A Tale of Two Counties---Montgomery vs. Prince George's (Bowie, Clinton: house, to buy)

[kdavani]

ojeez ive only joined a couple days ago and im already sick of these MoCo vs. PG county posts! some people are just wayyy to attached to their area.
PG may be livable like some people say but MoCo does beat it in almost every category (education, resale value of homes, crime, etc etc) its not even worth replying with a long and detailed thread to support my opinion because i know you PG supporters out there would love to shoot me down

[live_strong28]

Originally Posted by cool rob

The same Deasy who left early amist questions regarding his collegiate transcripts? Try again.

This same Deasy did not do anything fresh or new, he built off of what Hornsby had already begun (before his outing), which if he wasn't such an idiot (like many others in the state who did wrong doing, such as Ed Norris who is not black or from Prince George's County) was actually good for the county.

And I apolgize to the board, as I am feeding the troll

I'm going to feed the troll and reply to this response.

If you're giving Hornsby credit for anything, you're really stretching it.

[live_strong28]

Originally Posted by cpterp

PG County also has some of the top schools in the country. I started another thread a while back when Newsweek placed 5 PGC schools on their Top 1000 High Schools list. PG County also has a highly-coveted AAA bond rating, something that very few counties have.

Unfortunately, the ranking by Newsweek is extremely misleading.

The ranking is based on the # AP classes taken/# seniors. This is Jay Matthews extremely flawed "challenge index" which he uses to rank schools.

A school can falsely elevate its ranking by having a lot of kids take AP classes even if they don't qualify. As a result, PG schools that were ranked in the Top 1000 had a very low passing rate, which proves that the index was padded.

All counties in the WMA that touch DC have the AAA bond rating. FFX (1975), MC (1961), Howard County (1997), and Arlington County (1978) have had their AAA bond rating on average for about 20-30 years.

http://www.co.arlington.va.us/NewsRe....asp?Index=531

http://www.fairfaxcountyeda.org/pres...ating-agencies

http://click.bsftransmit1.com/Previe...&ViewMode=HTML

http://www.howardcountymd.gov/News/News_20080130.htm

PG barely made it into it's second year. If Jack Johnson ever dipped into the county fund to help out PG Hospital, PG would lose it's AAA bond rating. That's why he's only willing to put up $2 million, not $3 million that he promised.

Prince George's County maintains bond rating – barely

[live_strong28]

Originally Posted by kjg1963

I grew up in PG and when I was younger, PG was predominately white. Even then, PG was the ugly step child. The demographics of the county have nothing to do with the problems. Can anyone ever remember when PG was considered "the place to be?" PG has a legacy of mediocrity and its a hard stigma to get over no matter who is in charge.

Also, some need to remember that, interestingly enough, PG still has white people living in it (I happen to be one), so blaming all the ills of the county on one race is amazingly ignorant.

Stigma doesn't cause schools to be bad, crime to be high, taxes to be high, officials to be crooked, etc.

[live_strong28]

Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

Yet some people still insist on blaming one group of people as the reason why PG is in the shape it's in. The demographics aren't the problem, but there's those that make it one. I come from a place where there's a large population of blacks, with a city that has all kinds of problems. Yet people look to blame "those people", and most whites move out into the suburbs/exurbs, and leave the city to rot. It's been happening for decades. The same thing is happening, or has been happening in PG -- people looking for a scapegoat to justify their ill-formed feelings and perceptions.

I've been in PG since the early 90's, I was always under the impression that PG always had a sizeable black population, but did people back in the 80's and such tend to PG with an extended stick and blame the ills on the rednecks or whites? Were people told to avoid PG at all costs? Was there so much controversy, tension and the like when PG was brought up?

PG may seem so mediocre because other areas are at such an unbelievably high standard. It has to compete with such pristine utopias like Howard, Montgomery, Fairfax -- even Charles, Calvert and Prince William, now. Even Stafford and Spotsylvania are rapidly catching up. God forbid PG not be perfect like Howard, Montgomery & Fairfax and have a couple flaws.

So what's your explanation for areas in SE, NE, and border DC in PG Cty to be so bad?

[TrippingJay]

Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

PG may seem so mediocre because other areas are at such an unbelievably high standard. It has to compete with such pristine utopias like Howard, Montgomery, Fairfax -- even Charles, Calvert and Prince William, now. Even Stafford and Spotsylvania are rapidly catching up. God forbid PG not be perfect like Howard, Montgomery & Fairfax and have a couple flaws.

Excellent point, however; I would say that none of the other areas could be described as "pristine utopias", because no place ever is. All counties and cities within them have areas that are run-down, have problems with crime and poorer performing schools. There are probably parts of PG that are nicer than parts of Montgomery, Fairfax or other counties.

[KeyserSoze]

Originally Posted by live_strong28

So what's your explanation for areas in SE, NE, and border DC in PG Cty to be so bad?

You tell me -- you usually have the answer. Something about blacks being more violent or unruly, I assume.

Originally Posted by TrippingJay

Excellent point, however; I would say that none of the other areas could be described as "pristine utopias", because no place ever is. All counties and cities within them have areas that are run-down, have problems with crime and poorer performing schools. There are probably parts of PG that are nicer than parts of Montgomery, Fairfax or other counties.

Yea, I used the "pristine utopia" thing in a sarcastic way. But you're right. These counties like Montgomery & Fairfax generally have good reputations, while PG doesn't. Yet certain areas in these counties have their share of bad areas, while parts of PG are nicer than in comparison.

[live_strong28]

Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

You tell me -- you usually have the answer. Something about blacks being more violent or unruly, I assume.

If you don't have the answer, then don't pretend that you do.

[SteelCityRising]

Wow! Sorry to have caused such hostility! I am honestly still trying to get fully acquainted with the ENTIRE metropolitan area (or the "DMV" as I hear on the radio), and yes, that includes my fine neighbors to the north and east in Maryland, where, due to time constraints, I don't get to spend much time exploring. I'm becoming depressed looking at the over-inflated housing prices here in NoVA (as a single person I couldn't care less about paying $200,000 more for a house in a good school "pyramid"), so when I look across the state line and see modest homes that I potentially could afford as a single professional earning about $90,000 I want to know all of the "ins" and "outs." Just from studying this forum I learned there ARE some good pockets of Prince George's County (i.e. the ones I referenced earlier like Hyattsville, Greenbelt, National Harbor, etc.) However, I was just wondering what is currently causing Prince George's County to be the red-headed stepchild of the metro area so I can see if investing here in about a decade might be a wise or FOOLISH decision. Here in NoVA childless single people who want to buy someday are faced with an unfairly high housing market, driven up by fierce competition from parents in bidding wars over the most posh schools. If I could buy my dream home in Prince George's County---2 BR, 1 BA, 1,100 square feet, tiny lot---then I'd want to know what I'd be getting myself into.

Yes, I knew it is a very heavily African-American county ahead of time (one of my clues is that my favorite hip-hop radio stations is "95.5 PGC", which I presume stands for Prince George's County). However, living in a diverse area is a NON-issue for me, assuming I don't experience reverse-racism from blacks thinking I'm a typical white yuppie trying to drive up their cost-of-living (as has happened in a good chunk of the District through gentrification). Yes, I know this is a touchy subject, but my point here wasn't to troll. I'm just looking to open discussion to see if Prince George's County's low housing prices should be considered a "bargain" or a "slum." Sorry to have offended! SHEESH!

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by live_strong28

I'm going to feed the troll and reply to this response.

If you're giving Hornsby credit for anything, you're really stretching it.

All Hornsby did was get rid of the system's higher level institutional memory. And take bribes.

Deasy was padding his resume. The last decent Superintendent we had was Jerome Clark and the School Board shoved him off the gangplank. Jury is still out on Hite.