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The problem is one of scale. And impact. The best part of Silver Spring is the area outside of the new part. Great restaurants, local businesses. But the newer parts dwarf that. And look ridiculous next to those wide streets.

Instead of turning things over to one or two developers to master plan the whole thing, build a bunch of "luxury" apartments and condos and attract a bunch of chain stores (to justify their upfront costs), we need to turn master planning over to the city. To rezone for density, but also zone for more insertion into available spaces, filling parking lots and underutilized spaces with buildings with smaller footprints and more reasonable heights. At the same time, effort needs to be put into the streetscape -- narrowing roads, planting trees, and adding more crosswalks.

There also needs to be a preference to existing uses and current tenants. Silver Spring is soulless in its newest forms. Just as Arlington killed what was interesting and unique about it by over building. And building too much and too big at one time.

Just plopping down some huge development at once, negatively affects the character of the neighborhood, and prevents the kinds of slow evolution that make interesting and unique urban environments.

by Christopher on Jul 4, 2008 2:38 pm • link • report