Friday, February 9, 2007

purple line threatens chevy chase family's livelihood

We've discovered a new loser in the game to build the Purple Line: Chevy Chase resident Amy Kostant, whose start-up business could cease to exist when the light-rail line is finally built:
"While I don’t live directly on the [Capital Crescent] trail, our children play there and I am concerned about accidents should a train run through what is our No. 1 play space. My husband and I commute to the Metro via the trail; we hike, bike and set up lemonade stands on the trail . . ."
I like transit, but first and foremost I am a lemonade enthusiast. Who's gonna make sure this woman and her family doesn't land in the poor house when her lemonade stand is torn down? We need to organize a letter-writing campaign to Martin O'Malley to stop this mis-guided train from ramming through Bethesda and Chevy Chase and destroying what could be suburban Maryland's last chance at a good cup of lemony goodness.

Let's put aside our horrible commutes for a second: Wouldn't you want to be able to pull off East-West Highway and get a cold glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade from Amy Kostant? I definitely would, and I'm sure the legions of Bethesda housekeepers and gardeners who would otherwise be spirited to their workplaces on the Purple Line would appreciate it as well.

17 comments:

Sligo said...

I assume she is referring to her children.

Anonymous said...

Scaaaaaaaathing.
Love it!

Anonymous said...

You really made me laugh with this one. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Bob Fustero, what are you talking about? Prince George's and Montgomery residents will pay for the Purple Line. It is a state project, not a county project.

For a guy who thought he was qualified to be Governor and County Executive, you sure do say some dumb things on line.

Unknown said...

The lemonade salespeople of today will be purpleline riders of tomorrow when the beltway and other roads are increasingly dysfunctional. As for the child entrepreneurs of tomorrow - why can't they sell lemonade along the trail when it is completed alongside the trolley all the way into Silver Spring?

The new theme coming from anti Purple Line activists is galling to anyone familiar with issues facing residents of Prince Georges County who will benefit from the Purple Line. I wish someone from Chevy Chase - with its overheated housing market resulting in teardowns and a complete loss of affordability - would go before an audience of residents in Prince Georges and tell them that they should not support the Purple Line because it might cause their property values to go up!

Anonymous said...

Her children could continue to play on the trail, she and her husband could continue to hike, bike, and citrusly refresh others there, and the good folks of P.G., MoCo, and elsewhere in the state could spend a lot less of their time and money, if the Purple Line was done as PRT (personal rapid transportation) on an elevated maglev guideway instead of slow/costly/noisy/land-consuming Metro.

But hey, if we want to spend lots more money for a slower, more costly, more greenspace-decimating Metro-based extension, we can certainly choose to, right?

Anonymous said...

Rfustero said...

Perhaps the solution would be to encourage all businesses in Silver Spring, and Bethesda to move to Prince Georges County.

This would have the effect of reversing traffic flow on the beltway.

If one checks out the traffic from prince Georges to Montgomery County, I am inclined to wonder whether or not Prince Georges should pay part of the Purple Line- it is their people coming here that will benefit from its construction.

2/09/2007 3:57 PM

RE: What business in Silver Spring and Bethesda???????

I'm not suprised that you didn't say Northern Virginia since 70% of the Marylanders commute there to work.

You people would Raise Pure Hell if most of the businesses fron Northern Virginia(especially Tysons Corner)were to move their Businesses into Montgomery and PG Counties and parts of the B'more region.

Anonymous said...

Terry in Silver Spring said...

I live in Silver Spring and my parents live in PG, so I'm back and forth regularly. Depending on the time and day of the week, I regularly encounter traffic going either direction on the Beltway.

2/09/2007 11:15 PM

RE: Yeah; one direction is heading towards Alexandria and the other is towards Tysons Corner/Reston/Loudon County during the mornings and returning back to Maryland in the evenings.

Anonymous said...

Webb said...

The lemonade salespeople of today will be purpleline riders of tomorrow when the beltway and other roads are increasingly dysfunctional. As for the child entrepreneurs of tomorrow - why can't they sell lemonade along the trail when it is completed alongside the trolley all the way into Silver Spring?

The new theme coming from anti Purple Line activists is galling to anyone familiar with issues facing residents of Prince Georges County who will benefit from the Purple Line. I wish someone from Chevy Chase - with its overheated housing market resulting in teardowns and a complete loss of affordability - would go before an audience of residents in Prince Georges and tell them that they should not support the Purple Line because it might cause their property values to go up!

2/10/2007 12:11 PM

RE: Its no different then you Maryland haters coming from out of state(probably Virginia) to oppose new highways of being built in Maryland.

Richard Layman said...

Are you serious? Why is it that European cities can manage to have light rail right-of-ways with walking and bike paths?

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=12328091&size=o

Even so, this is a ridiculous piece. Maybe I just have no sense of humor.

Dan Reed said...

Just Up The Pike is all about building the Purple Line. I just like having a little fun at the expense of those greedy snots in Chevy Chase.

Seriously, haven't you had some Kostant Lemonade? Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

Anonymous said...

Amy is right. The proposed Purple trolley line will destroy one of the last linear stretches of open space in the region where kids play, people socialize, and others exercise. The downcounty is already deficient in open space and the loss of the Georgetown Branch would be devastating. Unlike the ICC which proposes to replace parkland lost at an 8 to 1 ratio, the Purple Line project does not call for major open space mitigation. If it did they would have to acquire the Columbia Country Club itself, which the Purple Line will destroy.

The solution is to build an underground heavy rail line from Bethesda to College Park. The proposed Purple Line will eventually be extended down to Westbard to accomodate the redevelopment there and will go into sacred trail territory. Its not just people along the line that want to stop this project. A chunk of Bethesda and Silver Spring want an underground Purple Line that tunnels under the trail or along E-W Highway. A line that will not destroy open space that cannot be reclaimed and the peaceful neighborhoods that lie along the path of destruction.

Dan Reed said...

Destruction is far too harsh a word to use for neighborhoods where not a single house will be lost to the Purple Line. Traffic on East-West Highway is destructive to Bethesda neighborhoods, too. You ever tried walking down 410 at rush hour? It's a lot more dangerous than walking next to light-rail trains will. You'll even get a nice buffer between the path and the train.

Anonymous said...

The Purple Line will not destroy Columbia Country Club. About ten years ago, the club's attorney was quoted in the Gazette as saying that light rail would be a disaster because it would require the relocation of the tees on the 15th and 18th holes.

If there is insufficient public green space in the Chevy Chase area, for less than the cost of putting the Purple Line deep underground, we could condemn Columbia Country Club, stop dosing the fairways with high levels of pesticides and allow forest to grow back, and create a wonderful state park.

Anonymous said...

They could afford undergrounding the line in Bethesda and Sivler Spring by cutting the New Carrolton to College Park segment. The who point of this line is to make Bethesda accessible to PG and UMCP accessible to the Montgomery Countians who make up the majority of the student population. Eventually they could build a light rail line to New Carrolton. There is no immediate need for a light rail beltway in this region.

Roger said...

Anonymous said...

"Unlike the ICC which proposes to replace parkland lost at an 8 to 1 ratio, the Purple Line project does not call for major open space mitigation."

I just have to interject here that the parkland replacement associated with the ICC is a joke. If you look at the details of the plan, the new parkland is land that would have been designated as park anyway, even without the ICC. Moreover, the majority of the land is way up-county, far from the ICC, so that anyone who enjoys the parkland that would be lost would be unlikely to visit the new parks. Also, the so-called environmental mitigation is nonexistent, because the new land is in a wholly different watershed from the land that would be lost.

Anonymous said...

Parkland is parkland. There wasn’t any more designated parkland around the ICC to acquire so buying a property that is part of the Green Curtain against the invasion of development into the Agricultural Reserve is perfectly fine. The land was going to be acquired at some point. Now other parkland sites move up the acquisition list.

So will the Purple Line help save the Ag Reserve, construct new athletic fields, or protect drinking water like the ICC will? Nope. It will destroy places for kids to play and for people to exercise. It will lower the quality of life in beautiful quiet neighborhoods in Bethesda and Silver Spring that are the epitome of the American Dream. It is worth it to do all that so that Bethesda can grow higher? Save the trail.