Founded in 2012 by entrepreneur Iva Gotzev, the original Toolbox can host everything from corporate events to weddings, in a space that combines warm, natural surfaces with displays of art. If the same model is followed at the Bethesda location, it would be the second dedicated event venue to open in downtown Bethesda in as many years, following The Cordell at 4865 Cordell Avenue. A third, Bonvenue at 7615 Wisconsin Avenue, remains in limbo for now.
Flanagan's closed in 2020 after decades as a fixture in downtown Bethesda. What triggered the demise of a business that had weathered so many economic downturns of the past? The anti-business policies of the Montgomery County Council, and the Council's 2012 Nighttime Economy Initiative, delivered stiff body blows to every hospitality business in the County, with the latter leading to the closure of over 25 nightspots in downtown Bethesda over the ensuing years. At the time of the closure, the owner cited the County Council's Bethesda Streetery street closures, and the County's pandemic ban on live music, as the straws that broke the camel's back. The exit of Flanagan's saw Bethesda become one of the few towns in America without a single Irish pub, adding to its existing notoriety as one of the few towns in America without a St. Patrick's Day parade.
Detour signs will be posted to guide drivers around the closure. The blockading of the secondary north-south route through downtown Bethesda will have a significant impact on traffic during July and August, due to the loss of two travel lanes on Wisconsin that are restricted to buses during the closure of three Red Line Metro stations this summer. WSSC notes that the closure could extend beyond early November if the area should experience long periods of disruptive weather.
Some factors in CNBC's criteria certainly hit Maryland where it hurts. These included job growth, economic growth, and the number of major companies headquartered in the state. The first two "flatlined" over the last 12 months, in CNBC's own word, and Maryland hasn't attracted a single new major corporate headquarters this century. In fact, the story has been the number of companies leaving the state. "Budget situation" isn't a category any Maryland elected official would want to delve into publicly. Debt? Maryland and Montgomery County are both in deadly serious trouble on that front, as well.
"Small business survival rates?" Ho ho. The ubiquitous "Going Out of Business" and "Everything must go!!!" signs in Montgomery County storefront windows tell a most tragic story indeed.
"Maryland finds itself in a deep hole in 2026, with no easy way out of it," CNBC concluded. But the picture is even bleaker than the one painted by the already-stinging rebuke of a friendly, liberal news outlet. They didn't even mention the budget apocalypse currently forecast for the state in 2030.
Can we continue to whistle past the graveyard, raising taxes and instituting new ones? Refusing for radical ideological reasons to construct the long-delayed new Potomac River crossing to the Dulles area? Continuing to block completion of our master plan highway system? Keep on losing, and often hardly trying, in the corporate HQ relocation sweepstakes?
We could. And we just might end up topping CNBC's worst list in the future. It's one of the few things within easy reach for the buffoonish incompetents currently running Montgomery County and Maryland. After all, "We're number two - we try harder."
Predictably, the hardest-hit areas are downcounty, in Bethesda, Rockville, and Silver Spring. Many Rockville residents are looking at $12,000 tax bills. "It was about $12,000 last year," lamented a Bethesda homeowner holding a tax bill for more than $15,000. As I have noted for many years now, Montgomery County property taxes have increasingly become a second mortgage for homeowners. It's simply incredible that the Council would slam homeowners with tax increases this high in the middle of an affordability crisis. Most of this money ends up in the pockets of the Montgomery County cartel, the puppeteers behind our Marxist County Council.
Don't forget, in May the Council also added a new wealth tax on the "rich," whom our stuck-in-the-1960s Council defines as (in Dr. Evil "one million dollars" voice) anyone making over $150,000. That's only $18,000 higher than the median income of $132,450 in Montgomery County! $150,000 is just squeaking by and surviving, especially with a County Council of overpaid, underworked oligarchs who draw an annual salary of $167,172 from you, the taxpayer, for a few hours of "work" per week. One of the best kept secrets of the Council is that many members over the years have used the lax Council schedule, and their overinflated salaries, to put themselves through graduate or law school at your expense. If only you were as criminally street smart as the County Council, you might throw the bums out on Election Day!
There is an existing LaserAway location at Pike & Rose, which - like Bethesda Row - is also owned by Federal Realty. LaserAway offers a wide variety of skincare treatments and services. These include laser hair removal, tattoo removal, microneedling, CoolSculpting (freezing of "fat cells" that are then naturally discarded by the body, a non-surgical fat removal alternative), laser facials, thermage, and dermal fillers.
