The city council returned from their annual winter hibernation Monday night, but if they were asleep, they had better wake up now. A bunch of difficult issues face them this year, which I've been told is now Twenty-Eleven. Which prompts a scary thought — we've already got 7-Eleven. To get to 20-11, you have to add 13. Ya' see where I'm going with this? I didn't think so. But we'll save the Trilateral Commission conspiracy discussions for another time. For now, it's just Takoma Park city government, 24-7, 365 days a year. The city council meeting Monday night had a lot of meat to it — or soy, …

Trees are a common good. Pretty much everyone agrees on that. I'll even stipulate to it. Trees provide shade for people and their homes, soak up rainwater, and provide significant habitat for a variety of creatures, my personal favorites being moths and birds.  But I don't think anyone would disagree that the potential of trees to do these things depends to no small degree on what kind of tree we're talking about, and where it is planted – close to a building, perhaps, or near a stream. As with so many things in life, the answer to the question is, "It depends," which I fully realize is an …

Can I do a Herb Caen column? … Uh, who?... Caen, the guy who churned out 1,000 words six days a week for his "It's News to Me" column in the San Francisco Chronicle… Most of his columns consisted of short items separated by ellipses … you know, those three dots…. "Ellipsis" is singular, "ellipses" is plural…. I'll give it a shot. I mean, what's Patch editor Ryan McDermott gonna do, fire me? He doesn't own me! AOL, which owns Patch, doesn't own me. Come to think of it, I don't even own me. I am but an empty vessel for news and rumors that may or may not be of interest to all you lovely people …

OK, first things first, because that's generally where we think they should go. Takoma Park is an incorporated entity, a city, of approximately 18,000 souls, according to Bureau of the Census estimates. As such, we're about the same size as Westminster, Md., in Carroll County, Maryland, but less than one-third as populous as Rockville, the county seat of Montgomery County, or Gaithersburg, the other metropolis to our north. We're somewhat larger than both Hyattsville and Havre de Grace but smaller than either Greenbelt or Laurel. We tower over the Town of Kensington (1,955 people), which …

It's said that we hurt the ones closest to us. We certainly do that with our environment. I can't think of much else that's closer to us than the earth we tread upon. The Mother Ship bears the brunt of our never-ending quest for profits and progress without a word. But she speaks in other ways, most notably these days through Global Climate Change, which has come to be used as a catch-all for the myriad environmental problems facing us. I want to write about last night's council meeting, but first I feel the need to explain myself. I come by my fairly standard American environmental ethic …

WWSD? What would Sammie do?  I have no idea. But gee, it's so easy to dig up the old firebrand and use him to justify our fear of the future, symbolized today by the big, bad Maryland State Highway Administration, which as we all know wants to widen Route 410. Well, definitely not now, probably not tomorrow, and certainly not during the O'Malley Administration, but perhaps some day, in a time yet to come. I mean, who knows? We can't trust soft-talking Neil Pedersen, the SHA Administrator. We can't look at Philadelphia and Ethan Allen avenues and wonder, how the heck would they widen the road …

Our Politics In the People's Republic column usually runs on Tuesdays, but due to the public debate surrounding Monday's city council meeting, Steve Davies wrote a column to explain the complex ideas around the SHA's possible takeover of Rt. 410. Community listservs have been alive with debate over the proposed road swap between  the State Highway Administration and the city, a subject I've discussed twice, most recently in last week's column. With what amounts to a public hearing on the matter scheduled for Monday night at the council chambers, Takoma Park Patch thought it would be a good …

Last night the council took a big step toward swapping roads with the state, but paused a moment to try and extract "overlay authority" or something like it, so the city could go back and fix sidewalks and potholes on Ethan Allen Avenue and other parts of Route 410 after they have been torn up by one project or another. Councilmember Colleen Clay convinced her fellow council members and Mayor Bruce Williams that it made sense to wait before giving Deputy City Manager Suzanne Ludlow the authority to sign off on a deal with the State Highway Administration. Instead, the city will press the …

Years ago, Takoma Junction was something special, Kay Daniels-Cohen recounted at a meeting of the Takoma Junction Task Force Monday night. "The co-op used to be a Safeway. That's where I got my first cat," she said, explaining  the kitten was the offspring of the grocery store's mouser. The task force, made up of 20 Takoma Parkers, plus one Takoma, D.C. resident, is charged with finding a way to revitalize the business stock, improve traffic flow and pedestrian access, and provide much-needed parking at the bedeviled intersection. Sounds easy. Nope. Daniels-Cohen, who's been working to revive…

When I look at the new sign installed by Montgomery County at Westmoreland Park -- oops, Takoma Urban Park -- I'm reminded of the scene in "It's A Wonderful Life" where an inebriated George Bailey runs into "one of the oldest trees in Pottersville." That's how the homeowner whose tree was defiled (before George was under an angel's spell) describes it to Bailey, memorably portrayed by Jimmy Stewart. Of course, George can't believe what he's hearing. "Pottersville? Why, you mean Bedford Falls," he objects..  "I mean Pottersville," the man replies. And then he yells at Bailey, before he and his…

Almost despite themselves, the Takoma Park city council (and mayor) took some small but significant steps toward sustainability at their meeting Monday night. Unless you were paying attention, it was hard to discern the import of the council's actions. Sometimes in Takoma Park you have to keep your eyes peeled or events will pass you by like the proverbial small town on the highway – blink and you miss it. Two things: They agreed by consensus to phase out the use of gas-powered leaf blowers by city public works crews; and they took another step toward taking control of the sections of Ethan …

Takoma Park's tree ordinance continues to be a pain in the bark for the city council and mayor.  At their Sept. 27 meeting, the seven-member elected body held a worksession on revising the law, which had drawn the wrath of a passel of homeowners.  There was anger from North Takoma residents about sidewalk work taking place in their neighborhood without proper regard for trees; complaints about the demeanor of Arborist Todd Bolton ("incredibly rude and unprofessional," one commenter said; others disagreed) and about his decision to plant sweet gum trees along Maple Avenue (they tear up …