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Sunday, July 1, 2007
Silver Spring's downtown is "private property" - no photos allowed
The town of Silver Spring, Maryland gave a private company $100,000,000 to redevelop its downtown area. Now the company claims that the entire downtown is a shopping mall, under its absolute control, without any civil rights. It has barred photography by the public, and insists that it has the right to treat citizens as mere customers.
"I couldn't believe it," says Py, 43, who knew through his old sales job that Montgomery County had made a huge public investment in the new downtown. County tax dollars accounted for $100 million of the $400 million it took to transform the area. "There's all kinds of county activities there, promoted by county money. How could this be private?"Link (Thanks, Michael!)The same question bothers County Council member Marc Elrich. "Considering the county paid for it, it ought to be a public space," he says. "We invest a lot of police time and county resources there."
posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:19:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments
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