quality of life

Sidewalks of Shame Nominee – First Seventh Day Adventist Church

By Prince Of Petworth

SoS
a few days after the snow/ice

Almost made it the whole season…

“Dear PoPville,

I live around the corner from First Seventh Day Adventist Church at 810 Shepherd Street NW. The church’s bordering streets of Shepherd and 8th are literally never shoveled after it snows.

I’ve noticed this is fairly common with churches — no one actually lives there and the congregants don’t live nearby, so no one actually takes responsibility for keeping the sidewalk clean. The church has many visitors every Sunday, parking all over the neighborhood. But when it snows, not one person comes to shovel.

Yesterday, we had freezing temperatures after it snowed, and the sidewalks at Shepherd and 8th are now lined with ice because no one from the church maintained them. This is not only dangerous for the church’s congregants, but for the neighborhood in general. I also find it inconsiderate and disrespectful to the families who live here (everyone else in the neighborhood keeps their sidewalks clean and safe for their neighbors).

Is there anything that can be done? Anyone in the city who can convince them to take responsibility of their property?”

After 10 years WaPo’s Peeps Contest is no more – The PoP Peep Project Launching 2017

By Prince Of Petworth

peeps
Photo by PoPville flickr user Brian Mosley

Update: With props to JCH for the title, The PoP Peep Project is launching April, 2017. Send me photos of your peeps in classic PoPville situations to [email protected].

From The Washington Post:

“For 10 years The Washington Post featured a Peeps contest, in which people from all over created dioramas depicting scenes that reflected the country as they saw it, but populated with marshmallow bunnies and chicks.

Hard journalism this was not, but for us the contest offered its own sweet rewards. As fewer submissions began to come in, though, echoing the decline in readership of this feature, we knew that it was time to let bunnies be free again, and we have ended the Peeps contest run.

For now, another long tradition, the Post Hunt — the wacky brainchild of Dave Barry, Gene Weingarten and Tom Shroder — won’t be found this year in these pages or in the streets of Washington because the Hunt couldn’t get a sponsor.”

And Props to DCist’s Rachel Kurzius who came up with this terrific title when she first posted the news before it was confirmed by WaPo Editor’s Note:

“Without A Peep: Post’s Epic Diorama Contest Is Hanging Up Its Marshmallow Hat”

Ed. Note: It’s not so much the marshmallow hat part but the “Without A Peep” part that I thought was genius.

I Miss Him So Much

By Prince Of Petworth

romo
back in the day

It’s been almost two years and I still can’t get used to it. Hopefully he’s enjoying Arlington but selfishly I hope he dreams of Calvert Street.

IMG_0606
today

“Is spitting harassment worth calling the cops?”

By Prince Of Petworth

california

“Dear PoPville,

There’s a whiteish skinned man with freckles on 18th Street near California almost every day that I walk by to work around 10am. He loiters in that area wearing a white cap (looks religious), big black coat and backpack, carrying a large trashbag in each hand.

He tries to spit on me, at least in my direction, every time I walk by. When I try to cross the steet before reaching him, if he spots me, he actually will pursue and cross the street as well.

I really don’t know what to do. Is spitting harassment worth calling cops? I noticed he doesn’t spit on men, and I have never seen other women around to know if he spits on other women or not. I’m female in my early thirties. What can I do?”

Ed. Note: You may wish to connect with the DC Mental Health Mobile Response Team.

Ambulances outfitted with DARPA-developed nuclear and radiological detectors have provided the first “city-scale, dynamic, real-time map of background radiation levels throughout the Capital”

By Prince Of Petworth

darpa
“For approximately seven months starting in July 2016, the fleet of D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services ambulances was outfitted with DARPA-developed nuclear and radiological detectors, providing the first city-scale, dynamic, real-time map of background radiation levels throughout the Capital as well as identifying any unusual spikes that could indicate a threat.”

I know this is supposed to make us feel safer but, uh, gulp.

From DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency):

“DARPA’s SIGMA program—whose goal is to prevent attacks involving radiological “dirty bombs” and other nuclear threats—concluded its biggest and longest test deployment of vehicle-mounted radiation detectors in Washington, D.C., in February. For approximately seven months starting in July 2016, the fleet of D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services ambulances was outfitted with DARPA-developed nuclear and radiological detectors, providing the first city-scale, dynamic, real-time map of background radiation levels throughout the Capital as well as identifying any unusual spikes that could indicate a threat.

Because medical and fire emergencies occur in every corner of the District every day, emergency vehicles equipped with radiation detectors provide an excellent means of achieving a large-scale scan for radiological risks. In the just-completed test deployment, up to 73 large detectors were installed on emergency vehicles that together logged well over 100,000 hours of detector operation covering more than 150,000 miles, and identified in real-time thousands of radiation sources. Items as innocuous as natural granite used in construction, as well as lingering radiation after certain medical treatments, can trigger positive responses. SIGMA detectors can readily distinguish between these kinds of benign sources and threatening ones. Equally important, the SIGMA detectors provided detailed background radiation maps of the District against which future sources may be more easily detected. The deployment also offered an opportunity to test and refine the wireless data fusion aspects of the system, which constantly fed information about vehicle location and radiation readings to a central command post. (more…)

ACLU-DC Files Complaint Alleging Traumatizing Eviction by U.S. Marshals

By Prince Of Petworth

eviction
Photo by PoPville flickr user Bossi

From a press release:

“Today, the ACLU of the District of Columbia filed an administrative complaint with the U.S. Marshals Service (which conducts evictions in the District) for its abusive conduct during what should have been a routine eviction.

The complaint describes that on the morning of June 19, 2015, multiple U.S. Marshals stormed into Donya Williams’ home in Southeast D.C. with guns drawn, despite no information to indicate anyone in the apartment would pose a threat. Once inside, they went to Ms. Williams’s bedroom. The complaint recounts: “She called out that she was getting dressed and had no clothes on. Nonetheless, two Marshals burst into the bedroom. Ms. Williams was completely naked.” (more…)

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