Letter to the Editor: Wheaton's Moment

Has Wheaton's moment arrived? With the recent selection of B.F. Saul to redevelop Wheaton's Central Business District, ongoing efforts to one day build a new Metro Purple Line and long-term plans to make Montgomery County a bio-tech center of the future, the next five to 10 years will be transformational ones for Wheaton.

The advent of new "hyper local" communication channels like Wheaton Patch give metro residents new ways through which to experience and understand Wheaton. We at the Latino Economic Development Corporation value our role in helping our diverse communities to shape Wheaton's future and to strengthen those parts of the Wheaton experience that we already cherish.

Wheaton brings together people of different cultures, professions and beliefs. Walk down Georgia Avenue in either direction from the Red Line Metro stop and the richness of the immigrant experience within Wheaton becomes abundantly clear. This growing diversity, which includes Asian, Jewish and burgeoning African communities, is anchored by Wheaton's Latino community, which is changing the area for the better.

Wheaton is 25 percent Latino, and many Latinos are raising families, starting small businesses and building financial skills to strengthen Wheaton's local economy. In a county that claims more than 7,500 Latino-owned businesses and approximately 156,000 Latinos, Wheaton is a small window into many changing neighborhoods in the Washington region.

Plans to redevelop downtown Wheaton are nothing new. In 2005, the impending redevelopment of Wheaton threatened to displace hundreds of small immigrant businesses — a majority of them owned by Latinos and catering to the Latino community — given construction and significantly higher rents. There was also concern that the Latino voice in redevelopment planning was largely missing from the table. That led the Wheaton Redevelopment Program that same year to ask LEDC if we would consider opening a new branch in Wheaton to serve the Latino community. We made that commitment in July 2006.

Four years and an economic crisis later, we've watched the Latino community, and Wheaton in general, struggle to withstand the impact.

We've provided housing counseling to hundreds of families at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure and provided micro-loans and technical assistance to hundreds of small business owners. In April 2009, we opened a new storefront in the heart of the Central Business District on Price Avenue — one block from the metro. 

By coming to Wheaton, we were given a chance to strengthen Latino neighborhoods — one household and one small business at a time.

The need is great for an inclusive process that will create a strong redevelopment plan that represents the best that Wheaton has to offer. Our partnerships with Montgomery County and a host of area foundations are making this work and vision possible, and we've begun the process of organizing small, locally owned businesses and working-class Latinos to play a vital role in the redevelopment of Wheaton.

When we look at the faces of Wheaton, we are looking at the future of our changing communities.

Mr. Hidalgo, executive director of the Latino Economic Development Corporation, can be reached at mhidalgo@ledcmetro.org