Signage is up for La Carreta Grocery at 18749 N Frederick Ave in Gaithersburg, in the location that was previously home to Active Physical Rehab and the Montgomery County Department Of Police 6th District station. The market will feature Latin American specialty products, as well as produce, dairy, and a meat department. La Carreta Grocery is currently scheduled to open in October.
This past weekend, MegaMart opened its new location a few miles south at 33 Dalamar St. in Gaithersburg. The new grocery store is located at the former site of iconic MoCo restaurant, The Golden Bull, which closed in 2017. The existing MegaMart located across the street at 401 N Frederick Ave in the Hudson Trail Center will remain open for two more weeks. The Mega Bakery at 405 N Frederick Ave will also be closing and relocating to the new site.
Update: Margarita Bar & Grill is now open at 19201 Frederick Rd in Germantown. The restaurant’s menu features a variety of tacos, burritos, chimichangas, pupusas, fajitas, steaks, salad, and seafood. Margarita options include Cadillac, Skinny, Flavored, Diablo, and Crazy (see margarita menu below). The restaurant is taking over the space that was previously occupied by the Fraternal Order of Eagle #3509 and Captain Mori’s Seafood House. Seafood in the Buff, a mobile steamed crab business, operates out of the parking lot next to this location in the summer months.
Margaritas joins Mi Rancho (19725 Germantown Rd), Señor Tequila’s (20021 Century Blvd), La Gula (21030 Frederick Rd), Abi Azteca (11514 Middlebrook Rd), La Mexicana (13016 Middlebrook Rd), and Rio Grande (13541 Clopper Rd) as places to grab a margarita in Germantown.
The personal-finance website WalletHub today released its latest rankings of the States with the Largest & Smallest Credit Card Debt Increases in Q2, based on newly released data from the Federal Reserve. Maryland’s credit card debt increase ranks as the 16thhighest in the nation.
Maryland Stats:
- Increase in Maryland Debt: The average credit card debt in Maryland increased by $887,642,472 in Q2 2023.
- Average Maryland Household Debt: The average household in Maryland owes $9,255 in credit card debt.
National Stats:
- Large Debt Increase. Consumers ended Q2 2023 with almost $43 billion in additional credit card debt. That is the second-largest Q2 increase ever.
- Year-Over-Year Deterioration. We added 16% more credit card debt in Q2 2023 than the same quarter last year.
- Early Q3 Returns: Preliminary data for July shows a 7.72% increase in credit card debt compared to the same month last year.
- High Average Household Debt. The average household credit card balance was $10,170 at the end of Q2 2023. That’s $2,242 below the record, set in Q4 2007.
8:20am Update – Two (2) northbound lanes open at Colesville Road (US-29) and University Blvd (MD-193) from an earlier incident, right lanes remain blocked. Seek alternate route.
Montgomery County Police tweeted the following at 7:22am on Monday, September 11: “TRAFFIC ADVISORY: A traffic collision has northbound Colesville Rd. closed at University Blvd. Drivers are advised to seek an alternate route. Expect significant delays.”
Per Alert Montgomery: “Severe Traffic Alert- All northbound lanes blocked at Colesville Road (US-29) and University Blvd (MD-193) due to a vehicle striking a Pepco Pole. This is an extended road closure, expected significant delays. Seek alternate route.”
We will provide an update if additional information becomes available. Featured image courtesy of @meeheemurry on Instagram.
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band have postponed all performances currently scheduled for September 2023, which included last week’s scheduled concert at Camden Yards in Baltimore and the September 29th show at Nationals Park in DC.
Springsteen is being treated for symptoms of peptic ulcer disease and the decision of his medical advisors is that he should postpone the remainder of his September shows. Springsteen made the following comment:
“Over here on E Street, we’re heartbroken to have to postpone these shows. First, apologies to our fabulous Philly fans who we missed a few weeks ago. We’ll be back to pick these shows up and then some. Thank you for your understanding and support. We’ve been having a blast at our U.S. shows and we’re looking forward to more great times. We’ll be back soon.
Love and God bless all,
Bruce”
Ticketholders will receive information regarding rescheduled dates for the postponed shows, all of which are listed below.
Thurs, September 7 – Syracuse, NY @ JMA Wireless Dome
Sat, September 9 – Baltimore, MD @ Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Tues, September 12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
Thurs, September 14 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
Sat, September 16 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
Tues, September 19 – Albany, NY @ MVP Arena
Thurs, September 21 – Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena
Fri, September 29 – Washington, DC @ Nationals Park
Featured photo courtesy of Bruce Springsteen’s Facebook page
Along with a list of candidates vying for an expanded number of council seats and a mayor, four advisory referendum questions will also be on the Nov. 7 Mayor and Council election ballot. Voters will have the opportunity to choose “yes,” “no” or “no opinion” on the following:
- Voting Age: Voters in the city’s election must be 18 or older to vote. Should Rockville allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in city elections?
- Non-Citizen Voting: Only U.S. citizens who live in Rockville can vote in city elections. Should Rockville allow city residents without U.S. citizenship to vote?
- Term Limits: Mayor and Council members have no limits on the number of four-year terms they can serve. Should elected officials be limited to three consecutive terms?
- Representative Districts: Councilmembers are elected at large, meaning all registered city voters vote for all six councilmembers. Should the city be divided into representative districts to elect some, or all, of the six councilmembers?
The nonbinding advisory questions — meaning they allow voters to express a preference without resulting in a change to Rockville law — are based on recommendations from the Charter Review Commission. The Mayor and Council may consider voters’ preferences on the ballot questions should they choose to change the city’s election law.
In this election, voters will have the opportunity to elect seven members of the city’s elected body — a mayor and six council members — following a unanimous vote Feb. 6 by the Mayor and Council on a charter amendment resolution to add two seats to the council. The Mayor and Council will hold a public hearing during their Monday, Sept. 11 meeting on a charter amendment to modify the procedure for adopting ordinances by increasing the number of councilmembers needed to request a public hearing on an ordinance when introduced, and increasing the number of councilmembers needed to vote in favor of waiving layover and agenda requirements to adopt an ordinance.
Ballots will be mailed to all registered voters who live within Rockville city limits. All ballots must be received by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7. Voters will be able to vote by mail, in person at the two Election Day Vote Centers on Nov. 7, or at an election drop box. Voters can cast their ballots in person at vote centers on Election Day, Nov. 7, at either City Hall, 111 Maryland Ave., or Thomas Farm Community Center, 700 Fallsgrove Drive. Vote centers will be open 7 a.m.-8 p.m. on Election Day only.
Voters will be able to drop their ballots at boxes inside the Rockville Senior Center, 1150 Carnation Drive; Lincoln Park Community Center, 357 Frederick Ave.; Twinbrook Community Recreation Center, 12920 Twinbrook Parkway; and Thomas Farm Community Center, 700 Fallsgrove Drive. The boxes will be available during center hours.
In addition to a drop box outside City Hall, voters will be able to drop their ballot at a drop box outside Montrose Community Center, 451 Congressional Lane. Both will be available 24/7, beginning in late September or early October.
Key 2023 election dates:
- On or before Friday, Oct. 13: Ballots mailed to registered voters.
- Tuesday, Nov. 7: Election Day. Completed ballots must be received by 8 p.m. in person at City Hall or by mail.
For more info., visit www.rockvillemd.gov/election or email [email protected].
Charley’s Cheesesteaks is coming to the vacant space next to FloorMax (which is next to Wing Stop) in the Aspen Hill shopping center. Construction is ongoing and an opening date is not yet available. This was previously reported as Charley’s Steakhouse, a restaurant that’s part of Florida-based Talk of the Town restaurant group, based on information we received from representatives at the store during the early construction phase. This will not be a steak house, but rather the popular chain– Charley’s Cheesesteaks.
Charley’s now has over 600 stores nationwide. Newer locations have adopted a new menu concept, offering chicken wings and ice cream in addition to its Philly cheesesteaks. “Tossed-to-order, the wings are made with 10 chef-inspired flavors ranging from Angry Ghost and Nashville Hot to milder options like Zesty Lemon-Lime Rub and Sweet Teriyaki.”
The restaurant opened its first location across the campus of Ohio State University in 1986. While studying real estate at the school, Charley Shin worked in his mother’s Japanese/Korean restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. A wrong turn on a family trip to New York City resulted in Charley’s discovery of the Philly cheesesteak. Charley convinced his mother to sell her restaurant, and invest her life savings of $48,000 into Charley’s, a 450-square-foot restaurant across the street from Ohio State’s campus.
From the Office of Jamie Raskin (9.8.23): Today, Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) wrote letters to social media companies Meta and TikTok and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) about a dangerous social media trend, known as “subway surfing,” which recently claimed the life of a young person in his district. “Subway surfers,” who are often teenagers influenced by coaxing and sinister validation from an online community, film themselves climbing and then riding outside or on top of a moving subway car.
“This online trend has deadly consequences,” wrote Rep. Raskin to Meta and TikTok. “This summer, my constituent, Jay Thirunarayanapuram, lost his life five days after his fifteenth birthday while subway surfing. His loving parents and friends are devastated, and our world is poorer for our loss of a bright young artist, animal lover and extraordinary young man.”
Although Meta and TikTok policies restrict content containing “anything unlawful” or “promoting dangerous activities and challenges…that may lead to significant physical harm,” respectively, and should thus both prohibit subway surfing videos, some content persists. Diligent content monitoring and strong, ongoing enforcement of platform guidelines can prevent the proliferation of subway surfing videos and deter impressionable young people from this dangerous activity. Rep. Raskin also wrote to WMATA to convey his alarm about this social media trend and to request that WMATA share any further steps the authority is considering to reduce and deter this practice.
Though the subway surfing trend appears to be less pronounced in the National Capital region, recent media reports have documented an alarming rise in these dangerous incidents on the East Coast, with New York City recording 928 incidents in 2023 and four deaths in the first six months of this year.
Children’s clothing chain Carter’s is returning to its previous Gaithersburg Square location at 520 N. Frederick Ave. The store closed in July 2021 and was replaced by Charik African Fashion in March 2022. Charik was a family-owned African fashion store that sold shoes, clothing, and accessories and previously had a location inside of Lakeforest Mall. According to signage on the building, Carter’s is expected to open this fall.
Recently, Kogi Asian Grill and Boston Market have closed in Gaithersburg Square. Replacements for those locations have not yet been announced. In June, Montgomery County run Oak, Barrel, and Vine opened at 512 N. Frederick Ave, next to Lil’ Cakes & Creamery and Five Below.
About: “Carter’s is the leading brand of baby & kids clothing in the United States. Our designs are based on a heritage of quality and innovation that has earned us the trust of generations. Little Baby Basics, the original bodysuit and America’s Favorite Jammies are just a few of the iconic products parents count on to make their lives easier. And with sizes and styles to fit babies, toddlers and kids – thanks to our newly expanded Carter’s KID™collection – Carter’s delivers quality clothing to handle everything from that first night at home to first days at school.”
