Closing out 2018 and looking ahead to 2019

By Mike Rauck

New Year’s Eve is the day that I usually publish the annual “Bowie Living Most Popular Facebook Posts of the Year” article.  The shooting at the Capital Gazette office in Annapolis and the death of my friend John McNamara defined 2018 more than anything, and the term “popular posts” isn’t appropriate this year.  Along with many tributes to John and his colleagues, the Bowie City Council dedicated a plaque in John's memory in the council chambers at City Hall in October.

In city politics, Dufour Woolfley was elected in a special election to fill the District 2 seat on the Bowie City Council that was left vacant after Councilmember Diane Polangin was recalled in late 2017.  Councilmember Courtney Glass resigned her District 3 seat in November.  The council will be appointing someone to temporarily fill the District 3 seat, and a regular election for all council seats will take place next November.

At the county level, Angela Alsobrooks became the first woman to be elected county executive in Prince George's County, and Todd Turner, Bowie's representative on the county council, was reelected and became the chair of the council.

Maryland Senator Doug Peters retained his seat, as did Maryland House of Delegates members Geraldine Valentino-Smith and Marvin Holmes.  Ron Watson was elected to one of the 23B delegate seats formerly occupied by Joe Vallario.

Development continues to be a hot topic in the city.  Plans for the Aspen luxury apartments at Melford and a small retail space were approved, and plans for the Karrington (South Lake) development continue to move forward.  A proposed Maglev line that would cut through the Old Bowie section of the city were removed in favor of alternate routes, and Walmart canceled plans to build a Supercenter on Route 301 across from Collington Plaza.  Plans for the proposed Pecan Ridge development were discussed but not finalized, and the 80 houses will never be built if neighbors have their say.

Look for progress to be made on the new ice arena in 2019 as well as discussions about additional indoor basketball courts in the city.

The county presented proposed changes to Race Track Road with area residents, and options for the future of Governors Bridge were presented at an open meeting in October.

A reconstructed Tulip Grove Elementary School opened in September, although area schools continue to have heating, cooling, and other maintenance issues.  Voters approved a state-wide referendum in November that will force state casino revenue to be funneled to schools, and the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education (the Kirwan Commission) started to put a price tag on a proposal to make Maryland schools more competitive.

The following were opened or completed in 2018.

• Hardy’s BBQ
• Dunkin’ Donuts / Baskin Robbins opens in Hilltop Plaza
• Courtyard Marriott at Melford
• Timothy Dean Restaurant
• Rock & Toss Crab House
• Ruby’s Southern Kitchen
• Lidl
• Sky Zone in Pointer Ridge Plaza
• Zip’s Dry Cleaning at Freestate Shopping Center
• Salvera Modern Maryland Cannabis Dispensary
• Burlington Coat Factory
• Bowie Heritage Trail – Phase 1

The following closed or are in the process of closing.

• Ruby Tuesday’s
• Diplomat Cleaners
• Little Caesars
• Sears
• Bowie Town Center Food Court

Look for the following changes in 2019 and beyond.

• An expanded Aldi in Hilltop Plaza
• A new Mezeh Mediterranean Grill in the Bowie Town Center
• A "family-friendly entertainment destination" in the former Bowie Town Center Food Court
• Bowie Heritage Trail - future phases (pending funding)

Diplomat Cleaners to shutter after more than 48 years in Bowie

Danny and Tony Policelli

by Mike Rauck

The door swung open on a rainy Monday morning, and Danny Policelli yelled from behind the counter, “Good morning, Ms. Johnson!”  The Policelli family has been greeting their regular customers by name at Diplomat Cleaners for nearly five decades.

Another customer came in shaking his head in disbelief. “I’m bummed.  I’m bummed,” he said.  He had just learned that the store will be closing after reading a notice taped to the door.  It was the topic of conversation that morning.

Fred and Erika Policelli opened Diplomat Cleaners in the Free State Mall in 1970.  Along with Giant and Good Year, Diplomat Cleaners is one of three original tenants to still be in business at the shopping center.

The store was originally located close to where Ross is located today, but the store was moved to the current location about 25 years ago.

Fred and Erika’s sons began working full time at the cleaners in the 1980s.  Tony and Danny Policelli still run the business today.

“Our whole family was in the dry-cleaning business at one time,” explained Tony.  “My grandmother had a shop in D.C.  My uncle had a shop in Georgetown, and my aunt had a shop in Virginia.”

The brothers take pride in the fact that they have several customers who have been patronizing their store for more than thirty years, and they have loyal customers whose parents were also customers. “There’s one lady who’s been coming here since 1975,” remarked Tony.  “This is the only cleaners she ever come to.”

“We’re like bartenders,” Tony continued.  “We know ninety percent of our customers by name.  We know what they do for a living.  We know their kids, and we know their stories.”

The dry-cleaning industry has faced a growing number of challenges over the last two decades.  Smoking bans in bars and restaurant, telecommuting, and casual office dress codes have reduced the need for dry-cleaning services.  The use of wrinkle-free and other low-maintenance fabrics have made it easier to care for garments at home.

Dry-cleaning chains have become more popular in the last twenty years.  The chains have lower expenses than the family owned businesses because they can buy supplies in bulk, and the chains can offer their services at lower prices because of their ability to process higher volumes in their larger stores.

The Prince George’s County Council passed a bill in 2002 that was intended to prevent large dry-cleaning businesses from driving out the smaller mom-and-pop shops.  The bill was proposed after Dry Clean Depot planned a new store for the Bowie Market Place - not far from where So’s Cleaners had been operating for years.  The bill was not passed in time to save So’s, but it did restrict the size of new dry-cleaners in some of the smaller shopping centers from being larger than 3,000 square feet.  That restriction kept larger dry-cleaners from opening in the Free State Shopping Center for a decade.

In 2012, the Prince George’s County Council amended the 2002 bill to change the size limit to 6,000 square feet.  That paved the way for Zips to move into a 4,000 square foot location in the Free State Shopping Center – almost three times the size of the Diplomat Cleaners space.

According to Tony Policelli, the rent for their store has almost tripled since the shopping center was purchased by Federal Realty in 2007.  The lease is up at the end of the month, and the landlord made a take-it-or-leave-it offer that made continuing at the Free State Shopping Center unrealistic.

Moving their business to another location would require a large investment that the family is not willing to make.

Since the closing was announced, Tony and Danny have been reminiscing about their time at Diplomat Cleaners.

They thought about the many items that they’ve found in the pockets over the years.  They found lots of money, lots of receipts, wedding rings, and love letters.

They thought about the time they found a customer’s engagement ring.  She thought that she lost the ring down the drain, and she was relieved when they called.  The customer had flowers and balloons sent to the shop the next day.

One of the brothers’ favorite memories is providing laundry services to the Washington Capitals when the team practiced at the Piney Orchard Ice Arena in Odenton.  They would launder team jerseys as well as the players’ personal clothes.  Danny played hockey in high school, and he enjoyed having the opportunity to talk to Rod Langway, Kevin Hatcher and some of the other Capitals players.

Former Washington Bullets center Manute Bol was a regular customer at Diplomat Cleaners during the time that he lived in Bowie.  “He would duck to get in through the doorway, and then he would sit on the counter,” Tony recalled.  “He didn’t need to bend down or anything.  He just sat on the counter like it was a chair.”  According to Tony, the 7-foot-7-inch Bol had pants with a 48-inch inseam.  “He had the longest pair of pants I’ve ever seen!”

Diplomat Cleaners will be accepting clothes for cleaning through Saturday, November 10th.  The following Saturday, November 17th will be the store’s last day in operation.

Remembering John McNamara

John McNamara

by Mike Rauck

“I find myself on a bit of an odd errand these days,” the email said.  It was from John McNamara, a newspaper veteran who had recently been assigned to cover Bowie, Maryland for the Bowie Blade-News, a small weekly newspaper published by the Capital Gazette in Annapolis.  John needed background information for a story, and he reached out to me after seeing a post on my Bowie Living Facebook page.  It was the beginning of a friendship that ended Thursday when he was shot and killed along with four others in his Annapolis office.

After reading that email again three years later, I realize it was quintessential John – thoughtful, witty, cynical and self-deprecating.  Throw in a huge love for sports and a few other traits, and you have John.

John’s odd errand that day was to try to understand the local folklore behind a 1960s era concrete turtle named Tommy. The turtle sat for two decades in the courtyard of the Belair Shopping Center in Bowie, and kids played on Tommy while their parents were shopping.  The turtle disappeared during a renovation, and speculation about Tommy’s fate was rampant.  A cult-like following developed on social media, and new owners of the shopping center offered a $5,000 reward to the first person to produce a suitable replacement.

One might think that a veteran reporter like John might chafe at having to cover such a story, but he seemed to relish the assignment.  It was an outlet for his wit, and it was a break from the more mundane and controversial stuff.

 “A lot of folks think Tommy – like Elvis – lives on, despite all evidence to the contrary,” John wrote.

Bowie was new territory for John in 2015, and he sometimes needed background information and contacts.  I helped when I could, and I made story suggestions from time to time.  John would often call and say, “What do you know about….?  Who can I talk to about.…? How do I get in touch with….?”

John had the impossible task of single-handedly covering news stories for a city of 55,000 people – a responsibility that was once divided between four reporters and a dedicated editor.  It’s the new normal in the local newspaper business.

John dug in.  He cultivated relationships.  John made it a priority to attend city council meetings, debates, community forums and sometimes PTA meetings.  The Silver Spring resident was frequently in Bowie late at night, and he was often writing stories in the early morning hours.  Despite his efforts, John expressed on more than one occasion that he wished that he could do more.

John was such a personable guy – to the point that I know he struggled when he had to write articles that were critical of others.  When those times came, he would put on his reporter hat, write a fair piece, and people understood.  Despite any anxiety he had about it, John always found a good balance.  It’s a real testament to the excellent journalist and person that he was.

I last talked to John on Wednesday afternoon.  “What’s up, mon?”, he said when I answered the phone. The weekly publication deadline for the Bowie Blade-News had passed, and John was in a good mood.  That was typical for John on Wednesday afternoons.

John was looking for story ideas for next week’s paper.  The July 4th holiday meant an extra day off, but it also meant that he had to come up with a week’s worth of content in less time.  Neither one of us realized at the time that John would be next week's headline.

Now three years after John and I first met, I find myself on a bit of an odd errand – writing a tribute to a friend who was taken too soon, and the words aren’t coming easily.  I’ll miss you John McNamara!