Photo by PoPville flickr user brunofish
“Dear PoPville,
I’m wondering if your readers have heard back yet after an initial appeal of their property taxes on 4/1. I appealed on line, but haven’t heard a thing.
If others have heard back, then I know I need to follow up!”
Thanks to a reader for sending from Trinidad Saturday afternoon around 2pm.
“Dear PoPville,
Have you heard anything about the status of the Resident Only parking program, where residents on their block can designate one side of the block as “residents only” (i.e., no free 2-hour parking like the normal zoned parking). The link for the petition on the DDOT website appears to be dead (See link at the bottom of the page labeled “Resident Only Form”.) I just called DDOT and they said that the resident only program has been suspended until they can go through the rulemaking process. As I understood it the program was apparently incorrectly implemented, and was supposed to be for special zones like around the ballpark. But it somehow became a citywide thing where any neighborhood could petition the city for resident only parking. So it sounds like for now there won’t be any more of those red and white signs going up. They did say that this does not affect the other programs where neighbors can petition to have zoned parking hours extended.”
NBC Washington reported:
“A 24 percent middle class income tax cut for those earning $40,000-to-$60,000 per year. To help fund the tax breaks, an $800 million, multi-year streetcar budget was cut back to $400 million with no immediate impact on construction.”
And a reader specifically asks – “Yoga Tax Is Back?”
Just wondering what your readers think about the tax on health clubs. Specifically, this quote from the article from the Washington Post:
“The following would be newly subject to the city’s 5.75 percent sales tax under the draft budget legislation:
Health clubs: the services of a health club or a tanning studio … mean[ing] a fitness club, fitness center, or gym the purpose of which is physical exercise, including fitness and recreational sports facilities featuring exercise and other active physical fitness conditioning or recreational sports activities, including swimming, skating, or racquet sports, except not health resorts and spas where recreational facilities are combined with sleeping accommodations … [or] a business the purpose of which is to provide individuals a manmade tan, including sun tanning salons and spray tanning salons”.
Why is DC punishing people for trying to be healthy?
Do you guys support this proposed budget approved by the Council? What if anything do you think can/will be changed before the final Council vote June 11th?
Council Members contact information after the jump. (more…)
Photo by PoPville flickr user philliefan99
“Dear PoPville,
The city seems to have a new problem with Supercan removal. In DPW’s zeal to remove old trash cans in Ward 1, they are removing cans without the yellow “take me” stickers. It happened to me on 11th street. Now instead of new cans I didn’t need in the first place, we have NONE.
Not sure how widespread it is but yet another example of just how horrible this entire saga has been handled. I got DPW on the phone and they claim they will rectify the situation soon but could not make any promises as to a time frame. Fingers crossed.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC
From DPR:
“The DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) announced today that it will open all its outdoor aquatic features (18 outdoor pools, 4 children’s pools and 19 spray parks) to kick off the 2014 summer season, starting Saturday, May 24 at 12 pm, leading into the Memorial Day holiday.
The District’s outdoor pools will remain open for the entire Memorial Day weekend – Saturday, Sunday and Monday – from 12 pm to 6 pm. DC’s spray parks will also be open for the entire holiday weekend from 10 am to 7 pm. District residents with acceptable proof of residency can swim free of charge at all DPR pools; non-District residents must pay a fee.
DPR’s administrative offices, indoor aquatic facilities, recreation and community centers will be closed Monday, May 26 for the Memorial Day holiday, with the exception of the Wilson Aquatic Center (4551 Fort Dr., NW), which will operate from 9 am to 5 pm. All permitted events will take place as scheduled and all fields will be open.
Immediately following the Memorial Day weekend, all outdoor aquatic facilities will operate on weekends only (Saturday and Sunday), from 12 pm to 6 pm, until Sunday, June 22. Starting the next day, on Monday, June 23, all outdoor pools and spray parks will begin their regular summer schedules. All outdoor pools are open six days a week, and are closed one day for cleaning and maintenance. Spray parks will operate seven days a week.
For a complete listing of DPR’s outdoor and children’s pools, and spray park sites, please see below: (more…)
“Dear PoPville,
Saw this “garbage pick-up boat” on the Anacostia yesterday. I know many readers were disgusted by the recent post showing all the trash in the river after our heavy rains, well this might make them feel better. It moves in, opens up its front “scoops” and skims out all the bottles, trash , and debris, then places it in the back. Pretty cool.”
“Dear PoPville,
The annual kerfuffle over general lawlessness during Cop Week has already gotten some press this week on PoP. I thought it might be worth adding to the discussion by noting an enforcement problem on the MPD side of things. The SeeClickFix site has received numerous complaints of foreign law enforcement parking illegally. See e.g.,:
The back and forth between the citizens and MPD–with the complaints being repeatedly closed then reopened–that was required to get them to finally issue tickets is really something. Enough so that it prompted me to go and look up the citations on DC’s ticket system. Lo and behold, the tickets that were reported to close the complaints do not correspond to the license plates of the offending cars and trailers.
I was curious as to whether this is a problem of MPD trying to give our visitors “professional courtesy” or a larger issue with the SeeClickFix site. It appears that it may be a larger issue. See e.g.,
In each case the online ticket system reports the ticket having been issued to a different license plate than is visible in the picture. Does MPD/parking enforcement just report any random recent ticket in order to close the SeeClickFix complaints?
If you run Ticket #8127714136 through the DC ticket database, it returns a result for a MD car with license plate #2AZ1236. But the car and trailer that were noted in the online complaint have Texas and Mass. plates (see the third Q&A in the complaint). Another complaint was made about the same car and trailer the next day (this time only noting that the truck has Texas plates). The ticket number supposedly issued to the truck to close that complaint, #8127269975, returns a ticket issued to another MD car, this time with license plate #8BE3378.
For the second set of links that I provided, regarding the contractor and the shuttle bus, their license plates are visible in the pictures linked to the online complaint. However, the ticket numbers issued, as reported in the comments, are for different license plate numbers.“
“Dear PoPville,
I recently bought a house and waited a few weeks to update my license address so that I could get the REAL ID. I went to the DMV and actually had a rather pleasant experience (no wait!). However, when I received my new license, I was a little disappointed. The expiration was 2 years and one month away. I noticed that this was the same expiration as my old license, so I emailed the DMV to let them know that someone forgot to update the expiration date before printing my new ID. The DMV responded that the expiration was not updated because this was a “duplicate transaction.”
This makes no sense to me. I can understand that the expiration would not be extended if someone lost an ID and needed a replacement that was actually identical to the old ID. However, in this situation, I had to go to the DMV, prove who I am, prove where I live, and I had a new picture taken. So not only is the information/picture on the ID not the same as my old ID, but the ID itself is completely different.
Now, I will admit that I only paid $20 (instead of the $44 renewal fee), but if I had been given the option, I would have gladly paid $44 now to avoid having to renew in two years. Am I crazy in thinking that this is ridiculous? It seems to me that the DMV should be charging the renewal fee to anyone who gets the REAL ID (or at least giving people the option to pay more) and giving them the standard 8 year expiration date. I am just curious what PoPville thinks…”
From a press release:
“Mayor Vincent C. Gray and the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) unveiled the redesigned DC.Gov home page and associated resource pages. The launch of the new home page is part of a migration of all DC.Gov websites to the District’s Drupal content-management system (CMS). The launch of the home page is a highlight of the migration effort, but also represents the next generation of enhancements to give residents, visitors and businesses a more user-friendly experience.
The new home page arranges content to be more user-friendly, improves navigation tools to provide easier access to content, redesigns the look and feel of the home page, and improves the user’s ability to search for content. It also remedies a number of usability problems with the old home page, and incorporates a responsive design – introducing a best practice in web design that stays current with explosive growth in the use of mobile devices to gain access to web content.
“The new DC.Gov home page aligns with one of the goals of my One City Action Plan – strengthening government accountability,” said Mayor Gray. “DC.Gov will better serve the residents, businesses and visitors of the nation’s capital by improving a user’s ability to find and obtain information about District government operations more quickly and more efficiently.”
“The District’s new DC.Gov home page offers users a whole new set of functionalities that will make it easier than ever before to access, organize and make sense of web-based information and services,” said Rob Mancini, the District’s Chief Technology Officer. “This site reflects Mayor Gray’s goal of greater government accountability and transparency and further enables the ongoing exchange of ideas and information with our residents, visitors, and business owners.”
Highlights of the new DC.Gov web portal include: (more…)