By Gil Jacobson
Photo Courtesy of Zac Trupp
Roger Berliner, Montgomery County Council President, District 1: “I lived in Potomac for over 22 years. I lived right next to the C&O Canal. I love the canal. I love the river. I love the neighborhood. I love the schools. Potomac is a lovely place to live.”
Photo Courtesy of Taegan Myers
Taegan Myers, Winston Churchill High School Class of 2017: “I like the area. I think it’s pretty. I like the people in Potomac. I like that it’s close to D.C., and it’s close to Bethesda and Rockville. So there are a lot of places to go and a lot of places to shop and there’s a lot of good food around.”
Photo Courtesy of Tina Rawhouser
Potomac Library Branch Manager Tina Rawhouser: “Potomac is a small community with a big heart. That’s what I see in the library — people who have a sense of community in the area and they’re very supportive of the library, which we appreciate. It’s a nice place to be. I didn’t know anything about Potomac myself until I started here as the branch manager last year. And it’s been lovely getting to know the area and the people in the community. I have found since I've been here that when I say I work in Potomac, people think it's so far away from anything else in Montgomery County. It's really not. We're just a few minutes from Rockville, and Rockville is the heart of the County so getting to Potomac is not as terrible or as far as people perceive it to be. So I think it's probably more convenient than people realize it is. But hopefully they'll take time to find their way out here.”
Jill Phillips, Squeals on Wheels Administrative Vice President, Potomac Community Village Board Member, Potomac Chamber of Commerce Board Member, West Montgomery County Citizens Association: “I think this area is amazing. I think it’s amazing to live in this whole Montgomery County area. Potomac is located very close to some of the most beautiful parts of Montgomery County. So we’re close to Great Falls and the C&O Canal and the Agricultural Reserve. The schools are strong, the neighborhoods are lovely, it’s a safe place to live and there are so many things to do. It’s so close to Washington D.C. — you can get to D.C. in 20 minutes from here. It’s a lovely place with a lot of lovely, lovely neighbors. Because the homes are spread out a little bit, you have to intentionally get to know your neighbors. And that is part of the reason I work with Potomac Community Village: to help people get to know their neighbors and to connect with them. And I think Potomac is an amazing place to live and we feel very fortunate.”
Photo Courtesy of Grant Phillips.
Squeals on Wheels’ Grant Phillips: “I think it’s a great area. I love its old horse culture that you can see in this area. You can see it in The Surrey, which used to be in the Village, but you still see some old horse signs here and there. People still have some land with some animals on River Road. So you definitely see the old charm that it has, but it also is a place where there are still things to do and a good place to raise kids.” Squeals on Wheels’ Kate Brownstein: “I actually grew up in Potomac as well. I grew up here when I was younger, and then I went away to school, and Grant [Phillips] and I live in D.C. but obviously we work in Potomac. I think it’s a really nice place to live because I think there are a lot of different kinds of opportunities here. My favorite thing would be Great Falls. But I think just going from Great Falls to right before Poolesville to right before Rockville, you can get a lot of different experiences within one small town. Even though it’s big, it feels like a very small town with a lot of things to do.”
Joan Kahn, Vice President of Membership for Potomac Community Village: “Potomac is a great community and I’ve been really overwhelmed by the support that we’ve gotten for the Village. I honestly would not have expected it in a community like Potomac where I didn’t think as many people were as community-oriented. And especially for these kinds of issues of helping each other out. And we are obviously only seeing one slice of Potomac, of people who really do enjoy helping others. But we’ve got upwards of 200 members … and then we get anywhere from 35-70 people at a monthly meeting and these are people who hear about us and they’re interested, and I think we do offer something that is appealing. Everybody wants to be able to stay independent. The challenge is how long can they do that? And so it’s not for everybody.”
Photo by Gil Jacobson
Metro Microgreens Founder and Chief Farmer Mark Ross is pictured here at Cabin John Shopping Center Farmers Market on Aug. 10.: “It’s a great place to grow up, to live [and] a nice place to raise children. It’s a very well-to-do community. Very few complaints. I would say it’s close to ideal. People are very friendly and they have disposable income so it’s good for small businesses.”