Thoughts on the Silver Spring Transit Center

It has been under construction for years and was supposed to open in 2009.  I expected it to be finished soon after I moved to the area, instead it is still under construction and uncertainty abounds about its future.

I saw an article today in the WaPo "Metro could walk away from taking over Silver Spring Transit Center."  Apparently, Metro could refuse to take over the transit center if they don't agree that whatever repairs are made are good enough.  It sounds like Foulger-Pratt doesn't have a plan yet about how to fix it.

How about this idea... If the transit center is unrepairable, what if the land where it is built (prime real estate adjacent to the metro station) is put up for bids for privately funded projects?  Let a developer build a big condo building on that site with the requirement that the transit center be included on the first three floors of that building.  That way perhaps a different private developer would build the whole thing without charging the country taxpayers, and we would finally get a transit center.

Construction Update: The Exchange at Wheaton Station

Safeway Building, February 2013

Wondering about that huge building going up at Georgia Ave & Reedie, directly next to the Wheaton metro station? It is "The Exchange at Wheaton Station," planned to open in the summer of 2013!

Safeway Building, September 2012

It is a 486-Unit, 17-Story Apartment over Retail Tower being built by Foulger-Pratt. Inside it on ground level will be a large Safeway grocery store, SunTrust bank, Bergman’s drycleaner, and Starbucks coffee shop. There will be a parking garage for shoppers underground & a garage for residents above the stores, & the building is should even be LEED Certified!

Since my first trip to Wheaton last winter this space has been a large gaping hole in the ground.  I wasn't sure what the new building was replacing, but some research showed me that there used to be a "Zombie Safeway" there.  Here is a photo retrospective of that store's progress from functioning to closed to demolished.

I'm glad the new Safeway will be an urban building design!  That will be so much better than the old car-centric design.

"Ashes to Ashes, Dirt to Dirt" (from here), Safeway Post-Demolition, Spring 2012

The closed, space wasting, car-centric Wheaton Safeway in January 2010 (picture from here).

Picking up Trash is Fun and Rewarding: A Trip to Wheaton Regional Park

A bag of trash collected in the park

On a trip to Wheaton Regional Park last weekend, two of us picked up 3 nice plastic bags of trash.  It felt very good to make a difference in the landscape.

Motivations: keep the place clean so it stays clean (people are less likely to drop litter in a litter-free environment) & prevent trash from flowing into our streams, rivers, and eventually making its way to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Trash free view of Wheaton Regional Park

Plus, it feels really good to help out nature in this way!  Try it, you'll like it! 

It is easy to retrieve a plastic bag that is hanging off of a tree or bush and fill it with bottles, cans, and other plastic bags as one walks around outside.  The amount of plastic bag waste is amazing, especially given the Montgomery County plastic bag fee. I can't even imagine the quantity of plastic bag waste there must have been flying around our parks before that fee!

I walked to the metro several times in the last week due to a flat bike tire, and also picked up a bag of recyclables en route yesterday.

Stormwater catchment system near train depot in Wheaton Regional Park

Another pedestrian hit by a car in Wheaton-Glenmont: This time a hit and run!

Map of collision area from http://www.walkscore.com

I'm shocked to read about another car-walker collision death in the Wheaton area this week.  It was again on or near Connecticut Ave, a busy main road where traffic regularly speeds.  This time, in the Aspen Hill/Glenmont area.  The victim was found on Elby Street near Connecticut Avenue. 

The driver shamefully left the scene and this is a hit and run.

Can we get some community outrage now?  Can we get some traffic speed enforcement on Connecticut, Georgia, University, etc?  What has to happen for cars to stop speeding through our neighborhoods and hitting people? 

As I wrote about last week, this keeps happening.  This is the fourth innocent pedestrian death in four weeks in the area that closely surrounds Wheaton. 

As reported by Patch (same link as above):

Montgomery County police are looking for a Toyota Corolla in connection with a hit-and-run that occurred in Aspen Hill Tuesday night. Police said via Twitter that the car in question is of unknown color and a model from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.  

According to a police statement, Ali appeared to have been crossing from east to west on Connecticut Avenue at Everton Street. She had crossed the northbound lanes safely but was struck by a vehicle in the southbound lanes.

Detectives are requesting that anyone with information contact the Collision Reconstruction Unit at 240.773.6620. Callers may remain anonymous.

Crosswalk Area Problematic Configurations in Wheaton: Inquiry to State and Response

Welcome readers from Just Up the Pike's Facebook page! I am happy to see this blog featured there today and called insightful. Thanks to that we've had 171 page views already today, after a maximum of 12 on any other day so far.

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I have been concerned about the pedestrian crosswalk situation in Wheaton since moving here. Some intersections have the type of setup where one has to press a button for the walk signal to turn from red to white (which first requires noticing that a button press is required and making it to the button). Others lack marked crosswalks at all, have them near the intersection but not at the actual intersection, or have crosswalks that are simply disregarded by cars at busy intersections.  A lot of pedestrians cross against the signal or at unmarked spots (which can be dangerous) when intersections are designed in either of those ways.

Today I want to write about Amherst Avenue and University Avenue -- which is an intersection with press button crosswalks and obstacles obstructing one of the buttons -- and Amherst Avenue and Arcola Avenue -- an intersection with a painted crosswalk covering only one of three possible crossings.

Dangerous conditions in Montgomery County should be improved

I have been taking photos and mentally preparing posts all week, but haven't had a chance to write them up.

One thing I do want to do is join Greater Greater Washington in writing about the sad, preventable traffic deaths of three adults in our county in the past three weeks. These collisions happened near Wheaton -- one in Aspen Hill and two in White Oak. These two other communities are similar to Wheaton in many ways, with large fast roads running through them and too much traffic, but dissimilar in that Wheaton has more stores and restaurants and has a metro station.

There needs to be some public outrage about these deaths and the lack of response to them. In the Wheaton Patch story about this, the police person interviewed gave a totally inappropriate response almost blaming the victims of this crash for the accidents. I hope some motion can start in our community to show the police that they need to hold drivers responsible for creating conditions that are conducive to other life existing on the streets.

The problem is that traffic regularly travels on Georgia Avenue at completely unsafe speeds. We need some speed limit enforcement on Georgia at least from Silver Spring downtown north through Aspen Hill. Drivers should also be pulled over and cited by police for not yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks.

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This topic resonates with me strongly and I was thinking of it this morning when I snapped the photo below of the landscape walking along Georgia Avenue in Wheaton. The traffic was going past very fast and the sidewalk was positioned directly alongside the road.

Society could really improve life by making it easier and more pleasant to walk.

Traffic on Georgia Ave in Wheaton at 9:15am on a weekday.

Shopping for a Spiritual Home: The Church of the Atonement

I went to the Atonement church on Sunday, February 11, for their 11:00 am service, continuing my series of church adventures in Wheaton. My overall impression is that it was friendly, with lots of contemporary music. I had never been to a church service that had a live band before. They had a group with guitars, drums, a violin, and flute at various times, a small choir, and a couple of featured singers on mics at the front.

The pastor spoke rather informally without standing behind the pulpit.  He had a lot of enthusiasm and sort of reminded me of a passionate Reverend from a movie.

They kept mentioning their "bible study" classes and "Sunday School" classes that they were offering earlier in the morning.  They did Communion the day that I was there (perhaps they do it every week) and did it in a closed manner -- asking people to refrain from joining in the ceremony unless they had been baptized.  I prefer the attitude of more liberal churches like UCC where everyone can participate in Communion.

It is a Reformed Presbyterian type church and has a lot of evening activities. Is located on Georgia Ave near the boarder of Wheaton and Forest Glen.

The Church of the Atonement on Georgia Avenue, viewed from Amherst Avenue.