Cars and Crabs That’s What Maryland Does
Today is the lovely day known as Valentine’s Day also known as Singles Awareness Day. Now what does a day of cupid, roses and messaged hard candies have to do with ICC? Well my friends today my mother sent me a Valentine’s Day package from home, yes home. It’s weird to think that while I am up here in Pittsburgh my little town of Gaithersburg still grows and changes without me. Last time I went home a plot of land that had been vacant since i was born now contains about 12 townhouses with garages and I’m telling you this land was not the big to begin with and yet it now has the capability of adding 24 new cars to the road. Next time I go home I expect even more houses to be built in the vacant land that surrounds my house. Montgomery County is growing so fast that the ICC seems inevitable. How else will we be able to relieve the congestion of the county? but that is exactly what no one seems to be focusing on the how else.
Alternatives:
The Purple Line : a Metro line that would side saddle the Capital Beltway and connect Bethesda, Silver Spring and College Park.
or
If the ICC goes through Maryland Department of Transportation could devote at least two lanes to public transportation i.e. buses, shuttle and carpools. This would lower the amounts of people on the road and would keep traffic at a tolerable pace.
ALTERNATIVES DO EXIST!
picture the ICC
image courtesy of washingtonpost.com
I think it is very important for everyone to see the big picture with this project. It is so easy for Maryland residents to only be concerned with how the ICC is affecting their area when really is a problem for many. The image is useful because it clearly defines where the ICC is going to located, it denotes that major parks and waterways it will effect and it shows that Maryland already has an extensive network of roads already in place. This image may be difficult to people not from Maryland just because they cant exactly place the location but the overview located in the lefthand corner can help with that and it may also look like in this map that the ICC isnt going through many places because it does not show individual neighborhoods.
photo courtesy of real people.
This a picture of a house that had to knocked down in Derwood, Maryland to make room for the ICC. This image along with the site that it came from all help to bring the ICC home. It shows that the ICC is uprooting people who may have lived in these houses for years but have no choice but to move. This image could be disregarded because it does not show the surrounding areas not does it show what the house looked like before.
Their are also several images i would like to use from Maryland’s Department of Transportation’s website about the project. However i am unable to bring them directly to this site thus why i have posted a link. This images are Maryland’s way of shining a good light on the ICC something they wouldn’t have to do if people didnt still need convincing on the project.
ICC Tree Removal
Writing about this project has left me discouraged. Having to prove this is a problem through analyzing numbers and articles makes it seem like less of a problem which is something i strongly disagree with. Searching for inspiration i found this video on youtube of trees being cut down only feet away from a resident’s home in Derwood Maryland. Although this video is disparaging it has re-sparked my interest in informing people about the horrors of the ICC.
Extra, Extra Read All About the ICC!!!
The next form of risk communication we are going to address are press releases. How is the media going to find about our little ICC? Perusing the Washington Post Online I found several articles that discuss the ICC, most were not positive.
Opponents Want Legislature to Halt Construction
and some were:
Lawmakers Shave More From Funds Designated for Intercounty Connector
Looking at these articles allowed me to brain storm what other news stories could surround the ICC and would be important in informing residents of it’s risk? Here’s what I came up with:
- protests from Maryland college students : This would be a positive rhetorical situation bringing attention to the ICC through a dramatic situation that the cameras would love.
-Species becoming endangered because of environmental effects: Run off from construction sites are creeping into Maryland water system with nothing to block the. This puts native animals at risk because they are not used to chemical inbalances
-air quality dangers: If the ICC goes through that means many many more cars on the road. Cars that will release harful gases such as carbon dioxide and air clogging particulates.
-residents losing homes and land unfairly: Residents are not being compensated fairly for land that the state of Maryland is taking to make room for the ICC.
Break it Down
Here’s the problem in, simple terms:
(A) Residents of Montgomery and Prince George’s County want a solution to traffic congestion around the area but (B)the proposed solution, an eight lane highway called the Intercounty Connector will destroy the environment and residential areas even though alternatives exist.
The “How To”
Our recent reading for class is a how to on risk communication. The article takes risk communication and breaks down several of it methodologies and then applies them to the examples of risk communicating about the West Nile virus in 1999 and 2000 and a possible bio-terrorism event. I thought it was interesting how the article decides to use examples of risk communication that are pretty extreme. The examples that dealt with the risk communication involved with an environmental issue, that doesn’t directly put peoples’ lives at stake, could have made the article more useful. The most important part of the article is the section on establishing trust and credibility. Without those two concepts a person could stand on any old soapbox and voice their opinion ad the information would go through one ear and out the other.
Now you maybe thinking “But this blog kind of resembles a soap box. Some girl has just decided to dedicate a whole website to a single issue and post whatever she feels is relevant.” The key word here is relevant. The ICC is a current issue so any attention iIcan bring to it i.e. through my blog is good attention. Maryland residents need to be aware of what decisions are being made about the ICC because these decisions will affect everything from their schools, backyards and jobs. If I as a credible Maryland citizen, who lives within miles of I-370, can bring the ICC to one person then this blog is doing it’s job.
We Takin’ Over…
and a blog blog here and a blog blog there every where blog blog old McDonald had a blog eeeyi eeeyi ooohhh
The two articles we had to read for class today when simply put stated that blogs are taking over. They dictate what news makes it mainstream, who people interact with, how fast we get our information. They have even come to help us identify who we are. Forget the days when little Suzie took her pink glitter pen and scribbled down her crushes and life’s woes in her my Little Pony diary. Now little Suzie is propped up in her bed with her laptop and spilling her deepest secrets to anyone who can read on the Internet. I cannot act like i don’t support blogs for I myself had one in 9th grade on the infamous Xanga and boy what a blog it was. I used code upon code upon to decorate and would update it almost daily with my thoughts and feelings. However after reading these articles I now realize my blog was insignificant. I did not have a blog roll, my political views were how I felt about upcoming high school elections and no one was citing my site. Mlittle blog was a plebe in the bigger blogging community.
The article that struck me the most was the one on health information and blogging. This article brought to my attention to the fact that we live in a world that appreciates our privacy so much that we don’t go to the doctors to even seek medical advice and we “find ourselves” through the intimacies we share with complete strangers. If I met Billy Joe at the corner of Forbes and Bigelow all we would exchange is maybe an awkward glances but if i met Billy Joe on his blog I would know he is a 22 year old man suffering from a drug addiction and a love of cats. This all seems so strange to me that we can be so open just because we have a computer screen to protect us. The keyboard is mightier then the sword.
Tell Me, Where’d You’d Get Your Info From?
For this project I decided to focus on the issue of the Intercounty Connector (ICC) being built in my county back home in Maryland. Their are many issues that surround it so I think it will be easiest to discuss in regards to risk communication. Most of my research will be focused online since I will be looking at newspapers and magazine articles that are from Maryland/D.C area that I may not be able to access in Pennsylvania.
Websites:
http://www.iccproject.com/
This is one of the main websites i will be working off of. This is where i will get the view of those who want the project to go through along with background info that i may not be aware of
http://www.sierraclub.org/dc/sprawl/maryland/intercounty-connector.html
The sierra club focuses a lot on the environmental issues that surround the ICC which is a lot. Here i can find alternatives to the project and how wildlife will be affected.
I will also be using online databases of the Washington Post and Gaithersburg Gazette. I hope to find interivews of concerned citizens in these articles.
Unfortunately, on the book front I have come up dry.because this is such a Maryland based problem and I am in Pennsylvania. I did find one book about intercounty commuting in Kentucky that I could read to compare/see what problems can develop from interounty roads.
Good Things Come in Threes
Brainstorming: an issue…any issue that affects the world and creates a risk situation. This shouldn’t be too hard but you would be surprised…this is what I’ve got so far:
Obesity: we are constantly bombarded with commercials and adds that peak are interest in food, should healthcare cover the costs of people getting gastric bypass when they are the one putting the food in our mouths?
Immigration: Is it wrong for us to keep America just for Americans? Take way job from potential hard workers? but yet they are doing the jobs that no one else wants to do…
Sexual Activity of Minors: More and more shows have taken sex to the extreme (private practice, gossip girls) and the sexual activity of kids under the age of 16 has increased. Younger generations no more about sex then I did when I was their age and I’m not
