Dear PoPville

Photo by PoPville flickr user Beau Finley

“Dear PoPville,

I’m looking for advice on a fun place to a host a birthday party in late April. Due to the timing, a place with an outdoor space might be nice, but I’m mainly curious about people’s experiences with being able to reserve a room for a small fee or free in exchange for a bar tab or minimum, etc.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Joe Flood

“Dear PoPville,

Four years ago, my husband purchased a renovated, single family home in a residential neighborhood where property values are on the rise. The problem is that over the last few years, our next door neighbors have completely neglected to take care of their house. They have visible holes in their roof where we can see squirrels nested, their lawn is a mess, they hoard broken furniture and other large items on their front porch and in a huge pile in their back yard, their fence is falling over, and worst of all, they have a broken down food truck that has been sitting in their backyard for several years (blown-out tires, cracked windows). (more…)

“Dear PoPville,

I was up at 4 am this morning (just returned from overseas). I was looking out the window and saw two guys in an Enterprise box truck get out and put maybe half a dozen scooters on the sidewalk in front of an apartment bldg on Connecticut at Brandywine on the west side. I think the brand is Lime. I had never seen the scooters only the bikes you can rent. This seems like more garbage cluttering our sidewalks. Also, don’t like the idea of some knuckleheads riding these on the sidewalks especially with the elderly we have around here. Any suggestions? Do you know if they have permission/need permission? Do you know anything about this company? I work with the elderly and they have enough problems navigating safely around here.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user angela n.

“Dear PoPville,

I live in a three-unit condo building, which our landlord owns and manages. I suspected our upstairs neighbors were renting out a room in their unit on AirBnB, and sure enough, I checked the site and found their listing easily (our building exterior and interior finishes are very distinct). They’re advertising their place as a place to party, and we hear them hosting get togethers frequently (lots of heavy footsteps upstairs, loud music, etc). The noise is annoying, the strangers coming and going frequently is potential safety issue, and I’m a bit paranoid about a potential bedbug problem from all the short term renters. Plus, our whole building splits the water bill evenly, so we’re on the hook for this extra water consumption. Safe to say our landlord doesn’t know about this. So my question is – is this an illegal rental, and if so, is there a regulatory agency we can report this to? These neighbors haven’t been reasonable in the past when we’ve tried to work out problems with them (like asking them to turn down music at 2am..) so I’d rather not engage with them directly.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Faucetini

“Dear PoPville,

We’ve reached that point in our lives of needing a pediatrician, and would be interested in polling the community for pediatrician recommendations, preferably not too far from Petworth. It looks like there hasn’t been a discussion on the topic for about five years”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Phil

“Dear PoPville,

I wonder if you or readers can help with a question. I am nearly 8 months pregnant, and last night my husband and I wanted to enjoy one of our last nights out for awhile by going to Columbia Station for jazz. When I ordered a glass of wine from the waitress, she informed me that it was against the establishment’s policy to serve pregnant women. I was shocked as this has never happened before when I’ve gone out – I’m not a big drinker, and obviously aware of medical advice, but a glass of wine here or there is not unheard of. Is this legal for CS to deny serving me? Isn’t it my right to decide what I consume?”

“Dear PoPville,

I’m pretty upset about DDOT cutting down a big and healthy tree at 14th & P street yesterday. No notice to homeowners were given except that they did leave a notice on the door regarding upcoming work on the alley that will prevent trash pickup. I am thinking taking the down the tree might be related to the enhancements project you mentioned last week but its hard to say because DDOT has not reached out to us about that project. Our front door into our building is on 14th street and about 7 feet from the tree. Our building property manager has said that they have not heard from DC or DDOT either. This is very troubling that there has not been any outreach to homeowners (cannot say if they have reached out to businesses or not). I am attaching what the tree looked like during 2017 pride parade (below) and the aftermath (above) we came home to yesterday afternoon. Any thoughts?”

“Dear PoPville,

What kind of monthly income could one expect from AirBnB’ing/ VRBO’ing a house in NE Washington, DC? The updated three bedroom, 1.5 bath house is located in 20017 and roughly 1/2 mile from the Fort Totten Metro and has lots of outdoor space (yard, patio, driveway, etc).The house would be rented out/ available for an entire year while I’m away on business. I doubt that short-term rentals would cover the entire cost of the house but I’m curious how much I’d have to come out of pocket to keep it for the year.

I’d be interested in hear from others who had similar situation/ experiences.”

“Dear PoPville,

Friends are hosting a St. Patty’s Day party this weekend and looking to get a keg of Guinness. A quick google and yelp search returns nothing helpful. Anyone know of liquor stores that sell kegs in DC and if they deliver?”

Back in the day I used to buy kegs at Cairo Wine & Liquor. Any other suggestions?