“Dear PoPville,
Wondering if anyone else has this same issue with dc alerts. This happens almost every time since they upgraded their system last year. I get dozens of text messages instead of just one or two. Notice this example one.. 59 separate text messages.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr.TinDC
“Dear PoPville,
Any suggestions on a good lawyer who can help my wife and I write a will? Not interested in going the LegalZoom route but also trying to avoid something overpriced.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Scott
A reader sends the request “Can We Please Discuss Pot on PoPville?” along with this article from the Post In D.C., fears of chaos grow as legal pot nears:
“Barring last-minute federal intervention, the District’s attorney general said that pot will become legal as early as Feb. 26 without any regulations in place to govern a new marketplace that is likely to explode into view.
Even some supporters of the initiative are worried. At best, they predict an uncertain free-for-all where marijuana enthusiasts immediately start growing and smoking at home — and testing the limits of a law that does not allow for public consumption or sale. At worst, they say, as entrepreneurs push ahead with the business of pot, unregulated businesses will start popping up with no means to judge the safety of their product.”
Do you fear a coming chaos?
Photo by PoPville flickr user Jim Havard
“Dear PoPville,
My pipes froze Sunday and no one in our house (I’m downstairs in the English basemen and there are 5 people upstairs) has been able to use the water or bathroom since Sunday morning.
Our landlord sent a contractor out who determined the frozen pipe is under the ground. She has not offered any solutions except that we need to wait until it warms up…which could be 4 or 5 days from now. When I asked about what we are supposed to do for a bathroom she said to go to a friends house and that there is nothing she can do.
I’m wondering if anyone has any insight on this. Do we have to pay a full months rent even though the house has no running water? Does the landlord need to try and fix the problem or is waiting until it warms up a reasonable response? We have been showering and using the bathroom in Giant and WSC in Columbia Heights.
Would love to hear some opinions!”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Miki J.
“Dear PoPville,
I’m torn…. I’ve had Comcast in various apartments in DC for the past 5 years. I’m moving to a new unit (in my existing building in Logan Circle) and am considering their Mover’s Edge.. They just transfer your service to your new home at no cost to you… Which I’ve used in the past and has been great BUT I’m not sure I can deal with the atrocious customer service, constant service outages, and ridiculous bills! Fios is not available in my area yet. So the only alternative is RCN. From the people I’ve polled in my building, it seems that RCN is the popular choice but we’ve certainly been spoiled by xfinity steaming… I’ve watched episodes of my favorite shows and scheduled my DVR on flights and they new X1 platform has some really cool features, almost at the level of a Smart TV but they’re by no means necessary. I’m not sure if I’m ranting here or asking for advice but I’m moving this week and would love to hear what some others’ experiences.
Any insight would be appreciated!”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Jim Havard
“Dear PoPville,
As an Airbnb host, I just received this announcement that effective 2/15/15, Airbnb will charge guests 14.5% “transient lodging tax”. As a Host in DC, I’ve reported annual revenues on taxes, kept my head down, paid attention to how various jurisdictions have been navigating code, tax issues. It seems DC has taken a more constructive approach then, say, NYC but I suppose time will tell how it impacts overall bookings, how the hotel industry might respond in DC, and whether this really does clarify murky tax policy enough to prevent potential headaches down the road with DC tax authorities (unrelated experiences leave me wary). I wonder what others think, have heard?”
I’d be curious to also know how many folks here rent out rooms through airbnb? Will this change make you rethink it?
Letter from Airbnb after the jump. (more…)
“Road Rage Attack on Cathedral Ave & New Mexico Ave NW – January 26th @ 8:35am
On my way to work, I was victim of road rage. Some psychotic asshole started honking at me frantically as I was pulling to the road (Mind you that I did look before I started pulling out, and saw him, but he was far behind so I felt comfortable pulling out. Obviously I didn’t realize he was coming down flying on a 25MPH road, and was pissed that he had to stop, he made such a big deal he also pissed me off and, YES I flipped my finger at him.
I moved on and kept on driving but had to stop at the light located on Cathedral Ave and New Mexico, this asshole got out of his car, and started pounding at my window so hard I thought he was going to break it… not once, not twice but 4 times and he also spit on my window. I just looked at him standing right on my face in disbelieve, with just a glass in between. When the light changed, I had no other reaction than to keep on driving. He made a left turn, as I did, and then the very first right after the turn.
When I got out of my shock, I pulled my phone and called 911, gave them the description of the car and the individual which is as follows:
Blue Ford Pick Up Truck with DC tags
White Male, on his mid 30’s, with light brown hair and a full beard, he was wearing a blue hoodie and jeans.
As this was happening, there was a number of people standing at the bus stop (Cathedral & NM towards TenleyTown Metro), probably watching in disbelieve as I was… If you happened to see this, please reply to this message. Assholes like this can not be terrorizing people because they are having a bad day. If this is what you do for something as little and insignificant as this, you NEED HELP!!”
Photo by PoPville flickr user brunofish
Nice and concise.
“Dear PoPville,
Can you please post request for recommendations for exterior painters for a brick rowhouse?”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr.TinDC
“Dear PoPville,
I recently had the 3-foot high crawl space of our row home/3-unit condo building conditioned, with spray foam used on all perimeter walls, and then sealed the crawl space entrance as well as any vents, and added vapor barrier to floor. It was recommended that I add a heat source to the crawl space so that my floors are not freezing cold (I am in first floor unit above crawl space). Can anyone recommend a person to evaluation my situation and make a recommendation on how to safely provide heat to the crawl space?”
“Dear PoPville,
I’m emailing you by chance one of your readers that live in the CH/Petworth area recently had a scooter stolen. Fortunately or unfortunately my roommate woke up last Friday morning to having had his beloved Vespa stolen at some point during Thursday night. The reason why I say fortunately or unfortunately is because he and his girlfriend took to reddit to start a please help find my Vespa thread and sure enough the great people of Petworth came through in the clutch. Shortly after the response, my roommate and I decided that we would head up to the 900 block of Quincy to check out and see if it was in fact his Vespa and sure enough it was. Long story short, the cops questioned a few of the teens living at the house and end the end they were able to confirm (due to some damage to the front end he had a picture of) that it was my roommates.
No one was arrested — mother was called out of the house etc, but the police officer was speaking Spanish to her, so we weren’t entirely sure what the officer was saying. Before the mom came out the first responding officer was speaking to the younger of the two teens…probably about 13 and you could tell in his voice he was terrified. Officer raised his voice asking why was it outside of their house if they’re saying they don’t know who’s it is etc., but deny, deny, deny.
But as for the real reason why I’m emailing, there was also another scooter parked at this location. I may be jumping to conclusions that the other scooter parked at the house is stolen, but when you get away with once, what’s to stop you from doing it again. I’ve attached a picture of a scooter, although generic, that looked like the one at the residence.
This may have been a shot in the dark, but a post similar to this one worked for him, so who knows, may be the other scooter fallen into the wrong person’s hands.”