In My Back Yard…and In Town!

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Last weekend we visited the Glover-Archbald Community Garden, near DC’s National Cathedral (and 2Amys Pizza!), to drop off some straw for a friend’s patch (Image above lifted from Prince of Petworth).  Nearly three acres, the community garden is one of several associated with the District’s Field to Fork Initiative.  Our Montgomery County Parks Department Community Gardens Program is a similar effort.  For folks without the proper room or aspect for gardens in their yards, community garden plots are an excellent opportunity to bring nature into more urbanized areas, connect people back to the soil, and produce some mighty fine fruit and veg in the process.

In addition to the programs mentioned above, urban agriculture is on the minds of … Continue reading

Rethinking Shopping

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There’s a new approach to that great American pastime–consumption–that may inspire thrift and creativity. As part of the Rethink speaker’s series, we heard from  Adeela Abbasi with the Restore, Ruthie Mundell with Community Forklift, and Jason Holstine with Kensignton’s Amicus Green Building Center.

Restore and Forklift resell used and usable building materials from doorknobs to floor joists. And they accept donations, from a contractor who ordered the wrong item or a homeowner sick of storing the half box of tiles from a years-ago bathroom renovation.

Amicus does all the homework to help you make the best green building decisions for your lifestyle and budget. Jason pointed out that often the inexpensive and least sexy option is the best–think insulating before geo-thermal.

We were … Continue reading

More on Maps

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One phrase in this Slate Magazine article about hand-drawn maps snagged on my brain–“ruthless editing.”

Sometimes planners love their stuff so much it’s hard to let it go. On a map about bike routes, do you need to show lot lines? Does the boundary line need to appear on every map?

We know we’ll hear what you think about our zoning recommendations, but check out our plans and tell us what you think about our maps.

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz ….

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The debate over “plop art” continues – especially when art seems to provide more fizz than substance. Four sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle, which now sit outside the National Museum of Women in the Arts on New York Avenue, have some wondering if our exterior public spaces are given the same respect as our hallowed museum walls.

Despite their rotund nature, our local Post critic thinks they lack “weight”. Agreed. To a point. His take on it is that such engaging and fun works lack the potency of the subject matter on the canvases and sculptures within the area’s museums; that there is a dichotomy between our expectations of exterior and interior sculptures. As noted, some of de … Continue reading

energy and beauty in symmetry and repetition

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I think there is a particular kind of aesthetic beauty in the simple repetition of forms over large expanses of contrasting landscape. Even more so when those repeated forms provide sustainable energy.  The just-approved off-shore wind farm is one such example, solar “farms” are another.

Artists’ rendering of Cape Wind, via NY Times 

The well-heeled opposition to the mentioned wind farm has only posed the aesthetic argument that this visual intrusion into the seascape must by definition be negative.  I disagree.  I think it’s quite attractive, calming, and interesting.  I think the connotations only increase our appreciation of the natural environment that serves as the backdrop (or, more appropriately, the visual context/physical participant).  My interpretation is built on the … Continue reading

MRO Garden Plan

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The group got together last week to lay out the garden and quickly realized it was bigger than we thought and gets less than ideal sun. Nonetheless, we are planning on carrots, lots of chili peppers, some dwarf tomatoes, and a few central trellises of beans and cucumbers. And we are counting on that garden-workhorse, zucchini, to do its part.

Laying out a garden always makes me think of urban deisgner, Kevin Lynch, who taught at MIT for 30 years and was the author of the still influential book, Image of the City. In it, he coined the word “wayfinding” to describe how people identify the paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks in their communities to navigate the places … Continue reading

Metalheads: 3 Recent Public Artworks

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Funny thing, the number of project plan applications in Silver Spring peaked right before the requirement for workforce housing became effective. The now voluntary program would have required affordable housing for any projects over a certain residential density threshold. The fact that we had a rush of applications to beat that deadline was bad news for those of us in the “workforce” that need affordable housing, but it turned out to be good news for those of us who love art in public places.

Three examples, originally approved in 2005, have recently been installed around the Silver Spring area. Each uses various metals in significantly different ways and achieves distinct effects. Generally, they add a touch of contemporary style … Continue reading

End of the Week Links: April 23rd

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LOCAL

Thayer Avenue: Date Night 8407 Thayer Avenue hits up 8407 Kitchen Bar and calls it: “Awesome. Possibly the best restaurant right now in Silver Spring.”

Thayer Avenue: Suck It Up and Pay for Saturday Thayer also thinks that Silver Springers should grin and bear the Saturday metering, and he’s not afraid to tell you.

DCist: First Look: Sidebar Rave reviews all around for Sidebar, Jackie Greenbaum’s latest creation in Silver Spring. We’re a little late on the link – Sidebar opened in early April – but further investigation will be conducted soon.

Just Up The Pike: Putting the Brakes on Food Trucks What to do with all those vacant lots in Silver Spring? Park some foods … Continue reading

A Vision for Long Branch

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Wednesday night, planners held a community workshop and guided about 25 residents in using visual building blocks to express the characteristics they’d like to see in their community. The future Purple Line stations will change the neighborhood’s character and opportunities. This workshop and upcoming workshops are a chance for the community to define its future.

They began with maps, markers, and photos—the visual building blocks—and after talking about what they want their community to be—a place where you can walk to a hardware store or ride your bike to the park, they started to put their ideas on paper.

Planners Kathy Reilly and John Marcolin said the people here know their community and all its issues, an even though … Continue reading

Rethink Food

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Do you know where your food comes from? Probably not from Montgomery County, even if you shop at one of the County’s 14 farm markets, and even though nearly one third of the County’s land is in the Agricultural Reserve.

At last night’s 3rd Rethink event, the panel of two longtime farmers, Wade Butler and Ben Allnut; the County’s Agricultural Services Division Manager, Jeremy Criss; and community garden activist, Gordon Clark, discussed the difficulty of farming in Montgomery County.

Soil health is a challenge, but one that an experienced farmer will learn to deal with. More challenging are the regulations that require an expensive special exception for facilities that allow on-farm food processing. So, local meat and dairy are … Continue reading