My friend Mike Grass, on the DC Edge City of Bethesda, MD:

“… It was as if I were back in Michigan, driving after midnight, with nowhere to go. The slow depressingly comfortable lyrics guided me through the darkened forested exurbs. Using the Hillandale Road shortcut, I emerged at the south end of downtown Bethesda. The illuminated tops of its neo-art deco mid-1990s office towers shone through the barren tree branches. …

A friend and I once came up with a description of Bethesda that stuck in my head for awhile but it has since escaped me. It went something like this: a failed suburban experiment in urban life, trapped in between too many non-descript office and condo towers and speckled with so many mediocre restaurants and chain stores that all it really does successfully is create a watered-down sense of urban space. … “