Dog vs. grass saga continues at Bethesda apartment tower

It's been a dog-eat-dog world for the grassy mounds that make up the green space on the promenade at the 8001 Woodmont apartment tower in Bethesda since the building opened. While many expected these grassy hills to be a park-like leisure space for adults and children, once residents started moving in, they quickly became a public restroom for neighborhood dogs, whose owners haven't always collected their canines' deposits. Along with the disgusting reality that the germs in the dog waste don't magically evaporate from the grass even if the solid material is picked up, the lush carpeted lawns became much less inviting to have your kids crawling around on, much less a spot for picnics or outdoor movie screenings.

By the fall of 2022, the building had posted signs begging people to keep their dogs off of the grassy mounds. More recently, fencing was finally put up around the mounds, giving the space a less than pleasant Little Falls Parkway Road Diet Bollards aesthetic. Now, however, all of the verdant grass has been torn out. In its place are scattered tufts of a less-luxurious grass species, and a lot of brown dirt. This has left the promenade temporarily competing with that weird spot at Westbard Square for the Roughest Public Space in Bethesda title.

For those keeping score, the dogs are currently winning.

Truck driver ignores clearance warning at Bethesda apartment tower

There's a whole genre of video online that consists of trucks driven by overconfident or distracted operators crashing into overpasses despite signage warning them in advance. It's too bad one of those omnipresent camerapersons wasn't on hand to document what Roscoe P. Coltrane would surely have described as "a horrendous crash" at Triangle Towers at 4835 Cordell Avenue in downtown Bethesda last week. Despite the large sign warning of an 8' clearance on the porte-cochère ahead, well, the driver apparently just decided to go for it. Doh! In addition to the masonry damage, the driveway had to be sealed off with warning tape. What would Damian Einstein say?

Metro pylon stripped at Bethesda Metro station

I guess this is the transit equivalent of coming out to find your car up on blocks. The new version of the iconic Metro station pylon at the Bethesda Metro station installed last August has been totally stripped. All that's left is the interior frame that supports the familiar brown monolith. Well, if you always wondered what was inside the pylon, now you know. 

Latest Little Falls Parkway road diet opens to traffic in Bethesda

The latest of several road diets on Little Falls Parkway implemented - or, more accurately, inflicted upon the public - by Montgomery County has opened to vehicle traffic. In the newest iteration, a grass median has returned between a single travel lane in each direction between Arlington Road and Dorset Avenue. The latest road diet was overwhelmingly opposed by the surrounding communities, and by 73% of residents who took valuable time to testify before the Montgomery County Planning Board. Public input was thrown aside by the board, Montgomery Parks, and the Montgomery County Council, who put the steamroller in gear and floored the accelerator over the people who pay their salaries.

The things you see on a Woodmont Avenue sidewalk after a snowstorm (Photos)

A number of odd sightings were made on Woodmont Avenue Saturday, after the overnight snowstorm, between Fairmont and Cordell Avenues. Water pouring onto the sidewalk from a drain in a wall at the 8001 Woodmont apartment building had frozen into a waterfall of ice, and was cordoned off by a pair of JBG SMITH cones for safety purposes. 

Amazon packages had been left on the front step of the vacant former Sir Walter Raleigh restaurant building at 8011 Woodmont. And some of the building's street numbers - the 0 and a 1 - have been pried off. 

Finally, the vacant properties along Woodmont - including 8011 - that are now owned by the developer of the stalled Artena Bethesda project were again forcing their way into the news. The clear sidewalk of the southern portion of the block gave way to a narrow, one-person pathway in front of the Artena lots. That's not wide enough to meet ADA standards, much less for two able-bodied people to pass each other without someone stepping onto the ice and slush.

Bethesda Redbox machine soldiers on after shutdown (Photos)

A Redbox machine in Bethesda has defied the mandate of the New World Order to shut down. This movie machine at the Safeway at 5000 Bradley Boulevard is still plugged in, and its screen is operational. A sign on the machine indicated it would no longer be in service after July 22, 2024. But someone forgot to tell the machine. The irony is that the loss of Redbox in Bethesda was largely irrelevant, compared to the impact in America's "flyover country," and in rural areas with poor internet options. Don't tell Klaus Schwab!

Who is artifying the utility boxes of Bethesda? (Photos)

Utility boxes in downtown Bethesda have begun taking on a new appearance over the last few days. It started near the TD Bank at the intersection of Old Georgetown Road and Woodmont Avenue, with bright flowers and polka dots. Like a contagion, it began to spread further through the Central Business District. More flowers, and even some scary bees. Finally, the people responsible were caught in the act: CSI, a printing company whose output includes graphic wraps for vehicles...and utility boxes.

More data collection devices popping up in downtown Bethesda

These traffic data collection devices that first appeared on Woodmont Avenue, near the Bethesda Metro Center, are now popping up in the Woodmont Triangle. Here is more equipment that has just been installed near the intersection of Woodmont and Cordell Avenue. Exactly what type of data is being collected, and for what purpose, is so far unclear.

Squishable reopens at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda

Squishable has reopened at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. The store closed at the beginning of August, and the mall posted a sign indicating that a new retailer would soon fill the space. But the Squishables just wouldn't vacate the premises! Nothing was moved. Nothing changed. 

About two weeks later, the sign was reinstalled above the storefront. The windows remained covered. Now the store has reopened, without any explanation for what happened. So I'm filing this under the category of "weird" once again. Look for Squishable on Level 1 of the mall, between Bath & Body Works and Mango.

Squishable won't give up at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda

The squishables are refusing to go at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. Squishable closed a few weeks ago. Their sign was completely torn off, and the windows were papered over inside. But merchandise on the top shelf could still be seen inside. Yesterday, the sign was back in place, and the store's Google listing switched to say "Temporarily closed." Which forces me to add the label "weird" to this post.

Brick wall destroyed again at 7-Eleven in Bethesda (Photos)

Oh, no, not again! Someone accidentally or intentionally smashed into the brick wall along the property line separating 7-Eleven at 7820 Wisconsin Avenue from the vacant EagleBank property behind it in downtown Bethesda. The same thing happened last May, but the damage from yesterday's crash is even worse than last year's. About half of the wall is completely destroyed, just 13 months after it had been rebuilt. It looks like a guardrail or bollards are needed to prevent this recent surge in poor or malicious driving.

Mysterious tower crane appears behind Bethesda McDonald's

Tower cranes haven't been seen for decades in the Westbard area of Bethesda, and now there are two. One has a publicly-announced purpose, to assist in construction of the Kensington Senior Living apartment building on the former Westwood Center II site. But the second, which just appeared days ago behind the McDonald's on River Road, does not. 

The crane does not reach far enough to assist the KSL project. A long-delayed self-storage project behind the McDonald's is nearly six years behind schedule, but tower cranes are not used to construct self-storage buildings. The self-storage building here will be only three stories tall when completed. Very strange!

View of both tower cranes from
Westbard Avenue

Google Maps displaying alternative facts about Westbard road grid in Bethesda (Photos)

Google Maps is displaying incorrect information for the recently-reopened road network around Westbard Avenue in Bethesda. The website shows a traffic signal at the intersection of Westbard Avenue and Ridgefield Road, which reopened last Friday, December 1, 2023. There is no traffic signal at that intersection, only stop signs. But that's not all that's wrong.

Note shown by Google Maps
incorrectly labeling a block of
Ridgefield Road as "Closed"

Even more strangely, the "Traffic" layer of Google Maps is showing the block of Ridgefield Road between Newington Road and Westbard Avenue as "Closed until Jan. 19, 2024." This is also - obviously - incorrect, as the road has been open for three days now. I'm curious where Google is retrieving this data from. Up until today, I assumed that information about planned road closures was retrieved from official government feeds that announce such information - the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, in this case. 

Despite Google Maps' claims, there is
no traffic signal at this intersection

The rest of the traffic information for the Westbard area appears to be correct, including the recently opened "Brookside Drive" block between River Road and Westbard Avenue. I checked with a user of the Waze navigation app, who reported back that Waze was displaying accurate information about the Westbard area as of last night, so it appears to be a Google issue.