Even if you are not a parent you can still still help the local schoolchildren with your grocery store purchases - without spending any extra money yourself.
Schoolpop - if you buy purchases from online merchants using schoolpop as a gateway, the school gets a significant portion of the profits. Major online stores are included - Discovery Store, LL Bean, etc. etc. Please see the entry points for the individual local schools below.
Boxtops offers another online shopping gateway, and the percentage that goes to your school is quite explicit. Some of these can be significant, for example 5% at Target. The program is limited to K-8 schools. escrip also has an online gateway. If you registered your Safeway card you are already registered there.
Some actual box tops are also worth 10 cents each to neighborhood schools that participate in that program. These are mostly from cereal and baking items (pdf list).
Office Depot has its own 5% program, but you must inform the cashier at every check-out and it works only if you are purchasing certain school supplies.
Safeway (escrip) ID numbers for local schools (some just over the border from Takoma Park)
6658217 John Nevins Andrews School 117 Elm Ave Takoma Park MD 20912
6552798 Piney Branch Elementary School 7510 Maple Ave Takoma Park MD 20912
6559057 Rolling Terrace Elementary School 705 Bayfield St Takoma Park MD 20912
6630575 Sligo Adventist School 8300 Carroll Ave Takoma Park MD 20912
6576175 Takoma Academy 8120 Carroll Avenue Takoma Park MD 20912
6576179 Takoma Park Cooperative Nursery School 8204 Flower Avenue Takoma Park MD 20912
6576177 Takoma Park Elementary School 7511 Holly Avenue Takoma Park MD 20912
6583713 Washington-Mclaughlin School 6500 Poplar Ave Takoma Park MD 20912
6539098 Montgomery Blair High School 51 University Blvd East Silver Spring MD 20901
6599069 Takoma Park Middle School
Schoolpop gateways:
John Nevis Andrews Elementary School | Takoma Park | 0152094 |
Montgomery Blair High School | Silver Spring | 0119993 |
Our Lady Of Sorrows School | Takoma Park | 0152105 |
Piney Branch Elementary School | Takoma Park | 0120069 |
Rolling Terrace Elementary School | Silver Spring | 0120073 |
Rolling Terrace Elementary School | Silver Spring | 0628408 |
Sligo Adventist School | Silver Spring | 0152106 |
Takoma Academy | Silver Spring | 0152107 |
Takoma Park Child Development Center | Takoma Park | 0624275 |
Takoma Park Cooperative Nursery School | Takoma Park | 0636499 |
Takoma Park Elementary School | Takoma Park | 0120066 |
TPES PTA | Takoma Park | 0623551 |
Takoma Park Nursery School | Takoma Park | 0120071 |
Takoma Park Middle School | Takoma Park | 0119859 |
And if you are a parent with a child in the TP schools, public or private, you can help us by carrying back school library books that have been returned here by mistake.
What ever became of the Montgomery Journal? It disappeared and was subsumed, with the other Journals, into the Washington Examiner which recently published a short article on slavery in Montgomery County. The county had been trying to publicize the problem, asking people to be aware, to call 911 or 1.800.599.9291 if they have any suspicions.
See also:
For more information on slavery and its many forms we have this recent 2 volume reference work:
R 306.362 HISTORI The Historical encyclopedia of world slavery
The IT lab people at Montgomery College - Takoma Park have posted a list of restaurants within walking distance of the campus or accessible by the free downtown Silver Spring van. As the college is on the very edge of the city, most of the listed eateries are in downtown Silver Spring. The only Takoma Park ones included are those on Carroll and Laurel, near the clock. Don't forget that we also have many excellent small restaurants along both University and New Hampshire Avenues
Early last week CNN had a story about a reference book - the new edition of City Crime Rankings. It is rare that a reference book gets headlines.
We don't buy City Crime Rankings because it is essentially a recompilation of the data from the Uniform Crime Reports which we do have. It does the 6th grade math for you. Here is how you can do it for yourself. To obtain a rate, divide the number for the crime of your choice by the population figure. Then multiply by an appropriate number to get the "rate per xx inhabitants" you want.
Example: 2004 Takoma Park Auto Theft (154/17875) x 1000 to get a rate of 8.615 per 1000 inhabitants. What does this mean? Look at the rates in other cities or at other times (see below). Of course this is easier to do using copy and paste from the online edition. But we do have the paper copy if you prefer it.
For crime statistics see:
R 364.1 UNITED Uniform crime reports for the United States. (Crime in the United States)
It sits next to
R 364.1 SOURCEB Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics.
Please note: The tallies will be close to those published by individual cities but not exactly the same, as some crimes are subsequently reclassified, the FBI no doubt makes an occasional typo, etc.
(Edited March 26 2006 to note: the TP Police Department is again publishing the local crime tallies on the web)
Here are some examples of tables constructed using that method (Just to encourage you. No guarantees as we are librarians not statisticians. Go look up the data and make your own constructs.)
Comparing the DOJ published Uniform Crime Reports for Takoma Park, Greenbelt and Westminster and dividing by the population estimates.
2004 crimes/1000 persons
Takoma Park: 43.972
Greenbelt: 67.869
Westminster: 44.196
All three have local police departments
Census Bureau US 2000 numbers (not the same as the FBI estimates)
Takoma Park: 17,299 | per capita income $26,437 | individuals below poverty level 10.3%
Greenbelt: 21,456 | per capita income $25,236 | individuals below poverty level 10.2%
Westminster: 16,731 | per capita income $20,320 | individuals below poverty level 9.6%
An aside: Have you looked at the SocioEcon mapper. We have no print equivalent.
Here are our pictures (approach them with scepticism - please make your own) followed by the source data from which we constructed them.
2000 | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop | 19471 | per 1000 | 22689 | per 1000 | 16189 | per 1000 |
homicide | 1 | 0.051 | 3 | 0.132 | 1 | 0.062 |
rape | 5 | 0.257 | 10 | 0.441 | 1 | 0.062 |
robbery | 97 | 4.982 | 83 | 3.658 | 21 | 1.297 |
assault | 27 | 1.387 | 72 | 3.173 | 58 | 3.583 |
violent | 130 | 6.677 | 168 | 7.404 | 81 | 5.003 |
burglary | 137 | 7.036 | 152 | 6.699 | 133 | 8.215 |
larceny | 494 | 25.371 | 864 | 38.080 | 731 | 45.154 |
auto theft | 166 | 8.525 | 278 | 12.253 | 42 | 2.594 |
arson | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 9 | 0.556 |
property | 797 | 40.933 | 1294 | 38.08 | 915 | 56.520 |
total | 927 | 47.609 | 1462 | 64.437 | 987 | 60.967 |
2001 | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop | 17556 | per 1000 | 21775 | per 1000 | 16980 | per 1000 |
homicide | 1 | 0.057 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
rape | 4 | 0.228 | 9 | 0.413 | 2 | 0.118 |
robbery | 70 | 3.987 | 76 | 3.490 | 16 | 0.942 |
assault | 28 | 1.595 | 74 | 3.398 | 42 | 2.473 |
violent | 103 | 5.867 | 159 | 7.302 | 60 | 3.534 |
burglary | 150 | 8.544 | 178 | 8.175 | 122 | 7.185 |
larceny | 562 | 32.012 | 944 | 43.352 | 598 | 35.218 |
auto theft | 198 | 11.278 | 422 | 19.380 | 29 | 1.708 |
arson | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 14 | 0.824 |
property | 910 | 51.834 | 1544 | 70.907 | 763 | 44.935 |
total | 1013 | 57.701 | 1703 | 78.209 | 809 | 47.644 |
2002 | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop | 17827 | per 1000 | 22111 | per 1000 | 17242 | per 1000 |
homicide | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 0.045 | 1 | 0.058 |
rape | 6 | 0.337 | 14 | 0.633 | 3 | 0.174 |
robbery | 2 | 5.161 | 106 | 4.794 | 19 | 1.102 |
assault | 26 | 1.458 | 71 | 3.211 | 91 | 5.278 |
violent | 124 | 6.956 | 192 | 8.683 | 114 | 6.612 |
burglary | 107 | 6.002 | 160 | 0.045 | 119 | 6.902 |
larceny | 639 | 35.845 | 957 | 43.282 | 620 | 35.959 |
auto theft | 229 | 12.846 | 418 | 18.905 | 30 | 1.740 |
arson | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 6 | 0.348 |
property | 975 | 54.692 | 1535 | 69.422 | 775 | 44.948 |
total | 1099 | 61.648 | 1727 | 78.106 | 883 | 51.212 |
2003 | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop | 17852 | per 1000 | 22211 | per 1000 | 17287 | per 1000 |
homicide | 2 | 0.112 | 3 | 0.135 | 1 | 0.058 |
rape | 9 | 0.504 | 11 | 0.495 | 4 | 0.231 |
robbery | 67 | 3.753 | 79 | 3.557 | 17 | 0.983 |
assault | 28 | 1.568 | 46 | 2.071 | 109 | 6.305 |
violent | 106 | 5.938 | 139 | 6.258 | 131 | 7.578 |
burglary | 156 | 8.739 | 142 | 6.393 | 107 | 6.190 |
larceny | 447 | 25.039 | 952 | 42.862 | 615 | 35.576 |
auto theft | 176 | 9.859 | 399 | 17.964 | 41 | 2.372 |
arson | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 12 | 0.694 |
property | 779 | 43.637 | 1493 | 67.219 | 763 | 44.137 |
total | 885 | 49.574 | 1632 | 73.477 | 894 | 51.715 |
2004 | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop | 17875 | per 1000 | 22293 | per 1000 | 17558 | per 1000 |
homicide | 0 | 0.000 | 3 | 0.135 | 0 | 0.000 |
rape | 2 | 0.112 | 9 | 0.404 | 0 | 0.000 |
robbery | 58 | 3.245 | 105 | 4.710 | 12 | 0.683 |
assault | 29 | 1.622 | 54 | 2.422 | 66 | 3.759 |
violent | 89 | 4.979 | 171 | 7.671 | 78 | 4.442 |
burglary | 133 | 7.441 | 151 | 6.773 | 75 | 4.272 |
larceny | 410 | 22.937 | 799 | 35.841 | 592 | 33.717 |
auto theft | 154 | 8.615 | 392 | 17.584 | 31 | 1.766 |
arson | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 9 | 0.513 |
property | 697 | 38.993 | 1342 | 60.198 | 698 | 39.754 |
total | 786 | 43.972 | 1513 | 67.869 | 776 | 44.196 |
5 yrs | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop avg | 18.12 | 22.22 | 17.05 | |||
homicide | 4 | 0.04 | 10 | 0.09 | 3 | 0.04 |
rape | 26 | 0.29 | 53 | 0.48 | 10 | 0.12 |
robbery | 384 | 4.24 | 449 | 4.04 | 85 | 1.00 |
assault | 138 | 1.52 | 317 | 2.85 | 366 | 4.29 |
violent | 552 | 6.09 | 829 | 7.46 | 464 | 5.44 |
burglary | 683 | 7.54 | 783 | 7.05 | 556 | 6.52 |
larceny | 2552 | 28.17 | 4516 | 40.65 | 3156 | 37.02 |
auto theft | 923 | 10.19 | 1909 | 17.18 | 173 | 2.03 |
arson | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 50 | 0.59 |
property | 4158 | 45.89 | 7208 | 64.88 | 3914 | 45.91 |
total | 4710 | 51.99 | 8037 | 72.34 | 4349 | 51.01 |
Note: The population estimate for Takoma Park for 2000 seems oddly inflated, but that is the number used by the FBI.
The library will be closed November 24th and 25th.
Open again at 10 AM on Saturday, November 25th.
And we will be open regular hours today, Wednesday the 23rd. Until 9 PM.
Nov. 17th. But whenever you are ready (or thinking about getting ready) here are some very good support sites with lots of useful advice and comfort:
Tonight, Wednesday November 16th, 7:30 PM. At the library. Radio Rules. Local radio producers share their work and talk about where you can listen to audio and how you can make your own. (This program is part of the 2005 Takoma Park Film Festival.)
The library is closed today.
Statistics
Veterans History Project
Postcards
A letter from the Great War
and a poem
Here dead lie we because we did not choose
To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
But young men think it is, and we were young.
A. E. Housman 1859-1936
... can be found here.
Takoma Voice ward by ward breakdown.
A pdf version of the full results
This is the Gazette story.
Public forum on alternative land-use and transportation scenarios
Wednesday, November 16th 2005, 7:30-9 PM
Piney Branch Elementary School, 7510 Maple Avenue
(two doors down from the library)
Hosted by the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board's Citizen Advisory Committee.
For more information call John Swanson at 202.962.3295
What if people lived closer to their jobs? to transit?
What if new roads were built?
PowerPoint presentation of the scenarios
Linux/Mac/Windows open source users: download the file, open it in Impress (part of the openoffice.org suite) and hit F9 to start the slide show.
State, County and City representatives will be present.