Plywood has taken the place of plate glass on Georgia Avenue, where three out of four businesses near Silver Spring Avenue have had their windows shattered in the past few weeks.
One week ago, a large pane was smashed at the Plaza Art Shop (8209 Georgia Ave). According to a shop employee, police couldn’t identify how the window was destroyed, nor could they say that robbery was the motive. Nothing was stolen.
Just next door at the Benjamin Moore paint supply shop (8211 Georgia Ave) two boards covered what used to be a bay window. It’s unclear why or how the two glass plates were broken, or how long it would be before they would be replaced.
And at the corner of Georgia and Silver Spring avenues, Pieces boutique (8201 Georgia Ave) was still sporting plywood on its southeast face. That window had been bashed during a robbery earlier this month.
At least the art shop was making the most of its temporary patch. Its plywood board had been primed with white paint, and on Sunday a woman was outlining a design in permanent marker.
Photos by Jennifer Deseo and Ron Pace for The Silver Spring Penguin.
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Until DSTT gets a handle on crime, it will never truly succeed in its comeback attempt. Given the proximity of these idiotic window smashings, the police ought to set up cameras in the street and/or have a dedicated undercover patrol to catch the creep.
Make that DTSS. Looks like I’ve had teemany martoonis.
Springvale, actually the MoCo police department needs to get a handle on the vandalism and store robberies.
Please know that some chic DC storefronts have been smashed in the Georgetown and DuPont Circle areas. This is not just a “Silver Spring problem”.
Indeed, IHY, smashed windows happen everywhere, but unlike Georgetown and Dupont Circle, DTSS is struggling to renovate itself. It’s come a long way, but still has a ways to go, and every broken storefront window is a setback in the quest to attract new businesses, especially to Georiga Avenue.
I noticed th windows too. It’s a shame. The vandalism in SS seems to have climbed to gross levels of late. Anecdotally, the split-rail fence along the front of my property has been kicked over 9 times since August 15 (when it had basically been left alone the previous 8 years). Also, I can’t help but notice that a small group of taggers has basically claimed SS as their turf over the past year or so.
Does anyone know if SS is still technically “under-policed” as was reported last year?
There was also plywood on the door of the Vietnamese restaurant a little further south on Georgia Ave. Was that related?
What’s worse, there was apparently a suspicious fire at My Le Vietnamese Restaurant, a block south of these broken windows. Had called to place a take-out order and couldn’t get through 2 days in a row. Drove down to see if the place had closed and saw a sign saying it was being investigated for arson. Pretty creepy.
Don’t suppose you’ve heard any details on this? All I found with a quick online search was this Gazette story which doesn’t say much.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/102407/silvnew200254_32364.shtml
DTSS needs more foot traffic on that side of town. More dense residential (condos, apartments, etc..) so that folks who feel the need to smash a window have some fear that someone might walk by and catch them. I realize these things happen at 2am or whenever, but if 2 in 1,000 people just happens to have some random reason to be coming home at an odd hour of the evening, then 3,000 more residential units is going to increase the odds of someone walking (hell, even driving) by sort of significantly. That and good lighting are the major differences I see between downtown and georgia ave. All that being said, isn’t there a brand new police/fire station across the street too???
This is what My Le looked like when I walked past it a few weeks back.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chip_py/1557213635/
Chip Py