This Weekend

By Jennifer Deseo | Nov 26, 2008

Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not, enjoy this long weekend! Here’s what’s rocking Silver Spring:

Thursday

All day. The county observes Thanksgiving. Don’t expect county offices, courts or libraries to be open. Do expect mass-transit services to roll on holiday schedules. At least you can be thankful for free parking at county-owned garages and curbside meters.

Friday

4:00 a.m. Metro rail rolls earlier than usual to get you to those Black Friday deals. Trains run on a regular weekday schedule, so expect to pay a regular weekday fare.

8:00 p.m. Bouncing Ball Theatrical Productions presents “Cautionary Tales for Adults and The Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles”, a pair of two short musicals. Hit it at the Round House Theater (8641 Colesville Rd) for $15 per person.

8:00 p.m. The Silver Spring Stage (10145 Colesville Rd) presents “Third”, a drama by Wendy Wasserstein. Tickets are $13 to $18 each.

10:00 p.m. Get your musical-multimedia groove on at Loda, South Silver Spring’s weekly rump shaker. The party drops on Gallery Lounge (1115 East-West Hwy). Ten bucks and convincing ID get you through the door.

Saturday

3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Bouncing Ball Theatrical Productions presents “Cautionary Tales for Adults and The Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles”, a pair of two short musicals. Hit it at the Round House Theater (8641 Colesville Rd) for $15 per person.

8:00 p.m. The Silver Spring Stage (10145 Colesville Rd) presents “Third”, a drama by Wendy Wasserstein. Tickets are $13 to $18 each.

Sunday

2:00 p.m. The Silver Spring Stage (10145 Colesville Rd) presents “Third”, a drama by Wendy Wasserstein. Tickets are $13 to $18 each.

3:00 p.m. Bouncing Ball Theatrical Productions presents “Cautionary Tales for Adults and The Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles”, a pair of two short musicals. Hit it at the Round House Theater (8641 Colesville Rd) for $15 per person.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Hey Paul.

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Developer, neighbors wonder what it takes to make a Village

By Jennifer Deseo | Nov 25, 2008

A development project planned for Fenton Village turns a cold shoulder to East Silver Spring and existing businesses on Fenton Street, neighbors complained at a recent public forum.

Proposed designs for the Studio Plaza project would draw pedestrians away from Fenton Street businesses by placing retail and green space along an interior courtyard, area residents said during a public forum Wednesday night.

Currently, the 10-year-old project proposes to plop a half-acre green space (below, left) on a block sandwiched by Georgia, Thayer and Silver Spring Avenues, and Fenton Street. Four buildings — three of them residential — would surround that park, developer Bob Hillerson explained.

Studio Plaza greenish space

Most of the project’s buildings would have street-level retail — a total 61,000 square feet of it — with some next to the interior park and along a pedestrian alley through the site (above, right). That game plan would give residents in Fenton Village and the nearby Ripley District a central place to hang, Hillerson said.

And that didn’t groove with some residents’ ideas of what Fenton Village should be.

“It looks like you made a green area that caters to people who live there. There’s nothing activating the other streets,” Debbie Spielberg, an East Silver Spring resident and member of Silver Spring’s citizens advisory board, said. “It looks in, instead of looking out.”

East Silver Spring resident Karen Roper (below) added that the alley’s retailers should not make the place a shopping destination like Downtown Silver Spring, as developer Hillerson suggested. Rather, they wanted the businesses to serve basic services like dry cleaning and shoe repair, as the planning department’s sector plan suggests.

But Gary Stith, director of Silver Spring’s regional center, asked people not to sweat it. “More retail there will create a draw and will help existing businesses,” he told forum participants.

The project has already displaced at least two businesses — Roadhouse Oldies Records, and and the Silver Spring Market, both of which worked a Hillerson-owned building slated for demolition on Thayer near Georgia. The record shop recently moved to a storefront on Silver Spring Avenue, which Hillerson offered to them.

But the Silver Spring Market, now on Fenton near Sligo, wasn’t extended an invitation to stay on Hillerson property, he said.

“I didn’t renew their lease because the pan handlers used to stand out front, ask for money, go inside to buy beer, urinate and vomit in public, then do it all over again,” Hillerson claimed.

Hillerson’s next move for the Studio Plaza development is to file a project plan with the planning department, with a public hearing anticipated for April or May 2009.

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Wayne Avenue residents weigh in on Purple Line

By Jennifer Deseo | Nov 24, 2008

People had nothing but love for the Purple Line at Saturday afternoon’s public hearing in Takoma Park. But how the mass-transit project might cruise Wayne Avenue left residents of that street sweating the details.

It was freakin cold inside that gym.

It was freakin' cold inside that gym.

While no route or ride (light rail versus bus rapid transit) has been selected yet, lots of talk has gone down over a street-level route along Wayne. The stretch would connect downtown Silver Spring with Long Branch as part of the 16-mile, Bethesda-to-New Carrollton trip.

Seven Oaks resident Erin Johansson, who lives on Wayne, told state transit reps and 200 other people huddled inside the cold Montgomery College gymnasium that she was ready for a light-rail system to roll down her block.

“When we moved here and heard about the light-rail line, we were really enthusiastic,” the expectant mother and former San Franciscan testified. “While we love living on Wayne and living in Silver Spring, a downside is the traffic on that street. The train would really calm traffic and make it a safer street to live on.”

However, others weren’t ready for that. Cathy Kristiansen, the Seven Oaks resident who started the “No Train on Wayne” yard-sign campaign, said the Purple Line should be tunneled beneath her neighborhood instead of rolled down its streets.

“No train on Wayne does not mean no mass transit,” Kristiansen testified. “But it’s imperative to do it right.”

According to Jonathan Jay, vice president of the Seven Oaks-Evanswood Citizens Association, a tunnel would allow the mass-transit project to bypass downtown ’s congested streets as it worms its way to Long Branch. However, the state transit administration previously said expensive underground stations were not in the plans.

And that wasn’t grooving for one neighbor. The woman (whose name I didn’t catch — my bad) testified that a tunnel would prevent the Purple Line from serving residents near Wayne and Dale Drive, as well as visitors to the Silver Spring International Middle School and adjacent Old Blair auditorium.

But Karen FitzGerald, a Wayne Avenue resident, said she didn’t need the vehicular traffic — on Wayne or anywhere else — that a street-level Purple Line might bring. “Traffic for the schools will be rerouted onto Dale,” she told state transit reps. “No study has been done to study the impact of such traffic on adjacent streets.”

While neighbors along Wayne debated where to put this thing, one Chevy Chase resident argued the project shouldn’t be built at all. In a letter to Washington Post editors published Saturday, Gary Repp said the project’s probable route along the Capital Crescent Trail would trash the hood’s suburban groove. The gravel-strewn trail runs past private homes as well as the Columbia Country Club’s golf course.

“We will lose the Capital Crescent Trail, the last refuge of nature’s forested beauty and tranquility in our neighborhood, now used by thousands,” Repp wrote. “Where will all the families with their strollers go?”

Instead, Repp recommended a light-rail line between New Carrollton and Silver Spring, with bus rapid transit to carry the load from Silver Spring to Bethesda.

State Del. Tom Hucker (D-District 20) didn’t wanna hear it. Silver Spring’s renters, minority communities and car-less masses “deserved first-class transit options”, and he didn’t want the project derailed by “well-connected golfers”, he said.

Even Stephan Brayman, mayor of College Park in Prince George’s County, felt it was time for Chevy Chase and the rest of MoCo to get its shit together. “This project has way too much social and environmental good for a golf course to get in the way,” he testified.

A probable route and ride will be selected next spring, according to the state transit administration.

Photos by J. Deseo/SSP

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Chills, thrills mark downtown Thanksgiving parade

By Jennifer Deseo | Nov 24, 2008

The stinging cold and piercing wind didn’t keep thousands from hitting Saturday’s Thanksgiving parade through downtown Silver Spring.

Tissue-paper displays on flat-bed trucks floated up Georgia Avenue from Sligo Avenue starting at 9:30 a.m., when temperatures were in the twenties. Parade participants then turned right onto Ellsworth Drive, where local big wigs watched from shaded bleachers.

The cast of characters included a few regulars — the massive penguin balloon tethered to 20 beak-clad handlers, marching bands from local high schools, and scout troops. Local pols on the state and county level also showed, either on foot or from the back seat of a convertible.

But there were also plenty of Andean dance groups shimmying in sequinned costumes, members of the Maryland Youth Ballet tiptoeing in tutus, and a praying mantis (below) wildly shaking its ass for Brookside Gardens.

On one Christmas-themed display, a fan-inflated, wind-swept Rudolf tousled with another reindeer (or at least a dude in costume) on Georgia near Thayer Avenue. A few blows were exchanged before the inflatable deer submitted to its human float mate. No injuries were reported.

The annual parade was the eleventh sponsored by the county.

 
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The Early Bird

By Jennifer Deseo | Nov 24, 2008

This week, the county council runs through $49 million in proposed budget cuts for this fiscal year. But the legislators could learn a thing or two from The Penguin staff, which operates fiscal year after fiscal year without any income. So here are a few tips:

  • Eat a bagged lunch, even if your name isn’t on that bag.
  • Use both sides of a sheet of paper when photocopying your ass. I’ve reduced my weekly paper use to half a ream, and shaved 10 points off my carbon footprint.
  • Take advantage of discounts. This Friday, I’m hitting Best Buy at 4:00 a.m. to grab the Purple Line for $99. The county would be wise to do the same.
  • Don’t outsource crappy jobs that can be done in-house. That’s what interns are for.

I’m sure more money-saving measures will come to mind. In the meantime, check out this schedule:

Monday

9:30 a.m. The county council’s education committee gets an update on renovation plans for the Old Blair auditorium, the 1,200-seat house on Wayne Avenue that’s been empty for years. The crew also considers a $14.5 million tab to build a new garage on Montgomery College’s South Silver Spring side. The free show rocks the council’s office building (100 Maryland Ave, Rockville) and is open to the public.

2:00 p.m. The county council’s planning, housing and economic development committee chew the fat over three different housing bills. The first would allow developers to drop coin into the Housing Initiative Fund instead of constructing on-site, moderately priced homes. The second would establish prices for moderately priced homes, and allow developers to build or buy those homes at an alternative site. The last would increase building heights and densities to accommodate on-site workforce housing.

The discussion hits the council’s office building (100 Maryland Ave, Rockville) and is open to the public.

Tuesday

1:45 p.m. The county council runs through $49 million in recommended cuts to the current operating budget. The slicing and dicing takes place at the council’s office building (100 Maryland Ave, Rockville) and is open to the public.

2:45 p.m. The county council takes its last swing at a bill that would charge health insurance companies for ambulance services. This event takes place at the council’s office building (100 Maryland Ave, Rockville) and is open to the public.

Thursday

All day. The county observes Thanksgiving. Don’t expect county offices, courts or libraries to be open. Do expect mass-transit services to roll on holiday schedules. At least you can be thankful for free parking at county-owned garages and curbside meters.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Daveynin.

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Local Licks: Dead Violets

By Jennifer Deseo | Nov 22, 2008

Every once in a while, music as we know it steps out to stretch its legs, maybe light up a smoke, and simply exist. No beat, no meter, no three-chord rock — just a ringing in the ears after all the racket has been silenced.

That’s what experimental group Dead Violets manages to capture, a disquieting, eerie, industrial hum that’s beautiful in its simplicity. The self-proclaimed “drone-core juggernaut” pulls its sound from three daring artists who each bring a dark, almost primal vibe to the show.

Dead Violets

Dead Violets

Silver Spring vocalist Bethany Moore uses her poetry to explore human despair and emotion. In the single “Banish”, Moore slinks through a deliciously dark composition, wearing nothing but a digitized veil.

DC-based composer J. Surak spins that musical thread using “found objects” — answering-machine cassettes, busted CDs, acoustic instruments, and old record players rigged with foil. And Swede Thomas Ekelund performs a “sonic exorcism”, mashing sounds from his habitat with the last gasps of vinyl noise. (His words, not mine.)

Sample the single “Banish” from their record label’s site, or catch some instrumental buzzing on the group’s website. For the full dose, catch Dead Violets live Sunday at 7:00 p.m. at the Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center (8230 Georgia Ave). Five bucks gets you through the door.

Photos courtesy of Flickr user Intangible Arts.

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