Friday, January 11, 2008

east county in review: across the blogiverse

Blogs about blogs seem like a silly idea. But the Silver Spring Blogging Collective (as I like to call it) has been buzzing over the past couple of weeks. What's happening Up The . . . Blogiverse? Let's find out:

- Four Corners resident and parent Jessica has started aparentinsilverspring, an endeavor she hopes will "provide a fun, free and accessible resource for parents of little kids in Silver Spring, Maryland." Whether or not you have kids, you'll want to check out the giant "Activities" calendar at the top of her homepage. Follow it and your kids will have a full schedule until they turn 18.

- Adam Pagnucco, who's been writing guest blogs for JUTP since we were born, has landed a full-bloggership at Maryland Politics Watch. Highlights of Adam's brief tenure at MPW include "The Baroness of Montgomery," a satire of District 18 shenanigans, and a four-part series on Wheaton co-written with his wife Holly Olson, who sat on the Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee.

- S. and Sparow of Down By The River, the only other blog hailing from Up The Pike, have moved to Rockville. I don't know how I missed their goodbye post two months ago in which S. says "the eastern most part of MoCo is so utterly fucked that we can't take it anymore."

While I don't think this area is as bad as they make it out to be - after all, I grew up here - the fact is that many people do leave East County searching for better schools, safer streets, etc. Many of my high school friends' families have already moved away. The east side has to become competitive with Rockville and the rest of Montgomery County, and it's as much a battle of test scores and crime rates as it is one of perception. People have to believe East County is a good place to live. And even if S. and Sparow decided not to say here, I think leaving only drives home their point that we have a long way to go.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks man.

Anonymous said...

I ran accross that "goodbye post" a few weeks ago too. It made me very sad. I also grew up in what I now call "greater Silver Spring","out 29" or "just up the pike". We lived in the Stonecrest Subdivision just off Old Columbia Pike on Musgrove Road. It is still an area where most of the lots and houses are much BIGGER (and newer)than you can get for your money in "close in", inside beltway areas of Silver Spring.

Adam Pagnucco said...

Regardless of where I write now, I remain a hard-core JUTP addict. No morning coffee is complete without reading up on the latest from Dan.