The access gate to the Purple Line construction site at Chevy Chase Lake has been left open for several weeks, observers report. You can see the missing gate on the ground, behind the orange cones and netting, next to the entrance in the photograph above. This is a major access point to the entire light rail project, which runs from downtown Bethesda to New Carrollton, and a primary access for the section between Bethesda and downtown Silver Spring.
Trespassers, urbex explorers, equipment thieves, saboteurs, or anyone else could walk right into the Purple Line construction area at this point on Landmark Court, which comes off of Connecticut Avenue by the bridge and Crescent at Chevy Chase apartments. It's a surprising security lapse in the post-9/11 era, given that the light rail line's infrastructure could potentially be accessed and tampered with.
Then what's the point of publicizing this vulnerability?
ReplyDeleteWhy not just bring it to the attention of the authorities?
12:45: My understanding is that it has been brought to their attention, but they have continued to leave it open.
DeleteWith any luck, some of the region’s enterprising youth so devoted to car jacking, flash mob-theft, and general mayhem will strip the site like a school of piranha gifted a dead cow…another bloated corpse.
ReplyDeleteSo how is it helping for you to make even more people aware of this vulnerability?
ReplyDelete1:19: By getting the gate closed again, as soon as possible. Ignoring it solves nothing.
Delete"My understanding is that it has been brought to [the authorities'] attention". . .
ReplyDeleteWouldn't a more responsible approach be for you to contact the authorities yourself, with the implicit (or explicit) suggestion that their failure to respond would be featured on your blog?
3:10 PM: I have spoken to MCDOT about it. I think action is going to be taken shortly, now that they are going to contact the contractor/MTA.
DeleteNot to sound ungrateful, but if you've spoken to the authorities, and they're apparently going to fix this shortly, how did putting the original story up (as opposed to suggesting you would, if a response wasn't forthcoming) help anybody?
ReplyDeleteNothing was moving until I posted the story.
DeleteWell at least none of the aforementioned in the beginning of the 2nd paragraph reads or posts on this blog, otherwise this could be construed as as invitation for such nefarious activities.
ReplyDeleteThe whole Purple line is like that, including the entrance to tunnel in Piney branch area.
ReplyDeleteYour original comment, "My understanding is that it has been brought to [the authorities'] attention" suggests that you hadn't already told them yourself (or you would have said, "I have alerted. . . ."---unless you were just being modest.)
ReplyDeleteSo how do you know that "Nothing was moving" (that they weren't at least preparing to address this) until you posted the story (thereby alerting all and sundry to this opportunity to trespass)?
Again, wouldn't it have been more responsible to contact them first, and suggest that if the situation continued you'd feature it on your blog?
Robert don’t let the all knowing Woke Mob get to you. Keep the stories coming that make them squirm.
ReplyDeleteDitto here! Don't let them wear you down. Love your blog! Thanks!!!
DeleteHow is this about "woke-ism"? It's about public responsibility--in this case, of a blog operator who generally provides, for free, a lot of useful information not available (or, not easily available) elsewhere. But no one except potential miscreants could "use" the information publicized in the original item.
DeleteNo problem as it's only taxpayer dollars at risk here.
ReplyDelete