ThayerAvenue.com

You may recall back in the spring of 2008, we had a guest post from our resident Census Geek about demographics on Thayer Avenue and the surrounding area. Very interesting information, and considering all the changes that have taken place in the ‘hood since the last head count, I’m already looking forward to the information garnered from 2010.

Here’s the thing: You have to fill out the form and send it in. I know it takes a few minutes. I know you’re busy. Consider this a public service announcement. Filling out the form and sending it in has a direct impact on your local, state, and national representation, money allocated to your area, and services provided. There is NO downside. You will not get slapped by the IRS. You will not get deported. You will not have the U.S. Marshalls show up at your door (unless you’ve done something else to deserve any of that).

Also, there will be people from the Census Bureau canvassing the neighborhood over the next few months. Please treat them with respect. We’re lucky that the census comes at a time when people need jobs, and this is putting a small dent in a big crash, putting food on lots of tables for people who would experience otherwise. If a census taker tries to test you, I recommend you *not* cut out his or her liver and eat it with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. It would be bad form. And it’s been done before.

About that Letter…
A lot of other people have gotten that anti-big-box-store-Germantown-Citizens-for-Smart-Growth letter I highlighted this past weekend. It even reared its ugly head at this week’s ESSCA meeting. The origin is still a mystery, but I heard an interesting theory. Just imagine that one of the most revered grocery stores in the Northeastern United States (and in Northern Virginia and NOT Montgomery County) was to get all the necessary approvals to break ground on a flagship grocery store. And let’s just say the grocery store happened to be, oh, I don’t know Wegmans.

Now… say you’re a big grocery store chain like Giant or Safeway who is about to get trounced by the great and powerful Wegmans in your market. What do you do? I think maybe you send out letters addressed to “[Insert Name] or Current Resident” – just like you do with the grocery store flyers. Make sense? Giant or Safeway? Want to come forward and claim responsibility for a bogus, failed campaign against Wegmans? It was already too late for that anyway, which makes me wonder if that theory is true. The store will be built, from what I understand, regardless. We’ll see what comes of it.

About the ESSCA Meeting
Better than anticipated. Though when Bob Colvin started talking about gangs in the area, he reminded me of former Senator Ted Sevens (R-AK) talking about the internet. Lots of talk about the Days Inn and Travelodge on Georgia Avenue and the attempt to subdue crime there, but it was rudely interrupted by some bonehead talking about sentencing disparities (valid) and pharmaceutical commercials (not valid and unrelated) and the Juarez Drug Cartel (idiotic and unrelated) and drug commercial disclaimers (a waste of *everyone’s* time and unrelated). I’m reminded of last month’s meeting where someone said, “Hearing you speak for the sake of talking is wasting my time.” Amen. Just a couple of meetings left until elections…

D’OH! A deer!
Beautiful day at Sligo Creek Golf Course yesterday. A big family of deer was foraging on the left side of #9. Your Silver Spring Photo of the Day:

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.

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.

The excitement is almost palpable, don’t you think? I’m just waiting for one more package to arrive, and the costume will be complete. The response so far seems to be tremendous. The Facebook event page alone has at least 183 confirmed attendees and 214 “maybe” responses. And the slew of recent press mentions is impressive. Here is just a sampling…

• Washingtonian
• DCist
• Gazette
• Boston Globe
• NBC Washington

How we got on the Boston Globe site, I have no idea. I’ve also posted the official press release. Add the various local blogs, the Twitter account, and Zombie Walk site, and the word is definitely out. Because of the sheer number of people, be ready to split up before the event between the Quarry House, Olazzo, Piratz Tavern, and various other locales. Or just show up for the start of the walk about 9:30 or so. More on that soon, I hope.

And because of the turnout, don’t forget to get your Shaun of the Dead tickets ahead of time. And make sure you check out the Flickr pool for ideas and what to expect after last year’s shin dig.

And in ESSCA News…
The monthly meeting was last night, and I can no longer say ESSCA never gave me anything.

Real, actual ESSCA swag! And lucky for me, someone brought up the PREZCO issue while I was in the room. Nothing glamorous, really. Just the fact that they don’t necessarily represent all the various groups properly, which comes as no surprise to most of the civic groups in the area. And, of course, I actually got called out in the conversation. Score one for the hack neighborhood blogger!

As mentioned back in May, the Cleveland Park Citizen’s Association started dealing with a full-fledged revolt when the board, knowing it was about to be ousted by a large group of members that disagreed with them, shut down elections. Very Soviet of them, as reinforced by Mark Fisher’s post, “The Iron Fist of Cleveland Park’s Politburo.”

Well, the power shift has finally taken place. According to DCist, the UNITY Slate, led by John Chelen, claimed victory and revitalized the civic group. How that fares from here on out, we’ll see. George Idelson, the incumbent who decided not to run for re-election, passed his torch to Jeff Davis. Probably because he was humiliated by the local press for running the organization like the Nomenklatura.

If you’re wondering what this has to do with Silver Spring, I have one word for you: ESSCA. Time to explore a new slate of candidates for the ESSCA elections. And we have to come up with a better name than the UNITY Slate.

Ideas?

Well, this season’s first meeting of the East Silver Spring Citizens Association was uneventful. Some good information, though. The coordinator of the Fenton Street Market thanked everyone for all their work to put on the first of two events, and reminded everyone that the next market will be Saturday, October 3. Just in time to feed into the South Silver Spring Block Party. Really looking forward to the latter. Hope you all come out. LT Paul Liquorie from the Montgomery County Police Department also spoke at length about crime and safety in our area. A good question-and-answer session, and LT Liquorie did a great job of fielding all the gripes/questions, giving contact names and numbers for issues, and giving good safety tips.

I had to leave just before 9:00, as the meeting was supposed to end at 8:30, so I didn’t hear any talk about why ESSCA quit the Presidents Council of Silver Spring Civic Associations (PREZCO). I assumed they were waiting until I was gone, as I saw someone actually watching out the window until I drove off. As I understand it, ESSCA wanted to try to dictate policy through PREZCO while PREZCO simply wanted to give a “yea” or “nay” vote to Montgomery County propositions. Sounds like an “if-we-can’t-make-up-the-rules-we’re-taking-our-ball-and-going-home” situation, but I would expect nothing less.

If anyone has insight into the explanation given at the meeting, send me a note. I still don’t know why no one would say anything out in public on the listserv. The meetings are public. Anyone can attend. What’s the issue? Are they upset because some hack-job blogger outed them? Did they think their resignation from PREZCO would go unnoticed? I brought it out and people started asking questions. Deal with it, people. Or find something else to do with your golden years.

Unfortunately, I had to leave as Mel Tull from the Silver Spring Regional Center was taking the floor, but I could tell the conversation was about to drag on for a while longer. Bailing because inevitable and necessary. But in other big ESSCA news, you may have remembered a post earlier this year where I made fun of the lame membership cards given out at the meetings. I’d like to think my ridicule did something, as this year brings us snazzy new membership cards. Very impressive, if I do say so myself, especially considering where we came from.

Thus begins another season of ESSCA – not with a bang, but a whimper. I’m looking forward to the meeting where we discuss historic preservation in East Silver Spring. Hope you’ll join me.

Looks like my publicizing of ESSCA quitting PREZCO caused a lot of questions to be asked (and not answered) on the listserv. After quoting this post, they asked why the action actually took place. After this non-answer…

The ESSCA Board did withdraw from Prezco.  The Board decided that it was not advantageous for ESSCA to remain a member.  We continue to cooperate and work with our neighboring civics and the Civic Federation.

…we got this:

[P]lease remember we have an open listserv that includes many people who are not in this community, as well as politicians and press.  There is no big drama, but it is important and not unusual for ESSCA and all the Civics that we work with to be discreet when discussing issues in such a public forum. We will discuss this in person, but don’t think the listserv is an appropriate forum for this discussion.  This was not an impulsive decision and does not lend itself to sound bites or one line answers.

Fortunately we have community blogs in which we can banter these things about. Perhaps they felt like PREZCO was not properly representing its members. Funny – I sometimes feel the same way about ESSCA.

And don’t forget the first ESSCA meeting of the season is on September 21 at 7:30 at the Sligo Recreation Center.

In other news…

More Chances to Save Sligo Creek
The Keep Sligo Open Charity Golf Event will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, September 9 with a shotgun start at 4:00pm. There is also a golf event the following day preceded by a joint press conference with Sligo Creek Golf Association, the Salute Military Golf Association and County Councilmember Valerie Ervin (District 5). The press conference will be followed by the “opening tee-off of the Sligo Creek Golf Association’s inaugural charity golf-outing fundraiser, featuring a foursome comprised of wounded heroes of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan who also happen to be frequent users of Sligo Creek Golf Course.”

I managed to get out and play Hampshire Greens this weekend for the first time – another MoCo course – and was quickly reminded of how easy the Sligo Creek course is. Yeesh.

Dog Days of Summer
Living Ruff and Downtown Silver Spring will be putting on the 2nd Annual Dog Days of Downtown Silver Spring, a “Fun Family & Pet Event.” Featured guests include NBC4′s Wendy Rieger and Mary Alice Yeskey from Food Network’s Ace of Cakes. Put those together, and we can hope for news footage of everyone (me included) eating fancy free cake.

I knew you all couldn’t wait until the next meeting in September. Luckily, in the midst of a SLOW news cycle on the East Silver Spring listserv, we get something from another listserv entirely.

Prezco is an organization that’s put together a lot of events and such, but people seem to feel it’s very mysterious. I assumed it was just what the group page says it is: “Membership for Presidents and related officers of civic associations surrounding downtown Silver Spring, Md.” That’s pretty simple and straightforward, yes? A group of community leaders getting together for communication, coordination and the like. Well, make that one or two fewer community leaders. This just in:

August 25, 2009

The Board of Directors of East Silver Spring Citizen’s Association (ESSCA) wishes to notify you that we are withdrawing from our membership in Prezco.  Please remove ESSCA’s name from all correspondence and documentation associated with Prezco.

We would appreciate an acknowledgement of receipt of this email.

Thank you,
[insert name here]

That sounds like an FU if I ever heard one. I personally have nothing against Prezco, but I am *awfully* curious to know what precipitated this “take my ball and going home” stance. Stay tuned for details.

There’s a revolution going on! Alert reader Mike sent in a link to Marc Fisher’s Wednesday column that I totally missed. And after likening ESSCA to the Soviet Nomenklatura on this blog, here’s the headline: (wait for it… wait for it…)

The Iron Fist Of Cleveland Park’s Politburo

Are you kidding me? This is AWESOME! The entire board is threatened with replacement, and they enact an emergency to postpone the elections? I really didn’t want to run for an ESSCA leadership position anymore, but I think now I do. This would be beautiful. And I could see ESSCA doing the exact same thing.

The last paragraph of Marc’s column simply says this:

This one’s far from over, but when the NIMBYs start waging their battles through Soviet means, it can’t be long before the forces of progress prevail.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Well, folks, the last ESSCA meeting was a snoozer. Except, of course for the great new people I met (you know who you are), and the fact that the entire board was re-elected in the span of 20 seconds. They called for any additional nominations (which never came), and then counted the ‘yeas’ and ‘nays’. They failed, of course, to call for abstentions, which I was going to be a part of. What the hell kind of organization are they running? Oh, yeah… I forgot. A crackerjack one. Can anyone score me a copy of the by-laws? As a member in good standing (READ: I paid my $10), I think I deserve to get a copy. As of late though, I seem to be out of the loop…

The “Grey” List
I can’t really call it a Black List, so we’ll settle for the warm, soft grey of a Counting Crows song to describe my listserv status. I seem to have angered the listserv gods, as I no longer receive any email from the ESSCA listserv. Perhaps they thought it would keep me from having material with which to poke fun at ESSCA.

Luckily, many of you alert readers continue to send me the emails (thank you), and we had some good, juicy exchanges last week. Observe one particular entertaining conversation and follow-up comments (names withheld to protect the psychotic):

Commenter #1: MCDOT was supposed to present plans to improve sidewalks and calm traffic on Sligo Avenue during last Monday’s ESSCA meeting. Because of a personal emergency, that did not happen… There will be no further public meetings concerning this project. MCDOT is ready to commence construction and wants to ensure that residents and users get a chance to ask questions and make comments. If you have questions or comments, please contact…

Commenter #2: While I am appreciative of your initiative on this project, you do not represent ESSCA (and are not even a member) and I would appreciate it if you would stop confusing the issue but making declarations about our presentations and guests and follow-up. THERE WILL BE ANOTHER PUBLIC PRESENTATION OF THE PROPOSED CHANGES TO SLIGO AVE, contrary to [NAME DELETED]‘s previous post.

Commenter #1: Thanks for the correction, [NAME DELETED]. I am just reporting what I was told earlier today. Not trying to make decisions or confuse the issue. You’re the decider. I would never want anyone to think that I represent ESSCA.

Commenter #2: How about canning the passive aggressive snarkiness? Your pretense at innocence is wearing thin.

Commenter #1: It is this kind of treatment – from an ESSCA Board member, no less – that is to blame for my proud non-membership in ESSCA.

Let me repeat that: “Proud non-membership in ESSCA.” In the words of a fallen governor, that’s bleepin’ golden! You just can’t make shit like that up. The more I talk to people, the more I find out how many people *really* don’t like ESSCA. And there’s a lot of you out there.

It’s a shame that we’ll be off for the summer. ESSCA provides such material for ridicule. And while I will continue to be a member of ESSCA, I have been presented with some alternatives that may provide more steam for a better agenda. More on that soon.

In the meantime, I’ll flash my snazzy, professional-looking ESSCA membership card for meeting admission. I’ll antagonize them to allow renters full voting and membership rights. I will ridicule them when they do stupid shit and praise them when they do good stuff. And I anticipate much more of the former, given recent history. As long as they continue to act like a Vaudeville side show, they leave me no choice.

Keep those emails coming!