“Citation Received for “Failure to Maintain Abutting Public Space”

“Dear PoPville-

On Monday evening, I arrived home from work to find the attached document on my front door. I’ve lived in DC for 14 years and I’ve been a Columbia Heights Resident since 2008 and I’ve never seen or heard of anyone getting a citation like this.

My roommates and I were doing some spring cleaning and placed the lamp outside last week, along with some other household items that we no longer wanted, in hopes that someone less fortunate would be able to make use of our wares. We have done this in the past multiple times, and we are always sure to take anything unclaimed back for trash removal. (Coincidentally, Tuesday is our trash night, so I was planning on bringing the lamp inside Monday evening, ensuring that it was removed with Tuesday’s trash removal.)

As I’m sure you are aware, this is common practice in the neighborhood. I’ve seen lots of great free stuff available curbside, as well as terrible curbside eyesores curbside for weeks at a time.

While I admit we placed the lamp curbside for a few days, I do not think we should be fined $75 for it. Had we received a warning, we would have immediately removed the lamp. The inspector who generated the citation took the pictures on 4/15, reinspected the property on 4/17 and returned on 4/20 to deliver the citation. This seems like a huge waste of resources. Had we been notified on 4/15, we would have gladly complied with removing the lamp from the curbside and saved the inspector (and the city) the time and effort from returning 2 more times to our property. We are good neighbors and we live on a beautiful block; we want nothing to do with degradation of our street scape.

Can you tell me, has anyone else in the PoPville community seen this? Is this a new regulation? Is this an old regulation that is gaining momentum in enforcement? If so, perhaps the city should do some PR to inform the residents that this is no longer an acceptable practice. We want what’s best for our neighborhood and our city and this doesn’t seem like the best approach to addressing a common practice. We do not want to pay this fine and wonder if anyone can give us any advice to assist us in abatement of the fine.”