Today's announcement that Live Nation will be building a Fillmore concert hall across the street from the AFI Silver Theater has received mixed opinions from members of the Silver Spring community. In an effort to make this website more interactive, tell us your thoughts about the Fillmore! Is this good for the revitalization of downtown Silver Spring? Are you angry that attempts to revive the Birchmere deal failed? Speak out!

I just received a letter from the County Board of Elections saying that our election polling place has been moved to the Bennington Apartments. This is adjacent to the NOAA building, just south of the NOAA ocean wave machine, far closer than our old polling place. In fact, I believe this is just 2 to 4 blocks from all of us in the precinct (which has much overlap with SSSNA) and on the commuting path for many of us going to and from the metro. The old polling place for our precinct (#13-47) was the First Baptist Church (near Whole Foods). It had several problems:

1. it was nearly 1 mile away,
2. location was not withn commuting path of most residents
3. poor visibility (too few people know where this church is, and
4. it's wasn't even in our precinct!!! (several blocks from the railroad tracks serving as the boundary of our precinct)

Why is this important other than making it easier and faster for us to vote? Because we need our precinct to vote in much higher numbers so elected officials will take us more seriously. With this precinct change, we can now tell everyone in our precinct that voting is very fast and easy. Special thank you to Evan and Henry of South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association board and Joan & Ed of Eastern Village folks for helping make this happen. Stephan

Yeah...we did it. We've gone ahead and gotten all "sophistimicated" on y'all and put together our very first newsletter. We plan on passing it out to each residence in south Silver Spring and sending it out via the list serv. We wanted a way to reach a broader community that isn't as plugged into this website while engaging more people to get involved in upcoming SSSNA initiatives and events. If you’d like to receive future newsletters via email you can sign up to the SSSNA list serve at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sssna/. Feel free to share your ideas on how to make this more useful and interesting by commenting on this post. Thanks! The Scoop - Volume 1, Issue 1

Giving Artists Space to Create Washington Post Article By Eileen Rivers Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, September 15, 2007; Page F01 "...Maryland is also seeking to attract artists through its Arts and Entertainment District program, which gives tax breaks to developers and to artists for work created and sold within the arts district. Designated Arts and Entertainment Districts must either already have affordable housing units or a plan to develop affordable housing. So far, the state has established 15 such districts, in such places as Hyattsville, Bethesda, Frederick, Hagerstown, Silver Spring and Wheaton. The Maryland model is based on one used successfully in Providence, R.I., said Elizabeth Carven, deputy director of the Maryland State Arts Council and head of the Arts and Entertainment Districts program. "Maryland was the first and only state to operate this statewide. Occasionally when you do have an extremely successful Arts and Entertainment District by the fact that the area has been revitalized, the properties themselves are much more expensive." That rise in property values can make it difficult for low-income Maryland artists to move into the area. Stephen T. Hanks moved into the Arts and Entertainment District in Silver Spring 18 months ago. The former IBM employee lives in Eastern Village, a converted office building that is home to several artists. Hanks spends hours painting in his studio, which is in the same building as his condominium. There is also a gallery in the building where Hanks showcases and sells his work. Although his condo was not subsidized, Hanks, who teaches art at Gonzaga College High School in the District, said he probably could not have bought a home that included studio and gallery space at such an affordable price anywhere else. "One motive was the convenience of the commute," Hanks said of his move. "The second motive was the tax break. The third was that Silver Spring was a happening place, so getting in on the ground of the development and getting a place to live was a part of that."

We’re conducting a survey to determine what kind of future development you would like to see in the neighborhood. We plan to leverage this information by lobbying developers and Montgomery County planners to influence the type of business and residential developments in our community. This is your chance to make your voice heard so please take a few minutes to answer these simple, yet important questions!! http://survey.southsilverspring.org/index.php?sid=76849