Download - Surviving and Prospering in Times of Change
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SURVIVING AND PROSPERING IN TIMES OF CHANGE
Reports from Small Business Owners, Merchants, and
Entrepreneurs in the Silver Spring Region
Silver Spring Regional Commercial Hubs
Organized by the Silver Spring Regional Center and CASA
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Table of Contents:
Section Name: Page Number:
Introduction 3
Takoma/Langley and Long Branch – The International Corridor 3
Fenton Village 3
Greater Lyttonsville 4
Montgomery Hills 4
Four Corners 5
The case for supporting small businesses 6
Small Business Workshop Series 7
Kick-off: Friday, February 26th Silver Spring Civic Building 7
Takoma/Langley businesses - El Golfo Restaurant, March 9, 2016 8
Montgomery Hills and Four Corners businesses - Casa del Mofongo Restaurant,
March 10, 2016 9
Fenton Village and Brookville businesses - Abyssinia Restaurant
March 11, 2016 10
Wrap-Up – Silver Spring Civic Center 11
Conclusion 11
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Introduction
In the spring of 2016, CASA and the Silver Spring Regional Center hosted a series of discussions with
small business owners1 and other stakeholders to discuss ways to strengthen the capacity for
independently and minority owned small businesses to survive and prosper in times of change. The
meetings sought to identify shared interests and challenges, explore needed assets to support the
survival of small businesses, and create an action plan to achieve the resources needed. The series
included two large meetings of small business owners from all six commercial hubs at the Silver
Spring Civic Center and those meetings were supplemented by focused area meetings in Long Branch,
Montgomery Hills, and Fenton Village to dive deeper into the issues business owners in each
neighborhood face.
Within the Silver Spring Regional area this report focuses on six commercial hubs: Takoma/Langley,
Long Branch, Fenton Village, Montgomery Hills, Greater Lyttonsville, and Four Corners. The greater
Silver Spring Regional Area within Montgomery County is one of the most diverse parts of the state of
Maryland. Both the 2010 U.S. Census2 and the Montgomery Diversity Explorer3, a newly created tool
by the County, confirm the Silver Spring Regional Area leads the county in diversity. The small
business climate of each area is reflective of the diversity and vibrancy of the residents living within
these neighborhoods. They not only offer a variety of restaurant and service options but include
manufacturing and light industry. Each commercial area has an established identity that is threatened
by pending and confirmed transportation or redevelopment projects.
Takoma/Langley and Long Branch – The International Corridor
The Takoma/Langley and Long Branch commercial areas fall within the International Corridor, a
culturally diverse stretch along University Boulevard and Piney Branch Road that spans both
Montgomery and Prince George’s County. Takoma/Langley and Long Branch residents represent over
50 countries. Latinos, with origins in Central America, are the dominant ethnic group with smaller, but
still diverse populations that hail from Asia, West Africa, and the Caribbean. That diversity is further
reflected in the nearly five hundred small businesses that populate the area’s shopping centers. These
businesses have helped shape a local economy that provides jobs, goods, and services that cater
primarily to the local, immigrant population. 4
Fenton Village
Often called the “hidden gem” of Silver Spring, Fenton Village features over 200 eclectic and diverse
businesses.5 Locksmiths, shoe repair, tailoring, auto repair shops, and a diverse array of ethnic
restaurants line the streets between Wayne Avenue to the north, Georgia Avenue and Fenton Street to
1 “Small businesses” refers to local and independently owned commercial enterprises that sell goods or services.
https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/FAQ_March_2014_0.pdf 2 http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/2472450 3 https://countystat.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=44330b45b2324ad795e0d16f2f6af2d6 4 Long Branch Sector Plan and the Takoma/Langley Sector Plan-http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/community/longbranch/documents/Long%20Branch%20Sector%20Plan%20reduced%20size%20-%20Approved%20and%20Adopted%20Low%20(3-19-14).pdf 5 http://www.mymcmedia.org/silver-spring-regional-director-talks-taste-the-world-in-fenton-village-video/
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the east and west, and Sligo Avenue to the south.6 Fenton Village is predominantly a commercial area,
but the area’s Master Plan calls for increased height to accommodate mixed use zoning and the
construction of residential buildings with first floor storefronts, adding pressure to the existing
communities. 7
Greater Lyttonsville
Greater Lyttonsville has a vibrant and diverse population that is reflected in the commercial
establishments in the area. According to the Greater Lyttonsville Sector plan and the 2010 U.S.
Decennial Census, Greater Lyttonsville has a population of 8,121 people. Greater Lyttonsville is more
racially diverse than the County as a whole. In 2012, the population was 35 percent African American,
30 percent non-Hispanic white, and 24 percent Hispanic compared to 17 percent, 49 percent, and 17
percent, respectively, countywide.
The small business community reflects this diversity. Professional and technical service providers
make up the largest share (18 percent) of business establishments in Greater Lyttonsville. Area
companies in this category include mostly small to mid-sized firms providing legal, architectural,
software, computer systems design, landscape architects, interior design, photography, marketing,
research & development, management consulting and other services. Business and household services
(including landscaping, cleaning, recycling, staffing agencies) account for 13 percent of area
companies. Greater Lyttonsville also has 57 construction companies providing a broad range of
building, remodeling, and specialty trade services to commercial and residential markets. These firms
are primarily concentrated in the Brookville Road area. 8
Montgomery Hills
The Montgomery Hills Commercial Center, located along both sides of Georgia Ave between the
Capital beltway and 16th Street, is an older commercial area. Georgia Avenue is a seven lane highway
that carries more traffic than any non-interstate road in Montgomery County (85,000 cars per day).9
The area is surrounded by established neighborhoods such as Lyttonsville, Linden, and North
Woodside-Montgomery Hills. A current State Highway Administration study is examining how to
resolve the major challenge facing the small businesses in the area: how best to accommodate the high
level of traffic in the area and still establish a “sense of place”. 10
6 http://takomavoice.com/2014/01/30/fear-in-fenton-village/ 7 Silver Spring- Takoma Park Master Plan http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/community/plan_areas/silver_spring_takoma_park/master_plans/nw_ss/nw_ss_toc.shtm 8 Greater Lyttonsville Sector Plan – http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/community/lyttonsville/documents/lyttonsville_briefing_book.pdf 9 Montgomery Hills Proposed Concept. http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/community/plan_areas/silver_spring_takoma_park/master_plans/nw_ss/montgom_hills.pdf 10 The purpose of the MD 97 Montgomery Hills Project Planning Study is to establish a balanced approach to transportation within the Georgia Avenue corridor by evaluating existing vehicular, pedestrian, and bicyclist mobility and safety while accommodating proposed transit enhancements and establishing a sense of place* within the Montgomery Hills community.http://apps.roads.maryland.gov/WebProjectLifeCycle/MO224_11/HTDOCS/Documents/Location_Design/MD%2097%20Montgomery%20Hills%20Hearing%20Brochure.pdf
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Four Corners
According to the 1996 Four Corners Master Plan, Four Corners is made of up five distinct
neighborhoods with closed-in residential areas, local convenience shopping, schools, and parks. The
Commercial district, at the intersection of Colesville Road and University Boulevard is the heart of the
community, as well as the entry point to the surrounding residential neighborhoods. 11
The case for supporting small businesses
Supporting local small businesses through patronage and favorable public policies results in positive
outcomes for the local economy. The British Columbia division of the Canadian Union of Public
Employees commissioned a study that confirmed that each dollar invested in independent businesses
generates more dollars in economic activity than spending that same amount of money at a chain
retailer.12 The study found that for every $1,000,000 in sales, independent retail stores generate
$450,000 in local economic activity, compared to just $170,000 for chains. Independent restaurants
generated more than twice as much as chain restaurants. Compared to chains, independent restaurants
11 Four Corners Master Plan http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/community/plan_areas/silver_spring_takoma_park/master_plans/4corners/documents/high_4corners.pdf 12 “Independent BC: Small Business and the British Columbia Economy” February 2013
http://nebula.wsimg.com/31f003d5633c543438ef0a5ca8e8289f?AccessKeyId=8E410A17553441C49302&disposition=0&a
lloworigin=1
Figure 1 Business 2 Community: This graphic illustrates the power of investing $10 in locally based small businesses. www.business2community.com/trends-news/how-supporting-a-local-small-business-benefits-you-096248#1smdFPk2lKO1jKcD.97
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and businesses together generated about 2.6 times more local jobs. The study concludes that a shift of
just 10 percent of the market from chains to independents would produce 31,000 jobs paying $940
million in annual wages to BC workers.” 13 The benefit of all this economic activity is that it remains
in the local economy and gets cycled through employers, employees, service providers, government
agencies and a host of other players. In addition to generating more local economic activity, small
business owners become more invested in the communities they do business.
Immigrants in particular are prone to establish their own businesses, sparking cities and jurisdictions to
create campaigns to attract immigrant entrepreneurs as they are two times more likely to open a new
business compared to the native born populations.14 The American Immigration Council writes “while
immigrants made up 13 percent of the country’s total population, 16 percent of the labor force, and 18
percent of business owners overall in 2013, immigrants were 28 percent of “main street” business
owners nationally. They were even more over-represented in particular types of businesses: they were
61 percent of gas station owners, 58 percent of dry cleaner owners, 45 percent of nail salon owners, 38
percent of restaurant owners, and 32 percent of both jewelry and clothing store owners.15
Locally, research performed by CASA with small businesses on the international corridor has found
that while small businesses are diverse and long standing with strong connections to the residential
community, they are highly vulnerable to rent increases and a lack of property ownership.16 This
project presented an opportunity to explore whether these concerns remain 5 years later and across
broader swathes of the Silver Spring Regional Area,
13 Id. 14 See Gateways for Growth partnership between Partnership for a New American Economy and Welcoming America. http://www.renewoureconomy.org/home/gateways-for-growth-challenge/ for a list of participating cities. 15 http://immigrationpolicy.org/special-reports/entrepreneurship-and-innovation-welcoming-cities-lessons-
chicago-dayton-and-nashvill
16 The International Corridor: Portrait of a Threatened Small Business Community - How the Purple Line Can Break or
Build a Neighborhood. CASA 2011. Available from author.
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Small Business Workshop Series
Kick-off: Friday, February 26th Silver Spring Civic Building
The kick-off was attended by over 32 participants;
representatives of 15 small businesses and over 17
technical support providers with a handful fitting
into both categories. The group divided into a
discussion for business owners and one for
providers.
Key Takeaways
There is an enormous disconnect between small
business owners and providers that seek to provide
services to them. Small business owners are
unfamiliar with the services and lack the time to see
them out. Technical support providers wonder why
their services have not been sought. Small business owners described that they would be most
interested in recruiting an experienced business owner to mentor them in navigating the system.
Marcie Wolf-Hubbard, a local artist, asked about the Arts and Entertainment designation and
wonders what Montgomery County, businesses, and Silver Spring are doing to support artists
Rossana Espinoza, Small Business Development Manager at the Latino Economic
Development Corporation (LEDC) understands why small business people do not know/trust
the many resource partners that exist around the County. She stated that as providers, we
MUST get out of our offices and into the community to build that trust. Mayra Bayonet of the
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce echoed the sentiment by stating that visits to the commercial
areas and personally engaging the business owners to learn about their issues help to get them
involved
Althea Grey-McKenzie, owner of a home-based business, had a wonderful experience
attending the workshop, but wondered how to address the challenge that many businesses are
virtual and often do not have a store-front; they are harder to find but similarly impacted by
changing times
Celeste Mitchell, a marketing entrepreneur, learned that small business owners need help with
marketing, but in speaking with owners and looking at their websites, she has discovered that
they are not quite at the level of sophistication that she regularly provides
Technical assistance providers committed to walking the neighborhoods. Paul Grenier from
Montgomery Housing Partnership will walk Long Branch. Mayra Bayonet will walk Four
Corners
Celeste Mitchell suggested pulling together a resource list of organizations for providers and
business owners to help bridge the gap between the groups.
Rosanna Espinoza recommends that we bring the groups together again for a networking event
to bridge the gap between small business owners, entrepreneurs and merchants and technical
support providers. ”It was useful to have the separate conversations, but it would have been
helpful to have a little more opportunity to dialog across the two groups. I hope there will be
future opportunities to continue the conversations.”
Pete Tan, a manager at Silver Spring Inc., a branding and marketing company, suggested to
“use technology to make future sessions accessible online via webinar”.
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1. Meeting for Takoma/Langley businesses,
El Golfo Restaurant, March 9, 2016
The Long Branch – Takoma/Langley areas gathering, held on March 9th, was attended by 10 small
business owners and community stakeholders. The conversation centered on the services offered in
Long Branch and the strong sense of identity the businesses and community have created. Long
Branch is composed of people from many parts of the world and the business community reflects the
same diversity.
Community based organizations and technical support providers have created a sense of trust with the
business community and together organize festivals, events and mural paintings to put the Long
Branch identity and sense of community front and center.
Key Takeaways
Participants of the focus
area gathering cited a
misconception of Long Branch
being a violent neighborhood as a
deterrent to attracting traffic from
other areas
Long Branch is not a
destination where people can park
and shop around. Small parking
lots serve the businesses they are
attached to and towing is enforced
at different intensities. Shared
parking would help drive more
clients to the area who would then
explore and shop around
Long Branch will be served
by two proposed stations of the Purple Line and its construction will have a major impact on
the neighborhood. It will be one of the only places with a tunnel
There are a lot of great things happening in Long Branch but its taking time to attract people
from other areas of the region
A lot on the corner of Arliss St. and Flower Branch should be developed as a County owned
public parking lot
Many things can be improved in Long Branch. Parking spaces can be shared and business
owners can help promote neighboring businesses.
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2. Meeting for Montgomery Hills and Four Corners businesses
Casa del Mofongo Restaurant, March 10, 2016 The focus area gathering for the Montgomery Hills and
Four Corners commercial areas was held at Casa del
Mofongo on March 10. Six small business owners and
community stakeholders attended the gathering.
Key Takeaways:
There are many infrastructure changes coming to the
smaller commercial hubs in greater Silver Spring and
unfortunately the business owner community has not been
engaged enough to impact the results of the studies.
Montgomery Hills is being reviewed by State Highway
Administration for a possible widening of Georgia Avenue
Commerce in the area has been more densely centralized
as the need for more Silver Spring residential spaces has
grown. The number of homes has increased in the
neighborhoods as the number of businesses serving the
area has decreased. People are going to downtown Silver
Spring for their needs
The neighborhoods have schools and other long
established businesses but there is not enough being done to market and refine the identity of
the two commercial areas
Technical support providers help by visiting the commercial areas and personally engaging the
business owners. “The input of the business owners is very important, so we have to create
programs so they can learn and see their businesses succeed. They are an important part of our
community.”
But there is still greater need for providers to connect and build trust with small business
owners as the neighborhood strengthens its identity
The neighborhood is in the stage of forming its neighborhood identity and marketing that to the
greater region. Pete Tan has created a directory for the area, but more needs to be done to
further promote it as a destination
A Multipurpose center modeled after the home ownership centers in Maryland could be a
solution to addressing the various needs faced by the small business owner community.
It’s important for organizers to identify the best method of communication to contact the small
business owners. Would texting be a possible solution
Participants propose walking tours of the neighborhood or library tours to help strengthen the
small business association that exists in the area.
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3. Meeting with Fenton Village and Brookville businesses
Abyssinia Restaurant, March 11, 2016
The focus area gathering for the Fenton Village and
Brookville/Lyttonsville commercial areas was held at
Abyssinia on March 11th, 2016. Six small business
owners and community stakeholders attended the
gathering. Fenton Village is a neighborhood with a
strong sense of identity. The small businesses see
themselves as neighbors and are part of the civic
association. Building that cohesion has taken time and
hard work but great events have been created such as,
the Block Party and Taste the World, to best represent
the diversity and resilience of the community. Fenton
Village is really where art is life and life is art.
Key Takeaways
Fenton Village has a history of civic organizing and small business cohesion. The community
faces challenges with the upcoming Purple Line and there is a need to build trust between
community stakeholders and the business community
Government agencies have sometimes competing requirements and small businesses need more
information about their legal rights. Business owners feel they are sometimes cited for
contradictory violations. An agency, such as the fire department, will order a business owner to
institute a change in order to keep their occupancy license while another agency will ask them
to do the opposite or something completely different. Business owners want legislative and
regulatory reform so that they have greater rights in these circumstances
Building trust between small business owners and the community based organizations and
technical support providers is a critical component to resolving issues together, especially on
Bonifant Street where the Purple Line will run. If there is no grassroots support it’s difficult for
community organizations to gain support from small business owners. Rebuilding that trust will
help people to feel that their point of view matters and they are not second class citizens
Organizations, residents, business owners, and the local government need to plan for long term
community investment. It will take time to initiate and maintain relationships in the area
The Purple Line and housing redevelopment can have a negative impact on the community if
people are not organized
Better communication is needed, included for discussions of this type
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Wrap-Up – Silver Spring Civic Center
The wrap-up meeting was held at the Silver
Spring Civic Center on March 22nd, 2016.
Twenty one small business owners and
community stakeholders attended the gathering.
Staff from CASA and the Silver Spring
Regional Center reported back on the kick-off
meeting and the three focus area meetings.
New participants, many of them small
businesses or staff from support organizations,
attended the final wrap up session.
Key Takeaways
Participants asked for more opportunities to network and connect with other small businesses
and providers. Paul Grenier summarized – “I found helpful [what we have] heard from the
small businesses. For example, that they prefer to learn from other businesses in the same
sector. And they’re concerned with parking.”
Have a local and independent business owner networking event to connect with the community,
capture feedback, and walk the streets to get to know the businesses in the commercial areas of
Greater Silver Spring.
Local and independent small business owners should get involved in planning activities and
with established institutions such as the Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce and other
providers.
Providers, business associations, and local government must be creative and collaborative to
resolve issues facing each neighborhood. Holding each other accountable and engaged is the
key. Resolving issues such as shared parking, absentee small property owners, and hiring
locally can help these local and independent business owners, merchants, and entrepreneurs
thrive in times of change.
There is urgency for small businesses given the prospect of the Purple Line. Motivating
businesses to act on their futures is imperative, but the challenges are great. Trust and
understanding what resource partners will or won’t be able do for businesses is essential.
Rebecca Silvestre, owner of Legal Shield, also emphasized the importance of continuing to
have these conversations. “Moving forward, having this conversation on a more regular basis
would help the business owners know there is support for their needs.”
Conclusion: Small business owners in the Silver Spring regional area face a number of shared challenges and
interests. The workshop series confirmed the most pressing challenge is the uncertainty of planned
transportation and infrastructure developments that threaten to limit customer access. Each commercial
hub has its own identity and set of challenges. Small businesses are hungry for better access to and
understanding of resources that can help them succeed. As research has shown, investing in the
viability of existing small businesses is well worth it in the long run.
Connections and relationships strengthened in this process can form the basis for continuing dialogue
among the businesses and the technical service providers in these commercial hubs. CASA and the
Silver Spring Regional Center thank all the participants and contributors that helped shape this
document.
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For More Information, go to:
The Website: www.choosemontgomerymd.com