what's up the pike: daffodils

- I'm really amused by Sprung on the Spring's "Gee, why are there so many penguins in Silver Spring?" post last week. What are they, new? I know the blog is about a couple who just moved here. Perhaps I'm too jaded about Silver Spring having lived here since 1991, but
some might call me a relative "newcomer."

- When the American Automobile Association says beware of "Zombies", they're not talking about next year's Silver Spring Zombie Walk. "The iPod zombies are cyclists, pedestrians and motorists who have on portable music devices with headphones or earbuds while attempting to cross streets or drive," a AAA spokesperson tells the Gazette. You know, I'd think a distracted person operating two tons of steel would probably be more dangerous than someone distracted by an iPod, but that's just me.

- 8pm tonight, local swing band Swingtopia returns for another month of shows at Greek Village Restaurant in Colesville. The restaurant's located at New Hampshire Avenue and Randolph Road; for more info, check out Swingtopia's website.

The Quarry House Tavern is hosting a "nontraditional" open mike next Saturday from 12 to 3pm, because who wouldn't want to spend a nice weekend afternoon in a basement dive bar? They're calling for poets and prose writers, stand-up comedians, and musicians as well. If you suffer from stage fright, the Quarry House's extensive "beericulum vitae" can provide some liquid encouragement. For more info, e-mail the organizers at quarryhouseopenmic at gmail dot com.

- Blake High School, my alma mater (Go Bengals!!!) is hosting a Comedy Night next Friday, April 16 sponsored by the PTSA and featuring Baltimore-based hypnotist Jason Linett. They'll also have an open mike and a student stand-up competition. The show starts at 7:30pm; tickets are $8, can be purchased at the door or online, and benefit the Blake PTSA scholarship fund. For more info, e-mail Jack Goble at comedynight at gmail dot com or check out the event's page on Facebook.

it's been a while since someone called silver spring "gentrified"

People are raving on the neighborhood listservs about 8407, the new kitchen and bar at 8407 Ramsey Avenue. "The atmosphere was great, food was good," writes one diner. Another enjoyed "watching the construction" of the Silver Spring Transit Center across the street. "We need to keep this place open!" a third concludes.

But of course, it wouldn't be Silver Spring without one of our fellow bloggers bringing up the old G word:

The old Luau Hut in Silver Spring, which was really a terrible eyesore and wasn’t ever as cool as all the nostalgia fucks like to pretend, has now been replaced by the 8407 Kitchen Bar or, as the gentrified Yankee-transplant so-called “locals” have dubbed it, the "Nicaro Hut," since it’s the offspring of the owner and chef of the former Nicaro.

Over the next thirteen paragraphs, the writer - whose pseudonym is Nacho Sasha - complains that the restaurant is across the street from a construction site; that the cab drivers waiting outside are "feral"; that the bar stools are uncomfortable; that the bartenders are slow but the waitstaff perky enough to be "Stepford Servers"; that the beer list is too short and the food is "supermarket-level pre-packaged stuff warmed in a microwave," which he sends back with a promise that he'll never eat there again.

This guy has the right to say what he wants, and to his credit he's got a couple of good things to say about 8407. But he still excoriates the one commenter who had the nerve to call him out for writing the place off on opening day while reminding us in a subsequent post that those who disagree with him are "transplants, ex-rubes, and neo-yuppies who, apparently, were either born in barns or without taste buds."

(It's ironic that Nacho knocks Sligo from Silver Spring, Singular - who first coined the term "Nicaro Hut" for 8407 - as a "gentrified Yankee-transplant," when anyone who reads these blogs know that he, like I, grew up right here.)

So I can't take this review too seriously. After all, Nacho makes the observation that Downtown Silver Spring is "boring" and that there are too many chain restaurants, which would be funny if it wasn't so unoriginal or short-sighted. I can give a pass to pretentious D.C. hipsters who assume anything outside of H Street is too white-bread for them. But someone who claims to have lived here for years should know better, that is, if he's ever come out from behind the keyboard long enough to see that Silver Spring doesn't begin and end with Ellsworth Drive.

Count Nacho in the "Silver Stink" camp - people who hate that Silver Spring has become a desirable place to live, but also grumbled about the lack of investment or activity here "back in the day." Of course, if this yuppie wonderland were so terrible, they would've packed their bags years ago. So let them complain while all of us "newcomers" enjoy our safe, fun, diverse downtown that's getting better every day.

And I'll have to check out 8407 myself, as soon as I finish my Great Peruvian Taste Test.

what's up the pike: taxi stand (updated)

BREAKING NEWS!!! The South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association reports that Jackie's Restaurant is opening a bar next door, appropriately called Jackie's Sidebar. Doors open tonight at 6pm. Jackie's Sidebar is located at 8081 Georgia Avenue at Sligo.

- Lee Development Group's inviting the public to see their plans for the proposed Fillmore music hall on Colesville Road and an office and hotel complex they'd like to build behind next Wednesday at 7pm at their headquarters, 8601 Georgia Avenue at Colesville Road. The meeting's required before plans can be submitted to the Montgomery County Planning Board for approval. Under the most idealistic timeline, the Fillmore could open as soon as next fall.

- On Saturday, historical society president Jerry McCoy hosts his monthly walking tour of Downtown Silver Spring, with stops at historic sites along Georgia Avenue and the original "Silver Spring." The $10 tour starts at 10am outside the old B&O Railroad Station, located at 8100 Georgia Avenue near Sligo Avenue.

- Later, check out Silver Spring's very own Big Cherry Block Party, taking place on Ellsworth from 11am to 6pm this Saturday, April 3, also known as my birthday. Celebrate all things Japanese with origami demonstrations, traditional dance, and J-Pop music. We'll even get our very own cherry blossom tree in a planting ceremony.

- 8pm Monday, local swing band Swingtopia returns for another month of shows at Greek Village Restaurant in Colesville. The restaurant's located at New Hampshire Avenue and Randolph Road; for more info, check out Swingtopia's website.

the prince george's skate park boom

The Mt. Rainier Skate Park is located at the corner of Otis Street and Wells Avenue, wedged between a residential area and train tracks in the Prince George's County town. It finally opened last July after two years of delays and negotiations with neighbors who worried about noise and crime.

At about 6,000 square feet, Mt. Rainier is the closest local park in size to the proposed Woodside skate spot. Not surprisingly, it's also what the Silver Spring skaters I've talked to mention as a example for what they'd like the park here to resemble. Sk8ter Mom, whose name should be familiar to you by now if you've ever read this blog before, worked with the Mt. Rainier community to ensure that the skate park was both fun for its intended users and a good neighbor to those living and working around it.


View montgomery and prince george's skate parks in a larger mapSkate parks in Montgomery and Prince George's counties. Blue dots are currently open parks and red dots are parks either proposed or under construction.

Prince George's County is in the middle of skate park building boom. In addition to Mt. Rainier, there are existing parks in Bowie and Greenbelt, with others to be built in Hyattsville, College Park and Clinton. Even Laurel Mall (where ambitious renovations planned there way back in 2006 have never come to fruition) has a skate venue in an empty storefront called Good Vibes Central that opened last year.

Compare that to Montgomery County, where we've got two actual skate parks in Rockville and Olney, a temporary one built by police officers in Germantown, and another built by the kids themselves in Kensington. But there could be a skate spot at the new White Oak Recreation Center, which should open by 2012.

A skate park isn't inherently a regional amenity, no more than a basketball court or a swimming pool. But with so few of them - and a clientele that often can't drive to one - it's important to put them in places that are easy for kids all over to get to by foot, bike or public transportation. Prince George's has four skate parks located along Route 1 - but they're all located near Metro stations or on major bus routes, making them accessible to kids who don't live nearby.

K-Town in Kensington was built and run by the kids who use it.

None of the existing or proposed Montgomery parks can claim that kind of access. Olney and Germantown are hard, if not impossible to reach without a car, and the Rockville skate park is a mile walk from the Metro.

97,000 people will pass through the Silver Spring Transit Center each day when it opens, arriving on Metro, light rail, commuter rail, and dozens if not hundreds of local and intercity buses. We should be looking at this area as a place to put attractions befitting a regional audience - shopping, jobs, theatres, music venues, libraries. And skate parks.

The kids are coming to Silver Spring anyway, to hang out, to shop and eat, to see and be seen, and even to skate. We should be providing them places to go - ideally more than the Woodside skate spot, which for all its merits won't even accommodate the kids who live here.