Questions about Glenmont, Silver Spring

[MikeK]

Another one for 10 - 2:00. Watch your speed on Randolph RD. I'm surprised no one mentioned this but they have speed cameras set up all along the stretch between Georgia and Connecticut. It's for safety, not revenue you understand. A few weeks ago they were averaging ~ 50 tickets an hour. Soon they'll be monitoring everyone's home.

Enjoy your visit!

[ebo202]

It really is run down, unfortunately. Wheaton/Glenmont and Langley Park are the key components of MD's immigration debacle. I went to Wheaton regional last weekend and was bombarded by a fleet of Toyotas and Reggaeton music.

[LisaMD]

Moderator cut: attack the post, not the poster.

I grew up in Silver Spring, between Glenmont Shopping Center and Plaza Del Mercado. I moved away when I was in my early 20's and have visited family and friends back in SS every now and then. I currently live in Brooklyn, NY and have to say when I first moved here I experienced the worst kind of culture shock. Everyone says NYC is a cultural hub and how thriving culture is and fortunate people here are to be exposed and cleansed by the ethnic diversity that exists here. The truth is when I moved here I felt completely alone and fell into the silly stereotypes people see on the television.

I never realized just how fortunate I was to grow up in Silver Spring among the vastly different and mixed cultures living in a single community, not like the several divided communities you find in NYC.

I went to Kennedy and remember all too well just how divided classes felt - the white kids, asians and jews in Honors and AP classes and the, negros in "regular" classes. Coincidentally the Honor and AP kids were usually of upper middle class/upper class families. Strange coincidence, I know. I was always in both categories and had a diverse group of friends. I'm still in touch with some of those old high school friends and we all agree "we", the students, were never the ones who separated ourselves from each other. More often than not it was those teachers and institutionalized ideas that made us believe we were all different and that some were more valuable than others. Most of those teachers made us Honor and AP kids feel like we could do anything and that we weren't apart of the "bad" Kennedy, oh no not us, we were "LTI" students (Leadership Training Institute).

While I was in the "regular" and "average" classes I remember feeling the complete opposite of all that is good. Teachers would make racist comments and pick on foreign students. Teachers would automatically send kids who didn't speak English to the detention room if they weren't able to answer questions. As if those students had done something bad by not understanding the question.

Once school ended I saw Silver Spring in a new light and felt somewhat claustrophobic in MD. So I moved to the big city, which really isn't all that big and is more racist and stereotypical than a Potomac or Bethesda Jew. Every extreme stereotype of race exists here and people always assume you're either rich or poor by the color of your skin. At least in Silver Spring, Wheaton, Rockville and Chevy Chase you're not assumed to be rich or poor simply by the ability to speak another language.

I don't really feel the need to identify with any race. I'm a Marylander through and through and am proud to be from a place that at some point nurtured difference, ethnicity, diversity and believed those to be qualities and assets to a single and whole community. Stupid teachers in high school are not Montgomery County. Again, no personal attacks! having to learn Spanish should be honored to have such a thriving, prosperous and diverse community teaching you another language. The US is the only country too stupid to at very least be bilingual. Montgomery County is a mecca for culture and ethnicity and I can't wait to raise my kids surrounded by it's immense diversity.

Just to recap - Not every Latino you meet is an illegal immigrant in a gang native to Mexico or El Salvador, not every Black person you meet is a lazy drug addict who listens to gangsta Rap music while drinking a 40oz, not every Asian person is Chinese and "Oriental" should only be used when speaking of exotic goods, i.e, "Oriental rugs." Not all Jews are Jewish and Judaism is a religion, not a race, Indians are from India, Native Americans are Native to the Americas, although prisons are filled with mostly brown people, that doesn't mean it is in fact mostly brown people committing crimes, it just means we live in a racist society that TARGETS and PROFILES brown people. Fact, 80% of serial killers are white, 93% are men.

[Grasonville]

Cleansed by the ethnic diversity?

PUHLEEZ

I don't wish to press ONE for English

And Plaza Del Mercado used to have a cool poster - "record" store with a swing in the listening area

Perhaps you spent too much time near those pretty water pipes and rolling papers

Edited to add

I went to Kennedy

Me too - what year did YOU graduate???

I went to school with Laurie Krause - (CLASS OF 1973) - her sister Allison went to Kent State - in Ohio - look her up.

[fishfister]

Originally Posted by peggydavis

Thanks to all for responding.

Thousands of houses were built and sold on GI loans. They couldn't wait to buy there. It was a cool time. Everyone was happy and swarms of kids everywhere.

We can already speak a little Spanish, we need it here too.

What you describe is what I remember of the REAL USA years ago. Kids had a different agenda back then because the media hadn't saturated our minds with garbage yet. It was safe to run around and play back then...who's mom had time to watch 4-5 kids during the day? There were no such thing as "soccer moms" in mini vans.
I was In south Texas for a long stretch of my early teens and learned some Spanish but it is more of a requirement there now depending on where you go.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by Grasonville

And Plaza Del Mercado used to have a cool poster - "record" store with a swing in the listening area

Perhaps you spent too much time near those pretty water pipes and rolling papers

If you are talking about Joe's Record Paradise, it's moved--now it's located in Rockville on E. Gude Dr. Apparently Mercado jacked the rents up something fierce about 10 years ago or so.

Glenmont is fine during the day, should be fun. The metro is right there at Layhill and Ga. now. I'd definitely avoid rush hour because it gets all jammed up around there.