[RP TownTalk] Untamed Property

[gerald at geraldking.com]

Riverdale’s a nice place to live. Parks, river, historic mansion, trains
and quiet residential neighborhoods. It’s also a suburb of a bureaucratic
metropolis or the Capital of the United States of America.
Along its northern boundaries is the oldest federal highway in the
country-Route One. Ounce a major artery leading into the Capital, it long
ago gave in to commercial interests and offers little of the bucolic
ambiance of the Maryland countryside.
I’ve always enjoyed the small stretch of natural untamed Cafritz property
along Baltimore Boulevard.  It’s a small reprieve from the steadily ever
creeping urbanization of every little patch of our little community.  But
progress always trumps the poet and the dreamer. Mr. Warneck wrote, “why
not have the state/county purchase the Cafritz
Property and set it aside as a park.” Of course the state is broke and
Cafritz must show its stockholders a profit on its long term investment. A
$3 million donation to Montgomery College to help create the Morris &
Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Art Center in downtown Silver Spring trumpets
the Foundation’s image as a philanthropist. All the blue bloods in
Montgomery County must love their cultural benefactor. The rubes in
Riverdale Park should have no delusions about this land speculator. Profit
trumps philanthropy when it comes to PG County and the Cafritz Foundation
like Douglas Properties is first and foremost interested in maximizing
profits. So often we simple folk confuse big money institution with
wanting to improve our lives and enrich our community by investment. I’m
not saying Cafritz or Douglas Jamal are intentionally trying to rape our
community or turn us into a ghetto. It’s just that their philanthropy has
strings and Riverdale doesn’t provide political advantage to makers and
shakers.
I will miss the majestic trees with their greenery and fresh air making
capacities. Perhaps the food grown in greener pastures and sold in my
neighborhood will make the loss of a last vestige of country ambiance
along old Route One more palatable.
Gerald King