Highland Stone homeowner's association?

Does anyone out there reading this live in the Highland Stone development? If so, do you have contact information for a homeowner's/civic association for your development? We've had someone contact us who lives in the development and wants to contact them about the 37, but doesn't know who he needs to reach or how to go about doing so. Any help anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Contact Your Home Owners'/Civic Association

We've contacted both the Country Place Civic Association and the Regency Estates Civic Associates. At the transit hearing, representatives for both associations are going to speak out against the proposal to discontinue the 37 bus. If you live in a different development along the 37 Route, won't you please contact your homeowners/civic association & see if they will also speak out? Every bit helps!

With his permission, I'm including the note that Stuart Simon wrote to the Regency Estates association board. Feel free to use it as a model for contacting your own association.

I notice that in the regular RECA NewsBriefs you always thoughtfully include the Ride On and Metrobus schedule. Did you know that if the country goes through with its plans, most of us will no longer have any viable bus service? The county has proposed ending the # 37 Ride On bus, which is the only bus operating along Tuckerman Lane between Falls Road and Old Georgetown. Without the 37 there will be no bus from our area to Grosvenor Metro. For most commuters from Regency Estates the #38 along Gainsborough to White Flint Metro is not a viable alternative as it would add 25 minutes or more each way to an already long daily commute. Stopping the 37 seems particularly ill advised with our roads becoming increasingly clogged and global climate disruption an alarming concern. Other Civic associations have already written to Councilman Roger Berliner urging him to get the County to reconsider. The County hearing on the proposed bus changes is scheduled for February 11 at 6:30pm. <

Having direct bus service to the Metro is one of the factors that attracted me to Regency Estates. It's increasingly common to see older residents using the bus line, no doubt because driving is no longer a secure or viable option. The route is also a lifeline for people who work in DC but have disabilities that prevent them from driving, which has been the case for my older son who has epilepsy. Given that the 37 bus is an extra incentive for people to live in our area it no doubt adds to our property values. For all these reasons, I urge RECA on behalf of our community to pass a resolution supporting continuation of bus service along Tuckerman Lane.

Stuart Simon

Sample letter to Council Member Berliner

With his permission, I'm posting this letter that Adam Garfinkle has sent to Council Member Berliner. Obviously, not every one of us will have the authority to speak for his/her civic association (but getting them involved is a GREAT idea!), so it won't make sense to simply copy this letter in its entirety & send it; however, feel free to take bits & pieces of it as you wish & incorporate them into a letter of your own. If anyone else else would like to send me their letter, I will happily post it here as inspiration for the rest of us.

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January 15, 2008

Mr. Roger Berliner
Montgomery County Council
100 Maryland Avenue
Rockville, MD 20850

Dear Mr. Berliner,

It is with distress and no little sense of disbelief that I have learned of the County’s proposal to eliminate the number 37 Ride-On bus. I am not alone: The board of the Country Place Civic Association, a homeowners association of 174 households in Montgomery Council, took a decision last night to oppose this proposal. I am authorized to inform you of that decision, and to explain our views.

We believe that eliminating the number 37 Ride-On bus would cause considerable hardship for a large number of people. I also doubt the publicly expressed rationale for eliminating the service—that the rush-hour-only 37 bus is a “weak performer.” I ride it regularly and it is always full of passengers. Someone has counted wrong.

Note, too, that virtually everyone who rides the 37 bus is a regular who is linking into the Metro system. The 37 route is an integral part of the county’s transportation system, not an inessential shuttle for occasional shoppers or tourists.

It also services students from Hoover and Churchill who have to stay after school in the afternoons. I see as well several handicapped and elderly passengers on the bus on a regular basis.

Note, too, that for those living on most the 37 route, no alternative forms of public transportation are available. The 37 route is not redundant with others, but services a unique area for the most part.

Moreover, it is extremely dubious to suppose that curtailing public transportation in a region such as ours will save the county money in the long run. As many as a hundred additional cars will be put on the road during rush hour morning and evening if the county curtails public transportation, and with higher volume comes more pollution, more greenhouse gasses and greater road maintenance expenses. This reasoning applies not only to the 37 bus, of course, but to all the others slated for reduced service or elimination. It is extremely shallow and superficial thinking to imagine that we can save money by eliminating an efficient mode of transportation and stimulating the substitution of less efficient ones.

I understand that you are a man who is concerned about the environment, who understands the need for our community and our country to “go green.” If that is the case, I expect you, too, will be disheartened by this retrograde proposal. It is ludicrous to be telling people to “go green” on the one hand, and then making it harder to do so on the other. I urge you to do something about this proposed embarrassment to our county—something decisive and effective.

I don’t know whose decision this is—whether the Dept. of Transportation has been saddled with an impossible order to cut costs, or what. Whoever has devised this proposal, however, is both shortsighted and highly unimaginative. Service can be reduced marginally—for example, to what it was a few years ago, before an extra bus was added in the morning and afternoon—without being eliminated. Other means to finance the service can be devised, as well. I find it hard to believe that other, less foolish means of solving the country’s financial problems have been exhausted.

Finally, let me add that I have noticed construction lately along the 37 route of new concrete containment areas and sidewalks by several bus stops. This costs money. What possible logic would lead anyone to approve spending for such marginal purposes if the economics of the route as a whole were really in such dire shape? This is not a rhetorical question; I’d actually like an answer.

Please, Mr. Berliner, don’t let the county make this mistake. The Country Place Civic Association urges you to act now to save the 37 bus, and restore our confidence in the basic good judgment of our local government.

Yours,

Dr. Adam Garfinkle

Contact Our Councilman!!

One thing we can do is to contact the County Council member who serves our area & let him know we strongly oppose the proposal to discontinue the 37. Here is his information:

Roger Berliner
Councilmember.Berliner@montgomerycountymd.gov
Phone # 240-777-7828

Please be polite -- it won't help anything if we tick him or his staff off, but he needs to know that eliminating the route will disenfranchise a large # of his constituents, as well as leave them without any truly viable access to public transportation. Council Member Berliner is known to care about environmental issues, so that may be the best approach to use to get him to take notice of what we have to say.

Save Ride On Route 37!!

This blog has been created to help save Ride On Route 37. The county has slated the 37 for discontinuation because it is (in their words) "underperforming". Several of us are banding together to try to change the county's mind. Here's how you can help:

• Every time you ride the bus, email which bus you were on (date, starting time, origination) and how many people were on the bus to rideon37@hotmail.com,. We will be collecting the data & trending it to calculate how many people ride. With enough data, we hope to show the county that the route is NOT underperforming.
  
• Contact Councilmember Roger Berliner & Transit Chief Carolyn Biggins to express your disapproval of the proposal. See the Contact section on the right --> for phone & email contact. See above for a sample letter.

• Encourage others to ride the bus. The more people we get, the more likely it is to be saved.

• Attend the February 11, 2008 meeting.

• Sign up to speak at the February 11, 2008 meeting.

• Attend the January 22 budget meeting in Chevy Chase & encourage the county to not cut the RideOn budget.
  
• Ask your Homeowner's/Civic Association to speak out against the proposal, both by contacting the County Council & the transit Chief (Carolyn Biggins).
  

We'll post more details about the January budget meeting and the February 11th Ride On meetings shortly --check the Upcoming Dates/Events section to the right ---> for the latest information.