Well, with regards to Takoma Park, I really don’t mind a lack of night life. Or shopping. For the last five years I’ve lived a half hour drive from the nearest Wal-Mart (not that I really minded). And I have NOT lived in the same city for the last five years. I point this out because I am used to driving everywhere that I need to go. Also for the last five years, I have lived an hour from the nearest mall. Currently I drive two hours twice a week to get other things done, so a commute, in and of itself, doesn’t bother me. It’s the traffic and/or people that I expect to bother me. I may have to drive a lot to get anywhere, but there isn’t a ton of traffic they way everyone has described the D.C. area. Hopefully, I won’t have to drive much anyway.
Yep, I’m a bit of a hermit (with regards to strangers at least). And who knows, it might be cool to live in a “Nuclear Free Zone.” But if Madmonk28 is right and we can’t grill outside…that might be a problem.
With regards to the robberies, Reepicheep, can you give me statistics or something about them? How violent, how many, what times of day? I’d like to know, and Mr. Kangaroo would be very upset if I didn’t ask. I’m not too worried about it, but it’s a good idea to know as much as you can before walking into a situation.
I was listening to Channel 8, Comcast cable’s new station, last Thursday around 7:30ish, so I am reporting this from memory.
In the last two to three months there have been 12 or so robberies of single women (women standing by themselves) at the Tokoma Park metro station. Some of the women, but not all, were sexually assaulted as well as robbed. They did not say that these robberies happened in the parking lot or on the platform, just at the metro station. For some reason the police did not think these robberies were being committed by the same person but now they do. They showed a police sketch of a Latino male in his 20s. The report did not mention time of day of the robberies. The report kept saying robbery as opposed to assault, which is how they normally refer to rapes.
It’s worth mentioning that Silver Spring is a rather large area and doesn’t refer to simply the city itself (where the Silver Spring Metro station is, the AFI Theater, and other landmarks) but also such localities as Glenmont, Wheaton, Aspen Hill, and Layhill.
(Remember those sniper shootings in the DC area? A lot of them took place in the Aspen Hill area.)
Thank you Reepicheep. Sexual assault does up the ante. However, if it is just one person, I can hope that he’ll be caught before we move into that place (assuming for a moment that we do).
> (Remember those sniper shootings in the DC area? A lot of them took place in
> the Aspen Hill area.)
Well, some of them did. The sniper shootings were all over the place. Some of them were 90 miles from D.C. Some of the ones that happened before it was even realized that there was a spree going on happened in other parts of the country. I always thought that it was somewhat deceptive to refer to the shooting spree as the “Washington area shootings.” It was only in a really strained sense that the shootings could be said to have happened in the Washington area.
More than half of the shootings (8 of 14) took place in the same general area in Montgomery County.
I’d say that’s “many,” especially since the others were in Fairfax, Manassas, Bowie, Ashland, and Fredericksburg.
Considering that each of these places is considered to be a suburb of Washington, it is well within reason that the killers were called the “Washington-area snipers.” No strain is needed to make the connection of these locales to Washington.
Of the shooting that took place after they reached the Washington area, only six took place in Montgomery County, so certainly no more than that could be said to be “near Aspen Hill”:
Two of the shootings were in Fredericksburg, which is further from Washington than Baltimore is. Only by a real stretch of the imagination could it be said to be in the Washington area. One was in Ashland, which isn’t in the Washington area by anybody’s definition.
Obviously, the shootings in Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana aren’t considered “in the Washington area” - they are also not considered to be part of the same shooting spree as those in our area. So there’s no need for you to include them, since no one else does.
Malvo and Muhummad were linked to those other shootings, but that’s the only link between those shootings and the ones in this area. The killings in those other states and the ones in this area were two different shooting sprees.
Not all eight are in the Aspen Hill area, but I meant the general area.
If the majority of the shootings take place in one area, and a few others are just beyond that area, it’s certainly not beyond the realm of all possibility that they’re all lumped in as having taken place in the same general area.
Technically, Fredericksburg and Ashland are part of metro DC; this area stretches as far north as the southeast corner of Pennsylvania. Urban sprawl, you see.
Video Americain, where the videos are arranged alphabetically by director rather than title. Actually I kind of liked it, but I won’t deny it’s pretentious.
I live on Capitol Hill now, but I miss Takoma Park. I’m not an ultra crunchy left winger type, but I enjoyed the feel of the place. I would move back there if my husband didn’t work way out in Fairfax County.
Technically, there not. The Washington DC MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) contains Fredericksburg, but not the Town of Ashland. Ashland lies in the Richmond-Petersburg MSA.
Shooting number 7 was just barely within the district line, so it’s not part of Montgomery County. The map that I consulted left out one of the seven in Montgomery County for some reason, which is why I only counted six. As for the other objections, I think this has now passed beyond the point of rational discussion. If you’re going to claim that Ashland is within the Washington metropolitan area and that a shooting spree turns into two shooting sprees because the shooters travel in the midst of the spree, there’s no point in continuing this discussion.
Jeff, now you are my new hero. This is especially welcome because I don’t think that the job search is going well. Not well at all. Yesterday Mr Kangaroo was excited because he got a rejection from someone. It meant that someone was looking at the applications. Except for that and a little e-mail “interview” he’s got nothing. Today he applied at Radio Shack. I don’t know if we can live off Radio Shack and my stipend, but we’re getting worried.
And, Wendell, I will let everyone know when I arrive. It’ll probably be a “Who wants to help me unload my moving van” thread. Seriously though, I will be posting something to let everyone know that my new location is…wherever.
Thanks, Jeff, I appreciate it. He is looking there too (now).
I’m hyperventilating about money again. I’ll get over it, but right now I’m still in a New Mexico frame of mind. I’ve adjusted to the rent, but now I’m trying to figure out about Metro Costs. Mr. Kangaroo is calculating as much as $150/month to get me to school.
This is from Alexandria. He seems to have settled on an apartment complex. But, we’ll see.
Actually I kind of liked it, but I won’t deny it’s pretentious.
Seriously though, I will be posting something to let everyone know that my new location is…wherever.