Little red “U”s have invaded Montgomery County. These amusing characters are plastered all over signs and buses; people show not only that we’ve forgotten how to spell, but that Downtown Silver Spring has sprung.

Many of you may be new to Silver Spring since it has “sprung” only recently. However, I lived in Downtown Silver Spring until I was ten. The minute I skipped town, everything changed – now when I go back, it’s bittersweet.

As much as I’ve come to love the business district’s latest incarnation, I can’t help but long for the days when Silver Spring was but a well-kept secret.

I was in fourth grade when I left my neighborhood school, Woodlin Elementary, to attend the magnet program at Lucy V. Barnsley Elementary School in Rockville. On the first day, my teacher asked me where I lived.

“Downtown Silver Spring,” I told her proudly.

My teacher looked at me and asked if I meant Downtown D.C. She didn’t know about Silver Spring; she had probably heard the stories about how dangerous it was downtown and how what was once one of the largest business districts on the East Coast was nothing but a shell of its former self.

At this time, Silver Spring was slowly changing into the bustling neighborhood we are getting to know today. For the past two decades, people in the community have been working to restore it to its former glory, and they were met with a variety of proposals for what to do with Downtown.

One involved renovating the old Hecht’s department store into a shopping mall which is now known as City Place. Another would level most of the business district to build a shopping mall the size of the Mall of America, which was fortunately killed when the developer could not pay for it.

Finally, in 1998, local residents and County officials formulated a plan to resuscitate Downtown. The face of Silver Spring would no longer be a tourist trap but a neighborhood of new homes, offices, and shopping and entertainment designed for the good of the community, not simply for economic gain.

The new Downtown Silver Spring is like nothing I would have ever imagined in a million years. It’s certainly a new experience to see the sidewalks jammed with people and children playing in the fountain in the recently christened Silver Plaza. I’ve heard a lot of people comment that the new complex is “like a mall.”

After all, isn’t it? It’s meticulously clean, music is playing from built-in speakers, and they’re even running ads for it on television! The question is will people stay here once the “new” Downtown isn’t so “new” anymore?

Perhaps the fanfare surrounding the revitalization is premature. After all, only some of Silver Spring has “sprung” yet. There are still empty lots, abandoned buildings. And those who already live downtown are faced with rising property values that threaten to take away their homes and jobs. The restoration of Silver Spring, if too strong, could suck the character out of the city.

Once again, the entire Silver Spring community – not just the people Downtown, but the 230,000 people whose addresses read “Silver Spring” – have something to be proud of. My hope is that we can ensure that Silver Spring remains an excellent place to live, work and play.