BETHESDA APARTMENTS HAD NO HEAT, NO ELEVATORS

The patience of residents at downtown Bethesda's 8200 Wisconsin Avenue apartment tower was sorely tested Thursday, as a transformer issue cut off heat and elevator service in the building. Temperatures were below freezing all day.

According to the building's management, melting snow flooded a transformer Thursday morning. A resident said the heat went off at 8:15 AM Thursday. He and the management said that heat was restored around 9:00 PM last night, after Pepco worked on the issue throughout the day.

Late last night, elevators in the high-rise remained out of service. Building management said they hoped to have them running by this morning. But there is no certainty as to how long the repairs will take.

BETHESDA PURPLE LINE SURPRISES INCLUDE 9-STORY SMOKESTACK AT BETHESDA ROW, LOSS OF SOME ELM ST. PARKING - PURPLE LINE UPDATE

A Montgomery Planning Department memo by Senior Planner David Anspacher provides not only an update on the future Purple Line light rail, but also some little-known effects it will have in the Bethesda Row area.

Earlier, I reported on the noisy nighttime Capital Crescent Trail tunnel work planned for the first half of March.

That is part of the preliminary design phase, which Anspacher says will conclude this summer. At that point, the Federal Transit Administration will accept that report, and issue a Record of Decision. Then there will be a mandatory referral of three projects: the rebuilding of the Capital Crescent Trail, the future Bethesda South Elevators that will access the Red and Purple Lines, and the Purple Line itself.

What's new?

South Entrance

While the long-overdue Bethesda Metro South Entrance elevator project has been much-discussed, this memo also mentions that the current Regal Bethesda 10-side parking lane on Elm Street will be seized for the elevator site.

The high-speed elevators will take pedestrians down to a lobby level for the Purple Line, and to the Metro Red Line mezzanine level. There will also be a stairway from Elm Street down to the Purple Line.

Capital Crescent Trail

The CCT is currently planned to cross Wisconsin Avenue as a glorified crosswalk, a potentially-dangerous situation that has concerned many trail users.

Anspacher says one option is to deny drivers left turns onto Wisconsin from Bethesda Avenue.  However, that idea is opposed by the Town of Chevy Chase and some Bethesda businesses.

MCDOT is preparing a second option, which is simply a "protected" light cycle for trail users at the intersection.

The surprising part of the memo, is that planners have resurrected the idea of a new underground crossing under Wisconsin Avenue. They've asked the Maryland MTA to study the feasibility of such a tunnel - which was declared dead by the County Council last year - in time for its possible inclusion in the 2014 update of the Bethesda Central Business Sector Plan update.

Fan Towers - Bethesda Row "Smokestack"

Here's the big one. Maybe this was discussed in some meeting somewhere, or buried in thick reports, but this is the first I've heard of it:

A 9-story exhaust tower will be erected outside of the current Capital Crescent Trail tunnel entrance at Bethesda Row, in full view from Barnes and Noble, Landmark Bethesda Row Theatre, and Haagen Dazs.

Essentially a smokestack, it will only emit smoke during a smoke emergency within the tunnel.  But the exhaust fans within the smokestack will have to be tested once a month, and are required by federal law.

A second smokestack will be at the Air Rights Building garage.

Planners clearly anticipate community displeasure regarding the smokestacks.

They are pleading with the MTA to find an alternative location, or to design "an iconic treatment that makes it a landmark in Bethesda." Good luck with that, man.

The only real hope of hiding the tower, in my opinion, is to incorporate it into the new Woodmont East development.

Elm Street Park

While Elm Street Park is not expected to be impacted physically by Purple Line construction, the MTA will erect screening to block the view of construction from park patrons.

WORDS YOU NEVER WANT IN THE SAME SENTENCE: "BETHESDA METRO" "ELEVATOR CLOSED FOR 4 MONTHS" "SHUTTLE BUS"

(Insert scream here)

Apologists for Metro's failed leadership team have another disaster to explain away:  WMATA sent out an ominous press release yesterday, which says they will be taking the Bethesda Metro station street-to-mezzanine level elevator "out of service for approximately four months," starting late this month.

Great news for a station that is barely usable anymore, with escalators that constantly fail.  Of course, in the Orwellian world of Metro's leadership, and their go-along-to-get-along fans in the press, that is calculated as "90% reliability."  Yeah, right!

Yes, we know that elevators need work over time.  But why did they wait until it required a full overhaul, and when the escalators are failing?

Free shuttle service will be available, WMATA says.  Riders who need a shuttle should ask the station manager, or call 202-962-1825.

Here's the best part: if the up and down escalators fail during the elevator's four-month shutdown, the Bethesda Metro station "will need to temporarily close for safety reasons."

How can you have a station in a major town like Bethesda be virtually inaccessible via escalators on a regular basis?

At a corporation, leaders get fired for a performance like this.

Metro is a great system, and it and we deserve better than this.

The new southern elevator entrance to the Bethesda station cannot be built a minute too soon.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

COUNCIL APPROVES

FUNDING FOR

NEW BETHESDA

METRO SOUTH

ELEVATORS

The Montgomery County Council has just voted to include funding for the future south entrance to the Bethesda Metro station. Also known as the "Purple Line elevators," they will provide access to the future light rail station at Bethesda Row.

This approval means that there will eventually be a reliable entrance to use when Metro's escalators break down. It also keeps the Purple Line project on schedule with the state of Maryland's construction calendar.

E-DAY FOR

BETHESDA

Today is the day the Montgomery County Council is scheduled to vote on the funding of a south entrance to the Bethesda Metro station.

The council session begins at 9:30 AM; the issue will come up later.

Elevators would not only provide speedy access to the Metro platform, but also to the future Bethesda Row Purple Line light rail station. The new entrance would be located at the southwest corner of the 355-Elm Street intersection, by the Apex Building.

Prior to completion of the Purple Line, the new entrance would serve as an alternative to the station's current, failing escalator entrance at the Bethesda Metro Center.

The so-called competitor for these funds, a Wall Street-style $42 million dollar bailout of developers in downtown Wheaton, has been removed.

Yesterday, the council voted to fund an alternative proposal. But don't be fooled. The council's alternative will still force out small businesses, and eventually lead to the demolition of the entire Wheaton Triangle retail district. That is an unacceptable outcome. Not only do the demo-inducing provisions of the 2011 Wheaton Sector Plan remain in place, but merchants will lose most of the parking spaces currently used by their customers. It's clear that the council wants to boost pressure on any remaining profitable businesses in Wheaton to move elsewhere. Does it make sense to have a new office tower jammed right in the center of two-level commercial space? What happened to old-fashioned planning rules? The proposed office building is incompatible with the surrounding structures. Don't get me started about the "town square" scam! Sure, the council's increasingly-embarrassing $42M bailout is temporarily tabled. But their new plan is six of one, half-a-dozen of the other.

Hopefully, yesterday's grandstanding has freed up funds for the new Metro entrance, however. It's the right decision for increased transit ridership, public health and safety, and the Purple Line.

UNHAPPY TRAILS

TO YOU

Purple Line Advances Out of

Council Transportation Committee,

CCT All But Certain to Cross

Wisconsin Ave. at Street Level

The Montgomery County Council's Transportation Committee took several steps toward restoring the Purple Line to the CIP budget. It also went back on its word to supporters of the Capital Crescent Trail, that the trail would remain in the Purple Line tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue.

Assuming the new plan is approved by the full council, here's what you'll get:

* An underground Purple Line station

* Grade-separated crossing at Connecticut Avenue

* Funds to "rebuild" the Capital Crescent Trail alongside the rail line

What you won't get is the CCT through the tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue. This was a cop-out by the committee. Is the trail question a no-win scenario? Absolutely. But that is the council's fault. They promised trail supporters that it would remain in the tunnel. Period.

One consolation for trail users: you will witness, in the coming years, the construction of the world's first "gold standard" bike lane along 47th Street, Willow Lane and Bethesda Avenue. What exactly a "gold standard," "guaranteed to be safe" crossing (that doesn't quadruple gridlock on a state highway, to boot) consists of is unknown. Mainly because no such thing exists right now, but we are going to witness a historic first in bike safety, ladies and gentlemen! So promises your county council. And you can trust their promises, right? They're so good at keeping their promises.

This is a "gold standard" promise this time, folks! They promise!

The next big Purple Line hurdle comes Monday, when the council takes up the south entrance for the Bethesda Metro station and Purple Line.

Some are still saying this project is in a zero sum competition for funding with the "redevelopment" of downtown Wheaton.

I would say that if a developer cannot meet the financial commitments of this unnecessary and oversized "redevelopment," it ought not to be in the business of doing so. If the finances are that slim on the project, why would we put up $42 million in taxpayer money?

The elevators are the project that meet the greater public need.

BETHESDA METRO

SOUTH ENTRANCE

DESIGN PROPOSAL

Check out this amazing, 3-D cutaway graphic of the proposed new entrance to the Bethesda Metro station, provided by the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center.

In this rendering, you are standing northeast of the intersection of Elm Street and Wisconsin Avenue. The Apex Building - home of Regal Bethesda 10 - is straight ahead, behind the above-ground entrance to the elevators.

These high speed elevators will provide a functioning entrance to the station, unlike the unreliable escalators we have now. They also will facilitate easier access to Metro from Bethesda Row, and to the eventual Purple Line station.

One interesting bit of trivia: this entrance was always planned for the future, and that part of the existing station - and its wall panels - were preconfigured for the south entrance, when the station was originally built.

This illustration is cool enough to make me dust off my childhood copy of David Macaulay's "Underground." Ah, the fine art, beauty and urban utility of a true subway. No mess at street level, no overhead wires and utilities. No creeping and crawling through busy streets, like trolleys and light rail.

That magic train arriving at the lower left is something special. Thanks to horrific mismanagement, many of us have forgotten how lucky we are to have this thing running beneath us in downtown Bethesda. If we can ever get the right people at the top at Metro, and on the board - and clearly they are not there presently - and complete the system, Metro can be right at the top of subway systems worldwide.

I believe it's possible, and if you do too, stop accepting mediocrity, and start speaking and voting your mind.

It's just impossible to believe that stations can be closed every weekend, for what seems like a year now, and have no results tangible to the rider. America could put a man on the moon in ten years, and it takes five to fix an escalator at Bethesda Metro Center?! "Give me a break," as Bill Clinton once said. To have the audacity to ask for more... More?! We need elected officials who are going to stop accepting excuses.

Meanwhile, I don't know what strategy lays behind the cynical ploy of some officials in MoCo to pit the Bethesda south station entrance against the developer-payoff of Wheaton "redevelopment." I believe it has backfired, as there is simply no comparison between the urgent need for a functioning Bethesda station entrance, and a Disneyfication of an already-great community in Wheaton, to benefit developers at taxpayer expense.

That is one nifty graphic up there. Can our elected officials make it reality?

WHEATON

VS.

NEW BETHESDA METRO

ELEVATORS

VS.

SPACEMAN BILL LEE

Funding a Functioning Metro Entrance is Far

Better Use of $ than Lining Wheaton Developer Pockets

Recent days have presented us with a false argument: Not only the nutty idea that the "redevelopment" (fancy replacement term for discredited old phrase "urban renewal") of downtown Wheaton means we can't build a second entrance to the Bethesda Metro station. And not only the even nuttier claim that county officials "don't really want to redevelop Wheaton (it has been a top priority of theirs and of the developers who fund their campaigns).

No, the biggest false argument is that downtown Wheaton needs to be redeveloped at the expense of other, critical infrastructure projects.

Wheaton and I go way back. I've always lived in Bethesda, but Wheaton and Aspen Hill are among the places I've spent considerable time since childhood through today. So I'm emotionally invested in both, and certainly want the best for Wheaton's future.

The reality is that the proposed redevelopment is not only unnecessary, but is not even wanted by many small business owners in Wheaton.

Those businesses, many owned by Latino and Asian entrepreneurs, will be forced out. So will low/middle income residents of apartments near the downtown. Our elected officials say it's not their fault, and that there is little they can do prevent these de facto evictions.

In fact, it is entirely their fault. It is exactly because of their votes to pass irresponsible sector plans in areas like Wheaton, Kensington, and later Long Branch and Takoma/Langley Crossroads, that this tragedy will occur. These plans are the equivalent of a TILT in pinball, literally flipping groups of parcels to entice sales by older landowners to waiting developers.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Wheaton. The most pressing issue has been crime. But crime is not a real estate problem. It is a police problem. Everyone from citizens to the police chief himself has said we need to hire more officers. $42 million could hire a lot of new officers.

When I think of Wheaton, I think of Wheaton Regional Park, Wheaton Library, The Anchor Inn, Wheaton Plaza (fully-leased, according to Westfield - hardly a failing mall despite desperate pro-developer claims otherwise), Toys R Us, Barry's Magic Shop, the martial arts supply store on Georgia Avenue, Barbarian Books, Chuck Levin's, Irene's Pupusas, Roy Rogers, IHOP, the old arcade on University Boulevard, Wheaton Music...

The list goes on and on. A lot of those are gone already, thanks to rents rising in expectation of the Wild West, anything-goes sector plan passage.

Most of the new people on the scene have no appreciation of those places. They don't mind if Irene's is replaced with a Chipotle. Or if working people are tossed out to make way for wealthy, luxury condo owners living in a taxpayer-subsidized Disneyland.

Clearly, if one has $42 million burning a hole in their pocket, a small portion of that could be used to provide more police resources, keep existing shopping and residential centers in good shape, and make highway and infrastructure improvements.

With pressing needs addressed, Wheaton is doing just fine. Visit sometime, and you'll find that - by golly - they do have good restaurants. Some of the best chicken can be ordered in Wheaton, and many critics have said the best dim sum is at Wheaton Plaza's Hollywood East Cafe.

Change will come to Wheaton, but let the market bring it, parcel by parcel.

Developer profit in Wheaton is not an urgent concern of 99.9% of people there or countywide.

What is urgent, is that we have a failing Metro entrance here in Bethesda. It not only threatens ridership and economic activity, but also the health of riders. Our deep station was never meant to be exited on a staircase.

The second, southern entrance has been on the books for many years. In fact, some elements were already laid out when the station was built.

Although the new entrance at Elm Street is not actually in a zero sum competition with downtown Wheaton, it is a no brainer that maintaining highly-used public infrastructure in Bethesda outweighs the need for developer profit in Wheaton. Besides, wouldn't a Wheaton Library and community recreation center expenditure binge more directly benefit Wheaton residents than building Paradise Towers and Chipotle?

Improving an area doesn't require demolition. So let me leave you with the wise words of legendary Boston Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee:

"I reuse everything...I'm the true conservationist. (T)hese new, extravagant places...they just don't get the memo on the planet Earth that you're supposed to use old places, renovate 'em, conserve and save your fossil fuels and your money."

Sounds like good advice for making tough budget decisions.

BETHESDA METRO

ELEVATORS

BACK IN BUDGET...

FOR NOW

Construction of new elevators at the Bethesda Metro Center has been in doubt since Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett excluded funding for them from his proposed CIP budget.

Yesterday, a county council committee restored the funding, which has the support of Council President Roger Berliner.

Now the issue will go to the full council.

The elevators, further south on Wisconsin Avenue from the existing Metro entrances, are planned to also provide access to the future Purple Line station under the road and Air Rights Building.

The Purple Line itself is currently unfunded, but continued escalator breakdowns at Bethesda have added a sense of urgency to the elevator project.

I expect that funding to be restored as well. But while we wait for the Purple Line, today's Red Line riders need a reliable and safe entrance.

These elevators would provide that. Failure to build them will continue to reduce Metro ridership while traffic is worse than ever in downtown Bethesda.