ten very silver spring things that happened in 2017

Outside of East County, 2017 was a tumultuous and often disturbing year. But here in East County, we found opportunities to be grateful, to celebrate, and to come together with our families, friends, and neighbors to make our corner of the world a better place. In keeping with our annual(ish) tradition, let's take a look back at the big stories of the past year here in Silver Spring:

That's Governor Larry Hogan, knocking down a building at the Purple Line groundbreaking. Photo by Aimee Custis on Flickr.

1. The Purple Line is officially a thing. After a 2014 lawsuit was finally resolved, the light-rail line between Bethesda and New Carrollton finally broke ground in August at a ceremony where Governor Larry Hogan used an earthmover to tear into a building. Construction is well underway in Silver Spring: trees are coming down on the Capital Crescent Trail, the Spring Center shopping center has been roped off and stores have moved out; and Arliss Street in Long Branch will be closed for the next few years. While the work is disruptive, it’ll be worth it. To see all the places the Purple Line will connect, my friend Sean Emerson and I took a trip on the route this summer, which you can watch.
2. MoCo’s biggest campaign in a long time. Voters approved term limits last year, which means that for the first time ever, three County Council seats and County Executive are all open at the same time. Not only did the 2018 campaign season start early (many candidates announced last summer), but it’s huge, with over 40 people either running or considering a run for County Council alone. To say this is a consequential election is an understatement, as it could bring in a number of new, fresh faces to local politics - or take us a big step backward.

this craft beer shop could be the future of retail in MoCo

Suburban strip malls aren't known for their ambiance. As shoppers seek out unique experiences or just take their business online, these places could be in deep trouble. In Montgomery County, a new study aims to prepare suburban shopping districts for the future of retail.

Quench! is a craft beer shop and restaurant in an unlikely place.

Lately I’ve been buying my booze at this place called Quench!, which has an amazing selection of craft beer from little companies like Evil Twin and Stillwater that can be hard to find. In the back is a deli with amazing sandwiches, and once a week, a local bakery called Upper Crust sets up in one of the aisles to sell bread. Next door, there's a tap room, with a little patio shrouded in ivy and string lights.

You probably expect me to tell you this place is in Shaw, or in a new "town center"-style development like the Mosaic District. In fact, Quench! sits in a grungy, half-vacant 1960s strip mall far out New Hampshire Avenue in eastern Montgomery County, a stretch of road with so many sprawling megachurches that it's called the "Highway to Heaven." It might just hold some secrets to the future of retail — and suburbia.

how did silver spring get its boundaries? and how would you define them?

You could ask five residents what Silver Spring's boundaries are and receive five different answers, ranging from a neighborhood near the DC line to a city the size of the District of Columbia itself. But how did it end up this way to begin with? The answer involves a railroad, zip codes, and possibly Marion Barry.

Silver Spring, as the Census Bureau sees it. Image from Wikipedia.

Unlike northeastern states where every square inch of land sits inside a municipality, or western states where cities compete for territory to access natural resources or tax revenue, much of Maryland and Virginia are unincorporated. Part of the reason is that counties in these states can perform functions like zoning and schools, reducing the incentive for communities to become a town or city.

Silver Spring is one those places. As a result, most definitions of Silver Spring fall into two camps: one I call "Little Silver Spring," or areas near its historical center, or "Big Silver Spring," which comprises most of eastern Montgomery County. To find out which one is more dominant, local organization Silver Spring Inc. will have residents draw their own boundaries in an interactive event at Fenton Street Market this Saturday.

east county residents want new jobs and transit in white oak

One thing was clear at last night's public hearing on plans to create a transit-oriented town center and biotech hub in White Oak: almost everyone wants more jobs and amenities in White Oak, even those who aren't comfortable with new development in their backyards.

LifeSci Village, a proposed research park in White Oak. Rendering from Percontee.

This month, the Montgomery County Council took up the White Oak Science Gateway plan, seeks to draw companies who want to be near the Food and Drug Administration's campus near Route 29 and New Hampshire Avenue. It proposes over 8,500 new homes and 40,000 new jobs in several urban neighborhoods, which would sit on three of the county's proposed Bus Rapid Transit lines.

Support for the plan was high, with 20 of 34 speakers in favor. As in a previous hearing at the Planning Board in May, residents were eager for new investment after decades of waiting. Even those who were skeptical of the plan's emphasis on transit and feared it would create a "tsunami of traffic" on Route 29 said East County needed the investment.

traffic concerns could tie up white oak science gateway plan

For decades, eastern Montgomery County has lacked the jobs and amenities the more affluent west side has long enjoyed. But plans to finally deliver those things, along with the transit to support them, could get hung up on concerns about car traffic.



The White Oak Science Gateway plan would transform sprawling office parks and strip malls around the Food & Drug Administration campus near Route 29 and New Hampshire Avenue into a town center and biotech hub. County officials say they've already heard from international pharmaceutical companies who want to be nearby.

With 8,500 new homes and over 40,000 new jobs, the plan would double what's on the ground today, and many are concerned about the traffic it might bring. County planners say that not doing anything won't get rid of White Oak's congestion, and that the real solution is to improve transit and bring people's daily needs closer to home. The County Council will hold a public hearing on the plan tomorrow night.

one montgomery seeks to close the gap in MCPS

As Montgomery County's public schools grow more diverse, the achievement gap between rich and poor students, and the schools they attend, grows wider. In response, a new group of parents, neighbors and community leaders has come together to fight for a more equitable school system.

Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville. Photo by the author.

Montgomery County Public Schools is one of the best school systems in the nation. But the isolation of minority and low-income students in the system, coupled with middle-class flight from the county's lower-ranked schools, means MCPS can't always keep its promise of a high-quality eduation to its students and our community. We know that disadvantaged students perform better in socioeconomically diverse schools, and while MCPS has long been a leader in school integration, there's a lot more it needs to do.

But the school system's stellar reputation often means that these issues get ignored or brushed aside, even by MCPS top officials who insist that things are going fine.

The stability of our neighborhoods and the strength of our economy are closely connected to the quality of our public schools. While our schools can't solve social and economic ills, they play a huge role in correcting them. That's why good schools aren't just an issue for parents and students, but for all residents, for community leaders, and for our local businesses.

So that's the bad news. The good news is that we can do something about it. Over the past several weeks, I've been working with a group of East County residents and the Greater Colesville Citizens Association to start an organization that will advocate for a stronger, more equitable school system.

We're called One Montgomery, and Thursday, November 14 we're hosting a community workshop to talk about the issues affecting MCPS today and potential ways we can work with the school system, Montgomery County, and the state of Maryland to fix them. Join us at the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, 13925 New Hampshire Avenue in Colesville. We'll have a meet-and-greet starting at 7pm, followed by the meeting at 7:30.

For more information, you can download this flyer. You can also join the conversation on our new blog, Twitter, Facebook, and on our listserv.

white oak residents endorse science gateway plan

For years, the White Oak area north of downtown Silver Spring has struggled with disinvestment. Last week, residents, community leaders and major landowners endorsed a vision to bring jobs and people back.

Montgomery County planners recently finished a draft of the White Oak Science Gateway Master Plan, a proposal to turn the 1960's-era suburb that inspired The Wonder Years into an urban hub for scientific research. The centerpiece would be LifeSci Village, a partnership between developer Percontee and Montgomery County to turn a 300-acre brownfield into a mixed-use community.

During last Thursday's public hearing before the Planning Board in Silver Spring, all but a handful of the 35 speakers spoke in favor of it, highlighting the need to bring more investment to East County, which has lagged behind the rest of Montgomery County for decades. Many White Oak residents travel to Bethesda or the I-270 corridor for jobs or shopping, while some neighborhoods in the area grapple with crime and blight.

discover long branch! brings diners, trike riders to el golfo

El Golfo Restaurant, home to the first Discover Long Branch! event.

As I wrote last week, the Flower Theatre Project has been working with the Long Branch Business League, a group of local business owners, in the hopes that a more robust neighborhood economy will make the area more attractive to the kind of investment we need to bring the Flower back to life. Yesterday, the Business League hosted their first-ever Discover Long Branch! event at El Golfo Restaurant on Flower Avenue to raise awareness of a great local business. The Montgomery Housing Partnership helped with logistics and programming, and the county's Department of Housing and Community Affairs provided financial support.

Over quesadillas and El Golfo's famous chocolate mousse, I got to spend a great evening with folks from Long Branch and beyond who are excited about the future of the Flower Theatre. I also passed out our new spiffy flyer, summarizing our efforts over the past four months. Almost every table was full, and the mood was buoyant.

From left to right: resident Dave Lemen, business owner & president of the Long Branch Business League Carlos Perozo, Father Christmas (played by James Wilt, senior manager of the Community Thrift Store and a Business League member), and transit activist Tina Slater.

Even Santa Claus showed up with gifts for everyone.

The board reads "My dream for Long Branch is/Mi sueño para Long Branch es."

In the lobby, there was a chalkboard where people could write out their dream for Long Branch in both English and Spanish. The board was built by Jeff Gipson, an architecture graduate student at the University of Maryland and intern at the Montgomery Housing Partnership. The responses ranged from pragmatic ("More money into schools") to intangible ("well-being") to literal ("Flowers on Flower Avenue"). I was excited to see quite a few mentions of the Flower Theatre and the Purple Line.

Connelly rides his giant trike up Flower Avenue.

Outside, there was a giant tricycle built by artist Howard Connelly of Colesville, who offered us all rides. The tricycle was first commissioned for Takoma Park's Independence Day Parade and later participated in the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race, though readers might recognize it from its normal perch outside Connelly's house on New Hampshire Avenue.

"Just Up The Trike." Photo by Dave Lemen.

Connelly built the tricycle himself using recycled pieces including steel and wood. Though it weighs about 250 pounds, it can go pretty fast and make some sharp turns. I was a little nervous at first, but it quickly passed and I felt like a little kid going down the big slide at Wheaton Regional Park again.

The best part was watching people react as they walked past. Kids and adults alike asked to ride it, and Connelly gladly obliged. One gentleman who was clearly drunk stumbled down Flower Avenue cursing at the top of his lungs until he passed the tricycle. It was enough to make him stop and stare for a second before he resumed walking and yelling.

While the Flower Theatre Project began as a way to bring an old theatre back to life, it's given me a chance to get to know the Long Branch community as well. Over the past four months, I've met neighbors, community leaders and business owners who are genuinely excited about their neighborhood and its potential, and it's infectious.

Reminds me of Arrested Development: "You're gonna get some hop-ons."

Thanks to everybody who came out last night! The Long Branch Business League hasn't announced their next Discover Long Branch! event, but judging by the success of this one, I hope they will soon.

blake high's allies 4 equality named "GSA of the year" (updated)

UPDATE: See Allies 4 Equality's acceptance speech below.

Check out this video from GLSEN about Allies 4 Equality, Blake High School's GSA.

Twelve years ago, a student at Blake High School approached teacher Mary Wagner about starting a gay-straight alliance. Today, Allies 4 Equality isn't just a school club - it's sending a message of tolerance and love around the world. And last Monday, the group received the the first-ever "Gay-Straight Alliance of the Year" award by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, at their yearly Respect Awards in New York.

I'm a big fan of A4E, which as described by Wagner, ranges "between being a support group and being an activist group, depending on what the students need.”

One lunch period each week, Wagner and co-sponsor Deena Barlev open their classrooms to kids looking to talk in a safe space. An open, respectful dialogue is encouraged, but no one's required to disclose their sexuality. My only disappointment with A4E is that I never went when I attended Blake ten years ago, though I've since come back to speak a few times.

A4E's latest accomplishment is Allie the Ally, a paper doll modeled on Flat Stanley and created by juniors Heidi Peterson and Jenna Beers. People are encouraged to print Allie out, take a picture with her, and send a message in support of LGBTQ rights and awareness. When I first heard about Allie a few months ago, I was intrigued.

But I was really impressed by her adventures: she's been everywhere from Hollywood to Australia and has been written up in publications from the Post to Wired magazine. Meanwhile, Ally's friends post pictures and spread the word on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Allies 4 Equality isn't just a model for other gay-straight alliances. It's an example of how a group of young people with a good idea and just enough support from caring adults can do great things. Congratulations to everyone at A4E for your efforts! I've never been prouder to be a graduate of Blake High School. And check out their acceptance speech at the GLSEN Respect Awards last month:

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

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.

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

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.

tale of two newlywed couples

Montgomery County's at a strange crossroads now. As an older suburb, once-pristine neighborhoods are starting to look worn out and suffer from disinvestment. Meanwhile, other areas are turning into urban enclaves, but they don't provide all of the amenities that traditional city neighborhoods offer. The result? MoCo's fighting a battle on two fronts.

An example: In the past year and a half, three of my friends from high school have gotten married. Both couples (two friends married each other) are a demographic any place would kill for: twentysomething, educated, high-earning couples, eager to find a place where they can put down roots, at least for a few years. Both couples like going out, seeing new places, and trying new things. And though we all grew up a few miles apart, both couples are moving out of Montgomery County, which no longer provides the lifestyle they want.

One couple just married in March and are already expecting a child. She works in Baltimore; he works at Fort Meade. Currently, they're living with her parents in Calverton, but they're looking for a house in Howard County. Why? It's closer to their jobs, closer to shopping in Columbia, closer to Korean BBQ in Ellicott City.

Is Howard County a better deal than Montgomery for those seeking the ultimate suburban experience?

Housing isn't necessarily cheaper. After all, HoCo is the fifth-wealthiest county in the United States. But though the house in our old neighborhood might cost the same as similar house in Columbia, the schools are likely better, the massive Columbia Association's maintaining the common areas, and Route 32 won't get as congested as 29 or the Beltway (at least, not yet).

In short, Howard County has out-suburb'd Montgomery.

The other couple married last winter. He's a graduate student at the University of Maryland; she works for an IT company in Old Town Alexandria. For the past two years, they lived in an apartment in Hillandale. Neither of them are keen on driving, so living in the shadow of the Beltway made it hard to get around. Much as they enjoyed hanging out in downtown Silver Spring, they were attracted to the wider array of bars, restaurants and shops in Alexandria, not to mention the ability to travel exclusively by foot, bike and transit.

Last month, they moved to an apartment in Carlyle, a new neighborhood being built around the Eisenhower Avenue Metro. They can literally see the trains from their window. A block away is a complex of shops, restaurants and a movie theatre. One stop on the Yellow Line takes them to a really good Thai place on King Street, and another stop to their favorite taqueria in Del Ray.

Alexandria's Carlyle neighborhood provides a stronger urban experience than anywhere in Montgomery County currently offers. Photo by faceless b on Flickr.

In this case, Alexandria has out-city'd Montgomery. You'd expect this, because Alexandria's been a center of commerce for over a quarter-century. But would you expect Montgomery to lose its much-treasured status as the "perfect suburbia" to Howard County?

Montgomery's older suburban neighborhoods are losing out to newer communities on the fringe, which have more money to invest in schools and infrastructure and less to spend on maintenance and social issues. Meanwhile, urban centers like downtown Silver Spring and downtown Bethesda can't always compete with their counterparts in Arlington, Alexandria and the District, which offer more activity, more housing choices, and more transportation options. Montgomery County will compete with both of these places for residents, businesses and tax dollars, and it has to compete with both if it's going to survive.

It's easy to demand the status quo. But let's look at where the next generation is going. Are we creating a place where young professionals and new families want to live? And can we actually offer a compelling alternative to new suburbs and old cities alike? If we can find the answer, I've still got plenty of single friends looking for a place to live.

will the ICC keep the status quo in east county?

The State Highway Administration is running radio ads for the InterCounty Connector, presumably because a half-century of debating whether to build the highway had most people convinced it would never open. In the ad, a woman says the ICC will allow her to sleep in later and spend more time at home with her family because she'll spend less time in traffic.

Going east on the ICC towards Georgia Avenue. Photo courtesy of Dan Malouff at BeyondDC.

I was thinking about this when one of my old friends from high school who currently lives in Olney, sent me this tweet: "Do you think Olney will become more popular because of the ICC?" she asked.

Before the ICC, Olney was a relatively isolated part of Montgomery County. It was seven miles from the nearest Metro station and nine miles from the nearest highway exit. Back in 2009, I wrote that the ICC would drag Olney "kicking and screaming" into the rest of the county and the D.C. area.

That doesn't mean people will start flocking to Olney now that they can get there from Gaithersburg in eight seven minutes. Really, it's the other way around: people in Olney, or Colesville, or Burtonsville will leave (or continue leaving) East County for the things they want or need: jobs in Gaithersburg, shopping in Rockville, restaurants in Bethesda.

If you follow the ICC to I-370 (as far as I'm concerned, they're the same highway), you'll end up at Washingtonian Center in Gaithersburg, where big-box stores and white-tablecloth eateries alike huddle around a little Main Street and an artificial lake. Developed by the Peterson Companies, the same folks who brought us Downtown Silver Spring, Washingtonian taught Montgomery County how to walk around outside after decades cooped up in shopping malls. I remember going there when I was thirteen and being mesmerized by it.

Washingtonian Center used to be an hour's drive from my parents' house in Calverton. Last Friday, I got there in twenty-five minutes. Will East County still be interested in fixing up Burtonsville when it's just as easy to spend your time and money elsewhere? I mean, it's not like the last highway we built here did anything for local businesses.

The ICC has opened up a lot of opportunities for Montgomery County, as I wrote last week. Yet there's a potential danger. Highways make it easier to go from one place to another, but they don't automatically make those places better. The woman in the ad wants more time with her family, but couldn't she also save time if her daily needs didn't require a trip by highway?

top ten favorite photos in east county (yours and mine)

Flickr, the site where I keep most of the photos for JUTP, has a list of my most popular photos, arranged by the number of views. Whenever I look at it, I'm always surprised at the results. For instance, the most popular photo of all time is one of this sign for Blake High School's production of High School Musical, taken three years ago by my friend Gili while I was driving. (I'm still not sure why my camera was on its "blue" setting.)

Second place went to my alterations to a map of racial integration in Montgomery County, and the infamous "Sushi Girl" who appeared at Georgian Towers' rooftop party two years ago came in third. Surprisingly, seven of the top twenty images are either maps or plans, and nine are images I didn't make myself.

Nonetheless, the list of YOUR favorites doesn't line up with the list of MY top ten photos that I've taken in East County for JUTP. Here they are, in reverse order:

#10 Chick-Fil-A Tent City



It's not every day Chick-Fil-A comes to town, and when ours opened on Tech Road, fans of the fast-food joint came from all over the country to wait in the blazing July heat for a chance at being first in the door.

#9 Allen Theatre Burns Down



The 50's-era Allen Theatre in Takoma Park was destroyed in a spectacular fire during a snowstorm in December 2009. I was amazed that, even though the building and everything inside was gone, the "The New Ave" banners hung on the outside - for the new marketing campaign along New Hampshire Avenue - were miraculously intact.

#8 K-Town


I was driving by K-Town, the makeshift skate park in Kensington a little before sunset two summers ago and I found this scene inspiring. I don't know why. I just like that the kid is basically in silhouette but everything else is visible.

#7 The Water Tower House


What's not to love about a house with its own water supply? One of six houses being built at the end of a cul-de-sac in Montgomery Hills, the Water Tower House shows how difficult infill development can be while letting us all enjoy a good laugh in the process.

#6 Wheaton Safeway


There's nothing more gloomy than an abandoned building, especially when it's a suburban supermarket whose sole purpose is to make visitors feel happy and want to buy things. I spent an afternoon photographing the shuttered Wheaton Safeway which will eventually give way to a new apartment building.

#5 A Porch in Silver Spring


When he saw this picture I took in the Courts of Woodside, awesome photographer/friend of JUTP Chip Py said, "Did you take this? It's pretty good." There is no higher honor. The concrete foundations in the middleground are now houses, meaning that this photo couldn't be replicated today.

#4 Tai Lam Memorial


Sometimes, the most powerful moments come unexpectedly. For people visiting Ellsworth Drive in the fall of 2008, it was this memorial for Tai Lam, a local teenager who was shot going home from downtown Silver Spring on a Ride-On bus. I nearly broke down while taking these photos - not just because of how sad the display is, but because of everyone else's reactions.

#3 Kid Falls Off Board, Everyone Laughs


Back from when it was legal to skate in downtown Silver Spring. The best parts of urban places is the spontaneity and the way multiple things can happen at once in the same space. This single block of Ellsworth Drive is at once a skate session and a show; on the sidewalks around them, people are grabbing dinner, going to a movie, waiting for a bus. I wish Montgomery County had the balls to let people be rather than trying to stop things like this from happening.

#2 World Cup Fever on Ellsworth Drive



Playing soccer in downtown Silver Spring is, thankfully, still legal. I always show this picture to anyone who complains that DTSS has become "generic."

#1 (tie) "The Turf" (above) and Veterans Plaza (below)






For six years, the corner of Ellsworth and Fenton has been where East County goes to hang out, whether as Veterans Plaza or its predecessor, "the Turf." The roll of plastic grass that had landscape architects fearing for their jobs is a memory, but it looks like people are still coming back, even if they can't run around barefoot.

When asked in my Urban Design Case Studies class last week what a significant place in my life was, I had to say Ellsworth Drive. Even though it's still very new and by no means a masterpiece, it's probably had the most influence on me, hence why it appears so many times in the countdown. It's weird: as I look at many of these photos, I can see how my beliefs about people and places and planning came to be. That's not to say that the places I'd design would all look like Ellsworth Drive. But I'd say that I learned a lot about how cities work while people-watching outside the Majestic on a Friday night.

punks like to have a yard, too

It's old news that the arts - whether in the form of a dance studio, a painter's workshop or a punk house - usually move to crumbling urban neighborhoods where lots of cheap, unused space is available. But even in D.C.'s darkest days, these kinds of spaces - which usually means old warehouses - were often scarce or prohibitively expensive. As a result, the suburbs became the place where much of D.C.'s art gets made.

The Lost Tourists (from Frederick) play at Scumbag Nation in Colesville. I'm not sure who took this photo.

This is from an old-ish (December 2009) City Paper article, "The Orange Line Revolution," about punk houses in Arlington:

Every burgeoning arts scene needs a safe, cheap, and relatively carefree place in which to set up shop. Baltimore had its bottle cap factories. Brooklyn had its loft spaces. D.C. had the close-in ’burbs.

The ’80s and ’90s were a golden era for the D.C. music and arts community. But many of those artists lived in places like Arlington and Silver Spring. Because they were cheaper. Because you were less likely to get your face punched in. Because you could play loud music all night.

(It's funny because, ten years before, the City Paper still bought into the idea of Montgomery County as "a wasteland inside a cul-de-sac of a hellhole of suburban ennui." The sooner that kind of smug ignorance dies, the better.)

Anyway: I wasn't aware of the punk houses in Arlington, but there were and still are several in Silver Spring, including the Death Star at Cedar Street and Ellsworth Drive, which closed in 2006 after the property's owner wanted to converted it into offices, which never happened. Shortly after, the Corpse Fortress opened a few blocks away at Philadelphia Avenue and Fenton Street. And in Colesville, there's Scumbag Nation, located in a sprawling ranch house on a big, wooded property off of New Hampshire Avenue.

These houses are all quite old (The Death Star and Corpse Fortress probably date to the 1920s, while Scumbag Nation was probably built in the 1960s) and in somewhat marginal locations. (It wasn't that long ago that the Death Star was in a marginal area as well, but having a Whole Foods move in across the street can do that to you.) They've become obsolete as newer homes and newer neighborhoods were built farther out, and suffered from the same cycle of disinvestment that hurt inner-city areas. As a result, they became cheap and accessible to a few kids wanting to put on a show.

On the outside - and, I guess, on the inside too - a punk house can look dirty, smell awful and sound terrible. (The last one depends on your musical tastes.) But they play many important roles. They give kids something to do, and in the D.C. area where straight-edge started, it's often something without drugs or alcohol. They help form communities in places where one may not exist. (It's both an intensely local community, based around a house, a school or a neighborhood, and a regional one - bands from Frederick came to play in Silver Spring, and vice-versa.) And they're just one of the venues where a local arts scene is built.

The Death Star was a punk house in downtown Silver Spring before closing in 2006.

Note that some of the nation's largest suburban music scenes, in Orange County, California, Northern New Jersey, and Long Island, are outside of cities that are ridiculously expensive to live in. Similarly, we have (or had?) a substantial music scene in suburban Washington. And we'll continue to as long as D.C. remains expensive.

Last week, the Post talked about performing arts centers locating outside of the city, like Strathmore Hall in North Bethesda. To me, that's not too different from having punk houses in Arlington. People like to make art or music wherever they live, and when nine-tenths of Greater Washington's six million residents live outside of Washington, the city can't have them all.

This isn't a bad thing. While we should work to create more affordable housing in the District so that artists can continue to live there, it's good to nurture the creation of culture in the suburbs as well. In doing so, we'll create stronger communities with a greater sense of place, and better music to boot.

justice department supports anti-gay bullying efforts at blake high school

Yesterday, representatives from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice came to Blake High School in Cloverly to premiere a video for the "It Gets Better" project, which aims to stop anti-gay bullying. Tom Perez, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, was on hand to introduce the video and answer questions from students as cameras from local TV stations rolled.

In the nine-minute film, Justice Department workers, many of whom were gay or lesbian, talked about their experiences being bullied in high school. The video had two messages: that gay and straight youth alike should feel proud of who they are, and that the government is committed to protecting them from being mistreated. I was told that yesterday's premiere happened at Blake because of the school's reputation for being "gay-friendly."



Before I graduated from Blake six years ago, my friends and I lovingly called it "the liberal faggy school on a hill." But my brother, who goes to Briggs Chaney Middle School, tells me his classmates say that "any boy who goes to Blake is an F-A-G." I was shocked by this comment, because it's words like this that kept me from reaching out to people who could help me when I struggled with my sexuality in high school.

Blake has a gay-straight alliance called Allies 4 Equality. Though it existed when I went there, the first time I ever attended a meeting was last October. Deena Barlev, who advises the club when she's not teaching 9th grade English, invited me to speak at A4E. I've been best friends with her son Gili since 1998, and it's accurate to say that Deena watched me grow up and eventually come out.

In a Facebook message, Deena told me about the school's commitment to its LGBTQ students:

Blake High School prides itself on being a place where LGBTQ students and their straight allies feel safe and respected. Virtually every instructional area of the building has a "Safe Space" sign posted, and our principal has made strong and repeated statements to faculty that our students' emotional as well as physical safety is a professional expectation."

Even coming from a trusted teacher like Deena or an official like Tom Perez, a phrase like "It Gets Better" might be kind of irritating to a teenager who's being tormented every day without relief. At A4E, I heard about kids who got picked on in class and teachers who didn't really care. I met one boy who got kicked out of his house for being gay. The club meets Thursdays at lunch, and for forty-five minutes these kids have a safe space in which to sort themselves out. For the rest of the week, they're out in the wild.

I still wish I'd been smart enough to come to an A4E meeting back in 2005. I'd been picked on since elementary school, and as the taunts grew from "wuss" in fourth grade to "queer" in ninth grade, I didn't want to invite any more attention to myself. I was already a brainy, mixed-race kid who preferred theatre and chorus to gym. So I tried very hard to fit in, wearing football jerseys and baggy pants, and each week I'd find a new girl to chase after. The taunting eventually stopped, but I'd spend high school working very hard to be someone I wasn't.

It was exhausting. By the time I finished senior year I was terribly confused and very depressed. Worse yet is that I knew why I was unhappy, but I couldn't admit it to myself.

But things got better, and fast. I went from a suburban high school of 1,900 students to a university with 35,000 students. I felt anonymous, but it gave me the opportunity to take stock of my life and my identity; not surprisingly, I came out two months into freshman year. After college, I was incredibly fortunate to spend a year working for the Montgomery County Council, which was a very tolerant place. I had several out coworkers, and I was able to see that gay people can lead happy, successful lives.

I live a happy, successful life, and I look forward to having a career and a family of my own one day. It's not always perfect. When Tastee Diner kicked out a lesbian couple two summers ago, I was reminded of the prejudice that remains even in as tolerant a place as Silver Spring. Occasionally, I'll still get called a faggot on the street. And, most painfully, I'm still not out to most of my family.

But yesterday, I returned Blake with my boyfriend and signed the "It Gets Better" pledge, which reads:

Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbors. I'll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I'll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and other bullied teens by letting them know that "It Gets Better."

I also saw that my government is working to keep all of its people safe and free to be themselves. I saw that kids who are going through what I did are getting the love and support they need. And I got real, tangible proof that things are getting better indeed.

what's up the pike: you could be my silver springs . . .

I came home last weekend and saw this at the construction site for the new Silver Spring Library. Tsk tsk.

- In case you missed it over Thanksgiving weekend (or your turkey/travel hangover): we looked at how a lack of student housing encourages underage drinking in College Park, discovered that Veterans Plaza has the same furniture as a famous new urban park, and reluctantly visited the new Burtonsville Giant.

- The National Capital Pinball Museum is now actually located in the National Capital and opens in Georgetown this weekend. Until recently, the museum operated out of curator and Colesville resident David Silverman's basement.

- Colesville Patch reports that a newly-vacant T-Mobile store in the Colesville Center shopping center will stay empty for a while. Oh, and now former State Senator Rona Kramer is the president of her family's business, Kramer Enterprises, which owns the shopping center. (Brother and state delegate Ben Kramer, meanwhile, developed and owns shopping centers in Norbeck and Cloverly).

- Developer B.F. Saul has posted their re-cap of meetings on the future of downtown Wheaton, which they've basically been given the keys to redevelop, says Wheaton Calling, who worries they aren't taking everyone's concerns into consideration.

- I can't get over this photo of the "bee guy" from the Silver Spring Thanksgiving Parade last week. With a satisfied grin, matching boots, and tray of Starbucks coffee, he makes my day every time I click on this picture.

- Metro is working on a map of high-frequency buses that come at least four an hour (which should mean every fifteen minutes, but that may or may not be the case). Note that Silver Spring and East County are relatively well-served by frequent bus routes compared to the rest of the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, with buses running along Georgia Avenue, University Boulevard, Veirs Mill Road and Colesville Road as far north as White Oak. If you're curious what to think about the map, or already know what to think and have your two cents to give, drop them at Greater Greater Washington or Human Transit, probably the best professional transit blog being written right now.

fun at the arcade

It's nice to encourage the creation of fun, walkable urban places, but it's not always fun to walk around when it's really hot or really cold or raining outside. There's one thing the mall will always have over downtown, and that's a climate-controlled environment. But urban places can strike a nice compromise by creating arcades, or covered sidewalks.

Most strip shopping centers have arcades, like this one at Plaza del Mercado in Layhill. This is nice: you can walk here and be sheltered from the sun, rain or snow. But you can't really occupy this space. There are no benches or tables for sitting or eating, and like most shopping centers, loitering is generally discouraged.

This is the arcade under the Twin Towers Apartments at Georgia Avenue and Fidler Lane in downtown Silver Spring. It's a pretty miserable space, barely wide enough to walk through and very dark. Note that it's also elevated above the sidewalk, meaning that passersby can't really look in any of the shop windows (are there even still shops here anymore?)

Traditionally, an arcade would cover the entire sidewalk, not just a portion of it, as it's meant to be a public space. Why doesn't it here? Perhaps zoning, or the Department of Public Works - fearful that the building would prevent them from widening Georgia Avenue in the future (God forbid) prevented any portion of the building from extending over the property line.

This arcade is along East Montgomery Avenue in Rockville. The building behind it houses several shops and restaurants and the Regal 16 Cinemas and, as a result, the space has lots of life and activity. It also covers the entire sidewalk, creating a sort of long, outdoor room. There's space for tables and chairs, for benches, with ample room left over for walking and window-shopping.

Long before Rockville Town Square opened, this arcade became a major hangout for local kids and remains so today. The enclosure not only provides shelter from the elements, but it creates a nice, intimate space for interaction. We'd do well to create more arcades like it.

why are moco's republicans so ridiculous?

Last week, Richard Layman at Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space wrote that because the District is so heavily Democratic, the Republican candidates who run in most local races are generally very weak because they have little support either from their party or from the community. Though I'm a registered Democrat, I'm easily swayed by Republicans bearing pastries and I share Layman's frustration because good government comes from having officials with different ideas and beliefs. It sucks that Republicans in Montgomery County are just as sorry as their counterparts in the District.


Just look at David Horner, an engineer from Fairland who's running against incumbent District 4 County Councilmember Nancy Navarro. If Horner was running in a more conservative area - somewhere in Western Maryland, or maybe in parts of Baltimore County - he'd probably have lots of support, funding and a full staff to research the issues and what his potential constituents want. Without any of those things, he has to resort to some stock conservative talking points about taxes and thinly veiled racism.

The first point on his homepage is that he's "Pro Business," and responses to a questionnaire from the Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce say he'd like to turn Silver Spring into the "Tysons Corner of Montgomery County," his "issues" page complains about "out of control" spending from the County Council on a Director of Economic Development who "does nothing." Is it really a waste of money to hire someone to attract businesses like this one to Silver Spring?

A little further down, he's expressing some pretty racist statements about people of Hispanic descent, who apparently never have to learn English in this county. "Legal and illegal Spanish speaking immigrants continue to speak Spanish, bank in Spanish, vote on Spanish ballots . . . they have poor employment futures as day laborers, lawn maintenance personnel, and cleaning staff," writes Horner, adding, "Crime and gangs result." Is he aware that his opponent is a legal immigrant from Venezuela, a college graduate, and speaks perfect English? Horner wants to "Improve access of all Montgomery County citizens to County Government staff and Council members," but only if you speak English.

Finally, Horner tries to express his disdain for current Councilmembers while possibly describing his own motivations. In the Chamber's questionnaire, he describes current members as "one-note local political activists and/or failed local attorneys who seek Council membership for its income and fringe benefits."

If elected, Horner would make $94,000 a year, which is more than the county's median income but probably not enough that he could buy his own house today. And he'll be excited to find that those fringe benefits include a frustrating commute to Rockville, long hours spent in committee meetings, and nights spent away from your family at public hearings with constituents, some of whom speak Spanish. There are much easier ways to make $94,000, and I doubt any of our current Councilmembers would say they do it for the money.

We're lucky that District 4 has been well-represented by both Councilmember Navarro and Marilyn Praisner before her, but I certainly feel sorry that every four years both women have had to put up with sorry opponents like Horner and others. Voters in Montgomery County of both parties deserve a better choice from the Republican Party.

when kids tell the story, kids listen

Colesville Patch reports that friends of Blake High graduate Kyle Lancon, who died in a car crash two weeks ago, are creating a foundation in his honor. They're also trying to have a memorial bench placed in Stonegate, where Lancon grew up.

"The main purpose is to let people know the seriousness of drinking and driving," [friend and classmate Dominic] DiPietro told Patch. "You're not only hurting yourself; you're hurting all your friends and loved ones."

This feels all too familiar to me - six years ago, when I was a senior at Blake, Alicia Betancourt died in a crash a few hundred yards away from school. Over the next nine months, countless speakers came to talk about driving safety, friends and family started a memorial 5K race - which almost collapsed for lack of interest five years later because no one at Blake knew her anymore - and her father, Dr. Betancourt, appeared on national television mourning his daughter's loss.

Meanwhile, it's Kyle's friends who are trying to turn a devastating loss into a beneficial message for their peers. It'll be much better received by their peers from them than it would from a parent or any other authority figure. And it's a much more compelling warning when it's about one of their peers, because even a girl who passed away six years ago is too distant for someone who just turned sixteen. The kids have to determine their own fate, not the adults.

I hope that young people in East County listen, so that this doesn't have to happen again.