Talk:Takoma Park, Maryland/Archive 1

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Archive 1

Culture Section

I've added about half a dozen citations to the "Culture" section and removed the blurb saying that the section needed citations...because now it has some. Also added in info about Roscoe and Motor Cat, etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.10.131.1 (talk) 13:14, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Undated, unsigned comments

Removed "C.M. Heaton, the first Mayor of Takoma Park" and "Andrew Benton, 1997-2005" from mayor section.


--216.15.49.248 00:04, 18 October 2005 (UTC) please cite your source before changing items in the article. The North Central Freeway, which is the interstate highway that would have cut through Takoma Park, was an extension of Interstate 70 (you can verify here: http://www.highwaysandcommunities.com/1963-64_I-70S_I-95_North_Central_Freeway.htm)

What, no rooster?

It's kind of sad that this article makes no mention of the Rooster of Takoma Park. Up until a few years ago (when it was run over) the town actually had a rooster as a sort of communal pet, taken care of by the entire community. Takoma Park has also been called "The People's Republic of Takoma Park" by many because of its weird policies, but I can't think of a NPOV way to include that. One of its weird policies is that it is a Nuclear Free Zone. --Cyde Weys votetalk 01:55, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

  • Nevermind, the People's Republic part is actually in there. Hysterical. As for the rooster, it deserves a nod, does it not? --Cyde Weys votetalk 01:57, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
  • There is a memorial statue of Roscoe the Rooster in town, done by local sculptor Norman Greene. That's probably grounds enough for inclusion. I think he lived about ten years in Ward 1 before he got run over (c. 2000). (They're weird in that ward; my ward has bunnies.) -- IKUnderhill 19:07, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Burma? World Bank?

I'm amused by the fact that "Berkely of the East" has multiple citations, yet a claim that Takoma Park cannot do business, by statute, with Burma is left unsupported! Anyone know more about this? What about the World Bank?

Also, I just found out that non-U.S. citizens may hold office, too. I'm gonna add that and some other stuff now. — gogobera (talk) 04:42, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

County Map

Takoma Park is, as of about a decade ago, entirely in Montgomery County; how come the map graphic has it in Prince George's County? Youngtim74 03:45, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

I have been told by both a Prince George's County 311 operator and an operator for the city of Takoma Park Landlord Tenant Affairs office that part of Takoma Park is in Prince George's County (a particular address was verbally confirmed to be in Prince George's county by both operators). Tcass64 (talk) 15:13, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

Change in Mayor

I have added the new mayor, Bruce Williams, to the Takoma Park article. (Source: http://www.takomaparkmd.gov/council/index.html) Sabine01 19:21, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Impeachment Addition

I have added a section on the impeachment resolution Takoma Park voted on in July 2007. (Source: http://www.takomaparkmd.gov/news/index.html) Lawnwrangler 23:29, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Origin of the name

I'm skeptical that the name of the city is based on Tacoma, Washington. I went on a tour recently and the guide said it was so named because "Tacoma" or "Takoma" means "high place close to heaven", and since the area is higher than downtown DC, it worked as a name. I can find no source for it being related to Tacoma, WA (though presumably Tacoma is based on the same word). I am removing this sentence; if someone has a cite, please put it back in with the cite. Dbalpert (talk) 21:49, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Mayoral Term Dates

I think the dates of the terms of the mayors are incorrect. This Takoma Voice article suggests B.F. Gilbert served until 1894, two two-year terms. Vicenarian (T · C) 01:08, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Talk:Takoma Park, Maryland/Draft

I've started a draft of this article to work on some major changes, including incorporating the Jazz Festival content and expanding the history section. Anyone, of course, is welcome to comment, edit, etc. The more the merrier! Vicenarian (T · C) 00:29, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

I'll be incorporating elements of my expansion as I go along. I added the maintenance tags to attract attention, and also as a sort of "to-do" list. Vicenarian (T · C) 01:52, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
Being bold. The Sports and Education sections both currently read like link lists. The entire Sports section may need to be thrown out... with the possible exception of the bit about the Thunderbolts, none of the organizations are notable. I can find no mention of other notable sports organizations in the city. I'm removing the section and commenting out the Thunderbolts until they can be incorporated elsewhere. (Children's and neighborhood leagues may be able to be incorporated into a section about the community. Properly cited, of course.)

I've pretty much abandoned the draft and am working directly on the article itself. The draft may still be seen here. I've done the Jazz Festival merge. Still searching for good sourcing for pretty much the entire article. May have to dig into offline sources - I've asked Historic Takoma for assistance. Vicenarian (T · C) 09:39, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Merge proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
The consensus was against the merge. Vicenarian (T · C) 13:41, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

I'm suggesting that Benjamin Franklin Gilbert be merged into here. I'm not sure Gilbert is notable enough to have his own biographical article, but certainly the material in his article could be used to enhance the "History" section here. Vicenarian (T · C) 09:15, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

  • Oppose merge. Gilbert meets notability. Surf Dog (talk) 02:56, 19 June 2009 (UTC)
  • Oppose. Gilbert being a mayor in itself seems to satisfy WP:POLITICIAN which says "Major local political figures who have received significant press coverage.[7] Generally speaking, mayors are likely to meet this criterion, as are members of the main citywide government or council of a major metropolitan city". I'm not sure about the contemporaneous press coverage, but being the actual founder of Takoma Park also lends to his case for notability in my opinion. It's certainly not a slam dunk, but I think he makes the cut. Strikehold (talk) 12:35, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Okay, fair enough. I mean, I created the article, so I don't mind seeing it survive. :) I'll do my best to pull enough information to flesh out a true biography. Historic Takoma has mentioned an interest in working with me in improving Takoma Park-related pages. Stay tuned. Vicenarian (T · C) 13:41, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

No article for Sam Abbott?

Redirects here -- to an article that barely mentions him and glosses over Takoma Park history.

If BF Gilbert is notable (as the developer of the entire area who made it the world headquarters of the SDA church) then Sam Abbott is certainly notable. Unfortunately this entire article suffers from lack of / poorly presented information which will not be repaired by disinterest from Wikipedians with no interest in the Mid Atlantic region.

  • Sam Abbott spearheaded the civil-rights/community advocacy organization which single-handedly defeated the Washington Freeway Plan, which included plans for a freeway to bisect Takoma Park, central DC, Georgetown, and the Mall.
  • He was an extremely controversial public figure region-wide before and after he was in office.
  • Sam Abbott and Marion Barry were both early members of major left-wing civil rights groups in the DC area.
  • Sam Abbott's early life was notable too, politically. There's a reason he was first elected to office in his 70s or 80s.
  • The Takoma Park article appears to have been bowdlerized to omit anything that might make the community seem notable, such as its history of "progressive" politics (not an NPOV issue, easily cited for the past 30 years) or its history of being the world headquarters of the SDA church (a fact briefly glossed over with "citation needed" -- really?
  • Apparently local civic boosters feel the only notable local institution are the Thunderbolts and Takoma Academy (an institution that barely exists). But the Takoma Folk Festival is not notable? In a town that was home of Takoma Records?
  • Little or no mention of prominent folk musicians who have made their home in Takoma Park.
  • I'd suspect local civic boosters are "embarrassed about the town's reputation" and more than happy to side with people who think the entire town is NN in any NPOV discussion.

Propose creation of a Sammie Abbott article. Unfortunately I'm no expert but entire chapters of books and magazine articles have been written on him, esp. in context of the North Central Freeway (Washington, D.C.) But I know folks who are familiar with his life and one of them should be bold and create it.

--berr 216.15.63.67 (talk) 16:08, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

OK, I cleaned up the article in a major way.

Edited most of the sections for clarity, NPOV, encyclopedic writing and lots of missing historical and geographic info on what makes the area notable. A few things need to be sourced, but nothing unverifiable.

Removed boosterish language from the Takoma Park Folk Festival paragraphs: if it got merged simply because it sounded boosterish, that's a pity because the Folk Festival bit still sounds vague, but this is a notable regional festival. Needs attention from music knowledgeable people on what makes it notable, as a musical festival.

However, it's the most notable event in the city vis a vis the others in terms of attendance, hence the ink. (Cite: WP:UNDUE WP:IDONTKNOWIT#I_have_never_heard_of_it)

Part of the problem is, it happens on the same day as Adams Morgan Day, every year. A lot of music folks in the DC area "hop" between the two festivals. --berr 216.15.63.67 (talk) 18:47, 4 December 2009 (UTC)


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