photo by Bill Herndon
“Dear PoPville,
We got a notice from DDOT earlier this week that our alley (in Hill East) is going to be repaved later this month. Our existing alley is concrete, however multiple alleys that are immediately adjacent to us (including the alley immediately south of us) are brick.
A couple of my neighbors and I wrote to DDOT asking if our alley could be converted to brick, consistent with other surrounding alleys. We had been advised that DDOT might try to shut us down using the argument that Hill East isn’t a “historic neighborhood” and therefore not eligible for brick,
but clearly that standard isn’t uniformly applied given that the alley immediately south of us (which falls under the same ward and ANC) is brick. I have also lived in other neighborhoods of DC that aren’t categorized as historic neighborhoods that also had brick alleys.
Anyways, as expected, DDOT told us we can’t get brick because Hill East isn’t a historic neighborhood. Does anyone have any advice or brick alley success stories they are willing to share? In the grand scheme of things, not having a brick alley obviously isn’t the end of the world, but fair is fair I don’t think DDOT should be able to arbitrarily decide which alleys get brick and which don’t. Thanks!”