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?