All comments posted by users on the Greater Greater Washington post ""Mall people" and Montgomery County's downtowns" http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1018/mall-people-and-montgomery-countys-downtowns/ en-us http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1018/mall-people-and-montgomery-countys-downtowns/#comment-9658 I am a hue fan of the "fake downtown." You have to start somewhere, no? http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1018/mall-people-and-montgomery-countys-downtowns/#comment-9658 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:59:21 EDT http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1018/mall-people-and-montgomery-countys-downtowns/#comment-9377 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. http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1018/mall-people-and-montgomery-countys-downtowns/#comment-9377 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:38:38 EDT http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1018/mall-people-and-montgomery-countys-downtowns/#comment-9343 I would like to point out that downtown Silver Spring has a lot more to it than Silver Plaza. Venture down Georgia and Fenton streets and you have a very walkable area (forget the fact that Georgia Avenue is six lanes wide) full of diverse restaurants, shops, and services. My mother lives on East-West Highway and can walk to two grocery stores, a diner, a couple clothing stores, and a slew of coffee shops. I'm not saying Silver Spring is perfect, but the only "Mall" area is between those two blocks of Ellsworth. And at least that area does a good job of getting people to explore the other walkable areas. http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1018/mall-people-and-montgomery-countys-downtowns/#comment-9343 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:37:56 EDT http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1018/mall-people-and-montgomery-countys-downtowns/#comment-9338 As I'm sure you and readers of this blog well understand, it's not just about density around the suburban retail centers. I think downtown Silver Spring is actually quite dense -- perhaps even more so than say, Mount Pleasant -- with lots of high-rise apartment buildings within a 1/2 mile of the shopping center. But a 1/2 mile away in the suburbs isn't the same as 1/2 mile away in a city neighborhood, because in Silver Spring with roads like East-West Highway and Colesville Road, the walk is unpleasant and possibly unsafe (although there are sidewalks). I'm not sure how they could improve the situation there. http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1018/mall-people-and-montgomery-countys-downtowns/#comment-9338 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:31:08 EDT