New rules in the Downtown Silver Spring shopping center have chased away some of the criminal element, but gangstas now have a new place to hang, one of Silver Spring’s top cops announced.
According to Lt Eric Burnett, deputy commander of the PD’s third district, members of one street gang have set up shop around the Texaco gas station on Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue. And some of these kids have ties to criminals in Bawlmore.
“Because Silver Spring is relatively safe, even people involved in crime come here to enjoy a movie,” Burnett told Silver Spring’s urban-district advisory committee Thursday. “But we’re trying to make this an uncomfortable environment for them.”
The shopping center managed to have the worst of them towed off Ellsworth Drive with its recent banning policy, Jennifer Nettles, the center’s property manager, explained. Kids caught stealing or pulling other illegal crap are photographed and placed on the center’s shit list for one year. If those kids show up on Ellsworth or inside the City Place mall during that one year, the PD hauls them off on trespassing charges.
Now, gangstas — namely, a local Bloodz crew — have taken Downtown Silver Spring’s cue and now call Texaco the spot. Peg it on Texaco’s star logo and red-and-black colors, which the Bloodz also call their own, Burnett spelled out.
A visit to the gas station Thursday evening found it devoid of loitering kids. Instead, its only visitors were rush-hour commuters pumping gas, a pedestrian scoring smokes, and cars trying to cut the right corner on southbound Georgia Avenue. An attendant sitting behind thick Plexiglass said he never noticed kids kicking it at the station, though he often didn’t work nights.
Whatever might or might not be cooking at the Texaco, the PD is on it, Burnett said. He also asked passersby to phone the third-district station house if they ever saw dirty deeds going down there.
“We’re battling to keep Silver Spring ours,” Burnett told the committee. “But it’s not that bad. It’s not doom and gloom.”
Photo: The Texaco gas station on Colesville and Georgia. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.
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Man, if I was in a gang and I found out that our hangout was going to be some crappy gas station on a corner, I would immediately resign from that gang and seek a refund of my gang dues.
Texaco really needs to partner with a developer to put an unbuilt Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building on that corner with the gas station on the ground floor. If Arlington Temple United Methodist Church in Rossyln, VA can do it (not a Wright design), why can’t it be done in Silver Spring?
Maybe the Bloodz can hold a design charette.
Jennifer,
This was the funniest article I have read on “The Penguin” in a long time. Dude, seriously. Why would a street gang hang out in the busiest intersection of Silver Spring where there are plenty of lights and MontCo cops driving by?
Oy–smacks the head.
IHY
They’re the “Bloodz,” not the “Brainz.”
I am a high school teacher at a Montgomery County alternative high school. I learned quickly not to underestimate gangs and the affiliation many teenagers feel for them. Two of our students were in a recent Gazette article — one the victim of a heinous attack and one the perpetrator. These kids have no adult supervision, structured activities, or respect for others. Although it’s quite an absurd subject to wrap your head around, these kids certainly don’t appreciate being mocked.
I really wish I had never moved to SS. This place is a ghetto pit, it’s filled with ghetto thugs, the traffic is awful and you can’t get from one side of Colesville to the other without risking your life due to the selfishness of local drivers… I should have moved to Bethesda or NoVA.
God I hate this place.
I have lived in SS for over 15 years & apart from sparse graffiti, which could – as far as I know – come from DC, never seen any signs of “ghetto thugs.” Then again, I’m not looking for a huge list of things to complain about.
I agree with Susan, if Ignacio thinks Silver Spring is a “ghetto pit” then I wonder what he would have thought about my neighborhood growing up in Brooklyn. Silver Spring is very nice, yes it’s urban and on the border of DC so there are questionable people here and there, but it’s not bad at all and it is on the rise. I also agree that there are many people out there who are just not happy until they have something to cry and complain about, a shame to go through life like that.
Just a sidenote that the spruced up Giant is actually a pleasure to shop in, I hope they keep it up.
I can’t believe these words are coming out of my mouth (uh…I mean typed from my keyboard), but I agree that the spruced up Giant is a pleasure to shop in. It’s still no Harris Teeter or Publix, but for sure, it is 100% better than before in the appearance, the selection and most importantly the staff. Giant seems to have hired their version of Michelle Rhee who got rid of all the do-nothing, entitlement minded employees and replaced them with people who actually are concerned about the customer. What a refreshing change–I hope they can keep it up and they will get my business back.k
The new Giant really sucks…they have organized everything against common sense…all the organic is in one aisle verus having next to non-organic in order to compare…not to mention that they seem to have cleared their inventory of certain items…like kosher baby dills..what is up with that?
I agree that having all the “organic” (which sometimes isn’t even actually organic or anything, its just deemed health food by the higher authorities) in one aisle is silly – when I go looking for Barbara’s Puffins cereal I want to find it in the cereal aisle, not next to the 7th generation cleaner.
Also the Starbucks inside still sucks. I haven’t seen anyone get coffee there yet and I always see like 4 teenagers sitting around looking useless because no one is there. Waste of space.
But otherwise, the appearance is a lot nicer and the selection is a lot better from what I’ve seen. Especially the breads, the bakery seems to have doubled production since the remodel finished.
A couple of weeks ago, I was at that Giant rather late. Found what everything I wanted, for less $ than I had expected to pay. I was able to park just fine in a safe spot. I thought the Starbucks was pretty strange, too, but overall, I was happy.
Woodsider said: “Giant seems to have hired their version of Michelle Rhee who got rid of all the do-nothing, entitlement minded employees and replaced them with people who actually are concerned about the customer.”
Woodsider, in my life I have met precious few working people with a sense of entitlement. How do you know what their working lives are like? They could have been coping with split shifts, wildly unpredictable schedules, a screaming boss — who knows? Never judge a person until you have stood in his or her sweaty shoes for at least 8 hours.
LuvMyHood,
Point well taken, but likewise it is naive to think that everyone in that store just needed some TLC and better schedules and magically they would be transformed into customer service role models. Some people simply should not be in positions working with customers and/or they can’t adjust to change (even when it is for the positive).
Finally, I have stood in the sweaty shoes of the working person and worked my share of double & graveyard shifts and crappy jobs. I’ve worked for everything I have and no one ever gave me a penny I didn’t earn. The difference is that I have always taken control of my life–when a job was crappy beyond my control I sought out something better rather than wait for “the man” to take care of me.