WASHINGTON — The executive of Prince George’s County implored the federal government on Friday to consider the transit and geographic benefits of his suburb of D.C. for expansion.
“We’re a perfect location,” County Executive Rushern Baker said on “The Politics Program” with Mark Plotkin. Areas like Greenbelt would be ideal for new federal annexes, with great “land capacity” and Metro access such as the Orange or Green lines that connect to other federal centers downtown.
Prince George’s — the nation’s most affluent minority-black county — is particularly courting an FBI office under an expanding Department of Homeland Security. The county currently has a broad discrepancy between the large number of federal workers living there but very few federal jobs.
“They should stop looking. They should only look in Prince George’s County,” he said.
This comes on the heels of Disney withdrawing from plans to build a huge resort hotel at National Harbor, one of the county’s newest budding developments.
Baker points to the national economy, not recent county scandal, as the true reason behind Disney’s decision to instead invest “a lot of dollars” in China.
“Our indication is it did not have anything to do with Jack Johnson,” Baker says of the former county executive recently sentenced to 87 months for soliciting bribes. “(Disney) got caught up in the economic times.”
Learn more about what the county executive had to say about transit expansion, a potential future for slots and the wake of the Jack and Leslie Johnson scandals by listening to the full audio at right.
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