Wednesday, December 23, 2009

what's up the pike: happy christmas eve eve

new hampshire is van buren
- Colesville just can't catch a break. Over a month after it switched places with a town in Ohio on Google Maps, New Hampshire Avenue - which runs through Colesville - now appears as "East Van Buren Street" between the District line and Ednor Road in Ashton. Meanwhile, East Van Burens in Chicago and Phoenix were left untouched.

- Downtown-based biotech company United Therapeutics has appointed Tommy Thompson, former Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bush, to their Board of Directors. You thought seeing Obama at Five Guys was cool? Wait until Tommy Thompson goes to Flippin' Pizza. United Therapeutics is currently building a new headquarters at Cameron and Spring streets, which should be completed in 2011.

- Historical Society president Jerry McCoy writes about Silver Spring Avenue between Fenton and Georgia, a formerly residential block that was basically leveled in the 1960's to build office buildings and a parking lot that remains today. Homes on this street sold for just $7,450 back in the day, Jerry says. Kinda wish I was around then to pick a few up and hold onto them for eighty years or so.

- The Blake Beat, the high school newspaper where yours truly got his start writing way back in 2004, won first place in the Maryland Scholastic Press Association's annual writing and editing contest. Much as I enjoy beating Blair High's Silver Chips, Blake's perennial rival for the #1 spot, I must concede that their website is a surprisingly good source for non-school related East County news. But you also can't read the Silver Chips print version on a computer screen.

- A Prince George's County church will move into an office building in Calverton formerly used by the Newport School, reports the Business Journal. The 8,000-member Reid Temple AME Church, which currently occupies this megasanctuary in Glenn Dale, wants to renovate the 55,000-square-foot space for using it, though for what we're not clear.

They won't be the only house of worship in the neighborhood: a Google search reveals four other churches operating out of converted office buildings on Tech Road and Industrial Parkway.

1 comment:

Gary said...

Hey, I posted that E. Van Buren St/New Hampshire Ave thing on your FB page! I reported it to Google, they said "You're right" but as of now it remains unfixed.