Montgomery County murders spike 31% in 2017

Long considered a low-crime jurisdiction, Montgomery County experienced a 31% increase in homicides last year.  Surprisingly, the Washington Post chose to run a "fake news" headline Sunday. A front-page splash read, "Killings fell in D.C. area in 2017." Only those who bothered to read the article on the inside pages would learn that murders actually increased in Montgomery County in 2017.

It appears the Post used the misleading headline to protect the soft-on-crime Montgomery County Council, who have proven impotent to stop the surge of violent crime in the County. While murders spiked in Montgomery, Fairfax had no increase, D.C. had fewer, and Prince William County's homicide rate plunged from 22 to 4. Increasing crime has so embarrassed Montgomery County elected officials, they have resorted to violating the County's open data law, by sabotaging the crime datasets.

A month-long crime data outage last summer only ended after I publicized the illegal blackout. Then block numbers were removed, making the data nearly useless for lengthy roads. Next, they restored block numbers, but disabled the sorting function of the date columns, so that you can only access random crimes from 2016 no matter which option you select for starting or ending date. Finally, as of this morning, I can no longer use the mouse to slide the columns right or left, only the keypad on my keyboard.

Ironically, the jurisdictions whose homicide rates declined last year provide more and more-accessible crime data to their residents than Montgomery County. We need new elected leadership that can stop the trend of rising homicides, not one that resorts to childish tactics like blocking crime data from the public. Sad!

Rockville construction update: Montrose Crossing addition (Photos)

The new retail-restaurant structure that is replacing Timpano Italian Chophouse at Montrose Crossing is nearing completion. Each individual restaurant and store still has to complete fit-out of their respective interiors. You can see the design, complete with stringed lights, pavers and decorative street lamps, is a nod to the contemporary "town center" more than to the old-fashioned strip mall.

Honeygrow is on track to be the
first business to open in the new
building at Montrose Crossing

Honeygrow is closest to opening, with their permanent sign already installed on the facade. CAVA Grill has Coming Soon signage in place. Expect this to be one of the buildings that continues to operate when Montrose Crossing is redeveloped as a mixed-use property in future years.

More Honeygrow signage

Honeygrow's doors are already
stenciled

Honeygrow interior

New pop-up boutique opens at Rockville Town Square

 Alicia L: The Boutique has opened at 107-D Gibbs Street at Rockville Town Square. The pop-up shop sells a wide variety of women's apparel and accessories, including labels such as Clara Sunwoo, Aldo Martins, Vineyard Vines, Hunter Boots, Joseph Ribkoff, Katherine Barclay, Comfy, Swell Water Bottles. Alicia L's main boutique is in Frederick.

MoCo Council prevents Robin Ficker from testifying on tax bill

Email from Montgomery County Council
President Hans Riemer to Robin Ficker on
Christmas night; there is no mandated limit
on how many speakers can testify at a hearing

Montgomery County Council President Hans Riemer rejected County resident Robin Ficker's request to testify at a hastily-scheduled public hearing Tuesday on a bill that would allow pre-payment of property taxes before December 31. Ficker is running against several members of the Council for the office of County Executive. This was a clear conflict-of-interest for the Council in excluding Ficker's testimony, as he would surely have discussed the Council's record property tax hikes in his remarks, and the narrow tax relief the bill would provide for only one tier of taxpayers. Some of his opponents on the Council used the taxpayer-funded Council public relations office to issue statements praising themselves following the hearing Tuesday, despite being the ones who forced County residents to pay more than $10,000 in property taxes in 2016.

Ficker is mobbed by supporters
outside the Council building earlier
this year

Ficker's exclusion raised eyebrows because the Council had all day to listen to testimony; this was an emergency session and there was no other item on the agenda, as anyone can confirm by examining it. The Council recently used a similar tactic to limit public participation in the debate over a proposed expansion of Old Angler's Inn, which left more observers in the hearing room than actual speakers.

Ficker's successful ballot
questions limiting Council terms
and tax increases have enraged
councilmembers, who prevented
him from testifying Tuesday

The tax bill passed 7-1 yesterday, with Councilmember Craig Rice voting against it, and Councilmember Tom Hucker absent. It remains uncertain if all or any taxpayers who pay more than $10,000 in property taxes will be ultimately be able to prepay and/or save money. But councilmembers were forced to reverse their opposition after other local jurisdictions quickly allowed their residents to prepay. Many of those paying that amount were only put over the $10,000 mark by the Council's record 2016 and 2017 tax hikes. While the Council took pains to blame Donald Trump, who is unpopular in blue Montgomery, it was the Council themselves who put so many of those affected by the federal tax changes into that position.

Toy Kingdom closes early at Rockville Town Square (Photos)

Toy Kingdom has closed at Rockville Town Square. The independent toy store had been scheduled to close its doors forever on December 31. However, the windows were covered with paper this weekend, and a new sign posted in the window thanking long-time patrons for their support.

Exposed: Montgomery County Council is not a "full-time job"

Wouldn't you like to have the power to raise your own salary? In doing just that, to a record $137,000 taxpayer dollars, the Montgomery County Council justified the cash grab by claiming serving on the Council was "a full-time job." That claim, already easily proven false, has now been totally debunked, after Councilmember George Leventhal released a statement yesterday announcing he has secretly been earning a doctorate in public policy.

In fact, Leventhal has been on a Rodney Dangerfield-esque return to college since 2007, by his own admission. He has been on the Council since 2002. Surely, his ever-increasing taxpayer-funded salary over the last decade has afforded him the ability to pad his thin resume with degree after degree, an advantage not available to many of the constituents paying his salary.

Council observers have known for some time that members have too much free time on their hands. New Council President Hans Riemer recently spent a day on Capitol Hill, trailed by taxpayer-funded County government TV crews to capture it all. Alas, things went awry when Riemer found himself being arrested by police in Washington, D.C. later that day. It's believed he is the first Montgomery County Councilmember to be arrested while in office.

Montgomery County celebrity Matthew Lesko has been selling books on how to get free money from Uncle Sam to earn a "GED, or a PhD!!!" on TV for years. Winning a County Council seat could actually be a smarter move at this point. Sit on a padded leather chair for four hours a week, and the rest of the time, earn a law or medical degree at taxpayer expense using your amped up Council salary. Maybe even hit up a few frat house parties in-between.

The Bell, California Council jacked up their own salaries, too, raising taxes massively to cover the costs. Sound familiar? Bell's Council is currently in prison. Montgomery's is on campus. What's wrong with this picture?

Man disappears from Montgomery County homeless shelter in Rockville

A resident of the Montgomery County men's emergency shelter at 600 East Gude Drive is unaccounted for, according to Montgomery County police. Nathaniel Lee Robinson, 27, has been reported missing by shelter staff.

Robinson is described by police as an African American male, 5’ 9”, and weighing approximately 200 pounds.  He has black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Nathaniel Lee Robinson is asked to call the Montgomery County Police non-emergency number at 301-279-8000 (available 24 hours). Callers may remain anonymous.