MARYLAND'S INTERNATIONAL CORRIDOR FURTHER EXPLORATIONS

William John Hann with The 1997 Langley Park Project Research Team

Introduction

One Sunday afternoon in May, an Indian woman with New Jersey license plates parked her car near the Sam and Raj general merchandise store. Asked why she had come to Maryland's International Corridor to shop, she said that her temple, grocery, other stores, and restaurants are all located in the area. She added that to come to such a concentration of places for Indian people, she would have driven further if necessary.

Two Plus International Miles

There are wonderful places to eat, shop, and recreate along the two-plus miles of Maryland's International Corridor! Of the approximately 450 businesses in the corridor, fully one-third are international and others include some international items.

Here is a small sample of the corridor's riches: The Long Branch corner of Flower Avenue and Piney Branch Road includes such businesses as Latino Fiesta, a party shop, and Africana Restaurant, featuring West African food; the northern strip of Takoma Park includes Udupi Palace, a northern Indian restaurant, and the groceries of the multinational Red Apple Market; and the commercial edge of Langley Park offers such international businesses as Pho 75, a Vietnamese pho restaurant, and Americana Grocery, a Latino food market.

Located seven miles northwest of the White House and less than one mile west of the University of Maryland's College Park campus, Maryland's International Corridor is one of the Mid-Atlantic Region's most culturally diverse business and residential areas. The corridor's diversity emerged in the early 1980s, and it has continued to intensify throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

International residents of the corridor come from more than fifty countries. Most of them plan to be permanent Americans, although some envision a short-term stay. The most recent Bureau of the Census data indicate that immigrants from El Salvador constitute the corridor's largest newcomer group. In addition, there are large contingents from Guatemala, Haiti, Vietnam, and many other countries.

International businesses are also well-represented in the International Corridor. There are more than forty Latino grocery stores, music/record stores, restaurants, and other establishments. There is also a score, each, of Indian and Vietnamese businesses, and other businesses are operated by and/or for immigrants and visitors from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

The International Corridor is also governmentally diverse. It spans the border between Montgomery County and Prince George's County, and it includes the northern section of the City of Takoma Park. The core vehicular artery of the corridor is University Boulevard from the power lines east of Riggs Road (near 20th Avenue) to the end of the commercial strip just west of Piney Branch Road. Also included are short sections of Riggs Road, New Hampshire Avenue, Holton Lane, Piney Branch Road, and Flower Avenue.

The location of the International Corridor is relatively advantageous. It is in an area with a heavy concentration of immigrant residents, and therefore close to many prospective customers and employees. It is also within easy driving distance of such more distant areas as the District of Columbia, Maryland's Baltimore and Germantown, and Virginia's northern suburbs. There are, of course, centers of commercial competition. These include Bethesda, which is up-scale, Silver Spring, which over the next few years will become a center for middle-class non-immigrant shopping and recreation (and it has excellent public transportation), and Wheaton, which includes a lesser number of international establishments and has apparently not become a major magnet for regional residents.

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Businesses in the International Corridor have only been marginally successful over the past two decades. Among the explanations for the marginal situation are the following: the relatively low income of the average local resident, the belief of many outsiders that the corridor has a high rate of crime, the unattractive look of some segments of the corridor, a transportation system that poorly supports night and weekend visits to the corridor, and the lack of available positive information about the increasing number of international businesses.

There is insufficient resident spending power close to the corridor to make a significant difference in business success. While there are pockets of middle class affluence, residents are more typically working class. (There are also some underclass residential pockets.) Therefore, business enhancement depends upon drawing to the corridor customers who live and/or work in more distant areas. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these more-distant customers either are not familiar with the International Corridor or have negative images of it.

A comment on the statistical records reveal two comparisons: an unflattering one across areas but a hopeful one over time. Montgomery County, Takoma Park, and Prince George's County have established police substations in the corridor (at this writing, the substations are only staffed a fraction of the day, thus residents cannot count on help), and in general an extra anti-crime effort has been made. There appear to have been positive results during 1996 and 1997, judging from official reports as well as residents' comments. However, the corridor's reputation in the metropolitan area at large has not reflected the improvements. Clearly, this must be addressed in promotional efforts.

The core sections of this report are of two types. The first examines four current situations: Indian and Pakistani businesses, Vietnamese and Chinese businesses, Latino businesses, and the Latino service organization called CASA de Maryland. The second type presents two strategies for improving the business and employment situation in the International Corridor. The strategies are to improve the streetscape and the transportation. The concluding chapter focuses on the creation of a community development corporation. It is to that possibility that we now turn.

Over the past three decades, several thousand community development corporations (CDCs) have been created within the United States. Significant in the development of these organizations was the support of the Ford Foundation and the federal government's Community Action Agency. Many of them have built a record of substantial accomplishment. They engage in a wide variety of activities, especially on the supply side, designed to enhance the economic as well as social and political vitality of their communities.

A CDC has been defined as "A nonprofit, community-based organization that, as part or all of its program, is engaged in housing development, commercial facilities development, or business enterprise development". A critical aspect of this definition is that the organization is community-based, i.e., "an organization that is nonprofit, that is connected to, and somehow considered accountable to, the community (defined in a geographic, ethnic, or other sense) ..."

As this report goes to press, local government officials and corridor residents, led by Prince George's County Councilman Stephen Del Giudice, have joined to create what is legally termed "Maryland's International Corridor Community Development Corporation." For many months, there has been a series of community and other meetings. Legal documents have been filed, and the CDC should be in full operation by the end of calendar year 1997. Thus the concept of our University work is becoming a reality.

The members of this research team are optimistic about positive change in the International Corridor. With Langley Park, northern Takoma Park, Long Branch, and their contiguous areas joined together in an effort to improve the international and other businesses in the area as well as to enhance the quality of life of residents and employees, the future should indeed be bright. Our purpose in issuing this report is to further document the riches of the corridor and to encourage activists and others at the city, county, and state levels to help the potential become a reality.