Many students had a real scare Saturday, but their worries weren’t over final exams or term papers — they thought yet another College Park bar might be closing its doors.
ESPN sportscaster Scott Van Pelt, a university alumnus who frequently touts R.J. Bentley’s while on-air, tweeted Saturday the popular bar might be replaced by another well-known establishment, The Greene Turtle.
But City Planning Director Terry Schum said Bentley’s owner John Brown had confirmed this was just a rumor.
Junior journalism major Jamie Forzato said she was stunned when she heard the rumor, especially because the low number of bars in College Park makes for a consistently high turnout.
“Bentley’s is getting great business now because [Thirsty] Turtle, the Mark and Santa Fe are closed down,” she said. “That place is packed every single night because there are only two bars now downtown.”
Forzato said junior journalism major Brendan Ponton was the first to tweet the rumor. Ponton said he got the tip from “somebody that had good knowledge about what was going on,” but would not reveal his source.
After he tweeted it, Ponton said Van Pelt picked up on the rumor and texted Brown, who said it was not true. Ponton, however, said he stands by his source, adding that although he was not completely taken aback by the rumor, it was still somewhat of a surprise considering Bentley’s long tenure in the city — it has been open since 1978.
Forzato said Bentley’s closing would have been a real loss to students.
“We’d only have one bar in College Park for a school with 30,000 students,” she said. “It would be a shame.”
— Lauren Kirkwood

A local city employee is hoping to combat College Park’s high business turnover rate — one coloring book at a time.

The coloring books, drawn by Big Planet Comics employee John Staton, are being released to city businesses May 7 by the College Park Neighborhood Business Alliance — a coalition formed in January by the city and local business to hopefully foster a more-sustainable economic environment.

Its first task was to create a poster featuring various storefronts, designed by alumnus and former Diamondback cartoonist Staton. But officials said the project has taken on a life of its own since then.

The poster turned into a comic book, which features Tom and Terry the Terrapin, two characters who traverse different city businesses, such as Coldstone Creamery and Zips Drycleaners. Businesses paid a $300 fee to be included in the coloring book, which also provides paper cut-outs resembling each store to make a mini, three-dimensional College Park.

“For years, I’ve been watching the stores fall out. … I think the idea of an organization that helps them pull their resources together and have advertising more than one store can afford is laudable,” Staton said. “There doesn’t seem to be as much support for the mom and pop shops. … It’s good to see [members of the community] succeed.”

In addition to the coloring book, the alliance will provide local businesses with advertising opportunities to create awareness for otherwise unknown city gems, officials said.

“It gets people to think, to talk, and gets them to explore other locations,” said Michael Libcke, the group’s president. “[We want] to help independent businesses market themselves and let themselves be known, so that way we can help them increase their business and become stronger so they can be able to stay.”

— Rachel Roubein

Jonathan Molinatto, the tech-savvy City Council member from College Park’s District 1, often gets understandably frustrated as council debate drags on throughout the night.

But while his older colleagues might go outside to vent, or just roll their eyes and slump in their seats, Molinatto takes his exasperation to Twitter.

“let’s bring back punching-in-the-face as an acceptable rebuttal to an ignorant statement,” he wrote at around 10 p.m., after multiple “amendments to the amendment” on council agenda items.

But that wasn’t his first grumpy tweet of the evening.

Molinatto had already criticized his fellow council members for casting oral votes in imperfect unison.

“let’s talk about voting in opposition when the mayor calls for opposers to say, ‘nay.’ do it when he asks, people! it’s not hard! idiots!!” he wrote of the people who were at that moment sitting just a few feet away at the same table.

“As elected officials, we should have a sense of humor about ourselves as we do stupid things,” Molinatto said in an interview during a break in the council meeting.

Luckily, other council members understand Molinatto’s wit.

“Jonathan has a very wry sense of humor, and if I didn’t know that I might be offended,” said District 4 Councilwoman Mary Cook.

“My wife told me I should stop doing that,” Molinatto said.

The five students who came before the College Park City Council last night looked like they were practicing for court. They were quiet and respectful and nicely dressed, and they kept their heads down.

And like the average court appearance, they were not there because of quiet and respectful behavior.

These five students, who rent a house in the Old Town neighborhood, had ended up with a $500 fine for a noisy party on the first Friday of the semester, and went on to owe the city an additional $1,000 after they lustily celebrated that achievement the very next night.

“I am also a resident of 4812 Harvard Road, and I would also like to apologize,” said one student after another, approaching the council hangdog.

“I also apologize, even though I was not at the parties,” noted the last of them to speak.

Apology accepted?

“It took a lot of guts to come down here for that, and I think I’ll thank you for that,” said longtime District 2 Councilman Jack Perry, who is hard of hearing but said he’s always happy to call the police if he does pick up the sounds of a student party on his street. “Maybe you’ll recognize you wouldn’t want this next door to you. And those of us who call the city our home, and who stay here when you go home, we’ve had it.”

“The most controversial thing I’ve ever been involved in – more controversial than firing the city manager and more controversial than rent control – is the idea of ‘party permits,’” Mayor Steve Brayman said. “It just shows how sensitive our neighborhoods are with respect to noise, it’s because of years and years of abuse.”

As District 1 Councilman Jonathan Molinatto wrote during the meeting on his Twitter feed:

“paul carlson brought 5 tenants of his to apologize for their noise violations. a nice gesture. mayor and a councilmember grilled them good.”

At least the grilling will prepare them for a real court date if they plan to contest the $1,500 in fines. When officials asked them if they intended to, they were offered a bit of unintelligible muttering.

Carlson and his tenants declined to be interviewed after they finished speaking to the council.

Carlson wasn’t the only landlord at last night’s council meeting; John Hawvermale also spoke to the council to complain that the city wasn’t picking up recycling at his rental properties.

Longtime city officials appeared familiar with this complaint, pointing out he hadn’t paid his waste removal fee; he explained to them that his property taxes ought to cover it and asked for his taxes to be refunded, and argued with Mayor Brayman when he ignored this request.

Tweeted Molinatto: “landlord brings viable complaint, then loses temper and all credibility. too bad.”

The Purple Line alignment battles continue as new videos and renderings were released by the Maryland Transit Administration showing the line going down Campus Drive, a route opposed by university administrators.

Administrators say if the Purple Line, a light-rail train that would link College Park with Bethesda and New Carrollton, travels down Campus Drive, it’ll mess up sensitive research equipment with its vibrations and electromagnetic waves. They want the Purple Line to go around South Campus.

But the MTA, as well as the City of College Park, the Student Government Association and just about everybody else, say Campus Drive is the center of campus and therefore the best place to put the light-rail line.

The alignment has to be decided within two years, but until then, here’s a cool video of what it could look like going down Campus Drive:

And here’s some pictures of the Purple Line going down Campus Drive:

Purple Line by Hornbake Library

Purple Line by the Stamp Student Union

Purple Line by the College Park Metro Station

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Note: Thanks to Clay Gump at Rethink College Park for the heads up. Video and renderings from the MTA website.