Maryland
updated
9:06 a.m.
Our friends at Westfield Wheaton Wheaton Plaza sent us this video of a "flash mob" promoting the latest sales and promotions at the mall, set to the immortal classic "Footloose." Westfield worked with the choral department at "Potomac, MD's Church Hill High School," writes marketing director Sidney Woods. After watching the video, I have three questions: 1) Have these kids ever se...
Just Up The Pike - 7:04 a.m.
I often take photos with my iPhone, but they never manage to make it to my computer. Here's some photos I've taken over the past few months: A rendering (ca. 2002) of Arts Alley, one of a series of recently-completed alleys in South Silver Spring that doesn't look as busy in real life . Drawing of a proposed building in downtown Silver Spring from the 1980's. I'm not sure where thi...
Just Up The Pike - Wed 6:45 a.m.
- Big Acorn is a new website proclaiming to be the "seeds of democracy in Silver Spring," with blogs and forums where residents can discuss the latest issues of the day. Not surprisingly, skateboarding is one of them. Event producer Eric Cathcart submits this entry in support of lifting the skating ban in Veterans Plaza. - You know how I feel about it , but reader/Towson University ...
Just Up The Pike - Mon 7:43 a.m. - 2 clicks 
Tomorrow, I'll have lived in West Philadelphia for two weeks. While there are occasional moments of serious homesickness - like when I try to use the subway - I am often overwhelmed with how lovely and charming my new home is. It is almost enough to make me say "Silver what?" Almost. How do I love you, West Philadelphia? Let me count the ways: All streets look like this here. All of the...
Just Up The Pike - Fri 6:48 a.m.
Though I've been away from the area for over a week now, I still have a number of items of interest floating around the JUTP inbox. Here's a look at what's happening around East County: - Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you know that new online news venture TBD.com is up and running. I've been absolutely blown away by the quality and the breadth of the si...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 25 - 3 clicks
My desk is assembled, our cable's on and finally, I've been able to get back on the blog again. Given that I now live three hours from the place where I spent the first twenty-two years of my life, it seems appropriate to take Just Up The Pike in a new direction. There'll still be generous helpings of Silver Spring, but with a side of something new. In this world, there are cool places an...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 23 - 2 clicks
Urban spaces thrive on spontaneity. We might want to impose rules on a park or plaza to make it seem safer or more pristine, but excessive regulations could kill the vibrancy that people go there for. Sometimes, we have to let people police themselves. Veterans Plaza in downtown Silver Spring. Millions of dollars of public and private funding have gone into downtown Silver Spring over th...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 13
Okay, good. Now: "I can't believe how much ink (or bits and bytes, as it were) has been expended on Silver Spring skateboarders lately. I guess August is just a really slow month." Silver Spring, Singular Just because you don't care about something doesn't mean that it's not important. I imagine it's hard for Sligo to sit behind a keyboard and launch snark attacks, but it's harder still to...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 13
Hey everyone! Well, I can’t believe it’s finally here--the last day of my summer internship. The summer went by way too quickly! When I first applied for this internship in April, I didn’t really know what to expect, since I’d never had an internship before. What would it be like working in an office for the first time in the middle of the 2010 election season? ...
Young Democrats of Maryland - Aug 12
After a meeting last month with neighbors and Reemberto Rodriguez, director of the Silver Spring Regional Services Center, local skaters were asked to write a letter detailing their concerns about the new Woodside skate spot and the need for more places to skate in the area. Instead, they produced this video , featuring interviews with local skaters. While the county hasn't done...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 11
With just a few days until I move away, I've been trying to do things and go places I haven't been before. On Saturday, I learned that some stones are better left unturned. One of them is Cellphone Repair Solution, located on Colesville Road at University Boulevard in Four Corners. Colesville Road in Four Corners has to do double duty. It's a state highway that passes through a neighborhood...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 9
- The Post profiles Woodside Park , the neighborhood bounded by Georgia Avenue, Colesville Road and Sligo Creek Park, and includes quotes from local folks - many of whom have appeared in the pages of this blog, including Jennifer Pasenelli and historian Bob Oshel , whose starkly modern house appears in the article. (Bob, if you're ever looking for someone to it off your hands, look no fu...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 9
It was great seeing everyone at my going-away happy hour last night. I wish you all well and, judging from the success of this one, I might consider having JUTP "reunions" in the near future, ha ha ha. Thanks so much for supporting me over the past four years. That said, here's a look at what's happening in East County: The InterCounty Connector will open west of Georgia Avenue la...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 6
Tonight. Jackie's Sidebar . 6pm. 8081 Georgia Avenue (at Sligo) . Come to say hi, have a drink, and say goodbye. I'll see you then! ...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 5
In February 2008, El Pollo Rico burned down , taking half a block of downtown Wheaton with it. Over two years later, the site - at Ennalls Avenue and Veirs Mill Road - is filled once again. But the new shopping center, called Triangle Park, may not an improvement on what was there before. Left: the shopping center after the fire in 2008. Right: Triangle Park today. ...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 5
Several new improvements have just been completed at Woodside Park, including new playgrounds and a skate spot. It's just the first phase of a planned, much larger renovation of the park, located at Georgia Avenue and Spring Street outside downtown Silver Spring. Of course, the star of the show is the new skate spot. Even though it opened several months behind schedule, it must be a rec...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 4
- You won't be riding Metro over Labor Day weekend, as they're shutting down the entire Red Line in East County for maintenance and rehabiliation, reports DCist . The Glenmont, Wheaton, Forest Glen, Silver Spring and Takoma stations will all be closed from 10pm on Friday, September 3 until Tuesday morning. Metro will run shuttles between Fort Totten and Glenmont, but you might be better ...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 4
U-Md. journalism students Karen Carmichael and Jamie McIntyre try to explain why Takoma Park has so many locally-owned businesses in this ten-minute video , posted to YouTube late last month. In the beginning, it sounds like another screed against commercialism. Carmichael calls a CVS in Takoma, D.C. a "chunk of suburbiana " (doesn't she know that making up words is only for English m...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 3 - 2 clicks
Remarks by Mayor James Ireton, Jr. Salisbury Safe Streets Legislative Initiatives August 2, 2010 Good afternoon: I’d like to welcome our department heads, neighborhood leaders, law enforcement officials, and the citizens of Salisbury to the kick-off event for Salisbury Safe Streets Week. When I ran for the office of mayor in 2009, I made making this...
Duck Around - Aug 2 - 2 clicks
- Built as high-end condos before the economic downturn, the Argent at East-West Highway and Blair Mill Road (pictured above) will be converted to rentals for low-income families , says UrbanTurf . Commenters on that blog are grousing about the switch, but with neighbors including three high-end apartments and several other new condos that have opened in the past five years, th...
Just Up The Pike - Aug 2
It's been a big week for Wheaton, where talk of redevelopment has been ignited despite the sluggish economy. New proposals loom on the horizon, though not all of the news is good to local residents who feel that they're still getting the short end of the stick. The Wheaton Metro station and bus turnaround. Wheaton Plaza is in the background. - Wednesday, County Executive Ike Leggett ann...
Just Up The Pike - Jul 30
- From the Gazette : the County's revised plans for the new Third District police station in White Oak, scooting it away from existing homes and swapping out some low-income housing for an as yet-undetermined office building. It just goes to show that if you scream loud enough and invoke environmentalist Rachel Carson , you'll keep poor people out of your neighborhood. Congratulat...
Just Up The Pike - Jul 30
The new Chick-Fil-A on Tech Road opened its doors at 6am this morning, welcoming fans of the Georgia-based fast-food chain who camped outside to be one of the " First 100 " in the door, each winning a year's supply of chicken sandwiches. Two hundred people were in line at 6am Wednesday morning for the "First 100" promotion, coming from as far from Oklahoma, writes publicist Cindi Pickett ...
Just Up The Pike - Jul 29
About forty people met at the Civic Building in downtown Silver Spring last night to discuss the new "No Skateboarding" policy in Veterans Plaza that took effect Monday. Though the meeting seemed to be productive, no sooner had it ended that two skaters had their boards confiscated in the plaza. Rodriguez talks to police officers who confiscated two teens' skateboards. Photo by Chip P...
Just Up The Pike - Jul 29
