“Dear PoPville,
My household would like to increase our support of local black-owned businesses and the organizations that support equality and marginalized communities. We know and frequent many already, but I believe the wider PoPville-community will let us know about all the wonderful places and organizations that we may have missed. On a side note, I’ll give a shout out to Horton’s Kids, which does amazing work for DC kids in some of the most underserved neighborhoods.”
Photo by Stephanie Stefanski
“Dear PoPville,
Yesterday around 6:30, my family (including my teenage daughter) were in front of St John’s, on 16th. First, my husband felt something burning in his eye. Both my daughter and I started to feel burning in our eyes and throats. Several around us felt the same. My husband was texting with a friend in a different area who reported the same, as well. We are certain it was pepper or similar irritant. WaPo says that as the 7 pm curfew passed, authorities took no action. They also noted that families dispersed. I suspect families dispersed, like we did, because of the pepper, and to keep our child safe. I haven’t seen anything about this reported. Have you received similar reports?”
“Dear PoPville,
Anyone else seeing roving bands of cop caravans? They turned left from Kenyon onto 14th and right onto Columbia Road. Then, 10 minutes later, they went back north on 14th street and turned left onto Park Road.”
And thanks to Kate for sending the vehicle above: “Police are starting to stage between 16th and K and Eye st. I would expect them to cut off traffic in both directions soon.”
Chinatown photo by KL
“Dear PoPville,
I think many of us are feeling helpless after this weekend, does anyone know of cleanup efforts to help the businesses that have been broken into?”
Alyssa (and many others) also writes:
“I see folks asking you about groups organizing cleanups today. Great if you know but even if not, would be cool if we just organized ourselves. Count me in, happy to help organize & gather with some like-minded folks. FYI!
(..but I’m not sure where it’s most needed!)”
Photo by John Brighenti
“Dear PoPville,
We want my dad, who has worked in HVAC and plumbing for over 40 years, to install air conditioning minisplit units at our house. He’s not licensed in DC, but I seem to remember reading something about DIY home improvement projects being done yourself or by immediate family not needing a permit or something similar, and heard the same from our real estate agent. Was this a hallucination/told to us in error? Is he able to do this work for us at all, or are we forced to hire a DC contractor or risk fines? It almost goes without saying that the DCRA website is less than intuitive or helpful, and has very little info for people interested in doing work themselves.”
and
“I find myself in need of help/advise on building a pool in NW DC. We are purchasing a home in Hawthorne and I don’t have the slightest clue where to begin with this endeavor. I know we will need DCRA approval, but I also want to find a reputable pool company-preferably not a big name chain, to do the design and work. Can you help please!”
Photo by Victoria Pickering
“Dear PoPville,
In the midst of all the COVID craziness, I have to move and am looking for a property manager for my rowhouse in Kingman Park. After a bad experience with a property manager years ago, I’m pretty nervous by the vast amount of companies and the variation in reviews. Does anybody have any recommendations for property managers that have worked for them?”
Photo by Jim Havard
“Dear PoPville,
My fiance and I had to postpone our October wedding to ensure our immunocompromised friends and families wouldn’t be put at risk, and we rescheduled for Memorial Day weekend of next year. We still want to get married, so we decided to take advantage of DC’s online applications for marriage licenses, so we can get married on May 30th, so that our wedding date next year will be our one-year anniversary.
Unfortunately, we submitted our application a month ago and still haven’t heard anything from the DC Marriage Bureau. We tried calling the number listed on their site, and a woman answered, “HELLO?!” and seemed genuinely surprised and very unhappy that we were calling. She dismissively told my fiance to check his spam folder (obviously we already had), said nothing else could be done by her or anyone else to check in on our application, and hung up.
We have just two weeks left to figure this out… would love to hear if anyone else been able to get their license through the online application process during the quarantine?
We reached out to our Councilperson for help, who reached out to Rep. Holmes-Norton, who hasn’t responded. Any other suggestions would be really appreciated! We’ve already had a tough year of loss and challenges (recognizing that we’re not the only ones), and it’d be great to have at least one thing go right – or, rather, for DC’s bureaucracy to do one thing right.”
Photo by fromcaliw/love
“Dear PoPville,
GW Hospital has been continuing to harass people with debt collection calls during the pandemic. Additionally, the business center is either unwilling or unable to help. A call can take hours to get through. If you call at a busy time the line will only stay active a little over an hour and then disconnect. This forces you to restart the queue. If you can get through and ask questions that they are unable to answer they will hang up forcing you to start all over. I have been in contact with the attorney generals office (more…)
“Dear PoPville,
I just wanted to give a heads up to runners in northeast (specifically between 2nd-3rd and K-F) of a man that is verbally harassing/chasing runners. I witnessed a runner being harassed by this man Monday near Ebenezers coffee where he screamed at the man and jolted at him. I myself was harassed by him today near Indigo with him using profane language, etc. My boyfriend found him after I came home terrified and he called the police. The police came and reported that other people had called in this individual today as well but they can’t arrest because no crime was officially committed.”
Photo by andy ward
Rebekah asked: “any suggestions for soft serve ice cream in the area? I’m willing to drive up to 45minish outside of the city for it – I’ve been craving it for weeks!”
I think Bantam King still has soft serve. Anyone know others? https://t.co/IjVBTAaVy8
— PoPville (@PoPville) May 26, 2020
Initial recs include: “the right answer here is always McDonald’s, (more…)