Jenna shares this brutal photo from her home in Petworth:
“My property was damaged due to improper construction by unlicensed construction crew on property next door. Dangerous construction, collapsed patio & support column on my property, property encroachment, trespassing. What steps can I take to prevent further damage?”
311 replied to her, hopefully 311/DCRA addresses ASAP!
photo from the PoPville archives
The following was written by PoPville contributor David McAuley, founder of Short Articles about Long Meetings.
A man living in a converted carriage house in a Mount Vernon Square alley told Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6E/Shaw February 6 that he had to have his important mail delivered to a friend in Virginia “because my faith is so low” in the postman’s ability to find his house. (more…)
“Dear PoPville,
The last three mornings in a row MPD has pounded on our door at 5:45 a.m., 6:45 a.m., and 7:10 a.m. They are looking for someone who has an outstanding warrant for a domestic abuse charge. We do not recognize the name and know the last three people that have owned our home. We have owned it since Nov. 2016. Each morning the police say they will remove our address from their records. The person they’re looking for must have given this address by mistake or purposefully. Yesterday I had a long exchange with the commander of 3D but he was ineffective as the police came again this morning looking for the same person. Again, they said they’d cross our address off their list. But when we called the officers’ sergeant she said that we would have to go through the court system to get the address stricken from the record. How is this our responsibility? And, is there anything else we can do?”
Update from MPD:
“OP first contacted me on Thursday morning regarding the 2 incidents in which MPD officers knocked on her door looking for an individual early in the morning. Unfortunately, OP was unable to obtain the names of the officers and indicated that the officers were different on both dates. She was able to give me a description of the officers from Thursday and a review of our Third District personnel that morning revealed no members matching that description. The name of the subject that the officers were looking for was a very generic name, and as such I could not ascertain the warrant or other information. At that time I advised OP that I believed that the officers were from another unit and I would begin making inquiries to identify them and their officials. I also advised her that if they returned for a third time, to get their names, car numbers and request that they have a supervisor respond.
Today (Friday), OP contacted me via email to say that the officers responded for a third time this morning. This time she was able to provide me with the names of the officers and it was determined that they were trying to serve DC Superior Court papers on an individual. With the names of the officers now known, I was able to loop the commander of that unit into our email conversation. It turns out that the individual who had petitioned the court, not the MPD, had provided the OP’s address as the subject’s address in their court filing. The commander of that unit has reached out to his team officials to make sure that the officers do not return to that location again looking for this individual. In addition, he and his team are working with the DC Superior Court to update their records indicating that this individual does not reside at the location. While we are making contact with DC Superior Court, it was relayed to the OP that they could also notify DC Superior Court of the issue, but this was never intended to be in lieu of MPD doing it. Although I was not there when that conversation took place, I believe that is where the confusion came from.
I am certain that this was a frustrating situation for OP, but I can assure you that once we obtained sufficient information to identify the officers and the subject that they were looking for, we began working to make sure that we do not respond to this address again for the same individual.
Stuart Emerman
Commander, Third District
Patrol Services North
Metropolitan Police Department”
From Fattys Tattoos and Piercings:
“Friends and fans,
The DC health department has yet again published body art laws that are unnecessarily onerous and costly to small business, vast yet unclear, and unacceptable to the body art community as written. These laws are almost identical to the laws that were proposed in 2015 that were overwhelmingly rejected by the body art industry and public. If these regulations are allowed to stand as is this will negatively effect your access to and cost of receiving body art in DC.
We are asking for your support and hope that you will email and/or write DC officials to oppose the DC Department of Health Body Art Establishments Final Rulemaking. The comment period ends Feb 5th so please send your comment by then. Just let them that you oppose the DC Department of Health Body Art Establishments Final Rulemaking as written.
Here is their email: [email protected] & [email protected]
Here is their mailing address:
441 4th st, NW
Suite 520S
Washington, DC
20001
Thanks again for your support and please spread the word!
Fatty and the Crew
To view the 66 pages of regulations go here. The site is difficult to navigate but in the “Agency” search box type “Department of Health” and type in “body art” in the next search box. They definitely don’t make it easy to find the regulations!
In Maryland we have a basic, comprehensive 6 page set of standards in place that have been in effect since 1997. These standards have kept the public safe and have given the industry clear guidelines to follow for over 2 decades. These standards are all you need to keep body art clean.
Please understand that according to DCHD there has NEVER been a reported case of disease transmission in DC from professional body art practices. These regulations are not a response to a disease outbreak or unsafe practices from the professional body art community. These harsh regulations are an overreaction to DC officials lack of action on providing the public with simple, comprehensive body art standards which we as an industry would support. Comprehensive body art standards protect the public and the body art industry.
We hope that after you read this follow up you will have a clearer understanding why it is important for you to act and contact [email protected] and [email protected] and oppose the Body Art Final Rulemaking as written. We only have until Feb 5th so please act soon!
History: (more…)
From DHCD:
“The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) announced today progress to provide more workforce housing in the District with the closing of an auction of 33 properties through Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Vacant To Vibrant DC initiative.
“Vacant to Vibrant DC is one more way we are getting Washingtonians in all eight wards on pathways to the middle class,” said Mayor Bowser. “The outpouring of support for this initiative is a reflection of our community’s commitment to finding new and innovative ways to build more affordable housing, create new job opportunities, and ensure that more residents are able to participate in our city’s prosperity.”
The five-day auction by Alex Cooper Auctioneers closed January 23, with all 33 sites–in neighborhoods such as Bellvue (Ward 8), Carver/Langston (Ward 5), Deanwood (Ward 7), and Park View (Ward 1)–receiving bids. The winning bidder would have to create workforce housing under specific criteria and timeframes. Now that the auction has closed, the winning bidder will be notified and administrative steps will be taken over the next several weeks to finalize the purchase agreement. (more…)
Photo by PoPville flickr user Davin Tarr
The DC Courts PIO responded to us:
“Due to an oversight just before the holidays, jury summons for Jan 29-Feb 8 were not sent out. When this was discovered last week, the court immediately mailed the summons out – and emailed those it had email addresses for, given the unusually short turn around time.”
Due to an oversight just before the holidays, jury summons for Jan 29-Feb 8 were not sent out. When this was discovered last week, the court immediately mailed the summons out – and emailed those it had email addresses for, given the unusually short turn around time.
— DC Courts PIO (@DC_Courts) January 27, 2018
The following was written by PoPville contributor David McAuley, founder of Short Articles about Long Meetings.
Photo via Google Street View
If New Bethany Baptist Church (1300 10th Street NW) cannot regain its lost real property tax exemption, it will owe the DC government more than $1 million in taxes. So, the leaders of the church, along with their attorneys, appeared before a committee of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2F/Logan Circle last night (January 24) to ask the ANC’s support a new real property tax exemption for the church, which has been operating on that location for 84 years.
ANC2F’s Community Development Committee was not inclined to support the request. Members of the committee and the public recalled years of strained relations between the church and the community under the church’s former leadership. The church’s new leader asked the committee to look ahead.
“This is a new day. We want to correct as much as we can,” said Reverend Jesse J. Jackson.
In addition to the church’s main building (which is still exempt from property taxes), the church owns a few lots nearby on 10th and 11th Streets, including one next to the church at the northeast corner of 11th and N Streets. (more…)
From Council Member Silverman’s Office (no relation):
“D.C. Councilmember Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) today released the following statement after co-introducing a bill with Chairman Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) to divide responsibilities of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) into two newly created agencies:
“The District’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs needs a significant overhaul. It is vital to protecting the health and welfare of our residents, as well as our businesses and our economy. That’s why I am an enthusiastic co-introducer of Chairman Mendelson’s bill today, the Department of Buildings Establishment Act of 2018, to break up DCRA into two agencies.
Department-of-Buildings-Establishment-Act-1 (PDF)
Take just these last four days: D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) crews have been called to fight fires that were caused by contractors either unlicensed or without proper permits. The violations were so obvious that FEMS could identify the problem almost immediately. These fires are further examples of the ways that DCRA puts our residents and businesses at risk.
Dividing DCRA into two agencies is not a cure-all, but it is a significant step in the right direction. It will give a greater focus to their core mission and bring more leadership. In my time on the Council, I have heard a steady and consistent stream of examples of DCRA falling short in permitting, inspections, and enforcement of construction codes in the District. These shortfalls cause real harm to residents through expensive legal fights and costly renovations and, in the case of the recent fires, put lives in danger. We simply must do something to better serve our residents.
I look forward to a hearing on the bill, quick passage, and implementation to make our government work better for everyone.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Gerry Suchy
“Dear PoPville,
My husband and I have been Petworth residents for a few years now, and when we first purchased our house, we had public trash cans on our street. Over the last year or so, two cans have been removed and not replaced. I have tried twice, unsuccessfully, to get the cans replaced. The latest response from our commissioner was that “the city is moving away from having cans close by residential homes because residents tend to leave their trash there rather than in their own bins.”
Is this true across the district? And, more importantly, is there anything we can do? I hope the city can appreciate the irony of removing trash cans because they are being used.
Our street has had a noticeable increase of litter, and it’s also tough because I often walk my dogs, alone, late at night, and I appreciated being able to stay right on my block, where I know most of my neighbors and I felt safe – I could easily walk a block to toss out my dogs’ poop bags. But now, if we’re doing a late night bathroom break, I have to walk 3-4 blocks to the nearest garbage can.
I’d love to get more information on this (i.e., if this is happening across the district, if anyone has any points of contact with DPW, if anyone has any success stories on how they remedied the trash situation, etc.).”
The following was written by PoPville contributor David McAuley, founder of Short Articles about Long Meetings.
Rendering photo by David McAuley
CORRECTED: Community Shows Anger at Proposed Ward One Family Homeless Shelter
[CORRECTION January 21, 2018 by David McAuley: In the original version of this story, I reported in error that ANC1B distributed a proposed draft resolution at the meeting calling on the DC government to “revise the location of the new Ward 1 shelter site”. The document is not a draft. It is a resolution which was passed by ANC1B at its December meeting. I further reported that the draft resolution might voted on at the ANC’s February meeting. At this time, the ANC has no plans to vote on this, or any other, resolution at February. Please see last paragraph for complete correction. Apologies for the error.]
“We’re having a conversation about something that’s already done,” one Columbia Heights resident said. “You all have already decided without community input.”
The resident expressed the opinion of many who attended the Ward One Community Town Hall Meeting at Rita Bright Family and Youth Center (2500 14th Street NW) last night (January 18). The resident’s anger was directed at the December 7, 2017 announcement by Mayor Bowser to construct a 50-unit “family homeless shelter” on the site of the community center. More than 200 local residents filled the gymnasium and made so much noise during the post-presentation question-and-answer session that the presenters had to threaten to end the meeting prematurely.
However, the residents first sat quietly while Ward One Citycouncilmember Brianne Nadeau spoke briefly, and then Kristy Greenwalt, Director of DC’s Interagency Council on Homelessness, and Brian Butler, project manager from the DC Department of General Services, made a presentation about the proposed construction. Many of the details seemed unchanged from last month’s announcement: for example, there are 35 planned short-term family housing units and 15 senior permanent supportive housing units. The presenters showed slides portraying the general massing of the proposed project, but emphasized the slide did not represent the final design, which had not been decided.
The presenters also promised that the Rita Bright Center would remain on the site and be fully renovated as part of the project. Butler said that, although “the goal and aim is to keep this site open” during the entire construction process, DC “may have to shut some parts for upgrades”. In response to later questions, Butler clarified that the plan might be to shut down one part of the center for renovations while allowing another part to remain functioning.
The 200+ attendees became unruly during the post-presentation question-and-answer session. Although a man with a microphone went from person to person who wished to ask a question or express an opinion, it was often difficult to hear them over the angry shouts from the crowd.
Among the objections were: (more…)