Random MOCO Pics of the Day

One of my favorite places in Montgomery County is National Park Seminary.  Strangely enough, given its name, NPS has never actually been a seminary.  It started as a resort in the late 1800s, became a girls' finishing school, and later an outpost of Walter Reed Hospital.  It has beautiful, if quirky architecture with a mixture of styles (An auditorium with Greek columns, some buildings that look like they belong in Dublin, and a pagoda).   

Over time the maintenance of the property declined. 

NPS is in the process of being redeveloped, but as these pictures show, it is a work in progress.  In fact, the private property that has been developed next to the it provides an interesting contrast to the quirky, Faulkner-esque state of decline of some NPS buildings.

 

 

Purple Line Follies--spring 2014 edition part 1

How do people on different sides of the debate about the Purple Line settle their differences?

If this was Game of Thrones, one of them would invite the other to a wedding and then kill him, his wife, and the horse he rode in on.

Fortunately, Purple Line fights are more Gladys Kravitz than Kingslayer.  The results are more comical as well.

The most recent fight started when Wayne Phyillaier complained to the Maryland Department of Transportation that a homeowner along the Capital Crescent Trail had extended his backyard onto public property by building a fence on the shoulder of the trail.  For out-of-towners, the Capital Crescent trails is an old rail-line that has been turned into a hiking trail.  The Purple Line is slated to be built along the trail.

Montgomery County investigated the complaint and levied a $500 fine against the homeowner, who happens to be one Ajay Bhatt, the president of Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail, a group fighting the line.

Turns out Phyillaier is an outspoken advocate of the line.

It is hard not to laugh at these fifth-graders guys. 

The Purple Line is most likely going to happen, so Phyillaier is on the winning side.  He could have said nothing or reported all of the sheds and fences built in the trails' right of way (Bhatt apparently has lots of company in his sense of entitlement to public land).

For his part Bhatt has already gone to court once to avoid paying the fine.  He lives in Chevy Chase, MD and owns his own company so can probably afford the fine.  Instead, he'll likely pay more in court costs than the fine.

Well, at least they aren't jousting, sword-fighting or playing dodge ball.

On second thought, maybe dodge ball IS the way to solve this.  

Map of the Week Bonus Edition--Ethnic Clustering

This is for all you map lovers out there!

The last two maps I've made showed that the distribution of two minority populations--Asian and Hispanic--in Montgomery County.  Today, I thought I'd take a look at the degree to which these two minority groups are clustered in a statistically significant way.

Stay with me statistics phobes.  There are pretty maps involved!

One way to see evidence of clustering is to create a standard deviation map.  This means that each tract is categorized based on where the minority share of the population in that tract fits in the wider distribution (i.e. within one standard deviation of the mean, within two standard deviations, etc.).

Evidence of statistically significant clustering would be found in tracts where the Asian or Hispanic share of a tract's population is more than two standard deviations from the mean.  

For both groups--Asians and Hispanics--there a 12 tracts with significant spatial clustering.  On the maps below these tracts are shaded in dark blue and outlined in black (as opposed to gray).  For the Asian distribution this means tracts where Asians comprise 29.4% or more of the total population.  The comparable figure for the Hispanic population is 42% or more.

Although both groups have significant clustering, the clustering tends to happen on different sides of the county--north and west for Asians and south and east for Hispanics.

What to make of all this?  Montgomery county may be exceptionally diverse, but that diversity isn't evenly across space.


Map 1: Asian Share of the Population, Classified by Standard Deviation

Map 2: Hispanic Share of the Population

MOCO Map of the Week--Percent Hispanic or Latino by Census Tract 2010

This week's map shows the distribution of Hispanics in Montgomery County.  

The Hispanic share of the population in Montgomery County (17%) is slightly larger than it is for the US as a whole (16%).  By contrast it is double the share for Maryland as a whole (8%).       

In terms of the distribution of the Hispanic population, two patterns stand out on the map below.  First, Hispanics are clustered in a fairly narrow band running along a northwest-southeast axis.  The band doesn't follow one particular road, but it does run through three places in the county known for having large Hispanic populations--Gaithersburg, Wheaton, and north Takoma Park.  Second, most of the county's Hispanic population lives outside the Beltway (the black line at the bottom of the county).

MOCO Musings' next map will explore the degree of clustering for Hispanics.  Be on the lookout for a standard deviation map! (For map lovers a 'be still my beating heart' moment!)   

    

Negotiating with Extortionists. Martin O'Malley makes a deal with Francis Underwood

As readers of this blog know, MOCO Musings has not been a fan of the tactics employed by the Netflix show House of Cards (HOC) to increase its tax credits from the state of Maryland.  (The show shoots in Baltimore, Annapolis, and Harford County).

To date, the show has received 26.6 million dollars in tax credits during its two seasons.   At the start of the year, the show's producers made a 'pitch' to increase their tax credits for the upcoming (3rd) season of shooting.

HOC used a combination of soft and hardball tactics. On the softer side, Kevin Spacey visited the state to host a cocktail party and pose for selfies with groupieselected officials.  On the hardball side, the show's producers sent Governor O'Malley a stern letter warning it might leave the state if bigger tax credits were not forthcoming.

In April, the Senate approved an increase of 15 million dollars, but the house wanted a smaller figure and an agreement that the state could use eminent domain to seize film equipment if the show left after receiving tax credits.  The two sides couldn't agree, and the Assembly closed before a deal could be reached. 

In walks Martin O'Malley to 'save' the day.  The show will now receive 11.5 million in tax credits for its third season.  It is unclear exactly where the money is coming from (since the General Assembly didn't vote for it).  But, state 'grants'  appear to be in the mix. 


The amount is less than what the show received for its first two seasons (about 13 million for each season), but a lot more than many people thought it deserved.

What's the lesson here?  For his part, the governor chose to downplay the previous conflict, relying on a too cute by half press release that began:  "Spoiler alert: we’re going to keep the 3,700 jobs and more than 100 million dollars of economic activity and investment that ‘House of Cards’ generates right here in Maryland."

Another way to look at it is this:  you can negotiate with extortionists for a markdown.  

All of this reminds me of another TV show set in Baltimore, The Wire, and a character on it, Tommy Carcetti.  Rumor always had it that Carcetti, a city councilman with mayoral ambitions, was based at least in part on Martin O'Malley.  Carcetti was an idealist whose mayoral ambitions got in the way of his idealism.  Whether or not the rumor is true, it seems apt today.   

MOCO Map of the Week--Percent Asian by Census Tract, 2010

This week's map shows the distribution of the Asian population in Montgomery County.  In 2010 13.9% of the county's population was Asian.

By comparison, only 5.52 % of Maryland's population was Asian in 2010.  For the US as a whole, the percent was even smaller, at 4.8%.

A couple of patterns stand out here.  First, Asians tend to be clustered outside the beltway, which runs in a straight line just above the District's northern tip (the top of the triangle at the bottom of the county).  Second, the census tracts with the highest percentages of Asians tend to be on the western side of the county. Next map will look at the distribution of the Hispanic/Latino population in MOCO.  Stay tuned!

The Millennial Fetish

As every new generation comes of age, the media loves to fixate on them.  What makes them tick, we wonder?  How are they different from all the others that came before them?  I get it, I really do.  But, some of the recent coverage of millennials, especially in the DMV, veers toward the ridiculous, or sublimely funny, depending on your mood. 

Case in point?  An article in the Washington Post Real Estate section this past Saturday (4/19/14) about the efforts of developers and architects to build for millennials, or as the article puts it,  "to create living spaces with this generation’s behaviors in mind."

So, what sorts of behaviors do millennials exhibit that the rest of us don't, and more importantly, how does this translate into different living spaces?


The WAPO article identifies three main differences.

1.  Millennials aren't buying homes just yet.  They've got too much debt, so they either can't afford a mortgage, or they don't have enough savings to cover a down payment.  So, how does this translate into how we build/design spaces for them?

Wait for it...really, you're going to be floored by this one...seriously, sit down...take a deep breath...THEY RENT APARTMENTS. 

2. Millennial like customizable spaces.  As the WAPO article notes:  "Millennials have the same expectations about physical spaces and digital spaces; they want to be able to socialize within personalized spaces that they can break down and rebuild in different ways."

I'm not sure what a digital space is.  But, this is to be expected.  I'm a Gen-Xer.  Translation:  I'm a slacker working on a refurbished IBM 486.

Anyway, I digress.  How does this love of customization translate into millennial spaces?  According to the WAPO article, millennials want "retail-style walk-in closets that can be arranged multiple ways, in-unit areas to hang bicycles and kayaks, and sliding doors within apartment units that can enable more opened or closed environments."  Seriously?  That's what makes them different--big closets?  The article's writer clearly hasn't seen the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.  Those ladies have closets the size of Alaska, and are, ahem, older than your average millennial. 

3.  Millennials like upgrades.  I'm not sure exactly what the article's author means by an upgrade, but it seems to boil down to technology. 

So, how do millennials' preferences for the most updated technology translate into new and creative spaces?  Apparently it is about things like new and inventive lighting.  As WAPO puts it, "glowing floors, lit walls, light boxes...flat-screen technology."

I'm starting to think a millennial wrote this article.   

John Travolta's best dance moves in Saturday Night Fever were on a glowing floor.  All those hip thrusts would've been just another Elvis rip-off without that floor!

And, don't even get me started on the Lava Lamp, that beacon of alternative lighting from across the ages.    

So, the next time you meet a millennial, behold the exotic creature before you.  She rents an apartment, has big closets, and likes funky lights.  Dorothy, you're not in Kansas anymore.  

P.S. the movie poster is from Wikipedia and falls within the fair use category.