DC Government

“Dear PoP,

A question to PoPville about how to deal with WASA. Attached is a pic, taken on a *good* day, of our bathtub filled with disgusting water courtesy of WASA. We contacted them a year ago and they came out and tested to make sure it was “safe” to drink (they claim it is). Their instruction to us was to “flush” the lines every day by running all the water at full blast for 10-15 minutes. It just seems to me that an entity which charges me to buy clean water shouldn’t be allowed to tell me I have to buy 100 times more of their product to get it in usable condition. Additionally, the sediment is now causing costly damage to our appliances and tankless water heater. My question is whether there is any chance of having WASA install a whole house water filter on our house, and whether they are required by law to provide us with water that is not dirt brown?”

Hmm, WASA – now My DC Water – has definitely become more responsive. They are particularly responsive on twitter @mydcwater. They can also be reached by phone at 202-612-3440. I know just this Sat. they responded to a twitter query sent to me about the taste of chlorinated water.

But back to the question at hand: Has anyone else experienced brown water like this? If so, how did you resolve it?

“Dear PoP,

In response to last week’s post about newspaper boxes, I found a partial answer. I took these photos of boxes at 18th and H NW. Looks like these boxes are regulated by the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. Even assuming that all BIDs regulated boxes, that would still leave a lot of boxes that sit outside of BIDs unregulated. From the sign, it looks like the BID asks publishers to sign on to a voluntary agreement regarding maintenance of the boxes. I’m not knowledgeable about first amendment issues, but I believe that since BIDs aren’t government entities (or probably even quasi-governmental), they wouldn’t be subject to first amendment restrictions. And even if they were, the agreement being voluntary might get around that.”

Cool, thanks for following up!

Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

“Dear PoP,

I sold my car that was registered in D.C. to someone out of state. I have the tags, but I’d like to keep them for my personal collection (who doesn’t?)…

On the D.C. DMV site, they imply that while they’d really like the tags, it’s still optional to surrender them (see this line at the bottom of this page:

“You are responsible for any infractions incurred on the tags if you do not surrender them to DMV.”)

However, I just got a notice that my car is due to be inspected again. How do I tell the DMV I need to cancel the car’s registration without surrendering the tags?

If I don’t tell them somehow, then I’m going to get charged late fees, etc.

Any ideas? I’ve tried calling and e-mailing, but I never get to a real person, and there’s no additional information on the site.”

Hmm, I thought when you sell your car and the new owner registers the car then your registration automatically is canceled. Isn’t that how it works? Anyone sell their car and keep the plates? Did you face similar problems?

“Dear PoP,

I live on the 1300 block of Belmont St, NW. My question comes at a particularly relevant time in DC vehicle usage. There is a large “DC Meters” van that parks on my street overnight. It’s huge and it takes up a lot of very precious parking. The fact that it’s there overnight and gone during the day leads me to believe that someone who works for the city is using this city vehicle as a personal vehicle as well. So, is there a special lot that these vehicles should be parked in overnight? How do I tell if the driver of this van is abusing their “power”?

Bottom line, it takes up an obnoxious amount of room on the street when people seem to be ready to cut each other over parking.”

Hmm, I think some DC jobs (no I’m not talking about that one) allow their workers to drive vehicles home. Anyone else ever hear/see that as well? Do you think “non essential” employees should be able to drive DC vehicles home?

Photo by PoPville flickr user ewilfong

“Dear PoP,

I am looking at having a new patio and a garage door installed at my townhouse in Shaw. I received the email below from the landscaper, notifying me that DC passed a law in August prohibiting the installation of roll-up garage doors. Given the hundreds / thousands of roll-up doors in DC, could that possibly be true? Are any of your other readers familiar with this law?

Unfortunately the salesman at [redacted] I spoke with informed me that as of August of last year, there is a law prohibiting the installation of automatic roll up gates on residential property where it is not protected by an overhead carport like structure. He told me that they if they have any mechanical failures that they (or any manufacturer) would not replace any of the automatic components on the existing gates. This was enacted for some sort of liability issue. I imagine that you would still be able to find someone to install one but it seems that any type of warranty would not be honored. This is of course the situation as of now. A future solution may be reached.”

Whoa! Anyone else heard of this law? Does it make any sense?

“Dear PoP,

What is the origin of the DC version of a supercan? This is one of the most boneheaded designs I have ever seen. It is extremely top heavy (height to width ratio with most of the base being wheels), only takes small width tall kitchen bags and will only stand on completely flat surfaces.

The old regular trash cans worked fine and these seem to offer no benefit to the DPW workers accept the lids cannot come off.

I have never been a fan of these, but with the wind this year……………….I want Blood!”

Hahaha, it’s a very good question. Any engineers out there think think this is actually a useful/good design? When did these cans go into circulation? Anyone remember what was used before these?

“Dear PoP,

I’ve never lived in an area with street sweeping before…and it starts just before I leave the country for two weeks. It’s one side of the street on Tuesdays, and the other side Wednesdays; the blocks around me all seem to have street sweeping as well, so I’m not having much luck finding a safe parking spot. What do people typically do when they’ll be out of town and can’t move their cars once a week?”

We spoke about unzoned parking options back in Jan. ’11. So don’t forget that street sweeping starts up soon! The signs say March 1st but DPW hasn’t officially issued a press release for the exact date. I’ll update when they do.