what's up the pike: living room, dining room

Well, it looks like we're cleaning up after Unusually Large Snowstorm just in time for the weekend. Not only are the federal government and county government open today, but the Red Line is running, as are some or all of the J, Q, S and Z Metrobus lines through Downtown Silver Spring and parts of East County. We're not even going to have snow for a few days! Awesome!

Anyway:

- Reemberto Rodriguez, director of the Silver Spring Regional Services Center, calls the new Civic Building, set to open July 1, "our community’s living room and patio." Read his whole description. We haven't gotten this poetic about public buildings in decades. I do wish my living room had an ice rink, though.

- The Gazette reviews Negril, a Jamaican restaurant in Silver Spring. Hooray for Caribbean food! If you're really jonesin' for it, though, I'd venture to Takoma Park for the Caribbean Market. Ethnic food guru Tyler Cowen recommends Caribbean Palace on New Hampshire Avenue, which means it is probably more authentic than what my mother ate growing up in Guyana.

- Montgomery College could open a satellite campus at the soon-to-be-former Giant in the Burtonsville Crossing shopping center. The supermarket will move across the street to Burtonsville Town Square and can dictate what stores can replace it. Another potential site is at the East County Center for Science and Technology planned for Calverton.

- Adam Pagnucco at Maryland Politics Watch went to Cleveland and came back raving about their HealthLine, a new bus rapid transit line connecting many of the city's major attractions. Back in 2008, JUTP featured a guest blog on the HealthLine from Cleveland native (and current District 18 delegate) Al Carr.

- Whatever happened to the Great Peruvian Taste Test? Well, three feet of snow didn't help. We'll get back on it next week.