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setho212 t1_itt0hmh wrote

I’ve been really disappointed by Kittleman’s campaign. He’s gone very negative and most of what he is saying is incredibly misleading.

Check out the link below. Crime was actually higher under Kittleman than it was under Ball. Kittleman is heavily pushing the fact they homicides are higher under Ball, but the homicide rate is incredibly low under both of them. Whether there are 6 homicides in the county of 11 there is an incredibly small number of homicides in a county of 330,000 people. It’s ridiculous for Kittleman to constantly harp on a homicide rate of 1 homicide per 33,000 residents. It’s nothing but pure fearmongering.

Kittleman’s claims regarding taxes are similarly misleading. He talks about taxes skyrocketing by 35% but what he doesn’t reveal is that he is talking about the firetax which went from .176% to .236% so basically 6 one hundredths of a percent which is equivalent to $25 per month on a $500,000 home.

Kittleman also loves to hit Ball on accepting developer donations. What he mentions less is that he accepted developer donations in the past and opposed public funding of campaigns when the county council considered the CEF. Kittleman only came to oppose developer donations when it became a convenient talking point and he knew there would be a groundswell of donations from wealthy residents in western Howard county who are desperate to get Ball out of office.

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freecain t1_itt8l5t wrote

'He made the calculation: The biggest complaint a lot of people had about Kittleman was that he was basically giving the greenlight to anything developers wanted. By turning down the campaign contributions, any time the damage he did while Exec his supporters can just say "He's not accepting Developer money, so that's not true." That was worth more than developer money. Personally I'm not falling for it - but I can see how that would sway some people who aren't impressed by Calvin Ball and don't realize some of the issues they attribute to Ball are directly the result of Kittleman.

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setho212 t1_itt8y5l wrote

That’s essentially the thrust of the Kittleman campaign. Blast Ball and deflect from everything Kittleman did while in office.

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CookieMonster932 t1_ittgrbl wrote

It’s annoying how every politician in HoCo falls back on anyone who is in any way associated with developers is evil. Developers are neither good or bad, every development project needs to be looked at individually on its merits. On top of that, MD has a huge housing shortage and we do need developers to build more homes. Ideally more diverse types of home such as apartments, townhomes etc, so middle class folks can afford them not just endless McMansions contributing to sprawl.

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descartes_blanche t1_ittvf8t wrote

I mean, Columbia is literally a development project lol, so I am right there with you.

Columbia made it as a development because of mixed income housing, which strengthened the community for generations. I'd like to see a Rouse-like approach for the 21st century, rather than copying the copycats in the way we've seen so far

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Middle-aged_LilyBart t1_itwfzkn wrote

“I'd like to see a Rouse-like approach for the 21st century, rather than copying the copycats in the way we've seen so far”

Me too! Columbia seems as though it was well thought out with regard to its infrastructure (roads, walkability, village centers, schools, etc.), coupled with the different housing options that made this county more socioeconomically diverse. The different housing options blend well too… the only outer Columbia example I can think of is Waverly Woods. It would be nice if the remainder of the county (EC, Elkridge, etc) could be retrofitted similar to Columbia.

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Middle-aged_LilyBart t1_itwjwuq wrote

“Ideally more diverse types of home such as apartments, townhomes etc, so middle class folks can afford them not just endless McMansions contributing to sprawl.”

Agree wholeheartedly with this, though I do wonder about the thought process and planning/consideration that goes into approval for each development, with regard to environmental impact, impacts to schools, transportation, etc. I mean, it seems this county has to redistrict every couple of years, and old EC flooded twice since I moved here (in 2016), which leads me to believe that the planning in these areas has been insufficient or inadequate. Given that Kittleman was the former CE and Ball was on the council, and from what I understand, voted for this development, it doesn’t make me super happy that they are the options for CE (though this crappy planning probably began before them).

People want to move and live here, and so we need housing options for every budget, but we also need to plan the space around that housing in a responsible manner in order to avoid becoming San Francisco or MoCo. If the county council has indeed been working on this in a thoughtful manner, it would be nice if they made this information more available in an easily digestible way to the public.

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