Northwood News ♦ February 2020

President’s Message

By Samantha Jones

Don’t forget!  The next NFCCA meeting will be on 12 February 2020 from 7:30 p.m.–9 p.m. at Forest Knolls Elementary School (10830 Eastwood Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20901)!

Our neighborhood has a city address of Silver Spring, but, as we all know, Silver Spring isn’t actually a city.  Silver Spring isn’t a municipality at all; rather, it’s an unincorporated part of Montgomery County.  This means that we don’t have a city council, like Rockville or Gaithersburg.  Instead, our most-local elected officials are our Montgomery County Councilmembers.  In addition to District 5 Councilmember Tom Hucker, we are represented by two At-Large Councilmembers:  Evan Glass and Will Jawando.  This year, your NFCCA Board is prioritizing opportunities to have local elected officials and leaders join us at our neighborhood meetings and events.

At our December 2019 NFCCA neighborhood meeting, we heard presentations from Councilmember Evan Glass.  Councilmember Glass gave a detailed presentation on his legislative agenda for 2020.  He also answered attendees’ questions about numerous topics, including pedestrian safety.  Councilmember Glass has been a leading voice in the County’s Vision Zero pedestrian safety initiative.  Through this program, the County is working to reduce the number of pedestrian and cyclist traffic fatalities by updating county roads, installing new traffic calming measures on some roads, and analyzing other measures that make our street safer and more walkable.  Anyone who has walked along Dennis Avenue in the neighborhood or down University Boulevard understands the need to improve pedestrian access to and across these streets.  If you missed the meeting and have questions about what the Council is doing to implement Vision Zero, please contact Councilmember Glass through the www.montgomerycountymd.gov website.

Another helpful voice advocating for neighborhoods through Silver Spring is Matt Losak of the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board (SSCAB).  SSCAB advises the County on a number of topics and issues that affect Silver Spring.  Mr. Losak also spoke at the December meeting and shared some of the SSCAB’s current initiatives.  To learn more about these, please visit the county website listed above.

Keeping with the theme of roads and traffic, we have invited a speaker for February from the Maryland Advocates for Sustainable Transportation (MAST) and a speaker from the Maryland Department of Transportation to discuss Governor Hogan’s proposal to expand I-495 and I-270.  This has been a hot button issue in local politics, including in our neighborhood and surrounding parts of Silver Spring.  MAST is a coalition of advocates concerned by Governor Hogan’s plan to expand I-495 and I-270.  Of course, if the proposal is approved by the Maryland Department of Public Works, the Maryland Department of Transportation would be instrumental in building and maintaining the expansion.  We look forward to hearing from representatives of these groups, and hope you will join us at the 12 February 2020 meeting.   ■