Starbucks Dead Pool

As mentioned before, Starbucks will be closing 600 of their underperforming stores in the near future. There's no way all of Silver Spring's Starbucks survive the purge. So, which locations in Silver Spring do you think will get the axe?



My top three are the following:

#1 Burnt Mills ("E" on the map): This one is wedged closely between the ones in Woodmoor and White Oak and is almost a lock. I think the Woodmoor one is reasonably safe, but as that's one I actually use on occasion, its departure would be annoying.

#2: Hillandale ("G"): Near the beltway entrance, which might be a positive, but between the Langley Park and White Oak locations. Not much foot traffic, I bet.

#3 White Oak ("D"): If Burt Mills or Hillandale doesn't buy the farm, this one may.

I'll also be amazed if the Langley Park Starbucks survives. I was always surprised there was a Starbucks there in the first place and wondered if it was one of the "Magic Johnson" Starbucks. I don't think it is.

I realize there is a contingent of people out there who would gladly be rid of them all, but the truth is that the existence of Starbucks, while grotesque to you, actually helps the independent coffee houses people worry about so much.

Starbucks mapping concept blatantly stolen from Thayeravenue.com.

City Place Steve & Barry's to be Euthanized Soon?

Oh, Steve & Barry's, we hardly knew ye.
I mentioned last Friday that it wasn't going so good for Steve & Barry's and it looks like things haven't got any better. According to today's Wall Street Journal, Steve & Barry's may have immediate plans to shutter 100 of their 275 retail locations and may flush the whole operation if they can't get emergency financing. Even if the former scenario is true, I somehow get the feeling that City Place isn't one of their highest traffic locations and wouldn't survive the purge. Add that to the fact that they are planning on opening another store in Wheaton Plaza (much higher traffic) and things look bleaker for City Place.

At least we can chalk this one up to corporate incompetence rather than the lameness of City Place.

UPDATE: Could we be losing one of our Starbucks, too?? I can say with some certainty that the one on the Promenade isn't going anywhere.

Great Purple Line Summary

There's so much back and forth and changes in plan with regard to the so-called Purple Line that I generally avoid discussing it here. I can't even keep track of it myself. That's why I find this graphic from this weekend's Washington Post so valuable. (Click to enlarge.)

Personally, I'm all for it. I could walk a couple blocks and catch the train to Bethesda. Um, I mean, not that I'd ever go to Bethesda, of course... (The retro Purple Line would still be the best alternative, IMO.)

This Says a Lot

Even though there's a lot of things about Virginia I can't stand, I always really liked Clarendon and wished Silver Spring would develop more in that direction. Anyway, after yesterday's incident I was curious if Clarendon ever had any gun violence, and I think my search results (or lack thereof) from Google speak volumes:



Silver Spring's results are unfortunately not so innocent.

Two Shot in Downtown Silver Spring

Two people were shot at 5:30 this morning in downtown Silver Spring, right across from the Metro Station.

Police say about 5:30 am. Sunday they were called to Caribbean Style Restaurant on Ramsey Avenue and found a 33-year-old man and 21-year-old woman with gunshot wounds.

Officials say a group had left the nightclub and started arguing outside. They say at least one person fired several shots at the man and woman, who were near the front of the nightclub

Now maybe I don't go out as much as I used to, but don't bars in MoCo have to close by 2AM? Why were people still in the club at 5:30? Oh, and I bet dollars to donuts that none of the eventual suspects in this case actually live in Silver Spring.

Maybe this was a party that followed up Saturday's Caribbean festival on Georgia Avenue. I had been wondering what everyone was doing carrying around Jamaican and Dominican flags Saturday afternoon on Ellsworth.

UDPATE: Slightly more in today's Post. Fortunately the suspect wasn't a very good shot... with 17 shots fired, only two people were hit and it looks like they will both live. Speaking of handguns, Atlantic Guns, strategically located just across the DC line, will likely reap the benefits of the D.C. handgun ban ruling.

You thought it was bad at the Majestic before? Now they want to burn you alive.

  If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then I'm completely nuts. I guess the convenience of the Majestic trumps all other considerations, because it seems like I'm there every week instead of going elsewhere to see movies. (Then again, where else is there really to go?)Anyway, I decided it was worth the risk to see a 7:30 showing of Wall-E at everyone's favorite theater, but I guess I hadn't counted on someone SETTING FIRE TO A GODDAMN TRASHCAN. I mean what kind of freaking degenerates do we have that think it's funny to potentially create a conflagration inside a packed twenty-screen theater? And this was certainly no accident - trashcans don't accidentally ignite. "Best" case is that someone was smoking and put their smoldering butt in a trashcan full of empty popcorn bags. The reality is more like that some piece of crap wannabe arsonist did it for pyromaniacal kicks.

Anyway, I arrive at the theater thirty minutes early and the fire alarms are wailing and everyone is crowded outside the theater on the sidewalk and in the street. At first I assume that some jerk-off just pulled the fire alarm, which certainly isn't out of the norm for the Majestic, however I begin to suspect that there may actually be a legit fire after catching a slight whiff of smoke. I hear the oncoming sirens of the Silver Spring fire department and I see the hook and ladder on it's way down Fenton. I assume it will slow down and let people clear out of the packed street, but it actually just makes a hard turn onto Ellsworth, sending people screaming and scattering like roaches when the light is turned on. This is about the point where it went from annoying to entertaining. So the fire fighters go into the theater to check out the situation. Meanwhile, no one from theater management will make any sort of announcement and all the people that got kicked out of their movies are just idling around not knowing what the hell is going on. A few minutes after the firemen entered the building, a flood of water suddenly shot out of a unobtrusive drainage pipe along the side of the sidewalk, once again sending people scattering.  (See poor cellphone pic below.)

So, finally, at about 8 o'clock, a representative of the theater comes out and makes an inaudible announcement (I heard this tenth-hand) basically saying they don't really know when they will re-open.  At that point I just left, figuring I'd have to figure out a way to get my money back the next day.I'm not ashamed to admit that I really wanted to see Wall-E and since I had already paid, I went back this afternoon after exchanging my tickets.  Of course, I was sandwiched between a screaming baby and a guy with a cellphone in his lap that blinked throughout the entire movie, but I guess I should be grateful that I wasn't on fire... UPDATE: Now I hear that the fire was set in a dumpster outside the theater. Maybe that's better, maybe it's not. I still want to know where that mysterious water came from.

Friday News 'N Notes

- It figures - Shitty City Place finally snags a moderately interesting tenant and it turns out they may not even be able to make rent. Steve & Barry's is on the brink of bankruptcy and could soon join Storehouse Furniture (remember them?) in the retail afterlife. City Place should just keep them on rent free as a charity case - half that mall is vacant, anyway. At least it brings a few extra people in. Seriously, what are they going to replace it with? A BIGGER dollar store?

I think my $5 TransFormers shirt from Steve & Barry's is the only non-restaurant purchase I've made in City Place in at least ten years. And yes, you have every right to beat me up if you see me wearing it.

- Don't forget the first Crafty Bastards fair in Silver Spring is this Saturday from 10-5 at Pyramid Atlantic. Here's a map of the vendors. (PDF) Even if like me you're not particularly inclined towards buying crafts, it's still something to do. There's bands and food, too.

- Crafty Bastards is nice and all, but we could easily be hosting something truly great like Rosslyn's outdoor James Bond film festival. It's not like we didn't have movies on The Turf in the past. All you need is an inflatable screen and a projector.

- If you're like me, you'll be pleased to know that MoCo now has enhanced recycling capabilities. A lot of plastic stuff you'd normally have to throw out with the trash can soon be put in the blue bin. Things such as yogurt containers, plastic flower pots, bottles that aren't #1 or #2 and those takeout containers they charge you $1 for at Mandalay will be recyclable starting July 1. I guess commodities prices are high enough now that the money they can get for scrap plastic makes it feasible. Another recycling note: you can now recycle your CFL lightbulbs for free at the Silver Spring Home Depot.

In a related matter, I'd like to thank the county garbagemen sanitation engineers for collecting the huge pile of junk I dumped out in front of my house yesterday morning. I realize that a lot of that stuff was on the "go to the dump your damn self" list, but you hauled it away anyway. Reeaaaaaaaalllll Americaaaan herooooooeeeeeeess!

- Damn, they make you walk all the way from the B&O station if you want to take a tour of the National Park Seminary:

Here's your Colorado Kitchen, now Maryland Kitchen.

The Colorado Kitchen is one of those places that I always thought about going to everytime I drove by but never did. Well, too late now, I guess, since it's closing. The (relevant) story here is that the owners are planning on opening up a new location in Silver Spring in what used to be the General Store near the corner of Forest Glen and Seminary Roads. (You know, the place with the "castle") Kind of off the beaten path, but that might be a good location provided they get the word out - it can draw just as easily from Kensington and Silver Spring.

I miss the old General Store - you could by all sorts of knick knacks there. As a kid, it was great. Seems like that has been closed forever.

BTW if the title makes no sense, say it in a deep Austrian accent. Then it will make even less sense.

Silver Spring to get Architectural Piece of Flair

I have to hand it to the Chelsea School. They had to be pretty ballsy to try and get one of the world's premier architectural firms to design a 85-student school building on the cheap, but hey, it worked.

[Studio Daniel Libeskind] agreed not only to provide pro-bono conceptual work by Libeskind's protégé, Robert Claiborne, but also to spearhead the campaign to raise $20 million and to help negotiate at-cost materials for the project.

The school presently has a fairly nondescript campus tucked away in the residential neighborhood that borders downtown Silver Spring, and odds are you probably never heard of it before. While somewhat hidden from the main Silver Spring thoroughfares, the re-designed school buildings would add a little architectural flavor to the downtown area. It's good to see some planned structures that are a little less generic than a lot of the other buildings going up around Silver Spring. Other examples off the top of my head are 814 Thayer and the United Theraputics HQ. You always have to wonder if anyone will still like these designs twenty years from now, though. Of course, by then they'll be considered historic by some and may be compared to works by the Italian masters.



I suppose the drawback is that they're probably going to have to hold a few extra bake sales to cover the incremental costs associated with the construction of such an Avant-garde design.

The description of the new library design ("meant to suggest the form of a book") of course immediately conjures up images of the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good And Who Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too.



"What is this? A center for ants? How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read... if they can't even fit inside the building?"

(As an aside, I question Post article's dubious statement that Silver Spring has "blocks of upscale retail". If only that were the case...)

Silver Spring News 'N Notes

- Watching skaters on Ellsworth is entertaining... at least edited in Koyaanisqatsi-style it is.



I do wish they'd not cut away when the kid is about to eat shit at about 0:45.

Also entertaining - So You Think You Can Dance... in Borders:



How did we ever survive before everyone packed small, lo-res video cameras? The "Make it Rain" video, of course, is and will always be the best footage ever shot on Ellsworth.

- Auntie Ann's Pretzels is coming to City Place. Not that would make anyone actually venture into that mall. I wonder what the ratio of revenue would be for a store facing outward on Ellsworth and one inside City Place. 50:1? 100:1? And I mean the exact same store. Speaking of doughy, fatty goodness, I'm still waiting for our new donut shop to open... doesn't look like much has been done in that space so far, though.

- The rehabilitation of the building on Colesville across from Discovery is coming along nicely. (Five years later...) I hope they get some interesting tenants. And by interesting places, I mean NOT more hair and nail places. What is the over/under on hair places leasing space in that building once it's fully occupied? 2 or 3 I'd say.

- Has anyone filled out the Regal Cinemas feedback form and received a response?

- Alliance Comics on Fenton Street is in the process of converting their basement into a "hip new lounge area, with WiFi, couches, snacks, table space and more". Alliance will also be hosting a cosplay party on Saturday, July 12th. That I need to see. From a distance.

I should mention that my #1 "I'm miraculously somehow financially secure for life" dream job is working at a comic book store. Just hanging out all day arguing with customers over who would win hypothetical battles between different superheroes. Best. Job. Ever.