Silver Spring, Singular

Piratz Tavern to be "Rescued"

2012-02-13T15:21:00.004-05:00

According to its Facebook page, Piratz Tavern has been selected to receive a makeover as part of the second season of Spike TV's Bar Rescue and should be closed for a week or two as it undergoes whatever transformation "bar expert" Jon Taffer has in store for it.

Can't say I've ever seen the show, but presumably the bars involved generally come out improved. Look for the episode to air sometime this summer.

Silver Spring News 'N Notes

2012-02-13T12:16:00.000-05:00

- Four Corners Tex-Mex restaurant Fajita Coast is closing, reportedly due to repeated conflicts with the landlord of the retail strip in which is located. Unconfirmed rumors have it eventually moving to the old Mayorga space on Georgia Avenue.

- Silver Spring's Woodmoor neighborhood was profiled last week in Post's regular "Where We Live" feature.

- United Therapeutics has plans to add street-level retail to their Spring Street headquarters building and has solicited suggestions from residents of the adjoining Woodside Park neighborhood. The types of businesses which would be viable there might be limited, as the location is somewhat removed from the foot traffic of the core of Silver Spring. There's plenty of parking, at least. One popular suggestion thus far has been the ever-coveted Busboys and Poets. Sorry, but the owner is far to self-righteous and hypocritical to open a location here.

- The Silver Spring ice rink will be offering free skating tomorrow night from 6-8PM.

- Silver Spring has been dubbed a "record paradise".

Thanks to VC and AN for their respective tips.

Ask And Ye Shall Receive (Hamburgers)

2012-02-10T08:38:00.000-05:00

A day after posting that I'd like to see another burger place in Silver Spring, I receive news that one is in the works and set to open in the coming months. I don't have a lot of details to share just yet (some I don't know, others I agreed not to release), but the new "fast-casual burger joint/bar" will be called The Stage Burger Lounge. I'm not sure where it will be located, but the name and logo seem to indicate that it might be in close proximity to the Fillmore. With any luck, it will open on Skid Row.

I'll have more details as they become available. The Stage already has a Twitter account, so you can also check for updates there.

Silver Spring Wish List - Updated for 2012

2012-02-09T11:46:00.004-05:00

And now, in no particular order, my Silver Spring wish list for 2012. Please feel free to post your own list in the comments section.

1. A Barbeque Joint

I love me some barbeque, but let's face it - the DC metro area is pretty much a barbeque wasteland. Maybe I'm just spoiled because I went to college in the South, where BBQ restaurants are ubiquitous. I ate a whole lot of Sonny's back then. That’s not to say they are completely non-existent in the region – I do occasionally frequent to the Urban BBQ in Rockville (sorry, "North Bethesda") on my lunch breaks, and that place is decent. There is another Urban BBQ location in Silver Spring, though it's in Hillandale, a borderline SSINO area that's not particularly convenient to downtown. I'd love to see a good, dedicated barbeque joint open up right in downtown Silver Spring.

2. Five Guys

These days you can’t go anywhere in America without seeing a Five Guys. Well, except downtown Silver Spring. Why whoever owns the territory has not opened a location downtown is beyond me. It'd be like printing currency every lunch hour. (And yes, I am fully aware there is one up on Tech Road, but as i the aforementioned Urban BBQ, that’s also not the most convenient location to downtown Silver Spring.) All sorts of miscellaneous restaurants come and go in Silver Spring, yet inexplicably no one has bothered to start up a Five Guys franchise.

Is Five Guys the best hamburger around? Probably not, but it’s an easy place to hit up at lunch if you're craving a burger. Granted, there’s Fuddruckers right in DTSS, but for whatever reason I just have no desire to eat there.

And why stop there? How about a Ray's Hellburger? We've already have a regular Ray's restaurant, right?

3. Rodman’s

It may not be the optimal place at which to do your everyday grocery shopping, but what I love about Rodman's is its wide selection of international packaged goods, most of which you won't often find at other stores. This is particularly true at the Friendship Heights location, the one up in White Flint having significantly downsized awhile back to focus on beer and wine. It also seems that when Whole Foods does carry these items, they are notably pricier than they are at Rodman's.

Some of my recent purchases from Rodman's. Time for cream tea.

While there already exists a Rodman’s that is technically in Silver Spring, its location at the corner of Randolph and Viers Mill is another one of those amorphous SSINO regions that isn't particularly convenient, especially in traffic. I’ve never stepped foot in this one, though from the reviews it would appear it isn't quite as nice as the Friendship Heights store.

One thing I can’t figure out is how there exists in Montgomery County two Rodman’s that carry beer and wine. Doesn't that somehow violate the County’s draconian liquor laws allowing for only one outlet of a grocery chain to carry alcoholic beverages? Perhaps they have some sort of grandfathered status. I wonder if these same laws would prevent them from opening another location in Silver Spring. I'm sure they get a substantial portion of their revenue from beer and wine and wouldn't want to open a store that didn't sell these items.

4. Another Coffeehouse in/near DTSS

I don't really have anything against Starbucks on principle, I'm just thoroughly bored with it. Plus, the DTSS location is small and cramped, making it difficult to find a table should you actually want to sit down and enjoy your coffee. The Borders Cafe once served as an alternative, but that of course closed down along with the bookstore. It doesn't even need to be on Ellsworth, I'd just like to see something new open up within a block, perhaps on Skid Row by the Fillmore.

Sure, everyone loves Kefa Café, but it's a few blocks away, it's small, and doesn't maintain late hours. Highland Origin on Fenton Street is even farther away and appears to have closed, anyway. I suppose there's always Panera, but that has more of a sandwich place vibe. I want a place right downtown where I can go grab a cup of coffee and relax on a cozy couch before a movie or whatever. Like the now-defunct Mayorga, only closer in.

Based on past comments on this blog, Busboys and Poets is one business many people wanted to see come here, but of course that one will never open in Silver Spring for the STUPIDEST REASON POSSIBLE. Something like Tryst in Adams Morgan would be good, only minus all the laptop hobos. Buying a single latte does not entitle you and your MacBook to monopolize a sofa for three hours.

5. A Redbox in DTSS

There are Redboxes set up outside a lot of CVS stores... why not at the new one in DTSS? That would be quite convenient. It would also be appropriate, considering the original tenant of that space was a Hollywood Video.

UPDATE: One thing I should have included on this list - Julia's Empanadas. I think a place like that would do well in S.S.

"The Community" Suffers Flesh Wound, Will No Doubt Continue Fighting Townhouses Indefinitely

2012-02-02T13:33:00.001-05:00

The Leave the Zone Alone movement suffered a bit of a setback last week, as the Planning Board unanimously approved a revised plan for EYA's Chelsea Court townhouses which includes a concession from the developer reducing the number of planned homes from 76 to 64. This outcome is, of course, completely unsatisfactory to many members of SOECA, who claim that the mere existence of these townhouses will "ruin the community spirit"of the neighborhood. They can take solace in the fact that there remains two additional stages of approval at which they can protest the plan, including an ultimate review by the county council. There's always a councilperson who can be persuaded by the threat of a few lost votes to hold up any development project indefinitely. A handful of "outraged" voters will always trump progress and economic development in MoCo.

I have never quite understood where there's such opposition to these townhomes. It's not like the state is condemning their houses to build a train line or anything. Perhaps if I lived directly across the street from the project, I might consider placing a Leave the Zone Alone Sign in my yard (ok, no I wouldn't), but even that situation doesn't seem like it would be all that terrible. Visually, a collection of well designed-homes seems infinitely preferable to an school (abandoned or not) surrounded by a chain link fence. In addition, I think it's kind of dark and scary over by the library at night, so if anything adding greater residential density might make that stretch of Ellsworth feel safer. And as I've mentioned before, there's an existing high rise apartment building on one side of the parcel and a retirement community on the other. The low-density ship sailed a long time ago.

And is there really a legitimate threat of increased traffic? Let's say an average of one car from each of the sixty-four proposed homes is exiting or entering the neighborhood once over the entire course of a rush hour period. Is that volume going to result in a noticeable increase in neighborhood traffic congestion? Besides, I would venture that many of the potential homebuyers who would pay the premium attached to housing in a Metro-accessible location such as this would be doing so because they take public transportation to work. I'm also unsure where the concern about cut-through traffic comes from, as there are already "DO NOT ENTER" signs installed at all entrances to the neighborhood from the downtown area.

BONUS: Here's an ad for the Evanswood neighborhood from when it was first developed many years ago. I wonder if back then neighborhood farmers banded together against the Evanswood development, complaining that the area shouldn't be re-zoned for single-family houses.

Greatest Thing Ever Happens, 20 Years Too Late

2012-01-30T14:48:00.001-05:00

If, many years ago, you had told my middle school self that Guns N' Roses was going to perform a club show in downtown Silver Spring, my head would have exploded. And I don't even mean that in the figurative sense - skull fragments would have had to be extracted from the walls.

Well, it may be twenty years after they were last relevant, but GNR will indeed be performing at the Fillmore on February 23rd. Of course, what passes for Guns N' Roses these days is in reality Axl Rose and a rotating cast of musicians.

In Better Days

In my fantasy scenario, Slash, Axl, Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin will miraculously work out their differences over a couple of beers at the Quarry House before the gig and agree to perform a one-time-only Guns N' Roses reunion concert before the band name is forever retired. (This is clearly an obsession of mine, as I have written about this multiple times on this blog over the years. The only difference now is that the GNR concert is no longer hypothetical.)

Though that series of events is unlikely to occur, it may still be worth the price of admission to get a glimpse of Fat Axl. Seriously, this is Axl Rose in March of last year.

Silver Spring News 'N Notes

2012-01-30T11:15:00.004-05:00

- The Post has published a list of properties, many of which are located in Silver Spring, that will be either partially or fully condemned as a result of Purple Line construction. Presumably this list has been on display at the state planning office in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'. Of course, these homeowners and businesses have nothing to concerned about, as the chimerical Purple Line has no chance of being constructed during their lifetime.

- Who would have thought that a post about the generally-unloved Skew Works closing would elicit 46 comments (and counting)? There were some arguments that Skew Works' location was detrimental to business, but Ghar-e-Kebab, located just a few doors down, was able to more than double the size of its dining area last year. This kind of belies the location argument a bit - I think if its food was better, Skew Works would still be around today.

- The Hilton hotel on Colesville road had recently been renovated and re-branded as a DoubleTree.

- Hey Groupon, don't think no one noticed that you had multiple offers for businesses in "Silver Springs" a couple weeks back, even though some of the descriptions have since been corrected. Plus, this movie theater IS IN WHEATON.

- The February issue of Washingtonian Magazine (the one with the giant pot leaf on the cover) features a "Best of Silver Spring" section. Washingtonian doesn't generally make current content available online, but 8407's Facebook Wall has a preview of the first page.

- The parcel of land at the corner of Thayer Avenue and Fenton Street is up for auction next Monday. The auction will be held "on the premises". Does that mean in the old gas station?

Let's hope the buyer does something with this area ASAP. Right now, the weedy lot is nothing but an eyesore. Of course, any new plans could be indefinitely stalled if the service station is deemed 'historic'...

(Thanks to anonymous commenter on the last post for the tip).

- Radio One recently installed a sign on the building that houses their Georgia Avenue headquarters.

- Is Ike Leggett trying to kill the Metropolitan Branch Trail between Silver Spring and Takoma Park?

- UDPATE: Thank you to another anonymous commenter for pointing out that a La Madeleine will be opening downtown.

Skew Works Didn't Work

2012-01-26T15:41:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Twitter user @kscrivs for the photo!

Ah, Skew Works, we hardly knew ye. The Asian grill on Wayne Avenue, which opened less than a year ago, has closed its doors. Can't say I'm particularly surprised - it was alright, but with all the other options around it didn't really distinguish itself in any way. I only went once myself.

Hopefully this space will soon be occupied by a worthwhile tenant whose color scheme will not cause severe eyeball pain. (Perhaps the last proprietors were fans of "The U"?)

Latest City Place Propaganda

2012-01-11T14:24:00.000-05:00

This may have been around for awhile, but it's the first time I've seen it.

I really hope their plan succeeds.

Long Transit Center Nightmare to Continue (at least) Until Summer

2012-01-11T10:14:00.000-05:00

Construction in October 2010. Photo by Flickr user jmlwinder

It's hard to believe that the groundbreaking for the Sarbanes Transit Center occurred during the last presidential campaign. Over three years later, bus stops for the Metro station are still scattered all over downtown Silver Spring and pedestrians have to walk hither and thither to get to their train. Now comes word that the opening of the center will be postponed until this early-to-mid-summer. Generally, delays in completing construction projects around here are due to some combination of Montgomery County bureaucracy and obstructionism from "The Community", but this latest prolongation is a result of a contractor error:

[David Dise, director of Montgomery County's Department of General Services] partially attributed the most recent delay to an error that resulted in the concrete not being thick enough around the structure's steel reinforcement bars in eight areas of the facility's upper deck, which construction crews realized when the concrete began flaking off over the last several months. The concrete is supposed to protect the steel from bad weather, Dise said.

Were this project being constructed in Guangzhou or Dubai, they'd have probably have had this baby up in six months. Here, we've been forced to deal with the hassle for at least an extra year. This thing has been such a headache, they ought to rename it the Sarbanes-Oxley Transit center (rimshot, please).

Silver Spring News 'N Notes

2012-01-10T16:52:00.001-05:00

Eleven55 Ripley

Wow, actual blog posts!

- Ground has broken on the Eleven55 Ripley project, which will be the tallest building in downtown Silver Spring when it is completed in 2013. One thing I don't get - what exactly do they mean when they claim the building will feature a "state-of-the-art theatre". Is it some sort of cinema available for use by the building's tenants? How exactly would that work?

- Welcome back SoCo Eats, which has returned following a six-month hiatus and ThayerAvenue.com, which returns after a somewhat shorter break. (Not that I can talk.)

- Hey, look, Virginia is stealing even more jobs from Maryland, this time from right here in Silver Spring. God, I really f'n hate Virginia. We should cut off their supply of drinking water, since it comes from OUR river, which they don't feel the need to keep clean.

- It's apparently been open for a few months now, but until very recently I was unaware of the existence of Jewel of India, the new restaurant in Hillandale from the owners of Langley Park's Woodlands Restaurant. Unlike the all-vegetarian Woodlands, which I have been to countless times, this new restaurant serves northern Indian cuisine (meaning it has meat dishes). Has anyone tried it yet? The Post liked it.

Silver Spring's 'Best Restaurants' Now Up to 3

2012-01-10T15:54:00.002-05:00

I don't put a whole lot of stock in Washingtonian's "100 Best Restaurants" list, but the fact is that people love subjective rankings and do make real dining decisions based on the contents of the magazine's annual 100 Best issue. With that said, it's still nice to the total number of Silver Spring restaurants on the list increase by one with this year's addition of 8407 Kitchen Bar.

The number of Silver Spring restaurants on the list has fluctuated between two and three over recent years, with five different eateries making the cut, two of which no longer exist:

2007: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics, Ceviche
2008: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics
2009: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics, Nicaro
2010: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics
2011: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics
2012: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics, 8407 Kitchen Bar

Of course, one could say 8407 is in some ways a reincarnation of the old Nicaro (not to be confused with the now-defunct "Newcaro"). Ceviche was of course was doomed to failure because that concept "does not work in malls".

Though they lie just outside of Silver Spring, it should also be noted that both Nava Thai and Ruan Thai, located just blocks from each other in Wheaton, also made the cut.

Silver Spring News 'N Notes

2011-12-14T15:10:00.000-05:00

- Now available in a variety of colors - City Sports Silver Spring t-shirts:

- I'm happy to report that the Chipotle in Four Corners is now open for business. It has a more sleek and modern interior than other Chipotles I've been to, and they actually had pretty good music playing (loudly). Glad to have one up in the '01, though one negative consequence appears to be a notably more crowded parking lot at the Woodmoor Shopping center.

- There's a neighborhood called Silver Spring East of Colesville Road? (SSEoCR?)

- Remember all the talk of a youth curfew? That whole effort is basically in limbo for the foreseeable future. I was so sick of hearing about the damn thing I'm just glad it's over, regardless of the outcome. Now hopefully the council can get back to banning panhandlers at intersections.

- Another new law the county may institute is one targeting perpetrators of so-called "flash mob thefts" like the one that occurred last month at the 7-11 up on Tech Road. The new law would make each participant criminally liable for the total value of good stolen, not just the handful of candy bars, etc. they take. I'm wondering how much they followed up on the Tech Road robbery, considering everyone involved was clearly visible on camera.

- Hey look, the latest battle in the Fox-news-manufactured "War on Christmas" is being waged up in Aspen Hill! A group of uninvited Christmas carolers were ejected from the premises after spreading their holiday cheer inside their local U.S. Post Office.

A spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service confirmed the incident occurred Saturday at branch office in the Aspen Hill Shopping Center. A trio of carolers walked into the building dressed in attire reminiscent of Charles Dickens and began singing.

The only offensive thing here is the is the author's obvious failure to take advantage of a great opportunity to use the word "Dickensian".

- Finally, it's incredible that with the legion of security employed by the Majestic, someone from Team Jacob was still able to abscond with a cardboard cutout of Taylor Lautner from this giant Breaking Dawn display in the theater's lobby.

We Are the 94%

2011-11-28T13:34:00.000-05:00

It is patently obvious to anyone that only a small minority of Washington-area residents actually from the region, but Silver Spring has the distinction of having the fifth lowest ratio of "native" residents in the entire country. This factoid comes from the most recent Census by way of the Washington Examiner, which states that a meager six percent of current Silver Springers 25 years or older were born in the state of Maryland.

Unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure where on the Census site I can find locale-specific data such as this to verify, so I'm unsure what was considered to be "Silver Spring" in this case, nor do I know what the four places with smaller percentages were. Of course, by the qualifications used, I would also be considered a "migrant" to Silver Spring by virtue of having been born in D.C., despite having grown up here.

Silver Spring News 'N Notes

2011-11-22T12:14:00.001-05:00

- I checked out the new City Sports this past weekend, and it is a great addition to what unfortunately remains a fairly barren retail landscape in downtown Silver Spring. It's a big, open, bright space featuring gear from quality brands like North Face, Patagonia and one of my personal favorites, Timbuk2. I was actually able to buy clothing for myself in downtown Silver Spring, something I have been able to do very infrequently, a few shirts from American Apparel notwithstanding. (Sorry, City Place Marshall's, but I don't need size 5XL jeans.)

There's a large selection of City Sports-branded shirts, and while for now they all read "Washington DC", they will purportedly be stocking Silver Spring shirts in the coming weeks.

The only downside is that, unlike other City Sports I have been to in the past, they don't carry fan gear - things such as hats and jerseys for the teams that D.C. Metro area residents root for. You know, like the Steelers, Cowboys, Red Sox, etc.

- The downtown Silver Spring McDonald's, renowned worldwide for being the Worst McDonald's Ever™, is undergoing renovations to update it with the current, more modern, McDonald's design. A welcome cosmetic improvement, I suppose, but you still couldn't pay me enough to eat there. Now, were it to look anything like this McDonald's, I might very well consider it.

- Speaking of lipstick on a pig, I recently received a flyer in the mail encouraging me to visit the newly-redesigned Four Corners Safeway. While this Safeway may be the most convenient, if not closest, supermarket for me, I generally avoid it unless I quickly need something basic like a gallon of milk. The store is cramped, run-down, and the produce generally looks inedible. Simple staples, such as the aforementioned gallon of milk, are frequently out-of-stock.

Perhaps the work isn't complete (then why send me the flyer??), but the 'renovated' store didn't look a whole lot different than I remembered it. Unfortunately, a wooden floor laid down in the produce section doesn't magically make your fruits and vegetables fresh.

I wish we could have gotten a brand new Safeway like Kensington did a few years back. Their equally-crappy old-timey Safeway was razed and a brand new building was constructed in its place. I guess we'll just have to settle for this half-assed effort.

In fact, the one thing I kind of liked about the Safeway was its retro facade and marina-style roof . Now the former has been eradicated, to be replaced by what I can only presume is some generic Safeway signage.

Then:

Now:

- From the Post review of last Wednesday night's Kid Rock concert at the Fillmore:

Introducing “So Hott,” Rock did the time-honored practice of slipping the venue’s name conspicuously into the lyrics one better, namechecking Silver’s Spring’s Quarry House Tavern as the site where he’d picked up a lady companion to ease the loneliness of the road the prior evening.

I assume someone just provided him with the name of a local joint so that he might indulge the crowd, but perhaps someone can confirm that Kid Rock was actually at the Quarry House on Tuesday night.

- A flash mob of fifty-or-so shoplifters robbed the 7-11 up on Tech Road on Saturday Night. Nice. For those opposing the proposed MoCo teen curfew, incidents like this certainly won't help your cause.

Soon there will be another 7-11 in Silver Spring to flash rob, as a new store is opening in the strip mall at the corner of Georgia and Silver Spring Ave. Why is that strip mall still there, anyway, other than to provide revenue to towing companies?

Dawn of A New Age of Reason to Take Place Across from Fenton Street Parking Garage

2011-11-18T14:42:00.000-05:00

Skeptical? I assure you it's absolutely true - I read it on the Internet. Specifically, I discovered this astounding news on the website for the under-construction Citron apartments.

The following is from the site, and is best read using the voice of the late, great, Don LaFontaine:

There was a time when people held salons, intimate gatherings of literary, artistic and cultural movers and shakers. At Citron, that era is back, in all its creative glory. Citron is an intimate counterpoint to its high-rise neighbors. A haven of serenity and elevated consciousness in the heart of Downtown Silver Spring's never-ending excitement. Amenity-rich, filled with features, green and sustainable, and always forward-thinking.

Clearly, Foulger-Pratt has stumbled upon something incredible here - all that was needed to do to resurrect the spirit of the Parisian salons of the Enlightenment was to design apartment buildings with common areas! We should expect a massive influx into Silver Spring by the world's intellectual elite, many of whom will inevitably be leasing apartments at the Citron as soon as construction is complete.

(Note that the Citron is the successor to the ill-fated Ellsworth Condos, which were billed at the time as being the "last word" in Downtown Silver Spring living.)

Silver Spring's City Sports to Open This Weekend

2011-11-16T13:27:00.000-05:00

The grand opening of the City Sports on Fenton Street is scheduled for this Saturday. According to a rep from City Sports,"The new store will have a special women’s section (a huge initiative for the brand this year), freestanding shoe wall and interactive zone, among other features."

There's also a grand opening party planned for Saturday the 26th, with a DJ, food, and giveaways. There will be a contest featuring a grand prize of "free shoes for a year", though I'm not entirely sure what that means. What if I feel like wearing a new pair of kicks every day? Rappers do it, right?

I'm still waiting to hear if they will be stocking "City Sports Silver Spring" t-shirts. Apparently there are custom shirts produced for the Bethesda location, so they better.

Silver Spring (Old) News 'N Notes

2011-11-11T06:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts as of late... some of this may be old news, but I'm still playing catch up. More to come.

- Work is proceeding in earnest on the construction of the new City Sports on Fenton Street. Here's hoping they carry "City Sports Silver Spring" t-shirts, though in all likelihood they'll instead stock D.C. t-shirts like this one.

- Travel time from Silver Spring to Bethesda during rush hour on the Purple Line? 8 1/2 minutes. Of course, by the time it is ultimately built, molecular transporters will have been invented, making the light rail line a 22nd century C&O Canal.

- The temporary toy store in the former Borders is set to open today, at least according to a sign on the door. (Still waiting on that H&M, by the way.) We need to start commercializing additional holidays in order to fill all this empty retail space. Halloween and Christmas only cover a few months.

- The takeaway from this article is that Ghar-e-Kabab is expanding their dining area. Good on them.

- The sushi and steakhouse restaurant opening in what was once Ceviche is going through an identity crisis: first it was Nobu Hibachi Steakhouse and Sushi, then it was Haruhana Hibachi Steakhouse & Sushi, and now it's Masa Hibachi Steakhouse & Sushi.

First They Came for the Mailboxes...

2011-10-23T20:20:00.000-05:00

It was four years ago when citizens of the areas immediately surrounding downtown Silver Spring noticed that the once-ubiquitous blue mailboxes were disappearing from their neighborhoods without warning. Then, earlier this year, the main downtown Silver Spring post office on Second Avenue was sold to developers, who have plans to construct apartments on the site. Now, the Postal Service has mailed out surveys to local residents to help determine the feasibility of closing the tiny "finance center" post office hidden in the bowels of the office building at 8455 Colesville Rd.

I recognize that the Postal Service is presently in dire financial straights, but if they are going to continue to operate post offices at all, it makes absolutely no sense for them to completely forsake a major metropolitan area like downtown Silver Spring. Closing this last downtown outpost would leave the Four Corners/Woodmoor location as the post office closest to downtown. Has whatever bureaucrat at Postal Service headquarters making this determination ever BEEN to the Four Corners post office? For starters, traffic around there is a nightmare. You can only access the post office from one direction, and the parking lot has maybe eight spots. Even if you do get a spot, there's a good chance someone will park perpendicularly behind you, making it extremely difficult to back out. You can try and be sneaky and park in the neighborhood street that dead ends right behind the building, but during the week that is a neighborhood permit only street, so you are technically breaking the law. This is the post office they suggest will serve all of the 20901 and 20910 ZIP codes? What about customers that don't own a car? Are they going to have to take a bus for miles to mail a package? What are they thinking?

Granted, it's fairly easy to print shipping labels using the USPS' online service, but it forces you to purchase premium services you don't need like Priority and Express Mail by not allowing you to print first class or media mail labels. (A service they could very easily provide, because they let you do it if you do it as an eBay/PayPal seller.) Plus, you need to own a postal scale to properly calculate shipping costs using their website. It's probably a very small minority of Postal Service customers who actually use this service at present.

I generally find ways to avoid going, but based on the fact that there always seems to be a line, clearly a lot of people need the Post Office. Why the Postal Service would completely abandon downtown Silver Spring is beyond me.

Friday News 'N Notes

2011-10-21T15:07:00.000-05:00

- Fenton Street Market, which had announced it would be closing permanently come November, may return next year after all, despite the county having added a number of (costly) new rules to the lease requirement. If the market does return, one thing they will be required to do is rent a portable toilet, because I'm sure anyone in DTSS needing to use the bathroom would elect to use a port-a-john in the middle of Veteran's Plaza. Isn't the main purpose of the Civic Building to house public bathrooms? That's about all I've used it for so far.

- It wouldn't be a Silver Spring development project if it weren't held up endlessly by "The Community" and/or the County Government, would it? The Leave the Zone Alone folks have scored a comeback victory against EYA's townhouse project slated for the Chelsea School site, getting the county council to "recommend" that the developer scale back its plans for 76 townhomes on the property .

The Proposed Chelsea Court Townhouses

Would these townhomes really change the composition of the neighborhood that much? The plans seem fairly innocuous to me. It's not like there aren't already highrise apartments ACROSS THE STREET from the property. At this point, I wonder why any developer would bother to do business in this county. Out of spite, they should just let the property become overgrown and turn into a hobo encampment.

Also, to call that neighborhood "historic", as this article does, is a bit of a stretch. (Disclosure: this is my neighborhood.)

- Silver Spring's first bikeshare station will be located outside the new apartments being constructed at the former post office location on 2nd Avenue. I would think that this type of thing would make a lot more sense by the Metro, but perhaps there are plans to ultimately locate one at the new transit center as well.

- The Haunted Garden, an elaborate Halloween setup free to the public, opens tonight. The Garden is located at 9215 Worth Ave and will be open the next two weekends and on Halloween night.

- Discovery Headquarters was recently host to a small but sweet car show. I've actually driven the first car before, or at least I have in LA Noire...

I, For One, Welcome Our New 8th District Overlords

2011-10-20T10:54:00.000-05:00

It always bothered me that the Maryland congressional districts were drawn in such a way that that people who live but a couple blocks away from me were represented by a different congressperson and that my representative was inevitably chosen by PG County voters.

Now, with the re-gerrymandering of the voting districts nearly complete, all Silver Springers will soon be living within the boundaries of Maryland's 8th District, or at least they will for the next ten years.

Here are the current district maps:

And here are the new district boundaries within Montgomery County:

I'm not the biggest fan of gerrymandering (for either side), but at least the new map doesn't have Silver Spring split down the middle.

Sweet, We're Getting an Old Davy

2011-10-18T10:53:00.000-05:00

It feels like only yesterday that City Place was going to become a outlet mall before it wasn't.

Photoshopping City Place must be some sort of new Internet meme, because there seems to be a new set of concept images popping up every month or so. This latest set of renderings (PDF) dated September 28th comes from Petrie Ross & Hutensky Capital Partners, and shows City Place rebranded generically as the "Galleria" (what, no Silver Plaza?).

In this latest plan, ~~Shitty Place~~ The Galleria will feature such popular anchor tenants as "Old Davy" and "H&W". There's no real info on actual tenants, and everyone's favorite store, Burlington Coat Factory, seems to be part of their plans. Interestingly, the design calls for the entire top floor, empty for years, to be converted into some sort of dinner theater.

Occupy Silver Spring (With Zombies)

2011-10-18T10:05:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder - the 4th Annual Silver Spring Zombie Walk is scheduled for this Saturday night, and all indications are that this year's event will be just as big, if not bigger, than last year's.

A few last minute notes:

- The official posters (pictured above) are now available. For those interested, posters can be purchased online at the official Zombie Walk Website and will also be available at the AFI box office the night of the Walk.

- As of now the weather looks to be clear, if cool, on Saturday night.

- If you haven't bought tickets to the movie and plan on doing so, DO IT NOW. They aren't sold out yet, but I assure you they will be.

- We've received approval from the police to close off sections of Sligo Ave and Selim Rd near Jackie's, so there's somewhat less of a chance that a car will plow through a crowd of zombies.

- If you missed it, here's the Silver Spring Zombie Walk FAQ.

Silver Spring News 'N Notes

2011-10-04T09:07:00.000-05:00

- Despite reports that it will ultimately be occupied by City Sports, the former storefront of Pier 1 Imports appears to be doing nothing but gathering dust, or at least it was the last time I peeked in the window. What's the hold up? Meanwhile, the erstwhile Borders space, which may or may not become an H&M, has been temporarily converted into a Halloween (or Zombie Walk) costume shop.

- It's been ages since a sign first went up indicating that a new restaurant/club called Society would occupy the former Nicaro space at 8229 Georgia Avenue. Now they finally appear to be hiring staff, so perhaps its opening is imminent.

- The Post recently ran a story on Vicino Ristorante Italiano's underground (literally) Jazz Club.

- The only "top hospital" in the Washington metro area: Silver Spring's Holy Cross.

- This year's Silver Spring Thanksgiving Parade: no floats, but hey, Ronald McDonald!

- And finally, this tweet last week from the Fillmore Silver Spring demonstrates that Twitter's 140 character limit sometimes forces users to exclude key words, significantly changing the message as a result.

Chug Off

2011-09-29T10:49:00.000-05:00

Back in the BDTSS (before Downtown Silver Spring) "Golden Age", when a desolate Ellsworth Drive was anchored by typhoid-spreading McDonald's, one could not walk a block without being repeatedly hustled by a gauntlet of panhandlers.

Over the past 15-20 years, the complexion of Ellsworth Drive has changed significantly, but one thing remains the same: you still can't get very far without being approached by strangers for money. Sure, the hustlers smell better and are more organized, but while they used to be content with a one-time donation of spare change, now they want recurring monthly payments on your credit card. Instead of a paper cup, they come armed with a clipboard or a tablet PC. I am, of course, referring to the packs of charity muggers (or "chuggers") who position themselves in strategic choke points along the sidewalks of Downtown Silver Spring, preventing passerbys from avoiding their hard-sell tactics. They will approach you with an innocent line such as "may I have a moment of your time?" or with a guilt-inducing request like "do you have a minute for the environment?".

While on the surface these fundraisers may seem to be representatives of a charity, in fact they often employees of a for-profit fundraising company. In most cases, only a portion of your donation will ultimately make it to the charity being promoted.

The chugger scourge appears to have hit the UK hard, where a number of municipalities have established laws restricting the activities of these fundraisers. Why can't we get the same thing here? MoCo regulates everything else to death, but these guys appear to operate with limited to no restrictions. Why must pedestrians be subjected to repeated requests for money each time they walk through Downtown Silver Spring? It's bad enough you get harassed one time, but once you make it to the other end of the block, you get hustled again by their co-workers. (And twice again if you walk back.)

Here's my question: if these are employees of a for-profit company, why can they operate with impunity on the public/private streets of Downtown Silver spring? If the county isn't going to do anything to curb them, what about DTSS? Are they OK with their customers getting hit up for money every time they step onto Ellsworth? What if I were to set up a lemonade stand outside of DSW and vow to donate half my revenue to a worthy cause, say, UNICEF? The DTSS Whiteshirts would be on me faster than if I were a breastfeeding photographer.

To be fair, I understand that charities can't always support an army of full-time fundraisers on their payrolls, and that what money they do net after hiring these fundraising companies will ultimately go to a worthy cause. Furthermore, I can't begrudge the chuggers themselves - they gotta eat, and in today's economy you do what you can. I'm sure they don't love approaching strangers for money all day. With that being said, what about our right to go to the farmers market on a Saturday morning without being made to feel bad for not helping to save the whales (or whatever)? Just give at the office.

Of course, you can always deal with these people like Aziz Ansari... (NSFW language)