Street sweeping begins next week: new signage, and change of schedule

With the temps rising, it also means that DC's street sweepers will soon be back in action.



DC has been busy replacing street sweeping signs throughout the neighborhood with ones that not only indicate the day and the week that parking restrictions will be enforced, but also the months during the year. This is a huge improvement as far as we're concerned, because the previous signs were misleading by not indicating that for 4-5 months out of the year, street sweeping restrictions will not be enforced.

However, one thing we noted is that the days that street sweeping will occur on particular blocks seem to have changed. Make certain you take a quick look outside to see if your days have changed. The city typically provides a one week amnesty of parking tickets for street sweeping parking violations, after which time the $25 ticket for violators will be enforced.

More information about DC's street sweeping program can be found on DPW's website.

Parking Enforcement, DPW Apparently Not Talking

So, after putting up my post last night about DPW's suspension of street sweeping due to the Nuclear Summit, I decided not to move my car this morning. Because, you know, street sweeping had been suspended.

Only it seems someone forget to notify Officer Williams of Parking Enforcement.


Note how Officer Williams was so on top of his/her game, that he/she indicates that the signs said parking enforcement was in effect on Thursday, even though the ticket is for Tuesday. Forget being on top of DPW announcements, he/she can't even get the day correct.

I know that the language at the bottom of the ticket includes a warning about assaulting parking enforcement personnel,so I will in no way imply that Officer Williams deserves a nice one of these.

So now I get to experience the joy that is the immense waste of time known as protesting a DC parking ticket. Thank you, Officer Williams.

Reminder: Street Sweeping Begins Anew March 23

Ahhh, springtime. The flowers begin to blossom, the temperatures begin to rise, and DC parking enforcement begins ticketing cars who dare fail to respect the street sweeping regulations.

Beginning this Monday, street sweeping regulations will once again be enforced, which means alternate-side parking will be in effect until the fall. And if you think you might get lucky as you have in years past when you avoided that $30 ticket when DC Parking Enforcement somehow missed the car you forgot to move the night before, those days are probably numbered. According to DPW's website:

Recently, DPW introduced “Sweepercam,” the newest application of license plate recognition technology to improve street sweeping effectiveness. The technology consists of cameras mounted on street sweepers to photograph vehicles illegally parked in the curb lane of residential and commercial streets during day and night sweeping hours. The sweeper operator switches on the camera, which photographs the vehicle’s license tag, the vehicle and the vehicle’s position on the street. The registered owner will receive a ticket in the mail that will include these photographs.

Wow, that's a move totally out of the Catbert, Evil Human Resources Director playbook. In fact, we put that up there with the chump move DC is known for in this regard, which is sending the street sweeper along a street ten minutes before street sweeping regulations begin, and then two hours later a parking enforcement vehicle comes through and tickets cars that are parked there.

DPW swears that the program effectively removes significant amounts of trash, debris and pollutants from our city's streets, and they may very well be right. But it doesn't make the parking regulations any less of a pain in the a$$.

Bummer

While sitting in our living room late on Tuesday night, Mr. 14th & You and I saw the flashing blue lights of not an MPD vehicle, but parking enforcement. This civil servant came out at 11:45 p.m. to ticket two cars with Virginia license plates for failure to display DC tags. I'll never know, but I'm curious as to whether parking enforcement had been stalking these vehicles and knew that he could nab them around midnight or whether perhaps a neighbor turned in the out-of-state cars. Lastly, how does the city know that these cars belong to city residents who have simply failed to get DC tags? A car with out-of-state plates parked nightly on the street could belong to an overnight shift worker or the significant other of a neighborhood resident. Perhaps the owners had applied for temporary residential parking permits that had since expired?

On a somewhat related note, the DC Department of Public Works has determined that 12,834 vehicles are "boot eligible" due to non-payment of photo enforcement tickets. Parking enforcement is aggressively searching for these scofflaws in an effort to collect the nearly $2 million in speeding and red light fines they have racked up.

The January ANC Meeting: Inauguration Madness!

It was a dark and stormy night, but that didn't stop a standing-room-only crowd from attending the first ANC2f meeting of 2009, and with good reason: with the inauguration now less than 2 weeks away, and a multitude of questions surrounding issues related to parking, business operating hours and security the community has a lot of interest in the discussion and decisions that will be coming down this evening.

We've already written about the decision by the ANC not to protest the applications of businesses in good standing with the ANC who wish to partake in the extra hours for the inauguration, so I'll cover some of the other issues that came up at Wednesday night's meeting.

People Who Live Near the Convention Center Are $%#@ed

Sorry to be Debbie Downer here, but that was really my only take-away from the information we were getting this evening. It seems that, due to the 400-or-so inaugural balls that will be held at the Convention Center, the Secret Service will be setting up security checkpoints around the Convention Center and areas where Obama will be showing up (such as Union Station); residents in these areas must provide proof that they live in area: a driver's license, utility bill, mail, etc. will suffice. If you have people from out of town staying with you, you will need to stay with them, otherwise they won't be allowed into the secure area. Mike Bernardo mentioned that during past inaugurations there have been problems with residents getting to their own homes without IDs. In other words, don't expect the Secret Service to follow you back to your house and watch you try your house key.

The official line from the city is that they are now anticipating 2 million people coming into District--better than the 4 million we had been hearing earlier, but about four times the number of people that typically show up for the 4th of July celebration. The District will be closing several bridges and making one all bridges pedestrian- and bicycle-only into and out of Virginia.

Also, if you live in Logan Circle--or pretty much any place in the central city--parking is likely going to be a nightmare for you. In case you've been living in your cave (or poorly lit English basement) for the last three months, you've probably heard that the parking restrictions in the central city will run north to P Street, which is bad news for the people who live south of P and will need to relocate their cars, and for those of us who live north of P who will likely be the recipient of said cars. Our suggestion: park your car by next Wednesday, and don't touch it. Otherwise, you may end up having to park in Deanwood or something. And nobody wants that.

Believe it nor not, there were other topics addressed other than inaugural/end-of-life-as-we-know-it issues, including

Dustin Cole's Vendetta Against Whole Foods

OK, we'll admit that "vendetta" might be a tad strong, but really--the oddest point in the night had to be when Commissioner Cole interrupted the otherwise-routine approval of the agenda to request that an item be added to discuss Whole Foods' "violation of the District's single-sales ban." Visibly perplexed, ANC Chairman Charles Reed inquired with Commissioner Cole how he knew tht Whole Foods was violating the single-sales ban.

"Because I've seen them." came the response.

At this point, two things were noted by Reed and Commissioner Matt Raymond: that the ANC and Whole Food were parties to an agreement that allowed Whole Foods an exemption to enforcement of the single-sales ban, and that ABRA was respecting that agreement.

It's unclear whether or not Cole was aware of the agreement before moving to have the item added to the agenda, but at this point it should have been obvious that a discussion on the matter that evening would serve no real purpose. Undeterred, Cole pressed on, asking for the item to remain because we wanted a "discussion" followed by "possible action" against Whole Foods. Reed inquired as to whether a representative from Whole Foods had been notified that Cole was planning on raising the issue this evening; Cole responded that he had spoken with the store manager, but had not specifically notified them that a potential for action against the store would arise at the ANC meeting.

More back-and-forth continued, with Raymond reminding the Commission of the importance of "due process" and of having a representative from Whole Foods at the meeting to answer any charges that may be leveled. Reed reiterated that he wasn't sure why there needed to be a discussion to begin with. Still, the discussion pressed on, eating up nearly 15 minutes of time at the meeting.

Ultimately, the issue was tabled until the February meeting. It was truly one of the odder events I've seen transpire at an ANC meeting--and I've seen a number of them. Maybe Cole had a similar experience at Whole Foods as we did, getting a "fresh" turkey for Thanksgiving that ended up being frozen?

"The Space" Is Not a Good Neighbor

"Imagine coming home on Thursday evening and knowing that you won't sleep again until Sunday."

That was testimony from one of the many neighbors of Shaw nightclub "The Space" who came to protest the club owner's behavior--and ABRA's lack of enforcement against it.

It seems that the "private" club operating at 9th and and N streets isn't quite so private. The club is over-capacity most evenings, ignores noise regulations and, perhaps most annoyingly, operates an illegal outdoor deck the resides mere feet from the bedroom windows of its neighbors. The owner of the club is an Australian with a bad temper (he has been arrested for assaulting one of the neighbors whom he thought called the police against him) who doesn't--or doesn't care to--have a good grasp of the protocol necessary for keeping his club operational. (For instance, he failed to show at an ABRA hearing on the aforementioned deck, leading to a dismissal of the application.)

Even more infuriating was the fact that an ABRA inspector visited the property over the summer, took pictures, admitted that there appeared to be violations, then...nothing.

Unfortunately, problems arose when the discussion turned to potential actions that the ANC could take against the club. The voluntary agreement that the residents brought with them was between their building's landlord and the club owner--the ANC was not party to it. It could not be determined whether or not the ANC had an agreement with the Space.

Everyone agreed that the current situation was untenable, and the ANC agreed to move forward to find out if they did have a VA with the club, and also to explore possibilities for filing an emergency protest to get the club's liquor license pulled immediately. Chairman Reed however was not optimistic about this line of action, and wanted the ANC first to determine the existence of a VA with the club and to follow all proper channels so that ABRA "wouldn't have a reason NOT to follow through on a protest."

This matter will certainly be raised again, likely at the February meeting. In the meantime, The Space's neighbors are looking at a minimum of several ore weeks of obnoxious and antagonistic behavior from the club. We'll be following up with a later post on this issue as things develop.

There were other matters addressed at the meeting, but by this point Mr. 14thandyou--who hadn't yet had dinner--needed to excuse himself from the proceedings. It was certainly a fun night for all involved...

DC to suspend parking tickets, er, street sweeping November 30

Rejoice, all ye who do not drive to work and frequently forget to move your vehicles, for the city announced today that the annual cessation of street sweeping will commence on November 30. That means, no more seeing the street sweeper go by at 8:45 AM, and then seeing DC parking enforcement out ticketing vehicles at 10:00 AM.

Then again, maybe you will...

The full text of the announcement is below.

Weekly Residential Street Sweeping Ends November 28

The DC Department of Public Works (DPW) has announced that weekly, (signed) residential mechanical street cleaning will end for the season Friday, November 28, 2008. "No parking/street cleaning" restrictions will be lifted and motorists may park along posted, alternate-side, daytime street sweeping routes without being required to move their cars on street-cleaning days.

Residential street sweeping is suspended for public safety concerns during the winter. Sweepers emit a fine spray of water to keep dust down as they sweep; but when the temperature is at freezing or below, sweeping is discontinued to prevent freezing and accidents to vehicles and pedestrians.

Overnight sweeping scheduled for the District's major roadways, such as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Constitution, Independence Avenues and others, will take place as usual all winter, weather conditions permitting. Motorists are urged not to park in these areas during the posted overnight sweeping hours.

By suspending the street sweeping program, DPW personnel will focus on leaf collection and the upcoming snow removal season. Residents and business owners will be notified when street sweeping resumes again in the spring of 2009.

Street Sweeping (and Parking Enforcement) to Resume March 24

For those who may not know (because the city doesn't exactly go bonkers promoting this kind of thing), residential street sweeping will resume on Monday, March 24. This means that not only will the sweeper make a weekly appearance on your street to get rid of the fast food wrappers, leaf detritus and other stuff collecting in the gutters--it means that parking enforcement will be out as well. For those of us along the 1200 and 1300 blocks of R St. and sorrounding blocks, it also means that the olympic event of scrambling for a spot on the "right" side of the street with all of the Sunday church-goers is about to resume as well.

So, game on.

Below is the email sent out by ANC2F06 commissioner Mike Bernardo on the subject.

This is to inform you that weekly residential street cleaning operationsresume on Monday, March 24, 2008. Alternate-side parking restrictionsduring street sweeping hours will be in effect once again. Parkingcitations will be issued to vehicles parked during street sweeping hours inareas posted with "No Parking/Street Cleaning" signs.

Neighborhood Drama and Lack Thereof

Some moments of Wednesday night's ANC meeting were amusing, and others were even gratifying.

Commissioner Reed actually had to use his gavel to restore order. That was almost fun to watch. Apparently, Be Bar has been causing some neighborhood noise issues between 2 and 3 a.m. on Sunday nights/Monday mornings — serious issues like yelling, car horns honking, and people dancing on cars. A Shaw couple were present at the meeting to make their complaint publicly. According to a resident, she has called and left a voice mail at the bar as well as sent a letter to owner Michael Watson and she feels that the response has been an overly personal attack from Mr. Watson and and no reduction in noise. There's no way of knowing the exact history of the back-and-forth between the two, but the dispute did lead to both written and verbal accusations of hearsay and gossip mongering against this one couple. Um, isn't a complaint letter not a legal document? The repetition of those statements in the meeting pushed the resident's buttons enough for her to offer a sworn affidavit of her accusations. Commissioner Reed weighed in to snap at Watson that his liquor license is a privilege bestowed by the community. I've never actually seen yelling at an ANC meeting before. It brought a little energy into an otherwise dry occasion.

The ANC is amending the voluntary agreement with Be Bar. Be Bar will now have increased security staff to enforce order both inside and outside, a phone line for complaints with live answering during business hours, and verbal and signage reminders to patrons to respect neighborhood residents. There will not, however, be a reduction in hours.

Watson came off as smug and unprofessional. He showed up in a leather jacket, jeans, and knit hat to represent himself to the commissioners and the public. He then totally stoked the fires by fighting with the residents making the complaints. Once order had been restored to the meeting he offered a saccharin smirking plea for the public to contact him directly with complaints so that he can do everything he can to be a good neighbor. He was like a teenager contesting his first speeding ticket in court.

The church parking discussion was a non event. MPD Lt. Marcos Santiago explained that the decision to enforce parking round the clock every day of the week was made in response to complaints by both residents and churchgoers on a recent Tuesday evening. Residents were upset about being blocked by double parkers and various unsafe parking practices (in alleys, in front of fire hydrants, and in the middle of crosswalks). Churchgoers were bothered by residents' failure to observe parallel parking vs. back-in diagonal parking rules on Vermont Avenue. So now, to be fair, we're all going to be under the watchful eye of MPD.

Rev. Cornelius Wheeler of Vermont Avenue Baptist Church spoke in support of enforcement with regards to safety issues. He said that he was happy to have the burden of reminding parishioners not to block in residents lifted. Metropolitan Baptist had sent a representative/s the the meeting, but no one was available in the meeting room to speak during the public comment period.

Resident comments were limited to Arron Adams, a Logan Station resident, stating that church congregants often block the exit to the parking garage, and that he's taken to writing down license plates and reporting them to the Mayor's Call Center. If I had paid $40k for my parking space — the retail rate at Logan Station — I'd be really peeved too.

After a brief history of the parking conflict from Commissioner Reed, the meeting moved on without a bit of conflict. Commisioner Bernardo recommended that ANC 2F send a letter of commendation to MPD Chief Lanier and Third District Commander McCoy to thank them for their actions regaring Logan Circle parking.

Less politically charged meeting news included the following:
Crime and Public Safety

• From January 6th to February 5th of this year, the crime rate in our PSA was 19 percent lower than for the same period last year.
• Police caught a homeless man who groped a female pedestrian. It seems he has a history of such offenses, and MPD expects that he will be incarcerated.
• There was an unrelated unspecified sexual offense behind Shaw Junior High School.
• Deondre Kelly (sp?) of 916 N Street was found guilty on a distribution of cocaine charge. He was sentenced today, and police testified in hopes of getting the longest sentence possible for this neighborhood resident who was known as a repeat weapons offender.
• There has been a spate of thefts from vehicles parked between 13th and 14th Streets near the Jefferson and Highland Terrace buildings. Police are aware of the problem, but are unable to enforce effectively as fingerprints are rarely found and successful prosecution requires that someone witness the window smashing, catch the perpetrators, and be able to definitively identify them. In response to the problem police and/or residents may stake out the area soon.

DDOT

• We were reminded of the third public meeting regarding the 14th Street streetscape project.
  
• Residents spoke to the need for a traffic signal at 11th and O Streets in order to protect pedestrian safety. Chris Ziemann, the Ward 2 planner for DDOT acknowledged this need, but let us know that the signal will most likely not be installed until the time of the restructuring and repaving of 11th Street.
  
• The Q Street mess on the 1200 and 1300 blocks is about three weeks from completion.
• Mike Bernardo spoke to the need for repairs to alleys and sidewalks in his SMD now that Washington Gas has completed its utility work to restore service to that area.
  

ABRA
Other than the Be Bar issue, ABRA matters are pretty quiet. The ANC is working with Izalco and Vegas Lounge to hammer out voluntary agreements. The only concerns with these establishments relate to "peace, order, and quiet" issues.

Other Stuff
ANC 2F will request by letter to the Department of Parks and Recreation that the wading pool and bathrooms at Garrison Elementary School be removed so as to eliminate potential safety problems. We will also request a meeting with the Director, Clark Grant, to discuss the matter.

We were reminded of the new 311 and 911 systems. If you need an MPD officer to respond to a situation, always dial 911. The Mayor's Call center line can still be reached by dialing 727-1000, but can now also be reached at 311. For more information on what matters the call center handles, see this post. There will also be a voice mail system in place on the 311 line in the event that you don't get through to an operator immediately.

Our ANC is aggressively pursuing the issue of vacant buildings. If you're not familiar with the tax code, vacant buildings are taxed at five times the rate of occupied structures so as to encourage sale or improvement of the properties. The ANC will be writing a letter to DC CFO Natwar Gandhi and DCRA to inform them of the need to enforce the tax penalties. In a recent survey of the Mount Vernon Square neighborhood, two thirds of 100 vacant properties were not being taxed at the higher rate. If you're particularly interested by this problem, Ed Six has started a blog at dcvacantproperties.blogspot.com.

As happens every spring, there will be a number of street closures for charity walks and runs. Most will be around Pennsylvania Avenue in close proximity to the Mall. If you're concerned about times and dates, check the ANC 2F website in about a month for the February meeting minutes.

Cary Silverman, candidate for Ward 2 Councilmember seat was at the meeting campaigning for himself. He made some superfluous comments in support of the 311/911 change and taxing vacant buildings at a higher rate. I'm cynical and sometimes too critical, but it really seemed like he was there just to talk if the opportunity arose and to flash his campaign button.

Parking Miracle!

Effective immediately, parking regulations will be enforced seven days a week. That means church parkers and Saturday night partyers can no longer block our hydrants, alleys, intersections, or other parked cars. If one can be giddy about parking enforcement, I am. My city government has now given me two fantastic gifts this year, the first being cab meters at a decent fare rate.

So the infamous church parking debate will begin anew. In fact Metropolitan Baptist/ Vermont Avenue parking are on the agenda for tomorrow night's ANC meeting. (The rest of the agenda can be viewed here.) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there's less drama in this chapter of the parking enforcement tale. Whatever side you are on, if you happen to attend the ANC meeting, or even comment on the blog, please do your best to avoid baiting those with opposing views by bringing race or gentrification into the conversation. Let's also avoid holding a vigil in Logan Circle; this is a parking and safety issue, not a civil rights issue.

The one area where I think enforcement stinks is in front of Logan Station. After using orange cones to lay claim to the better part of the south side of the 1200 block of R Street, they now have the building entrance designated as a no parking zone. Mr. 14th & You happened not to be tuned in to the new parking signs and was given two parking tickets when he didn't move his car for a week. I am, however, willing to concede defeat on that issue.