Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kentlands town center is also very barren. Why is the county building more centers???

Kentlands is City of Gaithersburg. Crown is City of Gaithersburg. Rockville is City of Rockville. King Farm is City of Rockville.

OK why are the cities building more centers..Pike and Rose, Twinbrook

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does it matter which direction CVS faces? With the splash fountains in the summer and the ice rink in the winter, I think they are attracting many families. The clothing stores were never going to make it, agreed. Crown is new but I don't see Kings farms retail area as very successful. Restaurant continually come and go..

That's what restaurants do.

Not the way they do in the Town Center. It has only been open for 7 years.

Here is what has lasted since they opened in either 2008 or 2009:

Gordan Biersch
LaTasca
Thai Pavillion
Lenanese Taverna
First Watch
Five Guys

Here is what has left (or at least the ones I can remember, I am sure there are more)

Moe's
Tippy Tacos
Taste of Saigon
Austin Grill
No 82 Steakhouse
Cosi
Noodles and Co
Pho & Rolls
Carbon Peruvian Chicken
Oro Pomadoro
Fractured Prune
Robeck's
Primo Italiano
Greystone Grill
Gifford's Ice Cream
Jerry's Pizza
Stonefish Grill
Bobby's Crabcakes

Bon Chon Chicken and Ev and Mady's will be closed by Spring. And how Berry Cup and Marble Slab Creamery make it, I have no idea. I never see anyone in either of those places, even in the winter. You would think one would offer hot chocolate with toppings bar. But alas, they stay empty. And don't even get me started about the retail stores....

Restaurants come and go for a variety of reasons. Many of the ones listed above closed because they weren't very good or were poorly managed. In the case of Austin Grill, I think the whole franchise went under--or most of them did. Others like Taste of Saigon (which was open for many years at its previous location) the family that owned it decided to drop out of the business. The ones that have stayed have found the right model for this spot and are well-managed. So Town Center is not totally to blame for the turnover. BTW, are you speculating about Bon Chon and Ev and Maddy's? Or has something official come our that I missed? I've heard good things about both.

Anonymous wrote:Kentlands town center is also very barren. Why is the county building more centers???

Kentlands is City of Gaithersburg. Crown is City of Gaithersburg. Rockville is City of Rockville. King Farm is City of Rockville.

Kentlands town center is also very barren. Why is the county building more centers???

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does it matter which direction CVS faces? With the splash fountains in the summer and the ice rink in the winter, I think they are attracting many families. The clothing stores were never going to make it, agreed. Crown is new but I don't see Kings farms retail area as very successful. Restaurant continually come and go..

That's what restaurants do.

Not the way they do in the Town Center. It has only been open for 7 years.

Here is what has lasted since they opened in either 2008 or 2009:

Gordan Biersch
LaTasca
Thai Pavillion
Lenanese Taverna
First Watch
Five Guys

Here is what has left (or at least the ones I can remember, I am sure there are more)

Moe's
Tippy Tacos
Taste of Saigon
Austin Grill
No 82 Steakhouse
Cosi
Noodles and Co
Pho & Rolls
Carbon Peruvian Chicken
Oro Pomadoro
Fractured Prune
Robeck's
Primo Italiano
Greystone Grill
Gifford's Ice Cream
Jerry's Pizza
Stonefish Grill
Bobby's Crabcakes

Bon Chon Chicken and Ev and Mady's will be closed by Spring. And how Berry Cup and Marble Slab Creamery make it, I have no idea. I never see anyone in either of those places, even in the winter. You would think one would offer hot chocolate with toppings bar. But alas, they stay empty. And don't even get me started about the retail stores....

Anonymous wrote:Why does it matter which direction CVS faces? With the splash fountains in the summer and the ice rink in the winter, I think they are attracting many families. The clothing stores were never going to make it, agreed. Crown is new but I don't see Kings farms retail area as very successful. Restaurant continually come and go..

That's what restaurants do.

Why does it matter which direction CVS faces? With the splash fountains in the summer and the ice rink in the winter, I think they are attracting many families. The clothing stores were never going to make it, agreed. Crown is new but I don't see Kings farms retail area as very successful. Restaurant continually come and go..

I love the Town Center for the water fountains, library, and maybe a few places. The ice skating is good once or twice but they keep it up way too long. The Center started off with some really stupid retail stores and eclectic eateries and have had massive turnover since it has opened. I wish First Watch stayed open thru dinner. It has the best sandwiches and healthy items for kids. They are mostly leaning towards bars and asian restaurants these days. Most of the shopping stores are long gone. They should have learned from King Farm, Fallsgrove, Crown etc... They need a kids gym or indoor place up there. They need a drug store or even a hallmark store that faces inside the town center. Instead they put CVS facing 355 and added a Walgreens right across the street. All clothing stores have left because they tried to do too specialized/quirky/expensive. Then they ended up turning all the condos they couldn't sell into rentals. So they need to add stores to match the lifestyle that is there. Not the ones they hope it will eventually (but never will) be.

Sidewalks are for punks and the poors.

Vis Arts in town center also has top notch children's art classes and camps.

We have lived in Rockville for nearly 20 years (at two different addresses). We are in walking distance to the metro, town square, Regal, etc (though our home is zoned for Ritchie Park). There is no better area in Rockville. We love it. If you can find the house that is right for you, I think you will love the neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:Whatever, PP. I'll stay over on River Road, and you can enjoy the "Town Center".

we looked at homes in Potomac. So many don't have sidewalks. What's up with that? I like to just walk out of my door and go for a walk with my kids, or let them ride their bikes on the sidewalk without worrying about cars. Why don't the wealthy like sidewalks?

Anonymous wrote:Whatever, PP. I'll stay over on River Road, and you can enjoy the "Town Center".

I do! We like going to Town Center, especially in the summer with all the family friendly activities. I love seeing the diversity. So much more diverse than where we moved from out West.

As for restaurants, I like the tapas place; Sushi damo is good (though pricey). Haven't tried the Italian place yet, but it's on my radar. They are opening Mellow Mushroom. I do wish they had better retail shops, though. But, it's a nice place for families to gather. I even see young adults/teens there on the green, just hanging out. We like going to the Festivals there, too. Wish we lived within walking distance.

Whatever, PP. I'll stay over on River Road, and you can enjoy the "Town Center".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The schools are very diverse which is a positive but the middle school is kinda rough. There were a good amount of fights, two pregnancies in 8th grade last year, bullying etc... Not horrible but not a great middle school.

RM is average. The IB program brings the level up a few notches but there is a good amount of lower SES kids and hispanics in the school. They don't seem to have the gang issues that Rockville and Gaithersburg High has been seeing. No major violence besides some fights. Nice new school, starting to get overcrowded. Already looking to add an addition but they are in a tight location.

Rose Hill is a good neighborhood also in walking distance to the town center. We also really like some of the College Gardens neighborhoods. They have sidewalks, more/better playgrounds, walking distance to a few stores/ice cream. Most of the homes have garages. Some places aren't true walking distance to the Town Center though but easy biking distance. Rockville does have great biking paths.

What MS is not "rough" or not have any bullying? So, there are some MS kids at JW that are having sex. I'm willing to bet that there are MSers in *every* MS that are having sex, and probably getting pregnant, but mommy is making it all go away before people talk. JW is rated a 9. Normally, I don't really put too much stock in school ratings, but this alone should tell you that it's not "rough".

There are 150 IB kids at RM out of over 2200. Not sure less than 10% of the school population can make/break a HS. You realize that JW/RM is made up of kids from College Gardens, Beall, RP, and Twinbrook ESs, right? Twinbrook is probably the weakest of the ESs, but it's also the smallest in terms of student size. The rest of the ESs (again, much larger than Twinbrook) feed from middle/upper class areas. In spite of the fact it has a much higher FARMS rate than the W schools, the test scores for the Hispanic/Black kids are pretty good. That tells me a lot of positives about that school.

Not the PP you are talking to but you are wrong. There are over 500 kids in IB at Richard Montgomery. It makes almost 20% of the school and they are the smartest in the entire county. It does indeed drive up the scores.

My kids are in Ritchie Park and it is just okay. We know many parents that pull out for private schools before middle school but we are still unsure at this time. This cluster is not something to seriously strive for. Some people make it out to be better than W schools and some people compare it to SE DC. It is average with overpriced housing. Nothing more, nothing less.

There are not 500 IB test-in kids. RM sets aside IB spots for inbound kids coming in from the MYP from JW. So, if there are 500 kids in the IB program, most are from the RM cluster.

http://mocostudent.org/2014/12/nearly-2000-applicants-vie-for-acceptance-into-blair-richard-montgomery-and-poolesville-magnet-programs/

"Despite the multitude of applicants, comprised of thousands of students all vying for admission, each of the three magnet high school programs accepts just under 150 candidates each year."

I don't make it out to be better than W schools, whatever "better" means. To me, it's an apples to oranges comparison since RM has *way* more FARMS kids and is much more diverse than W schools. The only reason Rockville is "overpriced" is because there are obviously lots of people who want to move there.

Einstein, how many grades are in high school? 150 kids are accepted EACH year entering Freshman year. What is 150x4??????

OK, I stand corrected. I was thinking per year. In any case, JW (no test in) is not exactly rated low.

If you think RM, RP and JW are just so-so, I'm curious what cluster/school you think is great and without problems? Test scores are largely reflective of SES. So, is the issue that RM cluster has too many FARMS kids? If so, then yea, you should move because Rockville is quite diverse, both in race and SES.

There are issues in every school. There were some issues at Whitman recently where two kids at Whitman threatened to shoot people at the school (they were arrested btw), and another where the Principal had to send a letter to all the parents to remind them that giving alcohol to minors that are not their kids is illegal. Apparently, some parents were hosting drinking parties for their kids and their friends. Oh, but the test scores are great and FARMS/ESOL rate is low, so the school must be awesome, right?