FORESTGLEN

MORE BAD NEWS for Metro's Red Line: Ultrasonic testing overnight turned up another set of flaws on a different part of the heavily traveled corridor, a development that will continue the slowdowns riders have been experiencing throughout the week.

The flaws were detected in sections of track at the Forest Glen, Takoma and Fort Totten stations, Metro says. Those flawed sections of track come in addition to the imperfections discovered earlier in the week between the Medical Center and Friendship Heights stations.

The transit agency says that track workers will be installing new sections of rail while the system is closed — work that's expected to be completed overnight and into the weekend. Until it's finished, though, trains will operate at a reduced speed — 35 miles per hour instead of the usual 44 — in the spots where track flaws were found as a safety precaution. Those speed restrictions have been in place all week between Friendship Heights and Medical Center.

Metro's cautioning riders to be on the lookout for minor delays.

» "Rail Flaws Continue to Cause Minor Delays Today on Parts of the Red Line" [WMATA]

Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post

REMEMBER THE CASE OF THE DANGEROUS FOOT BRIDGE along Georgia Avenue at the Capital Beltway near the Forest Glen Metrorail station? Last winter, the new $7.7 million bridge — which snakes its way high above freeway on- and off-ramps and under I-495 — was the scene of a number of muggings and other attacks, sparking concerns over the safety of those who choose to use it. Montgomery County officials vowed to move quickly to make the pedestrian link a safe passage.

But as Silver Spring Penguin reports today, planned emergency call boxes won't be operational until November and the installation of security cameras has been delayed.

» "Security Measures on Forest Glen Footbridge Still in the Works" [Silver Spring Penguin]
» EARLIER: "On Georgia Ave., a Dangerous Bridge?" [Free Ride/Express]

Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post

IF YOU'VE DRIVEN past the Capital Beltway's interchange with Georgia Avenue in Montgomery County, you've likely noticed the newish $7.7 million pedestrian crossing that allows safe passage over various ramps and under the busy freeway, near the Forest Glen Metrorail station. Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington PostBut beware, the nice brickwork and old-style lamposts might be deceiving. The Post's Miranda S. Spivack reports:

[T]he section that runs for about one-tenth of a mile under the Beltway is dark, has places where a would-be mugger could lie in wait, and is so noisy from the traffic above that cries for help would be drowned out, police said.
The latest reported mugging was Jan. 11. Spivack writes that residents "have said they try to avoid the bridge, turning it into an expensive but little-used monument" in a neighborhood not accustomed to violent crime.

» "Instead of Safety, Md. Footbridge Brings Muggings" [WaPo]

Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post

Express contributor Lynn Thorne takes a look at how Silver Spring continues to be a big destination for young locals looking to settle down. This piece is part of this month's Condo Living section, which will hit newsstands Friday.

Photo by Holly Morris/ExpressSILVER SPRING, MD. isn't a planned community or a municipality. The unincorporated zone just across the border from the District doesn't even have a mayor or a single elected official. Silver Spring defies many definitions, but its lack of a label doesn't detract from one fact: This neighborhood is convenient and growing.

Just seven miles northeast of D.C., the Maryland neighborhood — named for a spring discovered by 19th-century journalist and politician Francis Preston Blair — is one of the region's fastest-growing business and residential centers. Its renaissance started in 1998, with a redevelopment agreement between Folger Pratt and Peterson Companies to revitalize and redesign the area. Discovery Communications' move to town in February 2003 helped jump-start the region's meteoric growth.

Area residents are pleased with the changes they've seen. Brian Haney, a 25-year-old banker for SunTrust, grew up in Silver Spring and has high praise for all the recent development. He recently bought a condo at the Silverton, a mod new complex carved out of a 20th-century Canada Dry bottling plant. "They've done a good job spreading things out and opening opportunities to new businesses," said Haney. "It was much maligned and run down just a few years ago, but now it's a thriving cultural melting pot."

Silver Spring's proximity to the nation's capital likely led to its surging Hispanic and African immigrant population. As a result, regional food is all the rage here. Take a walk down Ellsworth Drive and find everything from Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican and Jamaican cuisine to chain joints such as Chipotle, Red Lobster, Macaroni Grill and Eggspectations. There's plenty of fine dining to satisfy the populace's increasingly sophisticated palate, too.

Continue Reading "Hot 'Hood: Silver Spring" »

IT LOOKS LIKE the Birchmere music club on Alexandria's Mount Vernon Avenue is poised to open a second location in downtown Silver Spring's vacant J.C. Penny's building on Colesville Road. Photo courtesy Montgomery CountyThe county, the Birchmere and Lee Development Group are partners on the project, which will preserve the facade of the department store.

The county's executive, Doug Duncan, had a busy day Wednesday after returning to work following his withdrawal from the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in June due to depression. In addition to an Easter Seals event in Silver Spring, he also dedicated a new bridge that carries pedestrians and bikes along Georgia Avenue through its interchange with the Capital Beltway near the Forest Glen Metrorail station.
Photo courtesy Montgomery County
» "Birchmere May Branch Into Silver Spring" [WaPo]
» "Duncan Announces Plan to Bring Birchmere to Silver Spring; Second Music Hall to be located in historic J.C. Penney's Building" [Mont. Co.]
» "Back in Public, Duncan First Goes Back to School" [WaPo]
» "Duncan, Community Members to Celebrate Opening of New Forest Glen Pedestrian Bridge and [B]ikeway" [Mont. Co.]

Photo by Michael Grass/Express» CATHEDRAL HEIGHTS: As the National Mall fills with immigration rights protesters next Thursday, you can also expect some unrelated heightened levels of activity at the National Cathedral where former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami will be speaking as part of an American tour for the reformer, who was in power from 1997 to 2005. The D.C. trip, which will also include a visit to Georgetown University, is part of a larger tour including speaking engagements at the University of Virginia, University of Chicago and Harvard University, plus a conference at the United Nations.

In an article in yesterday's edition of The Post, Robin Wright reported on the larger diplomatic context to Khatami's trip, which includes an expected visit with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, a move being viewed as an attempt to defuse tensions between the White House and Tehran. (Good luck.) [Stratfor; WaPo]

» NAVY YARD: As JDLand noted last week, if you look at the South Capitol Street ballpark construction cam, you can see that, well, a stadium is starting to take shape. [Near S.E. D.C. Redevelopment/JDLand]

» PETWORTH/PARK VIEW: Two Metropolitan Police Department neighborhood surveillance cameras have gone up on Georgia Avenue near Morton Street NW and New Hampshire Avenue. It's part of a 12-camera roll out in crime hotspots citywide. [WT; MPD]

» FRIENDSHIP HEIGHTS: The Post's Marc Fisher talks about the phase-out of the Hecht's department store name, set to happen next week:

Still, the decision by Federated Stores to eliminate the name of Hecht's and convert most of those stores into Macy's — the one in Chevy Chase will become a Bloomingdale's, which is about as far from the idea of Hecht's as you can get and which represents a massive misreading of who actually lives near and shops in the Friendship Heights corridor — is just about the last big goodbye in a long series of losses of local retail names.
[Raw Fisher/WaPo]

» COURT HOUSE: Yes, Arlington County residents are a proud bunch and have a lot to like about their city-county hybrid. But we aren't quite sure what they're going to sell in the future Arlington County store, which will open in the renovated Court House plaza. Perhaps those iParks? Maybe autographed photos of county board member Jay Fisette at this year's Gay Games? Or maybe replicas of Katie Couric's Yorktown High School cheerleading outfit or classic shots from the Essential Katie Couric Photo Gallery?

Anyhow, you can vote for the name of the county's store: The Arlington County Store, Shop Arlington, The Arlington Way, The Arlington Zone or do a write-in (what about "The County Centre Store at Arlington Court House Plaza"? Catchy, eh?). [Arlington County]

Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post BACK IN APRIL at a public town hall meeting about the future of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library downtown, a college student and library volunteer by the name of John Muller, pictured on the left in the photo at left, spoke passionately about the decrepit state of the city's central library. At the end of his talk, he put in a little plug for an upcoming play— one that will be performed in the MLK library tonight — about one of this city's most interesting rides, the No. 70 bus, which runs up the spine of the city — 7th Street NW and Georgia Avenue. Since this blogger loves riding the bus, we're definitely planning on seeing Muller's play, which was co-produced with longtime bus buddy John McNeil, also pictured.
Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post
» "Cast of Real Characters Found Aboard 70 Bus" [WaPo]

» COLUMBIA HEIGHTS: There's nothing that can stir this city like a good debate on DCist involving access to grocery stores and gentrification. Some choice comments from this post about the debate over the citizens' campaign to bring a Whole Foods to Columbia Heights where a brand new Giant supermarket opened last year:

... The Giant, while better than the one it replaced across the street, has atrocious customer service. I'm convinced they put the slowest cashiers in the express lanes on purpose.

... There's no getting around the guilt of the gentrifying for being gentrifiers.

... I'm not yet unhappy enough with the Giant to walk ten minutes to the bus stop, wait ten minutes for the bus, ride the bus ten minutes to get to Whole Foods, then reverse the whole process again carrying Whole Foods "luxury" groceries on a bus full of people who work a lot harder than I do for less money, just because Whole Foods is a corporation I'd like to support that sells better food.

It's interesting, when you get down to it, to see what's really important to District residents. [DCist]

» MOUNT VERNON SQUARE: Sam Farmer likes to play spot the condo from his home base near Mount Vernon Square. The cranes are creeping further northward. [Life in Mount Vernon Square]

» WHEATON: A symbol of local business in Wheaton, Barry's Magic Shop, is facing the wrecking ball and Montgomery County's vision of a new and improved downtown Wheaton may not have room for the much-loved and rare store. [WaPo]

» FOREST GLEN: On July 31, Metro will be hosting a meeting to discuss how the transit agency should develop its property at the Forest Glen station on the Red Line. A number of concerned citizens active in pedestrian safety at the busy intersection of Georgia Avenue and Forest Glen Road are gearing up to push their idea for the crowded and busy area: a pedestrian tunnel under Georgia Avenue. [Crossing Georgia]

2006-05-16-forest_glen.jpgWE CAN'T SAY we've spent much time out at the Forest Glen station on the Red Line. It's the deepest station in the entire system and is only accessible by elevators. But if you travel to the surface, what will you see besides a commuter parking lot? If you go to our Metro Links navigation tool for Forest Glen, you'll find that in terms of restaurants, bars, clubs, etc., this section of Georgia Avenue in Montgomery County is sort of sparse. The nearest thing is York Castle Tropical Ice Cream, but that's about six-tenths of a mile south of the station.

But what does the Forest Glen have? (Not a forest and not a glen, from what we can tell.) The Post's Steven Ginsberg, in his new Get There blog, tells us that in terms of Montgomery County's worst-clogged intersections, Forest Glen Road and Georgia Avenue, is the county's biggest offender. From the Google Map seen here, you can make a few assumptions why it's bad. We're guessing the intersection's proximity to Georgia Avenue's interchange with the Capital Beltway is at least partly to blame.

So for those adventuresome souls out there who are curious about the mystery and mystique of the Forest Glen station, just know that when you get to the surface, you're likely to just see cars and unhappy faces.
» "Most Congested Intersections in MoCo" [Get There/WaPo]
» Forest Glen station [Schumin Web Transit Center]

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