Montgomery County recently designated the new extension segment of Westbard Avenue to River Road in Bethesda as the 5600 block of "Brookside Drive." As I anticipated, the Kenwood neighborhood across River is not happy about this. Not only is there concern about confusion for drivers, as Brookside Drive is officially in Chevy Chase as opposed to Bethesda, but Brookside Drive is an elite street address strongly associated with Kenwood. Kenwood's citizens association has asked Montgomery County to change it. According to the Springfield Civic Association, the County renamed the new block Brookside Drive "because our neighbors on the 5500 Block of Westbard have decided to keep their addresses on Westbard and so a different name is needed for that stretch of newly realigned road."
Montgomery County's Planning Department will make the final decision whether to change the name, and what the replacement name will be. It is soliciting a list of suggestions from both the Springfield and Kenwood neighborhoods, which members of their respective civic associations will begin voting on between today and December 8. Names cannot be similar to existing street names within Montgomery County.
Write-in votes are allowed. It's unclear if the Planning Department will consider additional names at a later point in the process.
Might I suggest writing in a few names that are actually related to the location? Petey Greene was the pioneering African-American broadcaster whose program was recorded a short walk from this street at the WDCA-20 television studios. His colleague, Dick Dyzsel, is well-known locally, and recognized among horror fans nationally for his Count Gore de Vol persona. Andy Russo was a president of the Springfield Civic Association who tragically passed away at an early age. The late Carlos Bonds was the longtime owner of the Citgo station on Westbard Avenue. Peter Posey owned the farm that the Springfield neighborhood later was developed on.
This is a unique opportunity to help create a "sense of place" unique to the Westbard area, but it could end up being yet another missed opportunity if a generic name is chosen.
6 comments:
The 5500 block of Westbard Avenue would have been happy to change that block's street name/address. That would allow the newly realigned road to be named Westbard Avenue all the way from River Road to Mass Ave.
Unfortunately, the SCA decided to publicly advocate in favor of allowing continued cut-through traffic on the 5500 block of Westbard, which alienated the residents of that block.
I thought SCA said in public meeting this past month that 5500
Block Of Westbard Avenue residents wanted to keep their mailing addresses?
What do the two things have to do with each other? So the residents of this street kept their name out of spite?
Why do the residents want the name to be changed?
That schism between the residents of the 5500 block of Westbard and the rest of the Springfield neighborhood brings to mind that old DC saying: if you want to have a friend get yourself a dog.
Changing your house's street address requires you to change a huge number of documents. Your license, social security card, mortgage documents, credit card info, and a dozen other things. Who wants to do that?
Residents of the 5500 block were willing to make that sacrifice for the good of the neighborhood, IF the rest of the neighborhood would support the 5500 block.
Sadly, the SCA took the position that neighborhood cut-through traffic is good, so long as it goes down the 5500 block. In the wake of that decision, residents of the 5500 block understandably didn't feel compelled to be altruistic.
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