ThayerAvenue.com

Wow. I never knew the effort to name the new civic building would cause such a brouhaha, but the listservs are abuzz with ideas and demands. Several people signed a petition to name the new building after Doug Duncan, which caused a backlash from several groups - among them my very own East Silver Spring Citizen’s Association. At the meeting a couple of weeks ago, the trashing of Duncan’s name was immediately followed by a vote on whether to name the building “Silver Spring Civic Center” or “Silver Spring Civic Building.” How creative.

I thought this would be a fine time to throw it out for further discussion and add my own two cents worth.

• The Armory Center (because nothing gets people in a tizzy more than talking about the destruction of the Silver Spring Armory)
• The Promenade Building (props to Silver Spring, Singular)
• The Turf Building (for obvious reasons)
• Emo Central (the cement and lack of green space is boud to attract skateboards, and people seem to refuse the youth a skate park at the south end of Fenton Village)
• That Place Next to Whole Foods
• The Concrete Jungle
• The Bill Thayer Building (our vote, of course)
• The Historic-in-50-Years Building
• NIMBY Palace
• The Fillmore (because God knows when we’ll get another one of those)
• The Norman Lane Shelter

Your turn.

As much as I bitch and moan about my neighborhood civic association, this past Monday was the first time I actually made it to one of ESSCA’s meetings. And what an eye opening experience it was.

First of all, everybody was very nice, even though I’ve trashed them from time to time. As a whole, they may not know who I am, but I know some of the people there, and they know the score. Kudos for them, and shame on me.

The most important intel I gathered from the whole experience was that it may not be necessary to take over the ESSCA leadership entirely. I certainly think that’s a viable option for 2010, but if the true neighborhood demographic was properly represented, we wouldn’t have as much of an issue. That brings me to my next point…

ESSCA leadership and attendance does not properly represent East Silver Spring and its demographics.

I’ve said this before, but I have to reinforce it now. How many young families are here? What’s the level of the minority population? We’ve addressed these questions before, but not in terms of neighborhood representation in ESSCA. I’d wager, other than children accompanying their parents, I was the youngest one there (and I’m a late-30s-type-of-person). The average age of the attendees had to be 60. Median was probably higher, with an estimated 90% caucasian attendance.

And according to the 2000 census in the Thayer Avenue area, 46% of our street is African-American and 32% is White, with 18% Latino and 7% Asian. Granted, that has to account for apartments (non-property owners) and an area that might be atypical of other ESSCA streets, but the numbers can’t be ignored. And that was NINE years ago.

Today, I’d wager those percentages might not have changed that much (though I could be wrong), but in terms of population age, I’ve seen it for myself. The people here are younger, more hip, more technically savvy, many with kids, and more importantly, they don’t seem to have time to govern themselves. This appears to be a perpetual Silver Spring problem. We decided that we’d let people from around the county help govern us, and that’s had its ups and downs. But that’s okay, and we can control our destiny.

Let me give you a small example of some of the issues…

I came into the cinder block building at Sligo Ave and Piney Branch to be met by a wonderful woman who took my name, address, and $10 dues. In return, I received this membership card (right). I know times are tight, but this sort of thing predates the library card I had in the mid-1970s. And it’s not about flair; it’s about credibility. It’s about the small things that help make you feel like you belong to something greater than the sum of its parts, or that you appear to have the clout behind you that you actually say you do. Whether you like it or not, there’s marketing involved, and I think that’s one place things have to change.

Marketing, hopefully, will affect turnout, and turnout can affect issues. If you’re in the ‘hood, are part of a young family (children or not, mind you - couples without kids are families too, you know), and care about the environment in which your family lives, then please get involved.

I think the current leadership and regular participants feed on the fact that so many people get frustrated with ESSCA’s processes or don’t have enough time for the effort that they’ll fall by the wayside. That’s usually how it’s happened, and I want to change that.

Check back here for more thoughts in the months to come. Also, I’ve managed to purchase the domain name www.eastsilverspring.org (essca.org was already taken, of course), and as soon as I get a Web site up, I’ll start posting information on issues that matter to the *real* constituency of East Silver Spring. Social media tools anticipated, and feedback expected.