New Subway at Georgetown Square.

In the past month a new Subway sandwiches opened in the Georgetown Square shopping center on the corner of Old Georgetown Rd and Democracy Blvd in Bethesda, MD. A new karate place (Kicks Karate) also opened, both of these are where the Blockbuster Video used to be. The Subway joins Flippin' Pizza, Chipotle, Bradley's Ice Cream, and Giant as lunch time options for students of Walter Johnson High School, right next door.

Today is the first day of school in Montgomery County so watch out for kids. Walter Johnson has an open lunch policy so right around lunch time masses of kids stream out and head for one of the above restaurants for a quick bite to eat. I have been in the Giant a few times right at lunch and it is interesting to see the volume of kids that suddenly appear.

Bethesda's Hampden Lane getting a new building

Last week I was walking along Hampden Lane between Arlington Road and Woodmont Avenue and I noticed they were tearing a house down. Today, it was totally gone. Intrigued, I went looking for information on what is going in there.

Initially, I thought it was related to plan #820070100, which is to build 60 condos (or apartments, I couldn't tell which) along the road, however, only one building was being demolished. I believe I have pieced together the story now.

There are 5 lots along Hampden lane that are connected. Lot 1 being on the corner of Hampden Ln and Arlington Rd. Originally, Lot 3 was transfered to the county for them to build Moderately Priced Dwelling Units on (this was to fulfill a the MPDU requirements for another project.) The owner of the rest of the lots said it will be much better to swap lot 3 for lot 5 so they could build a single building (this was in the 2005-2006 time frame). It looks like that was approved so lots 1-5 will have the 60 condos but construction hasn't started yet. Lot 5 will now have Transitional Housing, a single three-story building with six one-bedroom and six studio apartments, owned and operated by the Housing Opportunities commission (although they view the housing as "supportive" not "transitional", I don't know what the distinction is).

Looking on a Montgomery County Website I see Supportive Housing is defined as

for homeless adults who have experienced prolonged episodes of homelessness, have at least one disabling condition and possess other challenges that can contribute to difficulty housing them. Tenants of Home First are placed into a permanent home – through one-bedroom apartments or four-bedroom homes – and provided with wraparound services to ensure that they remain housed.

So, if you are one of the many working people who who would like to live within walking distance of Bethesda Metro Station but can't afford it, your best bet is to quit your job and become homeless!

It's time for the fair

The Montgomery County Fair starts Tomorrow, August 13th and runs through Saturday, August 21st. This Friday and Saturday are mostly about the amusement rides, the animals and the other exhibits open on Sunday.

There is tons of stuff for kids of all ages to do. There are rides that suit kids from 3 through teenagers, there;s the animals, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, ducks, chickens, plus Old MacDonald's Barn with a few more for the kids. At night there are outdoor movies. There is also the pig races, if you have never seen them they are worth a look. If you are interested in crafts, or photography, lots of people enter what they have done and prizes are awarded in many categories.

Each day they have special events too, for instance, Wednesday and Thursday there is a monster truck show, and Friday and Saturday there is a demolition derby (these events cost extra).

Movies (8pm each night, no extra cost):

• Friday: Where the Wild Things Are
• Saturday: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
• Sunday: Blind Side
• Monday: Up
• Tuesday: Planet 51
• Wednesday: Astro Boy
• Thursday: Alice in Wonderland
• Friday: The Princess and the Frog
• Saturday: Twilight Saga: New Moon
  

Sunday hours coming to Bethesda library

Starting August 15th, Bethesda Library (7400 Arlington Rd, Bethesda, MD) will be open on Sundays from 1-4pm. Not long ago I wrote about parking no longer being free, so this is an improvement.

It is part of a larger initiative to keep some libraries open on Sunday year round. Bethesda, Germantown, Marilyn J. Praisner, Rockville Memorial, Silver Spring and Wheaton will now have year round Sunday hours. I seem to recall that all library used to be closed on Sundays in the Summer but open on Sundays during the school year. I didn't see any mention of opening the rest of the libraries in the system on Sundays this fall so it isn't as much of an improvement as it seems.

Bethesda Fountains Part 11 (potd)

This fountain at the Bethesda Metro Plaza was dry all last year. This year, however, they got it going again. It is a simple round fountain and the edge is wide enough to sit on all the way around.


I did all but a couple of the fountains in Bethesda, MD last year, if you want to catch up you can read all of the Bethesda fountains series.

But I get up again

A commenter on a previous story mentioned how impressive the tree roots of the fallen tree on Fernwood Road in Bethesda, MD were. Here's a closer-up picture of them. You can see the pulled up ground was significantly taller than the woman standing on the other side.


Yesterday, they trimmed that tree and put it back up-right. It made a song run through my head "I get knocked down, but I get up again". I can't imagine that it will survive, but hey, it is standing up. You can see the jagged outline on the ground where the dirt had pulled up.


After finally getting back to normal from Sunday's storm and extended power outage, this afternoon I heard the familiar rumble of thunder. I still like thunderstorms, but I was thinking to myself, "oh no, here we go again". The lights flickered a few times but fortunately, power stayed on. I know there are still some people in Montgomery County without power from the last storm, hopefully no more outages occur for a while.

Update August 7: The tree has been removed. It seemed unlikely that it would survive anyway and the risk of it falling again seemed high, so I am both unsurprised and glad.

Power coming back on

Today Pepco finally started to get a handle on the power problems in Montgomery County Maryland. Around noon I drove down Old Georgetown Road and almost all the lights were still out. At least today they had people directing traffic at Old Georgetown and Arlington Rd. By 3:30 I noticed the that light was working again. On the drive home I saw power crews working by the side of the road (see the exceptionally blurry photo).

I noticed a bit of damage I hadn't seen before, the top of this tree is hanging from a power line!

I'm actually writing this on my on computer and posting using my own internet connection. After over 50 hours the power came back on in my house. There was much celebrating and dancing. I waited 5 minutes or so to make sure it was going to stay on before I turned the generator off and began rolling up the extension cords. I know there are still a lot of people out there without power and pepco estimates several more days before everyone has power.

This was not a fun experience, Pepco totally failed to realize the magnitude of the problem and waited too long before calling in out of state crews. The problem was compounded by the lack of police directing traffic at busy intersections along Old Georgetown Road, Wisconsin Avenue, and Conneticut Avenue on Monday. Power delivery is still a monopoly around here, they get there cost + profit and it doesn't encourage them to be effective. There should be penalties for them whenever large number of people lose power. That would really encourage them to get power lines underground, especially those that serve a lot of houses.

Now that's a storm

Yesterday's storm was super impressive. I was up in Gaithersburg and watched it out a store window. There were times I couldn't see the cars in the parking lot it was raining so hard. I heard last night that wind gusts were above 60 mph. Lots of trees were knocked down across area roads and this morning Pepco was still reporting 180,000 people without power. Power was out at the Potomac water pumping station forcing mandatory water restrictions this morning.

This morning, most of the lights on Old Georgetown Road were dark. Traffic was lighter than normal so things were still moving, just slowly. The core of Downtown Bethesda, MD does have power, traffic lights working, buildings open, etc. Going to work might be a good way to cool off during the heat of the day. One of my co-workers reports that some of the houses on the east side of MD-355 don't have power so if you work in that area you might want to check before coming in.

The first two pictures are from Fernwood Road near Democracy Blvd. A large tree by the side of the road uprooted, taking the grass with it. It fell away from the road and broke another large tree.

Two trees at Davis Library fell down. It doesn't look like they were in great shape to begin with.

Trees mean it is almost done

I was walking on Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda, MD where the new Equinox Fitness building is being built. Progress has been pretty steady and for a while they have been working on the inside. Yesterday I noticed that they had planted new trees and bushes along Woodmont Ave there. You know it is almost done when they start putting in the landscaping.

You can see the full coverage about this construction project.

Earthquake!

I never thought there would be an earthquake strong enough for me to feel in Bethesda, MD, but this morning there was. at 5:05 I woke up to the rumbling sound of the quake, a little rattling and some mild shaking, it lasted 5 or 10 seconds. No damage here the power didn't even go out. USGS gives a preliminary estimate of it's magnitude of 3.7, centered near Gaithersburg, MD.

This is the third earthquake I have ever felt, the other two were in California. Earthquakes do happen around here but the are usually too small to feel. This is so rare I'm not even sure what keywords to put with this post.