission members in years. Between her, Steve Reeves and Susan McNeil, the county is well served. The other four folks are well meaning but on the St. Georges Peninsula proposal they are just wrong to take actions which could lead to a wholesale land rush on the rural preservation district by forcing Metcom to open up the sewer line to properties which are not experiencing failing septic systems.

The developers have but one goal, to maximize their investments and move on to the next project. Certainly we need them. But there has to be planning, not the hodge-podge we have now. Not too many years ago, we had planning come, and go, and come and get thrown up in the air like 52 card pickup. What has happened is that a few folks have manipulated the politicians so they can manipulate the zoning to make money. In Charles County, they have one of the most insincere and self-serving guys in office, Gary Hodge, who spent 20 years as Tri-County Council director ducking the most serious challenge to the area — transportation. While the region became further and further stuck in the mud with no commuter rail, Hodge flew around the world on junkets selling tobacco to the world markets, in his second, full time job, as a lobbyist for the tobacco council. A real double dipper, he almost got canned by the TCC for his extra job. Now Hodge is playing games at blocking future commuter rail for the region.

The folks who are playing around with the Lexington Park plan are playing Monopoly with public money and it remains to be seen if these genius’ can come up with anything better than what the entrepreneurs of the 50’s and 60’s did. There is a lot to be said for the neon lights of the tropics, the colorful girls of Rose’s Place and the great food of Pete’s Galley. Compare that to CVS, the auto parts places and the store that sells bottled water on Great Mills Road. All nice places but really boring.

The Spinning Wheel, The Dock and the Shangri-La Bar were real places, like Three Thieves, the Brass Ass and The Pub.

Now when a poor barkeeper like Boatman tries to have a concert in a ball field and sells a few hundred tickets, the whole Leonardtown establishment shuts him down. Boatman got permission from the Liquor Board for his event, he paid in advance for his band and sold his tickets. Then about a month ago, he let a band get too loud. Now the liquor board decided that the proper punishment is to ban him from having any outdoor event for 18 months. He should have had to pay a fine like other license holders do for serving minors on a first offense. The liquor board has a long history of being a Kangaroo Court and having new members on it who wish to only listen to irritated neighbors of the Ridge bar and not be fair will simply result in the county being hauled into court. The liquor board goes from no oversight to knee-jerk reaction in one fell swoop. Boatman needs to be a better neighbor to Ridge, but he ought to be treated fairly.

A man built a deck for his handicapped daughter at their waterfront home and the county made him take it down because they were in the critical area. A guy went down to Scotland Beach and on the old Duffy’s property built a gigantic house. How?

The county made a couple cut a foot off of their sidewalk because it was too wide.

The county turned down Marguerite Barnes on Millstone Landing Road from getting the new double-wide home she wanted and could afford. Why? It was about 200 square feet too BIG.

Too Big? Yep. What does it hurt?

The politicians give lip service to wanting affordable housing but the commissioners ignored Larry Jarboe’s request to exempt homes that are 1200 square feet in the new TDR program.

This is not about a welfare deal for wealthy developers. We have had those deals, they are called Fox Chase Apartments and Laurel Glen and others. They brought in so called low cost housing and then they brought in the people from PG County to live in them, along with their problems. But while making the developers rich, the bone headed bureaucrats and dim witted political leaders take every opportunity they have to be sure that those who grew up here have to leave. It works good, because their grandparents have to leave too as soon as they retire as folks cannot afford to live in Maryland with the high taxes.

Therefore, the young married couples in their twenties can pack up the grandparents and they can all move together to North Carolina.

We have the Charter Government crowd working overtime to bring about a new form of government, with John Parlett pushing to be the new county executive. He thinks we need a ‘benevolent dictator’ to run things. Maybe in a perverted way, he is right.