quality of life

“World’s Worst Driver Alert”

By Prince Of Petworth

dc_neighborhood_news_popville
Photo by PoPville flickr user wolfpackWX

“Dear PoPville,

OH MY GOSH. Did anyone else witness the world’s biggest asshole driving down 14th last night/this morning?? [going south past Taylor and Shepherd]

I was awoken by persistent honking around 3:00am. Living on 14th Street I’m used to being woken up by car alarms, sirens, and even the occasional drunk person yelling, however last night was probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve witnessed since I moved to the city. A pick up truck with Maryland plates and what looked like construction equipment in the bed of the truck was driving at a snail’s pace (probably > 5 MPH) and deliberately preventing anyone from passing him. The driver was swerving into oncoming traffic so people couldn’t go around him, and when drivers behind him would honk, he so kindly responded by holding down his horn as if it were all just a fun game. He also came to a complete stop a few times, as if to let people go around him, but when cars would try, he would swerve in front of them again.

To make matters worse, while cars were lining up behind him, I saw him leaning out his window to talk to a group of people who were walking up 14th (not sure if he was harassing them, or if they also thought it was a hilarious game to play at 3:00 in the morning). All of this continued for as long as I could see him from my window, and I could still hear the honking for a few minutes after.

In no way do I blame the drivers who were honking at him; I definitely would have done the same thing. It’s the fact that even at 3 in the morning 14th is a busy street, and yet someone would still act so recklessly just because they think it’s funny. It’s astonishing.

I realize there’s not much we can do at this point, but I’m just curious if anyone else saw this all go down?”

P Street Stench Abated?

By Prince Of Petworth

Whole-Foods-P-Street

Has Logan Circle’s nightmare been resolved? Yes! tweets the P Street Whole Foods last night:

“@dcwater has fixed the issue (we hope!) We’ll continue to monitor. Thanks!”

Can anyone confirm it’s gone?

Lending Library Opens at Union Station

By Prince Of Petworth

Lending Libary - Outside
Photo courtesy Union Station Redevelopment Corporation

From a press release:

“Union Station Redevelopment Corporation (USRC) along with Union Station Parking Garage (USPG) have announced the grand opening of the Union Station Lending Library. The library currently holds over 100 books, ranging in categories from fiction, auto-biographies, children’s literature, young adult, and more.

The library, originally inspired by the Bryant Park Reading Room in New York City, is open and available to the public at no charge. Situated in the waiting pavilion on the bus deck level of the parking garage, the lending library is open to all station visitors, but primarily targets those boarding and de-boarding the buses. The library operates on a leave-one/take-one system, and visitors are encouraged to use the books while waiting for their rides, or even to take them along on their trips. Likewise, any additions to the library from passengers are also welcomed.

The books hosted on the shelves have been donated by Better World Books, an organization whose mission is to promote and fund literacy, and donates books with every purchase made on their website BetterWorldBooks.com.”

“911 hung up on my cousin who called to let them know there was a man unconscious on the street”

By Prince Of Petworth

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A reader reports at 11pm last night:

“There is a man who was screaming on the 1400 block of Harvard St NW. No one knows what he was screaming but multiple neighbors called the cops and one neighbor, who is a doctor, stabilized him. 911 hung up on my cousin who called to let them know there was a man unconscious on the street, then took 11 minutes for them to get here. I started directing traffic down the alley instead of through the people.”

End of the West Dupont Liquor License Moratorium?

By Prince Of Petworth

dupont_west

Thanks to a reader for tweeting us:

“Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC2B)
Report of the West Dupont Liquor License Moratorium Committee
Published for Public Comment on April 17, 2015

The Dupont Circle ANC will address the west dupont liquor license moratorium at its special meeting on Monday, April 27th at 7:00pm at the Johns Hopkins University building at 1740 Massachusetts avenue, Johns Hopkins Nitze Building, Kenney-Herter Auditorium. We encourage public participation at that meeting or to send comments to ANC Commissioners via email at [email protected].”

The working group encourages ANC 2B to recommend that the ABC Board not renew the West Dupont Circle Liquor License Moratorium. Instead the ANC should adopt a standing policy to protest new liquor license applications in the former moratorium zone until a settlement agreement can be reached with the application that will alleviate any possible concerns over peace, order, quiet and parking.

Read the full report here: West-Dupont-Moratorium-Working-Group-Recommendation (PDF)

“WHITE A$$ CRACKER MFer WALKIN HIS MFing DOG ALL PREGNANT ON THE SIDEWALK LIKE A WHITE A$$ CRACKER”

By Prince Of Petworth

pain sculpture

“Dear PoPville,

Last evening I had an experience that I’m curious if others might be familiar with. My pregnant wife and I were walking our dog along Illinois Ave. at Farragut just about a block from our home and as we pass a house with two 50-something year old African-American guys out on the front porch, we hear one of the guys start muttering under his breath and then gradually raising his voice into a yell for the whole neighborhood to hear.

What was he saying? Well he was fairly accurately describing what WE were doing, albeit in a really racist way: “WHITE A$$ CRACKER MFer WALKIN HIS MFing DOG ALL PREGNANT ON THE SIDEWALK LIKE A WHITE A$$ CRACKER…. WHITE SUPREMACY…. WALK THAT DOG MFer… UP HERE ALL PREGNANT WITH THAT WHITE SUPREMACY… WALKIN THROUGH THIS MFing NEIGHBORHOOD MFer… WHITE A$$ CRACKER…”

This went on in various combinations of these phrases basically as long as we were in his view. The other guy on the front porch just chuckled.

So what am I supposed to do in this situation? We just assumed the guy was drunk so we just ignored it and kept walking, but it’s very disturbing and discouraging and bothered me the rest of the night. Do you call the cops? Do you say something to the guy?

Some might say casual racism is par for the course in a gentrifying neighborhood, but I don’t accept it.”

There is no recourse

By Prince Of Petworth

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line to pick up free cannabis seeds back in March

New law leads to definitive answer to the controversial post My Elderly Neighbor Won’t Stop Smoking Pot and our Apartment Reeks. On the MPD 5D listserv a resident asked:

“Now that marijuana has been decriminalized, is there any recourse for us? We live in a semi detached house on Taylor Street NE. Our next door neighbors (who we share a wall with) smoke pot a lot. We can smell it through the walls frequently. It’s disgusting, Is there anything we can do? They rent the house.”

MPD responded:

“It is not illegal to smoke marijuana in a private residence.

For more information about marijuana, please visit www.mpdc.dc.gov/marijuana.”

And there you have it.

Walk Score Names DC the 7th Most Walkable City in the U.S.

By Prince Of Petworth

dc_walkscore
Photo by PoPville flickr user Pablo Raw

From an email:

“Walk Score just published its most walkable cities of 2015 report. DC came in at No. 7, with an overall Walk Score of 74.1. Baltimore also made the list, coming in at No. 10 with a Walk Score of 66.2. Walkability is often tied to affordability and quality of life for a city’s residents. It’s also important in creating safe and desirable neighborhoods, which in turn attract more residents, businesses and overall development.

To calculate the rankings, Walk Score analyzed over 10 million locations and computed more than 2 billion walking routes for 2,500 U.S. cities. For the second year in a row, the Walk Score ranking uses the Street Smart Walk Score algorithm that incorporates walking routes, depth of choice, pedestrian friendliness, population and neighborhood data.”

walkscore

Trouble at 8th and H “The people loitering outside made it clear that this was their neighborhood and we weren’t welcome”

By Prince Of Petworth

8th_and_H
8th and H St, NE via google maps

“Dear PoPville,

In August 2013 when I opened up my store on H street with the hopes and dreams that every entrepreneur has. I wanted to be successful, I wanted to give my customers a quality product at a great price and I wanted to be a part of the H Street community. I had scouted the location out for months. I loved the busy street and I thought that the bus stops were great because it dropped customers off directly in front of the store. Unfortunately immediately after I opened up I realized that there was a problem. My problem was the 10-20 regular loiterers that hung out directly in front and to the side of my store.

There was a lot of drug dealing and drug use. On a daily basis drunk or high people would come into the store and yell at me and my employees. They would threaten us. They would get in our faces. These men would sit on the two steps leading up to the front doors and they literally wouldn’t get out of my way or my customers way. They would stand in the handicapped ramp leading up to the store or sit on the handicap railing. They would also sit on the window sills running down the 8th street side of the building. I sent letters to Lt. Godin and commander Hickson at MPD. Lt. Godin really tried to help me. He visited often and did the best he could. In the end the police department is seriously outnumbered. There was only so much they could do. I begged my landlord to please help me but they did nothing. The people loitering outside made it clear that this was their neighborhood and we weren’t welcome.

They proved it in words and in action. I can tell you countless stories from my seven month pregnant employee being assaulted in the store to my own pregnant wife being intimidated. One employee quit after two days another quit after 7 days. I opened the store so I could make more money to support my growing family. Just before Christmas 2014 I asked the landlord to terminate my lease. They said that they wanted to work with me but because of the coming holidays they were short staffed and we could reconvene after the holidays. On January 13, 2014 my wife went into early labor by six weeks. It was a life changing moment. We had our first child, a boy and we named him Benjamin. We call him Benji. With the business costing me about $12,500 out of pocket to run a month it soon became apparent that we couldn’t afford daycare and I watched Benji as a stay at home dad and brought him to work with me. The daily barrage of intimidation and not knowing what would happen next really took a toll on all of us but especially my employees. (more…)

Getting Reports of a Power Outage from Georgetown to Downtown including metro stations

By Prince Of Petworth

pepco

You can see the pepco outage map with estimated restoration times here.

“Any traffic signals that are out or flashing should be treated as a 4-way stop. Be courteous as this situation is remedied.”

Update from Pepco:

“Shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday we experienced a dip in voltage in the Washington D.C. area. This was caused by an issue with a transmission line.

There was never a loss of permanent electric supply to customers.

The dip in voltage caused equipment at some customer facilities to transfer to their backup systems.

The momentary outage occurred because of customer equipment responding to a dip in voltage.

We are currently working to repair the transmission equipment fault in Charles County, Maryland. We have crews on site investigating the cause.” (more…)

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