Monday, January 18, 2010

what's up the pike: don't stop believing

Don't Stop Believing (Paint Branch HS)
Happy Martin Luther King Day! If you've got the day off, take some time to think about the reason why you're not at work. And if you're feeling especially generous, check out this website for events across Montgomery County commemorating the life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King, Jr.

- You've probably heard that Rick Santos, who lives in the Oakview neighborhood of Silver Spring, is safe at home after last week's catastrophic earthquake in Haiti left him trapped inside a collapsed hotel for fifty hours. Welcome back! Santos, who works for an international aid group, says he plans to return and help rebuild.

- Silly Washington Post! Who told you Paint Branch High School was built in the 1940's? At least the Burtonsville campus, which opened in 1969, is one of many across MoCo getting lots of money for construction projects, including its long-delayed new building.

- Speaking of Paint Branch: did you know the school was supposed to be named after astronaut John Glenn? So says this nifty PDF and companion Wikipedia article on the school's history, both of which sound like they were written by a bitter civic activist. ("Paint Branch, once a rural high school now deep in the heart of suburban sprawl.")

- Local rapper Phil Adé, who grew up in Silver Spring, now writes his rhymes from New Carrollton, perhaps because the cleaning up of Downtown has sent him seeking a more legitimate 'hood to call home. New Carrollton is best known to Montgomery County residents as the mystical place at the end of the Purple Line they have never been to.

2 comments:

Terry in Silver Spring said...

I've been in and around New Carrollton since I was a kid. Like any other area, there are better and worse parts. Did you know that the Carroll in New Carrollton was Charles Carroll, one of the MD signers of the Declaration of Independence and (I think) the only Catholic to sign. New Carrollton didn't get that name, though, until the 60's when farmland in the area started to change to 'burbs.

Davemurphy said...

And the original "Carrollton" was in Baltimore City. The grand plans for the New Carrollton Transit Center might give the area a nicer reputation, but even now it's not so bad. However for hip-hop artist, anywhere in Prince George's has way more cred than anywhere in MoCo.