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Checked out Joe’s Record Paradise on Georgia Avenue this morning. Very impressive, but it’s what I expected. Great, eclectic selection of vinyl, CDs, cassettes - the works. Even some inexpensive (and functional) turntables, posters, tchotchkes, and books.

One of my favorite things is the shrine. Not sure about the story behind it, though, and I was in a hurry so I didn’t get a chance to ask. One thing I did thumb through, though, was the selection of 45s. I have a soft spot in my heart for these, growing up with a nice little collection myself. They have some good stuff here.

This actually got me looking through my own collection, which I think I might start cataloging. I regret to admit that it includes things like “Urban Chipmunk” and “Pac-Man Fever,” among all the Rush, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Joe!

I think the headline in today’s Gazette “Residents embrace new hotel project in Silver Spring” might be a bit of a generalization, but I think it’s a job well done. Dr. Glee and his peeps were at the ESSCA meeting on Monday (review live tweets from the meeting here), and it’s a sound project with lots of community input. And by input, I mean people from the community working with the developer, owner, and architect to come up with a good, solid plan. This could be a good model going forward for future development.

Formerly the Moda Vista, the project, now dubbed Silver Spring Park and set at the southeast corner of Fenton and Silver Spring, will include 58 residential units in a 45′ structure, office space, ground floor retail, and a hotel (Fairfield Inn by Marriott) that maxes out the 60′ height set by the zoning amendments adopted in 2008 by the Montgomery County Council.

Of course, we’ll lose a couple of older homes on the block, and people are decrying both that and the general change in the neighborhood (echoed by one ESSCA non-member: “Inch by inch, house by house, these people are eroding, taking away our neighborhood.” Whatever.), but it looks like the plan will go forward and break ground in spring 2011.

Capital City Cheesecake coming to Takoma Park
I saw one of these Capital City Cheesecake vans driving down Georgia the other day and immediately got hungry. The next day, I got this press release:

Currently operating out of Colonel Brook’s Tavern and online, Capital City Cheesecake is moving into the old Savory space on Carroll Avenue. Anticipated opening date is on or around end of Spring/early Summer. Open kitchen, classes, children’s parties, weekend brunch, vegan and gluten-free options, Capital City Cheesecake has a bit of deliciousness for everyone!

Of *course* they would have vegan and gluten-free options. It’s Takoma Park. I hope they do better than Savory did. I never went there, mainly because I can’t pass up a trip to Mark’s Kitchen whenever I go to Takoma Park.

Your Silver Spring Photo of the Day

I can’t wait for Hook & Ladder to open.

On a different note: Did anyone go to the Fillmore meeting last night? Reports? I was unable to attend.

Two important things to note about the meeting next week: (1) Jackie’s will be providing food. and (2) ESSCA’s “Historical Research Committee” will be presenting their findings and discussing the “possible designation of East Silver Spring as a Historic District.” I’ve already made my feelings known about the whole historic designation of East Silver Spring. There is no vote scheduled to continue down this path, but who knows what will happen at the monthly Vaudeville Show. Show up and enjoy the infighting.

Also, Dr. Ulysses R. Glee, the owner of the land at the southeast corner of Silver Spring & Fenton (where our venerable Fenton Street Market holds courts during the season), will also be speaking about plans for the property there.

As always, live tweets of the meeting will go down via @essca.

The Fillmore Rears its Head
A pre-submission meeting for the project plan will be held on Tuesday, February 23, at the 1st floor atrium of the Lee Building at 8601 Colesville Road. After someone actually invoked the Fillmore at the last ESSCA meeting when we were talking about the First Baptist Church Development, these should get more and more interesting.

On a different note, as much as I am pro-music venue, I feel like a deal with the devil might have been made in terms of approval on future Lee Development Group projects for the adjoining land. More on that to come.

Blog versus Listserv
There have been requests on the ESSCA listserv for a place to take some some of the email discussions off-line to a more proper forum. Specifically, they want a blog set up and managed. I can’t help but wonder: If I took them up on it would they actually agree? I could have a field day with this one.

I already have some plans for another community site, and I’m trying to maintain more regular posts here, so I’m not sure I could even add that to the workload. Ideally, I’d be old and cranky and (semi-)retired in order to have enough time for that. But at that point I could buy some white pants, pull them up to my chest, and run for a post on the ESSCA board.

…have the neighbor’s nephew do it. When all the attention turned to primary roads, JD’s nephew came to town with his snow plow to make a little extra money. When there was nothing going on, he took care of our block of Thayer. They even helped shovel out driveways. Awesome.

Suck it, Bonifant!

Also, I am shocked at the number of people that got out and drove in this. If you went out and got stuck like some of these people, I have one word for you: schadenfreude.

Tom Sietsema, the esteemed Washington Post food critic (whose job I so envy) reports via Twitter that Frank Morales has left Jackie’s Restaurant already. Tom’s tweet (in 140 characters or less):

Every critic’s nightmare: Chef leaves before review runs. In other words, Frank Morales is gone from Jackie’s (& I have no column for 2/28).

After, what, a couple of months? This can’t be good. Stay tuned for the backstory.

In other news…
This photo from the Paul Sarbanes Transit Center Project was sent in by that hackjob reader Bonifant More Sinister Than Thayer:

While I knew this was happening, seeing a sign like this is 10,000 kinds of awesome. We must get good video of the blasting action to post.

Gird your loins, folks. If you’re to believe the forecasts, we’re in for 20″ of snow. Make sure you have enough milk, bread, and toilet paper IMMEDIATELY. Now onto the show…

First Baptist Church Development
Here are a couple of the high-resolution renderings direct from the source:

Renderings courtesy of Torti Gallas and Partners

One shows a view from the opposite corner of Wayne & Fenton (already seen plenty of places). The other shows the view from a point south of Bonifant near Easley & Fenton. You can see this is the 6-story section (due to the gradation of Fenton) that allows for parking garage access and loading dock door.

Pretty classy, you say? I agree. But, of course, the historical people say it would be too much of a loss:

“The retention of the two historic Silver Spring Baptist Church structures ‘bookended’ with the planned Silver Spring Library directly across Fenton Street would serve as recognizable and symbolic American icons that uniquely provide a gateway into Fenton Village.  To lose the prominence and visibility of these important buildings to probably another Starbucks would be a sad commentary on the continued apathy shown by this community to preserving and celebrating its heritage.”

First of all, losing these classy structures *is* a loss. But there will be almost no way around it, and I prefer to have the density in the CBD anyway. Bottom line is First Baptist Church no longer wants the church it’s in. It needs a lot of work, and if the work starts, a lot of additional investment has to be spent to bring it up to code and ADA compliance. So there are some options:

• Option 1: Continue with this development.
• Option 2: First Baptist Church finds someone with millions to spare - and give - to the church to do all the remodeling necessary.
• Option 3: First Baptist Church abandons the entire space, sells the land to whoever will buy it, and the churches still inevitably get torn down for some other type of development.

Take your pick. Option 2 just ain’t gonna happen. Option 3 is a worst-case scenario. Even without those caveats, Option 1 looks pretty damn good.

In other news…
Silver Spring is working with the MDoT’s State Highway Administration to make particular intersections more pedestrian friendly, citing the unfortunate fatalities in November at 16th & Colesville and last month on Georgia between Forest Glen and Dennis. I hope that one of the solutions is jail time for blatant jaywalkers. You know who I’m talking about. The idiots who cross Georgia at Colesville or Ellsworth at Fenton with a blatant disregard for traffic and common civility. I will weep for none of them as they lie bleeding in the street.

Finally: Dog Shit
Yup. I haven’t seen this much single-subject traffic on the listserv since, well, someone throwing Gatorade bottles full of urine over someone else’s fence. Bottom line is some people are afraid of dogs. Others are afraid of stepping in dog shit. Still others think the leash laws should be rewritten one way or another. I’ll compile the best comments in another post soon, as things have gotten kinda heated at times. Also because I know how much the list moderators love it when I publish their “private” conversations only meant for our neighborhood. Priceless, some of them.

Wikipedia defines “smart growth” thusly:

Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in the center of a city to avoid urban sprawl; and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a range of housing choices.

I’ll emphasize the terms “center of a city” and “transit-oriented” for our purposes tonight as the East Silver Spring Civic Association discusses the impact of a proposed redevelopment of the First Baptist Church lot on the east side of Fenton between Wayne and Bonifant. Plans would include tearing down the church and adjacent buildings (but watch out! there may be HISTORY there!), building a multi-level (5 or 6 stories?) residential development with ground-floor retail. The church would then presumably build a smaller facility on the east side of the parcel.

As per my earlier emphasis, this would put density in the — wait for it — center of the city with good transit options available. No doubt, plenty of people will be opposed. I, for one, am not. Sure there are traffic issues to be worked out, but when talking about density in the Central Business District (CBD), this is *exactly* the kind of development smart growth reflects.

It’s very nice of them to get community input and reaction, but as the church owns the property, my guess is they can do whatever the hell they want to, as long as the County issues the proper permits.

The ESSCA meeting begins tonight at 7:30 at the Sligo Recreation Center at the corner of Sligo & Piney Branch. Be there, or follow the live tweets courtesy of @essca on Twitter.

News of Joe’s Record Paradise’s pending arrival carried a fair amount of buzz. I was walking around Silver Spring taking some photos the other day and they now have the sign up with paper over the windows. (Attention sign makers: CDs and DVDs are NOT contractions or possessives. Please lose the apostrophes.) The Rockville store closed last Sunday, and their web site says the Georgia Avenue location will be open in February. (Note awesome phone number: 301-JUKEBOX)

I managed to catch a glimpse between the window coverings, and this place is big. Bigger than I had anticipated, at least. The back room (yes, it’s currently pink) looks like it could hold a small band and its associated crowd.

Is their inventory going to fill up this space? Could it be multipurpose? And if so, for what? It’s a small space in front, but the back room is enormous. Curious…

Bagelgate?
According to Washington City Paper, it appears there is some testiness within the extended Goldberg New York Bagels empire. (via @SSSingular)

Finally…
This man was preaching the word and calling for donations for Haiti Disaster Relief. PA system and all. Right here in Silver Spring. Yes, I’ve donated, and I hope the infrastructure down there gets the support it needs to deliver the necessities. And with that, we have the long-awaited link between a mention of Haiti relief and a Silver Spring blog, meaning that *someone* can step away from the keyboard.

Attention people of Earth: Speed bumps are there for a reason. And it’s not to pull a Dukes of Hazzard move.

Half of the 700 block of Thayer was flanked by police vehicles last night when, just after 6:00, someone (according to eyewitnesses) decided to test the limits of the traffic calming devices. Luckily, the driver walked away with minor injuries. Not sure if the other car helped cause the flippage or if it was just a casualty of war, but let this be a lesson: Slow the hell down, people. There are no less than 12 kids living within four houses of this mayhem. Assuming speed did cause this, I have absolutely NO sympathy for the driver.

Thanks to D Stegmeier for the photos.