[RP TownTalk] Untamed Property

Mon Jul 25 15:08:09 UTC 2011

What an interesting fantasy you have made up about the history of Riverdale Park. Spoken like a true businessman who doesn't live in the town he craps in.

A history lesson  for those who don't know - 
The so called Cafritz property was originally owned by one of Charles Benidict Calvert's sons. It was called McAlpine. The government commandeered the property for temporary housing during WWII for round the clock employees at ERCO,
 and later it was used as dormitories for returning GI's with families who attended the University of Maryland.
 It was one step above a trailer park. 
The town government of Riverdale was never happy with the  deteriorating  temporary housing. It was finely abandoned and plowed under roughly 12 years after it was built.

The property was purchased in the late 1950's by the Cafritz family at a public auction. The Cafritz's let the Historic McAlpine house to go to ruin, though many attempts were made to save it by the interested public. 

The property  has been sitting empty since 1957. It is filled with mature trees that are at least 54 years old, much older than you Yorke.

Like you Yorke, Carfitz's don't live in Riverdale Park. 

If you love to see more cement, you should be advocating it in your own town, not in ours.

The people of Riverdale Park want to preserve natue and the small town feel that makes this place unique. A place that harkens back to the original raiload suburb built in the late 1800's.

We don't need to help outside poachers, enriching their coffers at the expence of the citizens of our town.

Melissa

From: Jeffrey Yorke <yorkedial at gmail.com>
To: gerald at geraldking.com; TownTalk <>
Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2011 9:32 PM
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Untamed Property

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 YorkeYorke Property Management, Inc.Yorke PartnersJeffrey at YorkeRents.com301-502-1243_______________________________________________TownTalk mailing listTo post to the list, send mail to TownTalk at riverdale-park.orgTownTalk-request@riverdale-park.org is for automated subscription processing onlyhttp://riverdale-park.org/mailman/listinfo/towntalkFor more information about Riverdale Park, visit http://www.riverdaleparkmd.info
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