Bethesda construction update: Montrose Crossing addition (Photos)

The new retail-restaurant structure that is replacing Timpano Italian Chophouse at Montrose Crossing is nearing completion. Each individual restaurant and store still has to complete fit-out of their respective interiors. You can see the design, complete with stringed lights, pavers and decorative street lamps, is a nod to the contemporary "town center" more than to the old-fashioned strip mall.

Honeygrow is on track to be the
first business to open in the new
building at Montrose Crossing

Honeygrow is closest to opening, with their permanent sign already installed on the facade. CAVA Grill has Coming Soon signage in place. Expect this to be one of the buildings that continues to operate when Montrose Crossing is redeveloped as a mixed-use property in future years.

More Honeygrow signage

Honeygrow's doors are already
stenciled

Honeygrow interior

TapaBar to close as owners experiment with new concepts

Despite positive reviews, TapaBar owners Alonso and Alvaro Roche have concluded "it is not quite the right fit for the neighborhood." With customer traffic declining, the brothers will close the restaurant at 4901-A Fairmont Avenue after its last night on New Year's Eve. On January 2, 2018, they will open a Pop Up Lab in the space, alternating concepts and cuisines in a search for the ideal replacement.

Whatever final concept is chosen, the Roches expect the resulting restaurant will be more family-friendly. With temperatures low, they feel the time is right for a pho pop-up in downtown Bethesda, so that will be the first experiment starting January 2. “Alvaro and I are Pho fanatics, and we figured there was no better way to utilize this great space during the cold winter months than by sharing one of our favorite comfort foods with our neighborhood,“ Chef Alonso Roche said.

The brothers expect to be busier than ever this year, with the planned opening of TacoArepa and its accompanying Sirena Beer Garden a few doors down on Fairmont Avenue.

Exposed: Montgomery County Council is not a "full-time job"

Wouldn't you like to have the power to raise your own salary? In doing just that, to a record $137,000 taxpayer dollars, the Montgomery County Council justified the cash grab by claiming serving on the Council was "a full-time job." That claim, already easily proven false, has now been totally debunked, after Councilmember George Leventhal released a statement yesterday announcing he has secretly been earning a doctorate in public policy.

In fact, Leventhal has been on a Rodney Dangerfield-esque return to college since 2007, by his own admission. He has been on the Council since 2002. Surely, his ever-increasing taxpayer-funded salary over the last decade has afforded him the ability to pad his thin resume with degree after degree, an advantage not available to many of the constituents paying his salary.

Council observers have known for some time that members have too much free time on their hands. New Council President Hans Riemer recently spent a day on Capitol Hill, trailed by taxpayer-funded County government TV crews to capture it all. Alas, things went awry when Riemer found himself being arrested by police in Washington, D.C. later that day. It's believed he is the first Montgomery County Councilmember to be arrested while in office.

Montgomery County celebrity Matthew Lesko has been selling books on how to get free money from Uncle Sam to earn a "GED, or a PhD!!!" on TV for years. Winning a County Council seat could actually be a smarter move at this point. Sit on a padded leather chair for four hours a week, and the rest of the time, earn a law or medical degree at taxpayer expense using your amped up Council salary. Maybe even hit up a few frat house parties in-between.

The Bell, California Council jacked up their own salaries, too, raising taxes massively to cover the costs. Sound familiar? Bell's Council is currently in prison. Montgomery's is on campus. What's wrong with this picture?

Hyatt Regency Bethesda lights up for Christmas (Photos)

Just in time for Christmas, we find out that the new LED accent lighting on the exterior of the Hyatt Regency Bethesda hotel can be customized. The hotel is now sporting red and green Christmas lights in a candy cane pattern.

More closures at Cabin John Mall

Momo Taro Sushi Express has closed at Cabin John Mall. Fashion Flair Cleaners will be next, when it closes its doors at the end of this month.

Macedonia Baptist Church requests historic designation for endangered Bethesda cemetery

Action freezes development

at cemetery site

Macedonia Baptist Church has filed a formal request with the Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission and Planning Board to have the threatened Moses African Cemetery declared historic. “With this filing, Macedonia is engaging the protective laws that were in place over two years ago when the Historic Preservation Commission informed the county that Parcels 175 & 177 were ‘of high archeological interest,’" church leaders said in a statement. "Right then and there the County should have embraced HPC’s recommendations to purchase the land and protect it."

Parcels 175 and 177 are parts of a historic black cemetery that contains among its remains the first generation of freed slaves in Maryland, adjacent to the Westwood Tower apartments on Westbard Avenue and an auto repair shop on River Road. Past members of the lost African-American community along that stretch of River Road are buried there, and some of their descendants have been located and are engaged in the fight to prevent the graveyard from development.

In their statement, the church refers to the Montgomery County cartel that I often reference on this website, a cartel that has been behind a team County government effort to steamroller the church and descendant community all of this year. "Land use in Montgomery County is controlled by a rogue cartel of developers and compromised county officials—by serious conflicts of interest because of the campaign contributions developers pour into county elections. 'This cartel was on full display Thursday night when it rubber stamped the further desecration of Moses Cemetery and ignored the wishes of the community yet again,'" Macedonia social justice director Marsha Coleman-Adebayo said.

Harvey Matthews, a church trustee and resident of the lost River Road community until his family was forced off its land in the late 1950s, noted that Montgomery County gives greater protected status to pet cemeteries than to black cemeteries like Moses. "Shockingly, the County will protect dogs and cats and snakes—in perpetuity—under the dictates of historic preservation law," Matthews said Wednesday. "Maybe they would let our ancestors—who were often treated by veterinarians while enslaved—rest in peace beside Fido, and Garfield and Monty Python.”

The church's request requires the HPC by law to begin the process of adding the Moses Cemetery site to the Montgomery County Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites. That interim step temporarily prevents any additional development at the two parcels in which the cemetery was established in 1911.

New police station sign lit

The "police" sign at the new 2nd District Montgomery County police station in Bethesda is now lit. It is located at 4823 Rugby Avenue.

Construction workers at 7900 Wisconsin give neighbors rude awakening

Residents near the construction site of JBG Smith's 7900 Wisconsin Avenue development are complaining of illegal noise workers are making hours before they legally can start work. On Monday, December 4, several residents reported workers arrived at the site at 4:30 AM, and began to make noise. Under Montgomery County noise rules, construction cannot begin before 7:00 AM on weekdays, and before 9:00 AM on weekends.

The Board of Directors of the Fairmont Plaza condos directly adjacent to the site is advising residents to file a Two-Party noise complaint with the County any night or morning they are awakened outside of legal working hours. Residents of 7770 Norfolk, Bainbridge Bethesda or any other residence in earshot can do the same. Those filing complaints should also alert their building manager each time, so that they can track the infractions by the construction company.

MoCo Council to take another stab at criminalizing the homeless

The Montgomery County Council building is just overflowing with Christmas spirit, as the Council is taking the initial steps before the holiday break to criminalize the homeless. This isn't the first time, as the Council tried this previously in their last term, but ran into controversy, including a report from a national organization that condemned the effort.

With Council Bill 39-17, they will again attempt to ban panhandling in the County. The Council memorably claimed last time that the majority of those who panhandle are not actually homeless, but "professional panhandlers" who drive into the County each morning from out-of-state. That's probably news to the folks in downtown Bethesda and Silver Spring whose main wheels are shopping carts filled with everything they own.

What's driving the Council's mania to criminalize the homeless? Well, it may just have something to do with politics and the election year ahead. Councilmember George Leventhal has given himself loud credit for supposedly finding homes for every single homeless veteran in Montgomery County. The local media hasn't bothered to fact check Leventhal on that claim, and simply print it as fact. In reality, it's almost impossible to verify such a boast, which is probably why Leventhal is making it.

Now Leventhal has promised to house every single homeless person in the County by December 2018. Conveniently, that will be a month after the election, in which Leventhal is running for County Executive. Wouldn't it also be convenient to use a panhandling ban to clear the homeless from their most-visible perches on County roads, to make it appear as if they aren't there?

They've just banned circus animals, now the homeless...think they'll get around to dealing with that $120,000,000 budget shortfall anytime soon?

Antiques pop-up moving in on Cordell Avenue in Bethesda (Photos)

An antiques pop-up shop is moving into the vacant photography studio at 4715 Cordell Avenue. I seem to recall a similar store "popping up" last year around this time. This was previously a photography studio.

Bethesda demolition update: Apex Building (Photos)

Demolition of the Apex Building has been concentrated at the rear of the structure in recent weeks. But work on the Wisconsin Avenue side is now picking up. They've even plucked off the 2s in the building's 7272 Wisconsin address.

Construction picking up pace at Dog Haus Biergarten in Bethesda

Construction crews have resumed working at full steam inside the future Dog Haus Biergarten at 7904 Woodmont Avenue. They're also now hiring for all positions. This may be the end of the long delay since Dog Haus first confirmed they were opening a Bethesda location in April.

Christmas decorations at The Palisades in Bethesda (Photos)

It's time to take our annual trip to see the Christmas decorations outside The Palisades luxury apartments on Cordell Avenue in the Woodmont Triangle. New this year are light-up candy canes around the circle out front.

New sign at Bethesda Vapor Company

Bethesda Vapor Company, located at 4823-B Fairmont Avenue, has a new lighted sign. The shop opened in August 2014, and has managed to weather a legislative assault on the vaping industry by the Montgomery County Council in 2015.

Credit cards stolen from purse at Bethesda Trader Joe's (Photos)

One patron of Trader Joe's had problems worse than the cramped parking for the popular Bethesda grocery store. Her credit cards were snatched from her purse by a man on November 27 around 5:00 PM, while a second man distracted her with conversation. The cards were then used to make purchases at the Tenleytown Best Buy store.

Suspect one is described as an adult male in his early 30s with dark hair, 6’2” tall, and weighing between 210 and 230 pounds. Suspect two is described as an adult male in his early to mid 40s with dark hair and a full beard., 5’10” tall, and weighing between 180 and 190 pounds.

Anyone with information regarding these suspects is asked to call the 2nd District Patrol Investigations Unit at 240-773-6700. Those who wish to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information provided that leads to an arrest in this case.

Bethesda Nationwide office moves to Rockville

Nationwide Insurance has relocated from Cordell Avenue in Bethesda to 751 Rockville Pike in Rockville. They are in Suite 6-B. The new office is next to the Marlo Furniture showroom.

The vacant Bethesda office
is now for lease