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MARYLAND

There Is No Defending Vandalism

After reading the April 3 Metro article "Footprints Help Find Suspected Park Vandals," I felt such outrage over the senseless destruction of a children's playground in St. Mary's County that I had to write. I find it hard to wrap my head around the idea that some people just like to make the rest of us miserable with their vandalism. I have always wondered: Who raises these kinds of people? My question was answered when I read the quote from the father of one of the suspects: "It's been a very unfair process so far. I just think the actions of the police in this town are really very one-sided." Is he serious?

What about the unfairness to the children who no longer can have access to this playground? Are the police supposed to just let it go when people cause $63,000 in damage to public property? It infuriates me when parents don't hold children accountable for their actions and shift focus and blame on others.

-- Tonya Michalik, Germantown

A Blueprint Out of Character

Montgomery County's blueprint for the development of 800 acres in western Gaithersburg ignores the deed of a lifelong resident of the county: Elizabeth Banks. When Banks deeded her cherished Belward Farm, which is within the boundaries of the master plan, to Johns Hopkins University in 1989, she trusted this institution to support her vision for Belward as a research campus.

Banks was a feisty lady who fought to ensure that plans for the property would not include housing and commercial establishments. Preservation of the character of the land, not money, was her motivation. The 138-acre farm, which had been in her family since the late 1800s, was deeded to Johns Hopkins for $5 million, much less than the estimated $40 million that could have been received if the land had been sold to developers.

The deed stated that after her death the land would be used for "agricultural, academic, research and development, delivery of health and medical care and services, or related purposes only." It was not long after Banks passed away in 2005 at the age of 93, and when the plans for the Gaithersburg West Master Plan were underway, that the intent of the deed was ignored. Today, Johns Hopkins and the Montgomery County Park and Planning Commission (MCPPC) are proposing 300 housing units and commercial establishments in Belward.

It is not too late for Johns Hopkins and the MCPPC to maintain the character that Elizabeth Banks intended for Belward.

-- Diane Aronson, North Potomac