{"id":7974,"date":"2017-05-15T07:00:59","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T11:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7974"},"modified":"2017-05-14T23:56:41","modified_gmt":"2017-05-15T03:56:41","slug":"a-critical-moment-for-mocos-smart-growth-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7974","title":{"rendered":"A Critical Moment for MoCo\u2019s Smart Growth Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

2018 is shaping up to be a big year in MoCo politics.\u00a0 The Executive seat and four seats on the County Council have opened up due to term limits.\u00a0 Dozens of people are considering running for county office and some are already doing so.\u00a0 Discussions are underway among both business and progressive groups on how to prepare for the elections.\u00a0 But one critical group is so far conspicuously absent:<\/p>\n

MoCo\u2019s smart growth community.<\/p>\n

Smart growth advocates have some big asks of county elected officials.\u00a0 They want the county to finance a bus-rapid transit network that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.\u00a0 That is at the same time that the county is trying hard to pay for what could be billions in school construction costs.\u00a0 Smart growth groups are also seeking to terminate M-83, a planned Upcounty highway with significant support among its prospective users.\u00a0 The current County Council is dealing with the Bethesda master plan and the next one will be deciding a host of others<\/a>. \u00a0And at the state level, smart growth advocates are trying to convince the Governor and the General Assembly to support dedicated funding for WMATA.\u00a0 Any one of these issues would be serious asks, but together they comprise an agenda that is expensive, difficult and costly in political capital.<\/p>\n

When other groups have similar hard asks, they participate in the electoral process to enhance their prospects.\u00a0 Business entities contribute money.\u00a0 Labor unions contribute money, make endorsements and run direct actions by their members.\u00a0 Other groups like the Sierra Club, NARAL, the volunteer Fire Fighters, the League of Conservation Voters, NOW and Casa in Action play too.\u00a0 The smart growth movement does none of this.\u00a0 That\u2019s turning into a serious problem.<\/p>\n

Many of the pieces are in place for the smart growth community to be politically potent.\u00a0 They have a coherent, well-developed ideology with potential appeal to many.\u00a0 They have a flagship blog, Greater Greater Washington<\/a>, with a vast readership around the region.\u00a0 They have several\u00a0effective advocacy groups like the Coalition for Smarter Growth, Purple Line NOW and Action Committee for Transit.\u00a0 They have formed issue-based alliances with others including some parts of the business community, environmental groups and the anti-M-83 group TAME.\u00a0 And they have substantial support for some of their priorities.<\/p>\n

What they don\u2019t do is direct political action.\u00a0 There is no smart growth organization that makes endorsements, raises and contributes money and finances independent expenditure campaigns advocating for and against candidates.\u00a0 The closest thing they have to a political tool is Action Committee for Transit\u2019s scorecards<\/a>, which are handed out sporadically and not mass emailed or mass mailed.\u00a0 For politicians who take risks in supporting the smart growth agenda, there is no assurance of offsetting electoral rewards.\u00a0 That is one reason why M-83 continues to survive despite the alleged opposition of six Council Members<\/a> plus the County Executive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now consider the stakes.\u00a0 The leading vote-getter in recent at-large elections is Council Member Marc Elrich, who has voted against three<\/a> transit-oriented<\/a> master plans<\/a> along the Purple Line route and is a top-tier candidate for Executive.\u00a0 Total Wine co-owner David Trone, who could potentially spend over $10 million if he runs for Executive, is an open M-83 supporter.\u00a0 (See his tweet below.)\u00a0 The views of many council candidates on smart growth issues are totally unknown.\u00a0 One thing is sure: all of these candidates will hear from citizens who oppose the Purple Line, transit-oriented development, bus-rapid transit lines and any potential tax hike that will be needed to fix WMATA. \u00a0How much will they hear from supporters?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Because of the sheer number of open seats in the county, 2018 will be a watershed year in the history of MoCo politics.\u00a0 Will it be a watershed year for the smart growth movement?\u00a0 Or will it be a year in which candidates who pay lip service to smart growth priorities get elected and then water them down once in office, not fearing any consequences?<\/p>\n

Smart growthers, that depends on you.\u00a0 The time to step up is now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. 2018 is shaping up to be a big year in MoCo politics.\u00a0 The Executive seat and four seats on the County Council have opened up due to term limits.\u00a0 Dozens of people are considering running for county office and some are already doing so.\u00a0 Discussions are underway among both business and progressive … Continue reading A Critical Moment for MoCo\u2019s Smart Growth Movement<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[1545,1158],"class_list":["post-7974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-smart-growth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-24C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7974"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7982,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974\/revisions\/7982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}