We have a little bit of everything today. First off it's Friday and that means... something...
Next up, this comes via DCMUD (name?) The city of Bethesda announced that it has OK'ed a plan to demolish a McDonalds and replace it with a 9 story high rise. This is both good and bad. The good is that there will be one less McDonalds in the world and the bad is that there will be one more high rise in the world. However you look at it there is a definite plus side to this plan. Montgomery county has stated that in order to proceed the building must achieve a LEED Silver Certification and provide 20% of the space for public use.
The big win is that as part of this 20%, the builder must build "Two 5-foot wide on-street bike paths will be laid along Pearl Street in order to connect it with the popular footpath" WOOT! Currently access to the trail from Pearl St. is a tangle of roots on a steep incline to navigate before you cross the newly installed drainage system or as I like to call it,"The Brown Line"
As illustrated in the artist rendition below, the county also states that the builder must crate a plaza with art and fountains and crap for people to happily ignore as they go to work. The builder must also provide an area of 85% opacity where people and trees are partially transparent.
Next up I would like to pass along a couple of songs that come to us from the Black Cab Sessions. who won't let anyone embed their videos for some reason. So you'll just have to click the damn links you lazy bastards.
I can't imagine living in a high rise. I don't think the human animal's evolution has prepared it for living in large groups. In herds. BUT...if we're going to keep reproducing at the present high rate, packing people in tight is the only way to keep our open spaces, our parks and farmland. We could survive without parks I suppose...be a bitch living without food. IMHO
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