June 16th, 2010 | by Clay Gump | Published in Businesses, Events, General College Park | Comments (0)
The next “Experience College Park Tour” event will be Wednesday June 23rd at 7pm at Plato’s Diner. Our featured guest this time will be the State Senator for the 21st District Jim Rosapepe. This event is open for anyone who lives, works, or plays in College Park and would like to get together to discuss local issues or just enjoy the great desserts offered up at Plato’s.
RSVP via Facebook HERE
June 11th, 2010 | by John Euill | Published in M Square Research Park, NOAA Building, Speculation | Comments (0)
The University of Maryland and Lockheed Martin Corp. last Friday announced a new partnership that would potentially help fill more research and office space at the M-Square research park. The Fortune 500 global security company and the university have ties that go back 60 years. Lockheed Martin has committed to spend $1 million dollars per year for three years with the possibility of continued support in the future.
The new agreement provides a strategic framework for current and future cooperation that leverages the resources, talent, and ideas of both institutions to produce innovative solutions for global and national security challenges. The agreement provides for work in three key areas: Centers of Collaboration, Joint Pursuit of Business Opportunities, and Enhanced Research and Development.
It is currently unknown if the partnership will require space at UMD’s M-Square research park. There are three additional buildings that have not broken ground yet. The key focus areas in the partnership would be a perfect fit at M-Square.
Officials say a key part of the new strategic relationship is the creation of Centers of Collaboration, which will support sustained cooperative work in mutually agreed-upon areas – initially logistics and sustainment, climate change, and cyber-security.
Current tenants at M-Square include the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity organization, Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Earth System Science and Interdiciplinary Center, and the American Center for Physics to name a few.
June 10th, 2010 | by David Daddio | Published in Bicycles, Transportation | Comments (1)
A few weeks back, the DC Department of Transportation and Arlington County announced plans to replace DC’s SmartBike bikesharing program that it instituted in 2008. They announced that they’ll expand the program this fall from 100 bikes at 10 stations to 1,100 bikes at 114 stations. 14 of new stations will be in Arlington. They christened the more ambitious program two days ago as “Capital Bikeshare” after a public vote. According to DDOT:
The new system will be similar to the one the Public Bike System Company (PBSC), based in Montreal, produced, commonly known as BIXI. The BIXI system has been running in Montreal since 2009 and will be arriving soon in Minneapolis, London, and Melbourne, Australia. BIXI bike sharing stations are solar powered and use wireless technology to allow for easy installation and adjustments. It may look different, but the BIXI bicycle has many of the same features as the Smartbike: 3-speed, internal hub gears, fenders, chain guard, lights, and a front rack. Annual, monthly, and daily memberships will be available for area residents and visitors.
A grant may expand the program even further. We noted back in February, that the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments(MWCOG) did not win the $10 million for bikeshare expansion that it had applied for through a federal stimulus program called TIGER. UMD and the City of College Park were a party to that grant application, but unfortunately that money was highly competitive and grant requests outstripped available funding by 38 times. MWCOG will submit another application for a second round of TIGER funding. They’re proposing to add an additional 2,250 bikes to the 1,100 already in the works. It looks like CP will be a party to the grant application again and so will UMD presumably. Unfortunately, things will be just as competitive this time around and 20% in local matching dollars are now required. That match may be tough to come by in this economy… especially since the system isn’t expected to break even for some time.
Interestingly, Prince George’s County as a whole has not and is not considering jumping on this opportunity. Since all the bikes in Capital Bikeshare would be interoperable with different racks across the region, the College Park bikes would in theory exist in their own bubble… it’s hard to imagine that they will ever leave the city. Membership would cost $80 a year and the first 30 minutes the bike is out would be free. The nearest non-CP rack would be miles away, but we think if there are a critical mass of bikes such a program could be quite popular intra-city.
Here is a cool video of the old SmartBike system:
“SmartBike DC“, a video by EMBARQ
June 4th, 2010 | by Clay Gump | Published in Domain at College Park, Mosaic at Turtle Creek, Speculation | Comments (1)
On April 30, 2010 a Charrette was held in City Hall on the Domain project and the surrounding area. This also includes the area of the Mosaic at Turtle Creek. The goal was to come up with a overall vision for the area that can guide future development and create a mixed use neighborhood with tree-lined, predestrian and bicycle-friendly streets.
This area is located at the intersection of the Campus edge (near the Smith Business School) and a residential area. This is mostly on undeveloped property. There are many religious buildings in the immediate vicinity. The Domain project is located at the intersection of Campus Drive and Mowatt Lane while the Mosaic project located off Mowatt Lane.
The comprehensive vision includes 3 primary themes.
June 3rd, 2010 | by Clay Gump | Published in Transportation | Comments (0)
The folks at StreetFilms have a great video from New York City transportation alternatives director Paul Steely White on the need to change our development methods away from car-centric designs. What goes wrong when we cater to the automobile and how does that effect our daily lives?
June 2nd, 2010 | by Clay Gump | Published in Businesses | Comments (6)
Located directly in front of the Mazza Grandmarc the iconic Kitt’s Music store and headquarters is up for sale. This 38,000 square foot building is a mix of office, retail, and warehouse space. Let the speculation begin! You can see the flyer for the property HERE.
June 2nd, 2010 | by Clay Gump | Published in M Square Research Park | Comments (2)
The Gazette is reporting on a new 5,000 square foot Food Safety lab to be in place in the Patapsco building by July of 2011. This is a joint venture with the Waters Corp. and the University. The Patapsco location is ideal for a lab such as this since it is directly next to the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition building. Scientists will attend two-week training sessions at the new lab which will be called the International Food Safety Training Laboratory (IFSTL).
About 200 foreign scientists will be taught there annually by members of the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, a collaborative program between the university and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The lab will have a staff of five full-time workers.
May 31st, 2010 | by Clay Gump | Published in Transportation | Comments (1)
Here are a few articles that might be of interest that were recommended by a few Rethink readers.
Shaping The City by Roger K. Lewis from the Washington Post writes a thought provocative column that espouses the notion of walkable cities.
The term “transit-oriented development” (TOD) paints an incomplete picture of state-of-the-art planning and urban design. The terminology should change, along with our mind-set. We should talk about and advocate multi-modal-transportation-oriented development.
Here Comes the Neighborhood by Christopher B. Leinberger from The Atlantic discusses how the conventional suburb is overbuilt and out of favor and how transit oriented development will be in demand.
Urban-style housing in walkable neighborhoods—including those in the inner suburbs—is what’s in demand today. And for a variety of reasons, that demand will intensify in the coming years. Only by serving it can the country kick-start growth in an enormous and essential part of the economy.
“It is very unlikely that new projects in sprawl areas will be financed,” says Jonathan Rose, the CEO of the national development-and-investment firm Jonathan Rose Companies, based in New York City. “Urban areas with diverse transit options and thriving universities are the choice of Baby Boomers and young people.
We have a new online news website in the City of College Park called the College Park Patch. It launched yesterday and is part of the national Patch network run by AOL. The national Patch site says that they look for communities of 15-100k people that they believe are drastically under served by [...]
Back in 2006 this site was launched by David Daddio and Rob Goodspeed to focus on development issues taking place in College Park so that “students and city residents can be educated, debate the merits of projects and voice opinions.” Both have since moved out of the city and for over a year now the [...]
A local establishment and a powerhouse national chain are both moving into College Park over the next month with the long anticipated opening of the original Ledo’s Pizza in about two weeks and Best Buy slated to open in the College Park Market Place in early September. I think both will help College Park in [...]
TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2010
National Night Out is a community-police partnership event that provides a unique opportunity for residents to increase awareness about crime prevention and safety, get to know their neighbors, meet local law enforcement officers with the goal of preventing crime and drug activities in their neighborhoods.
Many College Park neighborhood associations will participate [...]
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