[RP TownTalk] EYA in Hyattsville

Wed Jul 11 15:49:18 UTC 2012

Since Whole Foods in Riverdale Park is nearly three years away and you'll
want to eat before then, consider telling the Brothers Spiropoulos at Town
Center Market what it is that you'd like and give them an opportunity to
stock it. Shoppers have more buying opportunity than they realize. Jimmy
and Ted are open to consumers' suggestions. Town Center Market has plenty
of space to expand and it will go in the direction that consumers drive it.

Some recent examples are the smoked meats that originally debuted at the
Riverdale Park Farmers Market are now stocked at the TC Market and are
brisk sellers. Same with the Howard County-based Bowling Green Farm cheeses
and spreads which also crossed the tracks to be hot sellers.

If there is one regret about this new market, it's that they continue to
allow me to purchase apple fritters the size of aircraft carriers and now I
am the size of an aircraft carrier! Perhaps a health club should open
between the market and Dumm's Pizza & Subs?

USS Natoli Place

On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 10:42 AM, Nina Faye <ns_faye at yahoo.com> wrote:

> It is interesting, particularly in our current political climate, that so
> many of us go to meetings or watch them on television and later have quite
> different perceptions of what was said or what happened or why. At least
> when we are all neighbors, I do think we try harder to keep open minds
> about our differences and try harder to see the opposite viewpoint. We all
> live very near each other in our glass houses. I will just try to hold onto
> the perspective that I like having Big Bag Wolf and Yes within walking
> distance, the new Town Center Market a short dirive, and maybe a Whole
> Foods in our future.
> On an aside about Whole Foods, each store carries different merchandise
> that they claim reflects what the community wants. I worked next door to
> the new one just off Rockville Pike for awhile. This is what they kept
> telling me as I complained that they did not carry the same products as
> Silver Spring or Georgetown. When and if we acquire a Whole Foods, I will
> be very interested to see what corporate management thinks we want. I
> suggest we all provide any input possible at any opportunity. That
> Rockville store is very large and has all sorts of fresh, prepared, and
> packaged food, but it did not carry a number of products that our household
> buys from other Whole Foods. That makes it not worth my while to shop there.
>
>
> --- On *Wed, 7/11/12, Chris Currie <crcurrie at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Chris Currie <crcurrie at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] EYA in Hyattsville
> To: "towntalk" <towntalk at riverdale-park.org>
> Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 9:13 AM
>
>
> It is interesting to look at parallels between the EYA and Cafritz
> projects, and there certainly are some.  The main one is that both projects
> featured a developer who was promising to bring in amenities that were not
> previously found in Prince George's County and appealed not only to current
> residents' consumer desires but also to their sense of self-esteem.  That
> was such a powerful dynamic that it overrode other concerns that residents
> typically have about large, impactful new developments.
>
> I think that in the case of EYA, one has to distinguish municipal elected
> officials from county elected officials.  The former, for the most part,
> were vigilant about protecting the community's interests with respect to
> the project.  On the other hand, the County Councilman -- recently elected
> after spending a record amount of money, raised almost entirely from big
> developers -- told EYA officials at the very first public meeting -- long
> before the M-NCPPC staff report, or the Planning Board recommendation, or
> the District Council consideration of the project -- that he was grateful
> to them for the proposal and would do everything possible to ensure that it
> was approved.  From that point on, the City of Hyattsville had virtually
> zero influence over the evolution of the proposal.  EYA knew that the
> County decision-maker was in their pocket and, contrary to the way the
> vetting process normally works, with each public meeting they actually
> *retracted* elements of the proposal that were designed to please the local
> community.  It was breath-taking to behold.
>
> This dynamic didn't take hold in the Cafritz process, and I believe one of
> the main reasons why was that not only Riverdale Park citizens and
> officials were forthright in representing their town's interests, but that
> your County Councilman was clearly not in the developer's pocket.
>  Interestingly, Hyattsville's Councilman was the one who led the approval
> fight for Cafritz.  That should be reflected at some point down the road in
> future campaign finance reports.
>
> Where Hyattsville had an influence in the Arts District Hyattsville
> project was before it was even proposed.  The property owner, Bert Lustine,
> initially approached Hyattsville with a plan to develop four gargantuan
> apartment buildings on the site.  The Hyattsville Planning Committee
> approved the plan, but the Mayor and some Councilmembers at the time
> (myself included) were staunchly against it.  Mayor Gardiner worked behind
> the scenes very aggressively and skillfully over the course of months to
> reshape the development concept, which happened at least twice thereafter,
> until Lustine agreed to the new-urbanist, mixed-use scheme that EYA was
> recruited to build.  As a result of that effort, the Arts District
> Hyattsville project was conceptually very sound, even if the details did
> not shake out entirely to the City's satisfaction.
>
> Incidentally, Mayor Gardiner was very aware of the parking shortfall, and
> worked aggressively -- with the very little influence he had left after
> Councilman Campos' unconditional approval of the development plan -- to at
> least get EYA to agree to reserve a pad for an eventual parking garage.
> That effort for a parking garage continues today ...
>
> Chris Currie
> Hyattsville
>
>
>
> Message: 11
> Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:28:07 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Nina Faye <ns_faye at yahoo.com<http://us.mc1620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=ns_faye@yahoo.com>
> >
> To: Sue Collins <wheadle at yahoo.com<http://us.mc1620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=wheadle@yahoo.com>>,
> "jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com<http://us.mc1620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=jebbeler@efusionconsulting.com>
> "
>         <jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com<http://us.mc1620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=jebbeler@efusionconsulting.com>>,
> "towntalk at riverdale-park.org<http://us.mc1620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=towntalk@riverdale-park.org>
> "
>         <towntalk at riverdale-park.org<http://us.mc1620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=towntalk@riverdale-park.org>>,
> Melissa Avery <m.avery at rocketmail.com<http://us.mc1620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=m.avery@rocketmail.com>
> >
> Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Cafritz Vote
> Message-ID:
>         <1341941287.51580.YahooMailClassic at web162005.mail.bf1.yahoo.com<http://us.mc1620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=1341941287.51580.YahooMailClassic@web162005.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Sue and Melissa, I agree with many of your points.? I do not know the
> elected folks in Riverdale Park; we live in Hyattsville.? I certainly know
> how many of our elected people acted and spoke during our extensive
> development.? UTC is a poorly planned mess from my perspective and that of
> many of my fellow residents.? With EYA, many of us repeatedly spoke before
> our Council of the need for adequate parking in the early, middle, and late
> planning stages.? Guess what?? Now everyone is scrambling to try to create
> more parking.? We told them there wasn't enough planned and that it would
> fail without adequate parking.? We were told that everyone would walk and
> ride bikes.? I was proEYA because I had worked in downtown Silver Spring
> when that EYA project was built.? Hyattsville did not get that aesthetic or
> quality, partially,?I have been told, because our elected officials kept
> meddling.? We begged for traffic studies and traffic remediation.? We
>  were ignored until it was too late.? As to county politicians, haven't we
> all been reading about developers, kickbacks, payoffs, and fraud in the
> newspapers for years?? I am certainly not accusing or implying anything
> about?anyone involved in this deal, but the climate in the county has led
> to cynicism on the entire topic.? The increased traffic from UTC and PG
> Plaza Metro development has been a nightmare for us.? There are business
> vacancies at EYA, UTC, and College Park.? I would like a Whole Foods near
> by, but what they are insisting on, as I understand it, is a huge parking
> lot along Route 1--awful.? The rest is too much density, and it is NOT a
> short walk to Metro.? Anyway, ladies I agree with you.? Early this morning
> I e-mailed Campos what I thought of his vote.
>
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
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-- 
Jeffrey Yorke
Yorke Property Management, Inc.
Yorke Partners
Jeffrey at YorkeRents.com
301-502-1243
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