Streetcar 82 Brewing Co. collaborated with an Irish distillery to create a new whiskey that will soon be available in the U.S.

The Hyattsville brewery shipped several of its barrels used for aging an Imperial Irish red ale to Clonakilty Distillery in Ireland for use in making the whiskey, which adds complex new flavors to the whiskey.

“A representative of Clonakilty came across the beer locally and loved the idea of the brewery and the people behind it,” Clonakilty co-founder Padraic Coll told the Hyattsville Wire.

The barrels actually started out being used in distilling at Sagamore Spirit in Baltimore, which was started by Under Armour founder Kevin Plank, a University of Maryland grad. The beer was brewed in them for six months, and the Irish whiskey for 18 months.

Streetcar 82 co-founder Mark Burke said the collaboration had a special meaning for him, as his grandparents came from near Galway in the 1930s. He visited Clonakilty with his wife, Aimee, and daughter, Tucker, in 2022 and toured the rickhouse where the barrels are stored.

“I feel I have come full circle in honoring my Irish heritage and the legacy of my parents and grandparents,” he told the Wire.

Route 1 residents who want to buy the whiskey can pre-order here from Town Center Market in Riverdale Park, which is the exclusive seller locally.

Streetcar 82 will also be holding a special launch event from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 12th at its location at 4824 Rhode Island Ave., with music from O’McPub Band.

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Five Route 1 towns now allow non-citizens to vote in local elections, a policy aimed at integrating recent immigrants into the community that remains rare nationally.

Earlier this month, the Edmonston town council voted 2-1 to allow non-citizens to vote for races such as mayor and council member.

Non-citizens are not allowed to vote for state or federal offices, but Maryland allows municipalities to maintain their own rules for local elections.

Hyattsville allows 16-year-olds who have lived in the city for at least 30 days before Election Day to vote in local races, regardless of citizenship. In Riverdale Park, they must live in the city for at least 45 days. In Mount Rainier, voters must be at least 16 and have lived in the city for at least 30 days. And in Brentwood, a “lawful resident” who has lived in the city for at least one year can vote.

Only a handful of municipalities around the country allow non-citizens to vote, although larger cities such as D.C. and San Francisco have also adopted the policy.

Historically, non-citizens could vote in state and federal races a number of states up until the 1920s, when states began to prohibit it. Eight states added even stronger bans earlier this month.

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Alan Binstock, a well-known Mount Rainier architect, and sculptor who was once named Hyattsville Wire, readers’ favorite local artist, died on Oct. 29 of complications from surgery. He was 77.

A native of the Bronx, Binstock worked as a jeweler, carpenter, and yoga instructor and spent time at an ashram in Connecticut when he was young, saying in an interview once that he and his wife, Carol, were “children of the ’60s.”

He came to Route 1 to study architecture at the University of Maryland, then got a job as an architect at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, living in Mount Rainier.

Binstock had long been an artist working in stone, glass, and steel to create luminous multicolored sculptures. His influences ranged from the architect Le Corbusier, deep-space photos he encountered at NASA, and Eastern metaphysics.

“I want my work to catalyze a sense of excited inquiry and quietude, and, hopefully, a moment of self-reflection,” he wrote once in an artist’s statement.

Many of Binstock’s public art can be seen around the Route 1 corridor, including the colorful “Ribbon of Life” at University Town Center in Hyattsville that is evocative of strands of DNA.

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Two new 10-story apartment buildings are being planned for College Park, located just around the corner from the Trader Joe’s grocery store.

he Mark College Park consists of two planned properties that will be built on the current site of  College Park Towers, a pair of condominium buildings built in 1983 located at 4313 Knox Rd., next to the Terrapin Row Apartments and near the Amazon hub.

Developed by Landmark Properties, the new student housing would include a total of 2,079 beds in 601 units ranging from studios to five-bedroom apartments with amenities such as stainless-steel appliances, quartz countertops, and in-unit laundry.

Other amenities include 5,000 square feet of retail space and a rooftop deck with a jumbo-sized TV and a pool.

The developer, based in Athens, Ga., plans to acquire the land and buildings in 2026 and complete the project by 2029.

The Mark College Park won’t be far from The Standard at College Park, a recent 282-unit Landmark development with similar amenities.

Both The Mark and The Standard are part of a broader goal by the University of Maryland to turn College Park into one of the country’s top college towns after years of being a commuter school.

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An artist who grew up on the Route 1 corridor recently painted a massive new mural on a West Hyattsville parking garage.

Noted D.C. artist MISS CHELOVE painted the mural of a young woman surrounded by flowers at the Riverfront at West Hyattsville development.

CHELOVE, whose legal name is Cita Sadeli, grew up in Hyattsville, where her love of public art was sparked by graffiti she saw when she would ride into the city with her mom.

She previously painted murals at the Mount Rainier Public Library and at the Hyattsville Middle School, where she attended.

This mural is dramatically larger, however, at 202 feet wide by 62 feet high. CHELOVE worked with a crew of four on swing stages four and five stories above ground to paint the mural.

You can see the mural on the Green Line heading north to Hyattsville Crossing, from the Kaiser Permanente parking garage or on Ager Road headed towards Langley Park.

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Hyattsville has begun an upgrade of The Spot park near the Arts District.

Located at 4505 Hamilton St., just south of the Yes! Organic Market parking lot near the  Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail, The Spot started in 2021 as an informal pop-up park where community events and concerts could be held.

It was the brainchild of the SoHy Co-op, a nonprofit group which helps support local businesses, with a grant made possible by Anacostia Trails Heritage Area.

The city is now upgrading the park. The south side will get a picnic pavilion, game tables, misters, kids’ play equipment and movable lawn seating. The north side of the park will be level and turned into a lawn for now.

There will also be bike parking and repair stations just off the Trolley Trail.

The park will be closed during renovations, which are expected to wrap up in the middle of the year. More work is planned for 2026, including a stage, landscaping and a walking path are expected.

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Senator-elect Angela Alsobrooks got her start in politics in Prince George’s County.

The Democrat, who defeated former Gov. Larry Hogan 52-45 percent on Tuesday, currently serves as county executive and previously served as the local state’s attorney, the county’s top law enforcement official.

Alsobrooks is the first Black woman to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate and will be the first to serve at the same time as another Black woman, Delaware Senator-elect Lisa Blunt Rochester.

She’s also the first statewide official who previously represented Prince George’s County since Parris Glendening, a former University of Maryland politics professor who started as a Hyattsville city councilman, moved to the county council and served as county executive.

That gave her a boost, as 83% of Prince George’s County voted for her, adding 265,286 votes to her total.

“I have to acknowledge the super bad and incredible people of Prince George’s County,” she said when she won the primary earlier this year. “Yes. You should know, you’re the heart and soul of our campaign.”

Alsobrooks was raised in Camp Springs and graduated from Benjamin Banneker High School before getting a degree from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore.

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