Taking a walk in Orwellian Silver Spring, Maryland
This afternoon My Fair Maiden and I took a walk along Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring. As we walked towards the downtown, past the Silver Spring Fire Department, we noticed a broken and boarded up window on the side of a martial arts center. Always interested in urban and suburban decay, MFM wanted to snap a photo of the window.
We took about five steps off of the sidewalk into the Silver Spring Fire Department parking lot to snap the photo of the window. MFM had just taken one photo when a woman's voice startled us with a "Can I help you?"
"No, we're just taking a photo, thanks," we replied.
We had only been off the sidewalk for thirty seconds when the woman came over. She was wearing a red polo shirt with the official Silver Spring logo on it. Where had she come from so fast?
Then she told us, "Well, you have to leave, this is county property. You can't be on county property."
We stepped back onto the sidewalk and walked away. MFM turned around about two minutes later and the woman was still watching us.
What is it with Orwellian Silver Spring? It seems like any time you try to take a photo in this place, someone appears magically and tells you you either can't take a photo or you can't stand where you're standing. And I would hardly call standing several feet off a public sidewalk onto county property to take a simple photograph of a non-county building (in broad daylight on a sunny Sunday afternoon) a crime. I've never been so worried to take photos.
Blah!
We took about five steps off of the sidewalk into the Silver Spring Fire Department parking lot to snap the photo of the window. MFM had just taken one photo when a woman's voice startled us with a "Can I help you?"
"No, we're just taking a photo, thanks," we replied.
We had only been off the sidewalk for thirty seconds when the woman came over. She was wearing a red polo shirt with the official Silver Spring logo on it. Where had she come from so fast?
Then she told us, "Well, you have to leave, this is county property. You can't be on county property."
We stepped back onto the sidewalk and walked away. MFM turned around about two minutes later and the woman was still watching us.
What is it with Orwellian Silver Spring? It seems like any time you try to take a photo in this place, someone appears magically and tells you you either can't take a photo or you can't stand where you're standing. And I would hardly call standing several feet off a public sidewalk onto county property to take a simple photograph of a non-county building (in broad daylight on a sunny Sunday afternoon) a crime. I've never been so worried to take photos.
Blah!
posted by Mansard at 6:58 PM
2 Comments:
That's truly odd. This isn't the first time someone has been hassled for taking pictures in Silver Spring. http://www.freeourstreets.org/
Even stranger is that the building houses several PUBLIC service agencies. People walk into our fire stations for medical services regularly & there's a police station on the second floor. The 'Red Shirts' are Silver Spring Urban District personnel on the third floor, and they're supposed to act as 'community ambassadors'. Their supervisor can be reached at 240-876-2991.
Thanks for the info. I tried to e-mail Susan Hoffman, who's listed on the SilverSprung site, but the e-mail was bounced back immediately. I'll try calling the number you gave when I have a sec....
Your comment explains where she came from so quickly. The whole thing was very puzzling. She certainly did not act like an ambassador--it really made us feel bad because we've paid taxes here for years... to be treated like criminals (practically) was very unsettling.
The whole rest of the afternoon we joked about, "Watch where you're walking--it's county property...."
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