A weekly sampling of reader comments culled from trending Bethesda Beat stories.
Girl Told To Leave Silver Spring Fountain Because of Her Swimwear
The ejection of a 7-year old girl from the Silver Spring Fountain Plaza for wearing what a security guard believed to be inappropriate swimwear for girls has sparked questions about acceptable clothing and brought an apology from property managers.
Comments
- Silly misunderstanding. The guard was just “following the rules by the book” literally. I am sure the girl felt singled out which upset the mom, but in the grand scheme of life, it’s not a big deal. As they would say when there was some excitement when we were kids, “show’s over, move along.”
- [Downtown Silver Spring] seems to have a history of “unfortunate misunderstandings” with their security guards.
- Girls just can’t win, can they? If they wear a traditional swimsuit they get accused of being overexposed. If they wear swim shorts and a rash guard, they’re told that only counts as swimwear on boys. Where’s the eye roll emoji when you need it?
County Executive Laments Office Space Vacancies
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, during a Tuesday discussion with the County Council on economic development, said to attract more entrepreneurs, officials will have to solve the county’s declining demand for commercial office space. “There’s been a real loss of entrepreneurism, and we’ve got to figure out how to reinvigorate that,” he said.
Comments
- The State of MD needs to cut its Corporate and Income taxes, the primary reasons for slow/no growth in the state. Why would a company set up in a tax haven that does nothing to improve traffic, business unfriendly, and changes political policy whichever the wind blows??
- Empty office space means businesses are fleeing the county.
- Turning on lights means more global warming. So empty office space is a positive good.
- The county missed an opportunity three decades ago to build the North Bethesda Transitway to provide public transit to the Rock Spring office park – the home (at the time) of Marriott, Lockheed and IBM. Even now the county is foolishly building out [bus rapid transit] to less attractive office sites – so that BRT will be used to facilitate commuting into DC. Northern Virginia succeeded by supporting office development along major highways and then adding the silver line to those developments. Office space along 270 is the most attractive and that’s where transit should go first.
MCPS Scales Back Foreign Exchange Student Restrictions
Amid a backlash about a plan to bar foreign exchange students from most county high schools, the Montgomery school system is scaling back its restrictions and re-examining policies. Earlier this month, the school system told three organizations it partners with to host exchange students that 18 of its 26 high schools would not be open to placements due to crowded buildings.
Comments
- Backlash? You think? It’s called back pedal. Shocked they even listen to constituents at all. No restriction on illegal foreign students of course. They want to go way out of their way to accommodate those fitting that status. Oh wait, they don’t know how many illegal kids are in MCPS system because they don’t ask. That’s someone else’s job. Nice. Thank God for private schools.
- If only MCPS will give us the total number of exchange students it hosts every year. In the absence of that, our arguments are pure speculation.
- Bethesda: Please don’t let my poorer neighbors come to my schools because they’re too crowded.
Bethesda three months later: Oh but we can’t keep the foreign exchange students out. We’ll make room for those.
County’s On-Demand Bus Service Debuts
Ride On Flex six-month trial program offers a way to get to transit hubs in Rockville, Wheaton during peak hours.
Comments
- I don’t know, it seems to me that it would be far cheaper for the county to just maintain some subsidized Uber or Lyft accounts for these neighborhoods in these time periods. Then the taxpayers aren’t on the hook for gas, the app, wages and benefits for the driver, maintenance, etc.
- The downside is it forces people to have a smart phone in order to use the service. Not everyone uses a smart phone. Some people can’t afford them, some don’t carry phones and some use other kinds of phones.
- I live near one of the test zones, and I think it’ll be interesting to watch how the program is received. One of the neighborhoods has practically no bus service, so I bet Flex will be heavily used there once the word spreads.
Full text and additional comments accompany the individual online stories and updates.
