what's up the pike: giving and taking

The reconstruction of the Silver Spring Metro may not get as much funding as it needs according to a new proposal from County Executive Ike Leggett.

Two years have passed since the fateful flood that gave rise to Just Up The Pike, and I'm proud that I've been able to keep it up, unlike so many of my other grand projects that flame out shortly after getting started. The past two years have been a wild ride, meeting people, traveling the county, making friends and losing a few as well. Here's to another year of writing about the place that I love most - and, to kick it off, here's a look at what's happening around East County:

- It's become clear this week: so shall Ike Leggett giveth, so shall he taketh away. Right after throwing more money at the promoters who'll run the Fillmore music hall in Downtown Silver Spring, County Executive Leggett proposes cutting funds from the Paul Sarbanes Transit Center, a $50 million reconstruction of the existing Silver Spring Metro station. The transit center would expand the capacity of what is currently the state's second-largest transportation hub, bringing local and regional bus service together along with the Purple Line.

Like the Fillmore, the Sarbanes Transit Center is the centerpiece of a large mixed-use development with offices, hotels and possibly residential units. Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson says the cost-cutting threatens "important design elements" of the project, including the location of a police station and transit store.

- As one East County private school embarks on an ambitious expansion, another struggles to pay its monthly rent. The Chelsea School, a facility for learning-disabled students just outside of Downtown, just embarked on a fundraising campaign to build a Daniel Libeskind-designed addition to their campus. Meanwhile, the Newport School, currently located on Tech Road in Calverton, can't even keep their doors open for next year if their landlord doesn't cut rents.

Both schools have a long history in the area, and in recent years, both have also had to change locations frequently. The Newport School lost three-fourths of their enrollment when they moved to their current space in an office park, administrators said, crippling their ability to raise funds.

Dear reader: thanks for reading! We hope you'll keep coming back again and again. You are why Just Up The Pike has kept going strong. Read more!

what's up the pike: money money money charrette

County Executive Ike Leggett throws a little more money at the Fillmore. Is Live Nation threatening to jump ship? Let's not jump (ha!) to conclusions.

- Greater Greater Washington, one of the region's best blogs on what's happening inside-the-Beltway, gave a nice long mention to our mini-series on last week's Burtonsville charrette. It's not all too often that a JUTP post gets this much attention - you'll want to get on the commenting bandwagon before the cool kids move on to the next big local blog story.

- County Executive Ike Leggett's working hard to make sure that Live Nation, whose proposed Fillmore music hall will take over the former J.C. Penney building on Colesville Road, stays in the game. In addition to $2 million in State funds, Live Nation will also get $800,000 in tax breaks from Montgomery County over the next ten years. Lee Development Group, who owns the land and a good chunk of the block bordered by Colesville, Georgia, Cameron and Fenton, will get up to fifteen years to develop a hotel-and-office complex behind the venue. That's triple the five-year deadline made by Park and Planning for submitted plans to be built.

I'm surprised by that, because I'd assume a developer would want to get his building up as quickly as possible. Then again, it's been long enough since we last heard about the Fillmore that I assumed it'd already opened. Perhaps I'm just impatient.

- Rising gas prices have forced Montgomery County Public Schools to cut bus service to a wider net of students living near a school. Currently, students within a mile of an elementary school, a mile and a half of a middle school, and two miles of a high school cannot ride the school bus. While the School Board hasn't decided what the new distances will be, I can't help but wonder: seriously? Back when I went to Eubie High, I had a friend who lived just a mile away and rode the bus. There are no sidewalks between his house and the school, and he'd have to cross busy Route 28 to get there.

Could MCPS really take away bus service from neighborhoods where walking to school would actually be dangerous? (More importantly, would The Parents ever let that happen? Seriously? No.)

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residents debate access to "green" white oak rec center

A rendering of the proposed White Oak Recreation Center on April Lane. Check out earlier drawings of the project right here. (warning! PDF file.)

Green design was the key phrase at last night's community forum for the proposed White Oak Recreation Center, but resident concerns about pedestrian access threatened to sink the planners' environmentalism.

Roughly twenty people came to a presentation about the facility at the White Oak Library, roughly a mile away from the recreation center's future site near the corner of Stewart and April lanes. Officials from the Department of Recreation gave a presentation about the kinds of programs the facility will offer, while the architects talked about their goal for LEED Silver certification.

LEED - standing for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - is a 69-point rating system created by the U.S. Green Building Council and used to reward environmentally-friendly or energy-efficient construction. Environmentally-sensitive features that will appear in the recreation center include porous paving surfaces for parking lots, window fins to direct natural light and reduce glare, and a geothermal heating system.

While the center was first proposed twelve years ago, the design process only began last winter and has gone through several iterations in an attempt to strike a balance between a difficult site, a complex program, and the LEED rating. "We have been significantly around and around" on the design, said Jeffrey Bourne from the Department of Recreation. The department is working with local firm Grimm + Parker on this and another recreation center currently under construction in Layhill.

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Plans for the proposed recreation center. At 33,000 square feet, it would be one of Montgomery County's largest.

At 33,000 square feet, the facility would be one of the Montgomery County's largest, featuring two gyms, a computer lab, classrooms, a "community lounge" for senior citizens, and social hall capable of holding two hundred people opening out onto a deck with views of the woods and possibly the Paint Branch.

Outside, the center would include basketball and tennis courts, two small playgrounds, a multi-purpose field, and a so-called "skate spot," slated to be the East County's first skate park. The fields and skate spot are located on the street, not only because it was the only flat land on the site, but because of neighborhood concerns, explains Steve Parker, one of two principals at Grimm + Parker, an architecture firm with offices in Calverton and Bethesda.

"These people saw this as their front yard," Parker said, referring to the apartments directly across the street.

Residents who lived further up New Hampshire Avenue expressed concerns about the site's accessibility. Earlier proposals for the recreation center placed it in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park in the Springbrook Village neighborhood. That location was closer to schools and in an area known for a high concentration of families, but it was further away from the concentration of apartments along Lockwood Drive and Stewart Lane, where the bulk of the facility's users would come. The current site, most of which is unbuildable due to steep slopes and the Paint Branch stream valley, is closer to the apartments.

A site analysis reveals the difficulties architects and the Department of Recreation face in locating the recreation center and its outdoor amenities.

"I'm concerned about kids - at Springbrook [High], at White Oak [Middle], at other schools - and seniors accessing this, because it's a little out of the way," said one woman.

One gentleman was unsure how far people within the White Oak neighborhood would be willing to travel to the recreation center, given it was a quarter-mile from the nearest bus stop. "How far will people walk, how far will people bike, how far will people take a bus?" he asked. "Where's the data?"

Amy Upton, one of the project architects, pointed to the inclusion of bike lockers and preferred parking for carpoolers as ways the recreation center could discourage driving. "The site is the site," she said. "We're doing the best we can."

Bourne explained that the Department of Recreation had derived a two-to-three-mile range of potential users for the complex. A representative from the Department of Parks chimed in, stating that there were 7,500 people living within a half-mile of the site and 10,000 people living within three-quarters of a mile, which made walking or biking a possibility for many residents.

"When you think about it, it's very accessible," said Steve Parker. "When you look at Wheaton Regional Park, it's not in the Wheaton town center, but it's in a residential area . . . the building wants to be in the green space."

Read more!

IMPACT picnic brings immigrant communities together

IMPACT Silver Spring, a local non-profit helping to bridge the divide between immigrant communities in the Downcounty, held a Community-Wide Picnic last Saturday in Takoma Park.

It looked like a normal summer get-together, with radio hits playing over a boombox, children with painted faces, and plates of hamburgers fresh off the gril. But IMPACT Silver Spring's "Community-Wide Picnic," held last Saturday at Takoma-Piney Branch Park, had higher aspirations.

"You can see all the diversity," says program director Winta Teferi. "It's important to create a strong network of people who are connected across lines of race and language. Sometimes you come to a place and you stay with the people you know."

IMPACT Silver Spring was founded nine years ago as a response to the Downcounty's rapidly changing demographics, representing the area's newly forming immigrant communities while also teaching people to advocate for themselves. Their picnic sought to bring together alumni of their Neighborhood IMPACT program, which helped renters build coalitions within apartment complexes, and IMPACT in the Schools, which encourages parents to get involved in their children's education as a means of decreasing the achievement gap between minority students and their white counterparts.

While the dual programs help people become involved in their community, political office is rarely seen as a goal, Teferi explains. "We emphasize the idea of working with others," she says. "We encourage them to work together starting from small improvements in their communities . . . we believe that big changes start very small."

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Program director Winta Teferi poses with a local resident.

Sara Mussie, a Downcounty resident of sixteen years, went through the IMPACT in the Schools program before becoming a staff member. A mother of Ethiopian descent, Mussie wasn't accustomed to working alongside her kids' teachers because of her culture's faith in their authority, she explains. "My parents hardly came to [my] school because that was the culture. There was no connection between," says Mussie. "We encourage them to have communication with the teachers."

Originally, Mussie was skeptical about the program. "I felt that I was doing good with my children," she says. "With the teacher I had no relationship. I would say 'hi,' 'bye,' go to the Parent-Teacher Conference once a year, that was it. I never advocated for my child. Once I started going through the program, that really helped me . . . and I could help others as well."

The program aims to help immigrant parents adjust to the social and cultural norms of American schools. "We give six-week-long workshops for parents how to help your child at home, how to work with the school system," explains Mussie. "It's very interactive . . . like a discussion forum. We give them the tools, how to ask the right questions, how to use a calendar."

Intern Megan Moriarty became interested about Neighborhood IMPACT after writing about it for her Community Planning program at the University of Maryland, where she graduated with a Master's degree last month. As a renter in Falkland Chase, Moriarty relates well to the individuals she works with.

"I think the same issues come up if you're a renter in Silver Spring or Takoma Park or D.C.," says Moriarty. "Same complaints, the same difficulties of being renters . . . IMPACT embraces it. What can we do to work with property managers, to work with our neighbors, to make our communities better places."

After both of IMPACT's programs wrapped up for the spring, those involved in the organization were anxious for a way to bring its members together. "We have two programs, one for renters and one for parents and we don't really do anything for both," Moriarty says. "It's a good way to get people involved and grow the network, if you will." After considering a retreat and softball team, a picnic "seemed like the easiest thing to pull off in the short term," she adds.

An Olney native, Moriarty left the Washington area for college, studying at the University of Colorado and in Costa Rica before returning for graduate school. As she becomes more involved with groups like IMPACT Silver Spring, leaving again seems increasingly difficult. "I left and never thought I'd be back," says Moriarty. "The last couple of years in Silver Spring, I can't imagine leaving now. The more you become connected, the more you understand how things work. I can't imagine doing that over somewhere else."

Read more!

former councilmember praisner memorialized in library, recreation center

WHAT'S UP THE PIKE: TV plastic surgeon meets adoring fans at White Oak Sears; One-quarter of Guatemalan town has moved to Langley Park; Riders forced to pay fare on some Metrobuses during Code Red day.

Newly-elected Councilmember Don Praisner unveils a sign dedicating the Fairland Library to his wife Marilyn as County Executive Ike Leggett and Councilmembers George Leventhal, Mike Knapp and Duchy Trachtenberg look on. Check out this slideshow of the ceremony.

Over one hundred friends and supporters braved hundred-degree temperatures Saturday morning to dedicate two community facilities in Burtonsville to former Councilmember Marilyn Praisner (D-Calverton), who fought to ensure East County had the same amenities available in other areas.

"I know my mother is looking down on us, shaking her head, saying 'I don't deserve this," said Alison Klumpp, one of Praisner's two daughters, during a ceremony in front of the Marilyn J. Praisner Library and Community Recreation Center, formerly the Fairland Library and Community Recreation Center. "But you do for making this community a better place for children children and adults alike."

Family members, community leaders and elected officials offered memories of Praisner's life and career, which ended upon her passing away in February. Three students from Paint Branch High School played a musical tribute including a rendition of the song "My Way" by Frank Sinatra. The ceremony ended with an unveiling of three new signs - on both buildings and at the complex's entrance on Old Columbia Pike - bearing the former councilmember's name.

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

County Executive Ike Leggett speaks about Marilyn Praisner's life as Don Praisner looks on.

County Executive Ike Leggett, who had been close friends with Praisner for several decades, spoke of loss and rebirth. "We're saddened that we do not have this brilliant mind, dedication to county, making sure what is done is right," said Leggett, speaking slowly and deliberately. "But now it is time to turn the page. A new beginning for this community . . . It's difficult because when we look at the challenges facing Montgomery County today we need Marilyn Praisner more than ever."

Leggett pointed to Old Columbia Pike, where Praisner had pushed for road improvements and expansion of Ride On service, as a lasting example of her work. "If you look down this street you'll see sidewalks up and down connecting schools, libraries, houses of worship," said Leggett. "We are connected because of Marilyn Praisner."

Widower Don Praisner, who won a special election last month to finish the rest of his wife's term, was visibly shaken as he made a brief statement during the ceremony. "It's a little difficult for me," he said, "but I want to thank all those voters in District 4 for voting for me . . . being retired for fifteen years, it's hard to go back and get a job."

Gene Neal, retired Program Manager for the Department of Recreation, talked about Praisner's fight to build the recreation center, which was not completed until 2002, seven years after the library. "Many facilities are named after people we don't even know," he said. "I don't think there's a person in Montgomery County that could say this isn't the right thing to do."

Students from Paint Branch High School, where all three Praisner children attended, play a musical tribute for Marilyn Praisner.

The unveiling ceremony was a relief for Klumpp, who with other family members has attended many events commemorating her mother's life over the past four months. "It's neat to know that my mom's name will live for a generation to come," says Klumpp, a teacher at Fairland Elementary School. "This is our culminating event . . . which I'm somewhat thankful for. It's so emotional to hear all these honors."

At-Large Councilmember Nancy Floreen, was glad to see the dedication made. "I think it's a great legacy for her," says Floreen, who served with Praisner since first being elected in 2002. "It's just horrible that it has come so soon . . . I still can't believe that she's not here."

Burtonsville resident Stuart Rochester, who worked with Praisner as chairman of the Fairland Master Plan Advisory Committee, recalled the "easy access" he and other citizens had to their councilmember. "I could call her at work, even on vacation," he says. "No one gave more generously of her time . . . we had a wonderful personal and civic relationship."

Don Praisner, who joined the County Council for its new session yesterday, expressed gratitude for the "outpouring of support" his wife received for her years of hard work. "I always questioned her 'why did you do all the things you did,'" he says, "and it's clear with all the support we've received. Even driving up and down Old Columbia Pike is still gonna bring back memories."

Read more!

delegate mizeur touts health care expansion for young adults

WHAT'S UP THE PIKE: East County cops struggle to keep Third Police District safe; Biodiesel advocates visit Sandy Spring middle-schoolers; National Labor College breaks ground on fallen workers' memorial.

State Delegate Heather Mizeur (D-Dist. 20) announced the passage of her Family Coverage Expansion Act yesterday at the University of Maryland. The new law extends health insurance to dependents until age twenty-five.

State Delegate Heather Mizeur (D-Dist. 20) was at the University of Maryland-College Park yesterday to promote a newly passed law that extends health insurance to children for several years after high school or college graduation.

The Family Coverage Expansion Act, which Mizeur "shepherded through" in the 2007 legislative session, requires insurance providers to keep dependents on their families' health care plans until the age of 25. Currently, young adults lose coverage within a year of completing school.

"Becoming uninsured right after high school or college is no longer a rite of passage," says Mizeur at a press conference held this afternoon in the Stamp Student Union, on the University of Maryland campus. "It's a win-win-win situation for everyone."

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Mizeur, whose district runs from Colesville in the north to Takoma Park in the south, was joined by State Senator Jim Rosapepe (D-Dist. 21) - who represents College Park - a raft of health care advocates and several university students who would immediately benefit from the bill, which takes effect this year. It's only one of several pieces of legislation passed by the state recently which increase insurance coverage, says Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative.

"I can't think of another state that has in so little time done so much health care expansion," DeMarco says.

There are 100,000 uninsured adults between twenty-one and twenty-five statewide, says Mizeur, making up about a third of all uninsured residents. Providing health coverage for them was one of her campaign promises, and she's glad to be able to fulfill it. "If you take care of them, you've solved one-third of the problem," says Mizeur.

Senator Rosapepe urged students to let their parents know about the Family Coverage Expansion Act, as did all of the speakers. He assured that there were no strings attached to the new policy. "They can stay on your policy but they don't have to live with you," he jokes. "That's a question a lot of parents ask."

Read more!

east county apartments capitalize on college park housing shortage

WHAT'S UP THE PIKE: Marc Fisher predicts future where Konterra gets built; Cedar Street bike lane named "World's Stupidest"; A Parent In Silver Spring appears in the Express.

ABOVE: Apartment complexes throughout the region, particularly in Silver Spring, are targeting University of Maryland students kicked out of on-campus housing. BELOW: An ad for The Enclave in White Oak, frequently spoofed on Silver Spring, Singular.

As the spring semester ends here in College Park, the yearly hunt for student housing resumes once again. The University of Maryland has thrown a sizable portion of the junior and senior classes off-campus, and the pages of the Diamondback, our daily student newspaper, are choked with ads for nearby apartment complexes.

What's notable about this year's ads, however, is just how far away landlords think that students are willing to move. Of the twenty-six apartment complexes advertised in the Diamondback last Thursday, fourteen of them are in Silver Spring or along the Route 29 corridor. These apartments often tout their proximity to the Silver Spring Metro when many, like Waterford Tower on Briggs Chaney Road, are in fact almost nine miles away. Seven are located in towns closer to College Park, like Hyattsville and Adelphi. Just two of the apartment complexes advertised are actually in College Park.

Eastern Montgomery County has long been a popular area for both students and faculty. Nearly twenty years ago, my mother moved to Silver Spring while attending the University of Maryland. Today, the University runs shuttle routes to Burtonsville, Calverton and the Silver Spring Metro. And since its opening in 2004, the Downtown Silver Spring complex along Ellsworth has become a big draw for Maryland students eager to check out a movie on Friday night without going into The City. (In the minds of the most sheltered, Washington, D.C. is the only place scarier than College Park after dark.)

A less-than-flattering portrayal of College Park in the Washington City Paper two years ago just about sums up the general distaste many people have for the U of M's neighborhood, which may or may not be deserved. Meanwhile, student housing projects closer to campus have been stalled by either the school or the city. And so long as nothing gets built in College Park, it's very possible that the East County could see an influx of students in coming years. Read more!

green buildings, harris teeter possible at b'ville town center

WHAT'S UP THE PIKE: Calverton Elementary loses sixth grade; Blair magnet students march on Rockville; Outcry over "official neglect" of rec centers in MoCo's predominantly-black neighborhoods.

BUT FIRST: Montgomery College unveils plans to expand its Silver Spring-Takoma Park campus TONIGHT from 7-9pm at the Charlene R. Nunley Student Services Center (at left) at Fenton Street and New York Avenue.

Both the Mid-County (pictured) and White Oak recreation centers, currently in planning, will be certified for their sustainable design. Renderings courtesy of Grimm + Parker Architects.

East County could be seeing a wave of green construction as two LEED-certified developments begin to take shape. Created by the U.S. Green Building Council, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Rating Systems are a measurement of a project's energy-efficiency and sustainability. A scale of 69 points is used to rate buildings Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum, the highest-possible standard.

Developer Chris Jones is shooting for a LEED Gold designation for his Burtonsville Town Center project, which would redevelop the forty-year-old shopping center at Route 198 and Old Columbia Pike. Eileena York of East County civic group Citizens Involved announced Jones's intentions during a candidate forum hosted by the organization April 9.

The 260,000-square-foot development, first submitted to Park and Planning three years ago, would have half as much retail space as Downtown Silver Spring in as many as eight buildings. High-end grocery store Harris Teeter has been rumored as an anchor tenant, but it is "unconfirmed," according to York.

Two weeks ago, Montgomery County revealed early plans for the White Oak Community Recreation Center, to be built near the corner of April and Stewart lanes. At 33,000 square feet, the facility would become the County's largest green building and one of its largest recreation centers. It and a new Mid-County Recreation Center are currently in the design stage; JUTP could not get a hold of Grimm + Parker, the Bethesda-based firm currently working on the projects, for additional images. Read more!

john mckinnis, putting down roots

WHAT'S UP THE PIKE: Congressional candidate Donna Edwards moving into National Harbor in Oxon Hill; Post examines rift created by District 4 opening.

Part SEVEN of our "District 4 Head-to-Head Tour," which seeks to interview all eight candidates running in a special election to replace Councilmember Marilyn Praisner, who passed away in February. A primary will be held April 15, followed by a general election May 13.

John McKinnis at the Calverton Starbucks. For more information about his platform and biography, check out his campaign website.

At first glance, you can't tell that John McKinnis is a father of four, a successful business owner, or a Republican candidate for County Council. The news that he's thirty-two seems startling. He doesn't look as old as he is, and his actual age betrays his accomplishments. McKinnis is late for our meeting at the Calverton Starbucks, a few blocks from his home, but it's forgivable: he most likely put those ten minutes to good use.

McKinnis was one of a handful of candidates who drove to Four Corners last week for a late-night debate hosted by the Northwood-Four Corners Civic Association and unfortunately scheduled for the same time as one in Burtonsville. The event didn't let out until 11:30, he says, but as a former resident of Northwood he identified with the neighborhood's current struggle to stop the installation of soccer fields on a meadow in North Four Corners Park.

"I'm very concerned about that park and that rec center," says McKinnis. "My wife's Sweet Sixteen was in that rec center . . . we used to walk to that park."

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

A native of Michigan, McKinnis has lived in East County for several years, moving from Four Corners to a newly-built home off of Cherry Hill Road in Calverton in 2001. While he is "not directly involved" with the politically influential Calverton Civic Association, he has been a coach in the Calverton Recreation League. Now that he's put roots down, McKinnis is impatient for results from a government he doesn't see as functional. "As an investor in our community, you have to demand a rate of return," he says.

"I think there needs to be some kind of sanity on this council right now . . . they're not focused on anything," says McKinnis, who last ran for District 14 delegate two years ago. The current emphasis on so-called "quality-of-life" issues, which often refers to land use and development, is no longer relevant when "people are just trying to survive," he laments.

As a Republican on an entirely Democratic council, McKinnis says he could offer a different perspective, enabling him to act independently. "Because I'm not in the trench of one direction, I can stand up and say 'we don't need to fall in line with this'," he says.

County residents are used to a high level of government services, making any program cuts very unpopular. McKinnis claims that he's willing to take the blame for those decisions. "Let me be that fall guy on the council," he says. "This isn't about party lines, it's about leadership . . . and this fiscal crisis requires direct leadership."

Montgomery County is facing a $300 million deficit, and McKinnis blames the school system's increasing demands for funding. "I think if you look primarily at our fiscal situation right now . . . a lot of people should be held responsible, but it starts with her," he says, referring to current school board president - and Democratic District 4 candidate - Nancy Navarro. "I guess this is the inconvenient truth of where our County is."

As a father of four, he expresses dismay towards many MCPS policies, including its recent decision to give students on free and reduced lunch higher priority in being assigned to Blake High School during the choice process for Northeast Consortium eighth-graders, which ended last year. "I have four incredible children, they're so talented, and you're gonna do everything you can to give them their dreams," says McKinnis. One daughter is an aspiring gymnast; his seven-year-old son is playing piano; his eldest son, age twelve, does music and theatre. He recently started working with the same manager as teen idols the Jonas Brothers.

In a few years, he'll have to be thinking about the Consortium, McKinnis says. "You look at Blair, the technology achievements being made there . . . there are certain schools that kids are going to gravitate to because of those achievements," he states. "I want to see [my son] going to a school not because of his color but because of what interests him."

McKinnis's four children are split between the public schools and Forcey Christian School on East Randolph Road, which has "a huge diversity of families," he says. His wife is a teacher at Burtonsville Elementary, and through her, he's learned a lot about the difficulties educators are facing in the school system. Increased attention to gifted-and-talented programs and special education has shortchanged students "in the middle," he laments. Meanwhile, problematic students are being swept under the rug by administrators unwilling to admit that they hamper the educational experience for other students.

"You are in denial of what your employees put up with," says McKinnis of the school system's administration. "I've known teachers who've been written up because their kids aren't above grade level. There's so much pressure on them . . . they're the sacrifice in this line of fire and the kids are suffering."

Nonetheless, problems in the school system and the county budget have been perennially pushed aside in favor of a bigger issue. "We talk about development," McKinnis laments. "None of this matters if our house isn't in order." Read more!

robert patton, back in burtonsville and on the defense

Part SIX of our "District 4 Head-to-Head Tour," which seeks to interview all eight candidates running in a special election to replace Councilmember Marilyn Praisner, who passed away in February. A primary will be held April 15, followed by a general election May 13.

County Council candidate Robert Patton, left, and his brother and campaign manager William, at the Starbucks in Burtonsville. For more information about Robert Patton, check out his campaign website.

If you've ever been to the Turf Center on Route 198 in Spencerville, you've bought sod from the Pattons, who've been landscaping Montgomery County yards for seventy years. Last Monday, I talked to two Pattons - Republican District 4 candidate Robert and his brother and campaign manager William, himself a former council hopeful - about Burtonsville, McMansions, and just what's wrong with the County establishment.

It was hard to get a word in between their rapid-fire conversation, and you can clearly tell how close they are. "We bounce ideas off each other all the time," says Robert. "I guess that's an advantage. I got more than one head to think with."

Robert decided to run because he was frustrated by politics and politicians. The County Council is distracted by "issues they feel aren't that important because it meant they didn't have to deal with other things," Robert laments. "I understand that new problems have new needs . . . but what tends to happen is you neglect your core responsibilities. On basic terms, it's your schools, your police force, your roads. Everything that makes the basic quality of living."

Meanwhile, those in his own party aren't holding true to their own ideals. "The Republicans are saying 'we gotta cut spending' but you ask them 'you wanna build the Purple Line' they all say yes," says Robert. "I don't think it's a worthwhile investment . . . who's gonna ride the Purple Line but the people who watch kids in Bethesda?" he says, suggesting that a line on Route 29 would be more successful.

"I could never play their game," he adds. "I might never be successful in politics but I'd sleep better at night knowing I tried."

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

"You know with Howie Denis and Steve Silverman there was a better feeling on the council," says William. He points out that former Democratic councilmember Silverman and the Patton brothers represented a horse farm on Route 198 that was shut down because their weekly equestrian shows caused "a lot of traffic on the roads, and people complained," Robert says. "Now they have a hundred fifty houses and now they have traffic every day instead of just on Sundays . . . there's animosity between the farm and the neighbors when we'd really just want to see a farm."

"I hate these McMansions with yards that you could cut with a weedeater, they're so small," says Robert. If elected, he would seek a minimum one-acre lot for new homes in East County - or seek other uses for the land altogether.

"We're looking at what's a better use for the land after the father's done with his land and he wants to pass it on to his kids - like a driving range or a church or something," adds William.

Robert questions the commitment of people who complain that the East County doesn't have enough amenities. "They move here for the government jobs and they make a lot of demands but they aren't planning to retire here," he says.

While he supports the proposed Burtonsville Access Road, Robert's skeptical about further development in the village center. "I think there are a lot of amenities out here. I'm kind of partial to the green space," he says. "Burtonsville's always sort of looked like an afterthought. It was meeting a demand. It was never architecturally pleasing . . . I don't begrudge Burtonsville, but I wouldn't take a girlfriend here, maybe to Seibel's for a milkshake."

Suddenly, Robert and William launch into nostalgia. "There was a tractor dealership where the Free State used to be," says William.

"I used to go to the Amish Market for ham sandwiches," Robert adds. "Even when I was a kid I used to go there it was a Chesapeake Bay Seafood House. My parents took me there when I got A's on my report card."

William laughs. "Who thought we were gonna have a Starbucks in Burtonsville. This used to be a driving range."

Robert replies with a sigh. "That's sort of the kind of rural flair this area used to have."

The rural village charm isn't what drove Robert out of the Burtonsville area twenty years ago. As a sophomore, he left Paint Branch High School because "people were stabbing each other and there were thirty students in class and teachers couldn't handle it," he states.

"I remember I was at a party not too far from here and somebody got stabbed or pulled a knife on somebody and the police came," says Robert. "And my friends . . . they said 'Hey, there are some nice cars in the neighborhood. Let's go steal stuff.' and I thought 'Who are these friends I'm picking?'"

The following day, Robert's hockey team traveled to New Jersey to play Lawrenceville, a boarding school outside of Princeton. He was so inspired by the grandeur of the campus that he immediately applied to a dozen schools across New England before being accepted to one in Connecticut. "All of a sudden I was in classes with six to twelve students, and you had to do your homework," says Robert. "You couldn't hide it."

He proposes giving Montgomery County parents a property tax rebate that functions as a voucher for private schools, reducing the school system's budget while also helping students who like himself did not feel comfortable in a public institution. "The school voucher thing isn't so much I'm partial to private schools but you're spending nine grand a kid and the schools are one hundred percent at capacity you take twelve hundred dollars and they'll be under," says Robert.

"I would argue that this would cost the county $30 million but in three years it would make them $100 million," adds William.

After prep school, college and several years living in El Salvador - first in the Peace Corps, later working for the Salvation Army World Service Office - Robert returned to Burtonsville and was shocked at how much it had changed. "Coming back, you know, it's like seeing your nephew in ten years, you don't recognize anything," says Robert. Rising house prices forced him out of humanitarian work and into landscaping, which he had done before leaving.

"He's great at it, he's fluent in Spanish," William says.

As a contractor, Robert finds himself embroiled in the ongoing debate over illegal immigration, but he favors extending rights - like workman's compensation and time-and-a-half - to workers legally in the country. "Anyone that's worth employing is worth employing right," he says.

However, he is skeptical about the effectiveness of Casa de Maryland, a government-supported agency who runs a day laborer center in Takoma Park. "The Casa program, it has good intentions and it sort of keeps them on the grid, on the radar," says Robert, "and generally I'm in favor of it. But when you have budget problems I'm not sure if it's the best way to help the Latino community."

All of Robert's employees - many of whom have been there for several years - are legal, but he appreciates the struggle all immigrants went through to get here. "The most ambitious and hardworking of the Latinos are the ones who save six thousand dollars in a place where you can make ten dollars an hour to pay a coyote who can get you across the border just so you can stand outside Home Depot trying to get a job," says Robert. "I got a lot of respect for that kind of character just to begin with . . . and then once you're here send ten percent of your income back home."

Twenty years ago, he couldn't get out of Burtonsville fast enough, but now Robert hopefully plans to stick around. "If I had some guarantee that District 4 would remain the way it is, with acres of green space, however we decide to use them, I'd consider staying," he says. "I think most candidates would say yes but most of them are lying. Everyone wants to go to Florida, but my family's been here . . . it just makes sense." Read more!

pat ryan, busy making plans (updated)

Part FIVE of our "District 4 Head-to-Head Tour," which seeks to interview all eight candidates running in a special election to replace Councilmember Marilyn Praisner, who passed away in February. A primary will be held April 15, followed by a general election May 13.

County Council candidate Pat Ryan at the Parkway Deli in Silver Spring. (Picture forthcoming!) For more information about his platform and biography, check out Ryan's campaign website.

Pat Ryan's just received an endorsement from the Gazette, but you wouldn't know it from the way he talks. On the day the paper came out last week, we met at the Parkway Deli on Grubb Road, and he sort of brushed off his campaign for County Council when talking to an
acquaintance we met.

"I'm not the favorite," he says. "Don Praisner is running. The widower."

The widower. Those two words have cast a cloud over the District 4 special election, being held to find a replacement for Councilmember Marilyn Praisner, who passed away in February. And while her husband Don is running to "carry on her legacy" in the council, it's Ryan that former JUTP guest blogger Adam Pagnucco says "may be the true heir to Marilyn Praisner from a policy perspective."

Pragmatic but deeply concerned about the glacial pace of progress in East County, the Fairland resident and local activist has thrown his hat into the ring to see that old promises are not broken. "I'd been interested in running for local office for a long time," says Ryan. "I thought it was really important for someone with a lot of local connections and really understood the district [to run]."

It doesn't help, though, that no one outside of the immediate area seems to know where he lives. "Yeah, I get a lot of blank stares . . . I say 'it's on the way to Columbia'."

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

A Pat Ryan campaign sign vies for visibility along Randolph Road in Colesville.

Since moving to the area in 1984, Ryan became intimately involved in the community. A firm believer in public education, he sent his three children to Montgomery County schools through eighth grade, when they transferred to a private school at the request of his wife. During and after his kids attended County schools, he played a role in the creation of the Northeast Consortium, which for the past ten years has given East County eighth-graders the opportunity to pick from three local high schools based on their individual "signature programs."

"We were in this multicluster PTA meeting and I said 'Why don't we let parents and students choose which high school they want to attend,' and they said 'No, we don't do that in Montgomery County'," says Ryan. "One thing I saw that we don't talk about is white parents' fear of black students going to school with their kids . . . . Sherwood parents afraid of their kids going to Springbrook.

"I talked to a lot of parents ten years ago who said they moved Olney because it's a predominantly-white area and they wanted their kids to go to school with white kids," he adds.

"In a way, proposing the [Choice Program] was a way to avoid dealing with that conflict" faced by parents anxious about the presence of minorities in East County high schools, Ryan suggests. However, he stressed the significance of exposing students to a range of different cultures and experiences while in school. "What's the value here?" he asks. "Is it more important to give everybody their first choice or to give everyone a racially and economically diverse student body?"

"In a county that's increasingly diverse," he adds, "you have to make sure you're not tolerating a silent racism."

Through working with Action In Montgomery, a County-based "multi-racial, multi-faith, strictly non-partisan" group devoted to encouraging civic involvement, Ryan has become very passionate about the issue of affordable housing, making it a central part of his campaign. "I just thought it was important that the kind of issues we've been working on were heard in this race," he says.

Affordable housing isn't just about giving people a roof over their heads, explains Ryan. "I think locating housing closer to where people work deals with a lot of issues," he says. "There seems to be a lack of active visioning about how to solve this problem because people are commuting from Howard County and Frederick County to here, we have more traffic, more greenhouse gases."

As a result, Ryan has put together a five-point plan for dealing with affordable housing, which he explains in detail on his campaign website. One of the most dramatic improvements he proposes is that the County create a Non-Profit Corporation to build low-income housing using private funds.

Montgomery County lacks the necessary impetus to improve their affordable housing stock, especially when compared to the effort it puts into more lucrative ventures, he explains. "The reason Downtown Silver Spring got developed the way it did was because somebody was pushing for it in the County Executive's office, and we need someone to do that for affordable housing," he says.

Ryan's involvement in planning and land issues began in 1997, when he served as a member of the Fairland Master Plan Advisory Committee, which guided the creation of the Planning Department's master plan for the Route 29 corridor north of White Oak.

On the committee, he says, "You sort of see how a community gets shaped, how important values get protected . . . who shapes the future." However, in the eleven years since its adoption, the master plan has not been fully realized. "There's a lot that hasn't happened," says Ryan. "The Burtonsville Town Center concept is still in planning. For God's sakes, it's ten years since the plan was adopted."

With Howard and Prince George's counties bordering the planning area on two sides and a major highway bisecting it, developing a cohesive community has proved difficult. Forty years ago, Montgomery and Prince George's collaborated on the bi-county Fairland-Beltsville Plan, but it was replaced by master plans covering each side of the county line later on. "I think development which crosses the [county] line doesn't have a good track record," Ryan says. There doesn't seem to be a shared vision between them."

One example of how the two counties haven't been communicating with each other is Cherry Hill Road, which has been five lanes on the Montgomery side for nearly ten years but is only now being widened from two lanes on the Prince George's side. "If you drive down that way at any time of day traffic is just dangerous," laments Ryan. "The history of Montgomery County and Prince George's in terms of planning road capacity is not encouraging."

"I think there is this sort of sense that Prince George's County figures whenever they work with Montgomery County they'll get the short end of the stick," Ryan says, stressing why inter-county cooperation is so important. "The future of our area is intertwined with theirs . . . Don Praisner lives in Calverton, and Calverton is half in P.G., but the issues are the same. You look at traffic, you look at crime, you look at amenities, all of the issues that affect a community, and they all overlap."

"You don't solve traffic as Montgomery County. You're putting Band-Aids on a local problem," he continues. "Traffic is regional. It involves Frederick County and Prince George's County and even Northern Virginia . . . we need to get together and do more active planning . . . if we're gonna do something, we've gotta start now."

In the future, Ryan says, he'd like East County residents to consider "how we can share development space in a way that will lessen dependence on the car," he says. "Everyone in the Fairland area has a car. I know you don't."

"I do," I reply. "I drove here."

"But you look at some areas like the new Rockville Town Square where housing and shopping are in spaces where people can walk to them, that's the kind of development I'd like to see," he continues. "White Oak Shopping Center, that's probably going to be redeveloped. What do people want to see there? What's gonna happen?" Read more!

nancy navarro, taking the county establishment by storm

Part ONE of our "District 4 Head-to-Head Tour," which seeks to interview all eight candidates running in a special election to replace Councilmember Marilyn Praisner, who passed away in February. A primary will be held April 15, followed by a general election May 13.

Photo courtesy of the Gazette.

Nancy Navarro and I are enjoying lunch at Ledo Pizza in Colesville, a few blocks away from the home she shares with her husband and two daughters. It's a Wednesday in early March, soon after the pollen's started, and we're both stuffy and miserable, but the interview soldiers on. It isn't until after an hour that the current School Board president and Venezuelan native reveals why she's running for County Council, and her voice suddenly drops out, sapped of its normal enthusiasm.

"I'm so not a politician," Navarro says, and you have to believe it. "Deep down inside for me, it's about my kids, it's about my husband from Haiti. They grew up with certain hopes . . . if you want to run for public office, you shouldn't have to deal with all the crap I went through. I will be a pain in the behind for all these people because they weren't counting on it."

She adds, "I could not live with how this district is characterized."

Like all of the candidates running to replace Marilyn Praisner for the District 4 Council seat in this year's special election, Nancy Navarro never expected to find herself on the campaign trail so soon. The councilmember, who passed away seven weeks ago, seemed to be doing just fine after a car accident last fall. "It was weird because I saw her at the Democratic Party Brunch and she looked very strong," Navarro says. "She was leaving the building and I kept yelling 'Marilyn! Marilyn!' and she turned around and asked her husband 'Why are you so slow?' It seemed like she was fine."

Suddenly Navarro, who'd just won a second term on the School Board in 2006, was out pounding the pavement for votes once again. "Seeing first-hand so many of the issues that this district is facing . . . I see myself as the person to take on this responsibility," she says. "My girls looked at me like 'what? are you crazy?'"

"It's a tall order, to follow a lady like Marilyn Praisner," she adds.

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Navarro was warned that many East County residents, like these shown at a Citizens Involved meeting last spring, are concerned about land use and development issues.

At her campaign kickoff two weeks ago, Navarro said she believed in the "politics of possibilities," but some of her fellow Democrats made it clear they didn't buy it. "My opinion is that Nancy Navarro is partly responsible for the current budget crisis," says former candidate Cary Lamari, who threw his support behind Marilyn Praisner's widower Don after County Executive Ike Leggett and other higher-ups asked him to step down. Lamari was inferring that, as current president of the School Board, Navarro supported budget increases for Montgomery County Public Schools (among them, regular pay increases for teachers) that may further exacerbate the county's large deficit.

"It's too early to know how the numbers are gonna come in," replies Navarro. "Folks have not sat down to address the whole deficit. I was surprised that it went from $400m to $297m just like that."

Leggett also warned Navarro about staying in the race, suggesting that she was out of