Leaf Time! Collection Begins 10/22

One of my favorite things about Rockville is . . . wait for it . . . trash pickup. I think it's because I used to live in a rural town in Maine where there was no trash pickup at all unless you hired a private person to do it. Most folks just took their trash to the town dump every Saturday. (On the up side, you would meet and get to talk to everyone and find out what was going on.)

Of the trash services that I love, the service I love most is leaf pickup. I have never lived anywhere that got rid of my leaves for me. I just have to get them to the curb! Growing up (in the midwest) I used to have to rake and bag, rake and bag.

But in Our Fair City, you just need to make a big pile of leaves, make sure there aren't any big sticks hiding among them, and wait. The City comes around on a schedule and sucks them all up.

Here's this year's leaf pickup schedule, by area:

Area 1:
Oct 22-26
Nov 26-30

Area 2:
Oct 29-Nov 2
Dec 3-7

Area 3:
Nov 5-9
Dec 10-14

Area 4:
Nov 12-16
Dec 17-21

Area 5:
Nov 19-23
Dec 24-28

Here's a map to find your region:

There are other options, if you are not feeling like you want to fill landfill. You can mulch or compost your leaves and feed your garden in the spring!

One last thing. On your leaf day, make sure your leaves are ready to go by 7am!

(Photo from the City of Deptford, NJ.)

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New Hoffman, Pierzchala Mailers, and Pakulniewicz-Chidiac Yard Sign

Here at my voting household, we've received two new election-season mailers. First, I got a second mailer for mayoral candidate Susan Hoffmann on Thursday. Then, Friday, I got my first mailer for city council candidate Piotr (Peter) Gajewski.

Here are thumbnails, click on each to enlarge. Or, go see the whole album.

Susan Hoffmann:



Piotr (Peter) Gajewski:



Not only that, but city council candidate Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac's yard signs are up, so I've added them to the slideshow.

There are interesting doings when it comes to yard signs. Go here to learn more.

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The Great Yard Sign Mystery!

[UPDATE: Read the comments section for more as we get to the bottom of this mystery. There are interesting questions. And, there is new information from the City. --ed.]

Sometime last night, long after the West End Civic Association's candidate forum, some person or persons removed many, many different candidates' yard signs along the heavily travelled stretch of West Montgomery between N. Van Buren and Mannakee. I first learned of this from John Britton. (This is not the first time yard signs have been taken down so far this election -- Anne Robbins' signs have been torn down as early as last Saturday, according to one report -- but it is the largest single incident.)

And after such a nice forum, marked mostly by camaraderie and civility, too.

Along what used to be quite a festive (if you are into elections) stretch of road, it now looks like a ghost town. There are no more than one or two yard signs for any individual candidate. To be clear, multiple candidates' signs were taken down, not just one.

In my dark past, I was involved in a nationwide effort to raise the general tone of election campaigns, focusing on civility and fairness. In that effort, I learned that local elections present a special situation. Everyone's neighbors. They know one another and interact with one another daily. So, a great deal of care is taken to maintain a sense of civility and decorum . . . until it gets down to the wire. That's when it is not uncommon to see vandalism, anonymous and incendiary flyers getting distributed, whisper campaigns, unsubstantiated accusations, and the like. It's almost as if, because it's so close to home, some folks' worst sides come out. And it's usually not the candidates themselves -- it's the supporters.

We don't know who took down candidate yard signs last night. Maybe it was a partisan of one or another campaign. Maybe it was someone who just doesn't like yard signs! But, this event can be a turning point. It gives each candidate an opening to directly remind their supporters that they appreciate their hard work -- but also are committed to fighting a fair fight.

With that in mind, I sent this email to all the candidates today:

I drove along W. Montgomery from N. Van Buren to Mannakee just now (at about 2:45pm on Friday 10/19). There are indeed dramatically far fewer signs than there were just the day before. . . . I understand that the homeowners did not take them down themselves, and West Montgomery was not the subject of a late night beautification raid by the City. . . .

Obviously, no candidate is in control of every action by every supporter. But, every candidate is in control of their own statements. I had a thought. I believe it would go a long way to ensuring that, moving forward, the campaign continued to be conducted in a fair and aboveboard manner if each candidate would make a direct appeal to their supporters to fight hard . . . but to fight fair.

[J]ust to be sure that we do everything we can to have a helpful campaign for Rockville's citizens, I would encourage you to make a public statement that you support fair campaign tactics and oppose dirty tricks like tearing down yard signs.

You might consider posting a statement along these lines on your website:

"Dear Friends: I am proud of the support you have shown me. Together, we can help move Rockville forward. I encourage you to fight hard for our values, but also to fight fair. The citizens of Rockville deserve our best efforts. Thank you."

This is just a thought. . . . I promise not to use it to beat anyone over the head. I am not going to come back around and say who "pledged" and who didn't. I don't regard that as helpful. Plus, no one would care what I said anyway! It's your words that matter. Thanks for your good campaigns.

--Brad Rourke

In case you wonder what all those yard signs look like, and haven't seem them yet, here is a slideshow of them all.

(Image http://locallygrownnorthfield.org)

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POTD: Cousin Itt

(With apologies to the Addams Family.) You're starting to see more folks like this around. It's that time of year.

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Weekend to Weekend 10/18/07

Events in Rockville

Friday, October 19

Magic and Comedy, F. Scott Fitgerald Theatre, 7:30 PM. $15/general, $13 Seniors/students. Mike Rose, a great and funny magician and Geist Visual Comedian, a new type of vaudevillian performer, will have you laughing the night away.

Saturday, October 20

The Rockville Lions Club's Annual Fall Pancake and Sausage Breakfast, Executive Office Building Cafeteria, 101 Monroe Street, 7 AM – 12 PM. Tickets, Adult $7. The Lions raise over $30,000 annually to benefit Rockville residents. This is one of their more tastier fundraisers! Stop by for a great breakfast.

Growers Only Farmers Market, Rockville Town Center, Monroe Street & Rt. 28, 9 AM -1 PM. Local farmers come together to sell fruit, bread, flowers and more. Read about the Farmer’s Market!

Annual Halloween Family Funfest, Potomac Woods Plaza, 1075 Seven Locks Road between Montrose and Wooten, 10 AM – 1 PM. Free for children of all ages in costume. Moon bounce, D.J. music, scarecrow making, face painting and pumpkin decorating. The City will be handing out information on how to keep safe on Halloween.

Friends of the Library Speakers, Rockville Library Meeting Room #1, 10 AM–12 PM. Speakers from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and Dr. Murray Claytor, Clinical Director of St Luke's will present as part of Mental Illness Awareness Month.

Rockville Antique & Classic Car Show, Rockville Civic Center Park, 11 AM – 4 PM Free. This is your event if you love driving and history! Over 400 cars will fill the field and it’s just so interesting to see how they used to build some of the best cars ever made. The cars need to be 25 years old in order to be considered classic, so all of them were made in 1982 or earlier. The fun part is that you can vote for the “People’s Choice” award. The not-so-fun part is that you can only dream about driving your choice. There will be a flea market selling items related to vehicles and the Rockville Concert Band will perform at 12:30 PM. In case of inclement weather call 240-314-5022.

Sunday, October 21

Rockville Arts Sampler, F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, 2 PM, Free. When you are reading Weekend to Weekend, do you ever wonder if you might enjoy a performance? Well, your chance to check out the City’s Resident Companies - for free - all at the same time - is here! Spend the afternoon enjoying vignettes by the Rockville Civic Ballet, Rockville Chorus, Rockville Concert Band, Rockville Regional Youth Orchestra, Rockville Little Theatre, Rockville Musical Theater, The Finest!, and the Victorian Lyric Opera Company. The 2007 Rockville Arts Awards will also be presented. I bet that it the most “Rockville”s ever in a blog paragraph.

Monday, October 22

Election Event, Candidate Forum, Rockville Chamber of Commerce, third-floor auditorium of the Council Office Building auditorium at 100 Maryland Ave, 6:30 PM

Wednesday, October 24

Growers Only Farmer’s Market, Rockville Town Center, East Montgomery Avenue, 11 AM – 2 PM. This is the last Wednesday Farmer’s Market of the season!

Thursday, October 25

Election Event: Candidate Forum, Informal group of seniors to host candidates, Rockville Senior Center Carnation Room at 1150 Carnation Drive., 1 PM.

Friday, October 26

Haunted Happenings, Rockville Civic Center Park, 6 PM – 8 PM. The drive-in movie this year is Beetlejuice (PG) and it costs $5 per vehicle to watch it at 7:30 PM on the giant 25’ screen. My family always likes this event. Load up the snacks and crawl around in your vehicle. The climbing gym will glow-in-the-dark and the Croydon “Creep” Nature Center will highlight the scary little creatures.

Saturday, October 27

Growers Only Farmers Market, Rockville Town Center, Monroe Street & Rt. 28, 9 AM -1 PM. Local farmers come together to sell fruit, bread, flowers and more. Read about the Farmer’s Market! This is your last chance of the season!

Fall Spooktacular, Twinbrook Community Recreation Center, 1 PM – 3 PM. $1. Come in costume because the parade and judging will begin at 2 PM. Prizes for scariest, most original, funniest and best costumes. Crafts and games too!

Election Event: Candidate Forum, Alliance of Rockville Citizens, 7 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville at 100 Welsh Park Drive.

Weekend to Weekend will publish event listings occurring in & around our coverage area (map) on Thursdays. If you are having a fun, educational, or community event, please email cindycgblog@gmail.com. The inclusion of events is at our discretion.

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Easy To Read Candidate Interviews

You may recall that Rockville Central has interviewed every candidate for city office. As the campaigns have unfolded, those interviews have proven to be repeatedly useful -- rarely do the candidates deviate from their scripts. But, man, that is a lot of text to wade through on a computer screen.

So, we have compiled all of those interview write-ups into one easy-to print document. Feel free to download this and share it with friends, family, colleagues, and enemies. Just click on the image below and you will go to it. Or, click here.

Or, if you want, drop me an email and I will send you a copy directly.

(For extra credit, listen to the interviews in their entirety. Audio files are available here for mayor and here for city council -- just click the link after each candidate interview.)

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WECA Forum Recap

The West End Civic Association held their candidates forum tonight in the Rockville Presbyterian Church. In a packed room that swelled as the night progressed, three mayoral candidates and eleven city council candidates made statements and faced a few questions.

Every candidate got their two minutes' worth of opening and closing remarks. In every case, they stuck to the themes they had already stated publicly, including in the mayoral and city council Rockville Central interviews. And, while some of the questions were hard-hitting, there were just too many candidates and not enough time. No one had to give answers that were very in-depth. This is no fault of the organizers; it is a function of the sheer numbers.

Given that, it was levity and human touches that made the evening. That is no small thing: those assembled got a pretty good sense of who these candidates are, and how they might approach the task of governing the third-largest city in Maryland.

Here are just a sampling of some of the human touches on display.

Mayoral candidate Susan Hoffman kicked off the festivities by quipping, after her neighboring candidate answered a question about whether he would push the state to find a different site for the courthouse, "Why didn't you ask me that one?" implying it was easy. Moderator Jacques Gelin replied dryly, as if he had planned it: "Because I'm here and you're there." The room erupted in laughter.

UPDATE: Drew Powell pointed out to me recently that he got a laugh just a little earlier, when he mentioned that he had gotten married at Glenview Mansion -- back when it cost just $400 to rent it.

Later, city council candidate Gajewski pointed out that this was the fifth candidate forum each candidate had been to, and that three preceding ones has been televised and were in rotation on The Rockville Channel. And, he said, "At each of these forums we have been asked about the trash issue. Our positions are now well documented and available for all." He turned to Gelin. "And so, I challenge you," he said, "not to ask us about trash." Laughter again, from a room that was by now quite warm.

You can see Mr. Gelin had his hands full! (There he is in the photo to the left, in the bow tie.)

But Gajewski had the tables turned later, when his first question came. Gelin asked how he would control traffic in Our Fair City. Gajewski paused. "Could you ask me abut trash?" he asked.

Anne Robbins, asked about a by-now famous rift between her and a fellow council member, got a few chuckles by answering that she has an excellent working relationship with the other three. (She went on to point out that she had tried to talk and been rebuffed.)

Bob Dorsey, responding to a question asking him whether he could name something he had done as a council member that had benefitted Rockville, said that, contrary to previous statements where he had not taken credit for any such things, he could "now honestly take credit for everything that happened in Rockville" during his seven terms in office. As the laughter died down, he said, in all seriousness, that he would also take responsibility for the things that hadn't gone so well. "We have done some pretty dumb things," he said, though he did not elaborate.

With each voter offering choosing their four favorites, there was much less of a sense of competition between the city council candidates than the mayoral candidates. They went out of their way to be civil to one another. When one candidate's individual question was inadvertently skipped (Eric Wang), another candidate (Theo Anderson) spoke up to make sure he got his time, too.

Maybe because they had all been on podia across the city together numerous times, but there was a clear sense of camaraderie between the candidates on display at this forum. If it holds up -- and it might -- the citizens of Our Fair City may well be in for a treat for the next two years: a governing body that actually gets along.

I can hope. Many thanks to the West End Civic Association for a very useful, and enjoyable, evening.

Here's a slideshow (before my batteries wore out):

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Drew Powell for Mayor Flyer Available

The Drew Powell for Mayor flyer has arrived at my virtual doorstep, courtesy of the candidate.

Click the image for a larger view:

To see all of the flyers I have received so far, go here.

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Rockville Police Blotter 10/15/2007

Here is the mapped version of the latest Rockville police blotter, dated 10/15/2007. Each pushpin represents an incident reported by the police. There are a lot this week!

(Remember, if you are receiving this in the email announcement, the map does not come through and you will have to visit the blog itself.)

View Larger Map

Click on a pushpin to learn more about each reported incident.

Each week's police report is a separate map. Click here for a list of all of them.

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To Our Readers: New Comment Policy

Dear Readers:

Rockville Central has changed its comment policy. In the past, we have required those leaving comments to register with Google's Blogger service, as well as type in a "word code" to prove they aren't a spam robot. Now, we are experimenting with allowing anyone (registered or unregistered) to comment.

This is an experiment; we will see how it goes. I may switch it back if there is too much spam or abuse.

I am ambivalent about this move. In my opinion, there is already far, far too much anonymity on the Internet (and in society in general). But, the registration procedure seemed to be getting in the way of some people leaving comments who wanted to be heard. Admittedly, it's a complicated process. And, as our readership has increased steadily over time, more people have expressed a desire to take part in simpler ways. So, for now, I am leaning in the direction of simplicity and access.

But, in return, let me ask something of you.

Rockville Central is a local resource, and our driving philosophy is that we are all neighbors in this town and we all need to get along. I strongly believe that means that people who speak up in this forum ought to own their own words and identify themselves. So, for instance, I make it a point to fully identify myself by name in anything I do related to Rockville Central (or anywhere on the Internet for that matter). And, Contributor Opinions will almost always be signed, except in unusual and highly limited cases.

I understand that not everyone agrees with me on that. For some people, there may be personal safety concerns when speaking up. I can also imagine a situation where someone is blowing a whistle and needs protection from retaliation. But, for the majority of cases, there is no need for anonymity.

So here is my request. When posting comments, please consider using your actual name, or close to it.

Or at least, something human-seeming. Please don't just call yourself a "voter" or "concerned citizen" from some area in Rockville. There are plenty of places for anonymous commentary. I would like it to be minimized here. As a general rule, if one cannot stand by one's own opinion, one ought to think twice about whether one really needs to post it. If you feel you need to remain anonymous, please say why.

Like I say, I am not going to require this -- but taking responsibility for our words is core to what this blog is about.

I'll get off my soap box now. Please feel free to agree, disagree, or propose some other idea...in the comments! Or, feel free to drop me a line.

Thanks for reading, and making this blog so vibrant.

--Brad Rourke

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POTD: Gnarly

I thought this image was so cool I uploaded a hi-res version instead of the usual medium-res. If you have time, click over to the original and take a look. Squint and it is almost a cliff-face, with a ladder set of handholds. But, it's really a tree on West Montgomery.

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Kudos To Rockville Central Contributors!

Congratulations are in order for two Rockville Central friends who submitted "Contributor Opnion" pieces. They both also appear in today's Gazette.

Joe Jordan wrote a piece calling for the Mayor and Council to provide better information on trash program costs (which prompted the City Manager to add a comment). Joe submitted a similar piece to the Gazette, which appears today:

Mayor Larry Giammo and⁄or city staff owe the residents of Rockville full disclosure on what the new refuse and recycle program is going to cost the city and those that receive city trash services. . . .

Frank Anastasi, who is also on the Rockville Central "team," wrote a Contributor Opinion piece praising two candidates. He, too, submitted a similar piece to the Gazette, and he's in their pages today:

Eleven people are running for Rockville City Council. Some may find it hard to tell one candidate from the next. Several do stand out, though. . . .

Congratulations, folks!

Want to join the fray? Rockville Central runs occasional, edited opinion pieces by contributors. Their views are not necessarily those of Rockville Central, which takes no position on candidates. To submit your opinion for consideration, contact us.

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Last Election's Voting Data

Ever wonder where the votes come from in our fair city, and how many people voted for our current Mayor and Council last time? I did, and I also wondered if looking at last election’s results might offer any insight into what will happen in three weeks. The following data are available from the City of Rockville.

Last election, 6,469 voters cast ballots. That’s about 20 percent of the 32,000 eligible voters. Reportedly, these are typical numbers. So, here’s the first message: Anything could happen if a candidate were to really energize the electorate and mobilize a significant number of the non-voting 80 percent.

Incumbent Mayor Larry Giammo won with 4502 votes, just over 70 percent of the vote. Brigitta Mullican, his only challenger, got 1861 votes. The number of voters by district:

Beall Elementary 1168
Ritchie Park Elementary 776
Twinbrook Rec Center 646
Lakewood Elementary 603
Ellwood Smith Rec Center 597
F. Scott Fitzgerald Theater 559
Senior Center 539
King Farm 502
Twinbrook 424
Montrose 322
Absentee Ballots 211
City Hall (election day) 40

What’s this tell us? I’m not sure, but it might help to be popular in the West End and Ritchie Park districts, where thirty percent of the votes are cast.

For Council, Susan Hoffmann (up for Mayor this time) got the most votes, but not by much – 4509 votes compared to Anne Robbins’ 4451. Phyllis Marcuccio came in third with 4182 votes, followed by Bob Dorsey with 3882. Not much of a difference in votes, really, between the four winning candidates. They got about 76 percent of the votes. Joy Young (2724 votes), and Harry Thomas (2421 votes) missed out.

Three things make me think we could be in for some surprises this November 6. Votes of about 4500 Hoffmann supporters are up for grabs by the Council candidates since she is running for Mayor. And, there are 11 people running for the four Council seats. Also, we seem to have an issue that has galvanized a lot of people. A lot of people are voicing definite opinions about how the twice-a-week vs. once-a-week trash pickup decision was handled. That gives the incumbents some risk that they typically don’t carry.

What might these data tell us about this election? I'm not sure, but let’s do some math: 6500 voters X four votes each = 26,000 total votes for Council candidates. If the seven losing candidates were to get on average 2000 votes, which seems reasonable to me, that leaves only about 12,000 votes for the four winners to share. A person could win a Council seat with as few as 3000 votes. Are you going to be one of the voters who can make a difference?

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Tough Questions For The Candidates

Today's Gazette article by Warren Parish is an excellent recap of the issues that came up at last week's East Rockville/Hungerford/Twinbrook candidate forum.

Candidates for Rockville City Council got some sought-after face time during a televised election forum last week. But the attention came as a result of questions targeting each of their political weak spots. With city cameras trained on them for the only live broadcast of the election season, the 11 candidates were repeatedly thrown tough questions devised by civic groups. . . . Incumbents and challengers were called upon to defend their records.

The article goes on to detail the questions and answers. It is very useful reading, for both undecided and decided voters.

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Gottfried Flyer, Pierzchala Sign Posted

I got, hot off the presses,, the flyer