By Adam Pagnucco.
Below are the top ten stories on Montgomery Perspective in December 2024, ranked by page views.
1. Hatfields and McCoys: The Sorry White’s Ferry Saga
2. Police Department Could Lose Almost Ten Percent of its Officers Next Year
3. MCPS’s Troubling Literacy and Math Scores
4. Police Chief Calls Out the Council
5. Taylor Explains the Boundary Study
6. How Exposed is MoCo to Trump?
7. County Revenues Are Up. Why Do We Need a Tax Hike?
9. Will the Council Let the Milk Spoil?
10. Teachers Union Supports Limits on Cell Phones, Huge Increase in School Board Pay
MCPS and the police department are reliable page view generators on this site, but so is the annual White’s Ferry post. We have printed guest statements on the failure of White’s Ferry to reopen in early January 2023 and the end of December 2023. Both did well with the latter finishing first in its month. This is all too regular, especially for the residents and businesses who once depended on that ferry.
To put this transportation problem in perspective, check out the Google Map of the White’s Ferry site below. The ferry offered easy access to Loudoun County, northern Fairfax and Dulles Airport. Travelers from those areas also had quick access to Western Montgomery County. Without it, people on the Maryland side must either travel 17 miles north to the Point of Rocks Bridge or 30 miles south to the American Legion Bridge with more distance to ultimate travel destinations.
It’s not a local transportation issue, it’s a regional one. It’s also an environmental problem because of added auto emissions.
If this transportation facility was a road, a rail line or a bus route, it would not have been allowed to languish unused for four years. But the complexities of negotiations involving multiple private and governmental entities have so far failed. Will we be seeing a post on five years without White’s Ferry in twelve months? We shall see.
On to the new year!