{"id":3268,"date":"2025-04-07T22:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T02:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/07\/takoma-park-joins-hands-off-protest-mistakenly-thinks-its-about-parking-lots\/"},"modified":"2025-04-07T23:18:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T03:18:44","slug":"takoma-park-joins-hands-off-protest-mistakenly-thinks-its-about-parking-lots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/07\/takoma-park-joins-hands-off-protest-mistakenly-thinks-its-about-parking-lots\/","title":{"rendered":"Takoma Park Joins \u2018Hands-Off\u2019 Protest, Mistakenly Thinks It\u2019s About Parking Lots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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TAKOMA PARK, MD – Residents across Takoma Park were shocked and disappointed this weekend after discovering that the massive \u201cHands Off\u201d protests sweeping the country had absolutely nothing to do with their sacred surface parking lots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was ready to chain myself to the parking meter,\u201d said longtime resident Marsha Klench, clutching a handmade “Kiss My Asphalt” sign. \u201cThen someone told me they\u2019re actually protesting against Donald Trump and authoritarianism. Which is fine, I guess, but I hope they don\u2019t lose sight of the most immediate threat, which is apartments being built at the Takoma Metro lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizers of the national protests, which were meant to raise awareness of Trump\u2019s recent efforts to dismantle judicial independence, target political dissenters, and \u201ctemporarily pause\u201d the Constitution, were surprised by the avid enthusiasm from zip code 20912.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt first we were like, wow, Takoma Park is really stepping up,\u201d said D.C. protest organizer Carmen Delgado. \u201cThen we heard someone chanting \u2018No Justice, No Zoning Variance!\u2019 and we realized something was a bit off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Talisha Searcy attempted to clarify the situation by issuing a city-wide statement that read, \u201cTo be clear: the Hands-Off protest is about resisting authoritarianism, protecting our democracy, and fighting fascism. It is NOT about preserving every underused patch of pavement between here and Silver Spring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Council members scrambled to redirect the protest energy. \u201cLook, we\u2019re glad people are getting involved,\u201d said one council member. \u201cBut maybe let\u2019s focus on the collapse of democracy before we spiral into another 200-plus comment PEN listserv thread about stormwater management.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resident Gary Finkelstein remained defiant. \u201cI\u2019m as pro-democracy as the next person. But also, I’ve lived here longer than everyone else, so I clearly get more say in what is allowed to happen in the city!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At press time, Takoma Park residents were planning to participate in another anti-fascist protest titled \u201cDon’t Tread on Me,\u201d which organizers mistakenly believe is about building new sidewalks in their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TAKOMA PARK, MD – Residents across Takoma Park were shocked and disappointed this weekend after discovering that the massive \u201cHands Off\u201d protests sweeping the country had absolutely nothing to do with their sacred surface parking lots. \u201cI was ready to chain myself to the parking meter,\u201d said longtime resident Marsha Klench, clutching a handmade “Kiss…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[400,403,114,1912,389,1836,724,887,1808,836,208,516,264,95,701,1734,1009,1113,24,77,970,1130,319,1826,370,140,489,1136,371,979,1956,122,386,1224,141,1387,1729,1789,1807,1593,317,640,1351,638,1733,339,116,1028,1353,112,94,98,1226,1530,93,878,4,1258,435,1396,1397,67,433,1257,1514,1340,1278,1753,2,64,1771,1245,719,718,716,104,164,1762],"class_list":["post-3268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-adu","tag-affordable-housing","tag-amazon","tag-america","tag-apartments","tag-attainable-housing","tag-bethesdafication","tag-bike-lanes","tag-bluesky","tag-build-more-housing","tag-building-permit","tag-cnn","tag-co-op","tag-comedy","tag-community-vision-takoma","tag-cvt-takoma","tag-dc-humor","tag-dc-metro-map","tag-dc-satire","tag-disney-plus","tag-dmv-news","tag-dmv-satire","tag-elrich","tag-email","tag-facebook","tag-fake-news","tag-funny","tag-gentrification","tag-gmail","tag-google-news","tag-hands-off-protest","tag-historic-takoma","tag-housing","tag-housing-shortage","tag-humor","tag-instagram","tag-jessica-landman","tag-joke","tag-laugh","tag-local-satire","tag-marc-elrich","tag-maryland-satire","tag-moco-news","tag-moco-satire","tag-montgomery-county-satire","tag-netflix","tag-nimby","tag-old-town-takoma","tag-parking","tag-parking-lot","tag-parody","tag-political-satire","tag-real-estate-takoma-park","tag-redfin-takoma-park","tag-satire","tag-single-family-zoning","tag-takoma","tag-takoma-dc","tag-takoma-development","tag-takoma-historic-district","tag-takoma-humor","tag-takoma-junction","tag-takoma-metro","tag-takoma-metro-development","tag-takoma-metro-parking","tag-takoma-minor-master-plan","tag-takoma-news","tag-takoma-nimby","tag-takoma-park","tag-takoma-park-city-council","tag-takoma-park-humor","tag-takoma-park-metro","tag-takoma-park-news","tag-takoma-park-satire","tag-takoma-satire","tag-takoma-torch","tag-takomatorch","tag-talisha-searcy","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/img_20250407_2209566599924809818662430.png?fit=1350%2C1165&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPZSG-QI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3271,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3268\/revisions\/3271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}