what's up the pike: i hit somebody's car today

A reader asked me, "what's new with the Fillmore (pictured above)?" I didn't know. I'd kind of forgotten it was there. But now I know.

- The Fillmore hits a major snag as the Planning Board rejects zoning amendments County Executive Ike Leggett proposed for the proposed music hall on Colesville Road. Lee Development Group, which wants to build a mixed-use development behind the new venue, would be allowed to count it as a public space required under the current zoning code. In addition, they'd be allowed up to fifteen years to build the project, whereas most approved development plans have a five-year deadline for construction.

Most of the controversy over the Fillmore has come from its operator, Live Nation - an international concert promoter who has rebranded several existing music halls around the country as "Fillmores." In February, local writer Carol Bengle Gilbert attempted to draw attention to the County's deal with Lee Development, suggesting that the use of a privately-run (but publicly owned) venue as a public amenity was unethical. In two weeks, the County Council will consider the same legal changes.

- Richard Layman of Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space discusses last week's pair of posts, "sick of emo kids on ellsworth" and "how to grow an old town in no time," about Downtown Silver Spring. Definitely check it out.

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Rendering of how the Purple Line could look if built along Wayne Avenue east of Downtown Silver Spring.

- Local builder Winchester Homes is demanding the right to buy back 118 acres in Burtonsville seized by the state for construction of an InterCounty Connector route that was eventually eliminated. The property, at Route 198 and Peach Orchard Road, was being cleared and graded for the construction of 130 homes before being bought for the proposed highway's Northern Alignment, which would have paralleled Route 198. When the southern Master Plan Alignment was selected instead, the land was retained to fulfill EPA requirements that the ICC's environmental damage is mitigated.

The Montgomery County Circuit Court ruled that Winchester has the right to re-purchase the property, though the state is appealing that decision. Another Winchester project, Fairland View at Fairland Road and Route 29, was halved in size in order to accomodate a future interchange with the ICC's current routing.

- A week after one Purple Line opposition group was outed as a front for a country club, another organization has appeared, this time in East Silver Spring. This week's Gazette features the people behind the "No Train On Wayne" signs that have appeared along Wayne Avenue. Along with a route between Silver Spring and Thayer avenues, Wayne is one of a few alignments still on the table for the proposed transitway - which will eventually connect Bethesda and New Carrollton - east of Downtown Silver Spring Regardless of which side of the issue you're on, it's hard to deny: that's a catchy slogan.

Read more!

silver spring library meetings start tonight

A suggestion of what the new Silver Spring Library at Bonifant and Fenton could look like.

Small, outdated and hidden behind the high-rises of Downtown, the Silver Spring Library is long due for an upgrade. Put in your two cents on how the new Silver Spring Library should look at tonight's open house, the first of three meetings scheduled by Montgomery County over the next few months. The meeting is from 7 to 9 at the current library on Colesville Road. Check out more information on the County's website. Read more!

what's up the pike: wine and whine

Columbia Country Club has been outed as the anonymous owner of a website for an anti-Purple Line group. The proposed transitway would run through the club's Chevy Chase golf course.

- Barely out of the gate, new anti-Purple Line group Alliance for Smart Transportation has been revealed as a front for Columbia Country Club, with a write-up in yesterday's Post. The Chevy Chase-based club, who's been fighting the proposed transitway that would slice their fairways in half for nearly two decades, sought to bankroll a "grass-roots campaign" opposing the Purple Line.

Purple Line supporters Action Committee for Transit, who discovered the connection between Columbia and the group, plans to hold a press conference outside of the club early this morning. The event will include a guided tour of the transitway's proposed route through the club and a wine tasting.

- Last week's Planning Board hearing to give Falkland Chase historical status went nowhere, says Silver Spring Scene. We won't find out the future of the New Deal-era apartment complex at 16th Street and East-West Highway until September, though the Planning Board is leaning towards a mix of preservation and redevelopment. Falkland owner Home Properties agreed to reconsider their earlier concept for redeveloping the complex's North Parcel, at 16th Street and East-West Highway, aiming for something closer to suggestions made by Planning staff.

Meanwhile, newly minted board member Joe Alfandre excoriates the project's architects for ignoring the precedents for Falkland Chase. "I don’t know where you guys are going with this, but I don’t appreciate the disrespect that you show the Garden City movement," said Alfandre, referring to the 19th-century planning movement that catalyzed modern-day suburban planning. Alfandre's best known as developer of the Kentlands in Gaithersburg. Currently, he's working on the Courts of Woodside, a small townhouse project a few blocks north of Planning Place on Georgia Avenue. Read more!

rapid bus routes could blanket east county by 2012

A map detailing the twenty-four new rapid bus routes proposed by WMATA. The first route in East County, along University Boulevard, could open within a few months.

Within four years, East County could be served by a number of rapid bus routes, part of a 100-mile network proposed by WMATA. The transit agency unveiled their plans to roll out the system, dubbed "MetroExtra," to the Action Committee for Transit earlier this week.

A handful of the new lines are already operating throughout the region, including Route 79, which runs along Georgia Avenue between the Silver Spring and Archives Metro stations. WMATA Board Chairman John Catoe derived the concept from the popular Metro Rapid routes he pioneered while heading the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority. Metro Rapid buses have seven "key attributes," among them easy-to-understand route layouts, fewer stops, more frequent service, and a system that gives buses priority at stoplights. Unlike Bus Rapid Transit (like what is proposed for the Purple Line), it doesn't use dedicated lanes or enclosed stations.

According to the WMATA proposal, routes along University Boulevard, Veirs Mill Road and East-West Highway could appear within the next several months; on New Hampshire Avenue between Fort Totten and White Oak in 2009; between Greenbelt and Twinbrook via University Boulevard and Randolph Road in 2010; on Georgia Avenue between Silver Spring and Olney in 2011; and along Route 29 between Silver Spring and Burtonsville in 2012.

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Boarding a Metrobus at Old Columbia Pike and Briggs Chaney Road.

While the Georgia Avenue and Route 29 corridors already have more daily ridership than University and New Hampshire, WMATA's chosen to given them a lower priority. (The Q2 bus on Veirs Mill Road, with 11,000 daily riders, is one of the heaviest-used routes in the entire system.) I was originally disappointed by that decision, but I soon realized it says a lot about the intentions of MetroExtra - who it's meant to serve and where it's best suited.

University, lower New Hampshire and Veirs Mill were largely built out during the 1950's, when it was still desirable to line a major street with houses. As a result, surrounding neighborhoods embrace all three roads with driveways and sidewalks. The speed limits are lower and there are frequent stoplights. Buses can get caught up very easily, and the potential MetroExtra improvements could make a big difference in travel time.

This isn't the case along Georgia and 29, where there are fewer stoplights, fewer cross-streets and no driveways. They were developed later, and the neighborhoods along them shy away from the road. The feel is like that of a freeway, and unsurprisingly so, given that's what Route 29 is eventually to become. As a result, average speeds are higher, and faster buses aren't as much of an issue. Several express routes already run along Route 29.

If the intention were simply to run faster buses, all of the new routes would run along the Beltway. But you'll only get so many riders from park-and-ride lots. People are more likely to walk along University Boulevard, whether or not it's actually safe to do so currently, because their neighborhoods are built around it. They may even be denser than their counterparts along Georgia or 29, making walking more practical and bus transit more efficient. Ridership may not be as high along University, but that only means more room to grow for MetroExtra.

East County's been waiting for rapid transit since planners first suggested running light-rail down the median of Route 29 in 1981. MetroExtra isn't as flashy, but it promises to improve the speed, reach and reliability of bus transit in East County, making it more attractive to users who'd rather drive or take Metro. After all, if it worked in Los Angeles, it can work anywhere.

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still sick: how to grow an old town in no time

"The Turf" in Downtown Silver Spring (shown in 2006): it may be plastic grass, but the crowd says it's a first-class urban space.

Last week, Henry from Silver Spring Scene and I had a lengthy comment-debate about the mall-like attributes of places like the Downtown Silver Spring complex or Rockville Town Square. I got hung out to dry for "Downtown Silver Spring-bashing," which is a common sport among anyone who feels the place is fake or merely disagrees with its approach to urban design.

I've spent many an evening on Ellsworth Drive in Downtown Silver Spring - and, over the past year, in Rockville Town Square - admiring how well both spaces nurture the diversity and vitality that urbanists like Jane Jacobs and William Whyte say a city deserves. The Post's Marc Fisher calls "the Turf" at Ellsworth and Fenton "the venue for some of the best people-watching in the region," while Dave Murphy over at Imagine, DC wrote about just how well Silver Plaza works as a gathering space a couple of weeks ago.

But while they may get people together, Ellsworth and projects like it can't replace all of the functions of a city. If you want a book, an expensive dress, or some makeup, Ellsworth has you set. But if you're looking for quirky little shops, exotic restaurants, and underground music, do you go to Ellsworth Drive? No. You go to Fenton Village, just south of the redevelopment area; to Takoma Park, where big chains are all but run out of town; or to Wheaton, whose ethnic restaurants have earned it the title of "MoCo's Adams Morgan."

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Wheaton: small parcels mean individual ownership, diverse businesses, and a high risk tolerance.

What is the difference? Ellsworth is the creation of one developer, The Peterson Companies, on one giant block of land, assembled by Montgomery County ten years ago for redevelopment. Fenton Village, Takoma Park and Wheaton are a collaborative effort, built over decades by multiple owners on multiple properties. People complain that Downtown Silver Spring looks "new." Well, duh, it is new. But Takoma Park isn't the way it is because it's old, either.

A diversity of buildings - large and small; new and old - offer spaces at all price ranges, meaning a variety of uses (short of large supermarkets or department stores) can set up shop there. And that diversity exists because Takoma Park's business district consists of small parcels of land, platted over a century ago, that were bought up by individuals who each built their own buildings. It's a tradition that continues today in Takoma Park, Wheaton and Fenton Village.

Small lots and small buildings are cheaper to build and maintain, and with the right support, a local business can get off the ground with considerably less financing than a major developer. If the market changes, they can also respond more easily than a developer can, and with less risk. Peterson threw a lot of money into Downtown Silver Spring, and they don't want a poor return-on-investment, so they must take as few risks as possible. This negates some of the diversity that a city ideally provides.

Last week, I suggested that our county's strip malls are ripe candidates for redevelopment into dense, mixed-use centers to serve our neighborhoods and downtowns. One way to encourage this redevelopment may be to break them up - whether by turning the existing buildings into condominiums and selling off each individual store, or by clearing the site and re-platting it with smaller lots. Mixed-use zoning would allow each owner to build as he or she chooses, creating a lively and varied streetscape. To ensure that development happens in a timely fashion, properties will be sold with a five-year deadline to start construction.

Bonifant Street in Fenton Village: Small businesses feel the heat from redevelopment.

In Burtonsville, we've seen how slow and arduous the Burtonsville Shopping Center redevelopment has been, and with little to show for it. More often than not, large developments are met with resistance or at least skepticism from the surrounding community. Splitting up the job might be more palatable to the neighbors. It'll guarantee the smaller-scale retail community groups call for, within the timeline of a larger project, but without the feeling that everything "went up overnight." This is a way to create a place like Takoma Park without waiting a century for the charm to come around.

That being said, those quirky shops and exotic restaurants aren't going to exist on their own. Takoma Park has a culture that attracts small-scale retail and repels big chains, often with force. But Wheaton's awesome restaurants are in large part buoyed by traffic (or at least name recognition) from Wheaton Plaza, whose chain stores are just as big an attraction. And despite the renaissance on Ellsworth Drive, many smaller businesses in Downtown Silver Spring are getting pushed out - so much so that a University of Maryland study recommended Montgomery County should do more to retain them.

It remains to be seen how small businesses will fare in Montgomery County's downtowns, where changing demographics and a newfound interest in city living has drawn people to make their lives here. When at their best, cities are able to handle these changes effectively - the key is to make sure that they have the tools to do so.

Special thanks to John Massengale of New York's Veritas et Venustas, whose post "The Best Way To Develop Atlantic Yards & Hudson Yards" was the main inspiration for this post.

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what's up the pike: two bike paths diverged . . .

Simple and inexpensive, bike trails like the Capital Crescent Trail (pictured in Bethesda) offer an alternative to driving in an era of increasing gas prices and traffic. In actuality, bike paths get the short end of the stick. Here's a look at what's happening this week in trails:

For joggers and bikers in Silver Spring, the Purple Line may be the only way that the popular Capital Crescent Trail gets completed east of Rock Creek Park. As the MTA nears its decision on how and where to build the proposed transitway between Bethesda and New Carrollton, those on both sides have stepped up their game recently, from reaching high school students to launching a "grass-roots coalition" bankrolled by the exclusive Columbia Country Club.

While the contact page of new anti-Purple Line group Alliance For Smart Transportation lists an address in Silver Spring, suggesting a connection with the east side, their list of talking points focus on the Purple Line's effects on the trail in Bethesda, or a Town of Chevy Chase-funded study that was largely debunked by state Secretary of Transportation John Porcari.

You'd think that a so-called "Alliance" would move away from Bethesda and ally themselves with their anti-Purple Line counterparts in Silver Spring - SSTOP and the nascent "No Train on Wayne" group, some of whose members do support the project, if not in their backyards. It reminds me of my meetings last summer with activist Pam Browning, who admitted she didn't know about anything east of Silver Spring, or former Chevy Chase mayor Mier Wolf, who'd never really driven on congested East-West Highway (which parallels the proposed Purple Line route) before.

Not that I personally support the forming of a cross-county anti-Purple Line coalition, though it would be nice to see Silver Spring and Bethesda come together on something. I mean, think of all the lemonade that could come from it!

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

A redevelopment of the Burtonsville Shopping Center could include a bike path along Route 29 between Route 198 and Dustin Road.

IN ADDITION:On Thursday, the Planning Board holds a hearing for the ICC Limited Functional Master Plan, which lays out how the InterCounty Connector, currently under construction, will accomodate bike paths and interchanges. Dismayed by the highway's potential effects on the environment, many anti-ICC groups - or groups seeking more alternatives to driving - saw the State Highway Administration's plan to include a bike path parallel to the ICC as a compromise. As The WashCycle explained in a two-part series last month, the state wasn't willing to meet bikers halfway.

In 2004, SHA deleted the trail, saying it would do even further harm to local parkland and streams by increasing the paved area. And while seven miles of the path were added back to the ICC in 2007, the new route follows local roads, like New Hampshire Avenue and Fairland Road, that add extra travel time. Not only that, says the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, but they may also be more unsafe for bikers than a path next to the highway.

FINALLY: Up The Pike, a bike path makes a minor hurdle for the long-awaited Burtonsville Shopping Center redevelopment. Also on Thursday, the Planning Board will decide whether Bethesda developer Chris Jones, whose BMC Property Group will be knocking down the forty-year-old strip mall later this summer, will be required to install a trail and landscaping along old Route 29 between Route 198 and Dustin Road. The project would require cooperation with other properties north of the shopping center, including a church, a garden center and several houses, and planning staff isn't entirely sure that it's feasible to do so.

While it does concern a bike trail, the report from Park and Planning has no images what the project make look like. After years of controversy over potential "big-box" stores in the new center, Jones has returned with a plan for what he calls one the most "environmentally friendly plaza" in the country. But for all the press the Burtonsville Shopping Center over the past year, few people - outside of an East County Citizens Advisory Board meeting last month - have actually seen it.

Read more!

another vision for falkland's north parcel

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! We know you're probably out celebrating that sweet, sweet American independence. Don't forget your forefathers who gave you the right to barbeques, fireworks and the right to take pictures in Downtown Silver Spring.

A rendering of how Park and Planning envisions the redevelopment of a portion of the Falkland Chase apartments.

The debate over whether to preserve the Falkland Chase apartments at 16th Street and East-West Highway has raged for over two decades. It's a fight littered with successes for the pro-preservation camp (rulings in favor of saving the complex in 1985 and 2007) and the pro-development camp (a portion of the complex was demolished to build the Lenox Park Apartments in 1992). In recent months, everyone from the Post's Marc Fisher to Thayer Avenue has weighed in on what to do with the New Deal-era apartment complex.

On Thursday, the Planning Board will finally decide if Falkland Chase is eligible for historic preservation. If they say no, owner Home Properties can move forward with their plans to redevelop the North Parcel with a mix of apartments and retail, including a potential Harris Teeter supermarket.

What's the cost of bringing Harris Teeter to Downtown? And what else is the Planning Board looking at next week? so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Home Properties' proposed Falkland North shies away from the street, discouraging pedestrian access to the site.

I've previously said that Home Properties' plans aren't very promising as they are now. With superblocks, sweeping driveways and little street presence, the proposed Falkland North tower discourages pedestrian activity on a site next to a Metro station. When the site was re-zoned for higher density in 1993, Park and Planning had no idea if redevelopment could even happen, but when the 2000 Silver Spring CBD Sector Plan came out, they made it clear that short blocks and a strong street wall were musts. In preparation for Thursday's hearing, Planning staff created the above rendering to show how the North Parcel was intended to look.

A current Falkland Chase resident who's been working with Home Properties has told me that the developer's largely revised their original plans for Falkland North, but the jury's still out on whether it'll be a positive contribution to the CBD. If the Planning Board chooses not to call the complex a historic landmark, hopefully whatever replaces it will be worth the years of contention that led to this point.

ALSO: The Planning Board will also review the Gene Lynch Urban Park, so named for the former Board commissioner who passed away last February. One of two parks intended to replace the current park above the Silver Spring Metro station, which will be redeveloped as the Paul Sarbanes Transit Center, the park will occupy the current bus turnaround behind the Discovery Building at Colesville Road and Wayne Avenue.

Notable features will include seating areas, a bike station, and a memorial to Lynch. His family wanted to commemorate Lynch's role in the revitalization of Downtown Silver Spring and, as a result, all of the below-the-Beltway neighborhoods who took part in the planning process will be listed on a plaque in the park.

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sick of emo kids on ellsworth: how to walk without driving downtown

UPDATE: Greater Greater Washington, as always, explains what I was getting at below in far fewer words.

Downtown Silver Spring: Why does "pedestrian-friendly" have to mean "shopping mall"?

Downtown Silver Spring is a nice place to be, and even nicer if you can walk there. And while the definition of "walkable" seems to be getting bigger (County Councilmember George Leventhal says he walks downtown from his home a mile away), Downtown still isn't walking distance for a lot of people. How can we create these kinds of pedestrian-friendly places outside of Montgomery County's major "downtowns"?

Thomas Hardman talks extensively about this in a string of comments following yesterday's post about Wheaton that could merit their own guest blog post - hell, its own blog. He makes several major points, among them: 1) that the County's "Downtowns" are only for those who can afford to live there, and everyone else just dreams they could too and 2) that a lot of people would gladly walk to their own neighborhood business district if they could, or if there was anything there.

At every single community event I've been to in the past two years, I've heard someone talk about "neighborhood scale," about the hardware shop and the corner grocery store. It seems like a nice idea to take those things and put them in a place you can walk to, so you can leave your car at home, if only once in a while. Say you don't always want to visit Wheaton or Silver Spring or Rockville when you want to walk, because you'll be bombarded by crowds and strangers and, of course, emo kids, if there are still any around in 2008.

So why do our "Downtowns" end up becoming malls? And how could we get the corner grocery store in our own neighborhood, within walking distance? I think I have an answer, though it's a lot more complicated than many people would like it to be.

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Rockville Town Square: a lack of foot traffic in the immediate neighborhood means high-end shops and big events (like Hometown Holidays, pictured) to attract customers from a wider area.

I work at a store in Rockville that sells four-dollar-a-scoop ice cream, across from a store that sells forty-dollar laundry hampers, and down the street from a store that sells four-hundred-dollar clothes. Rents in the apartments above push $1,800 for a one-bedroom; there are cheaper apartments, but they're heavily subsidized. The Rockville Town Square is a pretty, high-end shopping center, and it's tenanted the way it is to draw customers from a wide area - the standard for most malls is about 250,000 people within a fifteen-minute drive.

Densities push forty homes an acre in the complex, but the surrounding neighborhood is all single-family homes, and they won't be enough to sustain the shops here. So you have to make it like a mall, because people aren't going to drive fifteen minutes for a hardware store, and that means one thing: The Mall People.

The county in its "wisdom" has decided that it only supports The Mall People and their kin. Thus, you can't have walkability as they have it in almost every comparable jurisdiction; you're stuck with "centers". I do occasionally go to Wheaton to do some shopping and that's out of necessity alone. It takes me literally days or weeks to get over it. - Thomas Hardman

The "mall mentality" happens in neighborhood shopping centers as well, because miles and miles of single-family homes won't be enough to sustain them. The developer's still working on a smaller variation of the "250,000 people within fifteen minutes" rule, which means Super Fresh and Home Depot and Starbucks, and even they are barely hanging on in some areas. It happens in Aspen Hill, in Burtonsville, in Montgomery Hills, everywhere. You can make these places easier to walk to; you can build sidewalks and slow cars down, but you won't get that corner grocery or hardware store to move in.

The White Oak Shopping Center: a dense neighborhood means lots of people to walk around and support local retail.

Neither of those things exist at the White Oak Shopping Center, but there are a slew of locally-owned shops, including a clothing store, a bowling alley, and an ice cream store selling two-dollar-a-scoop ice cream. White Oak is surrounded by thousands of apartments, creating a base of shoppers who can all reach it by foot. It's an imperfect example - there's a Sears, which is both big and a chain; the demographics skew lower-income; and there are issues with crime - but it points us in the right direction.

If we're going to be at least partially reliant on pedestrian traffic, we need to increase the density at our neighborhood shopping centers. That means throwing in civic buildings, offices, and housing - ten, twenty, even forty homes an acre - that can sustain little shops pushed up against the sidewalk. Instead of talking about people within a fifteen-minute drive, you have people within a fifteen-minute walk. There are also people here at all times - office workers during the day, residents in the mornings and evenings - giving businesses a steady stream of customers.

Burtonsville: Practically invisible from Route 198, this Indian/Pakistani grocery is dependent on the Indian/Pakistani community for business. In a pedestrian-oriented center, sidewalk traffic would provide another source of customers.

There will be traffic, but also more alternatives to driving for those who wish to take advantage. At these densities, walking becomes viable, along with transit - real, usable transit, not just one bus every half-an-hour that goes twenty places you don't want to go before reaching your destination. A lot of people will drive here to walk, as these kinds of places are still a novelty in MoCo, or if you're disabled, for whom accessible parking suddenly becomes a serious issue.

From the looks of last month's charrette, it seems like Burtonsville has already answered this proposition with a resounding "hell, no. " It's clear that there are a lot of issues to deal with, like how to make sure that the complex isn't reliant on chains like Downtown Silver Spring, or how to prevent development from encroaching on surrounding residential neighborhoods. But the benefits are clear: stronger communities reinforced by local business; smaller-scale alternatives to so-called "town centers," and, of course, avoiding the Mall People.

Nobody likes the Mall People, but nobody said that sidewalks are only for the hip, either. But in many of our neighborhoods, it seems like we've already given them up.

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the death and life of d.c.'s caribbean carnival

Dancers during the D.C. Caribbean Carnival last weekend. Check out this slideshow of this year's Carnival right here.

Last Saturday, D.C. held its annual Caribbean Carnival on Georgia Avenue, also known as Route 29. Part street festival, part family reunion and part excuse (if you're Trinidadian) to play in mud, carnivals are held throughout the West Indies and in cities throughout the Western Hemisphere with large Caribbean populations. The centerpiece of Carnival is a parade which runs from between Missouri Avenue in Brightwood, just south of Downtown Silver Spring, and Barry Place, near Howard University.

Carnival is a big deal for my family, being from Guyana and also being an established part of Georgia Avenue. For years, my aunt owned a small grocery at Georgia and Ingraham Street which she is currently turning into a restaurant. My uncle runs a mechanic's shop below, and my cousin lives above them in a sweet apartment that looks like something off of HGTV.

The epitome of "mixed-use," this shop, like dozens of other West Indian, Latino and other ethnic establishments up and down Georgia, are slowly improving themselves one at a time. Together, they're creating a belt of diverse, real-deal, Jane Jacobs-style (she wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities, but more about that later) urbanity between the gentrification of Downtown Silver Spring to the north and Petworth to the south.

Silver Spring, Singular reported that a shooting happened in Downtown Silver Spring following the parade, guessing that it might've been at a related party. I can't verify that, but I thought it was a good opportunity to show a different side of the Caribbean Carnival and Georgia Avenue. Check out this slideshow of this year's Carnival right here.

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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.)

Read more!

what's up the pike: getting things done

The Chelsea School has launched a fundraising campaign for a striking addition to their current facility in Downtown Silver Spring.

Just Up The Pike took part in last night's Burtonsville Community Legacy Plan Charrette, where the future of a little town on the edge of East County seems, well, more muddled than ever. As we sort out the pieces, here's a look at some local developments that are, well, developing:

- Ellsworth Drive is poised to crash through the architectural vanguard with as the Chelsea School has hired "starchitect" Daniel Libeskind's firm to design an addition to their small campus off of Cedar Street. Libeskind, who may be best known for his still-unbuilt Freedom Tower in New York City, was contacted by the headmaster of the small school for learning-disabled students, which has launched a fundraising campaign to have the addition built.

Sheathed in glass and steel, the expansion consists of a new library meant to resemble an open book. In deference to the surrounding Seven Oaks-Evanswood community, the addition - and the school's new entrance - will be located on the Ellsworth Drive side towards Downtown, while existing bulidings facing the neighborhood will merely be rehabbed.

- The Prince George's County Planning Board enthusiastically approved a concept plan for Konterra Town Center, a large mixed-use project that'll serve as the centerpiece to the sprawling mini-city outside of Laurel. With 488 acres and 4,500 residential units, the project is larger than the King Farm development in Rockville; its nearly six million square feet of commercial space is nearly ten times that of the Downtown Silver Spring redevelopment. Developer Kingdon Gould must be excited about seeing Konterra inching closer to reality, given his first proposal for it was rejected by the Planning Board a quarter-century ago. "When you bring good stuff, you don’t have to fight," gushed Vice Chairman Sylvester Vaughns.

LATER: the Burtonsville charrette turns into a debate on who and what is welcome in East County. Read more!

money, idealism spent at this year's silverdocs festival

This week marks the start of Silverdocs, the yearly documentary film festival hosted by the American Film Institute and held at our very own AFI Silver Theatre downtown. Actually going to see a movie at Silverdocs has long been a goal here at Just Up The Pike. I'm still smarting from the scars earned two years ago from waiting in line to see The Great Happiness Space only to be turned away just twenty minutes before it started.

Over the next week (the festival has been extended from its usual six days; it runs from yesterday through June 22) you can expect to see a flood of snooty film types downtown, throwing around five-dollar words, ten-dollar tips and probably making snide comments about how "contrived" Ellsworth Drive is.

At least, for the first day or two. Events like Silverdocs are good publicity for the area, both nationally and on a local scale as well. Long stereotyped as either a derelict city or an unenlightened suburb, Silver Spring has the opportunity this week to show the world - from Brussels to Bethesda - that it's a thriving, sophisticated sort of place, with lovely shops and its own Metro stop and all sorts of foreign foods you can't pronounce.

Hopefully, our visitors will return home with stories not just about the movies they saw but about the people they met and the times they had right here. That's probably a ridiculously hopeful thing to hope for, but it's summer, and youthful idealism is the only thing that keeps one from wilting in the unforgiving sun like a hothouse flower.

As for me, I'll try once again to see a movie at Silverdocs - I'm gunning for Bird's Nest, Bi The Way, or Chevolution - in the hopes that overwhelming interest does not lock this humble blogger out of a showing. We'll see how that goes. (So much for youthful idealism, right?)

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'