Sentinel Interview with the Mayor-Elect Marcuccio
Nov 13, 2009 9:07 - 9 Comments
This week the >Sentinel published an interview with Phyllis Marcuccio entitled Newly-elected Mayor of Rockville hits the ground running. Written by Glynis Kazanjian, the piece asks a dozen questions.
Here are some brief exerpts from the article to give you an idea of some of the topics covered in the interview. As this is a Sentinel article, I can’t reproduce it in it’s entirety but rather can only pass along some quotes. You can read the complete answers from Mayor-elect Marcuccio on their website.
When asked whether the city was running in a deficit, she answered “It depends on how you look at the term deficit.”
As to whether City Manager Scott Ullery will stay in place and if he does, will his job change, she responded, “I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t stay in place.” When discussing his responsibilities, she said “He and I talked very frankly about the fact that maybe he was put in the position of making decisions or recommending through his own initiative, or his staff’s, aspects of our policies that perhaps really belong within the Mayor and Council.”, and also, “ I do not feel there is any necessity to do anything independent of the council. That is inappropriate.”
When asked if she thought the criticisms of Councilman Gajewski were fair during the election she responded, “They weren’t strong enough in my estimation.”
When asked about crime, she said “There are some pockets of problems. Twinbrook has a little bit of edge to it right now, especially when it comes to the immigrants.” and “Because King Farm is one of the newest parts of the city, you would expect it to be squeaky clean and not have any issues. But some of the areas, we made – I think – a blunder by putting some of the low-cost housing in a pocket, the MPDU’s [(moderately priced dwelling units)] that were required when KF was developed. They are in an area and as a result, there is maybe a draw to the area from individuals that are kind of unsavory and they have caused trouble.”
Looking ahead she talks about her dream of a Science Center and a long-term goal of bringing the voice back to the citizens in the decision-making.
For the full article, visit the Sentinel.
Follow on Twitter
“Twinbrook has a little bit of edge to it right now, especially when it comes to the immigrants.” “we made – I think – a blunder by putting some of the low-cost housing in a pocket . . . there is maybe a draw to the area from individuals that are kind of unsavory and they have caused trouble.”I don’t live in Rockville, but comments like this make me very concerned. Is Mayor-elect Marcuccio really connecting immigrants and low-income housing with crime? Am I misreading this?
Thanks Dan. Here’s the entire question and answer:The Sentinel: Rockville doesn’t strike me as city with a major crime problem. Are there any troubles or challenges with the city of Rockville that the general public is unaware of?Marcuccio: There are some pockets of problems. Twinbrook has a little bit of edge to it right now, especially when it comes to the immigrants. There are pockets of different ethnic backgrounds that seem to resent each other. That has caused some problems. Terry Treschuk, our chief of police, can fill you in a lot better than I could. Terry will tell you over and over that there really isn’t a gang problem in Rockville. There are times when gang members come to the city and cause trouble, but as are far as gangs’ locations here, it doesn’t seem to be an issue.The other area where there is a slight problem like that is King Farm, which really is quite fascinating. Because King Farm is one of the newest parts of the city, you would expect it to be squeaky clean and not have any issues. But some of the areas, we made – I think – a blunder by putting some of the low-cost housing in a pocket, the MPDU’s [(moderately priced dwelling units)] that were required when KF was developed. They are in an area and as a result, there is maybe a draw to the area from individuals that are kind of unsavory and they have caused trouble. We had a few incidents that nobody should have to put up with.They’ve even asked for a substation essentially up there, which I don’t think is a bad thing and we ought to think seriously about it if it’s a big enough problem. But I’ll tell you, the basic incidences of crime in the Rockville are really quite small.
Marcuccio’s response regarding the deficit is cryptic at best. My understanding was that Rockville balanced it’s budget, kept a 15% reserve and some additional millions above that. So where is the extra spent money that Marucccio alluded to? Is she talking about spending some of the “extra” reserve? If so, then her take on it seems way too fiscally pessimistic to me.Is she saying we actually dipped into the 15%? To which I wonder, if drastic cuts in State/County funding don’t warrant the tapping of the 15% reserve, what sort of disaster would make using that money okay? Isn’t this the situation? or is the reserve meant as a buffer against defaulting on ones obligations?There is not enough straight information in her answer to make any sense of her position or the fiscal reality of the period she is describing.
Dan – yes and no, it looks like. “Rick Nelson, head of the Department of Housing and Community Affairs, has tried to set the record straight on his agency’s proposals. “The problem of crime and drugs is not endemic to affordable housing,” said Nelson at the meeting in June. “It’s prevalent in communities with a concentration of low-income housing.” This one’s good too, also drawing from the same article on greater greater wash:”As a result, the White Oak development would include market-rate homes and workforce housing aimed at households making less than 120% of the County’s median income, or $120,000 a year, in addition to traditional MPDUs. “-Of course, a quick realistic calculation would reveal that a cop-teacher couple with 10+ years of service in is probably a $150,000 household around here. So they woudn’t qualify. But those are just the folks MPDUs are supposed to be setup for.
Andrew,I actually >wrote the post on Greater Greater you’re quoting. What concerned me was not what Mayor-elect Marcuccio was implying – because I disagree with the sentiment – but the possibility that the newly-elected mayor of one of Maryland’s largest municipalities was equating immigrants and low-income housing with crime. I’m still not convinced that she wasn’t.
I think many people understand what Phyllis was saying even if she maybe didn’t phrase it very nicely.Does low income housing equate crime? No. Is there a correlation, though? You tell me.
Dan, I agree with you, and I fear it is going to be a long two years. This is one time I am glad the council and mayor slots are only for two years.
A quick search found little statistical evidence of a correlation between crime and low income housing. An older study by Roncek, Bell, and Francik (Social Problems, 29(2), 1981) in Cleveland suggested that adjacency to public housing was statistically significant, but very small in magnitude and suggested that other factors were much better predictors of crime. A more recent advocacy piece by the California Dept. of Housing and Community Development (http://www.hcd.ca.gov/hpd/mythsnfacts.pdf) points to Oscar Newman’s Defensible Space Theory, arguing that the design and use of public spaces and sense of ownership are more significant factors affecting crime than density or income levels. An article by Holzman, Kudrick and Voyteck (Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, 2(1), 1996) presents a related view, arguing that disorder, even more than crime, accounts for the poor reputation of public housing.The difficulty in establishing the correlation comes from a difficulty in obtaining data at this level and a lack of good statistical studies. This was discussed in a paper by Holzman and Piper (Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 14(4), 1998) and appears to have led to a 1999 HUD effort to more effectively use GIS data.
The fact is that in King Farm the MPDU’s were clustered in a small area AND were put in their own HOA, which the residents, being low income (for whatever reason), could not financially sustain. The effects of this segregation were so glaring even early on that subsequent Rockville policy is that MPDU’s have to be spread throughout a planned development. In fact, in the 2004 hearings on the Twinbrook Station development, I clearly remember former councilman John Hall extracting a condition from JBG that they would NOT follow the King Farm model of clustering MPDUs in a single area of Twinbrook Station. Does Twinbrook have an “edge”? Yes and no. King Farm has murders where a woman gets her head chopped off by her stalker boyfriend, and a man gets killed by his friend after a gambling deal goes sour. Twinbrook has a murder when an elderly gentleman gets killed by the druggie who rents his basement. Does either situation define King Farm or Twinbrook? I think not.The one element we do have in Twinbrook seems to be visitors from outside who target us. Cases in point – petty burglar with about 30 breakins to his credit who travels to Twinbrook from Olney. Two teenagers – one from Twinbrook and one from White Flint who torch cars in both areas. Gang of 11, 13, and 15 year olds from Wheaton who rob people at knifepoint at the Wheaton and Twinbrook Metro stations. Thes to my mind do not define Twinbrook as a neighborhood of criminals. It does say that we need more police protection.