By Adam Pagnucco.
Welcome to the second interview in the history of Montgomery Perspective. (The first was with Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman.) Today’s subject is the funniest man in MoCo politics, Eric Saul.
Eric is the founder of the Takoma Torch, a parody site established in 2019 which feels like it has been around much longer. To get a sense of what Eric does, check out his comparison of the planning board to The Wire, his estimates of Republican candidate success in MoCo, his claim that the new library in Chevy Chase bans books on high-rise affordable housing and his latest creation, beloved anti-development mascot Nimbee.
Eric’s contribution to the county is not limited to the Torch. He is also an architect with insights into county development policies and he served as the treasurer of the Affordable Maryland PAC, a Super PAC that attempted to take down County Executive Marc Elrich. Like Nimbee, Eric Saul creates a lot of buzz.
Now to our questions and his answers!
Q: Why did you start the Takoma Torch?
I hope that other people find Takoma Park to be the absolutely fascinating, crazy, hilarious, and wonderful city that I do. Having lived and worked here for over 15 years, I sadistically enjoy the endless listserv fights over petty grievances, like new sidewalks and dog poop bagging etiquette, and I just can’t help but shine a humorous light on all of it.
People that have known me for a long time know that I’m also very interested in politics and like to raise awareness of issues that I care about. In the past, I’d highlight these issues on my social media accounts and try to make my posts humorous, entertaining, and, of course, provocative. Turning those posts more specifically into political satire just fit my style and interests. So when Takoma Park narrowly escaped a decade long civil war over the proposal to build a 2-story building on a parking lot, I couldn’t resist pointing out the ridiculousness of the whole thing and decided to do it in the style of a news article. And the rest is history, I guess.
But all of this was completely accidental. After 400 articles, I still don’t consider myself a writer, and, to be honest, I actually hate writing. Even though I’m a Late Millennial/Early Gen Xer that stares at computer and phone screens all day, I still prefer talking to people in person or on the phone rather than texting or emailing. It’s a much better way to communicate. So the success of the Takoma Torch has been unexpected and absolutely amazing, and I’m having so much fun with it. I truly would do this full time if it paid the bills, especially if I could pay the many friends that have been so helpful in its success.
Q: Tell us the top three funniest and/or wildest stories connected to the Torch.
1. OlneyFans. This is definitely the story that lifted our status to new heights. In short, it was an article about subscribers of the famous porn site OnlyFans being confused by a local baseball team’s new “OlneyFans” page. I received a cease and desist letter from the team, which led to me posting a sarcastic Twitter response to their lawyer that went viral. A well known lawyer in L.A. heard the story and helped find a local lawyer in Bethesda willing to help me pro-bono. I never thought that out of all the bold things I’ve written, THIS would be the one that got me into trouble. And, ultimately, it was fine because satire is protected speech, but it was quite an experience.
2. The creation of Nimbee. Nimbee is a satirical bee mascot representing the “Not in My Backyard” (NIMBY) activists that are adamantly opposed to all local development. Instead of arguing and fighting with people, though, Nimbee is a friendly, huggable creature who doesn’t speak but shows up to make his passion for 1950s-style urban planning known through signs, dancing and other antics. In just a few months, Nimbee has amassed a national following on social media and made numerous appearances around the county. I love taking Nimbee and his beekeeper, Han. E. Combs, out and seeing people’s reactions. We’ve even gotten requests for Nimbee to travel to other states to attend their local planning board hearings.
3. Being interviewed on the Kojo Nnamdi Show. In an area that is home to thousands of smart, interesting and powerful people, it’s amazing to think that a random guy writing dumb jokes about small town issues somehow managed to get 30 minutes of time on Kojo’s legendary show.
Q: You’re a residential architect in your day job. How does building in MoCo compare to building projects in other parts of the area?
With all the fun I have playing baseball, writing Torch articles, and causing trouble, I often forget that I have a real job, even though it’s one that I love. My mom says that I wanted to be an architect ever since I was 10 years old. I actually wanted to play 1st base for the San Francisco Giants, but architecture was a solid back-up choice.
I started my business more than 15 years ago, and it focuses on single-family residential additions and custom homes. I used to design small commercial projects (including Cielo Rojo, Takoma Bev Co, and Seoul Food right here in Takoma Park), but I recently decided to limit my work to single-family residential only because the process in Montgomery County for projects like commercial spaces or multi-family housing have become too unnecessarily burdensome.
For the vast majority of single-family projects, no matter how massive they are, there are no requirements to obtain a neighbor’s input, attend public hearings, provide numerous impact studies, or engage in years of design tweaks in an attempt to please people other than just your client. Public input is important for land use decisions, but at some point it ceases to be useful and becomes actively harmful instead. We create paralysis by analysis, and that’s why a lot of developers, architects, and engineers (especially those that are small businesses like mine) look elsewhere to conduct business. It’s a real problem.
I also believe it doesn’t help that our county executive, Marc Elrich, works so hard to fight against larger, multi-family development. I think Marc Elrich is a good person with decent intentions, but, sadly, he’s allowed his hatred of developers to cloud his judgment. I wish he saw working with developers and other housing experts as an asset rather than a liability, because it would help him achieve his goals of building more affordable housing. And if he made it easier to build in this county, more building would be done by small businesses and other entities beyond the huge corporations that are the only ones who can afford to navigate the system right now. But at a time of crisis when people are struggling to live here, he remains stubbornly unwilling to modernize his views. He championed a building moratorium at a time when the county was in need of thousands of new housing units, and now we are seeing the negative impact of that decision. He calls himself a “progressive,” but he repeatedly sides with white, wealthy million dollar homeowners who hate development rather than embracing smart development policies supported by progressives like Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
I think Montgomery County should take bolder actions when it comes to multi-family and commercial developments near transit. All over the country, there are housing shortages in high-opportunity areas, and Montgomery County could become a model for fixing it. We simply are not building enough housing here, and that scarcity is why we are seeing costs skyrocket.
Our zoning laws need reform. Montgomery County is not the low population suburb it used to be. We added 300,000 people here since we last updated our General Plan 30 years ago, and we know we can’t continue down the path of more suburban sprawl. Doing so will damage the environment, put even more pressure on resources like the agriculture reserve, worsen traffic and continue driving up housing prices so that teachers, firefighters, young people, the elderly and other groups will no longer be able to live here.
I think we should act more like DC and Virginia, both of whom have much faster speeds and approval processes for development than MoCo. Those jurisdictions have the same desirable land values and demographics as Montgomery County, yet they’ve made real progress on big issues while we seem to still be stuck on baby steps, like allowing simple little backyard cottages. As an architect, it’s frustrating to hear colleagues of mine in other jurisdictions tell me how much easier it is to build there.
Even Marc Elrich laughs at Nimbee. Credit: Nimbee’s Twitter account.
Q: You were the treasurer for Affordable Maryland PAC, the Super PAC that targeted Marc Elrich in this year’s county executive primary. Tell us the story of how you got involved with that group.
This is by far the most controversial thing I have ever done, though I didn’t realize that would be the case when I signed on. In today’s political times, just being associated with a Political Action Committee makes people think you are rich and evil, especially if your committee is promoting housing and construction. I’ve been repeatedly called a “developer shill” even though I have never been on any developer’s payroll, nor have I received a single dime of any kind for my work with Affordable Maryland PAC. The truth is, I just care passionately about affordable housing, and I don’t think Marc Elrich was even close to the best candidate on that issue.
The reason I care so much is because I grew up extremely poor. I know what it’s like to never feel part of a community because you‘re constantly moving in search of a more affordable place to live. I witnessed the stress it put on my single mother, relying on inefficient, underfunded public transportation to get to work far away from our one bedroom apartment, and being too exhausted at the end of the day to cook us a healthy meal. I know what it’s like to stand in the “poor kids” lunch line and be given a noticeably different meal than the other kids. Sometimes I think my interest in architecture happened due to not having a home of our own for so long and dreaming about what I would want my house to look like.
So when the President of the Affordable Maryland PAC, Adam Jentleson, reached out to me, I jumped at the opportunity to work on this issue. I had known Adam for a few years, and I knew that what he was working on was important and that I wanted to be a part of it. What I didn’t know was that the treasurer of a PAC has his or her name cited in all the TV ads and, as such, becomes the person that everyone associates with that PAC. I didn’t plan for some political friends distancing themselves from me or receiving unsolicited emails and threats to boycott my business or personal attacks against a straw man version of me on social media. I’ll be honest, those few months provided a real lesson in having thicker skin.
But I don’t regret any of it. Among the negativity and slander also came an unexpected outpouring of support from many people who truly appreciated what we did and understood why we were doing it. At a minimum, I gained a few Twitter followers. Some people are always going to believe I’m some uber wealthy, Koch-style billionaire just because I’m associated with a PAC. I find it entertaining. When you’ve been made fun of your whole life for being poor, being made fun of for being “rich” isn’t really the burn people think it is.
Q: Will Affordable Maryland PAC come back in the next election?
Ultimately, I’ll follow Adam Jentleson’s lead on that. But based on the success of our ads, I hope the answer is yes. There is clear evidence that once our ads hit the air, Elrich’s favorability plummeted and his double digit lead in the primary turned into a neck-and-neck tie. We also know that our ads worked because he completely changed the focus of his campaign to affordable housing in the final weeks because he could see that was an area he was really struggling in.
I think we proved that a YIMBY (Yes in My Backyard) message resonates with people and that many voters had reservations about supporting a candidate that was so opposed to everything. I hope our experience encourages more pro-density candidates to run with less fear of the inevitable backlash from the loudest, whitest, wealthiest voices that tend to dominate public discourse simply because they have the resources to do so. I feel our PAC set an example that a YIMBY agenda is compelling to voters and can compete toe-to-tie with the NIMBY forces.
Q: You’re clearly more than a comedian. Would you ever consider running for office?
That’s a good joke, Adam! In all seriousness, there was a time, maybe 4-5 years ago, when I considered it. Fresh off running a satirical campaign against Comptroller Peter Franchot as a write-in candidate for “Computer Troller of Maryland,” I was shocked to hear how many people around Takoma Park told me they actually wrote me in on their ballots. Even more shocking was people asking me when I really planned to run for office. I’m not going to lie, I was flattered, and it made me truly consider it even though it wasn’t something I’d ever really wanted.
But I’ve gotten to know and befriend a few local politicians around here, and I’ve seen the really unpleasant parts of that job: attending endless events, having to constantly ask people for money, getting unfairly attacked on social media, etc. And I realized that is something I absolutely never, ever, ever want to do. Ever. Don’t get me wrong, I have tremendous respect for everyone who holds office or runs for office (well, not everyone, but you know what I mean). It’s hard putting yourself out there and inviting the public to weigh in on your ideas and points of view. It’s not for the faint of heart, and I respect people who are willing to go through that in order to do some good for the rest of us.
Q: Last question. I’m dying to get an interview with Nimbee. Do you know how to reach him and do you think he would cooperate?
I can talk to Nimbee’s people and have them talk to your people. He’s a real busy bee these days, but I know, for you Adam, he would love to do it. Just don’t let that adorable, vacuous face fool you. He has a bit of a temper, especially around YIMBYs.