Understand
Silver Spring attracts a racially diverse mix of middle-class suburbanites and local immigrant communities to its newly renovated downtown. The "center" is nice and full of happy people, but also rather artificial and full of chains. The city's renovations successfully revitalized the area, but it does look like a city-planned development. If that is not your thing, head a few blocks south on Georgia Ave to try some of the excellent immigrant-run restaurants offering African, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Asian, and even Pirate cuisines. Silver Spring's biggest draw is the AFI movie theater, which shows independent films and documentaries which, refreshingly, are not the exact same independent films being shown at other "indie" theaters around DC.
