[RP TownTalk] Untamed Property

[Jeffrey Yorke]

My friend Gerald,

Daniel Boone, the famous frontiersman and American folk hero, was also a
land speculator. By the time he was 65, Boone was washed up in real estate
and complained that he had too many neighbors in Kentucky. He moved to
eastern Missouri in 1800 where he lived another 20 years. (Actually, after
the Budweiser sale to a Belgium firm a few years ago, I hear that St. Louis
is pretty-much a ghost town -- no rush hour! The brew is still made there
but all of the decision-makers, marketing team are gone.)

Point is, nothing lasts forever.

And, to call the Cafritz clan "speculators" is a stretch. They have owned
the property since the mid-1940s. (During the second World War, the place
was a neighborhood of government-built shanties, housing those broken by the
Great Depression. Anyway do we really think the Cafritz family should be
forced to keep their property green so we'd all have nice drive? If that's
what you're looking for, consider gassing up for a drive down the B-W
Parkway, the G-W Parkway, or the stunning Blue Ridge Parkway.

Andy why shouldn't the avenues to the nation's capital be lined with
thriving commercial enterprises? Don't we want to be vibrant with a strong
working/middle class? Why not let the businesses of America risk their dough
to make money and provide a better economy?

As far as asking the government buying property and turning it into parkland
-- NUTS!  It's already done. Skyline Drive, Greenbelt State Park, Grand
Canyon National Park, Bryce and on and on. (Haven't we spent enough on that
huge U.S. Capitol Building five miles away where NOTHING seems to get
done!)

Remember New York Tribune publisher Horace Greeley's advice in an 1865
editorial: "go West, young man."

Actually that is paraphrased. The entire quote is even more on target today
than ever before:

*"Washington is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad,
the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go
West and grow up with the country."*
Best,

Jeffrey

On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 8:50 PM, <gerald at geraldking.com> wrote:

> 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
>
>
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-- 
Jeffrey Yorke
Yorke Property Management, Inc.
Yorke Partners
Jeffrey at YorkeRents.com
301-502-1243
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