Comments on Silver Spring, Singular: Protest of One?

Just checking to see how this protest is going. Th...

2008-02-15T14:48:00.000-05:00

Just checking to see how this protest is going. The press release got a lot of play on our website.

The parking is $60 per month pre-tax for employees...

2008-02-14T15:20:00.000-05:00

The parking is $60 per month pre-tax for employees and there is no parking for anyone other than employees.(Unless you make special arrangements ahead of time with an employee) But the garage always has a waiting list because there isn't enough spaces for all of the employees that want to park in the building.

I believe it is now $50/month for employees, altho...

2008-01-30T15:21:00.000-05:00

I believe it is now $50/month for employees, although that is pre-tax. It is definitely not free. If you are a visitor you can probably get a temporary parking permit but Joe Public can't just park in there. If you don't drive, Discovery will give you MetroChecks or money for a bike or new walking shoes.

SSPenguin & Sligo -- is that $50 fee for Discovery...

2008-01-30T15:17:00.000-05:00

SSPenguin & Sligo -- is that $50 fee for Discovery employees? Or just outsiders who want to use their garage? My understanding was that Discovery is subsidizing the employee parking - but please feel me in with the correct 411.
And yes, I did the Q2 just yesterday from SS and Rockville in mid-afternoon is took about an hour. Ridiculous.

Count me in for the Chompy the Shark protest. He ...

2008-01-29T13:01:00.000-05:00

Count me in for the Chompy the Shark protest. He was the coolest! I kept waiting for him to arrive this year, to no avail.
I also liked the foam shark visors they gave out to all the kids during Shark Week.

Downtown SS to County Council HQ: One hour on the ...

2008-01-28T18:49:00.000-05:00

Downtown SS to County Council HQ: One hour on the Metro or a bus-rail combo. (That's according to WMATA.)

By auto, it took me one hour this morning via the Beltway and I270; 50 minutes via Rockville Pike and Jones Bridge Rd on the way home this afternoon. Mind you, this wasn't rush hour driving.

They have GOT to build that freakin' Purple Line. Can't imagine what that trip would be like once all the BRAC changes go down.

An hour? If you insist on riding the Metro. It's f...

2008-01-28T18:24:00.000-05:00

An hour? If you insist on riding the Metro. It's forty-nine minutes if you take the Q2 from the Silver Spring Metro to the Rockville Metro - and probably less if you Metro to Bethesda and J4 to Silver Spring. It's half an hour (by car) from my house in Silver Spring to Rockville Town Center; forty minutes from College Park to Rockville on the Beltway during rush hour.

Discovery could do without parking if they wanted to prove a point - but I figure jobs there pay well enough that its employees would rather buy a Prius and drive down there. It's too bad.

Rockville to/from Silver Spring is only 15 minutes...

2008-01-28T16:32:00.000-05:00

Rockville to/from Silver Spring is only 15 minutes on the MARC train. But it only runs M-F during the rush hours.

I know how this guy can protest the Discovery Chan...

2008-01-28T15:57:00.000-05:00

I know how this guy can protest the Discovery Channel and save the planet: Turn off the freakin' television.

As far as traveling between Rockville and Silver Spring goes, that's a one-hour trip any way you slice it -- rail, bus or auto.

Why is that so, supreme being? Why?

For what it's worth, the parking at Discovery isn'...

2008-01-28T14:37:00.000-05:00

For what it's worth, the parking at Discovery isn't free - I think it's like $50 a month or something.

The problem is that sometimes you HAVE to drive with the way our 1960's-designed transit system is. If you live in Rockville, etc. you have to take the Metro all the way around the Red Line and pay $7+ dollars a day to commute to Silver Spring. Or you can ride the bus, which takes the long way there with frequent stops and can take forever.

That Green Building status and ass-kissing WaPo ar...

2008-01-28T14:27:00.000-05:00

That Green Building status and ass-kissing WaPo article are a joke --an "underground parking garage" giving employees free parking right next to a mass transit center?? Leaving those "energy-saving" lights on 24-7?? Come on, Discovery, you know you can do much better.
This guy's protest seems off-base (I almost suspect it is a guerilla PR campaign FOR Discovery's new Green Channel), but he has a valid side point -- they can't claim to be protectors of Planet Earth and then operate like the carbon-sucking corporations of old. I'm sure they INTEND to be green, but like many big companies - that has to come from top down in the corporate culture for it to actually happen, and I'm just not seeing it.

I think dumbek's comment pretty much says it all.T...

2008-01-28T12:08:00.000-05:00

I think dumbek's comment pretty much says it all.

This guy's going to be marching up and down the block all by himself, glaring sullenly at all the passers by and Discovery employees who will be pointing and staring at him. Guess he had some extra vacation time this year . . .

Now that is a justifiable protest.

2008-01-28T11:19:00.000-05:00

Now that is a justifiable protest.

I want to protest Discovery because they didn't pu...

2008-01-28T11:07:00.000-05:00

I want to protest Discovery because they didn't put Chompy the Shark up this year.

I'm personally appalled that Discovery hasn't done...

2008-01-28T10:23:00.000-05:00

I'm personally appalled that Discovery hasn't done anything programs about photography in DTSS, the Birchmere/LiveNation saga, or saving the Perpetual building!

They claim to be a "Silver Spring-based company", and they don't even show us Dr. Know getting people drunk at the Silver Spring Austin Grill anymore!

Down with Discovery!

He sounds like a reasonable guy.

2008-01-28T08:49:00.000-05:00

He sounds like a reasonable guy.