what's up the pike: snow day?

It's the bottom two prices that were vandalized, not the top.

So it finally came, y'all. I usually write these entries the night before, so hopefully when you're reading this, there's eight inches of snow on the ground and my ten-year-old brother is still in his boxers watching Chowder. (Best. Show. Ever.) Anyway, here's a look at what's happening in East County:

- Gas prices are usually higher over in Bethesda. But today at the Exxon at Wisconsin and 410, the cost of a gallon of regular has already hit a peak . . . for Summer 2014. Definitely a time to start learning how to ride that hover-skateboard.

- At one point, everyone thinks to themselves, "If I ran this place, things would be way different." Reader Mortis Olaf, meanwhile, actually came up with a plan for how he'd improve Downtown Silver Spring. He left a comment on last Thursday's post about locating a school in Downtown Silver Spring, saying that was exactly what he'd like to see happen to the lot behind the Civic Building (where, many many years ago, the Ellsworth Condos were once proposed).


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It looks like a good plan - fill in all of the empty parking lots, start pushing for higher density, because you're not moving to Silver Spring for easy driving. I don't know if I agree with building over Jesup Blair Park, though, Kind of like having a big park around, though it's certainly not used as much as it should be.

- After a few weeks dicking around with houses in D.C., Michael and Nora - the couple from Slate Magazine writing a blog about their search for a new home - finally came back to Silver Spring and asked why their Realtor refused to tell them what school district a house was in. My mother, a Realtor at Long and Foster in Burtonsville, explains to me that the agent would be liable for any inaccurate information she gave, so most direct potential buyers to the school district.

More importantly, though, it's a way of potentially making a sale: Michael and Nora's wrong impression of the schools serving another house in Silver Spring made them reconsider. But, of course, the joke's on them, because all the homes they've looked at on the east side have all been within the Downcounty Consortium. It's very, very exciting to have real estate porn take place in our backyard. Here's hoping their lack of good information keeps them searching for a long time.