The right curb lane, and several metered parking spaces, on Woodmont Avenue have been taken over by the construction team for the Edgemont II condo tower at Edgemoor Lane in downtown Bethesda. Hastily-erected walls made from jersey barriers, weighted garbage cans and barrels block access to public right-of-way and parking spaces. A sign directs construction traffic in the now-private lane. No current activity at the site requires closing a traffic lane, a once-forbidden practice that the now-politicized Montgomery County and Maryland Departments of Transportation now eagerly grant at the drop of a hat.
"No current activity at the site requires closing a traffic lane..."
ReplyDeleteSays BtB, armchair expert on absolutely everything, after observing the site at a time when no actual construction was taking place.
"...a once-forbidden practice..."
#FakeNews
"...that the now-politicized Montgomery County and Maryland Departments of Transportation now eagerly grant at the drop of a hat."
"Waa waa waa" says the three-time loser.
Hastily as compared to slowly erected barriers? You make it sound like they built this protected construction lane in the dead of the night to be undetected by building inspectors. All of this work is carefully planned and reviewed in a construction management plan. They built it quickly to create minimal disturbance to traffic. At least this is mostly just covering parking spaces and the sidewalk. This is a short block, with cross walks on both ends, so barely any inconvenience for area pedestrians or drivers, unless of course they like to walk or drive in harms way under a concrete transfer bucket.
ReplyDeleteYou simply need to make a big deal about even the smallest things. Why not report how nice it will be to have several hundred new residential living options, located only steps from the Metro instead of all the negativism?
By the way, they are installing a new sign for Host Hotels & Resorts today at the 4747 Bethesda building. They are a S&P 500 REIT that is moving from Rock Ledge to downtown Bethesda. They are a spin off of Marriott that own 93 hotels worldwide, comprised of many brands including various Marriott, Hyatt, Westin, Ritz-Carlton, Novotel, among others. They own the JW Marriott in DC. Yes, they are not a new Fortune 500 company moving to MoCo, but very good news for downtown retailers and restaurants.
And yes, those are not weighted trash cans. They are safety barriers to protect drivers who might hit the end of the concrete barriers in the street. Somehow Dyer seems to get most of this stuff wrong.
ReplyDeleteWaiting on BTB to post a picture with himself and the King...
ReplyDeleteAll he needs to do is wear his Burger King crown
DeleteYou mean Kanye @ Howard yesterday?
ReplyDeleteWhen those types of concrete barriers have gone up elsewhere, it wasn't for pedestrian access i.e. 7900 Wisconsin or the Wilson. So I'd expect having to use the other side if the street for walking.
ReplyDeleteReminder: "King" Toffa IX is not "king of Benin", any more than Robert Dyer is "Mayor of Bethesda". Benin (previously Dahomey) has been a republic since its independence in 1960.
ReplyDeleteAlso, King Toffa IX's ancestors are NOT buried in the reputed cemetery in Westbard.
10:30am & the Planning Board don't care about black people
ReplyDeleteThe entire city is under-parked, every block has major construction underway with double traffic lanes cut to single lanes, sidewalks are blocked forcing pedestrians on precarious detours, and all of you elicit hurrahs to MC Planning? You obviously don’t live or work in this town. Karma is a bitch my friends.
ReplyDeleteSo...you didn't go to meet King Tofu?
ReplyDelete8:51 PM
ReplyDeleteI live in this town specifically BECAUSE of all of the kinetic activity and new planned development. The Bethesda Downtown Sector Plan, Bethesda Overlay Zoning and Design Guidelines are indeed carefully crafted to shape a new age in Bethesda. Less suburban in nature, and more like a true urban place. More walkable, bikeable, and transit friendly than ever before. The new plans are only a few years old, and have already purposefully driven dozens of new development projects, located close to transit, and designed to create more affordable, sustainable, walkable urban development, with new many new and enhanced urban green spaces. Yes of course parking is constrained, as a means to encourage transit use, biking and especially walking. Downtown Bethesda is no longer a simply a suburban city close to DC, but is in the process of transforming into a dense hyper-connected urban place.
The Metro transformed Bethesda in the 1980’s, but this new planning effort is and will continue to help create a dynamic and lively city. Yes construction is messy, dirty and sometimes a pain to live or work near, but in this case, I believe the end results will be well worth the effort. For a moment imagine Bethesda with 10,000 more people working in downtown, 10,000 more people living downtown, and 500 more people staying in hotels downtown. That’s 20,500 more bodies that will support new and expanded restaurants and shopping options. Most of the new folks that don’t choose to live here, will arrive and depart by Metro, Purple Line, Uber, Lyft, Taxi or on bikes along the CCT, and perhaps even autonomous vehicles, so expanded parking is not required.
7:30: Actually, at the moment, Bethesda has no identity or vision whatsoever. What had a promising start through the 1990s has gone off the rails after the 2002 election of the MoCo cartel Council slate.
ReplyDeleteThe few good things that were added - the original Metro Center plaza with ice rink, the Regal Cinemas, Apex Building courtyard gathering space, Barnes & Noble - have mostly been taken away or destroyed.
Under the disastrous Bethesda Downtown Plan, a soulless new era of boxy buildings with identical base-tower forms with offices and apartments for which there is literally no demand has begun.
No nightlife, no new corporate headquarters in over 20 years, and not even a mainstream cineplex!
Heckuva job, Brownie!
For real energy and actual economic growth, visit Northern Virginia.
The developer is beginning excavation and hauling operations and needs to close the lane, just like Marriott and Avocet, and all the other projects did.
ReplyDeleteDid you complain to the county about those closures too or do you just have bone to pick with EQR?
How is it that construction in NYC hardly ever closes a lane? Plus they build a temporary sidewalk? Are Bethesda sites more complex? Ha!
ReplyDeleteWe are concerned that a swath of Arlington Road sidewalk will be closed for years with the ZOM project construction.
ReplyDeleteYou complain that the city has no vision and is moribund and at the same time complain about any little bit of construction that disturbs the community. You can’t deny that four new high rise office buildings that will employee over 9500 new office workers. Brookfield is proposing massive upgrades to the Metro Plaza area. Why not get behind these new plans as a supporter, instead of panning everything?
ReplyDeleteBethesda Market has a real vision for the area around the FWM, but all you do is bitch that the parks don’t cover 100 of the parking lots.
I would hardly call the Avocet Tower, The Wilson, The Elm, Metro Tower. 4747 Bethesda, 7900 Wisconsin or the new Marriott HQ soulless boxy buildings. Some very creative design is underway, and many new iconic buildings are in the pipeline, like 8000 Wisconsin, 8008 Wisconsin, a very creative bio-medical office building, and of course the 4 Metro Center Tower by SOM. I would suggest that the existing tall buildings in Bethesda are quite boring, with mostly exposed precast concrete and horizontal bands of reflective glass. These new towers will be much more varied and dynamic. Have you seen the Wisconsin facade of the 7900 building lately. It’s really quite interesting. The Elm will have a glass clad bridge on the 28th floor that will connect two high rise towers. The Wilson includes multiple outdoor rooftops, and kinetic sliding glass clad massing. The Avocet Tower will indude a three story high covered plaza with a freakin’ water fall, large scale artwork and a high roof terrace with large trees.
We know you believe that the reduction in nightclubs in the city means it is doomed, but I would suggest that the city is just tailoring itself for a more mature market. Grungy bars and clubs might appeal to some, but not everybody wants to wait in line to pass muster from a bouncer, and then drink, dance and puke in the street. Yes more variety, and more places with live music would be nice, but these places are all driven by the development community and not the county. If a market exists for an amenity, they are usually quickly met byte development community. If a second urban multiplex cinema that showed comic book inspired movies made financial sense in downtown, I assure you one would be built.
Today they are installing the new sign for Host Hotels & Resorts at the nearly fully leased 4747 Bethesda building. Host is the worlds largest hospitality REIT, and owns 94 hotels worldwide. They are traded on the S&P 500. Yes, they are moving from a dated and soulless office park near the Montgomery Mall, but they, unlike you, seem to have faith that downtown Bethesda is a great place to locate their offices.
12:09: The office park at Rockledge has a more cohesive vision than downtown does right now. As you note, Host is already here, and reality is that Montgomery County hasn't attracted a single new major corporate HQ in over twenty years.
ReplyDeleteThe new cineplex does have a huge market demand, but the greed of developers is blocking its construction, plain and simple. No cineplex can generate the revenue of residential or multiple retail tenants in the same footprint. What a disastrous decision by the County Council to not require a new theater at the old Regal site!
The only vision at the farm market site is to make money. How easily people are fooled by optical illusions on overhead renderings! I am not.
Just building office space by no means guarantees filling it with workers. None of the new office buildings has attracted the anchor tenants imagined when they were on the drawing boards, and now the weak office market is even more saturated with vacant floorspace.
Disaster ahead.
Yawn. Same old same old. Sour grapes on one side, persecution complex on the other.
ReplyDeleteOh noes! Montgomery County is like most every other built-up suburban county in America. Quel horror!
5:47: Oh, but we're not like most every other built-up suburban county in America - that's the whole problem. We're behind most of them. We even got beat by Culpeper and Rappahannock counties! Humiliating!
ReplyDeleteAs I said before, which you deleted because why (???)
ReplyDeleteCulpepper and Rappahannock WERE NOT existing built-up suburban counties in America, they were rural.
5:15: Don't move the goalposts, Saul. I said we're not only behind most of the "built up suburban counties" in America, but we even finished behind Culpeper and Rappahannock. Reading skills are a must.
ReplyDelete