A Biz Center Grant, a Rooftop Dance and Pike Plans

Good Thursday, Rockville.

The sun's out. It's a beautiful spring day. The Caps beat the Rangers in OT last night. All is right (if not a little sleepy) in the world.

Let's keep "picking up good vibrations" with this "banned from The Mall" edition of "The Rundown":

• The Rockville Women's Business Center picked up some good vibrations of its own on Tuesday, in the form a $45,000 check from Citi Foundation. The grant will help the center, , to help foster successful, growing, women-owned businesses. “This substantial contribution means that more than 1,000 entrepreneurs will benefit from our services, creating jobs and empowering women in our community,” Lori Gillen, managing director of the center, said in a news release. Citi provided the seed funding in 2009 to study the need for a women's business center in Montgomery County. “We continue to support the work of the Rockville Women’s Business Center because we believe entrepreneurship must be fostered at all levels to sustain a healthy, vibrant and diverse business community,” Sheldon Caplis, regional director for Citi community development for the South Atlantic region, said in the release. The center's upcoming programs include "Writing Your Business Plan" from 4-7 p.m. on April 28 and "The Marketing Hourglass" from 9 a.m. to noon on May 3. For more information on the center's resources and upcoming schedule visit www.rockvillewbc.org, or contact Lori Gillen at lori@rockvillewbc.org or 301-315-8096.
• The return of warmer weather means reopening The Rooftop. with free admission and happy hour specials from 5-7 p.m. and $5 cover after 7 p.m. with music by "The Party Boy" DJ Chris Styles and an opening set by DJ Ramzy. You must be 21 to enter and must be wearing "fashionable attire." No athletic wear. (The guy in the ballcap in the upper lefthand corner of this page probably wouldn't make it past the bouncers.)
• As the weather gets warmer I start counting the days until I can crack some crabs. (Hey, I'm a Maryland boy, whadda ya expect?) The health of the the bay is important to ensuring we can continue to do that. (One of my favorite ad campaigns in recent years was for a Chesapeake Bay Program called the Chesapeake Club and its slogan "Save the crabs, then eat 'em.") So it was a bit of a mixed bushel on Tuesday when Gov. Martin O'Malley announced that the bay's blue crab population is at its second highest level since 1997 and well above the target for the third year in a row—despite a cold winter that scientists blame for killing as much as 31 percent of the adult male crab population. O'Malley said the results show that 2008 restrictions by Maryland and Virginia that sought to reduce the female crab harvest by 34 percent are working. “Today we continue to realize the benefits of the very tough decisions we made three years ago—decisions that are bringing us closer to our ultimate goal: a self-sustaining fishery that will support our industry and recreational fisheries over the long term,” O’Malley said in a news release.
• The Rockville Planning Commission will hold the first of its five work sessions on the Rockville Pike draft plan on Wednesday with a presentation on the plan's goals, vision and principles by Gianni Longo, co-founder and principal with ACP Visioning and Planning, which wrote the draft plan. The work session will be televised live on Rockville 11. The public record is open until May 27. For more information on the plan and how to submit testimony go to www.rockvillemd.gov/rockvillespike/.
• East Middle Lane will stay. On Wednesday, the Planning Commission voted 4-2 to deny a request to change the name of East Middle Lane to Choice Hotels Lane.
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