Day: March 14, 2006

…Are completely useless and meaningless if not enforced.

Back at the BACA meeting (I think) someone asked someone (one of the candidates, really I’m not trying for accuracy, just credit) why ugly crap gets built in Shaw and our part of town and not places like Georgetown. I can’t remember the exact answer but it boiled down to enforcement.
There is something good gad ugly going up on the pepto bismol colored house on Rhode Island Ave (NE?). Is it legal? Dunno? Thing is if no one, who is really interested (as I am only slightly interested) in fighting the erection of the ugly addition of another level, then the ugly thing gets built. If no one calls DCRA questioning it, or checks with the Zoning board or challenges the legality of it, then it gets built. Now if the pepto colored house was in Georgetown where there is a vigilant populace with various DC agencies on their speed dial, they more than likely would be challenging it as soon as the first cinder block was spotted. Of course, the addition on the pepto house could be all perfectly legal, with the proper papers and plans filed, and despite what I think the addition could be beautiful. Yeah.
There are also laws against construction work not between 7am & 7pm. Yet for about a year the contractor at 1617 NJ Ave NW started after 7pm. I would call and occasionally the police would come out and enforce the rules. That is if I wasn’t challenged by the dispatcher who thought it was perfectly legal to hammer away at 9pm.
Rules, laws and regulations created by the city that were not enforced by the city are like as if no rule existed at all. I understand that the city needs citizens to call in, write or whatever to alert the city when its laws, regulations and what have you are being violated. Citizens also need to know that they have to hold the city accountable for the enforcement of those laws when they alert the city to such violations. The government, thankfully, is not an all knowing, and all seeing Big Brother that knows immediately when wrongdoing is occurring.

Residential Street Sweeping Resumes Monday, March 20

Motorists can receive a $30 fine if parked in a street-sweeping zone.

(Washington, DC) Following the annual winter hiatus, mechanical street cleaning will resume in the District’s most heavily trafficked neighborhoods on Monday, March 20, 2006—the first day of spring. Alternate-side parking restrictions in these areas will also return. Parking citations ($30 fine) will be issued to vehicles parked during street sweeping hours in areas posted with “No Parking/Street Cleaning” signs. Additionally, parked cars may be towed to allow the sweepers access to the curbside.

Weekly street cleaning routes are typically located in the city’s high-density neighborhoods, especially areas with significant foot traffic. Street sweeping reduces debris that would otherwise be carried by rain and runoff into the city’s storm drains, polluting the District’s rivers. The sweepers remove litter from the street by brushing it onto a conveyor system, which transports the material into a debris hopper.

Residents and businesses also play a role in maintaining street cleanliness. District law requires property owners to sweep or keep the area in front of their homes or businesses clean 18 inches from the curb line into the roadway.

Learn more about DPW’s street cleaning program.
@ http://www.dpw.dc.gov/

…you’d be calling the cops right now.

Just got back from the Florida illegal alien wedding/ family reunion and one of the first things I do? Call the cops. Well 311. Guys who don’t live here hanging out on the corner. The dispatcher asked no questions and I honestly don’t expect the cops to show. But if I see guys who mind you don’t live on the block they are hanging on, I’ll call the cops. I want to make the corner near the house inhospitable for any commerce.