Picture Route 355 from about Montrose Road north to downtown Rockville. Now picture it a lot wider. Last week, the City of Rockville voted 4 to 1 in a straw poll to widen Route 355 in this two-mile stretch to 252 feet. (That’s the width of an interstate highway, to put it in perspective.) Walkability and green space will be the losers if that’s what happens to Rockville Pike north of the Pike District.…
Read More
A common belief is that sophisticated Montgomery County residents won’t take a bus. Sure, they’ll take metro downtown, but Bus Rapid Transit? Many think it’ll never happen.
According to this article on City Lab, the reality is different than the prevailing assumptions. One study showed that quality of service matters most, not the type of transport.…
Read More
Check out our latest e-newsletter featuring updates on the County Council OLO report on Business Improvement District structures, building a better Wall Park, and other updates from the Pike District.
BIDS and Building a Better Park E-Newsletter
…
Read More
“In the early days of the automobile, it was drivers’ job to avoid you, not your job to avoid them,” says Peter Norton, a historian at the University of Virginia and author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. “But under the new model, streets became a place for cars — and as a pedestrian, it’s your fault if you get hit.”
Click here to read the forgotten history of jaywalking.…
Read More
Last week, a dozen people from M-NCPPC, Department of Recreation, Councilmember Roger Berliner’s office, and Friends of White Flint met to brainstorm how to activate Wall Park this summer. (For those not up-to-date on their buzzwords, activation, in this instance, means maximizing the effectiveness of the park, getting more people using the park, and making the park the place where people want to relax and play.)
The meeting started with a quick review of the long-range vision for the park, which includes active areas such as dog parks, exercise areas, a green lawn for events and pickup sports, as well as areas for more contemplative activities such as walking in the woods.
… Read More
Creating a sense a place is extremely important for a community like Pike District. We want to make this place a distinctive destination, a place people want to come explore, live, work, and play.
Ed McMahon, an Urban Land Institute fellow, gave this inspiration TEDx Talk about creating a community with a unique sense of place in this new economy.…
Read More
- Bethesda Now wrote a lovely piece about the pioneer residents of Pike and Rose the other day. (Read it here.) Eventually, more than 14,000 residential units are planned for the White Flint Sector Plan, 9,800 of which will not have existed prior to 2010.
- Speaking of Pike and Rose, Stella Barra Pizzeria and La Madeline are now open.
… Read More
You are cordially invited to a Friends of White Flint Community Meeting to be held Wednesday, March 25, 2015 from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at Federal Realty located at 1626 East Jefferson Street in Rockville. We look forward to hearing presentations from many of the property owners in the Pike District, learning more about future development plans, and discussing both who is considered to be a member/supporter of Friends of White Flint and what our name should be in light of the change of nomenclature to the Pike District.…
Read More
On a lovely snow day like today, wouldn’t it be great to live in a community in which you could walk to the grocery store or cure cabin feature with a short stroll to a movie theater or restaurant? Someday, we’ll have exactly that in the Pike District. We partially have it now, with North Bethesda I and Pike and Rose, and over the next decade or two, the White Flint area will become ever more walkable … even on snow days.…
Read More
Comments Off
You may have heard of a concept called “placemaking.” While it sounds like a trendy, made-up word, it’s actually the ultimate foundation of the White Flint Sector Plan. No doubt you’re eager to learn more … (And let’s face it; outside it’s single digits with a real snowstorm on the way, so what else are you going to do?) … so here’s a quick Friends of White Flint primer on placemaking.…
Read More