DC Government

Dear PoP – What’s Up With Fenty’s Street Lamp Tax?

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

I was watching the news at 11 pm last night and happen to catch the report on Mayor Fenty’s planned legislation of having residence pay an extra $4.25, business’s pay $16.00, and other pay $42.00 for streets lights. I consider this a light tax. I also find this absolutely crazy seeing as most of the lights are out to begin with (grant circle). What about the elderly and financially challenged? $4.25 seems like a small amount but over a years time it could add up to someone’s medication or other more needed items. I have already called Councilwoman’s Bowser’s office and Councilman Graham’s office as well as the Mayor office. Is there any chance you might could look into this and see what other information you can come up with. Supposedly its up to Councilman Graham to whether this legislation will move forward.”

The City Paper wrote about this earlier in the week:

“Now, the proposed legislation pumps all of this money into a separate streetlight fund to be held separate from the city’s general operating fund—so there’s little danger the city will use your streetlight money to, say, pay for potholes. Also, the language provides that low-income residents can get assistance paying the fee from the city energy assistance office.”

Anyone think this “light tax” is a good idea? Shouldn’t our regular taxes pay for this sort of thing?

Permit-palooza

By Prince Of Petworth

Makes you think twice about ever wanting to do work on one’s home. I think I saw a permit required for opening the front door…and, of course, another one for closing one’s door.

Greater Greater Washington Reports on Juvenile Crime Task Force

By Prince Of Petworth

Greater Greater Washington wrote about Council Member Tommy Wells’ Task Force created to address Juvenile Crime in Ward 6. GGW lists the proposed initiatives:

Increase Public Transparency and Government Accountability

1. Reform the District’s confidentiality laws so the Department of Youth and Rehabilitations Services (DYRS), Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), DC Public Schools (DCPS), DC Housing Authority (DCHA), the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and related service providers can share information about juveniles who commit crimes, especially violent crimes.
2. Mandate the creation of an interagency database assessment tool for tracking at-risk youth.
3. Make juvenile violent crime data available to the community.

Increase Meaningful Juvenile Offender Accountability

1. Streamline and strengthen the government’s ability to revoke a committed youth’s right to stay in a community placement.
2. Increase compliance with mandated community service for juveniles.

Address Truancy in DC Schools

1. Amend DC law to require families with children under 13 years of younger that miss 10 days of school without an excuse to be referred to Child Protective Services (CFSA) for investigation and/or assessment.
2. Provide truancy data to MPD, Department of Human Services, DC Housing Authority and neighborhood youth groups.

Expand Innovations for Preventing Juvenile Crime

1. Expand the WRAP-Around Model for juvenile intervention.
2. Expand the use of neighborhood volunteers for addressing gaps in youth programs in targeted neighborhoods.
3. Create a Juvenile Crime Commission and Juvenile Crime Youth-Only Commission.

Do you support these proposals?

More info from GGW found here.

Councilmember Jim Graham’s Anti Loitering Bill Withdrawn

By Prince Of Petworth

From an email by Councilmember Jim Graham:

“Throughout my career I have tried– working with others– to solve problems. I have worked hard to listen to my constituents. People know also that I am a determined crime fighter who is equally determined to address the root causes of crime.

Children should be able to play outside safely. Neighbors should not be afraid to sit on their front stoops, or walk to the local convenience shop. Our young people should not live in fear while they wait for the bus. People ought to be able to walk freely into their homes and the lobbies of their apartment buildings.

Those concerns led me to try to draft a constitutionally sound piece of legislation. The purpose was to give residents and neighbors some much-needed relief from criminal congregants while also reaffirming the right to assemble. So the draft bill was narrowly focused by requiring a limit of 240 hours, a designated area, and other restrictions.

I care deeply about civil liberties. I am also concerned about giving government power that can be abused, through unfairly targeting people on the basis of race or background. After a lot of effort, there are still critical ambiguities (e.g. the definition of what constitutes “loitering”) . Thus, the opportunity for abuse is too great. Very recent events have reinforced that conclusion.

Thus I have withdrawn the bill.”

Thoughts?

New DC Web site for Consumer Protection Will Go Live Monday

By Prince Of Petworth

Seems like a step in the right direction!  Do you guys think the four key areas “home improvement contractors, towing companies, auto repair shops, and used car lots” are the areas where consumer protection should be focused?  What do you think of the site?

From an email:

“On Monday, we are launching a new Website – consumer.dc.gov – and really pushing consumer protection in four key areas – home improvement contractors, towing companies, auto repair shops and used car lots. We’ve shut down a ton of illegal used car lots in the past three months and are adding new areas to clean up.  It’ll have a new data feeds, we’ll post all the bad actors, it has a Twitter aggregator, Facebook page, blogger room with special videos, badges, podcasts and other goodies all on .gov server. A ton of firsts for dc.gov there. Would love to hear some input and see what you and your readers think.
We are collecting stories, tips, complaints to feature and posted people’s stories in video form on the site, You Tube, Facebook, etc. The complaints we’ll research and see if we can help in anyway. If not, we want other people to share their stories and lessons learned, rather than just posting a top 10 “do not do this.””

Hope You Don’t Need a DCRA Permit Soon

By Prince Of Petworth

Thanks to a reader for sending. Apparently DCRA didn’t publicize their hiatus. Above is the DCRA Permitting Notice warning of delays. Ah, DC bureaucracy…

So That’s How It Always Gets a Good Spot

By Prince Of Petworth

For real, what does this mean? Do the sanitation workers bring it back to the house? I’ve never seen one of these before. Of course I don’t really look at garbage cans all that often…

Holy Cow: Central Union Homeless Shelter Not Coming To Georgia Ave.

By Prince Of Petworth

If anyone attends the press conference fill us in on the details.  I just received this in an email:  “At 2pm today in the 3500 block of Georgia Ave., Councilmember Graham
will be holding a press conference to announce that Central Union
Mission IS NOT coming to Georgia Avenue. They are staying downtown. I
do not know the details but this is good news!”

UPDATED: Email from Council member Jim Graham: 

“Good news!!!  Central Union Mission is not moving to Georgia Avenue in Ward One.  It is moving downtown. 

We have re-defined the project to include real progress for lower Georgia Avenue.  Instead of a 170-bed men’s shelter on the 3500 block of Georgia Avenue, there will now be mixed-income housing.

This is a solid victory for grassroots activism.  I worked with the neighborhood, who came together to send a very effective message that a homeless shelter was not the kind of improvement we wanted.

I joined Mayor Fenty this afternoon for a press conference to announce that the Mission had signed an agreement to move to 65 Mass. Ave.

Congratulations to everyone involved, especially the Georgia Avenue residents, local ANC, Georgia Avenue Redevelopment Defense Squad and the Pleasant Plains Civic Association!  And a special thanks to Mayor Fenty and his fine team.”

DDOT Projects Completed Pedesterian Plaza in Columbia Heights in July 2009

By Prince Of Petworth

Thanks to a reader for sending me the below lengthy email from DDOT improvements in Columbia Heights including the building of the Pedestrian Plaza.  You know the spot now that has all the damn pebbles.  I’m not going to hold my breath on July 2009.  I also saw a date of 2011 but I’m not sure what that’s referring to.  Anyway, it sounds like it is going be pretty sweet when finished.   What do you think?

Dear resident:

Over the last several weeks, as the DC USA project finished and the new retail shops started to open, DDOT staff has received many communications from the neighborhood concerned about DDOT’s commitment to continue with the implementation of the Public Realm Plan developed with the community over the course of the last several years.  This evening members of the DDOT team and I met with the Columbia Heights Public Realm Project Community Leaders group and provided the briefing listed below.  I want to take this opportunity to reach out to the entire community to reiterate DDOT’s commitment to implementing the plan. (more…)

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