Population: 133,650 Silver Spring: 31,820 Takoma Park: 32,930 Kemp Mill / Four Corners: 35,290 Colesville / White Oak: 33,610 Office Market: 9 msf First Settled: 1842 Incorporated: Never Total Land Area: 25.9 sq miles Distance From DC: 7.2 miles Government: County

Anchoring the Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road corridors, Silver Spring is the largest genuinely urban place in suburban Maryland. Originally a streetcar suburb the area has, like Bethesda, transformed in to something of an “Uptown” district and seems equally or more connected to Washington than other suburbs.

An examination of Silver Spring history draws many comparisons to inner cities and few to suburbs. At one time it was the largest office market in the region after downtown DC and the biggest shopping district between Washington and New York - bigger even than downtown Baltimore or Philadelphia (According to hearsay. BeyondDC has never actually seen any statistics to back that up). It was, simply, the jewel of “suburban” Maryland. Unfortunately when Wheaton Plaza, only a few miles away, ushered in the era of malls to the Washington area, Silver Spring was the first casualty. For decades downtown declined, suffering from many of the problems typically associated with inner cities. Again corresponding more to the inner city than the suburb, Silver Spring is reaping huge benefits from the Back to the City movement. In the name of Smart Growth the state of Maryland has invested tremendous effort and capital in revitalizing the area. The current government sponsored redevelopment effort is worth $450 million and the number and quality of private interests has increased dramatically. Although commercial redevelopment paints a rosy picture, perhaps there’s no better proof of renaissance in Silver Spring than the US Census. In 1990 downtown had a population density of roughly 27,000 people per square mile. By 2000 that same tract increased to almost 45,000 - significantly higher than all but a tiny handful of major downtowns across the country.