Everybody Wants Something
Like it or not, it looks like the Fillmore deal has the votes to go through as the Montgomery County Council begins to examine the plan today, according to the Washington Post story, “Unrivaled Funding Deal Goes to Council.” I’m starting to feel the same way about this that I feel about the $700 billion federal bailout of the financial services industry: It sucks, and it might be necessary to get what we want (or need), but here we are.
We could use more public space (that we don’t have to pay to enter) than what we would get out of the deal, we’ll have to wait a while before we see additional surrounding development, Live Nation should be paying more rent (or eating the cost overruns), and then Live Nation gets the option to sell naming rights? What does this mean? That it’ll be the Bank of America Fillmore? The Lockheed Martin Music Hall? Will it stay a Fillmore for all time? I’m vexed at the prospects.
Silver Spring Mess-tro
Heading out yesterday afternoon to the (heartbreaking) Cowboys/Redskins game via metro, I was yelled at by people to move to the other side of the street because they were painting lines for the new sidewalk configuration around the fenced-off metro. I like Paul Sarbanes and all, but the next two years are going to be a shit storm of inconvenience because of his stupid transit center (as indicated by the map below).
God help us all.
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Stupid transit center? Why would you call it that? The land with the existing bus bays is pathetically inneficient and terrible use of urban space. The new transit center, while not of the architectural quality of Union Station, will be a vast improvement over what is there now. It also frees up land for additional develompment directly in the heart of downtown Silver Spring. The redevelopment of this area is already spurring the redevelopment of other rundown areas very closeby (i.e. Ripley District).
No pain, no gain.
No pain, no gain indeed. And I say stupid transit center simply for the pain involved. I agree that the finished product will be great, and once I get used to the new setup after a week or two of use, it’ll be old hat.
All things considered, two years will probably fly by, assuming that it really only takes two years.
Awwww, did the poww Cowboys wose?
Yep, we have to deal with the inconvenience for a while to get the transit center we need, but what frightens me — really — is that they’ll be in mid-construction when suddenly our national and local economies collapse and implode; then, we’ll be stuck with a partially demolished transit center languishing for funds along with all the other infrastructure in our nation.
Yes, my poor Cowboys lost. And because of the stupid fence around the stupid transit center, I was forced to walk along Colesville and Wayne in full Dallas gear, enduring endless torment. That’s okay, though: it’s better than dealing with moronically obnoxious Eagles fans (whom I will be rooting AGAINST this weekend), and I’ll be at the rematch at FedEx field watching a different ending from my club seats.
Your Jim Zorn will bleed.
Sligo brings up a good point. I’ve been thinking recently about what a long and deep recession would mean for downtown Silver Spring and I’m afraid that the area would go back to resembling the place that it was in the 1990s.
Donna Edwards, my member of Congress, was one of the 95 Democratic Representatives that voted against the bailout (or “Rescue Package” on Monday. I supported her in her campaign against Al Wynn but I’m going to call her office if the bill goes back up for a vote to urge her to vote “yes” the second time around. I don’t like the idea of bailing out the idiots on Wall Street any more than the next person, but I the thought of an economy where credit has dried up and businesses cannot get loans is truly scary and could especially impact a place like the silver spring CBD where a lot of small businesses are hanging on by a thread.
David
If you disagree with Congresswoman Edwards, send her an email or call now, not later. She said in a channel 7 interview that her constituents who called told her to vote against the package. Her website at http://www.house.gov has her explanation and press release.
Call the DC or Largo office, not Gaithersburg. That office is manned only one day a week ..otherwise leave a message.
I supported Donna Edwards, but in all the primary campaign fodder I think people forgot one thing: As much as her campaign railed against Al Wynn for some of the votes he made, efforts toward bipartisanship can be sorely underrated.
Wynn paid for those efforts with his seat in the House.
We will always be subject to the whims of a PG County candidate until they un-gerrymander the districts in Maryland.
Don’t waste your time with Donna Edwards. She was elected by “true Democrats” to be a “true Democrat” — never doing anything to support business (other than the home-grown, non-profit, not-part-of-the-war-machine variety) and to NEVER compromise with anybody who is not far to the left. We now have what “progressives” here have clamored for all these years. They have “taken back” this district from the far-right (that is, all the rest of us, even those who consider themselves moderately liberal). They hope to “take back our country,” meaning I guess that the rest of us need to get busy and hand it over….
Sad,but this community is “inclusive” only in certain ways — political “diversity” is not allowed.