Dear PoPville

Photo by PoPville flickr user abrowntable

“Dear PoPville,

I am trying to make a decision between two condos one in Hill East and the other in Eckington. The Hill East one is only a couple minutes away from the metro and includes parking – I don’t have a car though. The Eckington one is about 10 minutes from the metro with no parking. They are roughly the same size and price and my commute to work is the same. Both have upcoming developments – Res 13 and Ivy City respectively. I would know what readers think, which they’d prefer, which they think has the most potential. Thanks!”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Jim Havard

“Dear PoPville,

My husband and I are in need of a landlord/tenant attorney to help with an eviction– any recommendations out there? We have a small 4 unit building (that we used to live in) and one of our tenants (he came with the building) has become a real problem. He’s a heavy drug user, is buying/selling drugs in the hallway, has lots of folks coming in and out leaving the front door unlocked and his electric has been shut off for many months, so he fridge and apartment reek! The City pays his rent, but we don’t want to enable this kind of behavior and other tenants are complaining and threatening to move. Any attorney recommendations are much appreciated!”

“Dear PoPville,

While walking down the street I have been harassed and subject to lewd comments from men driving or riding trash trucks. I’ve also seen it happen to other women. This morning I biked by a another woman being persistently harassed as she walked past a truck stopped at a light. The trash companies are Tenlytown Truck, and VHI, Inc. I don’t think customer service is a hallmark of either of these companies, but this is unacceptable.

It’s important to share these experiences.”

“Dear PoPville,

I got this message (above) through AirBnB. I’m not sure if it’s a scam or if DC is actually using false guest profiles, requesting to book for specific dates and then using the messaging capability to threaten to shut down rentals.

Have any other AirBnB hosts in DC been contacted like this? Any lawyers or code-savvy readers have advice on dealing with this? (more…)

“Dear PoPville,

Do you know who runs the white shuttle buses/vans that say “blue line” by the door? They’re all over DC and there doesn’t seem to be any accountability for poor driving.

The driver blew through the stop sign on G Street NW approaching Massachusetts Avenue while I was in the crosswalk at approximately 11:50am today [Friday 8/25]. He pulled over on Massachusetts and I walked over and asked why he didn’t stop at the stop sign.

He claimed there was no stop sign and said it was his word against mine and that he had a witness. His witness in the vehicle, who he said was his trainer, swore up and down that the driver had stopped at the stop sign…the same one the driver told me didn’t exist. Both clearly knew there would be no repercussions. This was vehicle 2816, license place B49067.”

“Dear PoPville,

Photo by PoPville flickr user Miki J.

“Dear PoPville,

I’m wondering if any readers have had issues with Zipcar reservations. There have been at least 3 times where I made a reservation 2-4 weeks ahead of time in the app, and the day of the reservation, it completely disappeared. At first I thought it was me, but I’ve made plenty of same day reservations successfully, and I’ve been using technology long enough to know what I’m doing. Zipcar customer service didn’t seem to care about the issue – the only “solution” they could offer was keeping the app updated, or uninstalling and reinstalling.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Joe Flood

“Dear PoPville,

I was curious if you ever knew of anyone being hit my a garbage truck? I contacted Tenleytown Trash after the incident and sent them an email and left a voicemail. Just curious if anyone else has had a similar experience:

Good Afternoon, I wanted to contact you because this morning [Saturday] one of the Tenleytown Trash trucks nearly ran over myself and a good friend of mine. The truck was heading West on U street from 14th towards 15th and made an illegal left hand turn onto Waverly Place NW where my friend and I were walking. Despite seeing us the truck turned into us forcing us up against the wall of the alley screaming for them to stop. Were we not so thin we would have been hit. The truck then kept at the high rate of speed and kept going. I would greatly appreciate someone contacting me regarding this incident. The truck sped down the alleyway and I did not chase after it because my friend was shaking violently. Thank you for your time.”