Rockville’s Veterans Remembered
Memorial Day, Remembrance Day, Decoration Day. The name has changed over the decades but it still has the same meaning–a day set aside to remember those who died in service to the United States. Rockville has many of those people with us from the days of the American Revolution to the present day and a quiet way to remember them is to visit the many historic cemeteries found throughout the city. The epitaths carved in stone or the flags pushed into the ground mark those who served, and you’ll find streets and bridges named in honor of some of them. Those who know our nation’s history can easily recognize the meaning of a date and place, such as France 1918 or Burma 1945. In others, you are reminded of the complexity of life, with soldiers who fought each other in Civil War now silently sharing the same earth or two brothers who leave to fight in the same war, but only one returns. These places are worth preserving because of the memories and lessons they contain. These pictures from the Rockville Cemetery on Baltimore Road in Twinbrook are just a glimpse of what’s available in these quiet places.
Hometown Holidays 2011
It was a bit warm this weekend, but still a great time to enjoy Rockville’s annual Hometown Holidays. I love seeing lots of people downtown enjoying our fair city, and I also like to see what’s happening with restaurants through the “Taste of Rockville” (you may figured out I’m a bit of a foodie). Lots of restaurants were there and the most exciting was Oro Pomodoro, who was making pizzas with a portable wood-burning oven. Some people may be disappointed in the lack of variety, but participating in a “taste” event is very difficult–restaurants often have to stretch their resources to staff a second location for two days and then guess at how much food to bring. Most do it as a community service and hope it will result in future customers–they rarely make any profit at these events. Alas, the “tastes” were large and typically cost $5 so I only managed to try out three restaurants. I hope next year they’ll include smaller menu items in the $1-3 range to encourage people to take a risk on something new.
There was plenty to do for families (which also meant lots of strollers to navigate) but adults could probably explore it all in a couple hours unless you enjoyed an entire performance. The City did a great job of placing and scheduling bands carefully throughout downtown, but setting up all the stages and chairs also pointed out that we lack obvious community gathering places downtown (hardly any benches and shade trees arranged for a group of a dozen or more people). Let’s hope the new buildings going up soon will solve that.
Produce A Bit Behind Schedule at Farmers Market
While the Farmers Market opened on schedule last weekend in Rockville, the produce is a bit behind schedule due to rain. Kevin Grove at Quarter Branch Farm (near Point of Rocks) has leafy greens and white chard, and expects rainbow chard and assorted radishes next week (including French breakfast varieties). I also discovered that he offers two versions of CSA boxes for the Saturday market: a standard farm share and a new market share. For both shares, the customer prepays for a season’s worth of produce. In the farm share, the farmer assembles an assortment of the best produce for the week and brings it in a box or bag for customer pick-up at the market (it gives the customer the best produce, but no choice). The market share allows the customer to select from the produce available for sale at the market and charges it against the pre-paid account (it gives the customer choice, but not the best produce). Eight Rockvillians are participating and he’s not selling any additional shares this season, but it’s something to consider next year. Tikvat Israel also offers both summer and fall CSA shares with a Monday afternoon pickup.
Although leafy greens and strawberries currently dominate the market, you’ll find a couple vendors with tomatoes, carrots, and zucchini (thanks to greenhouses). New this year is Grandma Vera’s Bakery out of Saverna Park (near Annapolis) with a wide selection of pastries and breads, some of it influenced by Vera’s Brazilian roots. You’ll also find them at Wednesday’s market in Rockville. Otherwise, you’ll find lots of familiar faces selling produce, meat (fresh and cured), eggs, cheese, bread and pastries, flowers, honey, and garden plants.
Other nearby farmers markets are the Farmers and Artists Market in Olney on Sundays and the new one at King Farm on Wednesdays and Saturdays. They’re all different so try to explore all of them this summer (although I’m still waiting for a mushroom vendor).
Where to Find Great Food
The May 2011 issue of Washingtonian magazine features, “Where to Find Great Food” in the greater DC region–it’s about sources for ingredients (e.g., butchers, bakeries, spices, cheese), not restaurants–seems to favor Virginia. I’m not sure if that’s because they just don’t know the area north of Chevy Chase or if they’re too afraid of the Rockville Pike. I’m delighted that they found these outstanding places in and around Rockville (many of the places are listed as Rockville but they’re actually Rockville-Adjacent):
- Dutch Country Farmers Market (they listed Laurel, but there’s one much closer in Germantown)
- Firefly Farms (they sell their goat cheeses at the Rockville Farmers Market)
- Cherry Glen (they sell their goat cheeses at the Olney Farmers Market)
- Saint Michel Bakery (they’ve told me that they’ve had to double production in response to the Washingtonian‘s listing)
- Bagel City (in the shopping center with Office Depot and Friday’s on the Rockville Pike)
But there’s a lot that was missed, so using their same categories, here are my recommendations: Continue reading →
“Choice Hotels Lane” a Bad Choice for Rockville
Choice Hotels Lane?
Choice Hotels International is proposing to move their world headquarters to downtown Rockville but it includes a request to rename “Middle Lane” to “Choice Hotels Lane.” Really, this is no April Fool’s Joke–in a letter to the City of Rockville on March 11, Dan Slear of Choice Hotels International stated, “To clarify, Choice requests to change East Middle Lane in its entirety to Choice Hotels Lane.” It’ll be considered at the April 13, 2011 Planning Commission Meeting–but if it happens, the joke will be on us.
Although the name change was proffered as an incentive by the City of Rockville (really? really??), the staff report to the Planning Commission mentioned several concerns:
- it raised eyebrows at the Emergency Communications Center and the Montgomery-National Capitol Park and Planning Commission, who not only were concerned about confusion by emergency responders (are we going to the hotel or the street?) but thought it odd that we’d rename a street after a company.
- it changes the name of this street three times within a three block stretch–West Middle Lane, Choice Hotels Lane, and Park Road–in downtown. Boy, that’ll help people find their way around downtown.
- downtown businesses, such as Gordon Biersch and HSBC Bank, who would be effected by the name change haven’t had sufficient time to respond, but I’m guessing they don’t want to change their neutral address to one that advertises another business.
- it changes the name of an historic street, indeed, the name of a street that’s been part of downtown Rockville since 1803, when the first map of Rockville was drawn. Let’s see, which has the better track record? Middle Lane has been around for more than 200 years while Choice Hotels has been around since 1981.
I’ll add a couple of my concerns: Continue reading →
Exploring Rockville’s Downtowns on May 7
I’ll be leading a 1.5-hour walking tour of Rockville’s downtowns for Peerless Rockville on Saturday, May 7 at 10 am. Wear comfortable shoes, be prepared for the weather, and consider enjoying lunch afterwards (unfortunately, some of the tour is not accessible to persons with limited mobility). Space is limited so please register in advance with Peerless Rockville.
Historic Designation Process Confounds Council Once Again
The City of Rockville’s process for designating historic landmarks has confused the city leaders and staff once again. For many years, the process has vexed property owners, preservationists, neighbors, staff, and city officials, despite continual calls for reform from the Historic District Commission. It’s frustrating and costs time and money, and yet, here was another discussion about it at the March 14, 2011 meeting. It borders on the surreal, so I’m providing a transcript so you can see it for yourself:
Councilmember Pierzchala: On next week’s tentative agenda, Item Number 11…this is Glenview Mansion, it’s listed as 45 minutes and I’m not sure why. I am planning to vote to Authorize to File and get a Public Hearing going, and I’d rather have staff presentations and whoever is for, whoever is against, all at one point, and where we can ask questions, and so I’m just wondering why we need 45 minutes for next week.
City Manager Ullery: I would agree with you. I don’t think that item requires 45 minutes.
Mayor Marcuccio: Well, is there someone who requested 45 minutes?
City Manager Ullery: It probably came in through the agenda from Rec and Parks department. I think we can probably do it in 20 minutes. Continue reading →
Golden Quince Produces Fantastic Art
It’s always a nice surprise to find a local artist producing stunning work. Today on Etsy, the online marketplace for artists, I stumbled upon Golden Quince, the studio of Rockville artist Erin Vaganos. She’s an illustrator working in watercolor, ink, colored pencil, and Photoshop creating fantastic original works inspired by diverse sources, including Art Nouveau architecture, medieval botantical woodcuts, graphic novels, and Chinese paintings. Her work is easily accessible but also very detailed and intricate. She’s currently completing her second children’s book but also sells prints and cards of her work at her online store on Etsy. You can learn more about her at goldenquince.blogspot.com. If you want to support a local artist or want something special from Rockville, I recommend Golden Quince.
Rockville’s Year 2010 in Review
Usually this type of post goes up on January 1, but I always prefer a bit of distance to identify the biggest stories of past year. Although this is admittedly from my limited personal perspective and is bound to generate controversy (but hey, that’s what these lists are supposed to do), here’s my list for Rockville in 2010:
1. Red Gate Golf Course. This is continued to be a thorny issue and made have seen its thorniest moment when the City Council used $2.4 million in “surplus” money to pay off past debt and the anticipated shortfalls for 2011, and also (once again) punted the decision to another time. Despite countless meetings and studies, for years the Council has been astonishingly agonized about making a decision on whether to commit to an annual subsidy, integrate it into the recreation program, levy a tax to support it, or to close it down. Meanwhile, the golf course continues to bleed money and participation rates continue to slide. Perhaps we need to start over: if we were offered 130 acres today (Red Gate is the second largest park in Rockville), what would most benefit the community? I don’t think most people would say golf course.
Welcome to (snowy) Twinbrook
2. Snowpocalypse. Who can forget this snowstorm? There was so much snow it closed the federal government for a week. The adventurous walked and explored the city in a new quiet way and neighbors found a new reason to talk and help each other. There was a lot of frustration with snow clearing and the City wasn’t prepared, but remember, the city worked around the clock and conscripted employees into snowshoveling duties to deal with this record snowfall. We also improved our abilities to monitor and respond to these situations so when this happens again (and it may not be for another fifty years), we’re prepared. And someone at the City gets two stars for Continue reading →
New Blog for Rockville: Patch
Rockville Patch
In addition to Rockville Central and Rockville Living, Rockville Patch provides another online source of news and information about our fair city. Patch is based in New York City and operates throughout the country, working in communities of 15-100K population that are “underserved by media and would benefit by having access to local news and information about government, schools and business”. Each “Patch” is run by professional editors, writers, photographers, and videographers who live in or near the communities they serve and for the Rockville version includes nearly two dozen editors and contributors, including Sean Sedam, Lauren Sausser, Jillian Badanes, and Nathan Carrick (in case you run into them at an event). They’ve been operating in Rockville since October 2010 and recent posts include a review of Zio’s Restaurant, a video on the Comptroller’s visit to Best Buy to promote Maryland’s tax-free weekend, and images from around town. It seems to have already attracted the attention of the usual online community activists, including Temperance Blalock, Theresa Defino, and Joe Jordan (on Red Gate Golf Course, no surprise), so you’ll see some familiar faces.
Max for Rockville 