- The Silverdocs documentary film festival continues this week, of course, though I admit I've been too preoccupied to make my fourth attempt at actually seeing a film this year. (This week is also the start of summer for Montgomery County Public Schools, and I have been drafted to babysit my ten-year-old brother.) I feel quite honored, though, that even big Washington blogs like DCist are actually coming here (to suburban Maryland!) to file accounts of the movies shown and the goings-on.
- And, speaking of summer break: all across East County we'll be thrown back into the yearly debate about idle kids and bad behavior on Ellsworth Drive and other local hangouts. Two recent blog posts illustrate the differing schools of thought on how to keep kids safe and occupied.
Up in HoCo, the answer is structured activity. The Howard County Police Department will introduce a roving trailer that Columbia Talk calls the "rolling playground," filled with sports equipment and video games, that will rotate between different neighborhood throughout the summer. "It will provide positive options for youth in their own neighborhoods – and in locations where crime tends to increase in the summer," writes blogger Don Beyers. Meanwhile, Steve at Greater Greater Washington argues that the biggest summertime danger is teen driving, and that creating more pedestrian- and transit-accessible places like Ellsworth could prevent fatal car crashes like the one that killed his teenage niece.
- Silver Spring, Singular explores the history of the Luau Hut, a former tiki bar at Ramsey and Wayne that once was the epicenter of a local music scene in the 1960's. (Of course, there still is a music scene in East County, but one that has little to do with misappopriated Hawaiian culture.)
- You know what's great about Bethesda? Not only that your house number can be considered a "quality of life issue," but that the Post will send a local reporter (one who ideally has more important things to write about, but maybe not) to listen to your sob story about it. I think we're already experiencing that loss in reporting quality ombudsman Andrew Alexander was worried about.
1 comment:
I personally LOVED that WaPo article on street # changes. I think the reporter digginginto did a great job - only thing I wish they had done more was compare how other jurisdictions handle it. My suspicion is MoCo is doing it ina most arrogant, high-handed way -- no big surprise. This is yet another symptom of how the MoCo govt treats its customers - we taxpayers.
As someone who has invested of $s in business cards, etc. a street number change would cost mucho bucks and be quite a headache. Not only is it a quality of life issue, it can be a small and home office business killer.
Back when I worked at 8300 Colesville - we got a note saying we are now 8330 Colesville. It cost our association thousands in reprinting - not to mention all the preprinted envelopes, stationery, etc. that had to be discarded - talk about waste! We reminded our members in ever y format and communication vehicle we had -- spent more thousands on a separate postcard mailing to inform them of the MINOR change (same place, new #). We had 6 mos of forwarding but human nature does NOT work on a 6 mo. time-frame,it works on an annual one, and I know the association's dues renewal process suffered a certain % loss that year.
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