DC Government

Dear PoP – DC Property Auction June 30th

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

I know last you covered the DC property auction and it seemed to draw a good bit of interest from your readers. The DC Gov is doing it again and there are some properties that may interest your readers.

You can see the list of properties here.

Which of these properties do you think has the best potential.
Last year’s auction seemed to have a lot of investor types and they have worked to change this.

Participation in the auction is limited to the following participants:

A) Homeowners who intend to purchase the property and reside in the property as their principal place of residence

B) Business entities which are active certified business enterprises (“CBE”) registered with the District of Columbia Department of Small and Local Business Development

C) Not For Profit Corporations

Here is a press release from the DC Gov about the property sale. “

Interesting Locations for Campaign Banners

By Prince Of Petworth

I’m just wondering if anyone knows how campaign banners get posted on and/or in vacant buildings or buildings under going renovations. Is it first come first served? If there is an owner, I assume it is at the discretion of the owner, but what if the building is vacant. The one above is from the old CVS by the Chinatown metro on 7th and H St, NW.

It’s actually pretty cool, there was even one with Chinese:

What the Hell is a Blighted Property?

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user rockcreek

I was trying to get to the bottom of the whole blighted vs vacant property tax issue. I think it is great news that CM Bowser has re-instituted the tax penalties (it will go into law when the budget is signed):

Example: If a vacant house is assessed at $500,000 for tax purposes, the owner will be charged $25K per year in vacant property taxes, or $5 per $100 of assessed value.

Example: If a blighted house is assessed at $500,000 for tax purposes, the owner will be charged $50K per year in blighted property taxes, or $10 per $100 of assessed value.

Following is the official description of a blighted property:

A blighted home is one that is “a vacant building that is determined by the Mayor to be unsafe, insanitary, or which is otherwise determined to threaten the health, safety, or general welfare of the community;

“(B) In making a determination of the blighted vacant building, the Mayor shall consider the following:

“(i) Whether the vacant building is the subject of a condemnation proceeding before the Board of Condemnation and Insanitary Buildings;

“(ii) Whether the vacant building is boarded up; and

“(iii) Failure to comply with the following vacant building maintenance standards:

“(I) Doors, windows, areaways, and other openings are weather-tight and secured against entry by birds, vermin, and trespassers, and missing or broken doors, windows, and other openings are covered.

“(II) The exterior walls are free of holes, breaks, graffiti, and loose or rotting materials, and exposed metal and wood surfaces are protected from the elements and against decay or rust by periodic application of weather-coating materials, such as paint; or

“(III) All balconies, porches, canopies, marquees, signs, metal awnings, stairways, accessory and appurtenant structures, and similar features are safe and sound, and exposed metal and wood surfaces are protected from the elements by application of weather-coating materials, such as paint.”

Now that looks like a whole lot of gibberish to me. I know that legal language is obviously necessary. But I’m wondering if someone can explain to me in plain English and bluntly when a property gets declared blighted. Is it basically at the discretion of an assessor? I may not speak, or understand for that matter, legalese but I sure see a boatload of “blighted” properties around town…

Petworth Section of Georigia Ave’s Great Streets Improvement Project Begins

By Prince Of Petworth


Map from DDOT via GGW

Holy cow, not sure how I missed this. Greater Greater Washington’s Kent Boese reports:

On May 17, 2010, work on the $7.9 million Middle Georgia Avenue Great Streets project began. The project is expected to last approximately 18 months and will include the area between Webster Street and Otis Place, NW, and include Upshur Street between 8th and 9th Streets.

The greatest changes will come to two triangular parks along Georgia, one at Upshur and 9th and the other at Varnum and Kansas Avenue. Both will get new landscaping and the sidewalks realigned.

Most significantly, 9th Street will be closed to traffic at the tip of the triangle, where it splits off Georgia at a narrow angle. That will become community greenspace, including one of several bio-retention ponds.

The project will consist of roughly three phases starting at Webster Street and working south.

Lots more great info and maps here.  This community greenspace is gonna make for a great Petworth Farmer’s Market, hopefully, starting June 25th.

Update: Thanks to a reader comment, you can track progress on this project here.

Dear PoP – Unfortunate encounter with MPD

By Prince Of Petworth


Photos from PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

“Dear PoP,

Last night, Sunday, I went to the bus station at midnight to pick up my roommate who was coming in late. I got to the Greyhound bus station behind Union Station, and pulled off to the side of the street. I called her to find out where she was, only to find out she goofed and told me the wrong bus station. (She came in on MegaBus at Metro Center.) I was trying to calm her down and tell her it wasn’t a big deal and I would be there in a few minutes. I put the car in drive and began to hang up my phone, when a cop car pulled in behind me. I didn’t move, and the cop car flashed his lights, then proceeded to pull along side me. The cop then slid to his passenger seat, rolled down his window and knocked on my window. I rolled down my window, and the officer said (and I quote) ” Get off the F***ing phone.” I said, ” I’m sorry Officer, I’m a little turned around and I was trying to figure out where I need to go.”

I’m not sure what disturbs me more, the fact that the police officer dropped the F bomb on me, didn’t get out of his car, or when I admitted I was a little lost, he didn’t even ask if I needed help. And the area I was in is not well populated, and not that safe late at night. I also have to admit I look like I’m about 18 when I’m actually 26.

I can’t help but think this officer violated his duties of an officer of the law a few times during my brief encounter. I was just wondering if anyone else has ever had this type of experience before of an member of the MPD.”

I agree that this is completely unacceptable behavior. I know this is not a life or death example but small examples like this, I think, can lead to larger problems. I will make sure that this note is forwarded to the commander of this police district. Have others experienced behavior like this before?

ANC Rep Replies to Controversy Surrounding the $242k for Streetscape Improvements

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user ewilfong

As promised in yesterday’s post here is an individual ANC’s perspective on the controversy:

“I’m one of the two ANC commissioners cited by Adam Hoey in his complaint that funds for the Main Street TEG grant might be “diverted by a possible resolution from ANC1D Commissioners Edwards and McKay”. It’s important to note that no such resolution has been offered, and if the ANC simply does nothing, the grant will proceed.

Consider what would be purchased with this $242,000 expenditure. Up-lighting of some trees in Lamont Park. “Festoon lights” hung across the street. Painting the streetlight poles black. A mid-block pedestrian crosswalk (which DDOT won’t do, that being an unsafe crossing location). Bike “sharrows”. Some trees, locations uncertain. Nicer benches (our homeless-shelter folks, who spend their days in this park, will no doubt be pleased). The “park tables” would be nice, and correspond to an ANC resolution calling for such tables, but are not part of the proposal as submitted to DDOT, and have not heretofore been mentioned.

Will any of this make any real difference? Mount Pleasant Street is having a tough time lately, in part because many Mount Pleasant residents prefer to do their shopping and restauranting elsewhere. I could go on at great length about the problems on the Street, and what we might do to reverse the decline of what some residents call “Mount Unpleasant Street”. But what’s clear is that small steps, like the cosmetic changes proposed by Main Street, will accomplish little. Surely that $241,000 of taxpayer money could be better spent. I don’t support wasteful uses of public funds, even if opposing waste causes those funds to go to some other DC neighborhood.

The Main Street effort got off to a bad start, as the ANC in July, 2009, failed (on a 3 to 3 vote) to pass a resolution of support for their proposal, only to have Main Street falsely claim in its proposal to DDOT that it had “received ANC support for moving forward with the application”. No, it hadn’t, as we wanted to see more detail about exactly what was being proposed. As for Historic Mount Pleasant, the president has this to say: “I think a line-by-line discussion of the proposal is essential. . . . If they spend this on second and third priority stuff, then my concern is that our real priorities — like new street lamps — will be pushed even further down the budgetary wait list.”

Mount Pleasant Street needs, and deserves, better than this. DC taxpayers deserve better than this.

I am writing, of course, as a single commissioner, and not for the ANC.

Jack McKay
ANC 1-D, Mount Pleasant, Single Member District 1D03″

Old Bruce Monroe Site Gets $1.5, $7 million for D.C. small businesses hurt by the streetscape projects

By Prince Of Petworth

We last spoke about the old Bruce Monroe site here and we last spoke about providing funds to small business hurt by streetscape projects here.

From a CM Jim Graham Press Release:

“I worked with Chairman Gray to put $1.5 million in to transform the old Bruce-Monroe site into the community use we need. The Mayor’s office said there was only $500,000 in the budget. That was not enough for the basketball courts, night-time lights, fencing, tennis court, programming and other beautification items. The stakeholders challenged me to find more. We did.

There will also be $7 million for D.C. small businesses hurt by the streetscape projects. This money will be placed in a fund for the sole purpose of providing tax relief for our small businesses. Earlier this year, several Col. Heights businesses showed me photos of the obstacles – diggers, brick piles, sand and all manner of debris – stopping their customers at the door. They also shared some of their financial books, all of which spurred me to act. We will be developing the process itself in the next few weeks. But we had to get the budget funding in place.”

WP: Funding restored for D.C. streetcars

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo from PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

The Washington Post’s Nikita Stewart is reporting:

“D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray said he has worked with the office of the Chief Financial Officer to come up with money that would allow the city to restore funding for streetcars.

Gray spokeswoman Doxie McCoy said $10 million would be made available immediately to purchase street cars in fiscal 2011. Another $37 million would be place in reserve pending an operations and funding proposal from Mayor Adrian Fenty. The council would then have to approve the proposal.”

Council Chairman Vince Gray Comments on the Budget and Streetcars

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo from PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

From a Vince Gray for Mayor press release:

“I strongly support streetcar development, and remain committed to seeing it become a reality here in the District of Columbia. I’ve visited Portland, Oregon, twice in recent years, seen first-hand the positive economic impact and transportation impact on communities, and I am firmly committed to a new streetcar system in the District which brings about similar benefits to our city.

But we owe it to ourselves to have a well thought out planning process. We can’t afford the Mayor’s approach of “build now and plan later,” which only results in poor outcomes and much higher costs in the end. There needs to be proper planning, comprehensive transportation and engineering work, which is why we allocated $5 million to complete the planning process. Streetcars aren’t scheduled for completion until 2030, and over the next year, we’ll do the kind of planning that’s necessary to give us the most efficient use of our dollars.

I have full intention to move forward with streetcars, however, while we do the planning over the next year, we can take some of the dollars for desperately needed and more immediate capital projects, like renovation of middle schools, while our dollars are dwindling. This approach, which passed Council by a vote of 11-2, will allow for better collaboration and cooperation with residents, business owners, and other stakeholders, and result in a much stronger streetcar system in the end.”

GGW Reports: Streetcars Could be Cut

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

Thanks to all who sent links to the below report:

Greater Greater Washington is rallying the troops:

Last night, Council supporters and DDOT officials went to sleep with the understanding that the final budget negotiations had preserved the streetcar.

The line had been approved by the Committee on Public Works and Transportation last week, but the final proposed Budget Support Act removes it and returns funding to some of the Great Streets streetscapes which DDOT said they could backfill with federal funds.

Gray’s office is saying that the program isn’t “cut” because the budget hasn’t been voted on. It’s true that this proposal is a substitute amendment to the budget, which has to be approved by Council, but since Gray is the chairman, it’s essentially the baseline that they’ll be using to modify today, and unless the Council overrides this part to reinstate streetcars, they’re cut.

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