Olney needs more inviting spaces such as Fair Hill Shopping Center.

by Ryan Green ’26

Do you ever get a feeling of déjá vu when driving around Olney? It’s probably because you feel like you’re seeing some of the same places over and over. Olney has a repeating feature of fast food restaurants and grocery stores while missing a discount department store like a Target or Walmart to buy a wide range of items. Oh, don’t forget that there is no movie theatre. While many neighboring towns, such as Rockville and Gaithersburg, boast central spots for residents to grab everything from quality sports equipment and fitness items to hammers and ladders, Olney does not. Instead, local residents are forced to rely on online shipping or make 20-minute drives to other parts of Montgomery County. This missing cornerstone of community life is striking, especially when you consider Olney has five Starbucks, two Dunkin Donuts, and four grocery stores.

Olney needs to make room for missing types of stores by combining or removing many of the excess fast food restaurants and grocery stores. First off, the Dunkin Donuts off of Village Mart Drive is only open for 7 hours 6 days a week, which is a sure sign of a business struggling. The place is run down, with issues like cracked glass and poor parking lots. Instead, take that prime real estate and make room plaining that it’s an example of how “the department is beginning the process of restoring the fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education.” Without the position of a Book Ban Coordinator, the OCR is left powerless in fighting back against school book bans on the national level. This could lead to some states or school districts choosing to restrict books and curriculum that has material that is deemed as controversial or inappropriate. The message being sent by the Trump administration is that it will not stand in the way of censorship of material related to gender, sexual orientation, and race.  In fact, the federal government itself might be the entity that ends up banning books in schools. Trump signed the Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling executive order, which includes fiery demands towards Department of Ed. staff, such as stopping teachers from calling a student a different name than their birth name or using altered pronouns. The dangers of the executive order come from its vague infringements on what is taught in schools, as it claims it will cut funding for schools that teach subjects about ”gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.” This creates the framework for the Trump administration to order and bully states to stop teaching topics like racial inequality and LGBTQ+ struggles, topics that aren’t fully endorsed by conservatives. Unlike removing the Book Ban Coordinator this order isn’t limiting the national government’s power to prevent information suppression, it’s actively contributing to that suppression. Removing the Book Ban Coordinator goes to show how removing national guardrails opens the door for states to ban books in schools, and Trump’s executive order demonstrates an attempt to dry up the flow of information on controversial topics in K-12 schooling. Both of these actions further polarize citizens, leading people to become further set in their beliefs. Red states stay red and blue states stay blue, thus the country stays divided. These actions, as well as Trump’s new order to dismantle the Department of Ed., have a flurry of negative consequences and ill-intentions throughout them. It’s necessary to acknowledge the actions big and small that have been taken towards a mutual, counterintuitive goal that’ll leave Americans uneducated, stubborn, and lied to. for a small supplement store or a bookstore, for just two ideas.

The examples of poor planning pile up as Olney has an abundance of Starbucks. While many are placed strategically, some seem out of place. Nestled among the tedious number of grocery stores are three Starbucks, all within walking range. Not only would removing those unnecessary drink refreshers stores make space, getting rid of the Harris Teeter or Giant would definitely make room for a theatre or a large store like Ikea. There is no reason to have Giant and Harris Teeter so geographically close together, particularly when there is a Safeway across the street on the other side of Route 108. Olney has barely any places to hang out with friends, and students have to trek to Regal, in Rockville, to see a movie. A theatre in Olney would allow for fun for all ages and boast a community bonding location. Want a pair of shoes or maybe some new shorts as the weather warms up? Tough break, the closest Target is 30 minutes away.

Want some power tools or some nails? You can’t get any, the closest Home Depot is 20 minutes
away, and this isn’t even including common obstacles, like traffic. As people continue to make the tedious journey outside of Olney for entertainment and basic needs, we should begin to question the need for repetitive shopping emporiums and monotonous fast food restaurants.