🚀 go-pugleaf

Dave Simpson wrote:

>   Bentley wrote:
>
>   [correcting for the contemporary English error of misusing
> the slash character, most often in place of a conjunction]
>
> > I've often used this fun with numbers game: Is it fair to say there
> > are 50 binary political issues? Pro-life vs pro-choice, pro-gun vs
> > anti-gun, free trade vs foreign protection, etc? If so, how many
> > possible combinations are there of potential political
> > candidates [or] parties? [if there is one position per party]
>
>   With only five yes-no (not "yes/no" [sic]) issues, you have 32
> possible positions, and as the best book I own on proportional
> representation points out, you can't exactly offer satisfaction
> to everyone with only two political parties (and only two official
> positions with respect to all issues combined).
>
> > Tick-tock.
> > Most people think for a second and say "Ah. 50 squared. 2,500."
>
>   I can't believe people would routinely say it's the square.
>
> > >That's actually a quite-common commute, Rockville-Reston [...]
>
> > [...] But as soon as the lands
> > around that new crossing filled up,
>
>   THEY'RE ALREADY FILLED UP.  Both Klaatu and I have mentioned
> a crossing where it's most needed, which is where it would serve
> the most people, and that is where there already is development.
>
>   If the crossing were located farther out from DC (toward
> Frederick), there would be even more pressure to develop what
> lands currently are undeveloped, than would be the effect of
> a crossing where we have been talking about.
>
> > Are there no similar negatives with a new, northern Potomac
> > crossing?
>
>   A crossing farther to the north would be in areas either currently
> undeveloped or close to such areas (areas developed less than in
> Rockville or Gaithersburg proper), and the result would be much more
> pressure to develop currently-undeveloped lands.
>
>   Dave Simpson

If Muddy Branch weren't there I wouldn't have any problems with this logic,
but it's out of our hands: The area in question is the wealthiest and priciest
land in the Metro Area. Merely regrading a two lane road in a fashion
preserving it's "horse country character" is a political issue in those parts.
Doug Willinger's plan for sending I-95 thru a corner of Takoma Park literally
is more likely to happen.

-BER