<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><B>Re: [RP TownTalk] code and vendors discussion</B></FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV><DIV>Roland and all,</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I agree with you that our town looks shabby. At each main entryway to town we have abandoned properties (the Rt. 1 + 410 intersection, the south east corner of Madison + Rt. 1 , the both of the westward corners of Kenilworth and 410, the Kenilworth area south of the the bowling alley, the emptiness of riverdale plaza). Even if the town doesn't have much power to get privately held land to be inhabitated and spruced up, I don't think we are doing a bang up job with the ground the town control. For one, Beale circle looks really decrepit (dead trees, unkempt grounds, a jersey barrier or two sitting around) and that is a little area that could actually say to us (residents) and others that Riverdale Park takes care of its green space. It could be a nice little park. The development ideas for the corner of rt. 1 and 410 incorporate a small pocket park into the design guidelines. Why wait for years for the development to happen to make Beale Circle a spot to notice and not to avoid looking at? Two; the "Field of Dreams" isn't kept up beyond cutting the grass (the infield is mostly weeds, the signage needs painting,etc.). And the Riverdale Park signposts I see along River Rd. look pretty sad: the planters are dented and have no plants in them, the signs are faded. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I also agree with you:</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0080FF"> "I absolutely do believe that sprucing things up could have many secondary benefits, say in the ability to attract good businesses." </FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I do think that is a basic first step to seeing things progress. And beyond the efforts of the town and volunteers to help change things (like the tree planting day last month), can't the town demand more from the landowners who have sought (and in some cases were granted) accommodation from the town. For instance, couldn't a condition of the Rt.1 + 410 development agreement be that until the time that construction starts the ground is at least green and not rubble? I'm not saying that corner would become an astroturf park like what they did in Silver Spring on the fallow lot next to the movie theatre, but at least it could look better than the wasteland it is now. It can't be good for people's sense of the town, or perhaps more importantly can't be good for the businesses adjacent to it. For how many years does the Animal Hospital and the Calvert House have to have a rubble field as a neighbor? Similarly, can the state of the derelict gas station at Madison be very helpful to the town's image or the businesses adjacent to it, especially now that EYA and DeMatha are doing work to their sides of the street? Maybe the town doesn't have any legal power beyond making sure basic code regulations are met, but it must have more persuasive power at its disposal given that the landowners seem to want accommodations from the town.</DIV><BR><DIV>Best,</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Marc</DIV><DIV>4913 ravenswood rd.</DIV></BODY></HTML>