Maryland
updated
11:23 a.m.
The Dutch Country Farmers Market , local institution and purveyor of lemon squares , left Burtonsville for good Saturday. A fixture in Burtonsville for some twenty years, the so-called "Amish Market" was ran by farmers who commuted from Pennsylvania each weekend to sell everything from produce and hot meals to outbuildings. But the Amish Market wasn't just about food and sheds. It is as mu...
Just Up The Pike - 9:42 a.m.
Love this picture . Almost a little too much. - The Post 's Jay Mathews profiles former Springbrook High principal/new School Board member Michael Durso, and the generation of school administrators he mentored during his four-decade career, which spanned Maryland, Virginia and the District. (It was at Wilson High School in D.C. that my mother had him as a principal a long, long time ag...
Just Up The Pike - 7:04 a.m.
I was an English major in addition to an architecture major in college, and have been known to write poetry or prose at one time or another (though it is always difficult to say that without sounding ridiculously pretentious). But I was very, very flattered to receive these verses from reader Cary H., who lives in zip code 20904 ( represent! ) You know what's difficult? Resisting the urge to make...
Just Up The Pike - Sat 9:01 a.m.
Pretty much every blog is going to have some photo of a flag for the Fourth of July, so I decided to commemorate the people who take photos of flags. The American flag is not an easy thing to photograph: if it's windy, you'll never get a shot of the whole thing as opposed to a mash of stars and stripes that looks more like America just finished wiping the crumbs off her face. Location is als...
Just Up The Pike - Fri 9:26 a.m.
Happy Independence Day weekend! Every Fourth of July since 2007, I've been disappointed that I don't have any protest marches to go to, but I guess fireworks are almost as good. Where are you going to watch the fireworks? (Our neighbors a street over used to set them off from their deck, but I think they moved. I have no idea who they were.) Anyway: - Planning for the new Silver Spring Lib...
Just Up The Pike - Fri 6:19 a.m.
Go out to Maple Lawn in Howard County and you'll see people out on the streets, particularly around Looney's Pub , a new restaurant and bar in the planned community's so-called "Business District." But during the long, hot summer days, you'll only see the ice cream truck, weaving its way down half-finished streets every day around 2 p.m. or so. It doesn't stop for children as the sig...
Just Up The Pike - Thu 9:17 a.m.
A visitor to the soon-to-be-redeveloped Burtonsville Shopping Center. Two years after we first learned that the Dutch Country Farmers' Market would be moving from the Burtonsville Shopping Center, the HowChow blog reports that they'll be closing this Saturday, July 4 before reopening in "last August or September" at their new location in Laurel. The so-called "Amish Market" signe...
Just Up The Pike - Thu 5:56 a.m. - 6 clicks 
My mother never bought the bench expecting someone would sit on it. But she and my brother spent an afternoon setting it up, laying a stone for someone to rest their feet on, planting flowers around it. She would see the arrangement every time she left the house and came home. I think that's all she wanted. Long after the " circle parties " had stopped on our street, they continued at full...
Just Up The Pike - Wed 9:23 a.m.
- Former County Councilmember and Silver Spring resident Blair Ewing passed away Monday at 75 after a long battle with cancer. He served a single term on the council and six terms on the county Board of Education, a tenure whose impact County Council President Phil Andrews called " greater than any other single person " in Montgomery. Our condolences go out to Ewing's family and friends for this...
Just Up The Pike - Wed 6:28 a.m. - 11 clicks
One of my earliest memories living in Downtown Silver Spring as a kid is of being in the car, on what I would later learn was Colesville Road, in front of a building I would later learn was called City Place Mall. Then it was just a big new thing that had appeared in my consciousness. I was four. I remember a banner draped over the front of the new building, words like "Construction" or "Comi...
Just Up The Pike - Tue 10:02 a.m.
Neighbors of the former Maryland College of Art and Design, vacated in 2005, complain it's become an eyesore. After a two-year fight to stop a housing development at the former Maryland College of Art and Design on Georgia Avenue, residents of the surrounding Carroll Knolls neighborhood are one step closer to having a much-desired park built on the land. Now all they have to do is win ove...
Just Up The Pike - Tue 5:59 a.m. - 3 clicks
- A daylong standoff between Montgomery County police and a man in a Wheaton apartment who was allegedly keeping his girlfriend hostage came to an end yesterday evening when officers knocked down the door to find the place was empty. Friend of JUTP Chip Py sent us this photo of a sniper atop the parking garage of the Archstone Wheaton Station apartments at Georgia Avenue and Prichard Dr...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 29 - 8 clicks
When buildings get older they become consumed with self-doubt. Trendy when built, suddenly they're faced with the possibility they may be obsolete. Up and down our avenues, if you listen closely, you can hear the concerned mutters between sagging roofs and creaking floors: Are my windows too big? Too small? Is my mechanical unit showing? Should I have gone a different route, become an office...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 29
A new Metrobus stops at Calverton Shopping Center. Metrobus service changes taking effect next Sunday will mean increased service for many East County riders, but several routes have been discontinued entirely. In comments to this blog a few months ago, County Councilmember Nancy Floreen and Glenn Orlin, deputy staff director to the council, pointed out that they've worked to prevent ...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 26 - 7 clicks
It's three years today that I went on the morning commute that would change my life. Melodramatic, right? I never imagined in a million years that I'd still be doing this, that I would've met so many amazing people through it, and that it would land me my first job out of college. I still don't know what to tell people when they ask "why do you do this?" But at least if they're asking that qu...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 25
A more detailed write-up about last night's meeting on the new Third District police station will come later this week. The language at last night's meeting about the new Third District police station in White Oak was toxic. It's not just that residents of the surrounding neighborhoods are uncomfortable with the housing also proposed for the site, to say the least. It's the way that some who...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 25
UPDATE FROM STEVE: Friends, As of 1 p.m. today, the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County took down the post by their president equating President Obama to Hitler. They also put up the following disclaimer: <b>Urgent message from RWAAC Board of Directors</b> The article put on our web site by Joyce Thomann was done solely by her. Our Board of Directors never saw th...
Young Democrats of Maryland - Jun 24 - 5 clicks
This photo of a kid tripping over his skateboard on Ellsworth is hilarious every time I look at it. As a kid, I used to walk by the East of Maui Skatepark on Ellsworth Drive (currently the site of Silver Plaza) with apprehension, fearful of the Bad-Ass Skater Kids and the Dangerous Skater Moves they perpetrated there. While it's long gone, the skaters haven't gone away , but the County...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 24
Private schools park their buses in the lot outside the former Hecht's department store at Wheaton Plaza. When I was in high school, I remember watching some ridiculous video about teenage driving, featuring students from Walter Johnson in Bethesda. We cheered when the video showed us pummeling their football team at Homecoming and quietly booed when the kids in the movie drove (in their c...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 24
The Acorn Market at last year's South Silver Spring Block Party. Good morning. The Red Line is still out of commission after Monday's tragic accident, but as BeyondDC points out, Metro remains hundreds of times safer than driving as a means of getting around. Here's a look at what's happening today in East County: - Organizers of the South Silver Spring Block Party have announced...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 24
This house across from my brother's school looked like the end of a sad story. Empty driveway, recycling bins turned over, and a lawn that had grown into a meadow. I assumed it was a foreclosure, a short sale, some family that got kicked out of a home they'd put much time and effort into after slipping on their bills. And every day when I drove past, the grass was longer. So it goes on a stre...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 23
I wake up late during the summer, but not after a few false starts. Yesterday, the first time was around 8 a.m. or so. I heard my mother trying to explain to my father how to use the Metro. He works at Union Station, but usually drives there. I like having control over my commute, he says. He drove even when he lived in Wheaton for three years, literally on top of the Metro. But this week his...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 23
A bridge in Sligo Creek Park. Photo by Jimski . Downcounty residents are livid over the potential loss of Sligo Creek Golf Course , which will close October 1 after the county's Revenue Authority returns it to the Department of Parks , who says they're legally and financially unable to compete with other public golf courses. The resulting outcry suggests it's not just about golf - it's a...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 22 - 2 clicks
The new Growth Policy proposes approving development based on transit capacity, not just highway capacity. - It's a big week for public meetings: Tonight , the Planning Board holds a hearing for the Annual Growth Policy, which seeks to create incentives for more compact, transit-oriented growth rather than linking growth to traffic counts and school capacity, as has been the case pre...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 22
Having an American Apparel is an important thing for any aspiring city to have. It says, "We are cool and hip! We believe not in sweatshop labor! Bow to us, Bethesda, for the unshaven indie kids come not to you for their fashion but to here!" But, in order to even attract the hipster element, you must have a bit of controversy, and it's not surprising that when this store at Colesville and ...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 22
Thinking of Gatestone, the White Oak subdivision whose residents fear a new rec center will bring crime to the neighborhood, I'm reminded of Stonegate, the similarly-named neighborhood a little further up New Hampshire Avenue that's also known for being more than a little stuck-up. In middle and high school, it was "where the rich kids lived," a place with big houses, big parties and even th...
Just Up The Pike - Jun 22
Some techniques work and some don't. Here's a cheat sheet . Next to mobility and cloud computing, social networking was the talk of Interop this year--especially at a conference session devoted to social software tools and a portion of the Unconference, where real SMB users talked about how to make the most of it. External --Branded community --Tech support --Reader interact...
Free State Comment - Jun 11
Sunday was a sad day for pro-choice Americans. Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider in Kansas, was murdered while at church serving as an usher. Dr. Tiller became a target of the anti-abortion movement, as he was one of the only doctors who performed late-term abortions in the US. For some background, his practice was bombed in 1986, and he survived two gunshots to each arm in 1993. He rec...
Young Democrats of Maryland - Jun 3 - 2 clicks
Below is a Press Release from the Young Democrats of Maryland in support of the Employee Free Choice Act followed by the text of the resolution. YOUNG DEMOCRATS OF MARYLAND ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT Legislation will make it easier for unions to form Annapolis, MD – The Young Democrats of Maryland (YDM) passed a resolution last week in support of the Employee ...
Young Democrats of Maryland - Jun 3 - 2 clicks
Every month I am hoping to find at least one thing that I can blog about and share, this month its the Federal Poverty Line. While this topic has always been one I've been passionate about, it resurfaced yesterday when this report crossed my desk from the Montgomery County Community Agency For some quick history, the Federal Poverty Line was created in 1964 under the Johnson adminstration by...
Young Democrats of Maryland - May 28 - 3 clicks
This Friday and Saturday, the Young Democrats of American Mid-Atlantic Region will hold its biannual convention in nearby Northern Virginia. Young Dems from across the region will come together to attend trainings, elect new regional officers, and learn more about whats going on across the area. You can check out the full agenda and learn how to register $25) at http://www.facebook.com/home. ph...
Young Democrats of Maryland - May 28
This morning, my District 39 legislative colleagues and I, had the pleasure of taking part in the 40th Anniversary celebration of Whetstone Elementary. Opened for the 1968-1969 school year, Whetstone Elementary was one of several schools built to serve the new Montgomery Village community, located right off of Centerway Road, one of the main arteries of Montgomery Village. Prior to the cere...
Reznik for Maryland - May 15
Now for current updates for the so-called "Swine Flu" in the Maryland region which is really should be called the North American Influenza, since this flu did not came from pigs. Four schools in the State of Maryland are being closed for an extended period to isolate cases of the influenza. Those schools are Rockville High School in Montgomery County, Montpelier Elementary School in Prince Georg...
The Modern Day Prophet - May 3 - 4 clicks
Current Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown will be planning for their re-election next year in 2010. He announced his plan in a meeting with Fredrick County Democrats. Anthony Brown told 130 people in attendance in the meeting that "their administration is focusing on job creation, providing education funding and eliminating childhood hunger." He also mentioned about th...
The Modern Day Prophet - May 3 - 3 clicks
