Very nice looking downtown. If you have downtime and would like to just enjoy the town I definitely recommend. Parking may be difficult but whatever you are going to do if it’s under two hours you can park in the Whole-foods parking lot. We did an escape room.

Downtown Silver Spring has changed a lot. It was nice to go and see how it has been changed and modernized. I found parking challenging but I wouldn't go out of my way to visit.

has gone downhill badly the past several years. There are usually young kids roller-blading down Ellsworth, which is dangerous and rude. ( There used to be prominent signs prohibiting this, but I do not even see such anymore.) The private security is a joke (the main area is privately owned); security can not be found , there is sometimes an uninterested person in the security office, which is near the end of a walkway. County Police are sometimes visible at the corner of Ellsworth and Fenton. The area had been nice , but management is not at all interested.

I grew up in Silver Spring and they have been trying to revitalize the downtown all my life. They built the City Place Mall (which is right behind the Downtown Silver Spring pedestrian street) and it was a flop. It's still open, if you like booths selling watches and cell phone cases. I can never quite fit the pedestrian shopping plaza into my old mental map of Silver Spring. There are still great destinations outside the pedestrian mall - restaurants like Mandalay and a bunch of Ethiopian Places, Plaza Arts, Alliance Comics - but the pedestrian mall has definitely succeeded in becoming a central location. There is a Whole Foods and a Strohsnider's Hardware with a CVS and another business on one side, and like I said, City Place is on the other. Ellsworth Street is closed to traffic, which is so nice, and makes a space for the farmer's market on Saturdays, bands to play, a fountain for little kids to run through in the summer, etc. There are a lot of chains, for sure, but they tend to be nice. The Regal Cinemas will have every movie playing. There's an Ulta, a Ben & Jerry's, a Lebanese Taverna, and a lot more. Across the street there is a civic plaza - the civic building is there, I've voted there and attended an art show there. When the downtown was first developed, about 15 years ago, that whole area was astroturf, which was fun while it lasted. It definitely got people used to congregating there. Now there are benches and an ice rink in the winter, which is a huge plus. There are a couple of parking garages close by. They are reasonably priced, big enough for demand, and have free hours on evenings and weekends. This also seems to be a hub for internet rental bikes, there are a ton of them there. Also, there are often Hare Krishnas across the street doing there thing, and who doesn't like that?

I really enjoyed what downtown Silver Spring had to offer. Too bad all the construction made it difficult driving. Once I found parking I truly enjoyed my visit.