This time I had something to write with so…. yea! Unfortunately, I had dinner with wine and whoda thought one little glass of Charles Shaw (lovingly known as 2 buck Chuck) would make me a little out of it. So that’s my excuse. Also I wrote down a lot so I’m dividing these notes into 2 or 3 parts. This is part 1.
Meeting began at 7pm, with our great leader Jim Berry in charge. I noticed some new people who I’ve never seen before come out, I guess they are new residents. It is always good to see new faces.
The first speaker was Ms. Francine P. Edmonds, Neighborhood Services Coordinator for Ward 5. Her position was created by the Mayor’s office (yea mayor!) to deal with multi-agency problems. She said that something, as I didn’t write down what was the something, at 1405 1st St NW was closed down. She stressed that it takes time to build a case and though it may seem that the city isn’t doing anything, they are doing something. They are building a case. An illegal transfer station on Lincoln Road was shut down. She talked about an unpaved alley between Eckington and Q. The problem with things like that is the budget for DDOT is made a year in advance, so if the money is not already earmarked for it, or if there isn’t any extra money laying around paving problems are not tackled as quickly as residents would like. Something that was done quickly was that Hub Cap Tom’s (?) on Florida Avenue was shut down in 2 days. Apparently Tom’s was harboring rats. Rats bad. If there were other violations I didn’t write those down. The house at 13 R St NE which is vacant is on the market. It must be sold in 6 months. If not sold it has to get fixed up in 3 months.
Ms. Edmonds said that the first job is to educate THEN later issue citations and fines.
She would also like you to bring in your trash cans from the alley at night (after garbage pick up I presume). If you have an elderly neighbor who can’t bring in their can, do it for them. Trash is supposed to be in a trash receptacle, preferably those green cans. NOT just in a bag. Cats. Rats. & Dogs get into them and strew the trash all over and then someone complains about the trash being strewn all over the neighborhood. If your neighbor is not putting out the trash in the can like they are supposed to call the city to report “improper storage of trash.”
Someone in the group had a trash question about trash not getting picked up because the can is too heavy. I didn’t write down the answer.
Feb 14th ??? (ward 5?) is having an information fair at the Joseph Cole Rec Center from 12-3pm. April 8th, from 2-4 they(?) will host a listserv training just for civic leaders. Ms. Edmonds acknowledged that Truxton Circle had a pretty good listserv going on, but this is for other leaders in Ward 5 who don’t. At some point, I don’t remember, but BACA is supposed to be getting it’s own website with its own domain. The purpose is to put out static information. I didn’t really catch the name of the domain. On March 4th, Ward 5 will be having a Landlord Tenant Roundtable for landlords and tenants, mainly landlords.
To issue a complaint with the city call 202 727 1000 or you can go on to the DC.GOV website and file a complaint or request city services. It is important that you have the complaint number. If the request is not completed in a timely manner, then contact the Ward 5 services coordinator at 202 671 0726.
The next speaker was Mr. Tony Dugger of the North Capitol Collaborative which is currently on the 1400 block of North Capitol. I will have that in part 2 of the meeting notes.