DC Government

From the Mayor’s office:

Mayor Vincent C. Gray, Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and District Department of Transportation Director (DDOT) Terry Bellamy today announced a regulatory fix to the District’s Automated Traffic Enforcement (ATE) program that will improve the fairness of speeding fines while improving public safety.

“For months since the Metropolitan Police Department put more photo-enforcement vehicles on the street to reduce speeding, decrease traffic fatalities and make things safer for all motorists, pedestrians and cyclists, we’ve received lots of feedback —some of it good and some of it bad,” Mayor Gray said. “So, today I am announcing that, effective on Monday, there will be adjustments in the ATE program that we believe will improve fairness while continuing to ensure and improve public safety.”

The changes to the program include decreasing fines on less-dangerous violations of speed laws and increasing fines on the most flagrant violators:

· Violators caught speeding up to 10 miles per hour over the limit will be fined $50 instead of the current $75;

· Violators caught speeding 11 to 15 miles per hour over the limit will now be fined $100 rather than the current $125; and

· Violators caught speeding more than 25 miles per hour in excess of the limit will receive a higher fine of $300 instead of the current $250 fine.

“We believe this strikes the right balance between ensuring the safety of motorists, cyclists, pedestrians and those who live on thoroughfares while also making the system fairer for those whose violations are less dangerous than the most flagrant speeders,” Mayor Gray said.

The changes will be implemented through the Department of Motor Vehicles’ regulatory authority, which means they will not require legislation and can take effect quickly.

In addition, Mayor Gray said, the administration is instituting two other changes to improve the ATE system. DDOT engineers will study the safety of altering speed limits in areas where improvements to roadways may enable changes without compromising safety. And Mayor Gray will propose emergency legislation that will dedicate a portion of revenues from the ATE program to hiring 100 new police officers, bringing the Metropolitan Police force up to 4,000 officers.

Photo by PoPville flickr user ekelly80

From DPW:

The DC Department of Public Works announced today that it will begin collecting leaves Monday, November 5 and will continue collections through January 12, 2013. DPW will be in each neighborhood at least twice for two weeks collecting leaves during the season. To ensure leaves are collected, residents are asked to check the schedule for their neighborhood and get their leaves ready for collection the weekend before each collection cycle. Earlier this month, DPW mailed a collection schedule to residents whose trash and recycling are collected by DPW. That schedule also can be found at www.dpw.dc.gov.

“We will collect leaves from every residential street in the District,” said DPW Director William O. Howland, Jr. “This is our most labor-intensive operation, involving more than 200 people working six days a week, including Veterans Day (observed Monday, November 12) and Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 22).”

He advised residents to rake loose leaves into the treeboxes, not into the street, and DPW crews will vacuum the leaves, which will be composted. “We also will collect bagged leaves left in the treeboxes and they, too, will be composted,” he added. Last year DPW composted almost 6,000 tons of leaves. The free compost is available to residents for pick up between March and October at the Ft. Totten Transfer Station.

DPW will collect holiday trees between December 31 and January 12. Residents should remove ornaments before placing the trees where their trash and recycling are collected.

Here are some tips for a smooth-running leaf collection season:

• Look up your street’s collection schedule in the leaf collection brochure or at http://leaf.dcgis.dc.gov/.
• Rake leaves into the treebox the weekend before your street’s collection cycles.
• Please – leaves only! Tree limbs, bricks, dirt, rocks, etc., will damage the equipment and delay collections.
• If you choose to bag your leaves, place the bags in the treebox or next to the trash/recycling container(s).
• Drive slowly around our crews’ work area so no one gets hurt.

Photo by PoPville flickr user blueiris2006

From EOM:

“Residential Street Sweeping: Street sweeping in signed residential neighborhoods will resume March 1. Sweeping was suspended this week to allow the crews to clear storm debris, and the end of this program is October 31. Therefore, motorists do not need to obey the parking restrictions on Tuesday or Wednesday. Street sweeping will resume March 1.”

In other DPW news:

“Trash/recycling collections: 1. Residents living in once-a-week collections neighborhoods are asked to hold onto their trash and recyclables until next Tuesday, when normal collections will be made. 2. Residents living in twice-a-week collections neighborhoods whose recycling is collected on Tuesdays are asked to hold onto their recyclables until next Tuesday. These residents’ trash will be collected on Friday. Residents whose recycling is collected on Friday, their recyclables will be collected.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user blueiris2006

Dear PoPville,

I just had a great interaction with a city service that’s new to me and possibly helpful to other readers. There’s a mentally ill man who hangs out at my bus stop; he usually just watches the people go by, but has really devolved over the last two months – pacing, shouting at the air and looking disheveled (he’s not homeless). Today was particularly bad, so I called 311 and they connected me to the DC Mental Health Mobile Response Team. A very considerate guy answered right away, took down my information, and called back 45 minutes later to say that they had sent a team out, talked to him, and even talked to his case worker (whom they knew).

I was impressed at how responsive, considerate and on top of things they were, and relieved that the city did more than send police to move him along. He wasn’t violent, but if you come across someone who is, they recommend calling 911 and asking the police to send their mental health team (it has an acronym that I didn’t catch) since they have special training in handling these situations.

Photo by PoPville flickr user dracisk

From a press release:

Mayor Vincent C. Gray, D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) Director Jesús Aguirre and Department of General Services (DGS) Director Brian Hanlon today announced that the District government would be undertaking the largest playground renovation project in its history. The announcement was made at Benning Park Recreation Center, one of the sites scheduled to be renovated under the expanded and accelerated Playground Improvement Project.

As part of his Playground Improvement Project, Mayor Gray tasked DPR with identifying the playgrounds across the city most in need of renovations. Initially this project was to be a multi-year endeavor as the District worked to improve all of the playgrounds in DPR’s inventory. However, Mayor Gray prioritized this initiative and worked with his budget team to identify additional end-of-year capital funds to both add additional playgrounds to the project and accelerate the pace of renovations. As a result, a total of 32 playgrounds will now be renovated in Fiscal Year 2013.

DPR and DGS conducted an analysis to determine which playgrounds were most in need of renovation and to estimate the number that could be renovated with the new funding.

Criteria that were used to determine which playgrounds receive renovations include:

Age and condition of existing equipment;
Internal risk-management audits;
Community needs;
Existing usage;
Existing surfacing;
Accessibility;
Area demographics – including trends and forecasts;
Existing infrastructure (water, electricity, etc.);
Operations and maintenance requirements; and
Proximity to other playgrounds/parks.

Mayor Gray announced today that the following playgrounds were identified though this analysis and will be renovated through this initiative are:

Ward 1

Harrison Playground, 1330 V Street NW
Banneker Playground, 2500 Georgia Avenue NW

Ward 2

Rose Park Playground, 2609 Dumbarton Street NW

Ward 3

Macomb Playground, 3409 Macomb Street NW
Palisades Playground, 5200 Sherrier Place NW
Forest Hills Park Playground, 32nd Street NW and Chesapeake Street NW
Newark Park Playground, 39th Street NW and Newark Street NW
Key Playground, 5001 Dana Place NW

Ward 4

Takoma Park Playground, 300 Van Buren Street NW
Emery Playground, 5801 Georgia Avenue, NW
Upshur Park Playground, 4300 Arkansas Avenue NW
Fort Stevens Playground, 1327 Van Buren Street, NW
Hamilton Playground, 1340 Hamilton Street NW

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Dear PoPville,

About a year ago the intersection of Florida, U & 18th was reconfigured to make it safer for pedestrians to cross U Street (among other reasons). Prior to the reconfiguration, motorists traveling east on Florida Avenue turning onto U Street rarely yielded to pedestrians who had the “walk” sign. Today, there is a right turn light that was supposed to force motorists to stop. I live in the area and cross the intersection several time a day and I can attest to the fact that at least 50 percent of the time motorists blow through the red turn light without stopping. As a sometimes motorist, I agree that the intersection is confusing. However, the worst offenders are Metro bus and taxi drivers who most likely drive through the intersection daily and should be familiar with it.

This is a video I shot yesterday morning. I saw the bus stopped at the light on 18th and from experience I suspected it would run the light after making the turn onto Florida. I was correct. After crossing the street at the next light cycle, I shot the next segment showing a taxi running right through the red turn light.

I know to watch closely before stepping onto the crosswalk, but others unfamiliar with the intersection may just start walking when they see the “walk” sign and might get hit. I’m not sure what the answer is, but someone in authority needs to address it.