Landscapers tackled overgrown shrubs, bushes, and other assorted vegetation at the historic building that once housed the iconic Sir Walter Raleigh Inn steakhouse at 8011 Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda yesterday. The lot is one of several vacant properties that were supposed to be redeveloped as the Artena Bethesda apartments many years ago. That project remains stalled after several false starts, leaving the abandoned commercial buildings on them to fall into decay, and to be invaded by vagrants. The result has been to create an eyesore for much of a block between the former surplus store at 8008 Wisconsin Avenue and the 8011 Woodmont apartment tower, as well as on the Woodmont side.
28 comments:
The better to see the unvarnished dilapidation in the stark light of day.
That whole thing has become a blight. I sure hope a massive building isn't going in there but it's a corner so... Amazing to think that a family used to live there. More amazing still that Sir Walter Raleigh, at the time, was considered among the best restaurants in the area. Going out with the family in those days was a big deal
Calling this structure historic is a misnomer. It doesn't fit the qualifications in any jurisdiction at this point.
Per MNCPPC; Project: 8000 Wisconsin Avenue (32018012A)
"The Project proposes a 199‐foot tall mixed‐use building comprised of ground floor retail and upper‐story residential units."
Sorry!
8:51 - I had no delusions about the site only hoped it wouldn't be another skyscraper. And people here excoriate me for saying the sun is disappearing from the downtown area. Well , it is
Did they use electric instead of gas powered? #ItsTheLAW!
10:01 - Great point. The county knows they can't possibly police this even though they say they will be. They also know that the most effective and cheapest form of policing this horrible crime of using a gas leaf blower is your nosey neighbor, busy body snitches. You know that will be happening quick and often. Unreal.
Chapstick on a pig? :-)
Woodmont Triangle is in danger of becoming Ballston.
9:33 - I usually say Rosslyn, but, yes, sadly that's true.
At the danger of this conversation veering off course, JAC, I've got to say I'm all for nosy neighbors snitching on leaf blower malefactors. It might not be a problem in your neighborhood, but at least where I live, autumn has annually brought with it the days-long drone of gas blowers. Several backpack blower-equipped guys on a crew will spend literally hours with the machines groaning away at a single lawn, and there will be multiple lawn services at work simultaneously throughout the area, providing stereo cacophony on any given day. There are periods when the noise begins at 7:30 or 8 and continues without interruption, save for the crew's lunch break, until 4. After a while it metastasizes from being mildly irritating to being a profound, intrusive aggravation. Ergo, I'm in favor of ratting out anyone still operating one of those machines. Turn it in, get the credit towards a battery model, and bring a bit of peace and quiet to the area. Why is that a bad thing?
Rosslyn has a skyline full of corporate headquarters so I tend to say Ballston. Downtown Bethesda has Marriott but Rosslyn has many such.
And Ballston is full of generic apartment high rises which is what Woodmont Triangle is getting.
9:27 - good point
Don't think you've thought this through as battery technology isn't what you believe it is. DC is a perfect example of how it's going to work. Leaf collection switched over to electric for the last several years so down each block you have four guys with dual battery backpack blowers, two down each side of the block with one leaf collection truck, (diesel powered with a large gasoline engine leaf vacuum). Then there is the "battery van" which swaps batteries every block and makes runs back to a warehouse where DC charges these batteries. For every battery working, they keep five batteries charged or charging to keep the leaf collection seamless. Add to this they have one guy with a gas powered blower cleaning up what the electric blowers have missed.
Private contractors won't be able to have this type of infrastructure so they will have gasoline powered generators on their trailers constantly charging batteries and if the crew is large enough, (more than two), which means four batteries per backpack and at least sixteen being charged continuously for two guys, they'll need an additional generator.
Now all of this comes at an additional risk of fire because charging hot batteries at the highest rate possible comes at a price and many landscapers will buy cheap replacement batteries as the OEM ones cost at least 2X as much. Ask MCFR about the battery fire just six days ago in Gaithersburg.
I realize most people of a certain political affiliation still think that electricity originates from wall sockets but I assure you that it's more complicated and that the "intrusive aggravation" of gasoline leaf blowers are more environmentally friendly and less likely to catch anyone's house on fire.
Does not matter because by the time the police responds they'll be long gone!
6:22 - n/a - I have a different view. What's the big deal you say? Well, gimme an inch and they'll take a mile. When or where does govt intrusion end? They know better than we do and we'll comply or else the leaf blower police will get you. They're loud, yes. But do you know how bad that battery technology process is? Look at it more holistically. Where do this minerals come from and who mines them? It looks and feels good but it's a charade.
@1:48 -- apropos my not having thought through that 6:22 post, here's a thought experiment for *you*: if battery-powered blowers are insufficiently powerful to clear debris, how about garden crews resort to rakes, instead. That technology worked just fine for many generations, and still serves the purpose at my house. If people want their yards tidied and pin-perfect, then fine, great, good. However, homeowners attaining spotless, pin-free lawns is not a valid argument to legitimize each autumn's daily intruding upon *my* peace, quiet, focus, and concentration --while I am inside my house, with my windows shut. Why should *their* desire for a landscaping result on their property be allowed bleed over sonically and deny me *my* desire to be left in peace while inside my house?
People don't like batteries? Use a rake and keep quiet about it.
100%! We are in the minority here. It's simply about the damn noise for me as you do eloquently stated in an earlier post. Living in a ghetto section 8 bldg on Battery (pun intended) those gas powered blowers woke me up and ring in my ears on Wednesdays or whatever day the new low end landscaper crews choose to show up. This goes all the way back to when Aldon owned the bldg. The company 'Scapers are excellent because when I walked by Sussex House ON July first, the were NOT using gas! I know this is political and all the information on electricity sources are valid, and local government is too powerful and stupid, the loudness is the hill I'm choosing to die on. And you watch, next week when the fly by night crews whom HOC chose to hire for landscaping on their property will more than likely still be using the illegal equipment... Made into law BY the very county known as MoCo. I have my camera at the ready, will be taking pictures of faces and calling 311 AND filling out the online complaint form every. Damn. Time.
Back to reality of the real world where virtually nobody in Bethesda does their own lawn. Personally I could care less about a "perfect" lawn but this is how it should work in a free society giving people choices and if you want complete peace and quiet, buy enough acreage to accomplish this. Dictating what you think is the right thing to do without looking in the mirror is probably why many people here are very happy not living next door to your house. Unfortunately this is how Elrich and the current council, (which you likely support), got elected.
An interesting perspective, @5:22. It appears you are saying it is entirely reasonable and rational that the selection by a neighbor [or his agents] of gratuitously unnecessary gas-powered leaf-clearing noise —remember, rakes, corded electric, or sufficient batteries to operate quieter cordless electric leaf blowers are each viable alternatives to attain that leaf-free look— should be countenanced, accepted, despite the significant intrusive disruption this particular method of leaf-clearing imposes on *all* neighbors within its considerable earshot; that the autonomy of a gas-blower homeowner is threatened by “dictates” of neighbors who are obliged to endure the cacophony. The rights of the gas-power contingent are to be respected, irrespective of the fact the noise they create on a property leeches onto multiple properties of numerous neighbors. In your view, noise-adjacent neighbors are to be denied the right to use their own property as they choose —to not have the atmosphere polluted with the sound of gas blowers— because doing so would impinge on the gas blower user, who has quieter alternatives available to achieve the ends he desires, but who can’t be bothered. In other words, you endorse denying the peace and convenience of the many in order to accommodate the selfish laziness and apathy of the few. “Sure, those leaves can be cleared in several ways that don’t disturb half the neighborhood, but what the hell do I care about anyone in the world but myself?”
How noble, admirable, and civilized of you; doubtless the toast of your community.
2:22 fails to see the forest from the trees and looks at the scale from an all in perspective when even grade school attendees can understand the reasoning of 1:48 & 5:22's arguments. No doubt you're one of those Karen's that all your neighbors dread but maintain a respectful relationship in fear of getting into a dissertation about why they're not doing things they way they should.
Take a break from self-appointed block captain for a while and have a drink.
@4:28, “even grade school attendees can understand the reasoning” Nice strawman. I fully understand 1:48's and 5:22's comments. The first is battery tech isn't as good as gas blower tech, thus, homeowners must be allowed to continue using gas blowers, [because the only consideration is clearing the lawn and only the most efficient technology may be used.] The second argument to which you refer is summed up as "My property, my choice, my right, and tough if those choices spill onto your property and affect you."
You, as property owner, have every right to keep your yard leaf-free, but you are not guaranteed the right to do it in a specific way, however efficient that might seem to you. You may keep pets, too, but not tigers or crocodiles. The government is allowed to set limits and restrictions on behavior, even behavior on private land. No one is stopping you altogether from clearing debris from the grass; with gas blowers outlawed there remain various means for accomplishing clean yards. Some of the methods are old and manual, some new and not perfected, but they all remain available, so you aren’t being denied your right to remove leaves. Burning leaves might be more efficient than bagging or raking them to the curb, but the practice is still illegal, because it is dangerous as well as a pollutant. So, too, gas blowers. Sustained exposure to elevated noise levels [from gas blowers] is not only unpleasant and intrusive for neighbors to listen to, it can be injurious to health, both mental and physical. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6707732/
The government has a right to place parameters on how activities are conducted. Your property, your rights, but not without limits. Would you defend a homeowner’s right to do as they please if the noise from down the block were not leaf blowers but a pool party in full swing at 3 am? If your neighbor blasted heavy metal (or Beethoven's 7th --the style of music matters not) from giant outdoor speakers without interruption from 8 in the morning until 4 or 5 in the evening, for days on end, would you think, "I should move to a bigger piece of property, so my neighbor's music won't intrude on me," or would you think, "For the love of god, turn that down before I lose my mind!" After all, it is their property, their choice. As the leaf-clearer makes gas-powered noise to enjoy the subjective aesthetic of tidy grounds, the Iron Maiden fan cranks his music to 11 for similarly subjective aesthetics: he likes it that way. Their property, their choice. Are you and 5:22 actually suggesting you'd sit idly by if the pool party or metal concert raged on for hours? Be honest.
You close by suggesting I “Take a break from self-appointed block captain for a while and have a drink,” offering insight to what role you play in your community.
Drink never made a man better, but it made many a man think he was better. —Finley Peter Dunne
Reductio ad absurdum on display. You completely make my point. So happy that I don't live next door to you.
Seriously, get some help as worrying about what your neighbors can and can't do in generally decent Bethesda isn't something to get so worked up about. You already got your blower ban so bask in that glorious victory! BTW, Trump is our president for the next 3.5 years!
Excellent post @5:03!
Excellent post @7:04
This is thread has a big number of comments and several of them very very long, so it's obviously touched a nerve. What some of you people don't realize is that if I don't get my sleep, get irritated, can't concentrate all the while suffering from ADHD & clinical depression, it's situations like this (blower drone) that are very possiblity ripe for people like me to actually and finally snap causing retaliatory incidents ultimately resulting in harm done to others and police involvement, so all of you long posting pro gas leaf blowers here really need to look at it from a third point of view.
12:05 - Long posts. That's true. Question. Did you have that third point of view as it related to the Draconian covid lockdowns and the damage that that caused? Just curious. A gas leaf blower is a pin prick compared to that nightmare which was unnecessary now that we know the facts. Thanks, Dr. Fauci.
How will 12:05 complain when their house is burning down due to a battery fire for which we all know n/a will never mention anything?
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