DC Government

Pre-construction Meeting for the U St. Streetscape Project Tonight

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user maria jpeg

From an email:

On Wednesday, May 30, 2012, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will host a public pre-construction meeting for the U St. Streetscape Project. This meeting is being held in conjunction with Councilmember Jim Graham and other Ward 1 stakeholders. Representatives from DDOT will meet with the public to discuss the project details, explain the impacts that construction will have on the community and to also answer questions or concerns about the construction activities planned for this project.

The U St. Streetscape Project will include the following features and improvements:

· Roadway, driveway and alley entrance repairs and replacements
· Replacement of Deteriorated sidewalks with new ADA compliant sidewalks, the installation of streetscape and landscape features along the sidewalk areas, to include brick gutters and granite curbs
· Special decorative sidewalks in front of the Lincoln Theatre
· Reconstructed bus pads at all WMATA bus stops
· Storm drainage inlets will be upgraded to water quality inlets, new storm sewer pipes and fire hydrants
· New electrical duct bank system installations, new Teardrop and Washington Globe streetlights, and traffic signal upgrades and relocations
· Centralized parking meters and new traffic signs

The construction for this project is scheduled to start on or about June 11, 2012 and be completed by spring of 2013 barring any unforeseen or weather conditions. DDOT will start first with reconstructing a 0.4-mile segment of Historic U Street from 9th Street to 14th Street NW.

For more information on the project and to sign up for future updates visit www.ustreetproject.com.

Questions about this project may be directed to the DDOT Project Manager – Wendy Peckham at 202-671-4581.

What: Pre-Construction Meeting for the U St. Streetscape Project
When: Wednesday, May 30, 2012
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Where: Frank D. Reeves Center, 2000 14th Street, NW (2nd floor community room)

MPD Announces New Speed Cameras

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user [F]oxymoron

Thanks to a reader for sending the link from MPD:

The Metropolitan Police Department announced today the deployment of new automated speed enforcement locations beginning on or after May 7, 2012.

The deployment locations for the Photo Enforcement Units will continue to be at sites with the highest number of crashes and injuries, calls for police service, and high speed volume. MPD also considered recommendations or requests from the Department of Transportation, Advisory Neighborhood Commissions and civic or citizen associations.

The 30-day educational phase will commence on May 7, 2012, when violators will begin receiving warning citations. On June 6, 2012, MPD will begin issuing live moving citations to violators. The new photo enforcement locations are as follows:

Full list after the jump.

Southwest Frwy SW @ Exit 4 westbound 40mph

I395 SW after Exit 4 eastbound 40mph

400 blk 14th St SW northbound 35mph

200 blk 17th St NE southbound 25mph

800 blk Maine Ave SW northwestbound 25mph

1300 blk 4th St SW southbound 25mph

9th St Tunnel NW southbound 35mph

3000 blk Foxhall Rd NW southbound 25mph

1800 blk Harvard St NW northwestbound 25mph

7600 blk Georgia Ave NW southbound 30mph

4800 blk Georgia Ave NW southbound 30mph

1700 blk North Portal Dr NW southwestbound 25mph

2800 blk Bladensburg Rd NE southwestbound 30mph

3100 blk Bladensburg Rd NE northeastbound 30mph

2200 blk South Dakota Ave NE southeastbound 25mph

S. Dakota Ave NE westbound prior to V St 25mph

700 blk Franklin St NE westbound 25mph

1400 blk New York Ave NE northeastbound 35mph

1500 blk West Virginia Ave NE northeastbound 25mph

2000 blk West Virginia Ave NE southwestbound 25mph

3100 blk Minnesota Ave SE southwestbound 25mph

3000 blk Minnesota Ave SE northeastbound 25mph

3700 blk Massachusetts Ave SE southeastbound 25mph

3900 blk Pennsylvania Ave SE southeastbound 30mph

4300 blk Texas Ave SE southbound 25mph

4800 blk Texas Ave SE northbound 25mph

5000 blk Sheriff Rd NE westbound 30mph

Clean Teams Returning to Ward 1

By Prince Of Petworth

From Council Member Jim Graham:

I am pleased to announce the Ward One Clean Teams will soon be back in full force in many of our neighborhoods – – covering a total 38 blocks throughout the Ward. I worked hard to get the funding back into place for this important service. I want to thank Mayor Vincent Gray, Chairman Kwame Brown, and Harold Pettigrew, Director of the Department of Small and Local Business Development for their help in re-establishing Clean Teams.

We have missed these services – – and value this work in our neighborhoods.

We are giving people a chance to rebuild their lives with jobs, while fulfilling this useful purpose. Charlie Whittaker successfully competed for this contract, and again has the supervision of this service. His able services are much appreciated.

Please look for Clean Team members in the neighborhoods below starting in the next few weeks. (Adams Morgan has had no lapse in their green team cleanups, due to a different source of funding, part private and part DC gov.)

Georgia Avenue — Georgia Avenue, NW from Irving Street, NW to New Hampshire Avenue, NW (Node 1, Pleasant Plains : Petworth, (10 linear blocks);

U Street — U Street, NW from 9th to 14th Streets; and the northside from 14th to 17th Streets, NW (6.5 linear blocks);

14th Street MidCity —14th Street, NW from S Street, NW to Florida Avenue, NW (5 linear blocks);

14th Street Columbia Heights —14th Street, NW from Columbia Road, NW to Spring Road , NW; and Park Road, NW from 14th Street, NW to Hiatt Place, NW (11 linear blocks)

11th Street —11th Street, NW from Kenyon to Monroe Streets, NW(3 linear blocks)

Mt. Pleasant— Mount Pleasant Street from 16th Street, NW to Park Road, NW (3 linear blocks)

New Petition for “DC Council: Stop treating record stores and vintage stores like pawn shops”

By Prince Of Petworth

Thanks to all who sent links requesting to post this change.org petition:

On April 4, officials with the DC Office of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) raided a number of Adams Morgan and U Street-area businesses that sell vintage and used goods, threatening them with fines and closure for operating without a secondhand business license. This license is intended to regulate pawn shops, to safeguard against the selling of stolen goods.

The regulations would require shops like Meeps, Idle Time Books, GoodWood, and Miss Pixies — as well as all the record stores in town — to submit to MPD’s pawn unit a detailed list of goods acquired each time they make a purchase. Additionally, MPD wants the stores to hold items for 15 days for police inspection before they can be sold. These requirements introduce a regulatory load which helps no one and threatens the existence of the small businesses that make DC unique.

DC’s secondhand business regulations are outdated, unnecessarily burdensome, and overly broad. A lawyer working with DC’s small business community has proposed amendments to the regulations that would bring them up to date and carve out exemptions for the businesses described above.

Please add your name to this petition to request that the City Council pass emergency legislation that would provide 90 days of relief and time to establish a permanent exemption for businesses that sell used and vintage goods. It’s vital that this happen to re-establish a sense of trust between local government and the businesses that drive our local economy.

Georgetown DMV Closing

By Prince Of Petworth


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From DDOT:

Due to construction at the Georgetown Park Mall, the District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicle (DC DMV) Service Center located at 3222 M Street, NW, will close on Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 4:00pm. Although DC DMV will open a temporary service center location, it will not be operational until two weeks later. Therefore, customers are encouraged to “skip the in-person” trip and conduct their transactions online at dmv.dc.gov. This recommendation will prevent extremely long lines at the other two service center locations.

On Monday, June 4, 2012, DC DMV will open a temporary service center at 301 C Street, NW. This temporary service center will operate the same hours as Adjudication Services which will be co-located with the temporary service center. Therefore, the hours of operation for the temporary location will be Monday-Friday, 8:15-4:00pm. Please keep in mind the hours of operation for the other two DC DMV service centers will remain unchanged with Tuesday – Saturday operations.

Below is a list of DC DMV impacted locations and hours of operation:

Georgetown Service Center
CLOSED AS OF 4:00pm, SATURDAY, MAY 19, 2012
Tuesday – Saturday, 8:15am – 4:00pm
Georgetown Park Mall – Lower Level
3222 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007

Temporary C Street Service Center
OPEN AS OF 8:15am, MONDAY, JUNE 4, 2012
Monday – Friday, 8:15am – 4:00pm
301 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Adjudication Services
Monday – Friday, 8:15am – 4:00pm
301 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Penn Branch Service Center
Tuesday – Saturday, 8:15am – 4:00pm
Penn Branch Shopping Center
3220 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20019

Southwest Service Center
Tuesday – Saturday, 8:15am – 4:00pm
95 M Street, SW
Washington, DC 20024

New DC residents who have requested their lienholders to send out-of-state titles to the Georgetown Service Center will need to visit the Penn Branch Service Center to title and register their vehicles after Saturday, May 19, 2012.

We apologize for the customer inconvenience of these operational changes.

Dear PoPville – Update on Garbage/Recycling fines

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user philliefan99

Dear PoPville,

Our condo building just got hit with $1,200.00 in fines for having some recycling in the garbage dumpster and I remembered there was a story about this last year.

I’d love to see an update and learn if anyone has successfully dealt with the city and if so how – None of our alleged tickets were ever received – DPW just sent them to the address with no name or apartment number. We do in fact have (and pay for!) recycling bins. But short of chaining closed the dumpsters, there is no way to keep random people from throwing in whatever they want.

Has anyone been able to 1. Negotiate a lesser fine 2. End the abusive targeting of buildings in certain neighborhoods.

What the Helen of Troy is This?

By Prince Of Petworth

A reader snaps this photo of a “Bad Boys Club” license plate this morning. TBD did a good breakdown of 2011 DC License plates in February. They wrote:

“The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles issued 113,259 tags to District drivers in the fiscal year of 2011. But not all tags are created equal.

As the DMV website states, you can create any number of specialty license plates, sometimes for extra fees.”

You can see the tag fees here. And if you want to create an organization vehicle tag – you can learn how to do that below:

Organizational Vehicle Tags Package

Dear PoPville – Can We Drink Alcohol at the Georgetown Waterfront Park?

By Prince Of Petworth

Dear PoPville,

I wondered if you/your readers know if one can drink alcohol in the Georgetown Waterfront Park? It’s such a nice green space/area to watch the boats that a bottle of vino would go nicely with a picnic and the view!

The Georgetown Waterfront Park is part of the National Park Service and therefore I don’t think you can legally drink alcohol there. You can find all the regulations for the park here.

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