My failing in this is that I can’t seem to find the confirmation number of my submitted illeagal dumping complaint, which I filed a week or two ago.
Here is the sad history of these dumped mattresses.
June 13th I led a Flower Power tour. Amongst the people I led was a DPW mucky-muck. When we walked past these mattresses, and he saw that he and his assistant did some furious Blackberrying. So I figured that was that and the offending trash would be gone in no time. He also spotted one of my neighbor’s big truck (for hauling crap) parked on the street and said that would get ticketed. As far as I know, it didn’t figuring on L. eventually moving said truck.
So a week or two passes and the mattresses are still there. I do an on-line request to have them removed. As of yesterday evening, they are still there.
Mayor Fenty is scheduled to walk through my neighborhood today. I’ve informed my SMD ANC commissioner of the matter. I’ve also let it be so you can get the mapped coordinates of where this picture was taken, so that hopefully the mattresses can go bye-bye.
But on the bright side, the illeagal dumping in my alley has improved over the years. Before, whole rooms would get dumped in people’s backyards. Couches, beds, dressers, construction debris, and so on. Since people have fenced off their yards the trash is limited to what can be lined up on the fence.
Tag: city services
Bundy Lot Meeting
By golly I hate meetings, but you wouldn’t know that because I keep attending them.
These are my quick points to keep from rambling. The rambling will be in another post:
* Office of Property Management (OPM) won’t be handling how the land will be used. It will be Park and Rec’s problem.
*There is approximately 37,000 sq ft in the building.
*OPM will have a clearer assessment of the building’s parking needs in 30 days.
*OPM Director stated that she was, “not trying to over park anything.”
*The land transfer from the Federal to the District government is expected to go through sometime this fall.
*After several promises of other locations, the DC government settled on the Bundy School as a location for the multidisciplinary team response to child abuse in 2004.
*Prior to Home Rule in 1973, DC school land was owned by a mix of the municipal body and the federal government, so the assumption that the lot belonged to the DC government was a natural error.
*(not from the meeting) Up until recently the DC government had no clue as to what land it owned, best illustrated in the case of vacant residential properties.
*Si, from MVSQ neighborhood association stated that we welcome Safe Shores and (okay memory fuzzy) as a neighbor? hoping they will be a good neighbor? Regardless, we welcome Safe Shores, and her comment got a good round of applause from the pro-parking and pro-green space folks.
*Martin of the CCCA neighborhood association mentioned there are plans in the works for playgrounds/parks (didn’t write this down) at Scott-Montgomery and NJ and O.**
*The proposal for a dog park was pushed forward by a group, not the ANC.
*When the land transfer occurs then Parks & Rec can evaluate the dog park application.
Now if there is anything factually wrong with my notes, please inform me with comments. No anonymous comments, those are deleted at whim.
**It will be interesting to see how the proposed people parks/ playgrounds get used. There was play equipment in the park near the other Northwest Co-Op here in the TC. However, no parent in their right mind would let their kids play on it because of the bad adult behavior in and around that equipment. That’s changing, but still more adults, hang out in that area than kids.
Before the ANCs
Everyso often I see on other blogs commentary about the ANC system here in the District. Suggestions on how to improve them varies, but I wanted to share something, which may or may not add to the discussion. The ANC system came about after Home Rule in the 70s and are in line with the Ward system. Before Home Rule there were the civic (black) and the citizen (white) neighborhood associations that would advocate for city services.
I noticed, when poking around in early 20th century DC history, some associations’ borders kept changing or had proposed changes due to population changes or other reasons. In 1925 the North Washington merged with the North Capitol and Eckington Citizens Asssociations to become the North Capitol Society. The reason was the two groups tended to overlap and replicate each others work.
Even after the ANC system, there were changes in size and number. The system that was put in place in 1974-1976 does not look the same as the one we have today. So changes can be made, because they have been made.
How not to run a green campaign
I walked home from work, and found DDOE’s Green.DC trash strewn all on my street’s sidewalk. Little door hangers like you see pictured, weren’t even on the fence. They were on the ground in front of the gate like someone didn’t even try. Later, walking around the neighborhood, I saw more of these things on other fences, on doorsteps, on security door gates, but not on any actual doors, as the items are designed to go on. More than often I saw them on the sidewalk, in the gutter, in treeboxes and in the streets.
And to date this witnessing, I had a continuous soundtrack of Micheal Jackson music playing from various houses along my route, as the King of Pop had just died a few hours ago. I swear yesterday/this morning someone (can’t remember who, PoP?) blogged about the “Green” trash littering the neighborhoods and someone from the DC government saying that was a mistake and they’d clean it up.
Maybe I could suggest to DC Green to just stop. You stop now, and don’t distribute anymore at this moment, you’ve cut down on trash by prevention. Then I suggest oh, an hour or two in training distributors on the finer points of the door notice. Note that it is supposed to go on a door. Not a fence. Not a gate. But a door. More specifically, a door handle. A door handle is the thing people use to open a door. I recommend the guy who distributes the Chinese carryout, which managed to make it to my mailbox. Though not correct, better than the sidewalk in front of my house.
Maybe the city can lead by example by not trashing my hood like a bunch of thuggy teenagers with a finished bag of Rap Snacks.
Bundy
There is a fair amount of unhappiness on the Shaw Neighborhood Listserv. Part of me is a little detached as it’s over in Ward 2, Jack Evans Land, and I am over in Ward 5 (dang Ward system separating us from the rest of Shaw), so as a voter I don’t have Jack, I just got jack. But, Bundy is on the edge, close to the TC. I’ve not nothing useful to add but links.
DC Gov Responds on Bundy Parking Lot– from the BACA blog
One unhappy email on the Shaw Listserv, and a response from Jack Evans.
No surprise this happened as BACA had been surprised about the future use of the Cook School.
Dead cat
found in the rain, on the sidewalk at the corner of NJ and Q St on the Ward 2 side of the street, so don’t walk your dogs over there.
Yes, I called the city’s 311 number.
No, nobody answered because I found the tuxedo kitty after 4:30pm, when phone calls go straight to a machine.
Yes, I called animal control. They don’t do dead. I was told I should call DPW.
At this point, I gave up. I’ll file a report which someone will get to it when they get to it.
MAR Location Fun
The DC Goverment has given us a lovely toy, weeeee! The District of Columbia Master Adress Repository has a cool feature… pictures. I plugged in 424 Q Street NW, which is up for sale but has no picture. So in addition to the location information, there is a tiny thumbnail photo of the house in question. Click on the tumbnail and there is a larger pix. The one for 424 Q St NW has a guy hanging out in the front…. nice.
Hat tip to Imgoph of Bloomingdale (for now).
The Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings (BCIB)
I was about to blog about horrendous vacancy rate taxation on houses that are not vacant. But one of the example houses was recategorized to normal…. now all the owners have to do is get their homestead exemption. But while poking around for info I came across the Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings.
I didn’t know there was such a board until I found a letter from a similar sounding agency in the personal papers of a landlady. In the 1930s & 40s the landlady had owned my house as well as several other properties in DC, and one townhouse on the 1700 block of 4th Street was in danger of being condemned by the city.
Since I hadn’t really heard of anything about the city condemnation agency, I just assumed it was one of those defunct city agencies, like dairy inspectors. But no. There is the BCIB, and they are under DCRA.
City Websites Compare and Contrast
I was asked for input on something DC related and to attempt to be fair in my expectations I looked at other cities’ and towns’ websites addressing similar issues. Looking at different cities sites on other urban topics of interests there are different things that pop out. Whether a city is good at communicating or addressing one or another thing through their web presence could be related to a whole host of things. Regardless, lets take a look.
DC.Gov
I use DC.GOV for a lot of things, mainly looking up tax assessments. I tend to ignore most of the top and scroll down to “Popular Online Services” and “Online Services”. Why these aren’t closer to the top beats me. It seems the most popular things relate to cars, as in finding the DMV, paying parking tickets and locating a towed car. Those are the things the people want. The only thing near the top that I have any mild interest in is a reminder that the Mayor’s call center number is 311 and the location of free Wi-Fi hotspots.
What is at the top that is useful when I’m not looking at assessments are the tabs “DC Guide”, “Residents”, “Visitors” and such. This s where I go to take the long way to the DC Council, MPD, and other agencies I don’t visit often. There are sections under the umbrella of DC.GOV that I really like, others that have lots of room for improvement, and others that seem pointless. Instead of getting into those I want to move on to other city’s sites.
PHILA,GOV
I have to admire the entrepreneurial spirit of the right hand frame of this site, labeled “Make a Payment”. This is a city that knows it can make money providing its citizens services. You can pay and view police reports and deeds. You can pay your water bill, gas bill, parking tickets, and pay your taxes by clicking a link on their homepage.
Also on the home page on the left hand side is “Help Me” which looks like “Help Us Help You.” Its links let you report a pothole, illegal activity, fraud, etc.
Chicago Egov.cityofchicago.org
I had high expectations but this site has a whole lot of room for improvement, starting with the URL. What it lacks in sophistication it makes up for in simplicity.
Moving on.
NYC.GOV
Who knew the S.I. Ferry Schedule was in such demand? But it is, along with getting birth certificates, and paying your property taxes. Though not at the top, the most popular items don’t require scrolling to get to. Because I’ve been looking at individual NYC departments’ and agencies’ sites, the home page for the city government doesn’t even hint at how great those sites are. Like Chicago, the home page is a little bit of a let down.
Boston CityofBoston.Gov
Here students get their own friggin tab. The Student tab links you to city information you need to know if you’re a student moving to Boston. You can find out about housing, pets, what to do with your car, etc. In some ways the Boston site is simple and requires a good amount of scrolling, but the feeling I get from the site is, “Hi, I’m Bahstan and I’m here to help.”
Seattle.Gov
Taxes don’t seem to be popular as I can’t find on the home page anything about tax assessments or property taxes. But you know what’s popular? The Live 911 Dispatch.
Lastly or this will be too long
Los Angeles www.ci.la.ca.us
Hate it. Slow loading, and once it did load the characters were too small and the home page was too busy. Oh and look at that URL.
So far my favorite is Philly. Something about “Block Party Permit” on the home site that makes me think the city can be fun, and encourages the citizenry to organize a good time.
Inauguration Day in the TC part 4
We just… Just had a fender bender on the corner.
I called 911. Busy signal.
So. We have all these National Guardsmen all over the place, and they did make themselves useful. Upon not reaching 911, I run out of the house and ask them to make the call. When I headed back to the house, about 4-5 of them took control of the situation.
An hour or so before our block had a visit from the EMS. Seems a young visitor from one of the neighbors’ house needed to be taken to the hospital. So I guess they were able to get through earlier.
Just too much going on.