Bethesda Row fountain lights activated (Photos)

The lights have been activated on the new "interactive" water feature at Bethesda Row. Color-changing lights are located on each level of the fountain. It is the centerpiece of the reimagined plaza outside of Anthropologie & Co. at the corner of Bethesda and Woodmont Avenues. The gathering space also includes new lighting, seating and landscaping, and a canopy.

Vacant Chevy Chase school broken into for third time this year

The vacant former Rollingwood Elementary School at 3200 Woodbine Street in Chevy Chase continues to be a magnet for burglars. It was broken into for the third time this year on May 25 at 8:44 PM. Previous illegal entries into the Montgomery County Public Schools-owned building that drew a police response occurred on February 18 and February 25. The empty school was leased by Rochambeau French International School until 2022, and has been vacant since. 

Neighbors have continued to express concerns about typical exploits by local teenagers in the school building, including vandalism and drug use. However, the alleged February 18 burglar who stole property from the building was a 37-year-old man from Owings Mills. He is still facing felony 2nd-degree burglary charges, with his next Montgomery County Circuit Court hearing scheduled for June 7.

It's intriguing that, given the supposed fiscal woes of multi-billion-dollar-budget MCPS, they can mysteriously afford to pay $49,153 a month rent for their new offices, rather than stay in - or move to - a vacant building they already own. Chevy Chase is a much glitzier address than Rockville, for a school board with an avowed taste for the high life on the taxpayer's dime. Perhaps the venerable Rollingwood ES just wasn't spiffy enough for them.

Assault, theft at downtown Bethesda tobacco shop

Montgomery County police were called to Tobacco & More Mart at 7809 Old Georgetown Road at 5:03 PM on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. A shoplifting incident and a related 2nd-degree assault were reported at the tobacco shop and convenience store. At least six Montgomery County police cruisers responded to the call. Tobacco shops in Bethesda have been increasingly targeted recently by thieves and robbers.

Photos courtesy @MotownMystery

No Begging, Bethesda business pleads

Montgomery County elected officials have had little to say about the recent finding that MoCo has experienced the 2nd-biggest increase in homeless population in the entire Washington, D.C. area over the last year. But business owners dealing with the real consequences of that shameful fact don't have the luxury of silence. One of downtown Bethesda's last remaining gas stations has just attached a new sign to its existing sign warning a variety of trespassers and loiterers: "NO BEGGING," it reads in all capital letters.

The Exxon station at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Battery Lane has a wonderful convenience store, which has some snacks and sodas you can't find anywhere else in town. Like so many businesses, it also has to navigate the reality of Bethesda's increasing numbers of unhoused residents, some of whom cause a number of issues for local business owners. 

I can recall a resident reporting a couple of years ago that she had been violently assaulted out-of-the-blue by a homeless person outside the nearby Harris Teeter, which is steps away down Battery Lane. Reports of such attacks are not uncommon on local subreddits or Nextdoor in recent years. Police, who are often the first line of response in America's mental health "system," are frequently summoned to business establishments to remove homeless individuals who are accosting customers and refusing to leave the premises. In most cases, these problems are the result of our government and our society failing to provide the services and treatment for mental health problems and crises that are typically at the root of why many of these individuals are homeless to begin with, as well as the increasing poverty and food insecurity in Montgomery County. 

But much like the sustained crime wave of recent years, the County's current policies are not having success in reducing any of these problems. Like residents, business owners are on their own to fend for themselves in Montgomery County. It's a "sign" of the times.

Westwood Shopping Center demolition update (Photos)

The historic 1959 Westwood Shopping Center is no more at 5400 Westbard Avenue in Bethesda. Demolition of the strip mall is just about finished. In these photos you can see the staircase that was alongside Anglo Dutch Pools & Toys (or Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor, for longer-term residents), and remnants of the brick wall that surrounded the service alley and loading docks behind the shopping center. You can also see the extreme grade of the property, which was largely masked by the retail structure between the Westbard Avenue elevation and the elevation of the actual storefronts. The shopping center and its parking lot are soon to be replaced by an apartment building with ground floor retail space, and the Brownstones at Westbard Square townhome development.

Also gone? The monument sign at the "Farrell's" entrance to the shopping center, which advertised anchor tenant Giant. It was removed prior to completion of the building demolition. 

That was a valuable sign placement, which could not be obtained today, as it is now illegal under the current sign code. Many businesses in Montgomery County go out of business because of our absurdly-minimalist sign regulations circa 2024. Drivers pass - and they keep on going, because they have no clue your business is operating "somewhere in there." 

New bike and pedestrian crossing signals activated at Bethesda intersection (Photos)

The new bike and pedestrian crossing signals at Wisconsin Avenue and Montgomery Lane in Bethesda have been activated. They had been installed last October, but now the signals and control boxes have been uncovered and put into service. This dual crossing is part of the new Bethesda bikeway segment that connects Woodmont Avenue to Montgomery Avenue via Montgomery Lane. It is part of a larger network of new protected bikeways allowing circulation throughout downtown Bethesda, including segments near Bethesda Row.

Update on Six Ways to Sunday gastropub in Bethesda

Six Ways to Sunday, a Sino-Siamese gastropub, is scheduled to open this summer at 8003 Norfolk Avenue in downtown Bethesda's Woodmont Triangle neighborhood. Construction continues inside. The restaurant has applied for a liquor license from Montgomery County. Its application is now scheduled for review by the liquor control board on July 18, 2024 at 11:00 AM. This can give us a rough idea on when to expect the gastropub to open.

Black cemetery advocates call for boycott of Montgomery County Juneteenth events

Advocates protesting the ongoing desecration of Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda are calling for a boycott of Montgomery County government-sponsored Juneteenth 2024 events. The Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition is organizing the boycott to highlight the failure of Montgomery County elected officials at the local, state and federal levels to condemn the desecration and intervene in the matter. BACC is asking residents to instead attend an alternative slate of Juneteenth events that it will be sponsoring.

The BACC Juneteenth events will include an interfaith program on June 15, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Macedonia Baptist Church at 5119 River Road in Bethesda, and a community program on June 19 from 3:00 to 6:00 PM at the church that will include speakers, food and cultural performances. Further details on the June 19 event are pending.

BACC announced the planned boycott yesterday, Memorial Day, by also recognizing an American Civil War veteran who is buried in Moses African Cemetery. Pvt. William H.H. Brown served in the 30th United States Colored Troops (USCT) Regiment. The 30th is credited with exhibiting incredible heroism in many critical events and battles, in the service of a Union that had given them nothing up to that point in its history. 

A Maryland state archive lists a Pvt. William H. Brown as having been mustered into Company E of the 30th on March 3, 1864. The record indicates Pvt. Brown was honorably discharged, like a majority of the 30th, on December 10, 1865.

The biggest of BACC's alternative Juneteenth events will be a celebration of Brown's service and heroism on June 18 at 1:00 PM, beginning at Macedonia Baptist Church. An honor guard of 30th USCT Regiment Civil War reenactors will lead a march from the church to the nearby Moses African Cemetery. There, they will lay a wreath, raise the Juneteenth flag, and sound Taps. The public is invited to join the march and ceremony. 

Private Brown is one of many whose graves either remain under a parking lot alongside and behind the Westwood Tower apartments in Bethesda, or whose remains were directly desecrated and illegally relocated into a mass grave elsewhere on the site. Montgomery County has blocked all attempts to conduct any independent archaeological examination of the two recognized cemetery parcels, one of which it already owned via the Housing Opportunity Commission's ownership of Westwood Tower, and the other - located across the Willett Branch stream from Westwood Tower's rear parking lot - it hastily acquired to prevent any search for remains.

A third parcel directly adjacent to the second is now being developed as a self-storage building by a private company. While that parcel was not officially part of the cemetery, concerns were raised during the project approval process in 2017 about burials that may have occurred just over the property line of the graveyard, a phenomenon not unusual in cemeteries of that era where boundaries may not have been physically delineated. Those concerns were brushed aside by the Montgomery County Planning Board, who called in armed police to intimidate cemetery advocates peacefully protesting at the public hearing. In addition to demanding silence of the protesters, officers ordered them to turn their signs around to the blank side.

The self-storage project has faced many delays since its approval. When excavation commenced, observers with the BACC reported seeing possible bones and funerary objects being removed from the site. An archaeological expert employed by the developer declared that the materials were not human remains or funerary objects, and they were trucked away and stored in a Virginia warehouse at an unknown location. The BACC and its own expert asked why, if the developer's expert was correct, they could not have a chance to examine the items themselves.

BACC officials have asked Montgomery County elected officials at the local, state and federal levels to condemn the desecration of the cemetery, and to intervene in several respects, including the release of the excavated materials for independent review. None have done so. 

The cemetery and Macedonia Baptist Church are the only physical remnants of a vibrant Black community that existed in the now-industrialized and commercialized area along River Road between Brookside Drive and Little Falls Parkway. Former slaves emancipated from the adjacent Loughborough plantation established the community after the Civil War. A River Road "colored school" provided education prior to desegregation of public schools. The community's descendants were forced from the land in the 1950s and 1960s by developers via various illegal or unethical means. 

Former resident Harvey Matthews - who grew up on a property now home to a Whole Foods Market - has cited the deceptions and intimidations employed by developers, including physical threats and actual violence by a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. He recalls that he and his family were beaten by Klansmen. Montgomery County government and law enforcement looked the other way at the time, and not only allowed the Black community to be forced out, but completely eliminated its history from the official County historical narrative.

The HOC recently violated Maryland law by trying to sell the cemetery property to a private developer, without contacting the descendants of those buried there. That matter is now before the Maryland Supreme Court. A recent concrete pour at the self-storage construction site only further angered the descendant community.

"This is the level of vile barbarism [and] White supremacy that is unmatched in history," BACC President Marcia Coleman-Adebayo said on WPFW FM last week, citing the shocking fate of Pvt. Brown's remains. "This is how Montgomery County, Maryland celebrates Juneteenth, and this is why the BACC calls for boycott of the Montgomery County Juneteenth program."

Photo of 30th USCT Regiment provided by BACC

Update on Pisco y Nazca Ceviche Gastrobar in downtown Bethesda

One of the major changes at 2 Bethesda Metro Center of interest to the public who are not tenants in the office tower is the new restaurant being added on the ground floor. Pisco y Nazca Ceviche Gastrobar is still in the early stages of construction, as you can see below. Previous restaurant tenants at the building were McCormick & Schmick's and Cesco Osteria. Pisco y Nazca has applied with Montgomery County for a liquor license. Its hearing is now scheduled for August 15, 2024, which makes sense given that the restaurant is still at least that far away from opening at this point.

Site Plan filed for Brownstones at Westbard Square in Bethesda

Bethesda-based developer EYA has filed its Site Plan and a Forest Conservation Plan amendment for the Brownstones at Westbard Square development with the Montgomery County Planning Board. A required pre-submittal public meeting on the plan was held in March. The next step will be the scheduling of a public hearing on the proposed plan and amendment. A public announcement sign has been posted at the property. An initial set of the brownstones on the project's second site, the former Westwood Shoppng Center property, sold out within a few hours of their release.

Brooks Brothers relocating in Friendship Heights

Brooks Brothers is relocating its Friendship Heights store. It will be moving diagonally across Wisconsin Avenue to the Collection at Chevy Chase. The existing store at 5504 Wisconsin Avenue will remain open until the move. That storefront is among several that will be demolished to make way for a new Donohoe Companies-developed apartment building, which will have ground floor retail and restaurant space.

Bethesda construction update - Sophia Bethesda apartments (Photos)

Here's a look at the Sophia Bethesda apartment tower construction progress at 4924 St. Elmo Avenue in downtown Bethesda. It looks like the project is on-track to meet the anticipated Fall 2024 delivery target. There were many twists and turns in the planning and approval process until Duball, LLC came in as lead developer on this project, which began life under property owner Lenkin Companies. Then there was an unexpected delay to settle concerns about the excavation by an adjacent property owner. But once construction began, it seemed to proceed like clockwork, and possibly even a little faster than expected.

Don't forget that the project has already brought Paris Baguette Bakery Cafe aboard. The French cafe will be located in a 3000-square-foot corner space fronting onto Fairmont Avenue and the pedestrian paseo, which lies between the Sophia and the Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower. That paseo will also be getting an updated design, along with the cafe, and will hopefully become the public gathering space that was envisioned by Bainbridge a decade ago. 930-square-feet of retail space fronting the paseo remains available for lease on the ground level.

Public meeting scheduled for redevelopment of Jewelry Exchange/Old Georgetown Grille in Bethesda

Developer Stonebridge is preparing to submit its Preliminary and Site Plans for its proposed redevelopment of 7749 and 7755 Old Georgetown Road, and adjacent property along St. Elmo Avenue, in downtown Bethesda. It has scheduled a required pre-submittal public meeting for Monday, June 10, 2024, at 6:00 PM at the Connie Morella Bethesda Library at 7400 Arlington Road. Give Stonebridge some credit for having the meeting prior to when most people begin going on summer vacations. We've all seen public meetings for projects that were actually controversial sometimes held between mid-June and August, or during the December holidays.

The assembled project site includes the office building that holds the currently-operating Old Georgetown Grille and Colonial Opticians, and the former Jewelry Exchange retail building. Some one-level retail buildings directly adjacent on St. Elmo will be torn down as well, but Serpentine Dance Studio and House of Milae will remain between this new high-rise, and the Sophia Bethesda apartment tower.

Black Flamingo Collective tattoo parlor now open in Bethesda

The more things change, the more they stay the same at 4823 Fairmont Avenue in Bethesda's Woodmont Triangle. While there's been a tattoo parlor on the second floor there for years, the names and owners seem to come and go. Tattoo Haven gave way to Coalition Tattoo. Now Black Flamingo Tattoo Collective is the name of the game. Its signs have just been installed on the building, although it appears to have been operating under the Coalition name for about a month, based upon the Google reviews (which give it 5 stars out of 5).