Keswick Creamery cheese sold at Takoma Park farmers market recalled for Listeria risk

Keswick Creamery is recalling 10 cheeses sold at farmers markets in the Mid-Atlantic region, including the Takoma Park Farmers Market, due to the risk of Listeria infection. Routine testing of Keswick's products by the Food and Drug Administration found the bacteria in some of these cheese samples. The following cheeses are affected by the recall:

• Calverley Cheese in 4 oz to 12 oz packages, price and weight labeled in red, black, or purple ink
• Vulkwin’s Folly Cheese in 4 oz to 12 oz packages, price and weight labeled in red, black, or purple ink
• Havarti Cheese in 4 oz to 12 oz packages, price and weight labeled in red, black, or purple ink
• Vermeer Cheese in 4 oz to 12 oz packages, price and weight labeled in red, black, or purple ink
• Wallaby Cheese in 4 oz to 12 oz packages, price and weight labeled in red, black, or purple ink
• Cider Washed Tomme Cheese in 4 oz to 12 oz packages, price and weight labeled in red, black, or purple ink
• Feta cheese in 4 oz to 12 oz packages, price and weight labeled in red, black, or purple ink
• Whole Milk Ricotta, 8 oz and 16 oz clear deli container, expiration dates 7/18/22, 7/25/22, 8/1/22, 8/8/22, 8/18/22
• Bovre Cheese (plain, oregano and garlic, herbes de Provence, cranberry and honey), 8oz clear deli container, expiration dates 7/25/22, 8/1/22, 8/8/22, 8/22/22
• Quark Cheese (plain and dill and onion), 8 oz and 16 oz clear deli container, expiration dates 7/7/22, 8/4/22, 8/25/22

As of the posting of this recall, no illnesses have been reported.

Filippo's Italian Deli for sale in Wheaton

Filippo's Italian Deli, a fixture in the Wheaton Triangle since it started as Marchone's in the 1950s, is for sale. The deli hasn't declined with time, as it just won the "Best Deli in Montgomery County" contest held by The MoCo Show in 2020. It remains fully open for business, but is now available for sale at an asking price of $420,000, according to the sale listing.

Silver Spring construction update: Solaire 8200 Dixon apartments (Photos)

The new titleholder for tallest building in downtown Silver Spring is being delivered by Washington Property Company at 8200 Dixon Avenue. Solaire 8200 Dixon is just about completed on the outside; some units inside are still being completed, and the curved-facade food hall on the ground level is expected to debut early next year. The finished product actually looks better than the renderings, and along with the 26-story height, the fact that it's not jammed amidst other high-rises on all sides helps the design to stand out even more.

According to the website, building tours and some apartment units are now available. However, some renters have reported online that - depending on their unit - their move-in has been delayed from late August to September or October. Those future residents are reportedly receiving hotel and storage accommodations until their unit is ready, if they had already signed a lease with an August move-in expectation. At the same time, the property's official website shows me unit B-11 - a 927 square-foot one-bedroom for $2495 a month - to be available, so it may a unit-by-unit issue.

Dollar Tree opening Wheaton location; Max's Kosher Cafe space available for lease

Big changes are ahead at the Wheaton Manor shopping center at 2311 University Boulevard W. in Wheaton. The large retail space at the corner of University and Elkin Street that once housed Toys R Us - and more recently, CVS Pharmacy - has been leased by Dollar Tree. And the adjacent space recently vacated by the beloved Max's Kosher Cafe will become available for lease on September 1, 2022, according to real estate brokerage firm KLNB. That Dollar Tree should really boost foot traffic for a restaurant tenant that moves into the Max's space.

Leasing map images courtesy KLNB

Marc Elrich victory confirmed as Montgomery County Executive election results are certified

The Montgomery County Board of Elections certified the results of the July 19, 2022 gubernatorial primary election yesterday. A full recount in the Democratic Montgomery County Executive primary race confirmed the victory of incumbent Marc Elrich over second-place finisher David Blair. Final results showed Elrich with 55,504 votes, and Blair with 55,472 votes, a difference of only 32 votes.

Elrich will face Republican Reardon Sullivan in the November general election. While the lengthy counting and recount provided a final result more than a month after the primary, the small change in votes produced by the recount does help to boost confidence in the integrity of the vote-counting process in Montgomery County.

Armed carjacking at Silver Spring apartment complex

Montgomery County police responded to a report of an armed carjacking just outside of downtown Silver Spring yesterday morning. It was reported in a residential parking lot in the 8500 block of 16th Street at 4:48 AM. The Summit Hills apartments are located on that block.

Office work, transit use aren't recovering in Montgomery County, new data show

New Google Mobility data for Montgomery County show that transit use has only picked up by 1% since spring 2022, and that fewer workers are toiling in on-site offices than were this past spring. The data use a five-week period just before the pandemic hit the United States, January 3 - February 6, 2020, as the baseline. In reports I've posted over the last two years, numbers for office and transit use have been poor, as expected. But we've also seen some surprising shifts in behavior, which continue in the latest period examined here, from June 23 - August 4, 2022.

For starters, with the overwhelming message from governments and the media being to drop precautions and go back to business as usual, it's intriguing that there's been no significant increase in transit use in Montgomery County since President Joe Biden's State of the Union address. And would you have expected that the number of residents going into an office in Montgomery would actually decline by 12 percentage points since then, as well? Time spent in offices of employment in spring 2022 was 30% less than the pre-pandemic period; this summer it was 42% less than early 2020. The return of vacation travel may have been a factor - but not entirely, as summer 2021 office use was only 2 percentage points higher at 44% below the pre-pandemic period.

Use of public parks in Montgomery County has bounced back since spring. This summer, residents were 19% more likely to be in a park than they were during the pre-pandemic period of 2020. Shopping in stores and supermarkets has picked up since spring, too. The percentage of people going into retail stores compared to this past spring has doubled, but still remains 16% below pre-pandemic shopping levels. Residents' patronage of grocery stores is up 5% from spring 2022, but is 1% less than the pre-pandemic period. 

Montgomery County residents this summer are spending 10% more time at home than they did in the January-February 2020 period, the new data show. The data collected by Google is limited to those users who have opted in to allowing the tech giant to track their phone's location. It measures both the frequency of visits, and the amount of time those users stay in the places categorized in the results, such as grocery stores, transit stations and parks.