BETHESDA / NW DC

CRIME WAVE UPDATE

Capital Properties Restores Full

Lighting to

Westwood Shopping Center

Parking Lot

Another Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row Exclusive!!!

The big news is that Capital Properties has heard and responded on the issue of lighting at the Westwood Shopping Center on Westbard Avenue.

Three weeks ago last night, about a third of the venerable retail center's parking lot was suddenly plunged into darkness. The cutoff of those area's lights was particularly questionable given that an armed assault and robbery had occurred January 19, directly across the street in the Park Bethesda parking lot. Since the Park Bethesda masked assailants are still at large, and are now known to await victims in parking areas among other settings, many wanted to know why that side of the lot would be blacked out. Furthermore, Park Bethesda residents regularly cross that side of the lot to reach the Giant and Rite Aid, because the only signaled crosswalk is at the shopping center's property line.

Regular readers know that I have been reporting on this story since shortly after the blackout began. With increased concerns about crime in the area, the timing of the lighting reduction was not a great community relations move.

The good news is that Capital Properties has responded and turned the lights back on. Park Bethesda, Westwood Tower and Westbard Mews residents can once again safely cross the lot, and Westbard Avenue is once again well-lit, as it has been for decades, by the shopping center's lights.

It was a particularly timely decision, because 1) I was about to write this story noting that the lights had been out for a third full week, and 2) The Gazette had just published a story which reported that retail properties near Western Avenue, and Pepco, were improving lighting in that area, which has been a hot spot in this recent Bethesda/Northwest DC crime wave.

But on Westbard, you had lighting already in place. Someone had simply decided to turn it off.

There have been no official incidents reported in the last week that match the method of operation of the Park Bethesda trio - masks, guns, assault, and theft of property from the victim.

Here is what unofficial SpotCrime is reporting that in any way relates to the Park Bethesda robbers:

Robbery, 3900 block of Morrison Street, NW, 3/6/2012

(this would be the 2nd hit on Morrison since this crime wave started)

Assault, Parking Garage 40, 4935 St. Elmo Avenue, 3/4/2012

Assault, 4200 block of Wisconsin Avenue, NW, 3/2/2012

Assault, 5800 block of Johnson Avenue (Bethesda), 3/6/2012

(that would be a stretch for them; they've stuck within walking distance of Metro stations with the exception of the Park Bethesda incident)

Remember, those are not official police reports, but they are out there, and you can never have too much information. These unofficial reports suggest a fair increase in assaults in downtown Bethesda, if you add in the one from Wisconsin and Hampden last week.

In any case, the more dots you can place on a map, the easier it is to connect them, and ultimately complete a picture.

Only the Morrison robbery sounds remotely like a match.

Montgomery County Police continue to have a greater uniformed presence in the Westbard area. In fact, I saw two police cruisers when I was at the shopping center. Police have said tactical units are also working in the area. Again, this is a big reason why no further armed robberies have been reported since those efforts began.

With the lights restored, a continued police presence, and no new armed robberies, West Bethesda is likely feeling safer at the moment.