The second ‘annual’ Long Branch festival held from Sept. 10 through Sept. 12, was, by popular acclaim, as successful as the one held in September 2019. If not, indeed, more so. The intensity of feeling – the smiles, the frequent exclamations of ‘thank you for doing this!’ – spoke to the sheer joy of gathering with one’s Long Branch neighbors and just having fun after so long a pause.
“Everything went perfectly! Todo salio a perfection,” exclaimed Ada Villatoro after the festival closed.
It was widely acknowledged that the second festival was, to be sure, shorter than the first: only three days in 2021 compared with eight days in 2019. But this year’s festival was, if anything, even more varied in styles than the first.
Friday opened with a leisurely session of Loteria (Latino-style Bingo) led by Carlos Perozo, who shared his prompts in both English and Spanish (“‘la arpa,’ the harp! ‘la sirena,’ the mermaid!”). Children’s performances varied from the dynamic Eric Energy to the relaxing, lyrical songs of Mr. Gabe.
Music quality was uniformly high, and, again, characterized by variety — from folksy blue grass (“Off the Rails”) to the ultra-sophisticated world funk sound of BFOM. Two additional musical high points were the Grammy-nominated West African music of Cheick Hamala Diabate and the concluding performance on Saturday night, the ever-popular La Colombo Percutiva.
The festival was made possible by a collaboration between MHP, the County Parks Department, and the Long Branch Business League. MHP’s Amee Bearne and Catherine Rytkonen did a great deal of the heavy lifting, as far as planning and logistics were concerned. Prior to the festival, the Parks Department made large investments into park improvements and beautification at Flower Avenue Urban Park. Thanks to those investments, which were permanent, holding outdoor festivals will now be much easier. The organizers hope that the ‘gods’ (the ones who control such things as the weather and funding streams) will be kind to Long Branch and allow for more frequent use of this terrific community space.
A final, special shout out to El Golfo Restaurant for financing the stage! All we need now is a permanent stage (hint).
Silver Spring Regional Director Reemberto Rodriguez — known popularly among locals as ‘mayor’ of Silver Spring, and universally referred to simply as ‘Reemberto’ — retired July 2. He held the Regional Director position since 2009.
Many Long Branch business owners expressed surprise at Reemberto’s departure, which felt like the sudden disappearance of a favorite landmark that they had just assumed would always be there.
Carlos Perozo, Business League president, praised Reemberto for his unwavering support for local businesses. “He is always looking for ways to get grants to the small business community,” Perozo told the Newsletter.
The Cuban-born Reemberto Rodriguez “never lost his identity as ‘one of us,'” Perozo noted, adding that he felt Reemberto was always able to understand the perspective of a community that he very much remained part of. What is more, Reemberto has, over the years, been “tireless in his efforts” to get out information about everything going on in Silver Spring and acted as “a force of nature” over the past year to get people vaccinated, Perozo said.
In recent months, it was in the first instance Reemberto who made possible the setting up of Long Branch’s highly successful new outdoor restaurant seating spaces. These so-called ‘Streeteries,’ identifiable by their distinctive orange chairs, umbrellas, flowers and greenery, have been set up next to El Gavilan, El Golfo, and Veronica’s restaurants at their locations along Flower Avenue and Piney Branch Rd.
Acting through the Silver Spring Regional Center, Reemberto secured funding for the streeteries which were then built out by MHP, which did the work of building them ‘at cost,’ i.e., with zero overhead. Similar ‘streeteries’ had been set up in other business districts, but their centralized form did not fit the realities of Long Branch, where the restaurants are far apart and appropriate locations are scarce. The Streeteries have importantly helped the participating Long Branch restaurants recover from sales lost during the pandemic.
Downtown and Nation-wide
In Silver Spring’s downtown district, Reemberto’s urban vision took on the larger scale appropriate to that big-city environment.
Richard Madaleno, chief administrative officer for Montgomery County, remarked on how Silver Spring’s Urban District and Arts and Entertainment District blossomed under Reemberto’s leadership. Madaleno noted that it was thanks to Reemberto’s efforts that the new Civic Building and Veterans Plaza are now fully activated. The downtown area has also seen a doubling of the number of apartments during Reemberto’s tenure.
Prior to acting as Regional Center director, Reemberto, a trained architect, worked for 20 years for the NeighborWorks America organization, the last five developing training programs for community organizers.
NeighborWorks national conferences and community leadership training programs have been attended by several officers of the Long Branch Business League (LBBL). Some of these trainings were led by Reemberto himself, who maintained close ties to the NeighborWorks organization even after taking his position with the Silver Spring Regional Center. NeighborWorks is a national, congressionally-funded non-profit that supports neighborhood-scale economic and social programs across the whole country.
Yvette Williams, a colleague of Reemberto’s while he was at NeighborWorks and currently a Leadership Program manager there, noted that her former colleague’s training classes — the ones he has offered in recent years, that is — were offered as a volunteer. “He was all about service; he volunteered his time.”
Williams was effusive about Reemberto’s tenure while he was at NeighborWorks. He was instrumental, she said, in making the community leadership training programs they offered national in scale, and greatly expanded and improved their curriculum. The ‘key words’ she associated with Reemberto include, she said: “forward thinking; a bridge builder; full of integrity; the type of colleague who would mentor you even if you didn’t know that you were being mentored.”
John Angel (of La Casita pupusery and Blue Beetle Bar), praised Reemberto for his commitment to the community — a commitment demonstrated, Angel noted, by his always being there for each and every event happening in downtown Silver Spring or in Long Branch. “With all his experience, Reemberto really has very good insight on planning events,” Angel added.
Carlos Perozo picked up on that same theme, expressing to the Newsletter his hopes that a man with such extensive experience in urban issues as Reemberto will continue to stay active in the Long Branch community and Silver Spring.
Outdoor diners this winter at Long Branch’s El Golfo restaurant
This February, residents of the Long Branch neighborhood began signing on to a campaign to save their neighborhood restaurants. The campaign, called Pledge to Preserve, was launched Feb. 5 by the Long Branch Business League and MHP.
Zeroing in on the many restaurants in the Long Branch neighborhood that have suffered enormous financial losses over the past year of pandemic-related damages, the initiative asks community members to voluntarily commit to purchasing meals at least three times a month from any Long Branch restaurant.
At the end of the campaign’s first week, already twenty-eight local residents had signed on to the campaign. “If we can get every person on our list to convince one friend to pledge, we can double that number soon,” said Catherine Rytkonen, the Business League’s marketing manager.
The Pledge to Preserve webpage lists the 15 participating Long Branch restaurants — along with their cuisine type, menu, and social media connections.
The initiative represents a local Long Branch response to a wider national crisis. According to the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC), one in four jobs lost during the pandemic have been in the food and beverage industry. That’s the equivalent of 5.9 million jobs lost.
According to the same study, if no direct aid is provided some 85 percent of independent restaurants will likely close by the end of this year.
The pandemic-related crisis hit a small business sector that could ill afford such a challenge.
“Even in normal, non-pandemic years it is difficult to run a restaurant and keep it in the black,” the Pledge to Preserve webpage points out. “Many restaurants generate as much as half their annual income from weddings, parties, and holiday-related events (Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Christmas). This year all that has been cancelled.”
What is more, even though Long Branch’s restaurants have so far managed to keep their doors open, there is no guarantee they will all survive the coming months without vigorous and, indeed, greatly increased support from private persons and the public sector.
When five new street trees were planted in downtown Long Branch this December, it was both the end and the start of a longer process.
The process that concluded Dec. 1st with the tree planting had been set in motion several months earlier. MHP and the Long Branch Business League (LBBL) have long wanted to do something about all the empty tree boxes that create an eyesore in downtown Long Branch, but planting trees is not as easy as it sounds. Not if you want to do it right. And MHP and the LBBL definitely wanted to do it right – for reasons we will get into in a moment.
Among multiple other steps – testing the soil, clearing out roots and sundry metal objects, getting clearance from utilities — the non-profit MHP also consulted with professional arborists to find out which were the right species to plant.
The trees selected would have to fit specific constraints. The trees on Piney Branch Rd. needed to be small enough to stay clear of overhead wires and not get clipped by passing buses.
On Flower Ave., there are no overhead wires. On the other hand, the tree boxes are small, which limits water and oxygen penetration to tree roots, which, in turn, can make it harder for a large tree to flourish.
In the end, it was decided to plant flowering Japanese lilac trees on Flower Ave., and paperbark maples on Piney Branch. Neither species is expected to grow much beyond twenty feet tall. The Parks department provided all the trees to Long Branch at zero cost, and were kind enough to even deliver them.
Though the preparation took months, thanks to O & O Tree Service, hired for the occasion, the process of actually planting the five trees with their heavy root balls took only a few hours.
December’s tree planting was also only the first step in a longer process – that of replacing the rest of downtown Long Branch’s street trees.
Why do they need to be replaced? The short answer? Bradford pears.
Sadly, most of commercial Long Branch’s street trees are Bradford pears. When the USDA started promoting this cultivar back in the 1960s, they seemed the perfect solution for expanding suburbia. They are inexpensive, grow fast, and produce lovely, showy white blossoms every spring. They were massively planted all over the country.
Within a few years, however, it turned out these pretty critters have a dark side. They are fragile — their branches easily break off and can be dangerous. Furthermore, their lifespans are short — a few decades merely. And to top it off they are aggressively invasive.
The Bradfords in Long Branch are now at the end of their life cycle so even those apparently still in good shape will not survive much longer.
Which tree, over the next few years, will — or should — replace them?
It’s an interesting question. It could be more of the same ones that were just planted – the Japanese lilacs and paperbark maples. On the other hand, if the existing tree boxes can be expanded in size, larger trees that make more of an architectural statement could also be chosen – except in spots crowded by overhead wires, of course. (It should be added that some arborists think that even without the expanded tree boxes larger trees can still be a viable option.)
A wit once wrote of Southern California: ‘A few leaves fall, they open a bottle of champagne, and they call it winter.’
Winter in Long Branch is a very different affair, including in the tree department. Unlike Hollywood’s pampered palm trees, Long Branch’s poplars, oaks and maples are deciduous. They face all the seasons of life.
After surviving the hot summer and windy autumn, their prolific leaves fall tumbling to the ground, their trunks and angular branches left bare and exposed. Then they go into hibernation. Their skeletal silhouettes, accentuated by the waning December light, remind us of death and decline.
Then, starting from Dec. 22, which happens to be today, the days start growing longer again. Winter, it turns out, does come to an end. By spring, the trees are in blossom again. Such is the cycle of life.
What, though, of Long Branch’s small shops and shuttered restaurants? Will they also survive this unprecedented winter? Indeed, for many Long Branch business owners the accursed year 2020 has for many months now felt like a winter that will never end. Will our December 1st tree planting prove symbolic of their own capacity for self-renewal?
The answer, almost certainly, is yes. And yet, our small stores have this in common with growing trees. Hardy as they generally are, after enduring a long drought they need some extra TLC.
[Want to get involved in future plantings, share your thoughts about new trees in Long Branch? We welcome your involvement! Write Paul at pgrenier@mhpartners.org]
Tunnel construction in Long Branch. Picture credit: Bethesda Magazine
The Purple Line light rail line had a near-death experience this fall.
A dispute over money halted construction and the target date for opening the long-awaited East-West transportation link is likely to be pushed back further. The uncertainty and delay has many Long Branch businesses worried.
In September, the PLTC – the industrial group tasked with construction of the light rail project — parted ways with its employer, the state of Maryland. The PLTC is a consortium of contractors led by the Texas-based Fluor corporation.
The disagreement between the two sides was over what the PLTC claims is $800 million in unpaid cost overruns owed to it by the State. After a Baltimore court ruled, mid-September, that the construction contractor had the legal right to quit, the two sides, in effect, got a divorce.
Other than limited work on erosion control and relocating utilities, construction has come to a halt. In recent weeks, the heavy trucks and loud noise long familiar to Long Branch businesses and residents have been conspicuous by their absence.
The State Strikes Back
Governor Larry Hogan, for his part, was unfazed. On Oct. 1 he announced that Maryland will make sure the project gets built — no matter what. “We have a whole group of great construction companies that want to finish the job,” he said. “The state is going to finish the job.”
At Hogan’s direction, the Maryland Transportation Administration (MTA) took over management of the whole project. Transportation secretary Greg Slater and MTA’s Purple Line executive director Matthew Pollack are now exploring their options. They say that task is likely to take four to six months.
One possibility is that the state takes on the role of lead contractor itself and manages things until the line is built. Another is negotiating a new deal with an outside private consortium – possibly with the remnants of the PLTC.
“I’m very glad [governor] Hogan has been decisive about finishing the Purple Line,” said Long Branch Business League president Carlos Perozo. “The project needs to be finished as soon as possible,” he said, adding that the construction process itself seriously hurts small business, but the completed rail line “will bring economic growth to our whole area.”
Local Fallout
Long Branch residents are voicing concerns about how all this will impact the quality of life, and safety, of the Long Branch neighborhood.
Resident Annie Tulkin, writing on behalf of NIMT (Neighbors Impacted by Manchester Tunnel), has raised a series of questions directly with MTA director Matt Pollack, several of these relating to Arliss Street, which has been half closed and otherwise suffered greatly from construction.
Might through traffic on Arliss be re-opened, if only temporarily, and the unsightly big purple fence taken down, Tulkin asked?
Not yet, came the reply – and probably not until all construction is complete.
Most recently, Tulkin has raised several other questions with MTA:
Can the state install temporary lighting on Arliss to replace several streetlamps removed during construction, rendering the street unsafe and dark at night?
Can it ameliorate the unsafe pedestrian crossing across Piney Branch Rd. at the Long Branch Community Center?
When will it restore the two bus stops on E. Wayne that were removed during an earlier phase of the construction?
As of the writing of this newsletter, Tulkin has not yet received a reply to those requests for information.
Even before this latest set of problems hit the Purple Line construction project, the target date for its opening had already been pushed back from 2022 to 2024. Further delays in the opening date are all but certain.
Thank you for supporting our local small businesses by ordering delicious food and drinks from our participating restaurants. Reach out to catherine@rosyowlcreative.com with any questions.
