MoCo

Purple Line Development Faces Contract Dispute

By MCS Staff

Purple Line development faces contract dispute.

Purple Line Transit Partners (PLTP), the consortium of companies building the Purple Line, plans to pull out of the public-private partnership next month on August 22 unless a new contract agreement is reached. The dispute comes from rising costs and construction delays. Cost overruns for the $2 billion project now total $755 million. In addition, the contractors claim that a 2014 environmental lawsuit delayed the project for 266 days. Both state officials and PLTP have stated that they are committed to negotiating a settlement before August.

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5 Historical Locations in MoCo That You Probably Didn’t Know Existed

By MCS Staff

5 Historical Locations in MoCo That You Probably Didn’t Know Existed

Montgomery County is full of historical landmarks and buildings, many of which are well known outside of the county. But for every notable landmark, there are many more that are often overlooked by the public.

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A Piece of MoCo Housing History #2: Lyttonsville

By MCS Staff

A Piece of MoCo Housing History #2: Lyttonsville

Lyttonsville is a historically Black community that’s situated between current day Bethesda and Silver Spring. It was founded by Samuel Lytton, a free Black laborer working for the Blair family, in 1853. Lyttonsville is one of numerous historically Black communities in Montgomery County. Today, the community has a 17.1 acre park and an elementary school. With the completion of the Purple Line, there will also be two transit stations and a new Ride-On Bus depot.

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A Piece of MoCo Housing History

By MCS Staff

This map of residential sub-areas in the DC metro region was produced by the Federal Housing Administration in 1937. The map categorizes neighborhoods into grades that represent how worthy they were for investment and insured mortgage lending. The grading system was directly influenced by race and class.

Montgomery County is visible on this map. The higher graded regions (which are shaded darker) include Bethesda, Chevy Chase, and a portion of Silver Spring. Neighborhoods that had higher concentrations of African Americans were assigned the lowest grades (shaded lighter).

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Black-owned businesses in MoCo (Updated)

By MCS Staff

Thanks to so many community contributions, here is an updated list of Black-owned businesses in MoCo! We hope for this to be a living document that people can use as a resource moving forward. Feel free to email [email protected] for any additional recommendations or corrections.

The updated document can be found at the link below:

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Rock Hill Orchard & Woodbourne Creamery on Maryland’s 2020 Ice Cream Trail

By MCS Staff

Rock Hill Orchard & Woodbourne Creamery on Maryland’s 2020 Ice Cream Trail

The Creamery, located in Mt. Airy, is MoCo’s sole cow-to-cone establishment, though the Creamery is only selling ice cream in cups during the pandemic. Visitors can often see the cows whose milk produces their ice cream. They are the only remaining MoCo dairy that sells milk directly to the public.

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MoCo Council Introduces Resolution to Replace Maryland State Song

By MCS Staff

The Montgomery County Council has introduced a resolution to urge Maryland lawmakers to replace “Maryland, My Maryland” as the state song and discourage the song from being played at official Montgomery County events.

Per the county, “Our state’s rich and storied history is also plagued by slavery and sympathy towards the Confederacy and successionist movement. The Pratt Street Riots that occurred in Baltimore in 1861 was a bloody confrontation between Union Troops headed to Washington D.C. and confederate sympathizers. James Randall Ryder, to express his opposition towards Union troops, wrote “Maryland, My Maryland” which became widely popular among Confederate America and was later made the state song in 1939 when Maryland was a segregated Jim Crow state.”

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