On Friday evening Silver Spring will bid farewell to the turf at Fenton and Ellsworth. In honor of the occasion, the Silver Spring Regional Center is hosting a "Signs of the Times" party, with a deejay and street entertainers, to unveil the construction sign for the new civic building.  The party will be Friday July 25 from 6p - 8p.

Link.

A great big thanks to all those that participated in the raffle this year! Some people stuck around to claim their prizes on Sunday. Below are the remaining winners. We'll try calling you to arrange getting you your prize, or you can email me your winning ticket numbers at webm...@southsilverspring.org.

Arranged alphabetically by last name:

Brownstein, Lauren: $50 at Nicaro
Buker, Meg: $25 at Quarry House Tavern
Conklin, Mike: $50 at Gallery
Dewitt, John: 2 tickets to the Thunderbolts
Feldman, Carrie: 8" Tiramisu
Guzman, Pamela: $25 at Adega Wine Cellars & Cafe
Robinson, Steve: $50 at Eggspectation
Schauffhausen, Alex: $25 at Mi Rancho
Solomon, Julie: Party for five, Bach to Rock
Sylvan, Stephan: $50 at Gallery
Torres, Kerrin: $50 at Gallery
Wolfe, Michael: 4 passes for AFI
Wynn, Drew: Creative Mindflow session

Anticipation is mounting with three days left until the 2nd Annual Block party! We are putting on the finishing touches. We are aware of the weather forecast for this weekend and preparing what we can to keep everyone cool and hydrated.

While you are waiting, be sure to visit the new South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association Facebook page and sign up as a fan! You'll receive important announcement and event invitations directly through Facebook! And be sure to RSVP (not at all required of course!) for the Block Party using Facebook Here.

Sunday, June 8, 2008
11AM to 5PM
at Kennett Street

The event will showcase the best of our community with festivities of interest for all ages and families including over 15 live music acts, 80 arts and crafts vendors, children’s activities, food and drink, amazing raffle prizes, fire engine, moon bounce, featuring Acorn Market. Bring family and friends to celebrate and build a strong community.

Download and print the flyer to spread the word!

You can drink your caffeine or absorb it through your skin. But now you can also read your caffeine! Mayorga has launched a blog to keep their drinkers up-to-date. From the first post:

As you can see, this is a new addition to our website. I know, I know, we’re totally behind the curve on the whole blogging “thing”. Well, we might be a little late, but we’re still excited about this new medium for keeping our customers and potential customers up-to-date.

My goal is to update this blog at least once per week with information pertinent to the activities of Mayorga Coffee–and anything else that might have to do with coffee, origin issues, and sustainability. I hope that this blog gives insight about our company to those of you who are not too familiar with us and I hope that it contributes to the elevatation of coffee knowledge in the marketplace.

Subscribe to their RSS Feed or bookmark the page.

Slate V recently published their video podcast of stupidest bike lanes in the country. And Silver Spring got first place.

View Larger Map

The following is the resolution unanimously approved at the April 15 meeting after a presentation by MTA's Mike Madden on the Purple Line:

WHEREAS the South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association represents homeowners and tenants living in Silver Spring’s central business district;

WHEREAS residents of South Silver Spring are proud to have chosen to live in our community because of its close proximity to the Silver Spring Metrorail station;

WHEREAS the South Silver Spring neighborhood resides along the route of the proposed Purple Line (Bi-County Transitway);

WHERAS the planned growth of our region needs to utilize and improve the existing public transportation infrastructure in order to diminish the harmful effects of automotive travel;

WHEREAS increased use of public transportation contributes to a cleaner environment, less traffic congestion, and the ability for an individual at any income level to commute to their place of employment;

WHEREAS the creation of the Purple Line would shorten travel time between Bethesda and New Carrollton, creating stops along the route to facilitate and encourage public transportation use;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED THAT

The South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association strongly supports the Purple Line and encourages the State of Maryland and relevant jurisdictions within to make the Purple Line the top transportation priority, working to achieve this goal in a timely and prudent manner.

You’ve been in your new role as Council member for a year now. What’s been some of the biggest challenges you’ve had to deal with?

The biggest challenge being a Councilmember is balancing the County’s numerous policy objectives. My desire to create the most vibrant community possible, requires crafting policy that creates jobs and affordable housing, improves transportation, and increases access to child and health care. During my first year, I recommended that the Council consider an initiative to create a comprehensive full-day/full-year Universal Pre-K program in the County. The biggest challenge was to convince my collegues that a comprehensive Pre-K program, especially for low-income families, would have a significant economic benefit over the long-term and decrease the County’s expenditures for services such as Special Education and Juvenile Justice programs.

What are some of the accomplishments that you’re most proud of?

Some of the items I am most proud of are: crafting a new Pedestrian Safety Inititiative with the County Executive to expand funding for pedestrian safety, planning, and infrastructure that will create walkable communities; addressing constituent needs by establishing local offices and meeting with nearly all of the resident associations in District 5; implementing a Universal Pre-K pilot for 40 low-income families; and approving a new Road Code, which utilizes context sensitive design standards to decrease stormwater run-off and improve multi-modal transporation on new and re-constructed roads.

Silver Spring has undergone dramatic growth and change over the past 5 years. While the majority of this has been positive, there are still people who are scared of new development. What’s your response to this?

Development in Silver Spring near and around metro stations is the best way to get residents out of their cars, onto transit, build affordable housing, and improve the County’s economic base. If growth does not occur in our most urban areas near transit, it will lead to additional vehicles on our roadways and further exaserbate congestion. Maintaining the single-family residential communities surrounding the Silver Spring Central Business District and retaining existing and attracting new viable small businesses is critical to the vibrancy ofSilver Spring. I believe that ensuring Silver Spring’s future success requires additional development near metro to implement our Smart Growth policies and create additional customers for our existing and future businesses to thrive.

In looking ahead at your second year, what are some of the key initiatives that you hope to focus on for District 5 and South Silver Spring in specific?

Over the next year, I will work with the County Executive and Park and Planning to evaluate ways to connect downtown Silver Spring and South Silver Spring, identify opportunities to create new and preserve exisiting greenspace in the CBD and adjacent communities, improve pedestrian safety and infrastructre, pursue additional funding for Universal Pre-K, and adovcate for affordable housing and unique ground floor retail uses to be included in future Silver Spring development.

What role do you see SSSNA playing in the South Silver Spring community? OR What issues do you think SSSNA should address within the South Silver Spring community?

The South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association has done a great job activating and organizing the South Silver Spring community. The SSSNA should continue its active participation in Silver Spring’s development. Its unique composition of primarily new residents, allows the organization to effectively advocate for what is needed to make Silver Spring a dynamic community. You should continue to advocate for an increase in pedestrian infrastructure, connectivity, and safety, mass transit projects, such as the Purple Line, and ensuring that ground floor retail space is included in future mixed-use development projects so new local small-to-mid sized businesses can join Silver Spring.

To find out more about Councilmember Ervin and her initiatives, please visit us at:
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/csltmpl.asp?url=/content/council/mem/Ervin/index.asp

This month a new business started in Silver Spring. Click the thumbnail for more information.

The talk around South Silver Spring lately has been the bedrock blasting at the 1200 East-West Highway construction site. One can only imagine that the decision to do a once-daily blasting instead of eight hours a day of jack-hammering was at least partially influenced by the outrageous noise that was 1200 Blair Mill Rd for months on end.

As noted in a previous post, the blasting is preceded by a series of warning air-horns. After the blast itself, a short air-horn is sounded.

I recorded the attached video from the top floor of the MICA Condominiums this afternoon. It seems at least from my position that the air-horn blasts are far louder than the explosion, but I would think that closer to ground level you could feel the explosion more.

The site at 1200 East-West highway is scheduled to be completed in 2009, and will provide 247 residential units as well as significant ground-floor retail.