Silver Spring Scene News Round Up
By Silver Springer • Jan 25th, 2007 • Category: News Round Up
â–º Parking Lot District goes meter crazy in South Silver Spring. According to the South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association message board, Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPWT) has begun installing parking meters on both sides of 13th street from the intersection at Kennett all the way to the D.C. line and in front of the Gramax Towers. Rates will be “$0.60 per hour for short-term parking (3 Hours or Less) and $0.45 per hour for long-term parking (more than 3 hours)”. Meter installation has already begun according to Jeffrey Riese of DPWT.
Commentary: Does it really make sense to put meters in front of the Gramax since it’s used as a loading zone for movers? And if you’re going to try discourage the use of the automobile in an urban area than fine but you have to balance it out. Silver Spring can’t just be a place where people live and play it must also be a place to work. I’m positive many people would love to dump their car if only they could find a nice place of employment here instead of a new condo every time they look up in the sky.
â–º A double home invasion occurred at Springwood Drive in Woodside/16th Street Village. The house was robbed not only once but twice. The first robbery occurred 1:41am. According to the reader, “They wandered the first floor, and stole a set of keys to one of the vehicles, then took off in the vehicle. This is after my car got vandalized Sunday… A week to the day from the first break in the house was broken into again.” If you have any info please contact Montgomery County Police.
â–º The Silver Place project moves foward. The winning bid was SilverPlace, LLC a partnership between Bozutto Group, Spaulding & Slye, Harrison Development, Smith Group and our own Torti Gallas. The planned development includes, 47,000 sq/ft of retail (including a small grocery store which could be Harris Teeter or Trader Joes), 358 residential units, A new Park and Planning headquarters, a “bio-spring” and 150,000 sq/ft of speculative office space.
The Silver Spring Scene will be watching this closely as it progresses. Silver Spring Penguin notes, “the design was chosen for its architectural design, land use, layout of retail space and number of residential units.”
â–º A Mixed-use development by Layhill LLC of Chevy Chase is in the works for the Glenmont Metro Station area. It would include 1,550 residential units and 90,000 square feet of retail on 30.8 acres at Glenallen Avenue, off Georgia Avenue. Washington Post
â–º The Singular says IA etc (Interior Accents Etc) is moving out of it’s current location. The interior design and home furnishings store is part of the Downtown Silver Spring Project and sits in the section that includes a Strosniders Hardware store and a Whole Foods Market.
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Hey, at least meters in Silver Spring are still cheaper than Bethesda.
They recently had an increase, I guess Silver Spring has reached the big leagues?
The meters outside of Gramax are bogus and are only going to continue to encourage, shall we say, some miscreants to park more often in the awning of the garage doors.
Not to mention every time we have a fire alarm go off — which is often — the fire trucks like to pull up right outside the doors and often have to because people who are stupid enough to drive around without insurance rush into the garages and pull their cars out, which, in the event of a real fire, would surely cause an accident.
So, what the heck is a “bio spring” It sounds like something used in filtration or wastewater treatment. Maybe it’s a fountain that uses rainwater rather than city water.
Terry in Silver Spring said…
“So, what the heck is a “bio spring” It sounds like something used in filtration or wastewater treatment. Maybe it’s a fountain that uses rainwater rather than city water.”
1/26/2007 10:39:03 AM
It’s a pond like thingy that will have fishies and stuff in it. It’s environmentally friendly and yes I believe it will collect rain water from what the developers said. Sort of like a “green” rainwater retention system with walkways going over it.
That could be quite pretty, depending on how it’s arranged and maintained.
twoste,
do you live in Gramex? I’ve read reviews posted by residents on the apartment locator web pages (apartmentratings.com, for instance) and some of the reviews are scathing. I hope they’re not true.
Aha! Okay, the truth about Gramax:
I personally have had a very good experience living there for almost three years. When I first moved in the unit was brand new so that was a plus, and the rent was reasonable. In terms of location, it’s great for the Metro and the Silver Spring/Rockville/Bethesda area by car. I also live on the side of the building facing Kennet St., so it’s very quiet at night. I live in the smallest possible unit, but for one person it’s cozy, I’ve kept it up well so it’s in good condition and there’s a ton of storage space.
Some of the minuses: the management office can be a little disagreeable and unhelpful at times; we’ve had an inordinate number of fire alarms go off, sometimes very late in the night (which is not really any one person’s fault in particular, in fact it’s nice to know all that safety stuff works I guess); when those other two condo building went up on East/West it was pretty noisy every day; there was a period of time when the door to the main garage wasn’t working; and I think if you live on the Georgia Ave. side of the building between floors two and 7 it can be pretty noisy 24/7.
I moved in right when the building was getting going, so my rent it pretty low. Don’t know what they charge for new residents now, but I’m sure it’s higher.
Do you guys have a liquor store at Gramax? This place really needs better liquor stores… Actually, this place just needs to _ucking sell liquor at the supermarkets.