Friday, April 23, 2010

what's up the pike: i think allergies are over

Tents Along Ellsworth Drive


- Have you had enough of reviews of 8407? Well, this one from Till It's Done is only pictures, because that'll make you hungrier than any verbal description of the food.

- Eric at Thayer Avenue makes the case for charging for parking on Saturdays in Downtown Silver Spring, and is patiently waiting for your vitriol if you disagree.

- Dskco at Lunchin' In The DMV got up early last weekend to try dim sum at Oriental East. "He tells me he's getting there 30 minutes early to stand in line before it opens. Line?! lol. The picture only shows half of the line. The rest of it is wrapped around the back of the building," she writes.

- Don't forget: Fenton Street Market is weekly now and back this Saturday from 9am to 3pm. Reemberto Rodriguez from the Silver Spring Regional Services Center writes about its local significance on his blog.

- And throughout the weekend, check out the first-annual Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival, taking place in over forty venues across Downtown Silver Spring. JUTP wrote about it earlier this week, though I still can't say I understand just how big this thing's gonna be.

5 comments:

srb said...

The dim sum is really good. The line is shorter if it's hot or cold out, but during nice weather it can start an hour before the doors open.

jen said...

What do you think about the pay for parking issue? I vaguely remember you commenting on it before but I don't remember what you said.

I see both sides, but I also know that I wouldn't have joined the WSC on Fenton if the Wayne garage hadn't been free on weekends. Now that I go to the gym like 5 days a week, I tend to spend money in DTSS when I'm there -- money I wouldn't have spent in Silver Spring at all if I wasn't going there for the gym. However, mostly this money is spent at chains like DSW and Chipotle, so I don't know how much I'm really contributing to the economy of Silver Spring.

Dan Reed said...

Jen,

I can't comment specifically on the parking issue in Downtown Silver Spring because it's coming before the Council.

But generally, I agree with the idea of charging for parking, because garages aren't cheap to build and not charging for parking can actually cause traffic. I wrote about this issue in greater detail in a column for the Diamondback last year, which you can check out by clicking here.

jen said...

According to the argument you make in the Diamondback, it wouldn't make sense to charge for the Wayne Ave. garage on weekends. It almost always has at least two empty levels on weekends. Charging would make it more underutilized.

Dan Reed said...

Jen,

You're right. In fact, empty spaces in the Wayne Avenue garage were cited as reason why the new library won't need its own parking.