just up the pike

millennials & affordable housing: a clarification

2012-01-26T11:01:00.001-05:00

I was taken aback by the responses to Tuesday's post on the Millennial generation (today's twenty-somethings) and affordable housing, both here and on Greater Greater Washington, where it got 176 comments as of last night.

The comments I received could be organized in one of three categories:

1) People who think I'm being "entitled" and/or "whiny" in calling for an increase of reasonably-priced housing in close-in neighborhoods.

2) People who may agree that housing is expensive, but suggest that I just live with their parents/in a group house/commute from the suburbs/live in an on-the-edge urban neighborhood while saving up to move somewhere better.

3) And, finally, people who sympathize with my argument, which was that it's in the interest of Montgomery County (or D.C., or any of the counties around the Beltway) to ensure an ample supply of housing for its workforce by making it easier to build more and different types of housing, not by providing subsidies. Otherwise, they'll either commute from further out, which causes traffic and creates suburban sprawl, or they'll just leave the region altogether.

These are all valid opinions. Maybe I'm being whiny. In order to save money, I have lived with my parents while commuting an hour each way for work, in a group house on the far side of Petworth, and in apartment shares, including the one where I currently live in Philadelphia. People often have to make compromises in where they live, but this is only part of the solution. The study I cited says that there's a need for 60,000 new homes in Montgomery County in coming years just to accommodate new households, whether it's a single person renting a studio apartment or four people sharing a house.

I was especially struck by the sentiment that living in a close-in neighborhood, particularly one where you can walk to things as I suggested, is some kind of luxury deserved only by wealthy people who can afford it. I'm not saying that 20-something entry-level workers should all be able to live in Logan Circle for free. But I am saying that 20-something entry-level workers, or better yet anyone, be able to afford to find decent housing (whatever that may be) in a place where they can get to work, the grocery store, or other amenities without driving there. By not having a car, you're saving money. That alone makes housing more affordable.

We can make that happen by allowing the development of more housing in areas where that already exists, like downtown Silver Spring, and by creating more walkable, amenity-served neighborhoods, like in White Flint. This is a good thing. It keeps workers in Montgomery County; creates shorter commutes, thus reducing traffic; and drives investment to established neighborhoods rather than to the region's fringe.

Increasing the housing stock isn't about entitlement. It's about creating a stronger region and ensuring that the next generation can be a part of it.

millennials won't stay in montgomery if they can't afford it

2012-01-24T10:26:00.004-05:00

Urban centers like downtown Silver Spring are drawing Millennials, but many of them are being priced out.

I belong to the Millennials, the largest generation in American history, with 80 million members. Sometimes called Generation Y or the Echo Baby Boomers, we're about to finish school and enter the workforce en masse. Many of us will stay in or move to the D.C. area. But my generation may not come to Montgomery County if we can't find affordable housing in an urban setting.

It's no surprise that D.C.-area housing can be scarce and expensive. The popular "Shit People in D.C. Say" video jokes that all twenty-somethings here live in English basements or converted sunrooms renting for $1,400 a month. Meanwhile, recent college graduate and Washington Post columnist Steven Overly has been documenting his struggle to find a place to live.

The issue of housing young adults is especially acute in Montgomery County, which has morphed from "the perfect suburbia" into a regional employment center where Millennials can find work. There's already an acute shortage of affordable housing, particularly around the county's Metro stations, where apartments can command rents 40 percent higher than those in other areas.

In Montgomery County, there are about 180,000 Millennials, or about 20% of the total population. As the county's Planning Director Rollin Stanley points out, many of them have gone back to live with their parents. I did after I graduated college, as did most of my friends.

A map of where thirty-five of my friends and coworkers, all within three years of graduating college, were living in 2009. Yellow houses represent people living with their parents, while red beds represent those living on their own.

As the economy improves, we'll want to move out of the house and out of the suburbs as well. There's no shortage of articles about how Millennials want to live in urban settings. My friends who've struck out on their own are trying to get near Metro or their favorite hangouts, both in D.C. and in suburban downtowns like Silver Spring and Bethesda. But the kind of housing and neighborhoods we want are in short supply here. After all, Montgomery County was and is still seen as a place to raise kids, and its built form represents what people thought was the best way to do so, with big, detached houses and cul-de-sacs.

A recent report (PDF) from economist Stephen Fuller suggests that the county will need as many as 60,000 new homes in the next ten years to accommodate new households. Nearly half of them will be needed by households making less than $50,000 a year, while two-thirds will need to be multi-family homes. That's us: Millennials moving out of their parents' houses, looking for small homes in close-in locations we can afford on entry-level salaries.

Developers are responding to the demand for housing. Both new and old apartment buildings are being repositioned to draw young professionals with high-end amenities, but their high rents price many Millennials out of the market. Twenty years ago, my mother rented a one-bedroom in downtown Silver Spring for $685 a month. Today, that same apartment rents for $1,742 a month, but there are now granite countertops and swanky rooftop parties.

If the Millennial generation wants to live the urban lifestyle, which can take cars off the road, conserve land and revitalize older neighborhoods, shouldn't we make it easier and more affordable to do so?

Increasing the supply of housing, like these recently-built apartments in Silver Spring, can help lower prices.

The best way to reduce or even eliminate what Matt Yglesias calls the "Metro premium" is to increase the supply of housing near transit, reducing prices. In the coming years, thousands of new residential units will be built at several of Montgomery County's thirteen Metro stations. Even if 20-somethings aren't in the market for luxury apartments, they can help satisfy the demand for housing, lowering prices.

Increasing the variety of housing types will help as well. Montgomery County should encourage the creation of Accessory Dwelling Units, also known as granny flats or laneway homes. They'll provide a new source of low-cost housing while preserving the character of close-in, single-family neighborhoods. In more urban settings like downtown Silver Spring, so-called "micro-lofts" or Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units like the Videre in Seattle provide compact, comfortable accommodations to singles who don't need and can't afford a lot of space. And for those ready to buy a home, small-lot houses like these in Portland can give privacy while keeping costs down.

For some Montgomery County residents, the term "affordable housing" conjures up images of crime and blight. But those who need low-cost housing are often your own kids, eager to stay close to the people and places they love. If Montgomery County wants the Millennial generation to make their homes here, it needs to become more affordable. After all, one day we'll want to start families, and if we're already living here, we're more likely to stick around.

lenny greenberg, dreaming of wheaton beyond the strip mall

2012-01-20T10:45:00.001-05:00

Leonard Greenberg developed these buildings in Bethesda. And he'd do the same in Wheaton if given a chance.

While County Executive Ike Leggett wants to give developer B.F. Saul $40 million of public funds to build on public land in downtown Wheaton, one developer's been building here with minimal help from Montgomery County. His name is Leonard Greenberg, and since the mid-1980's, his company Greenhill Capital has acquired nearly a third of downtown Wheaton, dreaming of what the area could become. When the county's zoning restrictions forced him to sit out the real estate boom, Greenberg decided to keep waiting while hatching bigger and grander schemes.

JUTP hasn't always been kind to Greenberg's work, but after having a lengthy phone call with him earlier this week, I wanted to offer his side of the story. (This is a long post, but I promise it's worth it.)

"Wheaton should be more of an Adams Morgan"

New apartments like these on Georgia Avenue, says Greenberg, will help local businesses in Wheaton.

Greenberg grew up in the D.C. area, living briefly in Wheaton during the 1950's. After working for a Boston-based real estate investment firm on their D.C.-area projects, he struck out on his own and founded Greenhill Capital in 1974. In the 1980's, he's began buying and developing properties in Wheaton, anticipating the opening of a new Metro station.

"It was the last [central business district] that was scheduled to be developed" after Silver Spring, Bethesda and Friendship Heights, says Greenberg. "Plus, it was human scale. And there’s something about the small proprietors."

Most of Greenberg's properties in Wheaton are single-story retail buildings, many of which were designed by Rockville architect Steven Karr. But he's always itched to do something greater. As he told the Gazette last week, Greenberg sees Wheaton as the next Adams Morgan, a vibrant hub for entertainment, shopping and culture. Not only that, but he knows how to do it.

"I’m a johnny-one-note. I've been saying this for 25 years, to get people on the street. I'm an urbophile. I'm a believer in 'city.' I get it."

If Greenberg had his way, he'd change liquor licenses to allow up to 75% of a venue's total sales to be alcohol, drawing bars and clubs. He wants a "county sponsored lease plan and economic program" to fill empty stores with theatres, artists and even university ventures. And he would've made sure that businesses displaced by redevelopment stayed in the area, unlike Barry's Magic Shop, which was condemned by the county to build a pedestrian walkway and received $260,000 to move to Rockville.

Finally, Greenberg would build lots of housing, both downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods, to create more foot traffic that can support local businesses. He's not convinced that B.F. Saul's plan to build offices over the Wheaton Metro will pencil out. "It costs as much to build in Wheaton as it does in Friendship Heights, but the rent multiplier is significantly higher," he explains.

In other words, tenants will pay more for an office in Friendship Heights than in Wheaton, no matter how nice it is. Meanwhile, rents for apartments in Wheaton are the same as those elsewhere in the county. "The county will have to heavily subsidize that office building," Greenberg told me on Monday, two days before Leggett's announcement.

After our talk, I e-mail Greenberg to ask what he thought about the $40 million subsidy B.F. Saul could receive. "Development would have occurred in Wheaton with bolder (even traditional urban) planning, but the county was too lazy and too anti-business for change to naturally evolve," he replies. "We never considered a [government] subsidy . . . on any of our other projects."

"We're not apologizing"

Triangle Park, a shopping center developed by Greenhill, shown in 2010 before being leased.

According to Greenberg, any attempts to take Wheaton beyond the strip mall have been stifled by local opposition and red tape. "Boy, do I try to do more and better there," says Greenberg, "and you cannot imagine the resistance we have."

In 1990, the county passed a plan for downtown Wheaton that instituted a "Retail Overlay Preservation District." (See a map of it here.) The district was supposed to protect small businesses while ensuring that new construction was of high quality. However, by limiting the density of new development and requiring that all new buildings be reviewed by the Planning Board, even ones that complied with the zoning code, it actually repelled investment.

"I absolutely abhor what the county has been doing all these years" in Wheaton, says Greenberg. "What they needed to do is have more density, more people to walk and support the urban core."

Upon buying the Anchor Inn restaurant at Georgia Avenue and University Boulevard in 2004, Greenberg envisioned redeveloping it with new housing and shops. It was the height of the real estate boom, when new apartments and townhouses were being built at the edges of downtown Wheaton. However, his proposal to build a 600,000 square feet mixed-use development on the site went nowhere because the county took too long to finish a new plan for the downtown, which was finally approved last year. "They wouldn't repeal the overlay district" in time, he grumbles.

In a Gazette article from 2006, Greenberg lamented that Wheaton "missed the train" on the economic boom. Instead, he built what zoning allowed: the smaller Georgia Crossing project, a series of one-story retail buildings that one resident called underwhelming.

"In the 1950's and 60's, Montgomery County was the standard by which suburbia was to be developed," Greenberg says. "The Wedges and Corridors [Plan], blah blah blah. But as we became more urbanized, they . . . tried to impose suburban standards on urban locations, without consideration to alleys and deliveries and urban edge and human scale, doors at the urban edge and creating a liveliness that was required."

That said, Greenberg isn't doing terribly in Wheaton. He calls me out for using the above photo of Triangle Park, a shopping center at the intersection of Ennalls Avenue and Veirs Mill that he rebuilt after a large fire in 2008. The photo was taken in 2010 and shows the complex when it was new and empty. "That space has been leased for 18 months," says Greenberg. "We’re getting mid-$30's [the leasing rate per square foot] and the parking lot is always full."

Not all of his tenants have been happy, though. In 2010, the Gazette interviewed several disgruntled former tenants who spoke of broken contracts and unfairly high rents. One of those tenants was Eddie Velasquez, whose DeJaBel Café at Greenberg's Georgia Crossing shopping center opened in 2008 and closed 14 months later. Greenberg says it's simple why DeJaBel closed.

"If you owned a coffee shop, when would you open?" he asks me. "I guess 6 or 7 am, for people going on their way to work," I say.

"He opened at 9," Greenberg replies. Nonetheless, he says, Greenhill Capital got Velasquez a liquor license so the cafe could stay open at night, but even that wasn't enough to keep them in business. Cavan Wilk, who writes for GGW, suggests that it was a lack of foot traffic that killed DeJaBel Café, which wouldn't have been a problem if Greenberg had been able to build apartments on top.

"We're not apologizing" for the work Greenhill does, Greenberg says. "Think about the jobs we’ve created. We start people in businesses and we keep people in business."

"No one asked me to do it"

Greenhill Capital developed this office and retail building in downtown Bethesda, shown in 2009.

One place where Greenberg sees the county doing something right is in downtown Bethesda, where Greenhill Capital's headquarters are located. The difficulty of doing business elsewhere in the county, whether it's Wheaton's retail overlay district or limits on procuring liquor licenses, sends people here, Greenberg says.

Not surprisingly, the handful of projects Greenhill has built here are much better than those in Wheaton: buildings close to the street, a mix of uses, and little aesthetic flourishes here and there. And no parking lots.

On Cordell Avenue, a pizzeria he developed features trompe l'oeil, or an optical illusion of fountains along the sidewalk. "No one asked me to do it," Greenberg says. "I did it." Over at Woodmont Avenue and Elm Street is what Greenberg calls "the Haagen-Dazs building" after its former ground-floor tenant, which has since moved down the street. The building remains a nice, and fully-occupied, piece of urbanism: it's a mix of retail and office space, has lots of windows facing the street, and a little plaza in front that is occasionally used for concerts.

Then there's the Edgemoor shown above, a complex of condominiums and townhomes on Montgomery Lane that was developed by Greenberg and built by three local builders. He rattles off a list of high-end features: "Real copper gutters and downspouts, slate roofs on the end units, oak doors," he says. "And until they screwed it up, Georgian gardens. I had these really nice Georgian gardens, but they took out all of the benches." Greenberg also lives in the high-rise building, which looks like an old-school New York apartment house.

"I wanted something between the Dakota and the Plaza," he says.

Yet these accomplishments generally go unnoticed east of Rock Creek Park, where Greenberg's been depicted (including on this blog) as an unscrupulous landlord and purveyor of strip malls. "Nobody talks about the stuff that we’ve given or the contributions we’ve made," he says. "To put your name on the line for a construction project is far different than throwing spitballs at it."

As a result, Greenberg is content to wait. "We got so frustrated with the process [in Wheaton] that we said we’ll go forward and we’ll wait for the next generation to take it to the next level," he says. "We are constrained by a non-business friendly environment, and Montgomery County's paid the price for that. Developers are not willing to take the risk."

And they'll sit on their substantial holdings in Wheaton until everyone else comes around. "We have enough ground for 1.5 million square feet" of development under current zoning, he says. "We’re interested in the right kind of deal. We’re not interested in selling."

He adds, "We’ll see if Wheaton's time is now."

will wheaton fail without $40m of county subsidies? (updated)

2012-01-19T09:00:00.002-05:00

Draft site plan for the redevelopment of the Metro bus turnaround and Parking Lot 13 in downtown Wheaton.

In yesterday's Gazette, County Executive Ike Leggett says the only way to revitalize downtown Wheaton is by giving $40 million in public funds to developer B.F. Saul, which already has the rights to build on several county-owned parcels in the area:

“Don't bemoan the fact that we're going to make an investment,” Leggett said. “You have to make an investment, otherwise it would have worked already and it has not.”

Maybe I misread this statement, but it sounds like Leggett's saying that Wheaton is so awful we have to pay people to build here. This isn't the first time we've heard this line. But it raises a few questions:

- Is the kind of development Montgomery County wants to see in Wheaton, like high-end offices, the kind of stuff the market wants in Wheaton? (Check out this draft plan from B.F. Saul, shown above.) Are there other kinds of development (I don't know what) that may be more economically feasible, but haven't been considered?

- Are developers actually scared to build in Wheaton? And if so, is it because of financing, or because of other factors? For instance, are they worried about access to existing activity centers like Bethesda or Rockville, or the area's reputation (real or perceived) for crime? Or the difficulty of obtaining a liquor license in Montgomery County, which makes it difficult restaurants to open?

- And if we really need to "invest" public funds in Wheaton, should it go to a large developer, or to local businesses? This is the question raised by the Coalition for the Fair Redevelopment of Wheaton ~~(an offshoot of the Latino Economic Development Corporation)~~, a coalition of area nonprofits that includes the Latino Economic Development Corporation, which wants to see a Community Benefits Agreement as part of the county's deal with B.F. Saul.

I'm not totally sure if I'm down with the Coalition's list of priorities, but I agree that the solution or "fix" for downtown Wheaton is a little more complicated than the County Executive allows. Clearly, private development is already happening in Wheaton, albeit with some county help: the Leesborough project on the former site of Good Counsel High School, the Exchange, which will include a new Safeway, and the renovation of the 1960's-era Wheaton Place apartments on Amherst Avenue, now called the Encore. All of these projects suggest that Wheaton isn't really a lost cause, and that even without $40 million, the downtown would probably continue to grow and improve on its own.

Of course, one developer who's been investing in Wheaton without much help from the county has been Leonard Greenberg, who I wrote about last week for his claim (though it wasn't the first time I've heard it) that Wheaton could be "the next Adams Morgan." Earlier this week, I had a lengthy phone conversation with Greenberg, who asked to give his side of the story.

Come back tomorrow for a detailed look at Greenberg's work, his ideas for Wheaton, and one possible reason why developers have shied away from the area.

new DTSS apartment building includes live-work units

2012-01-17T09:00:00.001-05:00

Last month, County Councilmember George Leventhal wrote an op-ed in the Gazette asking whether new development accommodate small businesses. One way to help small businesses is by providing low-cost work spaces.

The Solaire, a new apartment building in downtown Silver Spring, will include "live-work" units. Rendering and plan courtesy of the Montgomery County Planning Board.

The Solaire, a new apartment tower being developed by Bozzuto and Washington Property Company that's going up at 1150 Ripley Street in the new "neighborhood" of the Ripley District," will offer nine "live-work" apartments. They may not be cheap, but at least they'll save tenants the cost of finding a separate place to do business. After all, you already live there.

Live-work units are exactly what they sound like: homes with a dedicated space for working. Though they're often found in converted loft buildings, they can be built new as well. Arts District Hyattsville, a townhouse development under construction in Prince George's County, has several homes with a shop on the ground floor. In the District, a new building called the Brookland Artspace Lofts provides apartments with dedicated "studio" spaces at subsidized rents to working artists.

Each of the nine live-work units in the Solaire has a bedroom, a kitchen, and a large "live-work" space that looks like a giant living room. They also have high ceilings, concrete floors (not as cozy as home, but hard to mess up) and since they're located on the ground floor, each unit will have a direct entrance to Ripley Street, allowing customers to march right in. The layouts are interesting: the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen are at the rear of each apartment and can be closed off with sliding doors, leaving the rest of the space open for work.

The website describes these units as "ideal for artists, entrepreneurs, and other soulful types," which I admit makes me a little queasy. The Solaire hasn't set its rental rates yet, but judging from the rents of other new buildings in downtown Silver Spring, I can't imagine artists having the means to live here.

Another person that won't live here are shopkeepers and restauranteurs. These units aren't set up for retail, as building codes would require fully separated living and working spaces, along with handicap-accessible bathrooms for customers. And that might be fine. Last fall, Charles Nulsen of developer Washington Property Company, which is building The Solaire, told TBD that there wasn't a "critical mass" of people on Ripley Street to support retail shops anyway. Having live-work units seems like a nice compromise: it provides a venue for small businesses that don't rely on foot traffic, while giving people a reason to wander over there anyway, providing more "eyes on the street," an effective crime deterrent.

Outdoor patios at the Silverton help bring life to this stretch of East-West Highway.

Having apartments that directly open to the sidewalk also make for more interesting streets. One building that already does this is the Silverton condominium on East-West Highway. It's fun to walk past this building, admiring the gardens and decorations people put on their patios, and say "hi" if anyone's outside.

Downtown Silver Spring benefits from having a diversity of housing options. Providing live-work units is a great way to support local businesses while creating more interesting neighborhoods, and I hope to see more of them in the future.

A side note: check out these "incredible panoramic views" taken from atop the Solaire. This may not be news to those of y'all who live in a DTSS high-rise, but as someone who no longer resides in a "deluxe apartment in the sky," I get excited by them. You can see the new Silver Spring Transit Center is well on its way to completion.

how to make wheaton into the next adams morgan (or not)

2012-01-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

Several new apartment buildings are being built in downtown Wheaton, including the Exchange at Georgia Avenue and Reedie Drive.

Last week, the Gazette reported on an "apartment boom" in Wheaton, where hundreds of new rentals will be built in the coming years. That's great for Wheaton, whose small businesses will benefit from having more people living in the area, walking around and patronizing their shops.

The most interesting part of the article, however, is this quote from developer Leonard Greenberg, who owns over a dozen properties in downtown Wheaton:

Leonard Greenberg, chief executive officer of Bethesda-based Greenhill Capital, planned to build 600,000 square feet of shops, apartments and office space in 2004 when he bought property at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and University Boulevard. He said the county council was too slow in approving zoning changes that would have allowed for taller buildings on the property, which is now a row of retail shops with a number of vacant properties.

“To me, Wheaton should be more of an Adams Morgan, more of a village-like environment,” said Greenberg, who added the many apartment projects were an encouraging sign. “The reasons why places like Adams Morgan are popular is that they are high-demand areas where there’s lots of activity. You have young people living in accessible locations. Wheaton needs to be a place where people want to go, not just go to work and leave at the end of the day.”

So let's be clear:

Photo by Jason Pier in DC on Flickr.

This is the real Adams Morgan: shops and restaurants at street level (most of which are locally-owned), apartments above, buildings hugging the street. The result is lots of activity and lots of people, just as Leonard Greenberg describes.

And this is what Leonard Greenberg built. More specifically, this is just one of several one-story, single-use strip malls he's built around downtown Wheaton over the past 25 years.

I'm sympathetic with Greenberg's argument that the county dropped the ball on allowing more development in Wheaton when the economy was strong. He understands that you need housing and retail to make a neighborhood vibrant like Adams Morgan. Nonetheless, Greenberg still went ahead and built not one, but several new retail buildings in downtown Wheaton, all of which have several vacancies and whose former tenants complain of unfairly high rents.

That wouldn't be a problem if, when the market improves, you could just drop apartments on top of his strip malls. But it's not that simple. Instead, we have sizable chunks of downtown Wheaton that are stuck as strip malls and parking lots, and they will continue to be until those buildings wear out, which is probably several decades from now.

I can't blame Leonard Greenberg for doing what he wants with his property. But I've never been clear what, exactly, he sought to accomplish with it.

View Larger MapThe Computer Building.

Another interesting quote is about the Computer Building, located on Georgia Avenue south of Reedie Drive. Developer Lowe Enterprises wants to convert that building from offices to apartments, which would require displacing their current tenants:

Stuart Cohen would have to move his Environmental & Turf Services company, which he said relies on its proximity to the Wheaton Metro station for access to Washington, D.C. Michael Trembley runs the American Career Institute, a vocational school and one of the Computer Building’s biggest tenants. Trembley said finding new office space near a Metro station would be a top priority for the school’s nearly 300 students.

It's ironic that Wheaton's "apartment boom" will displace existing offices, given that the county and developer B.F. Saul, which have partnered to develop several acres around the Wheaton Metro station, want to build nearly a million square feet of new offices in the downtown. However, that space will likely command higher rents than offices in the Computer Building, making it difficult for Environmental & Turf Services or the American Career Institute to relocate there.

Vibrant urban neighborhoods come from a mix of uses like housing, retail and offices. Hopefully, the new Wheaton Sector Plan and zoning code rewrite will allow Leonard Greenberg to build what he wants, not just strip malls.

Vibrant neighborhoods also come from a mix of old and new. If we want downtown Wheaton to become Montgomery County's answer to Adams Morgan, we should retain existing businesses, be they a pupusa shop or a vocational school. Perhaps the county and B.F. Saul could work out some kind of subsidy for displaced businesses who'd like to locate in a new office building.

If we can do all of these things, we can ensure that Wheaton becomes an even better place to live or visit without sacrificing what already makes it so great.

in case you missed it: awesome timelapse video of downtown silver spring

2012-01-11T09:10:00.006-05:00

Downtown Silver Spring - HDR Time Lapse Preview from Tolu Omokehinde on Vimeo.

If you follow JUTP on Facebook or Twitter, you've probably already seen this. (And if you don't, please consider it! You'll get links and news that doesn't always make it to the blog!) Tolu Omokehinde and Nick Grossman, students at Montgomery Blair High School/staffers for Blair's student newspaper SilverChips posted this timelapse video they shot of downtown Silver Spring landmarks, notably the Veterans Plaza ice rink and Ellsworth/Fenton intersection.

If you're wondering why the images look so visually intense, it's because they used high dynamic range imaging or HDR, a technique in which photographs are taken at different exposures simultaneously and edited together, resulting in images that more closely resemble what the human eye sees.

As they write in SilverChips, Omokehinde and Grossman stood outside for five hours with two cameras that took a combined 2,800 photos, which were then edited together to make a 45-second clip. They plan to release additional videos, including one with scenes of Blair that include 23,000 photos taken over two months.

I'm hoping they'll get out into downtown Silver Spring again as well. Writing on the video's page, friend of JUTP Bossi suggests a slew of additional scenes, like one from a bridge over the Red Line tracks and outside the Fillmore on show night. All of these would be great places to show Silver Spring at its best.

Time permitting, of course. I'm impressed that Omokehinde and Grossman can do this while juggling all the responsibilities of high school. Keep up the good work!

adorable purple line video, and introducing #welcometosilverspring

2012-01-09T09:00:00.017-05:00

Whether to gin up support for the Purple Line, or to remind folks it's still being planned, the Maryland Transit Administration created this awesome video. I can't think of another piece of public transit, new or existing, as adorable as the Purple Line looks in this clip.

My favorite part? A brief cameo from Chompy the shark, shown in his natural state hanging from the Discovery Building despite going on hiatus last summer:

The video depicts the Purple Line and its major destinations in a cartoon version of suburban Maryland, in which houses are scattered helter-skelter across the landscape and giant words occupy the center of each town. (In Silver Spring, of course, they already do.) Naturally, liberties are taken with the Purple Line's route as well. Here it is scooting down what appears to be a cartoon Georgia Avenue:

The actual Purple Line will go down Bonifant Street and Wayne Avenue in downtown Silver Spring, but there is talk about bringing D.C.'s proposed streetcar up Georgia Avenue into Maryland, so hopefully this will get people excited for that as well.

ANYWAY: I'd like to try an experiment with y'all. The other day, I was at Target on Cherry Hill Road and I saw a group of teenage boys performing a synchronized dance in and around a Cadillac Escalade with diplomat tags. I thought to myself, "Only in Silver Spring."

I'm curious what other things you see that make you think the same. That's why I started using the #welcometosilverspring hashtag on Twitter. If you use Twitter and find something that seems unique to Silver Spring, use it. Here's a feed of tweets currently using the #welcometosilverspring hashtag:

As of press time, there are only three tweets, two of which are mine. I'm looking forward to seeing what y'all come up with.

the Post tries to find the forgotten village of norwood (updated)

2012-01-07T18:08:00.002-05:00

UPDATE: A very nice gentleman named Vic Seested sent an e-mail to Post reporter Katie Shaver (who then forwarded it to me) calling us both out for our blatant ignorance of local history:

your article in the post today-destination unknown has to be one of the worst researched i've read in some time. you had the misfortune of not getting up from your desk and from talking with some really stupid clueless people. facts. at the intersection of "norwood rd and 182" is the old maryland state police medivac factility. the sign which is still there says "norwood division". where did they pull that one from. next, the road at the intersection of 182 and "NORWOOD RD" might be a clue that there was/is something called norwood at one time. guess what. about 1/2 mile up norwood rd, not far from the idiot at the sandy spring museum, which is 1/2 mile from norwood road is a maryland/montgomery county historic home. guess what the name is? NORWOOD. guess why the area is called norwood? the newcomers like the 20 something has no history and no sense of history. thank god he is working on city planning. he could be working on nuclear defense. see the attached. vic seested

Thanks, Vic. (And thanks for the follow-up e-mail you sent me explaining that there "is no cure for stupid.")

POST: Check out the Weekend section in today's Washington Post. There's an interesting article by Katie Shaver on the forgotten village of Norwood, brought back to life by an exit sign on the InterCounty Connector. And it features a few quotes from yours truly since I blogged about it last month:

Just Up the Pike blogger Dan Reed, who grew up in the area, said the sign piqued his interest when he tried out the ICC while home for Thanksgiving from the University of Pennsylvania . . .

He said he thinks of the influence that the names of Metrorail stations, such as White Flint in North Bethesda, have had in identifying communities.

“I’d be curious,” Reed said, “if in 20 years people say, ‘I live in Norwood,’ because of the highway sign.”

More interesting is the explanation from Scott Crumley, lead traffic engineer for the toll highway, as to how the Norwood exit got its name:

Scott Crumley, the ICC project’s lead traffic engineer, said state highway planners and ICC officials thought of Norwood in 2005, when the state was drafting the project’s bid documents . . .

Notes from numerous meetings about the exit signs show that Ashton was considered a natural northern destination for the New Hampshire Avenue (Route 650) exit and that Olney was noted to be due north of the ICC via the Georgia Avenue (Route 97) exit.

“If you look at 182 [Layhill Road], it doesn’t go to Ashton. It doesn’t go to Olney. It really doesn’t go to Sandy Spring,” Crumley said. Norwood, which he said is on U.S. Postal Service maps even though it no longer has a post office, “was kind of the best of what they had to work with.”

That makes enough sense. Special thanks go to Katie Shaver for doing the research that my Google searches couldn't, but also for giving me a shout-out. I'm glad that our local newspapers are willing to work with local bloggers.

citing poor sales, teen clothier pacsun will leave wheaton plaza

2012-01-06T09:00:00.009-05:00

While new retailers are beginning to fill the empty spaces at ~~Westfield Wheaton~~ ~~Wheaton Mall~~ Wheaton Plaza, one new vacancy has appeared. PacSun, the purveyor of surf and skate wear who came to the mall as part of Westfield's $140 million renovation seven years ago, will close January 30.

When I visited the mall a few days before Christmas, the store's windows were covered in "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS" signs. Though the mall's parking lots and corridors were crowded with shoppers, PacSun was empty. Inside, I talked to one employee about the store's closing. He explained that PacSun, based in Orange County, California, had chosen to shut their Wheaton branch last year. "No one really knows why they're closing," he said, looking pretty dejected. "With the numbers we're running, I think we could save it. But it looks like they've already made up their mind."

A number of stores in East County have closed in recent years: Hecht's, Ritz Camera, Circuit City, Pier 1 Imports, and most recently Borders. It feels silly to mourn the passing of another chain store, particularly one whose stated mission in a report to stockholders is "to be the favorite place for teens and young adults to shop in the mall." Nonetheless, PacSun was base camp for a teenage Dan seeking to reinvent himself as an alternakid way back in 2005, and I'm sad to see it go.

So why would PacSun close? Sure, the folks who live a mile away in snoburban Kensington won't shop at Wheaton Plaza, but the mall remains busy. PacSun has been struggling for years, largely because they've lost touch with their target shoppers. That's especially apparent in Wheaton, a diverse community whose kids don't exactly look like the characters on The O.C.

East County skaters at a meeting on the Woodside skate spot in 2010. Photo by Chip Py.

The crowd at a concert sponsored by PacSun in California. Photo by Jim Alden on Flickr.

Anyone who's spent time in downtown Silver Spring knows that East County kids like to skate, and you might assume that they'd want to buy clothes from a store like PacSun. But East County skaters, like shoppers at Wheaton Plaza, are a pretty diverse bunch, and they may not all be interested in PacSun's Southern California aesthetic.

As skateboarding became increasingly intertwined with hip-hop and urban culture, PacSun stubbornly looked the other way. Even now, the chain's music page features mostly white rock or indie acts like Anthony Green and Fleet Foxes. If they wanted to be the "favorite place" for kids in Wheaton to shop at the mall, they weren't necessarily trying.

It shouldn't be surprising that the chain has struggled to retain its core demographic for years. They've been losing ground to competitiors like Zumiez, which sells not only clothes but skateboards and skating accessories. (Zumiez doesn't have any locations in Montgomery County; their closest store is at the Mall in Columbia.) They also compete with local stores like the Record Exchange (formerly the CD/Game Exchange) in downtown Silver Spring, which sometimes carries shirts and skateboard decks.

According to the company's 2010 Annual Report, PacSun added nearly 50 stores a year during the last decade, growing to nearly 1,000 locations nationwide at its peak in 2007. But the chain's growing irrelevance meant they were especially hammered when the recession hit in 2008. Their stock value plummeted from a peak of $28 in 2005 to just 93 cents two years later, by which point PacSun was now closing 50 stores a year. Today, their stock has only rebounded to $1.66. Last month, they announced that they'd close 200 more low-performing stores, including the Wheaton Plaza store, with a goal of having about 600 stores total when they're done.

So where do teens at Wheaton Plaza go? They're probably headed for Swedish clothing retailer H&M, which recently opened a new, two-story store right across from Macy's. Their clothes seem to work with any aesthetic, from preppies to backpack rappers to skater kids. Maybe that's why they seem to be doing so well. According to H&M's 2010 Annual Report, the chain has over 2,200 locations around the world. And 2010 was a bad year for them: they planned to open 240 stores, but could only open 218 because "completion of some shopping malls, in which H&M had planned to open stores, was halted."

Westfield took a gamble on Wheaton Plaza in 2005, and it's to be expected that not every store they brought in would be successful. That said, retailers who choose to locate in Wheaton should be aware of their clientele, and kids at Wheaton Plaza weren't buying PacSun's SoCal vibe. (They do seem to be buying the SoCal vibe at preppy-ish Hollister, which remains open, but I'd venture that those are probably different kids.)

Part of me wants to poke around PacSun before it closes up for good, but I do wonder if, at age twenty-three, I've outgrown my alternakid mantle. I could be wrong. I'll wear anything if it's heavily discounted.

guest post: why I live in burtonsville

2012-01-05T09:28:00.011-05:00

Burtonsville Day, one of the many things we love about Burtonsville.

Burtonsville's been going through some tough times in recent years, and I admit I've been a little hard on the place lately. To provide some good news, Burtonsville resident and Boston native David offers this guest post explaining why he moved here. And for more things we love about living in East County, check out our crowdsourced list from 2009.

Burtonsville seems like a pretty insignificant place. Even while writing this, “Burtonsville” was the only town I mentioned here that was not found in spellcheck. Some of my friends describe it as the “boonies.” However, I have lived here for several years now and I been very happy with my decision. If it wasn't for the incessant buzzing in my ear about Burtonsville's bad crime rap, I'd never have known about it.

I am a single young professional living in Burtonsville. I bought a townhouse off of Greencastle Road in 2009. There are several reasons I originally ended up in this area. I discovered the beauty and excitement of D.C. when I was a college intern for a major insurance company. My love of the city is what brought me to the area, but I ended up landing a job in Columbia.

At first, I was a bit stuck on where to live. I wanted easy access to my job on weekdays and easy access to the city on weekends. Using the age-old trick of using push-pins and string on a map, I decided that Laurel, Burtonsville, and parts of Silver Spring were the best candidates. Silver Spring was a bit out of my price range and the further south I went, the longer my weekday commute would be.

I focused much of my search in Laurel. No offense Laurel, but the homes in my price range were either torn down to the studs by previous, foreclosed upon, owners or the construction of the home itself was of very poor quality. I visited more than one hundred properties when I finally stumbled across an ad for a foreclosed townhouse in Burtonsville. While I first moved here for its location, I have come up with a list of reasons I want to stay here:

Very easy access to Route 29 and 95. Both are obviously helpful when traveling to Columbia or D.C.. It's a 20 minute reverse commute to Columbia, 20 weekend minutes to Silver Spring Metro, or 15 weekend minutes to Greenbelt station.

My community has a good amount of well kept green space and my home is adjacent to several small ponds with walking paths. My community also offers a great outdoor pool.

The construction of the homes in my neighborhood are of simple design, but well built. I have taken advantages of this fact many times now with various home improvement projects. The homes in my community are excellent starter homes for singles, young couples, or small families.

I have great neighbors.

Fairland Park is less than a mile away. I use it for jogging, biking, tennis, hiking, and casual strolls. I often see adult recreational softball, and flag football leagues too.

The Fairland Sports and Aquatics Complex. The aquatics center includes the following facilities: a heated, 50-meter, indoor pool with moveable floor, a heated, indoor 25-yard leisure pool with a fountain, a heated whirlpool. If you swim there, you've probably seen me by now.

The Gardens Ice House in Laurel. The “Ice House” operates three sheets of ice - two NHL rinks, and one Olympic rink. I'm not much of a skater myself, but open-skate night can be a fun evening.

I have FIOS high-speed internet. This is a minor point, but few of my city friends have it.

It's close to the new Paint Branch High School.

There's a wonderful farm stand in Spicknall's Farm Market. I can get all the local, fresh vegetables I desire.

The new InterCounty Connector has a couple of entrances near Greencastle. Say what you want about the overall utility of the road, but it has a great bus system that stops at Burtonsville Town Center, once an hour, 365 days a year, and then drives directly to the airport. This is important for me as I travel somewhat frequently. As of writing, the fare for a one-way pass is $5 on bus 201 and the parking is free! It's simply the most economic and convenient way to get to the airport (and train station via free shuttle). If you want to take advantage of this, look for the signage at the parking lot for “BWI Bus” customers.

Cuba De Ayer and Chapala are two of my favorite restaurants.

I don't feel Burtonsville gets the respect it deserves. It's a relatively inexpensive place to live and with all the opportunities for exercise and a stress-free commute, it promotes a healthy life-style. I understand the many concerns and reservations people have about living in Burtonsville, but like I said in my introduction, I had to actually live here before I understood all of its perks.

Time for a swim,
David

Thanks, David! And if you'd like to send a guest post our way, feel free to e-mail me at justupthepike at gmail dot com.

happy new year! (but first, a look back)

2011-12-31T18:42:00.001-05:00

It's been a busy year for East County. A lot of good, or at least generally positive, things happened:

- Results from the 2010 Census showed that Montgomery County is now majority-minority, with whites making up just 49% of the population. Though we aren't a fully-integrated community, our diversity is something to be proud of.

- After decades of controversy, we finally saw the opening of the InterCounty Connector, which is already leaving its mark on the east side.

- The revitalization of downtown Wheaton came a step closer to reality now that developer B.F. Saul's been chosen to redevelop several county-owned properties in the area, though questions remain about how it'll work.

- The Fillmore finally opened and seems to have made downtown Silver Spring a more happening place, nevermind what the cool kids at the City Paper say. I was amazed to see a line of people going down Colesville Road and around the corner waiting to get in to see The Roots play earlier this week.

- And in Burtonsville, the beleaguered village center is starting to see small improvements, though it's anybody's guess if things will improve anytime soon.

However, there have been some disappointing moments:

- An attempt to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland stalled at the last minute due to the cowardice of a few elected officials, notably State Del. Tiffany Alston, who took campaign money to pay for her own wedding.

- County Executive Leggett spent five months trying to pass a teen curfew, willfully ignoring the lack of evidence supporting their effectiveness and despite a substantial drop in crime following the incident due to a greater police presence in the area. Thankfully, the County Council chose to table the measure, though judging from this page on the county goverment's website, Leggett isn't ready to back down.

- And near downtown Silver Spring, neighbors continue to fight a proposed townhouse development on the site of the former Chelsea School. Though their concerns about traffic and noise have some merit, there's a lot of demand for new housing in Silver Spring, which explains why rents in some downtown apartment buildings have more than doubled in recent years. Even though I may not be in the market for a $600,000 townhouse like the ones proposed at Chelsea Court, restricting the supply of new housing drives up prices for everyone.

Overall, I think 2011 was a good year, though certainly the mood in East County is influenced by things will beyond our control, whether it's Wall Street, the Iowa caucuses or turmoil in the European Union. I wish everyone a happy new year, and I'll see you in 2012.

(There's a 95% chance I'll be returning to the D.C. area after graduation this May, so hopefully I'll see y'all even more very soon.)

the suburban bicyclist: an endangered species

2011-12-27T09:36:00.002-05:00

I've been home in Silver Spring for a week now, most of which has been spent Christmas shopping and doing a lot of driving. While I expected a lot of car traffic, I've been pleasantly surprised to see bicyclists everywhere I go, even on big, fast suburban highways.

I've biked regularly for a year and a half now, happily pedaling around Philadelphia and the District, but I haven't enjoyed my forays outside the city. Arlington, for all of its bike lanes, is quite hilly and has some really confusing intersections. The Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda is pretty, but frequented by super-serious, capital-B Bicyclists who thought nothing of shoving me or my 12-year-old brother out of their way when we biked it last summer. Nor have I had a pleasant time biking in downtown Silver Spring, where the bike network is so lacking that a route on Cedar Street was once declared the "Stupidest Bike Lane in America."

Yet these inside-the-Beltway locales, with their relatively narrow streets and short distances between things, are a bicyclists' paradise compared to farther suburban areas whose planners and designers assumed that everyone would have a car. These are places I would never think to bike, which is why I have nothing but respect for these hardy individuals I found over the past week:

A couple in matching coats tries to cross Route 50 at Pickett Road in Fairfax City. It took me three light cycles to make a left turn here, but they had to wait much longer for a right-turning driver who'd stop for them.

A bicyclist waits between trucks and SUVs to cross Route 175 at Dobbin Road in Columbia, a massive intersection bordered by the even bigger Columbia Crossing shopping center. This is probably the most inconvenient bicycling environment you could create: fast roads, no sidewalks, and nearly every building is on a hill and facing away from the street, making each trip a long, time-consuming and tiresome trek.

I found this bicyclist at the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue and Route 1 in Beltsville. Unlike the last two examples, the streets here aren't that large. But since it's a mile north of the Beltway, this intersection can get very congested, making it a difficult place to bike. Rhode Island Avenue also doesn't have sidewalks for much of its length, meaning bicyclists don't have a choice but to "share the road."

When the District can't build its planned bike lanes, it's hard to believe that surrounding suburban communities will do much better. While I'm excited that Montgomery County, Alexandria, College Park and even Columbia are trying to join Capital Bikeshare are start bikesharing programs of their own, they're not always hospitable places to ride a bike, which will discourage people from using them.

Despite unsympathetic drivers, spread-out communities and a lack of infrastructure, there are a few people in the D.C. suburbs who get around by bike. If we want to get anyone else on two wheels, however, we need to make the suburban bicycling experience safer and a lot more enjoyable.

sorry about that . . .

2011-12-22T12:39:00.005-05:00

For the past two weeks, I've been in the basement of Penn's Fine Arts Library, working on my final project for my Urban Design Studio, eating takeout food two meals a day and sleeping an average of five hours a night. For the past two days, I've been scooting around Greater Washington hastily completing my Christmas shopping, eagerly cutting off drivers from Rockville Pike to Tysons Corner in search of gifts.

You can imagine why I haven't posted in a while. I'm working on a couple of posts I'm really excited about and I look forward to getting them out to you by next Monday.

In the meantime: where are you doing your Christmas shopping? I notice that Wheaton Plaza doesn't have as it seemed to two years ago, but it still wasn't that busy. A number of stores at Rockville Town Square have closed since I was last there in the summer, which surprises me. But Tysons Corner Center is as strong as ever.

lifesci village still far from being a reality

2011-12-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

A new rendering of LifeSci Village.

Last week, Montgomery County selected local developer Percontee to turn Site 2, a former sludge treatment plant in White Oak, into LifeSci Village, a $3 billion mini-city designed to compliment the Food and Drug Administration's new campus and a new Washington Adventist Hospital. Despite a series of sexy new project renderings released by Percontee, East County's answer to Cambridge isn't a guarantee yet.

LifeSci Village, which we first wrote about in 2009, would occupy 290 acres on Cherry Hill Road east of Route 29. In addition to the sludge plant, which closed in 1999, the site would include a concrete recycling plant owned by Percontee. Genn has previously said that the project would include roughly two million square feet of offices and research labs, two million additional square feet of shops, hotels and possibly a conference center, and between three and four thousand apartments and townhomes.

2009 site plan of LifeSci Village.

Genn has been talking to the county about LifeSci Village and Site 2 since 2004, so it's not surprising that they picked Percontee over two out-of-area developers less familiar with the project. But in 2009, he told me that a groundbreaking was "not anytime soon." The Post, meanwhile, says that construction could start within the next two years.

What's changed? Last year, the MoCo Planning Department started work on the White Oak Science Gateway Master Plan, which will reinforce LifeSci Village's goal of creating a research hub around the FDA. In addition, the county is studying a Bus Rapid Transit network which could have several lines serving the development.

BRT lines under study in and around White Oak.

Though LifeSci Village has the blessing of both the county and local residents, the White Oak Science Gateway concept has its critics. A study from economic consultants hired by the MoCo Planning Department says that it won't work unless it can get a major research institution, though Genn says he's talked to "very prominent" D.C.-area universities about locating there. Even then, the consultants say, biotech companies might just continue going to the county's other research and development district, the Great Seneca Science Corridor in Gaithersburg, which Percontee helped develop in the 1980's and where Johns Hopkins University plans their own, similarly-minded "Science City" project.

As exciting as the LifeSci Village proposal is, there remain a lot of questions. Who will provide $3 billion in financing for a research campus without a research institution? Is it practical to build 4 million square feet of commercial space and 4,000 homes in an area with no fixed-rail transit? And will Montgomery County be able to lure biotech companies away from the vaunted "Technology Corridor" along I-270?

East County needs a project like this. But it's not yet clear if LifeSci Village will ever go from being a pretty picture to a reality.

county council kills teen curfew proposal

2011-12-06T14:06:00.000-05:00

From David Moon at Maryland Juice:

After nearly six months of debate, County Executive Ike Leggett's controversial youth curfew proposal appears to have died. Today, the County Council voted 6-3 to table the proposal, and immediately voted to table an alternative loitering proposal as well . . .

There was a little bit of procedural drama prior to the votes, however. Councilmember Hans Riemer had motioned to table the curfew proposal, but Councilmember Craig Rice challenged the motion, stating that "tabling" motions are intended to be temporary. (A minority of Councilmembers wanted to simply vote on some of the amendments).

Finally! There isn't much more to say, other than to congratulate Abigail Burman and Leah Muskin-Pierret, who worked tirelessly to stop the curfew since it was first proposed in July. They've been to community meetings, spoke to Councilmembers, and became the public face of youth in Montgomery County when County Executive Leggett sought to portray teenagers as criminals-in-training - all while juggling the demands of high school. Fortunately, their efforts paid off.

Not that this solves the issue (real or perceived) of crime in downtown Silver Spring. We still have to ensure it remains a safe and desirable place to live, work, and hang out. And I deeply hope this curfew fiasco at least gets people willing to have a serious conversation about how to do so.

Thanks again, Abigail and Leah. We should be proud to have kids like them who are willing to stand up for themselves and for their community.

offices aren't enough to turn downtown wheaton around

2011-12-06T11:10:00.000-05:00

Moving Park and Planning here won't help Wheaton much.

County Executive Ike Leggett says the best way to kick-start the revitalization of downtown Wheaton is by moving the Park and Planning Commission there. Will government offices be enough to get the ball rolling? Past experience says it's unlikely.

In October, the Commission received a $200,000 grant to study moving its offices. Its 400 employees work at three offices in and around downtown Silver Spring, including their headquarters (we call it "the Fortress of Planning") at 8787 Georgia Avenue, which dates to the 1950's and is both cramped and obsolete. Eight years ago, the department proposed building a new headquarters on the site called SilverPlace, but it stalled due to a lack of funding.

Enter developer B.F. Saul, which wants to redevelop six county-owned properties in downtown Wheaton totaling eleven acres. They propose building a 120-room hotel, 40,000 square feet of retail space, between 250 apartments, in addition to 900,000 square feet of office space. B.F. Saul and the county are reaching out to government tenants, like the Park and Planning Commission, to fill those offices.

Not everyone's convinced a market for offices in Wheaton even exists. Downtown Wheaton's not too close to established job centers, and its 10,000 current workers pale in comparison to other places throughout the county, such as Bethesda-Chevy Chase (87,000 jobs), Rockville (74,000 jobs), and even Silver Spring (38,000 jobs). Previous visions have instead focused on entertainment or housing in the downtown, while strip mall developer Leonard Greenberg complained Wheaton couldn't support offices back at the height of the real estate boom in 2006.

Even if you could build and rent high-end offices in Wheaton, they won't do much for the local economy. As Richard Layman has pointed out, office workers don't spend much and don't go to a variety of stores.

A rule of thumb is that one worker needs about 250 square feet, so with 900,000 square feet of office space, we can assume that 3,600 people will work there. Retail consultant Robert Gibbs says one worker can support 2 square feet of retail, meaning they'll only be able to support a space of 7,200 square feet, about half the size of a CVS. Gibbs says they can also support 5 square feet of restaurant space, which would equal 18,000 square feet. By comparison, a typical "quick-service restaurant" like Noodles & Company or Chipotle needs about 2,000 square feet, and a sit-down place needs about 6,000 square feet.

It would take 3,600 office workers to keep a Red Lobster, a few Chipotle-like restaurants and half a CVS in business. So how are 400 Park and Planning workers supposed to revitalize Wheaton?

Empty stores on Ennalls Avenue in downtown Wheaton.

We've seen the folly of relying on office tenants, especially government offices, to "fix" an area. In 1986, the Reeves Center was supposed to revitalize U Street with an influx of D.C. government workers, but it really took lots of new residents to turn the neighborhood around. At University Town Center in Hyattsville, the presence of federal agencies wasn't enough to prevent shops and restaurants from closing. Though Alexandria hoped the Patent and Trademark Office would bring Barnes & Noble to town, instead they got fast-food places. (So many, in fact, that my friend who lives there calls it the "Sandwich District.")

The same Planning Department that Ike Leggett wants to move to downtown Wheaton also produced the recently-approved Wheaton Sector Plan, which recognizes that the area can't draw and won't support a lot of office development. As a result, the plan allows for just 3,000 additional jobs, not just in office buildings but in all fields of employment.

Meanwhile, it calls for 6,600 new homes in downtown Wheaton. Housing would do a lot more to turn Wheaton around, because unlike office workers who are only obliged to be there 40 hours a week, residents are there almost all the time, meaning they can spend a lot more money.

New apartment buildings like the Exchange, currently being built at Georgia Avenue and Reedie Drive, could help downtown Wheaton more than offices.

Another boost might come from the new campus of Ana G. Mendez University, a Puerto Rico-based institution that will start offering classes at ~~Westfield Wheaton~~ Wheaton Plaza this winter. The school offers associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees to working adults and classes offered in both English and Spanish. Though its projected enrollment of 600 students within five years means it won't have a big impact on local businesses, the school's evening and weekend classes will bring people to the area at times when most office buildings are dark.

Promoting office development in Wheaton is a good thing. I've written before that it might be a good location for companies with back-of-house operations that don't need a fancy Bethesda address. At the same time, it's not a justification for moving the Park and Planning Commission out of Silver Spring especially when its departure will just leave a vacant lot with no prospects for reuse.

Offices are just part of a strong, vibrant community, and it'll take a lot more to turn Wheaton around. I hope the County Executive is patient enough to embrace all forms of development there, rather than going after a perceived "quick fix."

forgotten village of norwood makes comeback with ICC sign (updated)

2011-12-05T08:45:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: Our friend Matt Johnson from GGW explains what control cities actually are and how the names of certain places end up on highway signs.

Before the InterCounty Connector opened two weeks ago, I've wondered what the exits along the new highway would be called, since much of its route through East County goes through places that are called "Silver Spring". Over Thanksgiving weekend, I got to drive the full length of the road for the first time, and I found my answer.

There is a "Silver Spring" exit, at Route 29. The Georgia Avenue exits are signed "Olney" and "Wheaton," which makes sense, as do the exits for "Ashton" and "White Oak" at New Hampshire Avenue. Things get weird at Layhill Road. There, you can go south for "Glenmont" or north for "Norwood."

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), which sets guidelines for highway design throughout the United States, has rules for listing "control cities" on highway signs. I've never read them, but I'm of the understanding that control cities usually have to be of a certain size to appear on a sign. Also, I imagine that people have to acknowledge them as actual places that, you know, exist.

Glenmont generally makes sense, because it has a Metro station and is generally recognized as a place, though I've never heard anyone say they "live in" Glenmont rather than Silver Spring or Wheaton.

But Norwood? I'm less convinced. There's Norwood Road, which connects to Layhill Road, but I've never heard of a "Norwood, Maryland," and when I entered it into Google Maps, they sent me to Norwood, Massachusetts. OpenStreetMap, the user-generated map, took me to the intersection of Norwood Road and Layhill Road, just north of the ICC.

So I looked at that junction and was even more confused. Google Maps calls it "Colesville". Go west on Norwood Road and you'll find the Sandy Spring Friends School, which not surprisingly gives its address as "Sandy Spring," but go east and there's Blake High School, which says it's in "Silver Spring."

The Red Door Store today.

Then there's the Red Door Store, a beer, wine and deli in a 150-year-old building right at the corner of Norwood and Layhill that closed in 2007. According to the Sandy Spring Museum, the Red Door Store was once a post office for a village called Norwood. Stanley Stabler, who grew up in the area nearly a century ago (and whose family name appears on a street nearby), recalls what the area was like:

Norwood at the time was known as Holland's Corner. Where the Red Door Country Store trades today, James Holland opened a store about 1860 and in 1889 became the first postmaster. Nearby was a scales and a smithy run by Lawrence Budd. All around stood fine homes: Snowden Manor of the Quaker Hollands, Llewellyn Fields, Plainfield, Woodlawn, and the home called Norwood.

Map of historic Norwood courtesy of the Sandy Spring Museum.

So, let's get this clear: Norwood was a house, then a post office. The village of Holland's Corner eventually became the village of Norwood around 1890. And today, it's either Colesville, Sandy Spring, or more likely Silver Spring.

Given that convoluted history, perhaps the real question is what Norwood will be. Before Francis Preston Blair discovered the Silver Spring, the area around Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road was called "Simpsonville." The Sandy Spring Museum's website lists all sorts of places in East County that have been lost to the sands of time, like Oakdale and Cincinnati. With Norwood's newfound status as a highway exit, it doesn't have to go the same way.

Who knows? In twenty years, people might say they live in Norwood rather than Sandy Spring, Silver Spring or anything else. Of course, it would help if the Red Door Store reopened. Norwood doesn't have much of a reason to exist without, you know, actual things to do there.

MoCo public safety committee rejects youth curfew

2011-12-01T11:30:00.000-05:00

Just now, the County Council's Public Safety Committee voted 2-1 to reject County Executive Leggett's proposed teen curfew. This isn't really a surprise, because two of the three councilmembers on the committee are Phil Andrews (D-Rockville) and soon-to-be Council President Roger Berliner (D-Bethesda), who both oppose it. The third, Councilmember Marc Elrich (D-At Large), seems sympathetic at best.

From our friend David Moon at Maryland Juice:

[Berliner] complained that the curfew proposal sends the incorrect message that Montgomery County is unsafe, when crime statistics prove otherwise. He proceeded to note that other jurisdictions imposing a curfew likely did so under very different circumstances than the outlier crimes facing the County Executive. Mr. Berliner stated that "the curfew comes with high cost to the community's reputation" and that "we have enough data to say this is not who we are." He further added, "I regret that the County Executive feels so strongly about this and has invested so much personal time in this.... I think we need to just say we see it differently."

I especially appreciate Councilmember Berliner's statement that the curfew affects Montgomery County's reputation and its perception of "who we are." While the media (and County Executive Leggett) have been giddy to highlight youth crimes over the past few months, including last month's "flash robbery" in Silver Spring, to many, MoCo is still a county of overachiever kids and "Top Teens." And to them, proposing a curfew is at best stupid, and at worst an offense to good kids who haven't done anything wrong.

And as David says, if you'd like to put this stupid proposal bereft of community support out of its misery already, shoot an e-mail to testimony@stopthecurfew.net, which will go to all nine County Councilmembers before December 6.

visiting the flower avenue holiday market

2011-12-01T08:30:00.001-05:00

One of the vendors at the Flower Avenue Holiday Market, running through December 24 in Long Branch.

I'm swamped with schoolwork this week, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my visit to the Flower Avenue Holiday Market last Saturday. As our guest blogger Amanda Kolson Hurley wrote last week, Silver Spring residents Christopher Lancette and Won-ok Kim started the Flower Avenue Holiday Market as an extension of their home-based antiques business, Orion's Attic. They'd already staged many successful "upscale yard sales" out of their previous home a few blocks away, but weren't sure if they were ready for a brick-and-mortar store.

Luckily, they were steered by Reemberto Rodriguez of the Silver Spring Regional Center to a parking lot at Flower Avenue and Arliss Street in Long Branch, whose owner Greg Fernebok was more than happy to lend them the space. The money Lancette and Kim would be paying in rent will go to IMPACT Silver Spring, a local nonprofit group that helped locate craftspeople in the area who were looking for a place to sell their wares.

Sarah Gingold from Think Outside the Store.

There were about a dozen vendors at the inaugural market last Saturday, offering a variety of goods from used books to knit hats. Some were offering knowledge as well. Sarah Gingold, a self-described "clothing artist" who runs a studio in downtown Silver Spring called Think Outside the Store, taught me how to repair a hole in old jeans.

There are plenty of holiday markets operating throughout the D.C. area this month, but if you're interested in supporting Silver Spring-area craftspeople, this is the one to hit up. The Flower Avenue Holiday Market, located at the corner of Flower Avenue and Arliss Street in Long Branch, will run Saturdays from 9am to 4pm through December 24.

what's up the pike: thanksgiving?

2011-11-24T12:37:00.000-05:00

I know I said I wasn't going to post today (what with the whole being with friends and loved ones thing), but I couldn't resist. Here are a few things I'm thankful for this year:

"Things I'm Thankful For" lists. Our friends at Greater Greater Washington are giving thanks for urban blessings today. I didn't add any because I don't currently live in the D.C. area, but I guess I'm thankful for being able to get out of Philadelphia for four days.

And over at Colesville Patch, friend of JUTP Whitney Teal has a list of things she's thankful for in East County (and one of them is this blog!) Thanks, Whitney. I met her two years ago before she joined Patch, and of all the umpteen local Patches I've enjoyed hers the most. (Not that the Silver Spring, Wheaton and Takoma Park Patches are any slouches, but I recognize the challenge of writing about the "Upper East Side" of MoCo.)

The Silver Spring Historical Society, whose Jerry McCoy sent JUTP this ad from Lee's Tea Garden, the first Chinese restaurant to open in MoCo way back in 1936:

This Thanksgiving advertisement was published in the November 18, 1938 "Maryland News." L. S. Ling opened Lee's Tea Garden that year in the equally new Silver Spring Shopping Center (the restaurant's space is today occupied by Panera Bread's kitchen). The oldest known Chinese restaurant serving Cantonese dishes in Montgomery County, Lee's was renamed Shanghai when it reopened in 1950 at 1201 Fidler Lane. This beloved restaurant remained in operation for half a century, closing in 2000. Even in 1938, 85c was a good price. Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent to $13.55 today. Try finding a four course meal for that.

My aunt and cousin's restaurant, Li'l GT Cafe in Petworth, where I'll be spending part of my Thanksgiving today . . .

and my boyfriend, Professor Vegetable, who no doubt will be trying to feed me Tofurkey later on.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all. This time, I mean it: I'll see you on Monday.

"if it works for kids, it works for everyone"

2011-11-23T11:30:00.000-05:00

I'm currently trying out the ICC as I go home to East County for Thanksgiving. Posting will resume Monday, unless I get bored. If not, I'll see you next week. Happy Thanksgiving!

Kids goofing off on Bethesda Avenue in downtown Bethesda.

We assume that kids belong in the suburbs, where they've got yards to play in and great schools to learn in. But it's not a foregone conclusion that good, urban neighborhoods can produce good kids as well.

Twenty years ago, sociologist Ray Oldenburg wrote in The Great, Good Place that teenagers are a litmus test for a neighborhood's "vitality":

“The adolescent houseguest, I would suggest, is probably the best and quickest test of the vitality of the neighborhood; the visiting teenager in the subdivision soon acts like an animal in a cage. He or she paces, looks unhappy or uncomfortable, and by the second day is putting heavy pressure on the parents to leave. There is no place to which they can escape and join their own kind. There is nothing for them to do on their own.”

What do teenagers need? The ability to get around without a driver's license, for starters. A 15-year-old who can get around town on foot, on transit, or by bike or skateboard isn't just a convenience for their parents, who don't have to shuttle them around after school. They're given the tools for their own independence and self-discovery. So the ideal place for a teenager is probably a neighborhood with sidewalks and bike lanes, ample public transit, and schools, shops and hangouts located within close range to home. It sounds a lot like Takoma Park, Bethesda, or below-the-Beltway Silver Spring. Rockville, with its new town center and excellent bike network, isn't far behind.

Scott Doyon at the PlaceShakers blog also notes that these places give kids the valuable opportunity to make mistakes:

For a child, having increasing opportunities to navigate the world around them, explore, invent, fall down, scrape knees, make decisions, screw up, get into — and solve — conflicts and, ultimately, achieve a sense of personal identity and self-sufficiency is a good thing. The right thing.

Of course, kids who can actually get around on their own two feet might do some unsavory things. Some of the kids who walk to downtown Bethesda, for instance, might've gone to buy drugs at the movie theatre on Wisconsin Avenue. But it's not like the car-bound kids in Germantown and Olney weren't doing that, and it's a lot harder to hide destructive behaviors when you're not in a two-ton vehicle.

Kids talking on a stoop in Kentlands.

The first time I was allowed to go anywhere by myself was at age eight, when my family lived in Georgian Towers in downtown Silver Spring. Given, I was only taking the elevator from our apartment to the lobby, but I was so excited I screamed the whole way down. Pretty soon, I could walk to my friends' apartments, across the street to Woodside Park, around the corner to 7-Eleven, and so on. This ended a few years later when we moved to Calverton, where there's very little within walking distance. But I still knew that I had the power to do things on my own.

My twelve-year-old brother, meanwhile, has spent his entire life in Calverton. When he's not at school, he's at home playing video games, but I've noticed he doesn't have a close group of friends because they don't live nearby. Last year, I took him to walk with my former boss, Councilmember Leventhal in a parade in Kentlands, one of Montgomery County's few truly walkable neighborhoods.

"Isn't this great, Tyler?" I asked as I took him around Kentlands' Main Street, where we could see kids ducking into shops and hanging out in a little green. "Kids your age who live in this neighborhood can walk to school, to friends' houses, and to the movies! Wouldn't you like that?"

Tyler looked at me like I'd said the sky was green. "Why would I want to walk?" he replied. "Mom and Dad can just drive me there."

Outside Blair High School on University Boulevard. Kids who have to walk in a place like this likely can't wait to drive.

As a result, I tend to see most of the issues I write about, from better bike trails and infill development to skateparks and curfews, from the perspective of kids like my brother. I don't just think that good urbanism can make better communities. I think it makes better kids: confident, independent, and more aware of the world around them.

We talk about how urban neighborhoods are drawing young adults and senior citizens alike. But they have a lot to offer kids and teenagers, as well. That's the great part about good urbanism: it can work for everyone, regardless of age or situation.

proposed teen curfew on life support

2011-11-23T07:00:00.001-05:00

From the Examiner:

Most Montgomery County Council members say they do not support the youth curfew County Executive Ike Leggett has pushed since July, despite a flash mob robbery at a 7-Eleven in Silver Spring last weekend.

Though the council was scheduled to vote on the bill Dec. 6, that vote has been canceled, said Councilman Roger Berliner, D-Bethesda, who is set to take over as council president next month. No new vote has been scheduled.

Councilmember Berliner has been called a "skeptic" of County Executive Ike Leggett's proposed curfew, which would ban teens under 18 from being out at night. As Council President, he'll set the council's schedule, including votes, and it's likely a curfew vote won't be at the top of his agenda.

For now, though, the county government's website still looks like what Thomas Nephew from the MoCo Civil Rights Coalition jokingly calls the "Office of Curfew Advocacy":

It's funny: Leggett's office sent out a press release announcing that the Civil Rights Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union have "joined" him in opposing the anti-loitering bill proposed by Councilmembers Phil Andrews and George Leventhal (full disclosure: my former boss). Of course, both organizations also oppose the curfew, but nobody has to know about that.

I'm glad this curfew crap could be over soon. I know curfew supporters had their hearts in the right place, and hopefully we'll get an opportunity to find more productive solutions to the problem (real or perceived) of youth crime.

As for the anti-loitering bill: it looks like it's still scheduled for review by the Council's Public Safety Committee next Tuesday, December 1, but it's unclear when a vote will occur. I don't feel much better about it than I do about the curfew, but I hope it'll bring us closer to a conversation about those "productive solutions" I just mentioned.

urban land institute confuses downtown DC and downtown silver spring

2011-11-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

I always enjoy when photos I post on Flickr pop up in random places, even though I don't always get credit for them. But I was especially impressed to find a photo I took of Ellsworth Drive in, of all places, a report on ways to fix the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in the District:

The report, produced by experts from the Urban Land Institute, talks about finding other uses for the library, which is the only work by Modernist architect Mies van der Rohe in the District. It's supposed to make a case for downtown D.C. as a great location for offices or other activities. And to make that point, there's a photo of kids hanging out on Ellsworth Drive.

I'm guessing someone confused it with Gallery Place, also reviled by the hipster/yuppie masses for being a high-school hangout? But I listed the photo under "east montgomery county" and "downtown silver spring," so presumably you'd only find it if you searched those terms.

Oh well. (See? Teenagers are good for business!)

guest blog: flower avenue holiday market opens this weekend

2011-11-21T09:00:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving may mark the start of the holiday season, but it doesn't mean the end of shopping outside. Amanda Kolson Hurley, friend of JUTP/Silver Spring resident/freelance writer who's responsible for my appearance in a professional magazine, sends us this guest blog about the Flower Avenue Holiday Market, making its début this weekend.

Market founders Christopher Lancette (right) and Won-ok Kim.

A few weeks ago, the Fenton Street Market's long struggle with county bureaucracy seemed to resolve in a happy ending, with the market - which closed out its season on Nov. 12 - likely to return to Veterans Plaza next spring. Now a wintertime antique and flea market opening this weekend in Long Branch will help bridge the gap until FSM's return (fingers crossed).

The Flower Avenue Holiday Market will run on Saturdays from Nov. 26 through Dec. 24 at the corner of Flower Avenue and Arliss Street, one a block from Piney Branch Road. Open from 9 am to 4 pm, it will sell used furniture, antiques, art, vintage toys, local crafts, and more, says Christopher Lancette, a Silver Spring resident who's organizing the new market with his girlfriend and business partner, Won-ok Kim.

Lancette and Kim run Orion's Attic, a home-based antiques business they grew by staging "upscale yard sales" and selling through their website and on Craigslist and Ebay. They weren't ready for a full retail store, but a seasonal market - one that could build on and complement Fenton Street's success - seemed ideal.

Reemberto Rodriguez of the Silver Spring Regional Center steered them to the one-acre parking lot on busy Flower Avenue, and the lot's owner, Greg Fernebok of The Harvey Companies, was so taken with the idea that he offered to donate the lot rental fee to a nonprofit group, IMPACT Silver Spring. IMPACT will also have a role in the market itself - Lancette emphasizes that doing social good and nurturing local micro-businesses are central to the mission. Longer term, Lancette and Kim hope that their venture, in tandem with Fenton Street, Freshfarm, and other local markets, can make Silver Spring a regional "market destination," an idea he's discussed with State Senator Jamie Raskin.

Nine or 10 vendors in addition to Orion's Attic have already signed up, Lancette says, and he and Kim are looking for more. See the Orion's Attic website for the application form and more details, and stop by the market's opening day this Saturday, November 26 from 9am to 4pm.

the dc streetcar should totally go to silver spring

2011-11-18T12:00:00.000-05:00

These people are waiting for a streetcar to Silver Spring.

Evan Glass, friend of JUTP/president of the South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association, writes that two MoCo councilmembers want to bring the fabled D.C. streetcar to downtown Silver Spring. Right now, the District plans a line along Georgia Avenue, but only between downtown D.C. and Takoma. From the SSSNA blog:

Montgomery Councilmembers Nancy Floreen and Hans Riemer are urging County Executive Ike Leggett and DC Mayor Vincent Gray to consider extending DC’s Georgia Avenue streetcar all the way to the Silver Spring Metro station, rather than making the Takoma Metro station its final destination (as is currently planned).

The logic of the two at-large councilmembers is straightforward: the Silver Spring terminal connects more people to transit than the Takoma station. Redirecting the streetcars north on Georgia Avenue would also help revitalize the struggling corridor’s small businesses.

“While the terminus of each route is at a Metro Station, Silver Spring is also served by MARC Commuter Rail, as well as 46 bus routes and approximately 120 buses per hour in the peak hour—versus 15 bus routes and approximately 50 buses per hour at Takoma,” the duo wrote in a letter to Gray and Leggett.

This idea makes a tremendous amount of sense. Silver Spring was served by a streetcar line along Georgia Avenue fifty years ago, and a new line would help reconnect it to neighborhoods like Brightwood, Petworth and Columbia Heights that are fairly close but sometimes hard to reach. It would also provide access to South Silver Spring, which right now is kind of a hike from the Metro, and to a redeveloped Walter Reed Hospital, which is being used as justification to get a Georgia Avenue streetcar built sooner.

Georgia Avenue's already a well-traveled corridor: when combined, the 70 and 79 Metrobus routes, which runs along Georgia Avenue, have the highest ridership in the system, with 18,000 riders each weekday. (By comparison, the entire Portland Streetcar system gets about 12,000 riders each weekday.) I doubt that the people riding those buses to reach Silver Spring would willingly take a streetcar to Takoma and switch to something else.

At the same time, bringing the streetcar to Silver Spring would make the DC Streetcar project far more complicated to execute. The District can move quickly on their proposed 37-mile streetcar plan because it's entirely within their jurisdiction. (They're not moving particularly fast, but they could if they wanted to.) Adding Montgomery County and Maryland into the mix, even for the one mile between the county line and the Silver Spring Metro, means that District leaders will have to go through several additional layers of community boards, elected officials and government bureaucracy to get anything done.

All the more reason to get Montgomery County electeds on board. I'm glad Councilmembers Riemer and Floreen are reaching out to Mayor Gray, and I hope County Executive Ike Leggett is cooperative as well.

(I'm especially hopeful that a streetcar along Georgia Avenue would help reposition downtown Silver Spring as "the next hot neighborhood" in D.C. rather than a out-of-the-way suburb. Over the summer, I lived in a Petworth group house that was about halfway between downtown D.C. and downtown Silver Spring, but my roommates acted like Silver Spring was the end of the world.)

more visions of bike lanes, this time in silver spring (updated)

2011-11-18T09:05:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: Wayne Phyillaier has an excellent write-up on yesterday's Planning Board meeting and some of the other issues surrounding the Bethesda Tunnel.

Yesterday, the Planning Board voted to move the Bethesda Purple Line station out of a tunnel beneath Wisconsin Avenue rather than run the Capital Crescent Trail on the street, which I wrote about yesterday. Their decision isn't binding - it's just a recommendation to the Maryland Transit Administration, which is planning the Purple Line. ~~- but it's awfully shortsighted~~ (The Planning Board "send a very clear message that it will make the alternate trail surface route a priority, especially if the trail is removed from the tunnel," writes Wayne Phyillaier, which is good news.) Not only would moving the Purple Line stop inconvenience people taking the train, but it ignores the real possibilities of creating an on-street biking network that's just as good as one in a tunnel.

Anyway, I whipped up a few Photoshop renderings for yesterday's post to show what an on-street trail might look like in downtown Bethesda, but here a few more I did of Silver Spring:

Bike lanes along Fenton Street at Easley Street in downtown Silver Spring.

Bike lanes replace parking along Second Avenue at Cameron Street.

A few blocks north in Woodside, the bike lane becomes a "sharrow," which denote streets where cars are meant to share the space with bikes. This is one of the tools that Portland uses to turn residential streets like this stretch of Second Avenue into "bike boulevards," in which bikes are given priority.

On GGW, Shane Farthing from the Washington Area Bicyclist Association argued that creating a safe biking experience takes a lot more than the green stripes I showed. And he's right. Just striping a bike lane doesn't mean it'll get used, nor does it mean that drivers will respect it. It takes a lot more, like physically separated lanes, planting areas, and even different paving materials to show that this space belongs to bicyclists, not drivers.

I've always felt that bicycling is an important part of the urban realm, but it wasn't until I actually took up bicycling when I moved to Philadelphia last year that I realized how fun and convenient it is. I'd like to think I could move back to Montgomery County and keep it up, but the infrastructure just isn't there. I'm glad MoCo is exploring bikeshare in Rockville and now in Bethesda and Silver Spring, but I'm not sure how many people will use without a real network of bike routes. Biking isn't for everyone, but unless we make it a safe and practical form of transportation, it won't be for anyone at all.

Even if bicyclists get to use a tunnel for a couple of blocks under downtown Bethesda.

on-street capital crescent trail could be a better experience for bikes and peds

2011-11-17T09:00:00.001-05:00

Rising costs may force parts of the Capital Crescent Trail onto local streets, but it could actually give pedestrians and bicyclists a better experience.

Ever since the Purple Line was first envisioned as a trolley between Bethesda and Silver Spring in 1986, plans have included a bike and pedestrian trail next to the tracks, giving people an alternative to negotiating busy streets. Today, the Capital Crescent Trail is a popular amenity. A survey done in 2006 counted 23,000 people using the trail at one point in downtown Bethesda.

Meanwhile, the Maryland Transit Administration says rebuilding the Capital Crescent Trail next to the Purple Line could cost as much as $103 million, $40 million of which would go to building a raised platform for the trail in a tunnel beneath Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda. That's why Montgomery County planners are looking at placing the trail above ground, as Matt Johnson wrote about yesterday. Not only is this option cheaper, but it'll be better for users and for neighborhoods.

Alternatives for an on-street route through downtown Bethesda. Image courtesy of the Montgomery County Planning Department.

Supporters of separated tunnels and bridges over busy streets say it makes pedestrians (and occasionally bicyclists) safer by keeping them away from heavy car traffic. But they can also isolate users from their surroundings, encouraging criminal activity. Both the Forest Glen pedestrian bridge and the Metropolitan Branch Trail, which sit above the street level, have had problems with attacks and muggings.

At the same time, taking pedestrians and bicyclists from the street only reinforces the thinking that they don't belong there. "I think [Montgomery] County doesn't seriously take biking as a form of transportation," said Peter Wolf of the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail when I interviewed himin 2007. "For me to be seen biking to work or biking in my neighborhood, it's seen as a little . . . odd."

The 15th Street cycle track.

Putting more pedestrians and bicyclists on the street in Bethesda shows that they have a right to use that space and makes those activities seem "normal." Building wider sidewalks or a parallel path like the Silver Spring Green Trail provides ample room for pedestrians walking for transportation or recreation. Cycle tracks, like the one that currently exists along 15th Street in the District, give bicyclists a protected route away from car traffic similar to what they'd have on the Capital Crescent Trail. This would give users the protection the Capital Crescent Trail currently provides while allowing them to see their surroundings and be seen, making them feel safer.

Not only that, but an on-street trail would provide direct access to homes, shops, and places of work in downtown Bethesda. The existing tunnel only has entrances at Woodmont Avenue and Elm Street, meaning that anyone going to places in between already has to use surface streets.

These changes may require taking out car lanes or removing on-street parking, as county planners recommend, which might increase congestion. But it will also help to slow car traffic in Bethesda, an area where drivers shouldn't be allowed to speed through anyway, while providing safe, attractive alternatives to driving for short-distance trips. That could help reduce car traffic, in turn making it even safer for people to walk and bike around downtown Bethesda.

What a trail network might look like at the intersection of Bethesda and Woodmont avenues.What a trail network might look like on Wisconsin Avenue.

Placing the Capital Crescent Trail on local streets in downtown Bethesda to accommodate the Purple Line doesn't have to be an inconvenience for trail users. In fact, it could make Bethesda a better and safer place to live and visit. It also helps conserve money for other portions of the trail, which currently dead-ends 1.5 miles short of its intended terminus in downtown Silver Spring. As trail advocate and contributor Wayne Phyillaier points out, eliminating the Bethesda tunnel may be the only way to finish the trail.

Developing a network of off-street trails is a great way to tie our region together, and finishing the Capital Crescent Trail is an important part of it. But it's also important to provide links to neighborhood and activity centers, and the best way to do that is on surface streets. Running the trail through downtown Bethesda instead of under it lets us build that regional network while also giving local communities the option to bike or walk.

another ICC post

2011-11-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

The ICC under construction near Layhill Road in 2009.

In less than two weeks, the newest segment of the InterCounty Connector opens, extending the toll highway from Georgia Avenue to I-95. Some neighbors are already worrying about what the road will bring:

David Plihal, president of the Stonegate Citizens Association, which represents about 1,400 homes off Bonifant Road in northern Silver Spring, said he’s concerned that the ICC will bring more local traffic by spurring development in the area.“I think people are resigned to the fact that it’s there and it’s built,” Plihal said, “and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

I appreciate his frustration. I was never entirely comfortable with the highway being built, and I admit it really sucks for people whose neighborhoods are now bounded by it.

There's a jobs and housing divide in Montgomery County (and Greater Washington as a whole), with most of the region's jobs on the west side in places like Gaithersburg and most of its residents in places like East County. I'm nervous that the ICC will just make it easier for people here to go over there, only reinforcing that division.

But it also has the potential to change the way people think about all parts of Montgomery County, which could result in more investment in East County. This Washington Post article from 2005 predicts that the highway will dramatically increase the level of development allowed over here, due to formulas the county uses based on how much "capacity" local roads have.

Does David Plihal really want to get on the highway that goes through his backyard and drive to Gaithersburg for work or shopping? Or would he rather have those things closer to home, meaning he won't have to travel as far? If the InterCounty Connector works as planned, people in East County might have a lot fewer reasons to go west. That might mean more "traffic," but it means residents like Plihal get to spend their time actually doing things rather than going elsewhere to do things.

(Of course, it's worth questioning why MoCo used to only allow development in areas with less traffic, meaning that places that are congested but are accessible by foot/bike/transit like downtown Silver Spring got passed over for decades, but that's for another post.)

leggett impatient for vote on his curfew proposal

2011-11-09T10:51:00.000-05:00

From the Examiner:

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett wants to know why the County Council hasn't made a decision on his proposed youth curfew yet . . .

"It's time to recognize the introduction of the loitering bill for what it really is — a stall tactic intended to confuse the debate on the curfew bill and delay action on the curfew bill," Leggett wrote. "Even if the loitering bill never goes anywhere and withers on the vine at council, it is nonetheless serving its intended purpose: to deny council members who support the curfew bill their rightful opportunity to vote on it."

So let's get this straight:

County Executive Ike Leggett proposes a curfew based on a couple of isolated incidents last summer, despite stats that say crime is dropping and an actual drop in crime when the county placed more cops in Silver Spring.

Leggett says he'll disregard the countless studies saying curfews don't work and creates a media firestorm that negatively portrays downtown Silver Spring as being overrun with gangs, hurting its reputation at a time when it needs as much business as it can get.

The County PTAs are opposed. Seniors at Leisure World, one of Leggett's core constituencies, are opposed as well. Of course, so are the the kids the curfew would affect, who were invited to town hall meetings so they could get talked town to.Just two of the five Citizens Advisory Boards appointed to give Leggett advice have endorsed the curfew, while two others refused to take a vote and one hasn't voted at all.

On top of that, Leggett still lacks the support of a majority of Councilmembers! And one of his biggest allies, Phil Andrews, has become the leading opponent of the curfew.

Does he wonder why the council hasn't taken a vote AND has proposed an alternative (which isn't much better than a curfew but might end this discussion once and for all?)

This isn't about a curfew anymore. This is about a leader who's bereft of the ability to lead, and when he doesn't get his way, he whines like a little kid. Ike, I think it's time to give it up.

nothing says single-family homes and townhomes can't play together

2011-11-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Townhomes proposed by local developer EYA on the site of the former Chelsea School could look like ones they built a few years ago in Arlington.

Neighbors of Chelsea Court, a proposed townhouse development at the site of the former Chelsea School outside downtown Silver Spring complain it's too dense for a neighborhood of single-family homes, and last month, the County Council agreed. But why can't different housing types coexist?

Local developer EYA bought the Chelsea School's campus in May 2010 after the private academy announced they were closing. EYA, which has built dozens of townhome and condominium projects around Greater Washington over the past twenty years, wants to build 76 townhomes on the site, located in the Seven Oaks neighborhood less than a block from downtown Silver Spring. To do so, they need the County Council to change the property's zoning, which right now only allows single-family homes.

There's a group of neighbors who say they'd prefer detached houses, while county planners and blogger Silver Spring, Singular, who also lives in the neighborhood, point out that there's already high-rise buildings in the area.

Neighbors will always complain that a development is "too dense" on the basis of overcrowded schools or congested roads, though that isn't really an issue with two-bedroom townhouses within walking distance of a large urban center. So let's talk about the other issue: is it a foregone conclusion that you can't have single-family homes, townhomes and apartments in the same neighborhood? Not at all, especially if they're designed to get along with each other.

View Larger Map

This is the corner of 47th Street and Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia, about three blocks from my house here. The specific neighborhood is called Garden Court, and it was built in the 1920's as a "streetcar suburb" for middle- and upper-middle-class families. Even as much of West Philadelphia fell into disinvestment and poverty, this neighborhood has been relatively stable. Today, it's home to many students and faculty at Penn, Drexel and other universities in the area. Even a rowhouse here will easily run above $500,000, a bargain by D.C.-area standards but expensive for here.

Take a look at this intersection. On three corners are large, single-family homes. Next to them are duplexes, maybe a little smaller but still more than enough room for a family. Go west on Osage about a hundred feet, or east one block, and you'll find rowhouses. See that big building poking through the trees? That's a high-rise condominium, just a block north.

Different types of houses mix well in my West Philadelphia neighborhood, so why can't they in Silver Spring?

This neighborhood's not a bad comparison to, say, Woodside Park or Seven Oaks, neighborhoods adjacent to downtown Silver Spring. Woodside Park and Seven Oaks were built around the same time. Though those neighborhoods have bigger lots and lack sidewalks, they were intended for the same, well-heeled clientele. And both have a mix of different house types, sizes and heights.

Nonetheless, Garden Court has the benefit of being built all at once, so the high-rise building has similar details and materials as the single-family houses. In the neighborhoods around downtown Silver Spring, you might have single-family homes built before World War II, apartment buildings built in the 1960's, and townhouses built more recently.

Certainly, living next to a genteel 1920's apartment house might be nicer than living next to a 1960's Modernist apartment tower. It's not surprising that some people living in neighborhoods like Seven Oaks are uncomfortable with new development when they have to contend with buildings that aren't so sensitive to their context.

View Larger MapTownhomes in Chelsea Court will look at Colesville Towers, a 1960's-era apartment tower.

Yet my example shows that single-family houses and townhouses and apartments can play together if done right. Like the different housing types in my West Philadelphia neighborhood, the proposed Chelsea Court houses use similar materials and detailing as existing homes nearby, while providing a opportunity for families who can't afford or don't want a detached house to live there. What makes Silver Spring a great place to live is that it attracts a mix of people, and that comes from having a mix of housing styles, types and prices. And like I wrote last week, those qualities are threatened when we try to push out anyone or anything that seems "different" than what's already there.

Like any development in an existing neighborhood, Chelsea Court needs to fit in with its context. But that doesn't have anything to do with how dense it is. In fact, an urban center like Silver Spring needs new residents within walking distance of its shops, restaurants, and extensive public transit. What we can do is ensure that these new townhouses are designed to complement their single-family neighbors. It's been done before, and we can do it again.

MoCo may be diverse, but it's not integrated yet

2011-11-02T09:00:00.000-04:00

Last year, Montgomery County became majority-minority for the first time. But our neighborhoods aren't as integrated as they could be, threatening the county's ability to grow and prosper.

On Sunday, the Post featured a cover story on newly-diverse suburban neighborhoods across the United States, focusing on the Hillandale neighborhood of Silver Spring:

From one end of McGovern Drive to the other, and on adjacent streets, a boundless diversity continues: immigrants, or their offspring, from Jamaica and Haiti, Egypt and Israel; African Americans who have lived there for 20 years; and whites who bought their homes when Lyndon Johnson was president.

Since 1999, my family's lived in Calverton, which like Hillandale a few miles away was until recently a predominantly-white community. In 1990, whites made up almost three-fourths of Calverton's roughly 11,000 residents. Though the neighborhood has grown by more than half since then, whites and blacks make up equal shares of its population, at about 39 percent each. The Asian population's been steady, but the Hispanic contingent has tripled to become one-tenth of the community. Check out this graph (it may not add up to 100% because Hispanics are counted as an ethnicity, not a race):

Yet as Montgomery County becomes more polyglot, it's not necessarily integrated. Two years ago, my brother graduated from Galway Elementary School in Calverton. Its nearly 800 students are half black, a quarter Hispanic and just 4.3 percent white. In a neighborhood where the median household income is $76,000 a year and the average home sells for nearly $400,000, 60 percent of students are on free or reduced lunch. In addition, test scores are generally lower than they are at elementary schools elsewhere in the county.

Signs at Galway Elementary are written in English and Spanish. Photo by Mark Doore, Calverton Citizens Association.

Where are Calverton's white and middle-class residents? Some of our neighbors have moved away to Rockville or Olney, which are generally more affluent and have higher-rated public schools. Those who remained chose to "opt out" of the system, putting their kids in private school. They also take part in other exclusive amenities, like the members-only Calverton Swim Club across the street from Galway. A quick look at the club's website reveals a mirror image of the school:

The membership of Calverton Swim Club remains predominantly white, though the neighborhood isn't. Photo by Mark Doore, Calverton Citizens Association.

This isn't necessarily a problem for our family. My parents are very involved in my brother's education and are generally happy with his experience at Galway and now at Briggs Chaney Middle School, which is slightly more diverse. While my family aren't members of the Calverton Swim Club, we can go to the nicer and public Martin Luther King, Jr. Pool, which has water slides and a lazy river.

At the same time, it's generally recognized that the United States will cease to be a predominantly-white nation in about thirty years, and we're seeing the beginnings of that in Montgomery County. This actually puts us in the catbird seat: if we're going to compete in a global society, we must be able to understand and react to cultural differences. Your kids might be having birthday parties with Salvadorian, Iranian and Korean kids today, but they're preparing themselves to do business with people from those countries in the future.

Montgomery County has the ability to use its polyglot population as a strength, to create better, unified communities and draw investment and ideas from around the world. Yet it's frequently thwarted when more fortunate residents try to keep the less privileged out or, as in Calverton, "opt out" of the community altogether.

For years, the Columbia Country Club and the Town of Chevy Chase has fought to keep the Purple Line out of their community. A community group in Silver Spring tried to remove a soccer field in a local park because Hispanic teams from outside the neighborhood were using it. And neighbors in Bethesda had a vacant home demolished rather than letting a homeless family live there. These actions may benefit a small minority, but in the end, they hurt everyone.

This county's long had a reputation for progressive politics due to our affordable housing program and agricultural preserve. As a result, we tend to take diversity for granted, assuming that having Hispanic Heritage Month each October or occasionally eating ethnic food in Wheaton is enough. (Meanwhile, some are afraid to eat in Wheaton at all.) But this isn't enough. In order to fully take advantage of the county's diversity, and to ensure that everyone has a place here, we have to create truly integrated communities.

This might just look like a game, but it represents the future of Montgomery County.

How can we do this? We have to work even harder to create an equitable school system, ensuring students in affluent "Green Zone" schools and struggling "Red Zone" schools get the same level of education. Meanwhile, we have to continue investing in older communities like Silver Spring where "Red Zone" schools are located to give people the option of staying rather than moving further out and self-segregating.

We have to create neighborhoods that are accessible to a broad swath of the population, by providing a mix of housing styles and prices. In addition, we have to make it safer and easier to get around by foot, by bike and by public transit, which benefit all residents, not just those who can afford a car. And we have to make everyone feel welcome here, instead of scapegoating immigrants or teenagers.

Most importantly, we have to have the political wherewithal to do these things, rather than capitulate to groups who fight to preserve the status quo.

It's been a long time since Montgomery County was the "perfect suburbia," and it's not always clear what we'll become. Nonetheless, we have the opportunity to become something even greater. It won't be easy, but if we want to ensure the county's continued prosperity, we don't have a choice.

a new name isn't enough for east county science center

2011-10-28T09:00:00.000-04:00

Admiring a map of the now-renamed White Oak Science Gateway.

Area residents and businesspeople wanted a new name for the East County Science Center, an area bounded by New Hampshire Avenue, Columbia Pike and Cherry Hill Road where county planners seek to draw research and development firms seeking to be near the new campus of the Food and Drug Administration.

The new moniker? Welcome to the White Oak Science Gateway.

The name first appeared a month ago, when members of an advisory committee for the plan raised concerns about how vague "East County Science Center" was. From the Gazette:

“What’s East County?” Stocks [Jere Stocks, president of Washington Adventist Hospital] said. “It could be anywhere. ... The name really didn’t fit. I think what we have now, it puts us on the map in terms of national perspective.”

I've long used "East County" to describe the communities I talk about on this blog, because they're all unincorporated (meaning they lack their own government or strict boundaries) and there often isn't a better term. Many people in this part of Montgomery County (we'll define it as "everything east of Rock Creek Park") say they live in Silver Spring, and I support that, though people who live closer to downtown Silver Spring have other ideas. Of course, this doesn't work if you live in Burtonsville or Olney or Takoma Park, which all are generally recognized as places in their own right, or in a place like White Oak, which has a much weaker identity.

If we want to draw companies from around the country and around the world to a science park which right now exists only on paper, it has to have a compelling name. Everyone recognizes Cambridge or Silicon Valley or the Research Triangle. "East County Science Center," as Jere Stocks points out, could be anywhere in the world.

This isn't the first time that MoCo's tried to rename a place. While working for Councilmember George Leventhal last year, I got to help think of a new name for the Gaithersburg West Master Plan, another area where planners want to create a home for research and development. The problem with the name "Gaithersburg West" was that the area it covered wasn't so much "west of Gaithersburg" as it was a bunch of unincorporated areas surrounding the City of Gaithersburg with no connection or relationship to each other.

My suggestion was to call it the Great Seneca Science Cluster, because Great Seneca Highway ran through at least some parts of the master plan area, and it was a name that ordinary people would recognize. It stuck, even though "Cluster" became "Corridor." The name isn't perfect, but it sounds like it could be a place, and if everything goes as planned the Great Seneca Science Corridor will actually be a place.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: A great name for a place, but also a significant destination for scientists and researchers around the world.

Will the White Oak Science Gateway be so lucky? I worry. I wouldn't have picked the word "Gateway," personally, because it suggests something that you enter or pass through, not a place that you go to. More significant is the issue that Montgomery County will now have two science parks, each sort of in competition with each other. Consultants hired by the Planning Department to look at the White Oak Science Gateway's merits concluded that the plan will fail unless there's a substantial reason for companies to consider locating there instead of at Great Seneca or somewhere else entirely.

Names have a powerful ability to give places character - or in the case of "East County," to take it away. But while it's important to ensure that Montgomery County's new development areas have compelling names, it's worthwhile to ensure that they also become places worth naming.Planners are holding an open house on the ~~East County Science Center~~ White Oak Science Gateway Master Plan tonight at

councilmembers propose anti-loitering bill as curfew alternative (updated)

2011-10-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: Our friend David Moon at Maryland Juice has a nice write-up on the anti-loitering bill and his latest initiative to bring Bob's Big Boy back to MoCo.

It's better than a teen curfew, but how would an anti-loitering law respond to scenes like this?

In response to mounting opposition to a proposed teen curfew, MoCo Councilmembers Phil Andrews and George Leventhal will introduce an anti-loitering bill tomorrow modeled on ones used in Florida and Georgia. They call it a "better tool" for fighting crime because it targets actual troublemakers, not just youth.

"A loitering and prowling law wouldn't discriminate based on age, wouldn't be limited to late-night hours . . . and would target criminally suspicious behavior by anyone," writes Andrews, who represents Rockville and Gaithersburg, in a memo to Council staff.

Bill 35-11, as it's officially called, would prohibit certain kinds of "loitering or prowling," defined as being "in a public place or establishment at a time or in a manner not usual for law-abiding persons." (
The bill will be posted online tomorrow, and I'll post the link
Here it is.) It also specifies that police only take action when they "reasonably [believe]" an individual's behavior "justifies alarm or immediate concern for the safety of persons or property in the vicinity."

Police must ask people suspected of loitering to explain themselves, and they also have to give a warning. Those who don't obey an officer's warning would be charged with a misdemeanor. The bill strengthens the county's existing anti-loitering laws, which were last amended in 2006 to remove the words "loiter" and "loitering."

Curfew supporters are skeptical of the anti-loitering bill. Councilmember Craig Rice, who represents the Upcounty, tells the Examiner that not having a curfew told kids it was "OK for you to be out there at 2 in the morning" and causing trouble, while County Executive Leggett worries that the loitering bill was "overly broad" and could encourage racial profiling.

Ironically, Leggett's concerns are the same raised by curfew opponents. Both curfews and anti-loitering laws have been criticized for being hard to enforce and subject to abuse. Chicago's anti-loitering law was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1999 for violating the First Amendment right to peaceful assembly, while Newark and several suburban towns in New Jersey revoked their anti-loitering laws for using vague terms like "no loafing." And in the District, repeated attempts to ban gatherings of more than two people have failed.

Nonetheless, Leventhal is confident that Montgomery County's bill, as drafted, would be less intrusive. "I think it raises far fewer civil liberties concerns than a curfew and I prefer this approach," he writes in an e-mail to JUTP. "I think it responds to the concerns that have been raised by the Police Department," who say current laws don't give them "necessary power to prevent harm to persons or property."

Crime, including youth- and gang-related incidents, has been dropping in Montgomery County since 2007, as Andrews points out. And just as Lt. Robert Carter of the Montgomery County Police predicted in August, crime fell in downtown Silver Spring when more cops were placed on the street.

Given these circumstances, it's reasonable to say our police are doing fine. But Leggett and Police Chief Thomas Manger have put considerable effort highlighting youth crimes to build the case for a curfew, making the public fearful. As a result, the burden's on opponents to produce a more palatable alternative that still shows we're Doing Something About Crime. It's an imperfect solution, but far less imperfect than a curfew. What Councilmembers Andrews and Leventhal have done, however, is say what we've needed to hear all along: crime isn't limited to late nights and it certainly isn't limited to young people.

If this is what it takes to get Montgomery County off the backs of its teenagers, I'm curious to hear more.

The Montgomery County Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed anti-loitering bill on Tuesday, November 15 at 7:30pm in the Council Office Building, 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville. To testify or for more information, visit the Council website.

Full disclosure: I used to work as a legislative aide for Councilmember Leventhal.

rumors of fenton street market's death are greatly exaggerated

2011-10-20T17:47:00.004-04:00

Fenton Street Market in May 2010.

A week after it seemed Fenton Street Market was gone for good, the well-loved flea market in downtown Silver Spring's received a stay of execution. The following comes from Hannah McCann, East Silver Spring resident and Fenton Street Market's creator:

We have heard your rallying cry, Silver Spring! And we’ve heard that Montgomery County is ready to make some constructive amendments to its RFP for a public market on Veterans Plaza. With better hope of securing a future, Fenton Street Market will renew its efforts to win a contract to come back next year. Thank you to FSM project manager Megan Moriarty, who has volunteered to work pro bono on drafting a proposal in response to the RFP. There are some easy ways that you too can help.

Fenton Street Market’s proposal will be supplemented with testimonials from the community on why the market is an asset to Silver Spring. If you haven’t already, please add your comments to our online petition at bit.ly/savefenton. And please consider forwarding those comments to Ike Leggett (County Executive), David Dise (Director of the Department of General Services), and your local Council representative. They’re listening! And for that we’re grateful.

The staff, vendors, and customers of Fenton Street Market are also tremendously grateful to Megan for bringing new energy to our fight for a future. A resident of downtown Silver Spring, Megan exhibited as a jewelry artist at the very first Fenton Street Market in 2009. Many know her from her community organizing with Impact Silver Spring; recently, in addition to working for Fenton Street Market, Megan has been coordinating the start-up of Blessed Coffee, another Montgomery County -based Benefit Corporation. “I love the intersection of community-building and entrepreneurship,” says Megan. “I feel like the experiment Fenton Street Market started is worth trying to continue and grow.”

For more information on Fenton Street Market’s negotiations with Montgomery County, or to offer assistance, contact megan@fentonstreetmarket.com.

Megan Moriarty saves the day! She's an East County native and recently graduated from the University of Maryland's city planning program. Since then, she's kept herself busy working with IMPACT Silver Spring and serving on a committee of the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board, among other endeavors. I'm glad to see she's offered to help Fenton Street Market stay in business.

Meanwhile, it looks like MoCo officials felt the pressure from community residents who support Fenton Street Market and filled a petition in favor of it sticking around. I'm glad they listened. I also hope that the county takes a good, hard look at their approach to programming urban centers like downtown Silver Spring.

It's important to ensure that everyone gets a chance to use Veterans Plaza, but micromanaging how they do so can kill the space's vitality. No one should be surprised that the county's Request For Proposals for other markets in Veterans Plaza didn't get many takers as it was written, because it was too strict. It's probably better to step back and let Fenton Street Market continue doing its thing (supporting local artists and pumping money into the local economy) rather than dictating what a public market should be like and having nothing at all.

proposed walmart undermines rockville pike redevelopment plans

2011-10-19T11:36:00.000-04:00

A Walmart could replace several shops at Pike Center in Rockville. Photo by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr.

For years, Montgomery County officials have been trying to remake Rockville Pike's retail strip into an urban boulevard. Yet thanks to a fluke in zoning, Walmart could drop a standard suburban big-box in the middle of everything.

The new Walmart would be located at Rockville Pike and Bou Avenue, just north of Montrose Road in the Pike Center shopping center. According to the Washington Post, the store would be considerably smaller than traditional Walmarts, with about 80,000 square feet of floor space. By comparison, a typical modern supermarket is about 60,000 square feet, while larger Walmart Supercenters can be as large as 185,000 square feet. Renderings from the Post show the Walmart displacing an existing row of shops in the strip mall, which include national chains like Office Depot and CiCi's Pizza in addition to local businesses like Bagel City.

This would be the third Walmart in Montgomery County, after an existing store in Germantown and another proposed store on Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill, which we wrote about last month. But unlike those stores, which are far from Metro, the proposed Rockville Walmart is a half-mile from the Twinbrook station. Despite County Executive Ike Leggett's assertion that the store is "consistent" with the county's goal of building around public transit, this proposal completely undermines those intentions.

A new Walmart would undermine plans to revitalize Rockville Pike.

Plans by the City of Rockville and Montgomery County envision Rockville Pike as an urban boulevard with tall buildings against the street, not behind big parking lots. By bringing shops, housing and offices together near Metro stations along the Pike, planners hope to make it easier for people to walk, bike or take transit to their destination, providing alternatives to driving and reducing congestion.

In order to do so, higher-density development has been approved around the Twinbrook and White Flint Metro stations, the latter of which was written up in the New York Times as a model for suburban redevelopment. Residential and office towers have already begun sprouting up along Rockville Pike.The proposed Walmart, however, sits along a short stretch of the Pike that falls under a completely different plan that was drafted in 1992 and still allows strip shopping centers.

This kind of development is exactly what the community is trying to prevent from being built along Rockville Pike in the future. It'll only encourage more people to drive to Rockville Pike rather than taking advantage of other modes of transportation, creating more traffic. But it's likely that Walmart chose to locate in Pike Center because it was easy to build a conventional store there, without going for a time-consuming zoning change or building in a more expensive, urban format that doesn't just cater to drivers.

However, two of the eight stores Walmart plans to build in Greater Washington will be built in an urban fashion. Their proposed store on New Jersey Avenue in the District will sit at the base of an apartment building, while a new store in Tysons Corner, which is undergoing a transformation similar to Rockville Pike, will be part of a larger complex with a gym and offices. Ironically, those two branches and the one on Rockville Pike are all being developed by JBG Rosenfeld, whose vice president Jay Klug called Walmart "pretty enlightened" about building stores to fit an urban context.

Walmart has the right to build as they see fit so long as the zoning allows them to do it. Yet their store as proposed is completely inappropriate for Rockville Pike as it tries to become a denser, more urban corridor. Last week, the Montgomery County Council introduced a bill requiring big-box stores to craft community benefits agreements to reduce any negative impacts on the surrounding neighborhood. They might also want to figure out how to make this big-box store fit into the new Rockville Pike before it brings down one of the most ambitious suburban redevelopment projects in the country.

people on The Other Pike are sensible . . .

2011-10-18T12:15:00.002-04:00

This picture's from four years ago, but we've been assured Rockville still looks this nice.

Two newsworthy items about Rockville Pike (and environs) this week. The first, from the Montgomery Sentinel:

Turns out, there are others in local government not too thrilled with the idea of a teen curfew in the county.

The Montgomery County Council and Rockville City Council held a joint meeting October 10 to address issues ranging from the controversial teen curfew to parking for patrons of the Rockville library.Both councils seemed to agree that the curfew was not a solution, with City Council members pointing out that there could be problems if the County adopts it and the City does not.

City Councilmember Mark Pierzchala agreed with County Councilmember Andrews that the facts do not warrant the need for a curfew. “I share your views that the data doesn’t support it. I think where Rockville has to be careful is if the county does adopt it and Rockville doesn’t. That could create some confusion,” said Pierzchala.

“I’m not in favor of the curfew,” said City Councilmember Bridget Donnell Newton. “I think we need to find more opportunities for teens to participate in healthy activities as an alternative and not a restrictive solution like a curfew. I hope you don’t pass it because it puts us in a tough spot.”

This isn't the first municipality to express their discomfort with County Executive Ike Leggett's proposed youth curfew. In August, Takoma Park's police chief Ron Ricucci said that city, known for its progressive bona fides, isn't particularly comfortable with telling parents when to let their kids out. "We have control of our kids," said Ricucci.

I've written no shortage of posts on the curfew since it was first proposed three months ago, and opposition remains strong, not to mention there's a serious body of research proving curfews ineffective and a nice list of more effective crime-fighting alternatives that we got straight from a MoCo police officer. I'm hoping Leggett, despite his Rick Perry-like aversion to facts he doesn't agree with, sees the writing on the wall and gives this up for good.

the magic of jimmie cone (JUTP's top-ten most-read posts, ever)

2011-10-13T14:33:00.000-04:00

Jimmie Cone, now immortalized in comic form.

Every Thursday I get an e-mail saying how many people have been reading Just Up The Pike in the past week. This morning, I woke up to discover that pages on the blog have been viewed 23,000 times since last Thursday. That may not be a lot to some people, but it's a lot to me. To compare, we get between 25,000 and 30,000 pageviews each month; in July 2009, there were nearly 49,000 pageviews.

How did this happen? I thought. So I checked Google Analytics to see where our traffic comes from. Most JUTP readers who click over here from other sites do so from Silver Spring, Singular or Greater Greater Washington, leading me to assume that we are just part of your daily balanced blogging diet. This week, however, people are coming from another site called Girls with Slingshots.

I hesitated before clicking on it myself, but don't worry. It's just a webcomic written by Danielle Corsetto, a self-described "filthy filthy hippie" who lives in West Virginia and grew up in Frederick. And last Thursday, she ran a comic about Jimmie Cone and even linked to the post I wrote about it in July 2009:

"After little league games, you’d find every member of every team huddled up under the rickety green roof of the Jimmie Cone in Damascus, Maryland. It was the closest you could get to having a local pub setting for elementary school and junior high kids. Which is funny, since Damascus is a dry town."

Over the next two days, Girls with Slingshots sent over 15,000 people to JUTP, one of whom is the co-owner of Charmington's, a coffee shop in Baltimore I mentioned in a post last week. Small world, right?

Then I looked at what the top ten most-read posts at JUTP are. The results surprised me, and they'll surprise you too:

1) jimmie cone: a small urban space in the suburbsJul 30, 2009

2) crowds and skaters already filling veterans plazaJul 12, 2010

3) skaters discuss woodside skate spot, need for more places to goAug 11, 2010

4) google maps introduces new skateboarding directionsApr 1, 2011

5) rodriguez defends skateboarding ban in veterans plazaJul 29, 2010

6) ode to a stolen bikeOct 12, 2010

7) don't let fifteen bad apples spoil the bunchJul 13, 2010

8) why wheaton will never be the next bethesdaDec 10, 2010

9) dear older generation: montgomery county does not have a time machineMay 23, 2011

10) neighbors opposing chelsea school townhouses in the wrong fightFeb 8, 2011

Not everyone thinks skateboarding is important, but it seems many people who read this blog think differently. Or I write a lot about kids and skateboarding and the sample's skewed.

Either way, I never got to go to Jimmie Cone this summer. Lame.

when MoCo wants to draw big businesses, it's "pay to play" (updated)

2011-10-11T14:00:00.003-04:00

This won't be coming to Montgomery County any time soon.

It looks like the former Borders on Ellsworth Drive will be empty a little longer: Andy Shallal, owner of local restaurant/performance space chain Busboys & Poets, says he won't consider opening a new one in downtown Silver Spring because the Montgomery County Council dipped out on a resolution asking Congress to cut defense funding. He and other peace activists held a press conference at the County Council building this morning to protest their decision.

Why did Montgomery County, renowned for its progressive politics by both the Daily Caller and Utne Reader, back down? While local businesses at Fenton Street Market are getting put through the wringer by Montgomery County bureaucracy, defense contractor Lockheed Martin got a direct line to the County Executive to express their offense. From the Examiner:

After months of lobbying by county peace activists, several members of the Montgomery County Council drafted a resolution calling for the Pentagon to drastically cut military spending and "end wars abroad." But that measure has been spiked after the county's largest defense contractor made its displeasure known and Virginia began courting that contractor . . .

County Executive Ike Leggett asked the council to table the resolution because it is "a dagger pointed directly at the heart of Montgomery County."

Montgomery County has long watched the cranes rising over Tysons Corner with anxiety, openly wondering how it compares to Fairfax County and seeking to draw and keep large companies on their side of the Potomac. Aware that they can't beat the lower tax rates in Fairfax, MoCo works hard to show corporations that they're welcome here by throwing lots of incentives their way in a process that friend of JUTP David Moon compares to extortion.

Live Nation is one of the large corporations receiving public money to locate in Montgomery County.

And there are plenty of examples. Big-box retailer Costco will get $4 million to open a store at Wheaton Plaza. The county and state each put in $4 million to build the Fillmore music hall, which is operated by Live Nation. The county cleared four city blocks and closed several streets in downtown Silver Spring to assemble enough land for Discovery Communications to build its headquarters. When Marriott threatened to leave Montgomery County ten years ago, they got $44 million in grants, low-interest loans and tax credits to stay. Maybe Choice Hotels should've done the same: they received a paltry $4.3 million from MoCo, the state and the city of Rockville to move their headquarters from Silver Spring. (Meanwhile, Walmart just announced plans to open up in Aspen Hill without any public help at all, it appears.)

Lockheed Martin is perhaps the county's biggest coup: it's their largest employer after the federal government and county government, with 7,000 jobs, contributing $7.1 billion to the local economy each year. Nonetheless, they represent just 1.46% of the county's 509,000 jobs. By comparison, the 2007 Economic Census says that there are 8,000 employed in religious or non-profit organizations, 12,000 employed in "janitorial services," 15,000 employed in real estate, 23,000 employed by MCPS and Montgomery College, 26,000 employed in restaurants, 30,000 in "computer systems design" (which includes defense-related work, among other things), 48,000 employed in retail, and 54,000 people employed in health care (Adventist HealthCare and Holy Cross Hospital, the county's two main hospital systems, are among its ten largest employers).

Certainly defense spending is important to Montgomery County and Maryland, but not as much as it is in Virginia, which receives twice as much funding from the Department of Defense, according to this analysis from Maryland Politics Watch. But it's not the dominant industry in the county by a long shot. Not only that, but even if Congress spent more money on health care and education, the county would still benefit due to the presence of government installations like NIH, Walter Reed and the FDA.

Montgomery County condemned four streets to provide land for Discovery Channel's headquarters.

The county was stung after pulling out all the stops for Northrup Grumman and Hilton Hotels, both of which are now in Virginia, and doesn't want Lockheed to do the same. But it should be clear by now that Montgomery's getting played. Everyone knows they don't have any say in congressional funding. But now that Lockheed knows Leggett got spooked their opposition to a symbolic gesture, they know he'll throw everyone and everything under the bus to keep them in the county.

Talk about a great bargaining position!

I enjoy Busboys & Poets and I agree with Shallal's argument that our federal government need not spend so much on blowing up foreign countries. Nonetheless, I think Andy Shallal's posturing is a little silly. As one of our intrepid commenters on JUTP's Facebook page pointed out, Shallal has a Busboys & Poets in Arlington, home to the Pentagon. And by threatening not to locate in Montgomery County unless they meet his demands, he's doing exactly what Lockheed Martin did. But unlike Lockheed Martin, MoCo isn't going to capitulate to Andy Shallal.

Which raises a new question: should Montgomery County be focusing less on a few large corporations, particularly those who work to blow up foreign countries, and giving more attention to smaller businesses who'd actually benefit from a few million dollars in aid?

fenton street market (2009-2011)

2011-10-11T09:56:00.000-04:00

Fenton Street Market in May 2010.

Fenton Street Market, which served as an outlet for artists and craftsmen, a stage for musicians and performers, a venue for civic engagement and a boost to the downtown Silver Spring economy, died today after a long struggle with bureaucracy. It was two years old.

Started by local resident Hannah McCann, the market has been located at Veterans Plaza in downtown Silver Spring since last fall. This past July, Montgomery County's Office of Community & Public Facilities, which manages the plaza, decided to charge Fenton Street Market their standard fee. As a result, the market, which is entirely composed of local businesspeople, would go from paying $48 a week for the space to $1,200 a week.

Ginny Gong, director of the Office of Community & Public Facilities, argued that the market was preventing other groups who'd pay the full fee from using Veterans Plaza, despite being in the space for just eight hours each week. "Concerns about fairness have been raised because the arrangement was outside the normal competitive process," she said. "Other organizations (both non-profit and for-profit) have not had the same level of access."

Not surprisingly, local residents were upset. Nearly 800 people signed a petition in support of letting Fenton Street Market stay in the plaza at a reduced rate. "When a member of the community organizes an ongoing event that positively activates a public space and annually contributes $6.6 million to the local economy, she should be applauded and her efforts encouraged," wrote Evan Glass, president of the South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association.

County Councilmember Hans Riemer, who lives in East Silver Spring, sought to find a workable solution. "We spent tens of millions, hundreds of millions on downtown Silver Spring, and now we're coming up short on a few thousand dollars? It's ridiculous," Riemer told JUTP in July.

The county responded by releasing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for public markets in Veterans Plaza, the details of which are explained in a post on Fenton Street Market's website. Among the requirements are that the market provider must agree to move if another event wants to use the plaza; they must pay for trash pick-up and employees to staff the Civic Building, even though they wouldn't be allowed to use it; they must provide a portable toilet (despite the presence of bathrooms in the Civic Building); and they aren't allowed to have food vendors. In addition, the county must approve any signs or marketing materials used for the market, along with having full access to their financial records. For McCann, that was the last straw.

The RFP's requirements are "at odds with a diverse, community-based market establishing a presence on the Plaza," she writes. "Fenton Street Market delivers a dependable, safe, and welcoming place to come together, and a homegrown authenticity that can’t be manufactured—or micromanaged."

McCann and her then-newborn daughter at Fenton Street Market last fall.

McCann, a writer for Architect magazine who lives in East Silver Spring, often walked past an empty parking lot at the corner of Fenton Street and Silver Spring Avenue and dreamed of opening a flea market there. After working with the lot's owner, Ulysses Glee, to "borrow" it each Saturday morning, McCann held a test-run of the Fenton Street Market over two weekends in the fall of 2009. "There are so many people here who do art," she told me at the inaugural market. "It's bringing our community together to show what we do."

The market was well received and returned the following April. When Glee began planning to build condos and a hotel on his lot, McCann approached Reemberto Rodriguez, director of the Silver Spring Regional Services Center, and Jennifer Nettles, then-property manager of the Downtown Silver Spring complex, about relocating Fenton Street Market to the newly-opened Veterans Plaza. Recognizing the market's ability to draw customers to the area, the county struck a deal with McCann to rent her the plaza during at a steeply reduced rate.

Throughout its brief life, the market has been a boon to the local economy. An Economic Market Study conducted by the market's volunteer staff found that over 2,500 people visited Fenton Street Market each week and that its presence brought $1.9 million in added revenues to area businesses each year.

Fenton Street Market will be laid to rest on November 12, but a viewing of the 49-page Request for Proposals will be held at the market this Saturday between 9am and 3pm in Veterans Plaza, located at the corner of Fenton Street and Ellsworth Drive in downtown Silver Spring. It is survived by a weekly farmers' market and whatever else they have planned in the area.Condolences can be sent to hannah at fentonstreetmarket dot com OR ginny dot gong at montgomerycountymd dot gov, who didn't know how to leave a good thing alone.

occupy protests show potential of public space

2011-10-10T09:15:00.000-04:00

In front of Philadelphia's City Hall is Dilworth Plaza, a vast, empty public space that struggles to attract people, even though it's on top of a major subway station. Ironically, it's a few blocks from Rittenhouse Square, one of the city's and the nation's great squares. While the city plans to renovate Dilworth Plaza to make it more vibrant, the Occupy Philly protests (an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street) that began last Thursday are already doing the job.

Over 700 people are camped out in Dilworth Plaza, and when I visited Saturday afternoon, it had an air of organized chaos. There are people milling about everywhere, and like me many of them were just wandering around taking pictures. A wedding party leaving City Hall stopped to admire the scene, and a wedding photographer immediately starts snapping pictures of the bride in front of a group of protest signs. Another runs over to a group of skateboarders, kneels down, and says, "Show me your best trick."

Meanwhile, the protesters have set up first aid tents, information booths, and even a library. A tent city lies between two rows of trees. And the plaza's normally windswept open areas have been given over to a drum circle and a sort of Speaker's Corner, where a guy talks through a megaphone that America's thirty-seventh in education worldwide. "I wanna hear everyone say 'We're number 37!'" he yells, struggling to be heard over the honks of passing cars. (It's unclear whether they're showing approval or being overly aggressive and obnoxious, as is the way of Pennsylvania drivers.) Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter even made an appearance to show his support for a peaceful demonstration.

I really hope Occupy Wall Street and its offspring morph into an actual agent of change. I get frustrated that my generation hasn't found a common cause in the way our parents united around civil rights or protests against the Vietnam War. One idea my friends and I have kicked around is that we haven't united because we can't relate to each other. Even with the Fair Housing Act, many of our communities experience de facto segregation by race and class, isolating us from people who are different.

In order to come together as a generation and a country, we have to know each other first, and we need great public spaces to do so. If Occupy Philly does anything, it shows how important the urban realm as a place for expression and for gathering.

mulligan . . .

2011-10-07T11:38:00.000-04:00

Let's be honest: you're probably tired of me writing about the curfew. And I'm tired of writing about it, too.

Much as I think it's ineffective and a way for Ike Leggett to appear "tough on crime" without actually doing anything (except for providing more cops in downtown Silver Spring, which not surprisingly is very effective), I know people have their reasons for supporting a curfew, even people I like a lot. Of course nobody wants to go out and worry that they're going to get stabbed. I certainly don't.

A few months ago, I was arguing with Reemberto Rodriguez about the curfew and he gently reminded me that people naturally get upset about the topic because they were "speaking from emotion." I've been to meetings and seen that emotion coming from curfew supporters, but I see it in myself as well, and I don't think I do my argument any good when I call people names.

After all, there are so many actual facts why curfews don't work. In theory, that should be enough to convince most people without attacking them.

I'd like to do my part and use this space to talk about this very emotional issue in a civil, constructive manner. I'd also like to spare y'all and try to find other things to write about, of which there are plenty. Come back next week and we'll talk about something else for the first time in three months.

walmart to replace empty office park in aspen hill

2011-09-30T09:21:00.000-04:00

Walmart's proposed store in Aspen Hill. Image courtesy of the Post.

Walmart's push into the D.C. area continues with another proposed store, this one in Aspen Hill. A few days ago, Jonathan O'Connell at the Washington Post's Business Insider blog wrote a brief description of the store, to be located at Connecticut Avenue and Aspen Hill Road, a block from Georgia Avenue. According to the article, the store would be 118,000 square feet, roughly the size of the Target on Cherry Hill Road, and sell groceries.

The site's currently a 1960's-era office building owned by Lee Development Group, the folks who brought you the Fillmore. Until recently, the building was home to aerospace and defense company BAE Systems, which moved to Rockville.

I would've liked to see something along the lines of what the Planning Department suggested in their 2008 study of the entire Georgia Avenue corridor from downtown Silver Spring to Brookeville. In Aspen Hill (see page 30), they proposed turning the current commercial area, composed of a few different strip malls, into a sort of "town center" like Rockville Town Square. Walmart could've fit into this vision, instead of being a typical big box in a parking lot. A proposed store a few blocks from Union Station in D.C. will have underground parking and luxury apartments above, while one in Tysons Corner will be closer in size to a Giant supermarket, drawing customers only from the immediate area.

Aerial of Aspen Hill's commercial area with Walmart site highlighted. Image courtesy of Bing Maps.

Of course, this kind of development is much more expensive than dropping a one-story box in a parking lot. That's why Walmart's three other stores in D.C., on East Capitol Street, New York Avenue and in Brightwood, just ten miles down Georgia Avenue from Aspen Hill, look exactly like that. In addition, most of Aspen Hill already looks like that and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

So if there's anywhere in East County where a store like Walmart would be fitting, it would be Aspen Hill, which is served by two large state highways and will be about two miles from both the Georgia Avenue and Layhill Road exits on the InterCounty Connector. It's an easy place to reach by car, and a complement to other big-box stores in the area, like Kmart and Home Depot.

It's unfortunate that the Lees didn't try to lure Costco away from their future home in ~~Westfield Wheaton~~ Wheaton Plaza. Downtown Wheaton has a Metro station and several bus routes and, unlike Aspen Hill, will soon see a lot of high-density redevelopment. This won't be the easiest place to reach by car (is it now?) and thus may not be the best location for a big-box store dependent on car access.

I'm less upset about Walmart's awful labor and manufacturing policies than I am to see another company with real, well-paying jobs move from the east side to Rockville. It doesn't make a difference to the County Executive whether a business is in Rockville or Silver Spring, because the taxes all go to the same place. But for employees who now have to commute across the county, it's more time spent in traffic. What good are having access discount underpants if you don't have any time to buy them?

powhatan springs

2011-09-28T08:30:00.000-04:00

If you're seeking a serene natural retreat, a skate park's probably the last place you would look. But a few years ago in Arlington, the county built a park that welcomes all visitors, not just those with skateboards.

A few weeks ago, I visited Powhatan Springs Park, also known as the "skate park rain garden." Designed by local architecture firms the Kerns Group and Oculus, it combines a skate park with a rain garden and a soccer field, creating a space that welcomes all visitors. It's no surprise that the project was given an award for "innovative excellence" by the Maryland and Potomac Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2005.

Powhatan Springs is located on busy Wilson Boulevard in Dominion Hills, a neighborhood at the far western tip of Arlington. It's a diverse area with a mix of single-family homes and apartments; Eden Center, the Vietnamese shopping mall, is a mile away. The park is well-served by bus and trails, ensuring a steady stream of visitors.

As a result, the park has to accommodate a variety of uses. Along Wilson Boulevard, there's a concrete skate park with a bowl that mimics a swimming pool. Next to it is a soccer field with spectator seating. Behind them is a small parking lot and an interactive rain garden, which collects and absorbs stormwater rather than dumping it into a drainage system.

This culvert carries water down into Four Mile Run, while an adjacent path connects the park to the surrounding neighborhood and a nearby elementary school.

All the concrete in the skate park can be hard on the eyes and amplifies sound. Meanwhile, the rain garden is filled with lush native grasses.

The rain garden has a pump where kids can play with water. It was meant to be a "sort of unprogrammed, unstructured [space] where you created your own fun, in the words of project manager Robert Capper. The pump wasn't working on the hot, dry day that I visited, but presumably it's quite popular the rest of the time.

However, a set of pools and a cistern that collect rainwater were fully functional.

The garden motif continues out into the parking lot, where the concrete drains are stamped with leaves and twigs.

Between the rain garden and the skate park is a little plaza with a bench, giving kids a comfortable, dignified place to sit and wait for a ride.

The architects were very concerned about giving park visitors places to sit. I was impressed by how many seating areas there are, and for different activities:

There's a "pier," set in the trees and overlooking the rain garden. This is the most secluded space in the park. Depending on how concerned you are about crime, it's either a quiet refuge from the outside world, or a hideout for illicit activities. Hopefully, the park is busy enough to keep this area safe.

There's two rows of spectator seating, one each facing the skate park and the soccer field (at left).

There's also a "cafe," which has a bar and stools for eating. This space gives people a dedicated place to eat with trash cans, so the soccer field and skate park aren't littered with food wrappers.

The views from here are pretty exciting.

There are three concrete structures framing the skate park. They hold the cafe, a storage/maintenance shed and a manager's office. They're simple but attractive, helping to define discreet areas within the park as a whole without standing out.

The manager's office isn't always staffed, but a list of posted rules is visible for all users. It's a good sign that the parks authority feels comfortable leaving the space unattended, because it suggests that visitors are taking care of the place.

And they are. The park is clean and the skaters were friendly to each other and to me when I asked to take pictures of them. There were a couple of groups there ranging from high school age to a little kid with his parents, and everyone got along fine.

The only vandalism I found at Powhatan Springs was a little bit of marker scribble in the cafe area. That's impressive, especially considering that a recently-opened skate park in Howard County was soon covered in graffiti, though officials there decided to keep it as a form of "urban art." I think it's great if a community decides to embrace graffiti at their skate park, as the two are often misunderstood forms of artistic expression. But it's also great if the users of a skate park can respect a prohibition against graffiti and still take care of the space they're given.

As skateboarding becomes more popular, the need increases for more skate parks. However, many communities are hesitant to give skaters a chunk of the public realm, fearful of noise, crowds and crime. Powhatan Springs Park shows that you can give skaters a home without scaring off other users. It's an example that more places should follow.

when it comes to windows, the fillmore's got area rock clubs beat

2011-09-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

Since the Fillmore Silver Spring opened last week, there's been concerns that the Live Nation-owned music hall could threaten promoters in the District and even Baltimore. Already, the venue has beaten most local rock clubs on one aspect: it actually embraces the street, with big windows, bright lights and even a couple of sidewalk benches.

The 9:30 Club in Shaw.

The Black Cat in 2010. Photo by thisisbossi on Flickr.

Music halls don't necessarily need windows. They have shows at night and audiences come to watch the band, not the street. But these venues still exist during the rest of the day, when the neighborhoods they reside in play host to other activities.

Having blank, featureless façades discourage street life and can send the wrong message. Last year, the Black Cat, which anchors the shopping and entertainment district along 14th Street NW, painted a mural of a cat on their boarded-up second-floor windows. Nonetheless, it doesn't look much different from the outside than it did as an abandoned shell in 1988. Clubs like the Black Cat and the 9:30 Club a few blocks away have helped revitalize their neighborhoods, but by looking like abandoned bunkers, they can perpetuate a run-down image.

The Ottobar in Baltimore's Station North neighborhood.

The Birchmere in Alexandria.

Venues outside of the District are no better. While in Baltimore last weekend, I took my friends to The Ottobar, a tiny club in the emerging Station North neighborhood. Judging from its completely blacked-out storefront, they thought it was abandoned. I can imagine someone walking up North Howard Street, assuming there's nothing there, and turning around, missing out on the awesome coffee shop a block away.

And in Alexandria, the venerable Birchmere Music Hall is largely invisible from the street, despite being in a fairly dense, urban neighborhood. If it weren't for the murals on the side, this club would just look like a warehouse behind a parking lot.

View Larger Map

One exception would be the Recher Theatre, located in the center of downtown Towson. I drove through Towson last weekend and was impressed at how busy the downtown is, despite being home to one of Maryland's largest shopping malls. With a big marquee left over from the theatre's days as a movie palace and an adjacent bar that's open every day, the Recher keeps the streets active in a way that other area clubs don't.

Of course, rock clubs thrive on an aura of obscurity, while windows suggest openness and transparency. But perhaps venues can create window displays that affirm their image while creating a more interesting streetscape. For example, the Trocadero, a rock club in Philadelphia, has raunchy dioramas of Barbie dolls in their windows.

Great streets require the participation of all the buildings that front them, even rock clubs. By creating storefronts that are visually interesting and engaging, or providing uses like cafes or bars that are open when shows aren't going on, clubs can create safer, more vibrant neighborhoods.

david moon lays the smackdown on leggett's proposed curfew

2011-09-21T16:51:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of reasons to oppose County Executive Ike Leggett's proposed youth curfew. The most significant one may be that he's spent the past two months highlighting a few isolated crimes in downtown Silver Spring, scaring potential visitors, businesses and residents away from the area and anywhere unfortunate enough to have a "Silver Spring" mailing address.Friend of JUTP/former co-worker/political strategist David Moon wrote this lovely screed about the curfew as a public relations gaffe on his blog, Maryland Juice:

The most important job of a County Executive is simply to sell a County. This is done through both policy and public relations, as we noted through the example above. Your audience on any day varies but might include bond rating agencies, potential residents and employers, nervous parents, an angry workforce, or any number of possibilities. Your mission on most days is simple: make good policy and manage the press . . .

A good negotiator of the press will play his or her cards correctly:When crime is on the rise, an Executive can do no more than appear tough on crime and signal to observers that something is being done -- even though we all know little can be done to move crime rates against the current of statistical trendlines. But that is because, as stated above, the Executive's role, first and foremost, is to sell the County. Just ask Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and DC Mayor Anthony Williams about the importance of combating crime fears for attracting residents, retail visitors and businesses.

But when crime is on the decline, when an isolated crime event occurs, an Executive's job is to calm fears and rally the community. Indeed, urban officials around the nation typically express frustration when crime rates go down and the public still thinks crime is going up. They see their job as to act swiftly but combat misinformation -- in order to keep selling their community to the public. The show must go on.

Anyone who's lived in East County for more than a few years knows there's a crime problem, whether real or perceived. The revitalization of downtown Silver Spring (and, soon, the revitalization of Wheaton) hinges on people feeling safe there. And as more people visit these areas, they become safer due to the presence of what Jane Jacobs called "eyes on the street."

Obviously, people were worried about the stabbing two months ago. But Ike Leggett should've been a leader and reminded his constituents that it was an isolated incident. At the least, he should've given us a package of "solutions" similar to the one that MoCo Police Lt. Carter gave us at a meeting last month, so we could have an actual discussion on the issue. Instead, he's dragged the reputation of Silver Spring through the mud, making it hard to draw people back because even if the area's safe (which it is), people won't feel safe there. And that's what really matters.

Anyway. Read David's post. Read it again and again and again. I hope our friends in Rockville read it, too.

the problem with speed cameras . . .

2011-09-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

Speed cameras along wide Randolph Road in Wheaton don't do much to slow drivers.This week, two people wrote the Post's Dr. Gridlock complaining that speed cameras actually encourage people to drive fast:

Please explain why it’s all right to go less than 12 mph over the speed limit at Montgomery County schools before getting a ticket? This has been driving me crazy for years. I doubt that it’s okay to go 12 miles over the speed limit anywhere else.

Longtime readers know that I don't like speed cameras, and not just because camera operators often cheat drivers and municipalities alike. That's not to say I agree with speeding, though. Many roads, even smaller arterials and neighborhood streets, are designed to get cars through as quickly as possible. They have two or more lanes in each direction to allow cars to pass each other, or the lanes are made wider so cars can travel at higher speeds. Of course, this comes directly in conflict with the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists, who are nine times more likely to be killed by a car going 40mph than by one going 20. Simply dropping a speed camera on a street that's designed for high speeds won't get drivers to slow down. Wide, suburban arterials like Randolph Road in Wheaton, New Hampshire Avenue in White Oak, or Route 1 in College Park all have cameras and posted speed limits of 30-35 miles per hour, but can feel safe at much higher speeds. As a result, drivers see that the sign says 35, remember that Maryland law allows you to go 47, and continue on their way. If we really want motorists to drive slower, cameras are just part of the solution. We have to design roads for slower speeds. That means narrower lanes or even fewer lanes when possible. Take the space gained from those lanes and use it to add landscaping and street trees, which create visual interest and can discourage speeding, or add wider sidewalks and bike lanes, making it easier and safer for walkers and bikers to use those streets. That's the recipe for a safer street. Requiring drivers to slow down on a road that tells them to speed is just a bad joke, even if it's a good way to collect fines for speeding violations.

my studio's installation for park(ing) day in philly

2011-09-19T09:32:00.000-04:00

While planners and architects in Silver Spring turned parts of Ellsworth Drive into a beach for Park(ing) Day last Friday, my urban design studio in Philadelphia turned a parking space at the University of Pennsylvania into a visual representation of how much space cities around the world give over to parking. We created a three-dimensional bar graph listing the number of parking spaces in the downtowns of major cities, along with a banner showing what we could do with that space instead.

The figures came from this report by Donald Shoup, an economist at UCLA who wrote the book The High Cost of Free Parking.We found that parking amounts ranged widely across the road. In Manila, the entire downtown has only 1,500 parking spaces per square mile, compared to 68,000 in downtown Los Angeles. Assuming a parking space is about 10' by 20', or 200 square feet, there's roughly 12 million square feet of parking in downtown LA - or as our banner points out, 4 times as much space as King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia, one of the largest malls in the country. (It's just a little bigger than Tysons Corner Center closer to home.)

Even in Silver Spring, a vast amount of land is given over solely for the storing of cars. According to friend of JUTP/blogger at GGW/MoCo planner Matt Johnson, there's 82 acres of parking in downtown alone, almost a quarter of the entire district. Are all of those parking spaces being used? Definitely not. There's tons of things we could do with that space - for instance, we could use part of it to build a real skate park.

Anyway, check out this photoset showing Penn Urban Design Studio's Park(ing) Day installation and the process of getting it built.

council president ervin blames crime on families moving from D.C.

2011-09-16T11:53:00.000-04:00

When you can't blame youth crime on "kids from P.G. and D.C.," just blame families from D.C. for moving here, as County Council President Valerie Ervin did during yesterday's committee meeting on the proposed teen curfew:

Council President Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring said the county is in the early stages of a migration of families from Washington, D.C., to Montgomery’s suburbs — leading to a shift in the type of youth violence police are witnessing on the streets.“These are kids who are from rough neighborhoods,” she said. “These kids are very street-savvy. They are different than what we were used to in the past.”

My family moved here from Petworth (via a brief stint in Prince George's County) in 1991. I spent as much time in the District. as I did in Silver Spring growing up, and my first library card was from the Shepherd Park library. We are not in the "early stages" of a migration. People have been moving from the District to Montgomery County for decades, except fifty years ago it was called "white flight," and it produced the troubled, poverty-stricken city that suburban politicians enjoy scapegoating. Of course, I'm sure that in the 1950's, county leaders were absolutely giddy to have middle-class families moving here. In fact, we could even argue that families from Washington, D.C. helped make Montgomery County what it is today.

But let's be serious: is there still a migration of families from the District to Montgomery? I looked at the 2005-2009 American Community Survey, a sort of yearly census that provides a rough estimate of demographic trends. It says that 121,000 people moved to Montgomery County within the past five years. (That may seem really high considering that the county's population increased by 100,000 in ten years, but it's offset by people moving out, dying, etc.) Of that group, 51 percent moved from another house within Montgomery County, and 12 percent moved from elsewhere in Maryland.

The Census and American Community Survey don't provide information on which state people moved from, instead lumping them into regions. Given that, we can't tell exactly how many people moved here from the District, which is included in the "Northeast" category. However, only 8,495 people moved to Montgomery County from the Northeast between 2005 and 2009, representing only 6 percent of everyone who moved into the county and less than 1 percent of all county residents.

Even if all of those people were coming from the District, it's hard to call that a "migration," especially when all you'd have to do is move across the street. There are more people in Montgomery County who moved from Rockville to Bethesda.

Perhaps we could say that the District lost its black majority to poor black families escaping struggling neighborhoods for a chance at a better life in Montgomery County. Or, we could say that affluent and middle-class families of all stripes are doing what they've been doing for decades and moving to Montgomery County for better schools. Either way, there's not enough of either group to blame the county's nonexistent rise in youth crime on "street-savvy" kids from "rough neighborhoods" in the District moving to Montgomery County.

Of course, curfew supporters know the best way to get this ill-conceived law passed is to play on fear, whether it's the provost of Montgomery College comparing Silver Spring to the fall of Rome or County Executive Ike Leggett and Police Chief Thomas Manger playing and replaying video of the Germantown "flash mob" that stole candy and sodas from a 7-Eleven. I wish our county's leaders were actually interested in tackling crime and helping youth, rather than trying to blame all their problems on surrounding communities, but perhaps that's too much to ask.

planners, artists take over ellsworth for park(ing) day

2011-09-16T09:00:00.001-04:00

A Park(ing) Day installation in San Francisco from 2009. Photo by iomarch on Flickr.Yesterday, we talked about parklets, which turn underused parking spaces into mini-parks. Though they've become a fixture in communities all around the country, the idea originally came from Park(ing) Day, a yearly event (which is today!) where people take over metered parking spaces for a day and show how they could be otherwise used. In downtown Silver Spring, a few local organizations are setting up Park(ing) Day spaces today along Ellsworth ~~Avenue~~ Drive. Our friends at the Planning Department sent us this press release:

The Planning Department’s complete streets display will go the heart of the intent of Parking Day – to rethink the way streets are used and reinforce the need to improve urban areas. The display will transform a parking space using a three-dimensional version of a streetscape with pedestrian- and bike-friendly elements as well as stormwater management techniques that reduce pollution.Planners and urban designers are recommending the complete streets concept to improve Montgomery County’s aging corridors. Environmental tools like stormwater infiltration trenches lined with plants filter runoff that flows from impervious surfaces into streams and rivers. Pedestrian- and bike-friendly features can improve the street’s use for all people, not just motorists.The Planning Department will be joined in neighboring parking spaces on Ellsworth ~~Avenue~~ Drive by local businesses Pyramid Atlantic, the Green Commuter, and Growing Soul, which will offer art activities and demonstrations of the latest urban-designed bicycles and filtering used vegetable oil for diesel engines. The Congress for New Urbanism-DC will display a beach and a county planner will showcase an artistic view of a park constructed of tissue paper.

Personally, I'm most excited about the beach, though today's projected high of 66 means it'll be a little chilly for swim trunks. I'm going to be in Philadelphia today setting up a Park(ing) Day space with my urban design studio (if you're in the vicinity of 34th & Walnut tomorrow, come and say hi!), but if any of y'all have pictures from Silver Spring I'd be happy to post them. And if you'd like to learn more about Park(ing) Day, check out their website and this map of installations around the world.

parklets add open space one car at a time

2011-09-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

Last spring, San Francisco replaced a few unused parking spaces with a little patch of green the mayor dubbed a "parklet." Though they're appearing all over the country, parklets haven't taken root in the D.C. area yet. But in Philadelphia, where JUTP is back finishing grad school, I've got one just a few blocks from my house.

Most parklets are pretty simple: a raised platform with some tables and chairs and, of course, lots of plants. Some host sculptures and artwork, while others hold bicycle parking. They're designed to "extend" the sidewalk, repurposing space once given over to cars for people. Parklets can be temporary or permanent, but they should always be inviting and comfortable for users.

Parklet outside the Green Line Cafe in West Philadelphia.

Philadelphia's first parklet was installed last month outside of the Green Line Cafe, a coffee shop with three locations in West Philadelphia. It's a prime intersection located along Baltimore Avenue, a neighborhood shopping street. Two trolley lines stop within a block, and the University of the Sciences is across the street, along with Clark Park, a large and well-loved community gathering place that hosts a big, twice-weekly farmers' market. As a result, there's a lot of people around, and a lot of foot traffic, giving the parklet plenty of use.

The parklet includes tables, chairs and plants on a raised platform.
Last Saturday, my roommate and I grabbed dinner at our new favorite local carryout and gobbled up organic fried chicken in the parklet. Though it's located in front of a cafe, the parklet itself is city property and open to anyone. It's a nice way of democratizing outdoor seating. Lots of people would like to sit outside and enjoy the scenery, but not everyone may want to grab a cup of coffee while doing so.

My only disappointment with the parklet is that it's located across from a large and well-used park. Though this creates an even more attractive setting for outdoor seating, the installation might've done more good on a block that doesn't already have lots of trees and people. Parklets are a great way to provide usable open space and aesthetic enhancement, and they should be deployed in places that lack them both.
The sidewalks outside Li'l GT Cafe in Petworth are only wide enough to hold a single table.

If the District ever starts a parklets program, the first place I'd locate one is in front of Li'l GT Cafe, the Caribbean restaurant my aunt and cousin opened earlier this year on Georgia Avenue in Petworth. Over the summer, I helped them submit an application to set up a sidewalk cafe. Unfortunately, the sidewalk is so narrow that according to city regulations, they could fit just one table with three chairs, and only after receiving a special exception.

Meanwhile, Georgia Avenue has four lanes and parking on both sides; most of the day, the spaces on their block aren't full. The area gets a lot of foot traffic, but could use some sprucing up, which makes it seem like a smart place to locate a parklet.

Sidewalk seating in front of Jackie's Restaurant in Silver Spring.

And if Montgomery County ever starts a parklet program (I'll start one myself if I have to), the second parklet I'd build would be in front of Jackie's Restaurant at the corner of Sligo and Georgia avenues in South Silver Spring. Once again, the sidewalk is narrow, but there's still a few tables and chairs set out.

I prefer outdoor seating and ask for it whenever I'm at a restaurant, but I wouldn't feel comfortable eating here, four feet from the curb. Instead of street trees and plantings, diners enjoy a view of above-ground telephone poles, parking meters and trash cans. Meanwhile, Sligo Avenue, a neighborhood street a mile long, is way too wide, and cars can easily speed down it. Placing a parklet here would help slow traffic and give diners a pleasant place to enjoy their meals.

The parklet "movement" is an outgrowth of Park(ing) Day, a yearly event started by a San Francisco art collective that encourages people to repurpose metered parking spaces, in the purpose revealing just how much space we give to cars in our communities. While I don't think cars are going away anytime soon, I'm okay giving up a few parking spaces if it creates more attractive and enjoyable neighborhoods.

And if you don't think that a 180-square-foot park can't create a sublime outdoor experience, I invite you to meet me next weekend at the corner of 43rd and Baltimore in Philadelphia. I'll bring some chicken and we can watch the world go by from the middle of the street.

council committee reviews leggett's proposed curfew tomorrow

2011-09-14T11:34:00.001-04:00

County Executive Leggett says teens need to stay home so we can keep downtown Silver Spring safe.

Tomorrow, the County Council's Public Safety committee reviews County Executive Leggett's proposed youth curfew, which would bar teens under 18 from being out after 11pm during the week and midnight on weekends. Over the past two months, curfew opponents (myself included) have offered many reasons why this is a bad idea:

There isn't enough for teens to do. We don't expect midnight basketball to prevent youth-related crime, but having activities for young people will give them an alternative to causing trouble. The "youth cafes" Councilmember Nancy Navarro started at the East County Community Center are a good start, as are long-standing plans to open a teen center in downtown Silver Spring. In Richmond, organizers of a "First Fridays" art walk set up an art gallery for teens to give youth a venue of their own.

There are also "private sector" solutions. The D.C. area's had a long tradition of "punk houses" that host shows, providing youth a forum for expression and a sense of community. We know of two in East County: Scumbag Nation in Colesville and the Corpse Fortress in Fenton Village, which was recently condemned by county building inspectors.

There are more effective solutions. Our friends Abigail Burman and Leah Muskin-Pierret at Stand Up to the Montgomery County Curfew have uncovered plenty of studies showing how curfews don't work. Baltimore's had a curfew for decades, and even they admit it hasn't done much. And Lt. Robert Carter of the police department's 3rd District, which includes Silver Spring, says a curfew would eliminate only a "quarter" of area crime, and offered a list of additional crime-fighting tools, ranging from harsher penalties to more funding for gang prevention programs. Lt. Carter noted that there are just six cops assigned to downtown Silver Spring, compared to 28 in the 1990's. A larger police presence, particularly on foot and bikes, would have a huge impact on crime.

Silver Spring resident Jim Zepp, who's spent twenty years researching criminal justice for the Justice Research and Statistics Association, says there's a need to look at the entire "nighttime economy" in downtown Silver Spring as a means to reducing crime. He points to Nighttime Economy Management studies, like this one from San Jose, as a way to understand and fight the root causes of youth crime.

Fear has seized the discussion. In the face of considerable evidence against a curfew's effectiveness, County Executive Leggett says he could "debunk" any study he doesn't agree with. Even the police department's own statistics that show crime, and especially youth-related crime, has been falling in MoCo for years. On his new blog Maryland Juice, political consultant David Moon suggests that Leggett has drawn attention to the "flash mob robbery" in Germantown last month as proof we need a curfew, despite the fact that most of the kids involved were first-time offenders.These are isolated incidents. Downtown Silver Spring is safe, and as it grows, they'll be even safer because there's more people out to provide "eyes on the street." In my opinion, Silver Spring's reputation has been harmed more by the County Executive's eagerness to highlight the July 2nd stabbing than by the public's actual perception of crime.

Councilmember Phil Andrews of Rockville, a strong opponent of the curfew proposal, happens to chair the Public Safety committee, The other two members are Councilmember Roger Berliner of Bethesda, who seems skeptical of the curfew, and at-large Councilmember Marc Elrich, who tentatively supports it. Though Leggett tells the Post that he's confident the curfew will pass when it goes before a vote this November, we hope it'll face serious examination during tomorrow's committee meeting.

councilmember andrews seeks curfew alternatives (and a look at one)

2011-09-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

A police substation on Ellsworth Drive is just one of the alternatives to a curfew we have.Councilmember Phil Andrews (D-Rockville), so far the strongest opponent of Montgomery County Executive Leggett's proposed teen curfew, has a sharp, insightful op-ed in the Gazette today:

Police officers have many tools to maintain order, including laws against harassment, public drunkenness, disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct. In communities where crime is a problem, such as downtown Silver Spring, the county has added police officers. The County Council recently approved 28 additional officers for the Third Police District, including 12 more for downtown Silver Spring. The county also should pursue federal grants to fund surveillance cameras in problem areas, as County Police Chief Tom Manger proposes, and continue to deploy the Police Community Action Team to bolster police presence where needed . . .The council should reject Leggett’s proposal for a permanent youth curfew — a proposal which falsely signals that crime and youth in the County are out of control, when crime is actually down and the overwhelming majority of youth are law-abiding.

I don't know why people aren't more outraged that Police Chief Thomas Manger and County Executive Leggett has worked so hard to change the perception of Montgomery teens from overachieving honor students to remorseless criminals. Or that the provost of Montgomery College, who presumably works with young people every day, would compare youth crime in MoCo to the Great Fire of Rome. So that's why we have Councilmember Andrews, always the voice of reason, telling the rabble-rousers to calm down. He's totally right in saying that the county has many alternatives, and many more effective alternatives, to a curfew. Lt. Carter of the police department's Silver Spring district, gave me a list of eleven crime-fighting tools, ranging from gang prevention programs to a greater police presence. The most intriguing idea he offered was opening a police substation on Ellsworth Drive. Currently, the Third District police station, which covers downtown Silver Spring and most of East County, is on Sligo Avenue, six long blocks away. In a few years, the station will move to White Oak, several miles away. A police substation on Ellsworth would put police officers in the heart of the action, allowing them to see what's going on firsthand and respond as quickly as possible. It would also allow the public to have regular, positive interactions with police officers, building a relationship. Go to Ellsworth today and you can already see security guards hired by the Peterson Companies (the folks who brought you the Downtown Silver Spring complex) reaching out to customers, answering questions and palling around with teenagers. A police substation would give visitors another place to ask questions and seek help in case of an emergency. As a result, people will begin to trust and respect these authority figures. Not to say there won't still be problems (see this video of a Peterson security guard arguing with a kid who then threatens the guard) but this would be a step in the right direction.Besides staffing, all a police substation needs is space, and very little at that. One former substation was a 400-square-foot, single-wide trailer in the parking lot at Briggs Chaney Plaza. The Downtown Silver Spring complex alone has three vacancies, not including the soon-to-be-closed Borders, totaling 12,000 square feet. But space is expensive. The average rent for retail space in Silver Spring is $26/square foot. Yet if Leggett is truly serious about reducing crime, he should be willing to find the funds to open a police substation on Ellsworth. Or perhaps Peterson can provide a space for a discounted fee. They, along with the Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce, have come out in support of the curfew. It's in their company's best interest to create a safe, vibrant environment on Ellsworth Drive. Surely, reducing the rent of a small storefront on Ellsworth would be worth the investment.Like Councilmember Andrews said, there are lots of good kids in Montgomery County. Rather than vilifying them, we should be trying to work with them to make this county a stronger place. Having a greater police presence in downtown Silver Spring is the first step to creating a constructive relationship with this constituency, rather than antagonizing them with a curfew.

incremental change in burtonsville (still lipstick on a pig)

2011-09-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

Local businesses in Burtonsville are sporting new storefronts, thanks to funding from Montgomery County's Department of Housing and Community Affairs. While they may be more than "lipstick on a pig," they don't do enough to solve the underlying problems in Burtonsville's struggling village center.A pothole outside the newly renovated shopping center.The same building two years ago.The first set of new storefronts have just gone up in a retail building on Route 198, Burtonsville's "Restaurant Row." A few other properties along the corridor whose owners applied for funding will also receive new façades in the coming months. Covered in fake stucco and stone veneers, the new storefronts look better than they used to, even though they have that contrived "make this building look like three" look that way too many developments do today.

It's also unfortunate that the new façades no longer have a covered arcade in front. Suburban strip malls have long included covered arcades because they shield shoppers from the rain and sun, but they're often narrow and cheaply detailed. They also block views into shops, especially from passing cars. As a result, new shopping centers in East County, like the WesTech Village Corner on Tech Road and the recently-renovated Briggs Chaney Plaza, don't include them at all. Yet when done well, arcades like this one in downtown Rockville can create a nice "outdoor room," the kind of space that humans flock to like bees to nectar.
The rest of Route 198 looks much as it used to, unfortunately.

Despite its good intentions, DHCA's façade improvement program is undermined by a lack of attention to Burtonsville's public realm. This building has a new, arcade-less storefront, but the parking lots still have huge potholes in them, adjacent property owners who didn't participate in the program still have dumpy buildings, and there's absolutely no accommodation for pedestrians, not even a continuous sidewalk along Route 198, a twisty rural road that's become a congested through-route for drivers going to Howard County or I-95.

When asked, the community's said they want a lot more from Burtonsville. Results of a planning workshop held by Montgomery County planners last spring revealed that residents want more things to do, a more attractive streetscape, and more alternatives to driving in the village center. Some respondents explicitly called for an "Old Town", "village" or "urban-lite" feel in the area, giving people more reasons to spend their time and money there.

One thing that could draw more shoppers to Burtonsville is some sort of public gathering space. For nearly fifteen years, there have been plans to create a "village green" behind the shops on Route 198, though civic leaders complain it would "bring undesirables" to the community. Meanwhile, a small pocket plaza was built as part of Burtonsville Town Square, a strip mall at Route 198 and Old Columbia Pike that opened last fall. It's a very attractive space, with a ring of benches and ample landscaping. At the center of the plaza is an interactive sundial and a piece of public art that appears to be the door from a bank vault.
The new pocket plaza has attractive seating and landscaping, but it's in the middle of a parking lot.Public art in the new pocket plaza at Burtonsville Town Square.

However, I came by on a pleasant, cloudless, 82-degree summer afternoon and the space was empty. Why? It's in the middle of a parking lot, placed as an afterthought in an awkward spot where no more spaces could fit. This means that customers are unlikely to pass through the space on foot, because it's far from most of the shops and restaurants in the shopping center.

Not only that, but customers probably won't walk through a boring, empty parking lot to sit here. And as a privately-owned space, it's meant only for customers of Burtonsville Town Square, meaning those visiting businesses along Route 198 can't go there either.The problem with Burtonsville's village center isn't a lack of retail.

Burtonsville Town Square developer Chris Jones has cannibalized the community's existing businesses, leaving an existing shopping center half-empty and in need of government assistance. Meanwhile, shoppers are already traveling two exits up Route 29 to Maple Lawn, a pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use complex with upscale stores and restaurants that directly competes with Burtonsville for customers.

What Burtonsville really lacks is a sense of place. It has great ethnic restaurants and long-standing family businesses, but they're obscured by a mess of cracked parking lots and congested highways. These assets deserve to shine, and to do so, they need attractive storefronts, streets that slow traffic and encourage people to look around, and legitimate public gathering places.

As Montgomery County planners work to create a neighborhood plan to revitalize Burtonsville's village center, these are the goals they should seek to accomplish.

how to turn a strip mall into a public gathering space

2011-09-01T09:00:00.002-04:00

How do you turn a strip mall into a vibrant gathering space? At one shopping center in Fairfax County, it's done by making room for people, not cars.

Heritage Center, a shopping center in Annandale, has a landscaped plaza that's popular with customers.

Heritage Center is a 1970's-era shopping strip off of Little River Turnpike in Annandale, which is dubbed "Koreatown" for its large Korean community. Like many retail complexes from this time, it's set far back from the street behind a large parking lot. But between the parking and the stores at Heritage Center is a large, tree-studded plaza that seems to have become a local meeting spot, where families eat lunch, neighbors mingle and little kids play.

Landscaped plazas like this one are a common feature of recently-built suburban "town centers" like The Market Common at Clarendon, which have upscale stores aimed at drawing well-heeled customers from a wide area. There, the provision of public space and a walkable environment is meant to be the main draw.

Yet at Heritage Center, the plaza is secondary to the neighborhood-serving shops located there, which include a CVS/pharmacy, a laundromat and a Peruvian restaurant, along with Korean grocery chain H-Mart as an anchor. These shops would draw customers even if there wasn't an attractive green space at their door, so why is this space so popular? The answer lies in its design and the changing demographics of the surrounding area.

Bird's-eye view of Heritage Center from Bing Maps.

The plaza at Heritage Center is simple. It's a long, narrow space, bounded on three sides by the H-Mart, two retail buildings, and an office building built after the rest of the complex. The fourth side is a parking lot. A few clusters of tall, mature trees provide shade and define the space, obscuring views of the cars. The trees sit in raised beds of landscaping and mulch that are large enough for kids to run around in. Stone ledges ring the planted areas and serve as benches.

In front of the retail buildings is a long, covered arcade, giving the complex a sort of "front porch." Throughout the plaza are wide, twenty-five-foot sidewalks, creating more than enough room to walk and gather. The result is a comfortable, shady space that invites people rather than pushing them away.

A family spends a summer evening in the plaza at Heritage Center.

It also helps that the surrounding neighborhood is pretty dense by suburban standards, providing a built-in customer base for Heritage Center. A mix of apartment and townhouse complexes push the population density to over 15,000 people per square mile, comparable with many neighborhoods in the District. The area is pretty auto-oriented, however, and 86% of residents drive to work, according to the 2009 American Community Survey.

But it's not a terrible place to walk around because there's a network of paved sidewalks and informal "desire paths" that cut through the residential areas and tie into Heritage Center. Acros the street from the strip mall is Annandale High School, whose 2,200 students can walk there for lunch and after school, along with a church and recreational park, which give people more reasons to pass through Heritage Center while they're in the area.

Korean grocer H-Mart fronts the plaza at Heritage Center in Annandale.

The area's demographics might also explain why the plaza is so well-used. With a median income of $54,263, half the average salary in the nation's third-wealthiest county, there's a low-income community around Heritage Plaza that may be more likely to walk there instead of driving such a short distance. Also, 35% of the neighborhood's 7,276 residents are Hispanic or Latino, while 22% are Asian; 61% of residents speak a language other than English at home.

In a study on immigrants and Smart Growth, former University of Maryland professor Shenglin Chang found that Latinos and Asians who emigrate from urban areas want to retain the convenience and vitality of those places when they come to the United States, even while embracing the "American Dream" of a suburban, single-family home. Heritage Center lets them live in a leafy suburb while being able to walk to shops and meet friends and family in a semi-urban space.

As Greater Washington becomes a majority-minority region, demand for public spaces where people can mingle and hang out will grow, especially outside of traditionally urban neighborhoods where this may already exist. Heritage Center is an example of how to create a vibrant public space, albeit on private property, in suburban communities. We'll need to make more places like it in the future.

MoCo condemns punk house in fenton village

2011-08-26T21:15:00.000-04:00

We know that Silver Spring has long had a thriving punk scene, centered on do-it-yourself, all-ages shows in private homes. We know that there's serious anxiety about idle youth in downtown Silver Spring, but a dearth of hangouts for young people. And we had a venue right in downtown Silver Spring that despite its shabby appearance gives kids from Silver Spring and across the D.C. area a place for positive, albeit very loud, expression.

Until this month, that is. The City Paper reports that Montgomery County has condemned the Corpse Fortress (pictured above), a punk house on Philadelphia Avenue in Fenton Village. The article quotes this blog post from a Corpse Fortress tenant who suggests that neighbors' complaints brought the five-year-old venue to an end:

We saddened by this news, though it was not unforeseen. In fact, it was repeatedly foreseen due to the fact that our house was an “eyesore” (if you’re lame – actually, it looks cool) and some people have nothing better to do than complain to the state about the fact that their neighbors’ property offends their aesthetic sensibilities.

It is a shame and we are bummed / despondent / on a bender / nonchalant / etc. to see the end of the best venue in the area. We still have some slight hope that someone on our wavelength / one of us can snag the house when it goes on the market again. That’s not probable, though.

We're curious what neighbors there are to complain about this house, given it's practically in the middle of Silver Spring's around the corner light-industrial "Auto Row." Across Fenton Street is East Silver Spring, a mostly-residential neighborhood. I wonder what negative effects residents felt from the Corpse Fortress. Were they offended by the couch in the front yard and the paved-over driveway filled with old cars? Can the sound from a basement show travel across several houses and a busy commercial street? Are people attending the shows parking their cars/bikes in the surrounding neighborhoods? (This is a legitimate problem if it occurred, though I imagine there's plenty of parking along Selim Road and Philadelphia Avenue after all of the auto shops have closed.)

In an ideal world, the county might've approached the tenants (or more likely owners) of the house and sought a way to bring the place up to code. It's no Fillmore, but certainly a worthy member of the community. Punk houses like the Corpse Fortress are generators of authentic, local culture. They give kids an outlet for positive expression. They build community, as the kids who are coming out to shows here are probably more civic- and politically-minded than the ones filing into a Joe Jonas concert at the Fillmore. (In my adopted neighborhood in West Philadelphia, there's a punk-anarchist community center that's become a destination for more than just the spiky-haired set.)

Before moving to Philadelphia Avenue five years ago, the Corpse Fortress was preceded by the Death Star, a punk house on Cedar Street at Ellsworth Drive whose owner planned to turn it into a medical office before putting the building up for sale. (As far as I can tell, it's still vacant today.) I'm curious if the Corpse Fortress will rise again elsewhere in downtown Silver Spring, or if it'll be forced out of the community for good. And if that's the case, we'll have given up a lot more than an ugly house.

benches, bike racks installed outside fillmore music hall

2011-08-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

Passing by the Fillmore yesterday, I was shocked to see the new music venue's latest addition. It's not the recently-completed neon sign, the line of box offices along Colesville Road, or even the life-sized equalizer bars I first proposed in 2007.

There are benches and bike racks on the sidewalk:

How thoughtful! In fact, I'm surprised they even appeared on a state highway like Colesville Road, given that Maryland highway planners seem reluctant to accommodate anyone other than drivers in downtown Silver Spring. (The county Department of Transportation isn't much better, unfortunately.) The benches will be a benefit to everyone, from concertgoers waiting for a show to senior citizens looking for a place to rest.

They also make the sidewalk a much friendlier place, suggesting to passersby that they're allowed to actually sit here and enjoy the scenery instead of being forced to move on. (Some might argue the benches will attract homeless people, but given that line of reasoning, we might as well not have anything in the public realm.)

I'm personally excited about the bike racks. After all, if we're trying to draw hip, young kids to the Fillmore, we should assume that some of them will come by bicycle. Not to mention that it's pretty hard to find bike racks in downtown Silver Spring. Living in the District this summer, I would bike up from Petworth to Silver Spring and get frustrated by how few accommodations for bicyclists there are here, whether it's racks or useable bike lanes.

The Fillmore isn't even open yet, but already it feels like it's been here forever. Having an empty department store for thirty years can do that to you, I guess. Now, how about that office and hotel development behind the Fillmore we were promised?

community members debate, seek alternatives to proposed teen curfew (updated)

2011-08-25T14:30:00.002-04:00

Last night, community members on both sides of County Executive's proposed youth curfew spoke out at a contentious meeting hosted by the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board in the Silver Spring Civic Building.

Though county officials outlined several changes to the bill, which now make it a civil, not a criminal offense to break curfew and have exceptions for teens attending sports or entertainment activities, opposition remains strong.

Abigail Burman and Leah Muskin-Pierret, high school students and cofounders of the group Stand Up to the Montgomery County Curfew questioned the effectiveness of curfews. Studies of curfews nationwide, including those already in effect in the District and Prince George's County, show they haven't reduced crime. "We need to look at the facts, look at the alternatives and give the police a real tool, not a broken one," said Muskin-Pierret.

Lt. Robert Carter, deputy commander for the police department's Silver Spring District, played videos from the night of July 1, when cops in downtown Silver Spring broke up dozens of fights, one of which resulted in the stabbing of a 17-year-old girl. The footage shows a group of 38 youth between 16 and 22 years old "walking away from a fight" along Colesville Road, near the Silver Spring Metro station. A police officer drives his cruiser onto the sidewalk, attempting to corral the kids and get them to walk to the Metro, but some of the kids duck into an alley.

Many residents pointed to this incident as justification for the curfew. "I feel that there's an increase in gang violence," said Tony Hausner, chair of Safe Silver Spring, a civic group that supports the curfew. He cited the fatal shooting of 14-year-old Tai Lam three years ago, which was connected to gang members. He said that officials in Philadelphia recently extended their curfew to 9pm in certain neighborhoods after a series of violent attacks because it had already been "so successful."

"I recognize no one likes to have their freedom restricted," Hausner added. "[The curfew] helps the kids who are good kids . . . to get them out of harm's way late at night."

"I guess you consider me to be one of the good kids who needs to be protected," Burman replied. "But we're the majority."

Downtown Silver Spring at night.

Ron Ricucci, police chief for the City of Takoma Park, said youth crime wasn't a problem in his community. "Most of our kids are in Silver Spring" at night, he said, "and they come back to Takoma Park eventually. Do we have a problem? No. We have control of our kids." Chief Ricucci added that the Takoma Park City Council and residents "probably are opposed" to the restrictions, but the curfew would apply to all of Montgomery County's municipalities unless they chose to opt out.

Board member Darian Unger noted a "dissonance" between law enforcement professionals, noting Chief Ricucci's ambivalence to the curfew and opposition from the Fraternal Order of Police, who believe it would turn cops into "babysitters." "If there's no data from places that have curfews that this is worth taking liberty away, I don't see a need," Unger said.

Brad Stewart, provost of Montgomery College and a former criminal justice professor, explained that most youth crimes are caused by a few "chronic offenders," which the curfew would help police apprehend. He pooh-poohed concerns that the curfew would infringe on the rights of youth. "There's a lot of talk about teenage civil rights. Well, the rest of us have rights too," he says. "We're fiddling while Rome is burning."

It's at that moment that I challenged Stewart and curfew supporters. "It's hard to have a civil discussion about an issue that makes everyone emotional, but also one that's borne out of fear," I said. "Like Brad said, this is a problem with a few isolated incidents involving a few 'chronic offenders,' yet you've blown it up into something that harms a county of a million people . . . Why can't we put our minds together and find actual, effective solutions rather than giving into this irrational groupthink?"

Brad Stewart, sitting in front of me, leaned back and whispered, "I hope you aren't a victim, because it'll change your whole world."

"I don't live in fear," I replied.

Sitting next to him is Jane Redicker, head of the Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce, which supports the curfew. "Neither did I until I was a victim," she said.

A few minutes later, as the meeting is still going on, Stewart offered me "an internship" to meet with the "victims of crime" and learn what they're going through.

"I'm sorry, Brad, but that's patronizing," I said.

Jim Zepp, a member of the Montgomery County Civic Federation speaking on his own behalf, urged community members to step back and understand the problem before seeking a hasty solution. "People do these things for a reason," he said. "You need to find out what that reason is." Zepp passed out a chart listing a variety of solutions other communities have used to combat late-night crime, including Nighttime Economy Management studies like this one for San Jose, which examine the social, economic and environmental factors that create safer areas.

Lt. Carter agreed, calling the proposed curfew "is one ingredient in the cake mix." He rattled off a long list of additional crime prevention strategies, including:

Anti-gang public service announcements.
Enhanced penalties for offenders.
More funding for gang prevention, more officers, and additional investigators in Silver Spring.
Bike cops in the downtown area.
Security cameras, and people to watch them. (The Peterson Companies, which manage the downtown Silver Spring complex, already have security cameras but the footage is only recorded and can be watched later.)
"Tweaking" the county's anti-loitering law, which was struck down for being unconstitutional.
A police substation right on Ellsworth Drive, so cops could respond more quickly to any problems.
Partnering with the management of the Majestic 20 movie theatre, which draws young people.
More Silver Spring Service Corps, the so-called "red-shirts" who keep the streets clean and tidy.
Opening Ellsworth Drive to cars on weekends.
Closing Veterans Plaza late at night.

While not all of these tools may be the solution for crime in downtown Silver Spring, they give lawmakers, law enforcement officials and community members a broader set of options. And together, they're arguably more effective than a curfew, which Lt. Carter said would probably take care "half, most likely a quarter" of area crime. Lt. Carter also admitted that the curfew would do nothing to prevent the majority of youth crimes that take place earlier in the day. Yet unlike a curfew, many of these strategies cost money, which in budget-strapped Montgomery County is difficult to come by.

After the meeting, I asked Lt. Carter if there were ever foot patrols in downtown Silver Spring. As part of former County Executive Doug Duncan's attempt to revitalize the area in the 1990's, he explains, there were as many as 28 cops on foot, scooters and bikes there. At the time, downtown Silver Spring wasn't as busy as it is today, and most of those officers were eventually assigned to other parts of the county where they were needed more. Yet as downtown became a bigger destination, the police force "never caught up with the growth," Lt. Carter said. Today, there are just 6 cops on bikes in the central business district, along with another 2 officers in cars who patrol downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.

The curfew, Lt. Carter said, is necessary because Silver Spring has a thinner police presence than he'd like. "Give me 24 more cops and I'll make Manhattan at Christmastime," he says. "You know how much that would cost? 6 million dollars."

It's clear that community members share a concern about crime in downtown Silver Spring and are anxious to find a solution. Unfortunately, County Executive Leggett has overlooked costlier but far more effective solutions in his eagerness to find a quick fix. Had he proposed a package of tools similar to those described by Lt. Carter, it's unlikely that the community would be as divided as it is today. A curfew alone might give a few residents of Montgomery County a false sense of security, but without the means to understand why destructive behavior happens and respond appropriately, it won't actually make us safer.

meeting on proposed curfew and silver spring crime tonight

2011-08-24T14:32:00.000-04:00

From friend of JUTP Darian Unger:

Dear friends and neighbors,

All are welcome to participate in a meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) night to discuss both crime and the proposed curfew in Silver Spring. The public meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Silver Spring Civic Building.

The meeting will be a chance to learn and hear from advocates and experts on several sides of the issue. County officials, police, and several community advocacy groups will all provide background information and offer their different positions. As a public committee meeting of the Silver Spring Advisory Board, there will of course be opportunities for you to ask your questions and share your opinions.

All are welcome.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns about the meeting, you're very welcome to email me or give me a call at 301-588-3499.

Hope to see everyone there. As y'all know, the only thing I want to hear about the curfew is that we've abandoned it in favor of actual solutions, but perhaps this meeting is the first step to getting there.

(It's to be seen whether fears of "teen crime" in Silver Spring and elsewhere will dissipate next Monday, once The Youth are back in school and not looting and pillaging, but I'd bet that the urgency with which County Executive Leggett wanted to pass a curfew will die soon after.)

catch JUTP on facebook, twitter

2011-08-23T12:41:00.000-04:00

With the school year (and my return to Philadelphia) fast approaching, it's hard for me to write full posts for JUTP. Not for a lack of material, however: when I find a link or story of interest to You, The Reader and I'm pressed for time, I usually post them to our Twitter or Facebook pages, links to both of which can be found in the right-hand column of the JUTP homepage.

Follow either page and you can get links to JUTP posts as they're published, see what else I'm reading online, find out about East County news and join the conversation by clicking "Like" or leaving your own comments. Don't have Twitter or Facebook? That's okay. You'll still be able to read both pages, but you won't be able to comment.

I don't have any plans to move the blog entirely to Facebook as Rockville Central did earlier this year, but I've definitely embraced both Facebook and Twitter as ways to keep blogging on a busier schedule.

I'm packing and moving this week, but expect regular posts to begin again within the next day or two.

demographic changes mean greater demand for walkable, transit-served communities

2011-08-18T12:25:00.161-04:00

Walkable, suburban neighborhoods like King Farm in Rockville are what new homebuyers want, say real estate experts.

New research shows that a growing number of homebuyers are interested in walkable, transit-served communities, and are willing to sacrifice a bigger house for a better neighborhood.

Last night, Joe Molinaro, director of Smart Growth and Housing Opportunity at the National Association of Realtors, and Shyam Kannan, director of research at real estate consultancy RCLCO, gave a talk on "Polls, Demographics and Demand for Smart Growth" hosted by the Coalition for Smarter Growth at the National Capital Planning Commission. They presented recent studies that reveal several trends related to a growing preference for so-called "Smart Growth" communities:

There's lots of demand for housing in walkable, transit-served communities, but not enough supply.

The NAR study, which surveyed 2,000 people nationwide last February, found that 47% of respondents would like to live in a downtown, an inner-city residential neighborhood, or a suburb with shops and amenities within walking distance. Meanwhile, Kannan's research found that 23% of Americans surveyed want to live within walking distance of rail transit.

While that may not seem like a lot, this population is still underserved by existing housing options in most of Greater Washington, where only 14% of residents live within a half-mile of Metro. 22.8% of District residents can walk to Metro, but in Northern Virginia, defined as Fairfax and Arlington counties and the city of Alexandria, just 13.3% of all households live within a half-mile of Metro. In Montgomery County, that falls to 10%, while in Prince George's County, with fifteen Metro stations, it's 7.7%. Regionwide, it would take 170,000 new units within walking distance of transit to accommodate the estimated demand for such housing.

Though the real estate market slowed down considerably due to the recession, there will be a pent-up demand for new housing, and new kinds of housing when the economy improves. In 2005, 2.1 million building permits were issued nationwide, about 38% of which were for multi-family homes. In 2011, only 597,000 permits were issued, but nearly half were for multi-family homes. Given the demand to live in walkable, transit-accessible communities, and buyers' willingness to consider attached homes, trends suggest that we'll need to build many more townhomes and apartments in the coming years.

There's public support for Smart Growth and better transit.

After decades of urban disinvestment, Americans are interested in fixing established communities and providing alternatives to driving. When asked what type of development state governments should encourage, 57% said they should improve existing places, with another 32% endorsing new development in older communities. 50% said better public transit would reduce traffic, and another 30% endorsed creating places that required less driving. Molinaro said these results are pretty consistent around the country, with the opinions of people in mostly-rural states like Idaho and Montana mirroring those nationwide.

People will sacrifice a larger house or yard for a shorter commute.

NAR's survey confirmed common assumptions that Americans want to live in detached, single-family homes. 80% of respondents in the NAR survey said they'd prefer to live in a single-family house, which is in line with other studies. 87% said the most important thing they look for is privacy.

Yet when asked to choose between a neighborhood of large-lot single-family homes where you had to drive everywhere, and one with smaller homes but amenities within walking distance, 56% chose the latter. 58% said they'd pick a walkable neighborhood over one where driving was a necessity, and 59% said they'd take a small house and a shorter commute over a big house with a longer commute.

Homebuyers are willing to give up space for a close-in location, but those surveyed seem ambivalent about living in attached housing. When asked to pick between a single-family house and a long commute, and an apartment or townhome with a shorter commute, just 38% chose the latter.

These places aren't just desired by young singles but by a wide cross-section of Americans.

Both surveys explored who the typical Smart Growth homebuyers are and found that they're not just limited to young professionals, as is the common wisdom. In the NAR survey, respondents who said they preferred an auto-oriented, suburban community were more likely to be politically conservative, married, middle-aged, white men. Meanwhile, a broad range of people expressed preference for Smart Growth communities, including women under 40, low-income earners, and individuals with post-graduate degrees. Though each of these groups has different reasons for wanting to live in these places, they all find benefits in them.

Kannan's research looks at interested market segments in greater detail using psychographic variables, which groups people based on similar personality traits, occupation, or cultural outlook. People who'd be interested in living near transit include the "Laptops and Lattes," affluent liberal professionals, but also "Boomburbs," suburban dual-income households, or "Urban Villages," large, middle-class Hispanic families.

From this, Kannan concludes that the demand for transit, coupled with buyers who either currently live or want to live in suburbs, will result in a mismatch between where people live and where transit is available. "Are we undercounting the overall demand for transit-oriented environs?" he asks. "I don't know if we're seriously thinking about our regional, fixed-rail transit."

Despite demographic trends favoring homes in walkable communities, not all future homebuyers and renters will flock to the inner city, meaning that there will continue to be demand for housing in the suburbs. And though people may want to live near public transit, they won't use it unless it's fast and frequent. Yet it's not feasible to cover an entire sprawling metropolitan area with high-quality rail and bus service. This can be seen in Montgomery County's study of a 160-mile Bus Rapid Transit system, which was revised to reflect higher estimated costs and fewer projected riders.

If we're going to meet the demand for Smart Growth communities, we'll have to make significant changes in the way our region's structured. Building new transit is expensive, so we'll have to place a greater emphasis on building housing around the system we have, even when there's local opposition to doing so. We'll also have to make walking and biking easier, through the provision of sidewalks and bike infrastructure, but also through top-notch urban design that creates environments where people actually want to walk and hang out.

Those who want to live in walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods may be a minority, but they're underserved by our existing housing stock and the communities we live in today. As Generation Y enters the workforce, we'll see a greater demand for these kinds of places, not just for swinging singles but for young families as well. And all this can happen while relieving development pressures on auto-oriented, suburban areas, allowing the majority of people who enjoy those places to continue enjoying them.

Smart Growth doesn't mean that everyone has to live in an apartment. In reality, the NAR and RCLCO studies reveal that most people don't want that. But it's a tool to create communities where people have a greater breadth of choices, from how they live to how they get around. In the coming years, we'll have a chance to give people in Greater Washington the choices they deserve.

Crossposted, sort of, on Greater Greater Washington.

whole foods coming to prince george's? (updated)

2011-08-17T14:31:00.001-04:00

That's what I'm writing about today over on Greater Greater Washington. Whole Foods plans to locate at the Cafritz Property in Riverdale Park (between College Park and Hyattsville on Route 1), but the development as proposed could be way better.

Also, watch the 5 or 6 o'clock news (I'm not sure which) on NBC 4 this afternoon. I was interviewed on MoCo's proposed youth curfews. I also don't have a TV, so let me know how it goes.

(Of course, it'll also be posted online and I'll post the clip once it's available.)

UPDATE: And here's the interview. Check it out.

blast from the past: before it was "silver sprUng"

2011-08-16T09:00:00.001-04:00

The Town Square Garage on Ellsworth Drive under construction in 2003. Photo courtesy of . . . Montgomery County? I think.

After talk of stores closing and youth curfews and terrorism fears, it's easy to feel down about the current state of downtown Silver Spring, and hard to remember that not long ago things were much, much worse. I forget when I stumbled on this post from Spam-O-Matic, a sort of proto-blog written by Silver Spring resident Andrew Lindemann Malone, about the very first Silverdocs film festival way back in 2003. Well before "Silver SprUng" took hold, visitors flocked downtown to see pro skater Tony Hawk (the subject of a documentary in the festival) perform on a half-pipe in the middle of Georgia Avenue:

As Tony Hawk glided with tricky steps and a total, subconscious awareness of momentum and gravity across the surface of a temporary halfpipe to execute a 540 Ollie two weeks ago, and as a crowd packed tightly into the available space on a closed Georgia Avenue erupted in cheers at the sight, Silver Spring had never seemed so much like a real city . . .

Almost as fun as watching the Hawkites do their thing was just wandering around and watching people wander around. After the concert, the Combo Ocho, which seems to get hired often by Silver Spring to play municipal concerts, was playing a lively set; some people were dancing on the hot blacktop to the salsa. There were food booths set up, with lines befitting a street festival; I've never seen so much interest in Manny & Olga's pizza before in my life.

The Discovery building was open to the public, which mainly meant that we could all see a cool machine full of wacky mechanisms to transport brightly colored rubber balls from…well, somewhere to somewhere; the journey is the destination in these kinds of machines. Various other tents pitched Discovery shows and networks; a small, assured woman from Animal Planet draped a huge snake across her shoulders and answered all questions patiently, and at another tent I entered my sister to win an enormous basket of Trading Spaces promotional crap. Bonhomie ruled; the mood was appropriately festive, on a beautiful day with interesting stuff to see and do and explore, and as diverse a crowd as I've ever seen in any Silver Spring public space was enjoying itself.

Skaters in downtown? A Discovery Building that actually invites the public in? A diverse crowd of people having a fun, incident-free day out? Surely, we can't have fallen that far in just eight years.

In all seriousness, read the rest of Andrew's post. It's interesting that a lot of the concerns he raised then - fears of gentrification, established businesses shutting down, lack of nightlife options - are still things we talk about today. I wonder if we'll still worry about downtown Silver Spring "making it" as a desirable urban neighborhood in eight more years, or if we'll have moved on to new problems.

the myth of the color-blind county

2011-08-09T10:30:00.016-04:00

Fenton Street in downtown Silver Spring in 2009.

Montgomery County police officer Robert Carter doesn't want you to worry about racial profiling if a proposed teen curfew is enacted, because like Stephen Colbert, our cops don't see race:

"I understand that some cops of yesteryear judged a “book by its cover.” The good news is today’s Montgomery County police are part of one of the first generations of Americans to have grown up “color blind,” or for that matter, blind to all bias. They’ll judge these kids based on something else, something they have learned quickly on this job."

Though I'm not convinced that the curfew represents a "war on black teenagers," as Post columnist Courtland Milloy describes it, I cannot believe that Montgomery's police are all "color-blind," even the younger officers who like me grew up around diversity. After all, a curfew in Frederick County was struck down because police were using it to target black kids. As a black male, my experiences with racial profiling tell me I should be skeptical of statements like Officer Carter's that our cops can serve without ever displaying bias.

After all, prejudice is still present even in liberal Montgomery County, even if it shows up in subtle ways: the community meetings where neighbors equate low-income people with drug dealers or use coded language like "undesirables." Or the diner that kicks a black gay couple out for embracing in public.

Some would argue that class, not race is the biggest divider in today's Montgomery, especially with a black County Executive and three minority Councilmembers. But we're still far from being a color-blind society. At Saturday's community roundtable on youth issues, I talked to Joey, who lives in Four Corners and said he'd support a curfew. He won't take his family to Silver Spring at night because of "thug-looking kids" hanging out there. "And I'm not just talking about black and Latino kids," he quickly added. If we don't see race, is that statement necessary?

For years, Montgomery County has been proud of its [progressive politics. Now that we're a majority-minority jurisdiction, we actually have to show our progressive values. After all, it's easy to be open-minded when the only minorities you see are the token black family on your cul-de-sac. It's harder when your kids go to a school that's 25% white and the signs in your neighborhood are all in Amharic or Spanish.

Some people are comfortable with that. The rest struggle each day to negotiate a world that doesn't look like it did just twenty years ago, unsure how to respond. Usually, they go with fear. And that can make even the most staunch liberal consider things normally offensive to their principles. Like trusting that police can pick out "bad" kids on a busy downtown street, even before anyone's done anything illegal, and not wrongfully accuse someone based on vaguely-defined characteristics.

The perennial debate over youth behavior and crime in Silver Spring has been going on for years. It's a reflection of how committed people are to ensuring that this community, once lost to disinvestment and urban decay, can remain vibrant and safe. Yet the discussion rarely touches on the elephant in the very diverse room and, as a result, can never be fully resolved.

community roundtable on youth at fenton street market tomorrow (for real this time)

2011-08-05T15:29:00.000-04:00

Teens engaging in non-gang-affiliated activities in downtown Silver Spring.

Don't forget! I'm hosting a "community roundtable" at Fenton Street Market tomorrow afternoon (originally scheduled for last month on the issue of young people in Silver Spring and throughout the county, including the proposed teen curfew, which would ban youth under 18 from being out in Montgomery County after 11pm during the week and midnight on weekends. Youth issues are never far from public debate in downtown Silver Spring, particularly during the summer months, and I'm looking forward to talking to whoever stops by to talk about it.

Come on by from 12 to 1pm tomorrow afternoon to Fenton Street Market (which, as always, is open from 9am to 3pm) in Veterans Plaza at the corner of Ellsworth and Fenton.

"youth cafes" could provide a hangout and a learning experience

2011-08-04T09:20:00.000-04:00

Montgomery County's proposed curfew and ongoing concerns about crime in Silver Spring have resurrected the age-old debate over how to keep young people occupied.

County Councilmember Nancy Navarro (D-Colesville) and local non-profit IMPACT Silver Spring are trying out one solution, so-called "youth cafes" that provide an informal, supervised hangout for teens. In April, the first of three planned "youth cafes" opened at the East County Recreation Center in Briggs Chaney, long one of the area's crime hot spots. There are snacks, video games, and music and art competitions, all organized by Recreation Department staff. However, the cafe is only open afternoons one day a week, meaning some kids may not be able to go because of school or work commitments.

The "youth cafe" reminds me of an experiment at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia twelve years ago, in which teachers found a way to give students business skills while creating a cool after-class hangout and filling a vacancy in an adjacent shopping center all at once. The school-run Wilde Times Cafe became a local institution, drawing teens from across the county. Though it didn't last long, it shows us that we can give young people a place in East County while teaching them to care for it as well.

Wilde Lake Village Center in Columbia.

Wilde Times Cafe occupied a space rent-free in the Wilde Lake Village Center, which had been struggling to fill vacancies for years and will soon be redeveloped. When it opened in 1999, the Washington Post noted that it also filled an important role in the community in an article titled "Students Strive To Open Business; Wilde Times Cafe Takes Much Work":

The idea is to be Al's from "Happy Days," Central Perk from "Friends" and the Peach Pit from "Beverly Hills 90210." It's something that exists on screen but rarely in real life: the single cool, see-and-be-seen gathering place for all the kids in a community.

"Don't make fun of me, but I always see it as the school hangout on 'Saved by the Bell,' " said Shayna, 17. "But a 1990s version, not the 1985 one."

In suburbs like Columbia, there's a ton of stuff for teenagers to do, and at the same time nothing at all. There's bowling, movies, dinner, jaunts to Baltimore or the District, and getting chased from the Wawa off Hickory Ridge. "If we sit there and list them," said Kim, 17, "there's lots of things to do, but we've exhausted them." Been there, done that, need a new scene.

Wilde Times was open weekday afternoons and Friday evenings until 10pm; lacking a proper kitchen, they sold only prepackaged drinks and snacks. The cafe was staffed by Wilde Lake students who received class credit for their efforts. They served customers, selected what items to sell, and handled finances. An adult was always present to ensure that nothing got out of hand. And it was successful, drawing hungry students during the day and hosting concerts and open mike nights at night. Community leaders embraced the cafe, which was highlighted in Howard County's winning bid for All-American City in 2001.

Meanwhile, neighboring shopkeepers complained that the cafe's teenage patrons were running their customers away, and Wilde Times closed temporarily in March 2001 after a fight following a Friday night concert. It reopened with a sold-out battle of the bands a year later before closing permanently once Kimco, the shopping center's owner, found a paying tenant.

I'm curious how the Wilde Times Cafe model could be applied to the county's nascent "youth cafes" program. We may not be able to run restaurants out of community centers, but there's certainly no shortage of vacant retail space in East County that could be repurposed. It's also worth exploring how the "youth cafe" could have programming at different times - to be open afternoons some days, and evenings on other days. With parents in Briggs Chaney afraid to let their kids outside due to fears of crime, having safe activities throughout the day is important.

Of course, youth programs at the rec center are only part of the solution, and the county certainly can't afford to entertain teenagers all the time. But I hope we can explore creative ways to engage young people - and teach them a few skills while they're at it - rather than just sending them home in front of the TV.