Downtown Gaithersburg: Slowly getting there

Downtown Gaithersburg pretty much stinks. The old agricultural/industrial village was left behind during the 20th Century suburban and New Urbanist development booms that defined Gaithersburg as most people know it today. As a result, few people ever go there, and almost nobody considers it the heart of the larger Gaithersburg community.

But it has potential, and is slowly but surely making progress.

Downtown Gaithersburg has a nice core of historic urban structures surrounding a MARC commuter rail station that is just gorgeous. If it were filled in with more people and activity, it might look a lot like Clarendon. And it just so happens that there’s a ton of underused industrial land all around begging to be put to better use.

[Continue reading Dan Malouff's post at BeyondDC.]

Dan Malouff is an Arlington County transportation planner who blogs independently at BeyondDC.com. The Local Blog Network is a group of bloggers from around the D.C. region who have agreed to make regular contributions to All Opinions Are Local.