- JUTP has a competitor: it's District 4 Councilmember Nancy Navarro, whose new blog The District 411 beat us to mentioning the City Paper's mention of a new restaurant in Sandy Spring called Urban Bar-B-Que. This will be the local chain's first branch in District 4, joining current locations in Rockville and Hillandale. No word yet on whether the Councilmember will do interviews of Montgomery County Councilmembers.
- Now that the ICC is inching towards completion, talk's gone from fighting the highway to what it'll be like driving it. Those who live near Georgia and Norbeck, where the ICC's first phase will belch traffic onto local roads before the remaining four phases open in 2012, literally fear for their lives. Leisure World residents are scared that "that backups will entangle ambulances between their retirement community and Montgomery General Hospital in Olney," writes Post reporter Katherine Shaver.
Update: the Maryland Transportation Authority released their toll estimates for the highway, saying it'll be up to 35cents/mile during rush hour and 30 cents/mile the rest of the time. That's about $6.58 to drive the 18.8-mile road from end to end.
- Someone needs to lighten up: a "local farmers' market" (we're guessing Kensington) refused to let Snoburbia sell their t-shirts satirizing life in affluent communities like Kensington, Bethesda or Potomac. Have they considered setting up a booth in the satire-tolerant Fenton Street Market?
- Tomorrow, the Urban Land Institute talks about how to revive the Wheaton CBD at 5pm, followed by a presentation at 7pm of plans to build a mixed-use complex atop the Safeway at Georgia and Reedie similar to the CityVista project in the District. Both of those meetings are at the Crossway Community Center at 3015 Upton Drive in Kensington.
- In case you missed it: swing by Greater Greater Washington for a (edited and condensed) re-cap of our series on a controversial affordable housing proposal in White Oak.
2 comments:
Dan, both Cary Lamari and myself can attest to the immense traffic snarls at the failing intersection at MD-28 and MD-97.
Norbeck Road east of Georgia Avenue was never designed for the volume of traffic it now carries. It is a very old and very solid roadbed, but it's only two lanes wide.
Yet it's arguable that the ICC will dump much more traffic, in aggregate, onto this failing intersection. Indeed, much of the traffic will simply be changing routes, moving onto a fast and fairly capacious limited-access toll road rather than oversaturating the unlimited-access MD-28 and a variety of streets which were engineered as residential/farm-market roads yet which are saturated as arterials (Emory Lane, Muncaster Mill Road, Snouffer School Road, etc.).
Additionally, probably the majority of traffic at the Norbeck-Georgia intersection is traffic to and from Olney and vicinity, and as they enter and exit the ICC north of the failing intersection, there may be significant relief at that intersection... except, perhaps, at peak hours.
It's clear that regardless of how or when the ICC opens, there will be significant traffic pattern shifts.
They'll be even worse when the re-engineering of MD-29+MD-97 is done and actual construction begins.
Selling satirical t-shirts at a farmers mkt makes as much sense as putting out honey ham order forms at a bridal shop or airplant parts at a daycare center. Find a more appropriate venue and respect that local businesses are trying to create a brand, nice atmosphere, and consistent shopping experience to keep their customers coming back.
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