Anne Robbins Will Not Seek City Council Re-Election

We just received the following from city councilmember >Anne Robbins:

Robbins will not seek 6th City Council Term

Rockville Councilwoman, Anne M. Robbins, announced today that she will not be running for re-election in November for a sixth term on the City Council. In announcing her decision, Councilwoman Robbins indicated that she had been in consultation with her family, friends and supporters over the past 18 months before finally deciding that this was the right time for her to step aside and pursue other professional interests.

In reflecting back on her time on the Council, Robbins said “I am proud of the role I have played on the Council during the past decade and I want to thank the voters of Rockville for their continuing support and for expressing their confidence in me through five election cycles.” Robbins cited several City projects that she took great pride in helping to create including the new Town Square, the Thomas Farm Community Center and the Mattie Stepanek Park. She also lists as major accomplishments her support for services for senior citizens, her successful efforts to reduce the Rockville property tax rate, and her championing free parking at the Rockville Library. Robbins believes, however, that her most important contribution was her work with citizens at the grass- roots level. Robbins went on to say “I made sure that the voices of our Rockville community were heard at City Hall. A citizens’ driven government is a great tradition in Rockville and I have tried very hard to carry on that tradition during my years of public service to the City.”

Anne Robbins’ final meeting as a member of the Council will be on October 26.

Council Member Robbins, thank you for your long public service to Our Fair City.

Waleed Ovase Campaign Event September 5

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Waleed Ovase, from his Facebook campaign page

According to a recent Facebook status update, former candidate for mayor and city council Brigitta Mullican is serving as treasurer for the campaign of Waleed Ovase, a Richard Montgomery High School student running for city council. She writes that she:

“wants all her voting Rockville friends to know she is serving as the Treasurer for Candidate Waleed Ovase in this years Rockville City Council Election. Candidate Waleed Ovase is an 18-year old senior at Richard Montgomery High wanting to serve on the Rockville City Council. Come meet the youngest candidate on September 5 at 1:00 p.m. in Rockville Town Square.”

So, do note that date and time: Saturday, September 5 at 1:00 pm for the Ovase event.

Waleed’s campaign website is here. He has a Facebook campaign page here. And you can follow him on Twitter here.

Best of luck, Waleed!

[UPDATE: Since this article was posted this morning, we received the following press release at 8:19 am from the Ovase campaign, which is reproduced verbatim below:]

History was made on August 21st as Waleed Ovase turned in his petition to put him on the ballot when Rockville goes to vote this November to elect 4 Councilmen and a Mayor. Waleed Ovase is a senior in Richard Montgomery High School and is on schedule to graduate this summer with Richard Montgomery’s coveted International Baccalaureate Diploma. Ovase, the son of immigrants, had spent the summer travelling across Rockville, talking to small businesses and residents about issues that are of the highest concern to them. Ovase said that the City Council’s lethargic response to the interests of his College Gardens community plunged him into this race but noted that he found residents across Rockville to be disillusioned with the Council and to be looking for a fresh voice.

Campaigning on themes of accountability, civility and transparency, Ovase will have to go against candidates who hire Washington political operatives as their campaign managers. When asked if he felt he was at as a disadvantage Ovase responded “I may not be the most recognizable name in Rockville, but my candidacy is a result of true grass roots activism. The people working on my campaign are concerned Rockville residents who feel it’s about time we have a Council that worked.” Ovase also brushed off claims that his age was an issue in this campaign saying “The people of Rockville are seeking to elect someone with big ideas; someone who will put petty politics aside and seek to represent the people of Rockville. I’m campaigning to return civility in our public discourse”. More information about his candidacy is located on his campaign website – http://www.waleed4council.org

Things have also gotten pretty heated as council member Piotr Gajewski attacked a potential candidate’s teaching abilities during Citizen’s Forum. Ovase opines that a citizen should never be attacked for any reason for delivering constructive criticism or for asking the City to be more proactive. He promised to return to a more civil tone if elected to City Council.

Waleed Ovase will hold a kickoff party Saturday, September 5th 2009 in Rockville Town Center at 1 pm addressing his supporters. Later, Ovase will travel across Rockville introducing himself to residents.

Note: Rockville Central does not endorse candidates. But we are glad to publish major statements and significant events of all candidates for City office, always trying our best to be fair to all. We don’t publish everything, but we do publish most things! If you are a Rockville city candidate, please share as much information with us as possible so we can make sure your voice is heard.

We try to cover significant campaign events and to be as fair as possible to all who are running. But we are volunteers, do this on our spare time, and can’t be everywhere. Please send us video or photos of events that we miss so we can consider them for inclusion.

Bridget Newton Campaign Kick Off September 4

On Friday (August 28), we received this note from >Bridget Newton:

“I am running for City Council - turned my papers in today and the Kick-off will be September 4th at 5:00pm in Town Center.”

Bridget has long been active in Rockville civic affairs, having served as president of the Town Center Action Team during a time that one the chief issues on the table for the city was the creation of Town Square, and more recently as co-chair of the committee of the West End Citizens Association that focused on the Beall’s Grant II affordable housing project.

As we learn more (campaign web site, platform, photo) we will let you know. For now, mark your calendar for Friday at 5.

Best of luck, Bridget!

[UPDATE: Since this article was first posted at 8:30 am, we received a late press release (3:00 pm, and then an update at 4:50 pm) from the campaign that contains more information. For completeness' sake, it is reproduced verbatim below.]

Bridget Donnell Newton, 51, a city resident since 1981, has become an official candidate for the Rockville City Council. “We received a call Friday afternoon from the City Clerk and my signatures have been validated. I look forward to campaigning and hopefully serving the citizens of Rockville come November 3rd.”

Newton has long been active as a community leader, serving on the West End Traffic and Transportation Commission and as Chair of the Compensation Commission and the Town Center Action Team.. She was appointed to the County Committee tasked with choosing the location for the new Rockville Library and was instrumental in keeping the library in the town center. She is a former President of the West End Citizen’s Association and Beall Elementary PTA .

Known for her willingness to listen and her ability to bring people together to reach a consensus decision, Newton is passionate about allowing the process of good government to work.. “Politics is the art of the possible”, says Newton, “and I firmly believe that when civil people have an open and frank discussion, the final result will be a combination of the best ideas that are on the table.”.

As for the role she sees herself playing if elected, Newton says :“Rockville has always been known for our wonderful neighborhoods, public services and amenities. I see the role of the council as setting policies that reinforce and support these assets. In this economic climate, we must be vigilant about protecting our resources and that includes our citizens. I look forward to continuing my efforts in making Rockville the best it can be – for all her residents.”

The campaign will hold their Kickoff at 5:00pm on Friday September 4th in the Town Square.

Note: Rockville Central does not endorse candidates. But we are glad to publish major statements and significant events of all candidates for City office, always trying our best to be fair to all. We don’t publish everything, but we do publish most things! If you are a Rockville city candidate, please share as much information with us as possible so we can make sure your voice is heard.

We try to cover significant campaign events and to be as fair as possible to all who are running. But we are volunteers, do this on our spare time, and can’t be everywhere. Please send us video or photos of events that we miss so we can consider them for inclusion.

POTD: Beds

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This shot is by Rockville Central friend Temperance Blalock. “More flower beds at Wootton Mills Park community garden,” she says.

Buy Bricks From Chestnut Lodge

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Our friends at Peerless Rockville are selling bricks from Chestnut Lodge for $20 each to benefit the Eileen McGuckian Preservation Fund. The Fund will be used “for future rescue, restoration, and advocacy of historic sites.”

Chestnut Lodge was an internationally-known sanitarium and Victorian resort hotel before it burned on on June 7, 2009. Any mention of the building brings stories. I was surprised by how many people had a connection to its past. Now everyone can have a momento.

If you would like to order one or more bricks, fill out and return this form by September 12, 2009. Bricks will be delievered between 9/15-9/30.

POTD: Honk

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Sorry, I am still a sucker for little statues on lawns.

Contributor Opinion By Carl Henn: Connections

>One measure of a city’s livability is how easily you can walk to various destinations. All else being equal, being able to walk to school or the library makes things more convenient. And to the extent that you actually do walk around you will be healthier and your community will be livelier. There’s a website that attempts to quantify this by measuring how close you are to grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters, coffee shops, schools and such – www.walkscore.com. It then puts it on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 meaning all the destinations are within a quarter mile of your address, and 0 meaning there is nothing within a mile. But the program works as the crow flies rather than as the human walks. The software doesn’t know if there is a lake between you and your destination. A pleasant walk on a neighborhood street is rated the same as having to cross Rockville Pike. Still, its a rough cut at an important concept. Rockville rates an average score of 62, while our City Hall comes in at an impressive 91.

To the extent that we actually can walk directly to destinations, we are better off. As I’ve walked around Rockville campaigning door to door I’ve seen a lot of informal paths that provide short cuts from neighborhoods to nearby roads. In many cases such short cuts reduce the walk by a quarter mile, going straight from a parking lot to a nearby road rather than winding out of the parking lot, out of the cul-de-sac and around. These informal paths save time and make neighborhoods more walkable, but are rarely accessable for disabled citizens and in many cases turn to mud when it rains. We ought to put sidewalks in with proper curb cuts and ramps to improve these informal short cuts.

Rockville has a sidewalk priority policy. See here (pdf). It is well thought out and I don’t think it would need to be modified to support an effort to build connections out of current informal short cuts. The problem is that such connections fall through the cracks. We probably have a GIS map showing all the locations where we don’t have sidewalks next to roads, and can apply the policy to determine which ones should be built first. But such a map wouldn’t show that a ramp between the back parking lot of the Rollins Post Office to the Congressional South parking lot would allow residents at Congressional Village to go to the post office without getting into a car. Nor would the map show that certain New Mark Commons residents can save a half mile in walking out to Monroe Street to catch the Ride On 44 bus. What we need is an effort to find connections that ought to be upgraded, which can then be added to the list of projects to be prioritized and built in turn.

One easy way to create this list is to ask for input. The City could send an e-mail to all the civic association leaders asking them to identify shortcuts that should be paved to provide better access. And they could put a notice in the Rockville Reports asking for citizen input.

I recognize that not every short cut ought to be paved, and many aren’t on Rockville land posing greater challenges in getting the necessary agreement. But adding consideration to greater pedestrian connectivity will help to build a better Rockville and deserves greater attention.

Carl Henn

Carl Henn is a candidate for City Council.

This is a contributor opinion. Rockville Central encourages readers to submit such opinions for consideration — the more voices the better. We especially welcome people who disagree with us. We ask that all such contributions be civil and we reserve the right to edit (in consultation with the author) or reject. Contributor opinions should not be seen as reflecting opinions held by Rockville Central editors, as they are just as frequently at odds with our own views. That’s the whole point!

Rockville Central does not endorse candidates. We are encouraging towards all people who choose to run for office the city and try our best to make ourselves open to all. We actively encourage candidates to submit opinion pieces and other news. We don’t include every last bit, but we try to be fair to all and give useful information about what is happening.

Event Pick of the Week 8/27/09

>Pick of the Week

Of course, the big event this weekend is Uncorked in Town Square from 12 - 6 PM, click here for my post with all the details on the bands, wineries and demos.

Not tired of the sun yet? Then here’s another noteworthy performance this week at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre
Ballet Folklorico Ritmos del Peru presents “Inti Raymi”, the Inca Festival of the Sun
Saturday, August 29, 2009
7 – 9 PM
Tickets: $30 center and $25
During these hot days of summer, it’s appropriate to celebrate the Peruvian Festival of the Sun with colorful dances, vivid costumes and processions. Dancers of all ages will perform high energy twirls from diverse Peruvian dances.

Events in Rockville

Here’s the links to Rockville Living’s events in two formats - a one week list or six week calendar.

Six Week Calendar

This community event listing is a partnership between Rockville Central and Rockville Living. If you would like your community event listed, submit your information to Rockville Living using this form. Please become a regular contributor by requesting a username so that you can enter the information directly to the database.

If you attend an event in Rockville, we invite you to write a Contributor Review. Share the experience. Let everyone know about an event worth attending. Tell us about the school play, fair, or city activity, as long as it’s recent and you are not offering it for publication elsewhere. We prefer short, not more than 500 words. Please include a photo if you have one. Send it along to Cindy Cotte Griffths for consideration.

POTD: Heliotropes

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Aren’t they pretty?

Back To School Shopping

Summertime’s winding down and it’s time for the kids to head back to the classroom. Due to >our media partnership, the Census Bureau sent along some statistics from the Monthly Retail Trade and Food Services on Back to School shopping. Americans spent $7.6 billion at family clothing stores in August 2008. Only in December were sales significantly higher than August. Sales at bookstores last August totaled $2.4 billion, an amount approached only by sales last January. So, this is a big buying season if you have kids.

Throughout the United States in 2006, there were 25,430 family clothing stores, 6,417 children and infants clothing stores, 26,699 shoe stores, 9,425 office supply and stationery stores, 23,270 sporting goods stores, 10,989 bookstores and 9,969 department stores. Here’s Rockville Living’s Directory for comparison.

We set out with our school shopping lists and tried to Buy Rockville. We could easily purchase most of our elementary and middle school lists within the City limits, especially at Staples on Rockville Pike. We also needed to stop in Office Depot (which is right on the border), and if need be there’s always all the CVS stores for some of the school supplies. We couldn’t find backpacks to our liking on Rockville Pike so we needed to go to Target, which is also just outside the City limits or all the way up in Gaithersburg. While we were there, we bought socks. You can get sneakers at Pay Less but there really aren’t any other kid shoe stores in Rockville, so that requires a trip to a department store too.

I’m not sure I could purchase everything in Rockville but if I looked real hard in lots of locations, I might. We visited five stores in one day which was enough!

How did you do Buying Rockville for Back to School?

Montgomery College Fence Controversy Heats Up

As Rockville Central readers know, >the City has been negotiating with Montgomery College to try to find a resolution to a controversy over a perimeter fence around the college.

The College recently instituted a no-smoking policy on campus, which drove students to hang out on the cul de sac, getting there through a break in the fence line that has been there for many years. Residents complained, saying the smokers brought with them a number of other objectionable activities. The College closed the fence in order to stop smokers from congregating there.While this provided relief, it upset others in the city who have long used the open gate as an important walking and biking thoroughfare.

Now, last week, the College added another fence along their northern border, further reducing access (albeit not completely, as this fence has gates that are open most hours of the day).

Local residents have been organizing in protest, and our friend Nathan Carrick at the Gazette reports that protests began in earnest on Monday, with more scheduled:

Neighbors of Montgomery College’s Rockville campus took to nearby streets Monday morning to protest the college’s tobacco-free policy and the fences built between the campus and residential communities as a result.

Led by Rob Ciapetta, a reading professor at the college and resident of nearby Plymouth Woods, seven community members formed a picket line at the two entrances to the college on Mannakee Street.

Another protest is scheduled for September 5, in Town Square.

POTD: Smacked Down

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This grim image is by Carl Henn. Of it, he says: “A pedestrian paddle, in a crosswalk on a double yellow line, smacked down. Just evidence that the dangerous driving that killed Codi is too common.”

Note: Carl Henn is a candidate for City Council. Rockville Central does not endorse candidates.

Hillcrest Labs Settles Claim Against Nintendo Over Wii

Almost exactly one year ago, we reported that local tech company Hillcrest Labs >had sued Nintendo over the game maker’s use of wireless pointing technology on the Wii. Hillcrest makes a product called the Loop (which we profiled in June) which is a motion-based remote control.

News now comes that Hillcrest and Nintendo have filed a notice with the court that they have settled their dispute. Australia’s The Age reports:

Nintendo and Hillcrest Laboratories filed a notice with the US International Trade Commission on Friday that they reached a settlement.

Financial details were blacked out in the copy of the agreement made available to the public. . . . An ITC judge was scheduled to release his findings overnight and the two sides instead asked that he end the case.

Do Not Miss This Thursday’s Concert in the Square

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TWE at Uncorked 2008

Although the movies and kid’s activities have ended, the bands play on. I’ve been waiting for this Thursday’s show all summer.

My Rockville Central partner, Brad Rourke, will be playing and singing with The West End from 6 – 8 PM as part of the Concert in the Square series. The band also includes Rockville friends Monique DeFrees on drums, Matthew Taylor on bass and guitar, and Mike Shawn on keyboard, with a special guest appearance by Terry DeFrees (Monique’s uncle on harp). Although we had to leave their last show before Terry performed, I hear his talent is unbridled and the crowd loved him.

When The West End’s CD was released last year, I wrote a review on CD Baby. Here’s an excerpt:

This Ride Could Be My Last is a new rock experience. The West End proves without a doubt that they can play a diversity of styles with a true rock quality in a special unison of talent. The West End blasts through this CD leaving you to try to keep up with their unbridled enthusiasm. They Go and Father Lou are their get up out of your seat songs, foot stomping not tapping. Monique DeFree’s intense drumming and Matthew Taylor’s strong bass are both just right there and steady, pounding out these brand-new favorites. Brad Rourke has a deep tone to his natural story-telling voice that matches his meaningful songs. Mike Shawn’s Hard to Sleep captures the longing of lost love and makes you glad the song’s not just in your head because his piano just pours all over you in the real world. The West End has absorbed slightly obscure rock influences from the last few decades into a sound that is all their own. This CD knocks seriousness into uncommon rock.

TWE at Austin Grill 4-09

If you don’t own it, you can hear them live on Thursday. You’ll also be able to buy a CD at the show the old-fashioned way — in person.

An impressive new sound system was installed on the stage this summer and there’s been a noticeable improvement at concerts. If you haven’t been to one this season, this is your chance for a guaranteed great show. Come on over and let’s have a big old Rockville party to bid summer farewell. Grab some dinner in Town Square, listen to our favorite Rockville band, and leave full of the best Rockville has to offer.

If you’re interested in the remaining outdoor shows through September, check out my Ultimate Outdoor Summer Guide for Rockville Town Center.

POTD: Spin

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I am keeping with yesterday’s theme of breaking the rules by publishing a POTD that was not taken within the city limits (ordinarily that is a Big Rule). But this is one of the Montgomery County Fair, which is an institution and well-loved by so many of my Rockville friends and neighbors.

This very cool shot is by Julia Defino Leiby!