downtown silver spring could get a business improvement district. what is a BID, anyway?

In order to attract new businesses and residents and better maintain the downtown area, a group of local businesses and property owners in Silver Spring want to start a business improvement district, or BID. But what is a BID anyway?

 A group of businesspeople and property owners want to give downtown Silver Spring a Business Improvement District. Photo by the author. 

A business improvement district is basically a nonprofit organization that manages a commercial area. They can provide a variety of services, like sidewalk cleaning, capital improvements, security, parking and transportation management, and social services. But they also work to market and promote an area, recruit new businesses, and retain current businesses. BIDs are created by local governments, and are given the ability to raise funding through taxes on commercial property owners.

GGWash editorial board member Payton Chung used to serve on the board of a BID. “I like to think of them as micro-local governments — like taking an homeowners' association (HOA) and having it cover a whole Main Street,” he says. “In practice, what they usually do is give your area chamber of commerce some taxing and spending authority. They're not quite as intrusive as an HOA, because they don't have regulatory or policing mechanisms.”

BIDs are pretty common in DC and Arlington, covering areas like downtown DC, Golden Triangle, Rosslyn, and Crystal City. Dupont Circle just started one, and at least five new BIDs are under consideration in Brookland, Congress Heights, H Street NE, Shaw, and MidCity (covering the area around 14th and U streets).

montgomery county rejects affordable housing in silver spring and will build it elsewhere

Neighbors have been fighting a proposal to build affordable senior housing and a childcare facility in downtown Silver Spring. In response, Montgomery County officials made a compromise: they’ll allow the childcare to go forward, but the senior housing will be built five miles away.

Montgomery County will not build 92 apartments for low-income seniors here. Image by Google Street View used with permission.

Ever since the Silver Spring Library moved to a new building three years ago, the county has been figuring out what to do with the old 1950s-era library, located four blocks from the Silver Spring Metro station on Colesville Road. County officials identified affordable housing and childcare as two major needs in the community, and put out a call for proposals to provide both on the two-acre site.

Affordable housing developer Victory Housing submitted a plan to replace the library with 92 apartments and a child care center. However, County Executive Ike Leggett just announced that they’ve selected a proposal from child care provider CentroNia and the Gudelsky Foundation to simply turn the library into a child care center. The Gudelskys, who own development firm Percontee, will provide land at Viva White Oak, a mixed-use development they’re building five miles away, where Victory Housing can build the apartments.

This decision appeases local historic preservationists who wanted to see the building preserved, a group of neighbors who opposed building housing (and in some cases, child care), and those who wanted the land turned into a park (despite there already being a park next door).

this video shows you how to find the right MCPS school for your family

There are over two hundred public schools in Montgomery County, and if you're picking a place to live, it often means comparing the schools in different neighborhoods. How can you find the right school for your family? This video shows you how.

Recently, I interviewed Montgomery County board of education member Jill Ortman-Fouse about the best tools for learning about local public schools. While websites like GreatSchools.com assign each school a point rating based on test scores, they don't tell the full story.

Instead, Jill recommends taking a more hands-on approach. If you're curious about a school, schedule a visit, meet with the principal, or talk to neighbors whose kids attend that school. There are also a variety of online resources, including school websites, Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages, that list events going on at each school and can provide a first-hand look at what happens there.

And of course, Montgomery County Public Schools has a website with lots of information as well. Schools at a Glance is their annual report of data about every school in the system, with everything from test scores to teacher statistics to building information.

Are you trying to pick a school in Montgomery County right now? Have you picked one in the past? What tools did you use?

housing and transportation are LGBTQ issues, and politicians need to recognize that

Just in time for this year’s elections, Montgomery County has a new LGBTQ political organization. Here’s why I’m hoping that the newly-formed Queer Democrats will look at access to housing and transportation.

A pride flag outside a suburban house (though not in MoCo). Photo by mary on Flickr.

I first came out in 2005. If you had told me then that today gay marriage would be legal in all 50 states, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell would be repealed, and Virginia would elect a trans woman to the state legislature, I’d have said you were dreaming. Even with the 2016 presidential election, queer people have made tremendous strides. However, these things don’t guarantee that queer people can make a life for themselves.

“move to the cheaper area” is good individual advice, but not a solution to our housing shortage

As house prices around Washington have risen over the past few years, everyone from friends to real estate agents offer the same advice: “Have you considered a cheaper area?” However, this advice really only works for an individual person looking for a house. Applied to an entire city, county, or region, this advice doesn’t work very well.

Wheaton may be more affordable than other parts of Montgomery County, but it's not guaranteed to stay that way. Image by the author.

Last week, candidates for Montgomery County executive spoke to the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors, a group that represents real estate agents in the county and the District of Columbia. (Full disclosure: I am a member of GCAAR, though I didn’t attend the event.) As David Alpert wrote last week, each of the candidates were asked where they’d recommend a young couple making $100,000 per year should live in the county. Two of the candidates, Roger Berliner and David Blair, suggested that they look at Silver Spring or Wheaton.

Would our hypothetical couple actually be able to do that? $100,000 seems like a lot of money and it is, though it’s actually a little lower than the county’s median household income of $100,352 per year. But what can they actually afford here?

what does discovery leaving mean for silver spring?

Tuesday's announcement that Discovery Communications plans to close and sell its headquarters is a huge blow to Silver Spring, whose revitalization Discovery helped kickstart 20 years ago.

Discovery in 2010. Photo by the author.

Discovery, which operates TV channels such as TLC, Animal Planet, and OWN, currently employs about 1,300 people at its headquarters, which occupies a giant city block across the street from the Silver Spring Metro station and is known for its iconic Shark Week-themed displays. It’ll move their global headquarters to New York, while their US headquarters will go to Knoxville, Tennessee, home to Scripps Networks, which Discovery agreed to purchase last year.

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett said in a statement that the county and state of Maryland sought to keep Discovery in the area: “The County and State made a substantial proposal designed to accommodate Discovery’s challenges. Together, we were ready to provide considerable incentives to retain their presence in the County. I know this was a tough decision for Discovery. I respect the contributions Discovery has made over the last 15 years to Silver Spring and Montgomery County. We will miss them.”

Read more in Washingtonian.

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.

here's why new homes in silver spring are so expensive, and how we can fix it

Why do new houses in the DC area cost as much as they do? One of the biggest factors is the cost of land. There’s a way to fix that problem and make it easier to build more homes on a piece of land — but in most cases it isn’t available.

These two vacant lots in Silver Spring were for sale this summer. Image by the author.


Let’s do a thought experiment. Say you’re a smalltime developer who builds one-off houses in close-in, established neighborhoods. You’ve got access to a construction loan from a local bank, which you have to pay back in one year — enough time to build the house and sell it.

marc elrich compares purple line development to "ethnic cleansing"

As the Purple Line begins construction, many are worried about the potential impact on working-class immigrant neighborhoods. How can we ensure that people can afford to stay in their neighborhood as the land around the line grows in value?

Two candidates for Montgomery County executive presented wildly different visions at a recent forum, with one, Marc Elrich, accusing the Planning Board of promoting "ethnic cleansing" along the corridor.



The 16-mile light rail line, which broke ground in August, will run between Bethesda in Montgomery County and New Carrollton in Prince George’s County. Its 21 stations will serve a series of inner suburban neighborhoods with large working-class, minority, and immigrant populations including Long Branch, which is located near the border of the two counties in Silver Spring.

see what montgomery county's new BRT stations will look like

Montgomery County’s first bus rapid transit line will open in Silver Spring in 2020. This month, we got our first glimpse of what the stations could look like.

What Montgomery County's new Flash bus rapid transit stations could look like. All images from ZGF.

The new BRT line, dubbed Flash, will run along Route 29 between the Silver Spring Metro station and the Burtonsville Park & Ride. It's the first of what could be a countywide network of rapid bus lines. Flash will contain a variety of features designed to make the bus faster and more reliable, including dedicated lanes for part of the route and special signals that give buses extra green time at congested intersections. The 11-mile line will have just 12 stations, spaced up to two miles apart, and could carry 13,000 people per day.

And those stations won’t look like any bus stops you’ve seen in the area before. Designed by local architecture firm ZGF, the stations are designed to be visually distinctive, while adaptable to the wide variety of urban and suburban neighborhoods along the BRT line.

A plan showing all the features of a BRT station.

The designers have created a canopy structure for each station with a mix of metal, wood, and glass accents. The stations will also have an iconic “station marker,” which will help riders find each station and provide real-time information and a system map. The stations will all be accessible for riders with disabilities and have ticket machines where riders can pay before getting on the bus, reducing delays.

How the Fenton Street BRT station could look.

However, no two stations will be exactly alike, as the designers created a “menu” of station features that the county can pick and choose from based on the needs of that specific location. Those amenities include public art, wifi and cellphone charging spots, or low impact design (LID) landscaping, which can collect and distribute rainwater, reducing runoff and pollution.

The stations will be different sizes based on their location. Busier stations might have larger shelters to accommodate multiple buses. Locations in downtown Silver Spring might have smaller shelters to fit on tight sidewalks, while more suburban stations will have more green space around them.

A "menu" of options would allow each station to fit into its surroundings.

These designs are still preliminary, so we don’t have a lot of details about how much they’ll cost. But one estimate in the designers’ report says that each station could cost between $368,000 and $490,000. The entire BRT line will cost $31 million.

There’s no reason infrastructure can’t be both functional and attractive. Do you think these hit the mark?

there's a mismatch between the houses DC area buyers want, and what's on the market

Ten years after the Great Recession, home prices in many parts of the Washington region have reached or even topped their pre-recession peaks. But will this trend continue? A look at a wide sampling of real estate websites says yes – but the mismatch between what buyers can afford and what kinds of homes are available could change that.

New townhomes in Rockville. Photo by the author.

The conventional wisdom appears to say we’re not heading into another recession anytime soon. However, while Millennials are finally settling down and ready to buy homes, they will struggle to afford homes in places like DC due to high costs. In the coming years, climbing home prices will stagnate because buyers' income levels increases aren’t keeping pace with costs.

These three things suggest a recession isn’t coming soon

Real estate downturns tend to happen pretty regularly, notes real estate entrepreneur and Harvard Extension School lecturer Ted Nicolais. Going all the way back to the 19th century, real estate downturns take place about once every 16 to 18 years. Since the last recession occurred between 2006 and 2008, he predicts we can expect another one between 2022 and 2024.

the georgetown branch trail will close for five years, and it's totally worth it

Today, the Georgetown Branch Trail in Montgomery County closes for several years for Purple Line construction. While I'll miss it, losing this version of the trail is worth getting a better, longer trail in return.

Somebody posted this sign on the trail in Bethesda this weekend. Photos by the author unless noted.

Last week, the Purple Line light rail broke ground after a three-decade fight that culminated in a lawsuit filed by some Chevy Chase residents who live next to the future route. For four miles between Bethesda and Silver Spring, the line will run along the Georgetown Branch, a former freight rail line that Montgomery County bought in the 1980s to eventually use for a transit line. In the meantime, they turned it into a temporary extension of the Capital Crescent Trail, which goes from Bethesda to Georgetown.

One day after the announcement, Maryland announced that the trail will close for up to five years while construction happens. The official detour is on busy Jones Bridge Road, as the town of Chevy Chase doesn't want people biking on other, safer streets that go through their town.

Some residents who live near the trail are very upset, and held a march on the trail yesterday in protest. Chevy Chase resident John Fitzgerald, who filed the lawsuit that temporarily blocked the project, is seeking a restraining order to stop construction. Meanwhile, Montgomery County councilmembers Roger Berliner and Tom Hucker asked the state to consider keeping the trail open a little longer.

The trail today is unpaved and ends two miles west of Silver Spring.

Since this could be our last chance to ride on the trail, on Saturday, Sean Emerson and I decided to travel the entire Purple Line route, by bike and car, with a camera in hand. We wanted to record what the area was like before construction starts, sort of like Raleigh D'Adamo's films of old DC Trolley routes. (I still have to put this video together - it’s long! - but I will post it when it’s ready.)

We rode the temporary trail from Lyttonsville, where it currently ends, to Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda and back, a distance of about seven miles, in the rain. And for a moment, I couldn't blame people for mourning.

I barely noticed the distance, or how wet my socks were getting. The stresses that normally accompany biking on busy city streets had melted away. The almost continuous tree cover shielded us from the rain, and the trail’s gentle slope meant I didn't have to pedal too hard. Because the trail is entirely separated from cars, I didn’t have to worry about getting doored by parked cars or being sideswiped by a driver wandering into the bike lane. We even found a steady stream of other people walking, jogging, and biking along the trail, even as the rainstorm grew.

But as we biked east across Rock Creek, that experience changed fast. The gravel trail had lots of ruts and puddles, and we nearly ate it a few times. People had dumped their garbage along the trail. In Lyttonsville, we passed industrial buildings, a Ride On bus lot, and what appeared to be a junkyard. And of course, the trail abruptly ended in a parking lot two miles west of downtown Silver Spring.

How the trail and the Purple Line will look after completion. Image from the MTA.

If you live anywhere east of Bethesda, the trail that some neighbors fought so hard to preserve isn’t as accessible. From my building in downtown Silver Spring, the best path to the trail involves biking on big, stressful roads like East-West Highway or 16th Street.

That’s why I’m looking forward to the Purple Line. As part of the project, the trail will finally be paved. Overpasses will replace two dangerous intersections where the trail crosses Connecticut Avenue and Jones Mill Road. The trail will extend further east, along the right-of-way Purple Line trains will share with Metro, MARC, and Amtrak trains between Lyttonsville and the Silver Spring Metro station. And there, the Capital Crescent Trail will connect to the Metropolitan Branch Trail and the Silver Spring Green Trail (which connects to the Sligo Creek Trail), filling a big gap in the region’s trail network.

It won’t be exactly the same. There won’t be as many trees on the trail when it reopens alongside the Purple Line in five years. And it won’t be a private amenity for the homeowners lucky enough to live next to it. But neighborhoods across Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and DC will have access to the same fun and safe off-road trail experience that people in Chevy Chase and Bethesda enjoy today.

To me, that’s worth it.

as the purple line breaks ground, let's take a look back

I started this blog 11 years ago to, among other things, talk about the Purple Line. And after a long fight that will one day make a great book, the 16-mile light rail line between Bethesda and New Carrollton finally breaks ground this morning.

A 2010 rendering of the Purple Line in downtown Bethesda from the Maryland Transit Administration.

I'm on my way to cover the groundbreaking (check back this afternoon for a recap). But in the meantime, let's look back at how JUTP has written about this project. Of the 1735 posts published here, about 281 have included the words "Purple Line." Here's an (incomplete) list of the highlights.

1. This project has been in the works since 1986! Here's how the Purple Line got its start.
2. These maps show how the Purple Line will dramatically improve mobility around the DC area, particularly for folks in eastern Montgomery County and Prince George's County.
3. I took a walk with some East Silver Spring neighbors along a potential route in 2006. The following year, I walked the Capital Crescent Trail, part of which will be the Purple Line's route, with both supporters and opponents.
4. More than a few politicians have taken the bus as a campaign stunt to promote the Purple Line. We rode the J2 with Steve Silverman in 2006, and again with Al Wynn in 2007.
5. Did you know there's a musical about the Purple Line? In 2008, we interviewed Paul Stregevsky, writer of "Tracks."
6. In 2008, I convinced my then-roommate Chris to take transit from College Park to Rockville to illustrate how much we need the Purple Line. It was quite a day.
7. The new Silver Spring Library actually has its own Purple Line stop! Here's a look at the design process from 2010.
8. The Purple Line will pass through several Montgomery County neighborhoods, and could bring some major changes. Here's what community members in Long Branch, Lyttonsville, and Chevy Chase Lake had to say about it.
9. The town of Chevy Chase has been a vocal opponent of the Purple Line for decades, but many town residents weren't having it anymore. 
10. Supporters and opponents squared off at a 2013 event where Governor O'Malley first announced state funding for the project.
11. President Obama announced federal funding for the Purple Line in 2014, and it looked like full speed ahead.
12. After his election in 2014, Governor Larry Hogan put the Purple Line on hold, but decided to move forward with a few cost-saving changes, like fewer trains and redesigned stations.

Today, many many people who helped make the Purple Line a reality will be celebrating. But one person won't be here: Harry Sanders, who passed away in 2010. We wouldn't be here today without the decades of hard work and quiet persistence Harry poured into this project, along with his wife Barbara and son Greg, who's currently the president of Purple Line NOW!

Harry was a model for citizen activism, and I continue to learn from his example. I can't say it enough: thank you, Harry, for everything.

this new suburban place has some lessons for older suburban places

30 miles north of DC, Montgomery County is trying to build a new kind of suburb in Clarksburg, one that looks more like a small town and where residents don't have to drive everywhere. It hasn't totally worked. But Clarksburg might actually have something to teach closer-in communities about how to grow sustainably.

Urbanism! All photos by the author unless noted.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve made it a tradition to go to Clarksburg at least once a year and tour some model houses. I remember visiting one model house there on a cold, gray day in December 2007. The sales agent, Dorothy, took me on a tour of the whole house, ending at a little balcony overlooking the backyard. As far as we could see there were other houses with beige siding and grey roofs. I asked her, what do you think of this view? And she said, “I try to think about it like I’m looking out over the rooftops of Paris.”

Paris?

Maybe that’s a little rich. I will say that Clarksburg is somewhat different than what we traditionally conceive of as a suburban community: big houses, big lawns, and lots of driving. As Montgomery County's older suburbs try to create the walkable, transit-oriented places that people increasingly want, Clarksburg might offer a few lessons.

thanks to everyone who came out on tuesday!

Thanks to everyone who came to our happy hour on Tuesday celebrating the 11th anniversary of Just Up The Pike and our friends at Greater Greater Washington!

I address the crowd at Tuesday's event. Photo by Aaron Landry.

Over a hundred people packed the rooftop at Kaldi's Social House in downtown Silver Spring for a special joint happy hour. On top of that, I received a proclamation from the Montgomery County Council for my work. At-large County Councilmembers George Leventhal and Roger Berliner, and District 5 Councilmember Tom Hucker were there to present it. (Councilmember Hans Riemer first proposed the proclamation, but he was on vacation and couldn’t attend.)

All three talked about something I’ve tried to do since I started Just Up The Pike in 2006: to help craft a vision for Silver Spring and East County in a way that is both positive and constructive.

Cheers to @justupthepike for his proclamation. No one can deny his passion, intelligence, drive or dedication. Loved the @ggwash happy hour. pic.twitter.com/pOvGd2mAat

— Just the Bottle (@JusttheBottle) August 15, 2017

since the great recession, east county's real estate market has diverged

Nearly a decade ago, the Great Recession wiped out house values across the region. Today, booming close-in, urban areas have basically recovered. But many further-out, suburban communities are still struggling. Here’s one example from eastern Montgomery County.

A 2000s-era subdivision in East County. Many of these homes lost value during the Great Recession and have yet to recover. All images by the author.

I grew up in downtown Silver Spring at a time when people were still moving away from urban centers. Twenty years ago, my neighborhood consisted of abandoned buildings and boarded-up stores, and in 1998, my parents started looking for houses outside the Beltway in places like Olney and Burtonsville, which seemed ascendant at the time. Besides, we were already driving to shop there. My parents found a little split-level house a mile from a new shopping center with a Target, Chipotle, and Starbucks.

My high school, Blake, opened that same year, and most of my friends’ parents seemed to have made the same move from Silver Spring and Takoma Park. New subdivisions were popping up with big, luxurious houses, lush lawns, and names like Briarcliff Manor and Hampshire Greens. In the older neighborhoods, houses were sold for the land so big McMansions could rise in their places.
I remember going to a party at the end of high school where we sat in a circle bragging about how much our parents’ houses were worth. I was the odd one out because my parents’ house had appraised recently at a measly $500,000.

An abandoned house in an East County subdivision in 2014.

But it wouldn’t last; the Great Recession hit East County pretty hard. Burtonsville Crossing, the shopping center where we hung out in high school, is almost completely vacant. Some of my parents’ neighbors, unable to make ends meet, resorted to running illegal auto shops out of their homes, inviting relatives to move in, or renting out their basements.

Meanwhile, downtown Silver Spring had a comeback as more people sought urban living. A major redevelopment project along Ellsworth Drive brought restaurants, shops, movie theaters, and a Whole Foods. Montgomery County poured millions into new public facilities, including a library, the Civic Building, and Veterans Plaza. In response, private developers built thousands of new apartments and condominiums, including the building I live in now, a converted bottling plant that was still operating when I was a kid.

Here's how the real estate market in East County has changed

The real estate market shows how Silver Spring has bounced back from the recession while East County has struggled. Here’s a graph showing average home values in 2012 and 2017 as they compare to 2007 levels. It shows the two zip codes inside the Beltway, 20910 (Silver Spring) and 20912 (Takoma Park), and seven zip codes (mostly) outside the Beltway: 20901 (Four Corners), 20902 (Wheaton), 20903 (Hillandale) 20904 (Colesville, Fairland), 20905 (Cloverly), 20906 (Aspen Hill) and 20866 (Burtonsville).

How 2012 and 2017 home values in East County stack up to 2007 levels. Click on all of these graphs to enlarge them.

Home values all over East County fell during the Great Recession. In zip codes 20903 and 20906, home values fell by nearly half between 2007 and 2012. This year, average home values in the eight zip codes outside downtown Silver Spring are 71% to 85% of what they were a decade ago. But in zip code 20910, which contains downtown Silver Spring, values are actually a little higher than they were 10 years ago.

Home values inside the Beltway have recovered, but remain lower elsewhere. 

Homes inside the Beltway have been more valuable than those outside it for a while now. But the gap in home values has increased over the past 10 years. This graph shows the average home sale price per square foot, as a way to even out differences between houses of different sizes and styles. In the summer of 2007, the price per square foot in zip codes 20910 (Silver Spring) and 20866 (Burtonsville) were fairly close, at $363 per square foot and $304, respectively. Today, they’re $384 and $257; in other words, a difference of 50%.

Those who bought homes in East County before the housing boom, or at the bottom of the market, may have recovered their investments or even made a little extra. But those who bought at the top of the market saw their gains wiped away.

Homes in far-flung zip code 20905 linger on the market longer than homes closer in.

Another measure of demand is the number of days a house sits on the market. During the Great Recession, houses across East County languished for months due to a lack of buyers. In early 2008, the average house in zip code 20905 sat on the market for nearly six months. Demand returned, but not equally. In early 2017, homes in the 20910 zip code spent just 22 days for sale, compared to 59 days in 20905.

There's a huge opportunity in East County, but things need to change

Like many aging suburbs, East County is caught in the middle. The kids I grew up with have either moved to urban areas closer in, or moved farther out to newer suburbs in Olney or Howard County, aided by new highways like the InterCounty Connector that made it easier to commute longer distances. East County is a long drive from Montgomery County’s biggest job and shopping centers, which are all along Rockville Pike and I-270. And the local schools struggle with a negative reputation compared to their counterparts in more affluent areas.

New townhomes in downtown Silver Spring, where home values are higher than they were in 2007. 

Yet the fact that homes here are much more affordable than in other parts of the county could be a big opportunity. Nationwide, some three million Millennial homebuyers have been shut out of the housing market because of high prices and a lack of supply. Millennials are open to living in suburban areas, but want stuff they can walk or bike to.

More neighborhood connectors are needed in #EastMoCo to provide options to get to stores when kids demand pancakes at 7 am. @MCBikePlan pic.twitter.com/Op1q3DTMbf

— Growing East County (@GrowingEastMoCo) July 15, 2017

Providing that lifestyle in East County is imperative to drawing people and investment to this area, just as it did in Silver Spring. Montgomery County’s plans to create a walkable town center and research park in White Oak and a new village center in Burtonsville will bring the amenities people want, while a new BRT line on Route 29 will provide faster, more reliable transit. Combined, the two will give East County access to jobs, shopping, and economic opportunities.

East County has waited decades for the kind of prosperity the rest of Montgomery County takes for granted, and at great cost. Hopefully residents won’t have to wait much longer.

this 1958 ad shows how yesterday's luxury apartments became today's affordable apartments

There are thousands of new apartments being built around the DC area today, and most of them are high-cost “luxury” apartments. But they likely won't stay that way. A look at 1950s rental ads shows how yesterday’s luxury housing became today’s affordable housing.

Part of the rental ads in the November 18, 1958 edition of the Washington Post. Image from Richard Friend.

Here's a portion of the classifieds of the November 15, 1958 edition of the Washington Post, courtesy of local graphic designer and historian Richard Friend. There are ads for apartments all over the DC area, including a bunch of then-new apartment complexes in Silver Spring and Takoma Park.

Each ad talks about how swanky the apartments are, boasting of features like air conditioning, modern kitchens and bathrooms, private parking, and swimming pools. Just like today, these ads boast that tenants can walk to nearby shops or transit (which would have been the bus; the Georgia Avenue streetcar, which served Silver Spring, would shut down two years later.)

come celebrate 11 years of JUTP

Kaldi's. Photo from Google Street View.

Just Up The Pike turns 11 this year, and I'd like to do something about it. We've built a community of a couple thousand readers, contributors, and local leaders, and I invite all of you to celebrate over a decade of celebrating East County on Tuesday, August 15 from 6 to 8pm at Kaldi's Social House, located at 918 Silver Spring Avenue. As one of Silver Spring's fifteen (and counting) coffeeshops, Kaldi's is not only known for its brewing techniques but its rooftop bar overlooking downtown.

Joining us will be our friends at Greater Greater Washington, a regional website and advocacy organization that I've been a part of for eight years (and have worked for as well). I organize the monthly GGWash happy hours, which rotate around different parts of the DC area, and I'm always excited to bring it here.

Kaldi's Social House is an eight-minute walk from the Silver Spring Metro station (Red Line), as well as dozens of Metrobus and Ride On routes (if you're coming from DC, you can take the 70/79 and S2/S4/S9.) There's a Capital Bikeshare stations two blocks away at Ripley and Bonifant streets. If you’re driving, there’s free parking after 7pm on the street and in the public garage in back.

I hope you see you there! You can RSVP here.

this community landmark just became a chain store. why?

For over a decade, Pyramid Atlantic was a Silver Spring landmark, offering studio space, art classes, and a gallery that hosted events and concerts. Now, its bright red building on Georgia Avenue is a chain paint store.

Why?

Meh. (All photos by the author.)

Pyramid Atlantic opened in 2003 and helped to usher in downtown Silver Spring's revitalization over the past decade. They sold their building in 2014 anticipating a move to the new Silver Spring Library a few blocks away; when that arrangement fell through, the organization moved to Hyattsville last year. The building's new owner, Harvey Maisel, rented the space to paint store Sherwin-Williams, which will open this summer.

I can't help but be disappointed by this. Over the past several years, I've gone to lots of events at Pyramid Atlantic, from the DC area's only PechaKucha Night to a pop-up version of Fenton Street Market. Pyramid Atlantic also hosted the annual Sonic Circuits festival, a celebration of experimental music that spilled out into its parking lot on Georgia Avenue. It wasn't just a place to see cool things, but a supporter of the local economy: a locally-based organization promoting local artists and businesses.

And besides, one might wonder why a paint store makes sense here, considering that the existing paint store across the street is closing.

So why did this happen? There are a few reasons.

It's easier to leave a building vacant than rent to a local organization

Federal tax laws let commercial property owners depreciate the value of their buildings over time, which can give them a perverse incentive to let a space sit empty for years until they find the right tenant. There are number of vacant storefronts in downtown Silver Spring, sometimes filling entire blocks. The Guardian Building, a 1950s-era office building on Cameron Street, put up fake store signs in their windows while they waited for actual stores to move in, and now the building may be turned into apartments instead.

As Richard Layman notes, retail rents in DC (and by extension Silver Spring) tend to be pretty high, even in neighborhood shopping streets. Large out-of-town retail developers perceive DC as being part of a national or even international real estate market and set their rents accordingly, That leads even local property owners to raise their rents as well, which in turn makes it even more difficult for independent retailers to qualify, so they either close or don't open at all.

Chain stores are reliable tenants

And of course, the landlord just needs someone who will pay the rent. I know that from experience.

Among the many things I do, I do property management, and have to find and screen tenants for rental houses. When I'm renting out a house, I meet lots of really nice people, who tell me how much they love the house and the neighborhood, and promise to be great tenants. Most of them seem like awesome people. But when it came to a decision, I select tenants based on a few criteria: their credit score, their annual income, and a background check.

I need someone who would pay the rent.

A number of downtown Silver Spring's stores sit vacant. (This one just got a new tenant.)

Property owners and landlords are much the same, whether they're locally-based or from out of town. They may have different individual motivations, but they all want somebody who will pay the rent each month on time and in full. I have friends who own businesses in Silver Spring and they all say the same thing: landlords are very, very reluctant to rent to them. And I've spoken to landlords who've gotten burned by small businesses who for whatever reason couldn't pay the rent. They want tenants with a long track record and a guaranteed stream of income.

More often than not, that means a chain. That's part of the reason why a number of Silver Spring's most-loved local businesses have been replaced by chains. Mayorga Coffee, which helped revive South Silver Spring fifteen years ago, is now Davita, a dialysis clinic. Beloved Italian restaurant Da Marco is now a Pollo Campero. And Pyramid Atlantic will become a Sherwin Williams.

If we want more local businesses, we have to support local businesses

There's a demonstrated difference in the way chain stores and local businesses contribute to their local economies. One sends money out of town. The other keeps it in town; creates a spinoff effect as that business works with local vendors and suppliers; builds local wealth; and can help create or boost a local culture. We have a real incentive to promote local businesses on our streets.

Given all this, what can we as community members do? We can't ban national companies from owning property here. We can't tell property managers who to rent to. Local governments can zone properties for certain activities but they can't dictate whether, say, a chain or a local business occupies a certain space. I don't know enough about tax laws to know what can or can't be done there.

But as a start, we can support the local businesses that do exist by spending money there, which makes it easier for them to pay their rent, which in turn makes them more viable candidates for landlords. That won't bring Pyramid Atlantic back, but it will help us keep the local businesses that are still here, supporting and promoting this community.

here are five things montgomery county says BRT would do

Better bus service could mean less traffic and fewer delays along Route 29 in Montgomery County, say transportation officials. But that may only happen if buses get their own lanes.

BRT in Alexandria opened three years ago. Photo by BeyondDC on Flickr.

For nearly a decade, the county has discussed creating a network of bus rapid transit lines. County Executive Ike Leggett wants to build the first one, along Route 29 (Colesville Road/Columbia Pike) between Silver Spring and Burtonsville, by 2020. While BRT has been successful in other cities around the country, the 11-mile line will help prove that it can work here.

The county and the Maryland Department of Transportation just finished a study looking at what a bus rapid transit line could do if it were built, and what would happen if nothing got built at all. Here's what they found.

How BRT would work

BRT offers many features you'd expect from a train: large, covered stations, fare machines where you pay before getting on, and special traffic signals to let buses pass ahead of other vehicles. The county envisions thirteen stops along Route 29, with buses running in both directions every six minutes between 5 am and midnight, seven days a week.

The most important feature of BRT are dedicated lanes for buses, which allow buses to speed past traffic, making the service fast and reliable. The county and state are looking at three alternative ways to create dedicated lanes for all buses (including existing local and commuter buses) as well as carpools. Depending on the alternative, buses would use the right-hand lane along sections of Route 29 south of New Hampshire Avenue, where it's more of a city street. North of New Hampshire Avenue, where Route 29 becomes more of a freeway, buses would either travel on the shoulder or in the median, where new lanes would be built.

Estimates say the project would cost between $79 and $136 million to build. Meanwhile, the county is planning to build a sort of "temporary" BRT line with some of those features that could cost about $67 million. It recently received a federal grant to help pay for it.

Map of the proposed Route 29 BRT line from Montgomery County.

What BRT could do

It could reduce travel times, including for drivers. Today, a bus trip from Burtonsville to Silver Spring can take nearly an hour in the morning. The study found that the same trip on BRT could take as little as 29 minutes, making it even faster than driving. In some cases, car trips would be shorter as well.

It could reduce congestion. The study found that in all three cases, the amount of driving along Route 29 would actually decrease. Today, many people may choose to drive because the current bus trip is slow and circuitous. With a new, faster option, some drivers may choose to use transit, freeing up space on the road for those who still choose to drive.

It could double transit use in East County. Route 29 is one of the region's busiest bus corridors. Today, people take 15,000 trips through the area each day on Metrobus, Ride On, or MTA commuter buses. The study estimates that another 16,000 to 18,000 would ride BRT, while existing bus service would see new riders as well.

It could increase access to jobs and economic opportunity. The study finds that BRT could "provide opportunities for low-income and minority populations to enhance their quality of life through improved transportation and employment options." Research shows that one of the biggest barriers to getting a job is the lack of safe, reliable transportation to that job. The study finds that BRT could allow East County residents to reach more jobs within 45 minutes than they can today. Transit might also draw more private investment to areas like downtown Silver Spring and White Oak, putting more jobs within close reach.

It could support Montgomery County's nighttime economy. One of the county's main priorities has been promoting nightlife in downtown areas like Silver Spring to encourage more people to live or work here, but the buses are often less frequent or don't run at all outside of rush hour. The BRT study finds that many of the proposed BRT stations, like Fenton Street, Burnt Mills, and Stewart Lane will actually be busier during evenings and weekends than during rush hour. These stations are in shopping and entertainment areas, like downtown Silver Spring and White Oak, that are both popular hangouts and have lots of late-night service and retail jobs.

This may not happen without dedicated lanes
This study looks at what would happen if Montgomery County and Maryland built bus rapid transit with dedicated lanes for buses. Creating bus lanes can be expensive depending on how you do them. And since Montgomery County first proposed BRT several years ago, there's been a lot of pushback from some neighbors who are worried about car traffic.

But all of the benefits BRT could bring East County are less likely to happen without dedicated lanes that make buses faster, more frequent, and more reliable. After all, a bus that sits in traffic is just a bus.

You've got a number of chances to offer your thoughts on this project. The county and state are taking public comments on this study through February 20. On February 7, the County Council will have a public hearing about whether to provide money to build bus rapid transit, and you can sign up to testify here. And there will be public meetings later this spring to talk even more.

(Full disclosure: I sit on the county's Route 29 South BRT Citizens Advisory Committee, but these thoughts are mine and mine alone.)