Photo: It's a tight squeeze on the sidewalk outside the Quarry House Tavern. Photo: J. Deseo/SSP.
As the Purple Line light-rail project rolls forward, business owners along its route through Fenton Village worry it will wreck parking and pedestrian access for patrons.
At a focus-group meeting held last Monday night at ye olde library, Bonifant Street retailers and restaurateurs told state reps they wanted Purple Line tracks not to block automobile access on that road. That meant easy passage for drivers, decent parking for patrons, and enough wiggle room and access for delivery trucks, a few of them described.
Still, one business — the Quarry House Tavern at the corner of Bonifant and Georgia Avenue — might get the worst of it, state transit authority reps admitted at the meeting. The sidewalk outside its subterranean entrance might need narrowing to accommodate two lanes of light rail as it travels between the Silver Spring transit center and the new library, project manager Mike Madden explained.
That made tavern owner Jackie Greenbaum a little nervous, as the sidewalk there is already on the skinny side. Narrowing it further would create a tot-block scenario for hungry patrons, as well as make it tough to roll kegs off delivery trucks and into the bar, she indicated.
The Purple Line puts the bar in a peculiar pickle (and not a deep-fried one). To the west of Georgia Avenue, engineers hope to plop Purple Line tracks on the south side of Bonifant, leaving cars to cruise one way on the street’s north side. But at Bonifant’s intersection with Georgia, the tracks cross over to the street’s north side — right where the bar is (below).
Image: Purple Line tracks might cross over from Bonifant Street's south side to its north. Courtesy of Google Maps.
The tracks’ progression from south to north is a tough one to dodge, Jeff Kuttesch, a traffic engineer on the project, explained to The Penguin. The rail cars need enough turning room to enter and leave the transit center. That means rolling them on Bonifant’s south side, he spelled out.
But the light-rail line must be on Bonifant’s north side as it approaches Fenton Street so that it can pull into a station beneath the new library at Fenton and Wayne Avenue. Hence the funky flip, Kuttesch illustrated. The proposed crossover also would allow cars to park on Bonifant’s south side, he added.
So what’s a dive bar and state transit administration to do? Keep working on a solution that lets the Purple Line glide without blocking access to the Quarry House. Besides, the state has no intention (read: no money) to buy out a business in order to lay down some track, project manager Madden said.
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Boxed wines and rosés are back in vogue. Just ask The Penguin's sommeliers.
It’s a moot point, as the purple line will never actually be built. Nor will this supposed library.
If the sidewalk gets much narrower, they should just install a slide down to the door from Georgia Avenue? Leaving the Quarry House might be a wee bit Hotel California-ish, though.
Agree with Sligo. Once again, SS is bogging down in process — a word only a couple of letters removed from “progress,” but the former (in excess) is the enemy of the latter. And in SS, we have process in spades.
I hope that the county does not get involved like they did with Barry’s magic shop and throw money at Quarry house to have them move. Several hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money were wasted on relocating Barry’s magic shop.
Is the Quarry House ever open? Who would know from the entrance? I am surprised Jackie has done nothing to upgrade the look of the entrance to the place.
I am not a drinker. So on the one hand, I don’t worry that much about bars. However, if a business is going to be displaced, it had better be for a darn good reason. The Purple Line is not a good reason. It is nothing but a rezoning ruse. Any displacement/destruction for the trackbed and stations would be followed by more displacement/destruction for all the “transit-oriented development” that developers would propose. Even if much of it were never built, whatever is on the land now could be destroyed. Since these TOD zones are “floating zones,” they could also land in unexpected places.
Also, any Purple Line destruction at that intersection would also affect Kefa Cafe, whose entrance is a few feet away. That sun-filled coffee shop is an absolute jewel of Silver Spring.
It would be a real loss if the Quarry House were to close. SS has so few bars with any personality. Speaking strictly selfishly, I’d rather have the Quarry House than the Purple Line!
The Quarry House isn’t going to close. Sure, we will lose a few drunken cigarette smokers every year, but that will be the extent of the damage to the neighborhood.
I talked with the chairman of the subcommittee for the 8400 block of Georgia Avenue Focus Group (or 84 GAFG). They indicated that they should receive the preliminary Purple Line impact statement report from the 900 block of Bonifant Focus Group in late 2011 or early 2012. At that point they’d be ready to move forward on forming a response group which would move quickly in drafting an Alternative Routing Proposal (ARP) to the Library development group. In concert with them we should see some action on how to rework the entrance to the Quarry House no later than 2014. For all you doubters out there, I assure you that progress is being made. Please just be patient.
Oooh, they better not touch my KEFA!!!!!
If Steve is being serious I think that’s pretty frickin funny!!
Wait, what the hell is a “tot-block?”
Thanks for your comment, Steve. It’s a lot of heavy info, some of which I don’t understand, but I’m with you on this: The Quarry House and the state transit administration will work something out.
Also, while Bonifant Street is the likely route, the funky crossover from south to north isn’t a done deal. I think switching the tracks from one side of the street to the other is totally stupid. Hopefully, the transit authority can ditch that idea entirely.
In response to M’s question, tot blockage refers to one’s inability to obtain Quarry House tater tots due to physical or psychological obstruction.
On the face of it, having the Purple Line change sides on Bonifant Street from south side to north side at Georgia Ave. looks funky, but when you look at the intersection closely it starts to make a lot of sense.
Bonifant is staggered slightly at the intersection. The east side and west side do not line up at Georgia Ave., so if the Purple Line goes straight across Georgia Ave. with no curve in the track it will naturally change from south side to north side.
Cars cannot cross Georgia Avenue on Bonifant now, and will not be able to after the Purple Line is built. So there is no issue with the Purple Line crossing over Bonifant Street traffic lanes where it switches sides.
The devil is always in the details and MTA has a lot of work to do here to show it can accommodate the Quarry House, but changing sides at the Georgia Ave. intersection is not a “totally stupid” idea.
Thanks for your input, Wayne.
Okay, so the crossover isn’t “totally” stupid. But at the focus-group meeting detailed in the article above, traffic engineer Jeff Kuttesch said automobile traffic would be allowed to roll on Bonifant Street through its intersection with Georgia Avenue, something it doesn’t do now.
That means cars must make the crossover too, from driving along the north side of Bonifant to its south side, over the Purple Line tracks. Are we in England, where one drives on the left, or are we in America, where one drives on the right? I guess that depends on which end of Bonifant Street one drives.
I’m being facetious, and it really makes no difference to me as long as they build the damn Purple Line. But I’m just sayin’.
The Quarry House would probably benefit quite a bit from being on the Purple line, won’t it? I know it would turn a 25-minute walk into about a 5-minute ride there for me. So if they can figure out how to manuever the track situation, I’d expect the tavern would see a substantial net benefit.
Jennifer:
I was at the focus group meeting too, and I clearly heard MTA say that traffic would NOT be permitted to roll across Georgia Avenue in the future, just as they are not allowed to do today. But then, my wife has been telling me it’s time to get a hearing aid!
But then again, since Bonifant will be only one way on the west side of Georgia Avenue, we know that at least some crossing movements will not be possible because of the restrictions from the one-way traffic.
Wayne
Editor’s note: I’ll try to get in touch with the MTA to clarify whether automobile traffic will roll through that intersection. — JD (Nov 10, 2009)
Hey! Jennifer didn’t thank me for suggesting a slide down to the Quarry House. My feelings are terribly hurt.
Editor’s note: I appreciate your comments, as well as those of others. Now get off my back! — JD (Nov 10, 2009)
Slide or no, my husband seems to have a pretty tough time exiting the QH some nights…
Oh, and upgrades to the QH entrance would totally negate the dive-bar atmosphere. In fact, I think they recently replaced the panels facing the street to enhance that “lived-in” look!
Truth be told, I’ve walked up those Quarry House stairs a bit tipsy myself. I’m imagining doing that and suddenly having a trolley or train roll in front of me. Might be disconcerting.
Please move Quarry House to my basement. Yer all invited…
State & county officials are up-front about the Purple Line’s purpose — economic redevelopment. Since we don’t have abandoned factories & shuttered shopping malls around here, that means bulldozing existing occupied buildings. That was scary enough before 2005. Then the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Kelo case that municipalities can use eminent domain for economic development — in other words, they can take land in an effort to pump their tax base. I expect efforts to rezone Long Branch & Langley Park for luxury housing, and maybe a token office building here & there.
The movement to declare the Quarry House a historic monument starts now.
Perry T, we do not want upgrade to Quarry House. That is part of the charm – the dumpiness. We must save one of the few remaining “local joints” in the area. No more chain bars!
Will someone just shut up and build the damn thing?