Washington Post – Maryland Festival Goers Introduced to Salvadoran Food, Culture

Ping Eng and her daughter Sarah walked slowly through the crowd, each holding a tiny plate with a corn tortilla filled with cheese, beans and pork.

“I am excited about this,” Eng said as she took a bite of a pupusa. She later wondered aloud how cooks were able to get the meat filling inside the pupusa. “It must be difficult to make.”

For Eng, a Gaithersburg resident who was born in China, Sunday’s annual World of Montgomery Festival in Wheaton was a chance to try the Salvadoran signature dish for the first time. Her daughter was especially curious about trying the food from the country of origin for many of her high school classmates.

To find out who won Sunday’s Pupusa Cookoff at the World of Montgomery Festival, click here to read the full article.

 

Wheaton Patch – Council’s Redevelopment Plan Includes Coalition’s Revisions

Below is news coverage from over the weekend related to the ongoing work of the Coalition for the Fair Redevelopment of Wheaton, of which LEDC is a member.

On April 10, the Montgomery County Council recommended the appropriation of $66 million in public money to fund a series of planning studies and the construction of a new town square, office building, and underground parking on Parking Lot 13.

The Council also recommended language proposed by the Wheaton Coalition that in part requires Montgomery County to conduct a comprehensive parking study to identify how construction disruptions might affect existing businesses in Wheaton as well as study innovative models of local job creation connected to redevelopment projects. It also requires the County Executive to brief the Council on any planning or negotiations regarding job opportunities and training as well as small business protections prior to the finalization of any General Development Agreement.

To read the language proposed by the Coalition and adopted by the Council, click here.

 

The Wheaton Coalition’s Message to the Montgomery County Council on Wheaton Redevelopment

Last night, the Coalition for the Fair Redevelopment of Wheaton – of which LEDC is a member — presented testimony at the Montgomery County Council’s first public hearing on County Executive Ike Leggett’s proposed FY13-18 Capital Improvements Program Budget. The budget includes a $40 million public subsidy to support the Wheaton redevelopment project and BF Saul.

There was a strong turnout and members presenting testimony included small business owner Luis Bonilla, co-owner of Choice Electronics; Filippo Leo, owner of Marchone’s Italian Deli; Ash Kosiewicz, lead organizer; and Zorayda Moreira, staff attorney at CASA de Maryland. Patients of coalition member Proyecto Salud and renters working with coalition member Impact Silver Spring also attended.

Click here to read the Coalition’s official testimony calling upon the Council to pass the proposed public subsidy with strings attached to protect Wheaton’s ethnic soul and small businesses!

 

Telemundo WZDC – Comerciantes de Wheaton Preocupados

Yesterday, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett proposed to support the Wheaton Redevelopment Program and B.F. Saul with more than $40 million of public taxpayer money to realize the Wheaton redevelopment project and defray its costs.

At a budget town hall last night hosted by the County Executive, members of the Coalition for the Fair Redevelopment of Wheaton presented 500 signatures from Montgomery County residents and small businesses calling for a written agreement to protect the livelihoods of small business owners, renters, daylaborers, and patients in Wheaton during and after redevelopment in return for the public subsidy.

To watch a Telemundo clip in Spanish on the Coalition’s presence at the town hall, click here.

 

Maryland Gazette – Small Retailers Feeling the Redevelopment Squeeze

Some five years ago, Amanda Sanchez moved her restaurant/bar from Silver Spring to Wheaton because her rent was rising and access problems arose from a redevelopment project.

Now the owner of Riverside Lounge is going through Act II of the same squeeze play.

The area around Sanchez’s relocated business in downtown Wheaton is undergoing changes that include more mixed-use development with new offices, housing and retail.

“There is not much parking for my customers,” Sanchez said. “It’s a very slow economy. I might have to sell because of the new offices and houses causing rents to increase.”

To read the full article, which references LEDC’s ongoing work with the Coalition for the Fair Redevelopment of Wheaton, click here.

 

Washington Post – Wheaton Dreams of a Better Downtown but Clings to Family Feel

Wheaton — home to Montgomery County’s first shopping mall — has lagged behind the pace of redevelopment in other areas of the county in recent years.

Now, residents say, the community has the potential to become a version of downtown Bethesda, with new mixed-use developments built around easy access to Metro. But residents don’t want to lose Wheaton’s focus on family-owned small businesses.

Small retail strips with bakeries, international markets and rotisserie chicken restaurants now line the crossroads of Georgia Avenue and University Boulevard.

To read the full feature article on Wheaton’s proposed redevelopment that came out Thanksgiving Day, click here.

 

Wheaton Patch – How to Reduce Development Impacts on Wheaton’s Small Businesses? Ask Them First

B.F. Saul currently waits on pro-forma negotiations between the company, Montgomery County and WMATA before it can officially start its redevelopment plan for downtown Wheaton. In the meantime, a big question is how construction – not to mention a major new office building, as well as retail and residential buildings – will affect the many small businesses in the area.

“I don’t want to raise expectations; there will be an impact,” David Dise, director of Department of General Services, said at the June meeting of the Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee (WRAC). “There will be an impact if we’re digging a 30-foot hole where Parking Lot 13 is.”

But local groups are wondering how exactly the county plans to minimize the impact of this major public-private partnership development.

To read the full article, click here.

 

Washington Post – Program to Deter Foreclosures in Maryland is Less Successful Than Anticipated

Louise Golden, 79, recently stood at the front door of her tidy brick split-level in Lanham, still shocked to hear the terms of the refinancing agreement she and her now-deceased husband, Stanley, signed in 2006.

“I thought it was a fixed-rate mortgage,” said Golden. “I didn’t know what a five-year ARM was.”

“You didn’t have a five-year adjustable rate mortgage,” said her attorney, Gretchen C. Reimert. “It adjusted after 30 days.”

To read the full article, click here.

 

LEDC to Host 20th Anniversary Celebración Gala: Growing Communities, Growing Commitment

MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2011

Contact: Ash Kosiewicz, Communications and Advocacy Director
(202) 540-7411; akosiewicz@ledcmetro.org

WASHINGTON – Recognizing 20 years of work in the DC area, the Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) will host its 20th Anniversary Celebración Gala on June 17th at the Organization of American States from 6-10 PM. The event, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Mount Pleasant disturbances from which LEDC was born, will chronicle LEDC’s growing commitment to the DC area’s Latino and low-to-moderate income communities over the years and its vision forward. Joined by public officials from the District of Columbia and Montgomery County, LEDC will present its Latino Economic Development Visionary Awards to LEDC’s founders, including Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Raúl Yzaguirre; LEDC’s first Executive Director Marcelo Elissetche; and the former leader of the Latino Civil Rights Task Force Pedro Avilés. In honor of its 20-year partnership with the DC government, LEDC will present its Latino Economic Development Achievement Award to the DC Department of Housing and Community Development. The event will feature musical performances by Mount Pleasant songwriter Lilo Gonzalez and Grupo Ritmo y Sabor and debut the video “From Mount Pleasant to Wheaton: LEDC’s 20th Anniversary Story.”

WHAT: LEDC’s 20th Anniversary Celebración Gala: Growing Communities, Growing Commitment

WHERE: The Organization of American States Main Building
17th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20006

WHEN: Friday, June 17th, 2011
6 PM to 10 PM
Program begins at 7 PM

WHO: Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Raúl Yzaguirre; Marcelo Elissetche; Pedro Avilés; Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Victor Hoskins (accepting award on behalf of DHCD); DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton; Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services BB Otero; DC Council Chairman Kwame Brown; DC Councilmember Mary Cheh; DC Office of Latino Affairs Director Roxana Olivas; Director of Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett’s Office of Community Partnerships Bruce Adams; other DC and Montgomery County officials (invited); LEDC Executive Director Manny Hidalgo; LEDC Board, staff, and participants/residents

EVENT SPONSORS: Wells Fargo, Capital One, Walmart, Bank of America, Citi, M&T Bank, Calvert Investments, Condortech Services, Inc., E*Trade, HSBC Bank USA, Latham & Watkins LLP, PNC Bank, Rippeteau Architects, PC, Verizon, Aronson Foundation, B.F. Saul Company, Dan Blumenthal, Local 16, Westfield Wheaton

 

Wheaton Patch – Wheaton’s Moment

This commentary by LEDC Executive Director Manny Hidalgo was published this past weekend as part of the launch week of Wheaton Patch, a new hyper local website dedicated to providing comprehensive local coverage of Wheaton.

Has Wheaton’s moment arrived? With the recent selection of B.F. Saul to redevelop Wheaton’s Central Business District, ongoing efforts to one day build a new Metro Purple Line and long-term plans to make Montgomery County a bio-tech center of the future, the next five to 10 years will be transformational ones for Wheaton.

The advent of new “hyper local” communication channels like Wheaton Patch give metro residents new ways through which to experience and understand Wheaton. We at the Latino Economic Development Corporation value our role in helping our diverse communities to shape Wheaton’s future and to strengthen those parts of the Wheaton experience that we already cherish.

To read the full commentary, click here.