Tuesday, February 27, 2018

MoCo residents give thumbs down to County's transportation system, MCPS class sizes, high taxes

The results of Montgomery County's annual Community Livability Survey for 2017 show a deep dissatisfaction with the County's current transportation system, liquor sales monopoly, high cost of living, crowded schools and what little value residents say they get in return for the high taxes they pay.

74% of residents surveyed said they are dissatisfied with the traffic flow on major routes. That's especially notable, given that the County Council has recently canceled many of the projects designed to reduce congestion, including the M-83 Highway, and Montrose Parkway East. 56% are dissatisfied with the ease of finding and using public parking facilities. A majority, 53%, gave a thumbs down on the ease of travel by car in the County. Public transportation fared even worse, with 55% expressing dissatisfaction.

Other points of dissatisfaction with Montgomery County included the high cost of living and housing, and the perception that it is a poor place to retire. A majority, 51%, said they are not getting their money's worth from Montgomery County government compared to the high amount of taxes they pay.

75% of residents said they neither attend government meetings nor watch County government meetings and programming on cable television. 50% are dissatisfied with the County's government liquor sales monopoly.

A solid majority of East County and Bethesda-Chevy Chase residents give the County poor marks for MCPS class size, two years after the County Council hiked taxes 9%, with the promise of reducing class size. Both areas also disapprove of the current teacher-to-student ratio in MCPS. Countywide, residents are dissatisfied with the food served in MCPS cafeterias. Only 52% of East County residents believe their children are safe in MCPS schools.

Also very notable after the County Council has claimed we are a healthy jurisdiction: As with so many aspects of infrastructure, schools and public facilities, East County lags behind in health. Only 50% of East County residents reported they are in "excellent" health.

14 comments:

  1. A lot of the dissatisfaction with the investment with schools is that the county keeps rubber stamping all these new developments and giving the developer a pass on having to pay to improve infrastructure and invest in schools. Then turns around shocked that the schools are overcrowded.

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  2. "About 4 in 5 Montgomery County residents gave an excellent or good rating to the county as a place to live and to the overall quality of life. Additionally, about 8 in 10 respondents were pleased with their neighborhood as a place to live, the overall image of the community, the overall appearance of the County and the County as a place to raise children. Resident loyalty ratings were high with a strong majority of respondents reporting they would recommend living in Montgomery County and planned to remain in the community for the next five years."

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    1. 12:18: Little of those categories has anything to do with government. Now look at the specific failures of GOVERNMENT in my report above, and the numbers are quite bad.

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  3. Did you get permission to use those pictures, Robert?

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  4. "74% of residents surveyed said they are dissatisfied with the traffic flow on major routes. That's especially notable, given that the County Council has recently canceled many of the projects designed to reduce congestion, including the M-83 Highway, and Montrose Parkway East."

    So how many County residents actually support building M-83 and Montrose Parkway East?

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  5. "Only 50% of East County residents reported they are in 'excellent' health."

    What does this have to do with the County government?

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    1. 12:53: You apparently missed George Leventhal and others claiming we are so healthy in Montgomery County thanks to his policies. LOL #Oops

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  6. Why not actually link to the Report?

    http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OPI/Resources/Files/2017-Survey/NCS_Community-Livability-Report_2017.pdf

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  7. "A majority, 51%, said they are not getting their money's worth from Montgomery County government compared to the high amount of taxes they pay."

    Not sure where you got this, Dyer.

    Here are the results on Page 9:

    "I am satisfied with the current level of taxes and
    services" = 36%

    "I feel that I pay too much for the services I receive" = 34%.

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    1. 1:21: Not only are those numbers even worse than what I reported, they are not from the 2017 report.

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  8. Looks like Montgomery County residents' level of satisfaction was significantly higher than the rest of the nation in the following areas:

    Vibrant downtowns/commercial areas: 68%

    Shopping opportunities: 77%

    Employment opportunities: 62%

    Place to work: 80%

    Cultural/arts/music activities: 76%

    And out of a total of 48 areas surveyed, lagged the rest of the country only in three areas: Travel by car, Traffic flow, and cost of living.

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    1. 3:53: You're looking at the wrong survey. This was a County only survey, old sport.

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  9. You have a conflict of interest here that you have failed to disclose.

    http://elections.state.md.us/elections/2018/primary_candidates/gen_cand_lists_2018_1__by_county_16.html

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    1. 11:02: That's what authority lines are for, old sport.

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