“People who bought in Bethesda in the 70’s & early 80’s before the Red Line and onslaught of development are sitting on GOLD MINES.”
I’m sure East Silver Spring would also be declared obsolete. Plenty of us see our homes as places to live, for the rest of our lives. And we want the kids of today to be able to live here, too, in these small, beautiful houses with front porches — shaded by big trees. Our homes and trees are not gold mines.

Governments have always had the power to seize homes by eminent domain for various projects, such as roads. However, in the Kelo case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that homes can be seized for economic develoment. If the state decided to seize a home for transit-oriented development, the homeowners would be kicked out — and unlikely to be able to find a similar home. They are not making small, beautiful homes like this any more. When they are gone, they are gone.

Susan said regarding the Sligo Creek Park crossing: a purple line of any sort will add to conditions there, and do away with the birds we do have, including blue herons, that tough it out there.

On what do you base your unsubstantiated claim other than just raw emotion? The area of Sligo Creek Park that the Purple Line will cross is about 200′ across. It is not a wide swatch of destruction like the ICC, but a tiny area about 1/2 the size of the existing 4-lane Wayne Avenue crossing. How can you believe that this will “do away” with the wildlife? They don’t tough it out there, they have a protected riparian paradise. And last time I looked, a bird can fly over a slow moving train without much trouble. Deer and other ground based animals will have no greater difficulties than they do now with the roadway crossing.

Those with the rallying cry of “save our communities” simply do not want to accept the current reality and the invevitable future: The Washington area is becoming an international, urbanized city like other world capitals. Congestion will get worse and no amount of transit & higher density developement will relieve it or bring back the good old days. The best we can hope for is to manage the problem by building better/more public transit & higher density housing/retail in the close in locations where people can afford to live. Central DC, like London, Paris & NY will become too expensive and the next ring out is our area.

It’s going to happen folks, whether you want it or not. Long Branch, Langley Park, Hyattsville, College Park and the like will eventually be built up as the functionally obsolete & low density apartment complexes are replaced. You may not like the higher density, but you sure as heck will like the increase in your property value.

People who bought in Bethesda in the 70’s & early 80’s before the Red Line and onslaught of development are sitting on GOLD MINES.

The Purple Line has great wrecking potential anywhere it could go. Colesville Road has been brought up over and over, MTA says it’s a state route, can’t afford to take car lanes away. I have also experienced this phenomenon of people who do NOT live along the proposed routes saying people should give up yards or even homes “for the greater good.” This is nonsense.

The perpetual density argument behind the Purple Line is the beast that will not be fed. If a route were approved, developers would go crazy pushing to rezone areas around the tracks and stations. Gov. O’Malley just signed a bill designating places a half-mile from a transit station for transit-oriented development. The legislation makes a token nod to local planning, but we see how well that works.

As long as local governments rely on the regressive property tax, instead of switching to a progressive income tax with the highest rates for those with incomes in the millions, we will see this.

Please don’t let the rude behavior stop you. All of us must band together to save our communities. It is stressful, but it is also possible to laugh at the absurdity of these proposals.

Why, if this must be built, do the powers that be have their eye on Wayne? Do we not have enough powerful politicians or developers sticking up for us? Why not the logical choice of Colesville? I would not put anything on Sligo either but it will be no better if “it” is built here. It will wreck our neighborhood, which is already under severe environmental stress.

I went to one meeting and was accosted verbally by a non Wayne Avenue man who said that “I should sacrifice for the good of the cause.” I haven’t been back since. I am not interested in such rude behavior, of which there has been plenty.

pj, many new buses are the diesel-electric hybrids; they are quieter and seem to pollute less. They seem far more “environmentally friendly” than a railroad powered by electricity. That electricity comes from coal. In addition to the global warming, mercury, fine particulate — the extreme strip-mining technique of Mountaintop Removal is tearing up beautiful places in West Virginia, Virginia & Kentucky. Communities and habitat are being wiped out.

Little Foot, homes and apts vary massively. So do the way people live in them. Whether a person uses more or less of anything would almost have to be studied on a case-by-case basis. What if a person who lives an a high-rise feels a need to drive out into the country every weekend?

And Jennifer, thank you for the reminder to “play nice.”