Monday, April 10, 2017

Timpano demolition imminent in Rockville (Photos)

Say your last goodbyes to the empty Timpano Italian Chophouse at 12021 Rockville Pike, in the Montrose Crossing shopping center. The building has been fenced off for demolition, and demolition permits are displayed at the site. Property owner Federal Realty is replacing the restaurant with a new 18000 SF, multi-tenant retail structure.




Rendering of the future
retail building on display
at Montrose Crossing

One last look pre-fence

Friday, April 7, 2017

Target to add Starbucks inside Rockville store

Starbucks inside the
Bethesda Target store
The new Target that just opened in downtown Bethesda has its own Starbucks inside. Now the larger, old Target store at 5700 Bou Avenue in Rockville is getting in on the act. A Starbucks is going to be added there, as well, this year. Parking is much easier at the Rockville store, it must be said.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

MCPS does background check on security team leader...AFTER he is arrested for alleged sex with Richard Montgomery student

Michael Christopher Yantsos
was hired by MCPS without a
background check
How safe are your kids in Montgomery County Public Schools? Parents have been pondering that question in recent weeks, after a 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by two illegal immigrants in a bathroom at Rockville High School, and two other girls were violently assaulted there in the weeks prior to that incident. MCPS Superintendent Jack Smith, who has shown more rage toward his critics than toward the alleged rapists, assured us last week that every MCPS school was safe. But today, Montgomery County police announced they have arrested an MCPS security team leader, Mark Christopher Yantsos, 57,  for allegedly having sexual contact with a 17-year-old student at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville.

Oops.

Smith then compounded that news by announcing later this morning that "it has come to our attention that in 1994, Mr. Yantsos was accused of using his revolver to menace a female while working for the New York Police Department." According to a 1994 New York Times report on that incident, Yantsos was attempting to "pick up" the 30-year-old woman after drinking "10 to 15 shots of tequila" at the Happy Go Lucky "topless bar."

What we've just learned, is that MCPS didn't do a background check on a security team leader before hiring him. You can't make this stuff up, folks.

Smith - or more accurately, whoever found the 1994 report and forwarded it to him - then proudly declares he's just done a background check on an employee...after the employee has allegedly had sex with an MCPS student. The same Smith, who with his friends on the County Council, spent more time raging at their constituents and playing national partisan politics than addressing the rape victim or student safety since the gang rape was reported.

This is the sort of amateur hour condoned by both the Board of Education, and the County Council. Unreal. If there was any question Jack Smith needed to step down, that question was answered today.

* * *
Detectives are requesting that parents of students who attend Richard Montgomery High School talk to their children about their interactions with Mark Christopher Yantsos, and contact SVID detectives at 240-773-5400 if they believe their child was victimized.

A Bite of China opens, MIchael's Noodles closes in Rockville

A Bite of China has opened in the College Plaza shopping center at 15106-A Frederick Road in Rockville. Asian-style kabob skewers are a house specialty. Meanwhile, Michael's Noodles has closed at Travilah Square. A source tells me the landlord declined to offer the popular restaurant a new lease to clear space for a new Trader Joe's grocery store at the shopping center.

Michael's Noodles is having an auction of its equipment - everything must go, from dining tables to sinks to walk-in coolers. Even the fax machine is up for grabs. See the auction page for full details on how to bid.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Montgomery County Council stealing money from senior citizens via "tax credit"

Montgomery County falsely asserts that its proposed FY-2018 budget "holds the line on taxes," and reduces the property tax rate "by 2.5 cents." In reality, homeowners will pay more in property taxes, due to rising assessments. That's not the only doublespeak in the budget. Olney resident Louis Wilen has done the math, and found that the theoretically-generous Homeowners Tax Credit of $692 actually raises the tax bills of senior citizens over 65 who make less than $60,000 a year.

Worksheet by Louis Wilen showing
comparison of issuance of $692 flat credit
versus non-issuance of $692 flat credit
(click to enlarge for greater detail)
Seniors aren't aware of this, Wilen says, because the Homeowners Tax Credit worksheet is not usually provided to homeowners, meaning that the tax credit calculation is hidden from them. For those seniors under the $60,000 income level, that calculation turns the $692 tax credit into a $346 tax increase. Wilen will ask the Council at tonight's budget public hearing to replace the flat $692 credit with a decrease in the property tax rate, to solve the problem for the affected seniors.

Wilen's finding fits a long-time pattern of this County Council, which has a history of imposing flat taxes and fees that hit residents with low or fixed incomes hard countywide. Taking advantage of senior citizens won't help the Council erase the severe trust deficit it has with its constituents, which led to overwhelming passage of term limits last November.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Lawyer MoCo Council hired without knowing how much he'd charge will cost $575 an hour

Remember when the Montgomery County Council hired an immigration lawyer on March 7, without knowing how much he would charge taxpayers for his services? It turns out you'll be paying him $575 an hour, according to the Daily Caller. Maybe he just "blew them away in the interview," like Lee Mazzilli did the Orioles front office in 2004. Remember how well that worked out?

Attorney Leon Rodriguez's fee is even higher than what the County is paying for legal representation in the Silver Spring Transit Center lawsuit. Yet, the specific purpose for retaining Rodriguez has yet to be articulated by either the Council or County Executive Ike Leggett.

This simply adds to the speculation that Rodriguez will be an expensive way for the Council to divert attention from its disastrous handling of the economy, and bad relations with many communities over unpopular land-use decisions. He will likely be utilized in what will amount to expensive PR stunts over federal immigration issues, to capitalize politically on the overwhelming opposition to President Donald Trump in progressive Montgomery County.

That may make for good politics, but it is a shameful abuse of taxpayer funds. Montgomery County is the only jurisdiction in the D.C. region to hire a separate immigration lawyer, which alone tells you how morally and ethically wrong the move is. County attorney Marc Hansen is fully-qualified to address any federal immigration issue that relates to Montgomery County, just as his counterparts do in every other local jurisdiction.

Just in today's Council session alone, councilmembers are set to approve over $1.5 million in new salaries, for frivolous new County government jobs ranging from security officers for the $1.6 million conversion of the County Council Building into a literal bunker, to a new small business office and staff - who wouldn't be needed if the County didn't have the most overbearing tax and regulation burden in the region.

Now we find out the immigration attorney hired with the non-specific purpose of protecting illegal immigrants, just 9 days before two illegal immigrants would be accused of gang-raping a 14-year-old girl in a bathroom at Rockville High School, will cost us $575 an hour. How much money has the County Council put toward the safety of children in our public schools since March 16? Zero dollars. What a public relations disaster.

Throw the bums out.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Mayor and Council to discuss historic designation of Americana Centre tonight

The Mayor and Council will discuss and instruct staff on the proposed historic designation for the Americana Centre development in Rockville during their meeting tonight, which begins at 7:00 PM at City Hall. Along with the failed Rockville Mall, Americana Centre represents one of the most significant examples of 1960s-era urban renewal policies in Montgomery County.

If the Mayor and Council direct them to do so tonight, staff will bring back an ordinance to change Americana Centre's zoning to "MXTD (HD)," to signify it has been designated historic at the local level. That ordinance would likely be presented for a vote at the Mayor and Council's April 17 meeting, if a supermajority waives the layover period.