[RP TownTalk] renewed discussion of Cafritz Project garners some analysis

[Melissa Avery]

In the late 1940's until the late 1960's Riverdale Park had a commercial district on Rt.I.
At one time it had several grocery stores, a hardware store and several car dealerships.
then came East West Highway and it killed business in Riverdale Park as well as the business district in Hyatsville.
 
the reason East West Highway is an overpass that divides the town is because the citizens or Riverdale (park) were sick and tired of people using Riverdale Road and Queesbury Road as cut through.
 
They asked the state for help, and unfortunately received an even bigger cut through that destroyed over 60 Victorian homes in its wake and the business districts of Hyatsville and Riverdale.
I have lived in the Washington area for 56 years. In Virginia, Maryland and the District. In several county's and cities.
 
 
I love Riverdale Park because it does not have a subway stop, major roads, and actually has green space and wild life.
 And I can afford to live here.
 
 
The only places in the Washington area, beside Riverdale Park, that has such qualities are economically out of my reach, Like parts of Alexandria, 
MC Clan, Glen Echo, Chevy Chase, Potomac, or off of MC Aurthur blvd. 
Why?
Because the people who live there are intelligent and have enough money to preserve a quality of life.
 
For thighs who are enamored with development, why not move to Gaithersburg and leave Riverdale Park to those of us who appreciate it.
 
 
 


--- On Wed, 6/1/11, Chris Currie <crcurrie at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Chris Currie <crcurrie at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] renewed discussion of Cafritz Project garners some analysis
To: towntalk at riverdale-park.org
Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 12:41 PM


I just posted this comment on the Rethinking College Park blog:

[Quote:] "People gotta live someplace. And we can save more trees if they
live in dense developments, rather than in sprawling suburban castles."

We could save even more trees if Central Park were redeveloped like the rest
of mid-town Manhattan, but does anyone think that would be a good idea?

If you're going to pack people into denser environments, which makes sense
for a number of reasons, it's even more important to provide green oases
that sustain the human spirit.

That's not an argument for putting "sprawling suburban castles" on Cafritz,
but for preserving the green space - perhaps as a park that could do at
least as much for the local quality of life as a yupscale grocery store.

The current trends indicate that there will be more and more shopping
amenities in the Rte. 1 communities in the future, but less and less green
space. Shouldn't we try to preserve some of what's left of the latter?

Do what Hyattsville did and put the commercial yuppie playgrounds on
under-performing and less dense commercial tracts. That makes better
economic as well as environmental sense. And it leaves us with a few places
to breathe.

Chris Currie
Hyattsville


                --- On Mon, 5/30/11, Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes at gmail.com>
wrote:


                From: Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes at gmail.com>
                Subject: [RP TownTalk] renewed discussion of Cafritz Project
garners some analysis on the Rethinking College Park blog
                To: "TownTalk" <towntalk at riverdale-park.org>
                Date: Monday, May 30, 2011, 3:55 AM

                http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2011/5527/

                Talks Resume for Whole Foods Just South of College Park

                May 29th, 2011  |  by Colin Phillips  |  Published in
Cafritz
                Property, Speculation  |  5 Comments
                15Share

                There?s nothing like talk of a Whole Foods opening in the
neighborhood
                to get local pulses racing. After a few years of
recession-induced
                torpor, it appears that plans are again underway to develop
the
                Cafritz Property, a 35.8-acre tract of undeveloped land on
Route 1
                immediately to the south of College Park. Whole Foods would
like to be
                the anchor tenant for this development (it is listed among
their
                ?stores in development?. As the lively discussion on the
Riverdale
                Park Patch shows, some locals regard this as the best thing
since
                unsliced organic bread, while others view it as the latest
in a line
                of development and transportation disasters to hit the
area....

                for complete blog article, see
http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2011/5527/
                _______________________________________________
                




_______________________________________________
TownTalk mailing list
To post to the list, send mail to TownTalk at riverdale-park.org
TownTalk-request at riverdale-park.org is for automated subscription processing only
http://riverdale-park.org/mailman/listinfo/towntalk

For more information about Riverdale Park, visit http://www.riverdaleparkmd.info
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/attachments/20110601/d086d3ec/attachment-0002.html>