quality of life

Dear PoP – If You See Something, Say Something

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user ep_jhu

“Dear PoP,

What is wrong with people these days?!? Seriously! I am so completely disheartened with people as I write this story. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE this city, but after last week I am really disappointed in the people of this city. I met up with two friends at a tattoo shop near the corner of 14th and U streets, NW. It was a Thursday night and the streets are pretty well lit and populated. I chain my bike to a tree right in front of the shop. As we are leaving, I say to my friends jokingly “Hope no one steals my bike!” As I say this a guy walks by and says, “Oh if it isn’t chained up they totally will.” I reply with “My bike is such a POS, who would bother to take the time?” He says “Once as a test I left two really old rusty bikes, one with flat tires out front of this shop just to see. The bikes were gone in under 5 minutes. They will take the bike too if it isn’t locked up.” Well I know this, that’s why my bike is chained to the tree. So I thank the guy and assure him it is locked and we head down a couple blocks to grab some grub.

Less than 2 hours later we return to the tree and my bike is GONE! All that is left is my bike lock…still locked but sliced in two as if it were butter, mocking me on the ground. I picked it up and my two friends and I start laughing at the irony of it all. One of my friends offers to drive me home and as we walk around the corner of U to 14th, what do I see? Some asshole sitting on my bike not even half a block down 14th. Before my friends even knew what was up I am running at the kid who doesn’t see me coming. I shove him off my bike and then a tirade of swear words that would make a sailor blush burst out of my mouth. The guy is so shocked he sort of just stands there still half on my bike. I grab the handle bars and say THIS IS MY BIKE! He has the audacity to tell me it is HIS bike. Then I tell him he is a POS that stole my bike after cutting my lock. His reply of “I didn’t steal no bike.” has me so convinced of his innocence…riiiiight. So then he tries to climb back on the bike at which point I again shove him off and bombard him with more curses.

As I walk off with my bike and my friends back around the corner to U, I notice he has the nerve to start following us. So again I turned around and screamed at him. This time telling him to stop following us or I will call the cops because I have all night to waste, but does he?!? I guess he decides he does not because he crosses 14th and heads the other direction.

Now as excited that I am that this guy is an idiot who stole a bike then stuck around, and as excited as I am that I got my bike back, WTF people?!? Why did no one do a damn thing the entire time? First the bike was stolen in good light, on a busy street where tons of people were walking around. Why did no one do a thing! And then when I was screaming pretty loudly at some asshole who stole my bike, everyone just stood there?!? How come no one bothered to ask if I needed help or anything? How come a small woman who is only 5’2, was not offered any type of assistance? Yes, my friends (a guy and another small woman) would have jumped in had there been a problem, but where was everyone…anyone else?”

Dispatches from the Bedbug War by Tony Lizza

By Prince Of Petworth



Guest Contributor Tony Lizza last wrote about his experiences at the Antiques Road Show.

Bedbugs had attacked my apartment. Bedbugs–pests, scourges of Brooklyn, instant transformers of dwellings from Good Deal to Not, had been reported here for months, but in a fit of narcissistic pique I had always assumed I’d be spared. I crafted a series of creaky rationalizations to myself to justify my belief that they would never come my way. “I’m not home often enough to get bedbugs.” “I don’t have much furniture.” “Bedbugs can’t reach the 10th floor.” When I went to bed one night and awoke the next morning with an archipelago of red welts on my chest, I knew I had a problem. Since then, my apartment has been doused with pesticides twice and counting. I have wrapped my possessions in plastic and garbage bags. I know what it is like to bathe in Diatomaceous Earth.

I contacted residential services after I’d been bitten. A building employee stopped by my place, took apart my bed, and found one coffee-ground sized bedbug skulking around in my box spring. He scheduled me for what he blandly called a “treatment.”

Days turned to weeks. Finally, a packet of stapled papers at my door informed me that my apartment was to be sprayed for bedbugs in two days and contained instructions for preparing my apartment, which consisted of disassembling my bed, placing all of my bedding and clothes into plastic bags and removing them from the apartment, and, finally, moving all of my furniture to the middle of the apartment.

I came home to find my entire room had been tossed—ransacked, even. The exterminators had flung the mattress across the room and completely eviscerated my box spring. My desk was turned on its side, its drawers removed and laid on the floor next to it. My bookshelf had been taken apart. I made my bed, wheezing and sneezing and red-faced from the aerosolized poison floating about in my apartment, and laid down on it that night only to awake to fresh bites and a bedbug crawling on my wall that left a massive pocket of blood behind when I smacked it with a shoe. I was going to have to step up my game.

That night, I scored some Diatomaceous Earth at a hardware store. Diatomaceous Earth is an off-white sedimentary rock made of algae that, when viewed under a microscope, looks like the contents of someone’s junk drawer. When pulverized, it makes a powerful insecticide that works by extracting fat from a bug’s exoskeleton, dehydrating it. That sounded like a perfectly torturous death for these vermin. I laid down a small mountain of DE on the legs of my bed frame, sprinkled a thick layer on top of my box spring and drizzled some on top of my mattress cover. Again, I woke up with bites.

Continues after the jump. (more…)

Dear PoP – Why are religious groups allowed to proselytize on the National Mall?

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user pablo.raw

“Dear PoP,

When I’m running or walking on the Mall I often see various religious groups ranging from Scientology’s big yellow tents, which are typically down there at least once a month, to the Falun Dafa folks that often hang out across from the Air and Space Museum, and the Christian group that built a giant replica ark on the Mall last year. What’s the deal? Surely they had to have applied for a permit with the NPS somewhere, but does this strike anyone else as odd and why don’t more people seem to be bothered by it?”

Hmm, I’d think our founding fathers would be ok with this as it demonstrates our country’s tolerance and freedom of religion. What do you guys think – is the Mall an appropriate place for religious groups to proselytize?

Dear PoP – Noise reduction suggestions

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user fromcaliw/love

“Dear PoP,

I recently moved into a new rental, and it turns out that there is a bar across the alley that tends to keep its back door open, allowing noise to flow out and its customers to congregate in the alley to drink/smoke/talk loudly. The noise is annoying during the day, but it makes sleep nearly impossible when it is going on at 2 or 3 in the morning almost right outside the window. I looked online and found some curtain liners that supposedly will reduce the amount of sound that comes in from the outside. I wondered if your readers had any experience with these, or had other suggestions beyond the obvious (using earplugs or a loud white noise machine)?”

Anyone ever find some unique ways to block out noise. No lie, in college I had a roomate who snored so loudly that I wore the earmuffs that you wear at a gun range. Not very comfortable though.

A Reminder of the Beautiful Life

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

On the beautiful side of DC living, here’s a sign from a yard sale in Mt P ~

They had a good amount of interesting books, household items, things from afar, etc.

(Somehow I think it would have diminished the positive effect if they had cheap crap.).

Hasta la Mt P fest!”

Dear PoP – The Kids are Driving Me Crazy

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

A question for you regarding those damn noisy kids that are moving into the neighborhood. Specifically, a group of very nice early twenty-somethings are renting a house on my block and insist on having acoustic-guitar jamfests every night on their front porch. I’m not talking 9pm, it’s more like 11 or 12, with at least one night going from 2-4am, when a neighbor hissed at them and they (reluctantly) stopped and went inside. I don’t want to be the grumpy old curmudgeon down the block (especially since I’m only about 8 years older than they are) but as the weather gets cooler and we turn from AC at night to windows, these guys are not only gonna keep me up, but my kids as well. Anyone know any solution to this problem that doesn’t involve me going over and displaying the unneighborliness I’m afraid I’m going to have to display eventually?”

I actually don’t think it is being unneighborly if you go over and talk to them in a casual way. Sometimes you’ll be surprised at how reasonable people can be if you talk to them directly with respect but frankly. I think if you say – it’s reasonable to play the guitar until 9 or 10pm on weekdays but you have little children that need to go to sleep they’ll understand. Of course not everyone is reasonable but that is definitely the first step that should be taken in my opinion.

If a discussion is not able to resolve the problem another reader would like to know when it is reasonable to get a lawyer involved (in a different situation with a stereo blasting at all hours) and if anyone has any recommendations?

Dear PoP – Metro Train Safety

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user AWard Tour

“Dear PoP,

I keep reading accounts of people being attacked on sparsely populated Metro trains (late at night, on weekends, etc) – it seems like occurrences are becoming more and more frequent as reported on Police Department listservs.

Metro keeps reporting budget crunches, and I’m sure criminals and petty thieves know MetroTrains are easy venues for their activities, since Metro Police can’t be in every car, or even on every train.

Whenever I’m on Metro late at night, I always choose to enter a more populated car, but can we take our protection to the next level by collectively occupying the first or last car of each train – say after 8pm?

You know what they say – safety in numbers! How could we organize such a publicity campaign, or has something like this been attempted in the past?”

That’s why the Guardian Angels ride the metro. From the MPD listserv:

Friday August 28, 2010 aapproximately 8:20 pm Guardian Angels was patrolling
the green line from Annacostia to Gallery Place. When the doors opened up at
the Navy Yard stop, three males approximately 20 years old, were engaging in
a loud, heated argument. The three males began to fight. Guardian Angels
rushed in to stop the fight. The males were very aggressive. The Guardian
Angels had to detain the three males and call Metro Police. When the train
arrived at L’Enfant Plaza Metro Police took one male into custody for simple
assault and disorderly.

Honestly I ride the metro (including the Green line) quite frequently late at night and have never felt uncomfortable. There have been some highly publicized fights (featured on this blog) but I’d say they are still rather rare. I’m not saying I’m a tough guy, maybe I’ve just got lucky, but it’s always been fairly uneventful (perhaps some yelling and music but no fighting).

Anyway, what do you guys think – does riding the metro late at night make you feel uncomfortable?

Would you like to see a campaign to fill the first and last cars for safety or something like that? If so how would you recommend that campaign be launched? In cooperation with WMATA?

Dear PoP: Anti-teen Noise-weapon Hits DC at Chinatown Metro

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

I noticed (perhaps an understatement) a fairly disturbing development at the Chinatown exit of the Metro–someone seemed to have installed one of those British anti-loitering devices that emit a pitch that only teens can hear.  This clearly is not the case as you wouldn’t be receiving this email–I’m 25 and not quite a nuisance, however I’m subject to hearing a pitch that causes headaches and induces nausea.  Today it was audible from just past the Metro turnstiles.  I’m wondering if you’ve heard about this and if it’s been installed by a public or business organization.

I’ve attached a picture (see above)  I snapped of the device, called a Mosquito.”

Wow, I remember hearing about this device but had no idea it was deployed in DC. I went to check it out Monday afternoon and sure enough it was right above the metro at Gallery Place/Chinatown on the 7th and H St, NW side (a frequent teen hangout):

I have to admit my 35 year old ears didn’t notice anything. Have any other readers noticed this sound/pitch outside the Chinatown metro? But if this is indeed an anti-teen loitering device that emits a painful pitch do you think it is fair game or over the line for a nearby business to deploy?

According to Wikipedia the device is sold in the US and they sum up the the debate nicely:

“The Mosquito has attracted controversy on the basis of human rights. Critics say that it discriminates against young people and infringes their human rights, while supporters argue that making the Mosquito illegal would infringe the human rights of shopkeepers who suffer business losses when “unruly teenagers” drive away their customers.”

Dear PoP – What Can Be Done About Overhanging Branches

By Prince Of Petworth


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“Dear PoP,

Do you know if there is anything that can be done regarding overhanging branches from a private yard? I’m thinking specifically of the large overgrown tree on the corner of 11th and Columbia Rd, NW which interferes with the bus stop, as well as pedestrian traffic, especially in bad weather. Since it’s private property, is there anything the city, or neighbors can do?”

This is an interesting question. I believe if the branches overhang a neighbors property the neighbor is allowed to trim back the branches from their property line. But this is different because it seems the branches are overhanging public property. I wonder if WMATA would be in charge of trimming it back if it interferes with the bus stop? Could the city trim it back or have the owner trim it back?

Any suggestions?

Update on Monday Morning’s Truck Crash on Conn. Ave

By Prince Of Petworth

Thanks to a reader for sending in a sad update from Monday’s truck crash into a tree on Connecticut Ave just north of R St, NW:

“So here’s the aftermath of the tree accident on Conn Ave Monday – what was a pretty large tree has been completely removed. RIP sidewalk shade.”

It’s actually a good point. I wonder how hot next summer is gonna feel with all the trees we lost. I wonder how many trees get lost in a normal season and how many we lost this season?

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