Cutting back on public library services. Specifically, soon reducing the number of library staff at the South West Branch Library.. With new buildings, South West has more people, not fewer people, living here and wanting library services.. The Capitol Hill Branch Library and the eventually-to-be-reopened MLK Main Library are distant. Learning doesn’t stop when people finish school. Libraries foster lifetime learning.

The erratic nature of residential parking enforcement. Related to this is the police dept. granting temporary visitor parking passes repeatedly to the same vehicles. Something must be done about the illegal use of residential visitor parking passes that are given (or are sold) to Virginia or Maryland residents as a license to park daily in the Barracks Row neighborhood.


Three years ago I was told that my alley was “next” in the queue for repair and clean up.


Trash collection, trash in tree boxes, and overflowing trash containers in alleys where residents illegally have lined them up.


Lack of responsiveness from Charles Allen’s office.

Just to offer a positive comment: I was pleasantly surprised this year by how relatively easy it was to apply for a senior citizen tax abatement. After I filled in the form, I waited a month, then called to follow up. The young man who answered the phone checked the computer, said I had the abatement and posted it to my account while I was on the phone. Jeffrey DeWitt has clearly done a great job automating and empowering his employees; kudoes!

Mistrust. The DC govt. overturned the vote on Section 77. Voters made a decision, and that was swiftly overturned in favor of what I can only think is the restaurant industry pouring funds into their “campaign”… Not okay.

My Elected Councilman sets up a feedback forum for Government oversight concerns .

Instead of correcting or working on correcting problems ,He replies with a form email to tell us about meetings for Government Agencies .

This adds to Typical DC Bureaucracy ,nothing gets done about simple issues and we continue to kick the can down the street .

DC agencies could be great if we took care of the small things well.

Please Mr Allen it is your #1 job and responsibility to take care of your constituents problems with City services.

It seems you are spreading blame around instead of holding the city agencies feet to the fire and insist they do there actual jobs.

1. Public safety concerns, drastic increase in violent crimes, police not taking action/ignoring offenders committing crimes while police are watching, need for increased patrols in known problem areas, need for more bike and foot patrols, need for more police throughout the District.


2. Dangerously poor road conditions (i.e. potholes, decaying asphalt, etc.) must be addressed and more traffic calming measures should be added.


3. Mail/package theft. This is NOT okay!


4. Inconsistent and careless trash collection. Trash in the alleyways, trash in the streets, trash everywhere.


5. Beautification – give our community something to be proud of, to contribute to, to cherish and protect. Improve sidewalks, expand bike lanes, increase green space. Our nation’s capital should be America’s jewel.

I live near Dunbar High School. It is so frustrating to see/hear daily vandalism from the students who walk on N street NW from 4th street through 5th street.


From 3:30pm until 4:30pm students who walk this block throw trash cans, rocks and other objects at cars driving by or cars parked. They are loud, destructive and there are often fights outside.


They destroy property, throw objects at homes, this makes it very uncomfortable anyone walking nearby. The two corner stores often deal with theft when large groups of students enter their stores.


There are always 2-3 MPD police cars that sit at the corner of O street NW near Kennedy Recreation center, that park their police cars next to each other but we never see any officers patrolling the area.


It would be a good use of resources to spread these officers out to minimize the damages to our neighborhood.

I live near Kennedy Recreation Center. I am so sick of seeing MPD parked 3 vehicles across on O Street for hours running their mouth, but they can’t do their job breaking up hordes of people smoking weed and drinking alcohol on the public sidewalk right on O Street, 7th Street, 8th Street, and N Street. They blast music from vehicles illegally parked, have loud boisterous conversation all night, and make it very uncomfortable for pedestrians to walk by. If you say something to the police, they act like you’re the problem.

The streets and roadways are in such poor condition, some of the worst I’ve seen in the country actually. Large and small potholes all over the place, especially in NE and SE. I was told over the summer while getting my tires balanced and rotated that three of my rims are cracked which will cost between $2-3K. How can DC do so well in other more complicated areas but when it comes to repairing and maintaining roadways hardly anything seems to get accomplished from one year to the next.

I have a Personal Van and was told by DPW that I am not able to use citizen disposal at Ft Totten .


I interpret My Van as a Conversion Van but when I take out the seats and bed to go to Ft Totten they consider it a Cargo Van ?

DC DMV treats Cars/Vans/SUV/PickUps the same with no distinction.


Little backstory to the issue I am having.


I remember my first van when I was 16 ,it was a VW Van . I used it for farmers markets,auctions, hauling antique trunks and furniture, bikes ,dirt bikes,motorbikes ,camping ,helping friends and neighbors move things and occasionally going to the dump.

Almost all of the 35 years,(+25 in DC) since I have loved owning a Van for the same reasons.

Meaning for over 25 years I have been able to use a van to go to DPW citizen disposal !


This is my only personal vehicle and I can’t use it for its intended purpose.

I understand and sympathise with DPW with their desire to stop unwanted refuse ,but not at my personal expense,

We have are Neighborhood Cleanup coming up and would use my Van if only I was allowed to go to Ft Totten . I have used my pickup in the past years but no longer own one (the reasons are financial , smaller carbon footprint and helps with neighborhood parking issues)


It is not right that Van owners are a minority in our city that are being discriminated against.


Would like to have these new rules reverted back to allow Personal Cargo and or Conversion Vans.

If that seems too difficult ,then a letter from DC Govt. that I can use my personal van.


Everyone I speak to within DC Govt. agrees with me (Except DPW ? ) including your office but nothing ever seem to comes of it .

Thanks in advance for seeing this through personally and helping me with this matter. .

Trash pickup will sporadically just not occur. Why? Well, because. And yes, up front, I know that when it’s a holiday (or bad weather) everything just pushes a day. But, when it pushes a day, it actually needs to be picked up on the day it is pushed to. So, here’s one (of many) examples: MLK holiday 2018 was a Monday. So, if your regular pickup days are normally Monday and Thursday, your pickup days are Tuesday and Friday that week. Trash pickup did not occur on Tuesday (recycling was, so I don’t want any of this ‘inclement weather’ crap because there wasn’t any that day). So, for the rest of the week there was just trash out until I called city services and affirmatively asked them to abide by THEIR OWN schedule that they set-up (which they didn’t even do at first, I had to call three times!). I know you guys are aware of the increasing rat population problems. I guarantee you, an entire neihborhood’s trash not getting picked up when it’s supposed to be does not help the situation. There are days I will come home, and trash (which yes, is actually legit trash, in other words not prohibited by the city to go into the trash), will just not be picked up. Why? Well, because “wacka wacka, very funny, just gonna leave it today.”


Oh, and another thing, the restauranteurs, and businesses on 8th Street SE, Between D St SE and E Street SE need to be able to legally tell the bums, druggies, alcoholics, and degenerates hanging outside their businesses that they need to move on. AND, when they call the police to help, they need to not be told (“hey it’s a public space they’re allowed to be there, we can only kick them out of the store itself if they’re being disruptive, but not tell them to take a hike”). I know that I do not speak for just myself that that section of the street needs to be cleaned up. I’ve personally spoken to the owner of the 7/11 and he’s asked for the city’s help on this (mostly from calling the cops) and no one seems to be lifting a finger. And I don’t want to hear any of this absurd “progressive” ultra-liberal BS about compassion for drug-heads and alcoholics who are sleeping outside, panhandling, and just generally being an awful nuisance to people outside when they’re walking by. Some dude got cold-cocked outside the Starbucks there for Christ’s sakes for no earthly reason (and yes it’s official because I got the public service announcement from it from the local police texted to my phone, and verified with two other neighbors). I’ve walked some of my female friends by there sometimes and thank God they aren’t alone, because even when I’m with them those folks get too close for comfort. That section of the block is mired in degenerates and the city and the businesses need to work together to clean it up. We’re tired of this. Some people have kids here. Believe me, it’ll matter when someone who’s actually important gets mugged there someday.

It is so hard to get an agency to answer questions. Sometimes there are “those” questions that cannot be answered by looking on the agency website. But calls to 311 seem never to get a response and emails to the agency via their website also end up in a black hole. My particular beef is with DMV, but it’s not the first time I’ve tried to get a definitive answer to a specific question and have come up blank. Every agency ought to have an ombudsman or someone to address customer inquiries.

The streets are in horrible condition. Huge potholes exist everywhere on major thoroughfares and small streets alike and are never patched or fixed. Has the District just stopped repairing the streets?


Also, I live across the street from Lovejoy park (1100 block) and routinely witness cars speeding down this street while kids are around. Is there not city rule that speed bumps be installed on streets bordering public playgrounds?

I’m frustrated with an aspect of our trash and recycling collection: each week after putting our trash and recycling neatly in the proper bins and placing them in the alley, I come back after work on a collection day to see refuse and recycling strewn up and down the alley from my and others’ bins – including broken glass. Thus, the alley ends up being a fairly large mess many times after trash/recycling pick-up that takes unpleasant work to pick up off of the ground especially after being broken and run over. The times I have been home during pick-up I have seen the haphazard way this occurs as bags and bins are thrown about. I appreciate that this is a difficult and physically demanding job, but I still believe that this work could be done more carefully and effectively – as I have seen done in other jurisdictions. In particular, I believe that the mechanical truck function to lift and tip the bins should be used to avoid the spills that occur when the bins are manually dumped into the truck or handfuls of trash bags, etc. are grabbed directly from the trash/recycling bins and thrown into the back of the truck.

My biggest issues relate to school and public facility conditions, but others are speaking to those. So I will focus on the condition of our streets. Potholes go months with no repair. These conditions pose a real driving hazard as one jerks to avoid landing in an axel-breaker hole. Further, the manhole covers are depressed and seem to sink lower as cars bounce on them with considerable force. These problems appear to be citywide and to affect Ward 3 as much as Ward 6, 7 and 8. DDOT should clearly inform the public in some detail about the approach and schedule to bring our streets up to a tolerable standard. Thanks for the opportunity to comment.

Trash collection, or the lack thereof. We’ve had our entire alley missed, and just our trash missed, which is what happened on Tuesday. I called 311 the same day and was notified on Wednesday that the request was closed because the trash had been collected. Except it hadn’t been collected at all. It’s one thing if they just don’t come, but something else entirely if somebody lies about it. This week is not the first time this has happened, either. Anyway, I had to call 311 again on Wednesday. I haven’t checked recently, but as of mid-Thursday afternoon it hadn’t been collected.

I have been conducting business for my elderly mother. The DC Office on Aging is a great place, slow, but necessary. During this time she was approved for edp waiver services. I go to the service center at 6th and H Street.


This place is basically dehumanizing. The clientele is needy and I see some that are mentally ill, and elderly. The guards are very rude to them when they are not socializing with each other. And would it hurt to start a numbering system??? I have held places in line for handicap and elderly people who cannot stand in line for over an hour like I can. It was depressing.


I am sure the office can be overwhelming, but working in nonprofit organizations that also serve the same people, professional and caring attitudes can go a long way. Treat your clients respectfully and more than likely they will be the same.


I shudder to think what happens to people who cannot take the long waits and poor professional behavior. Poor citizens deserve dignity too.

Our biggest issue on the 700 block of 8th NE is timely and thorough trash collection. Not just residential pick up of trash, but the removal of trash from the corner of 8th and H NE and the 700 block of H due to the large corner construction project at 8th and H. Fine the 7-11 for failing to clean up the corner from its trash and litter.

lack of enforcement of resident parking restrictions on the 100 Block of DUDDINGTON PLACE SE. Weeks go by with no enforcemnt of the 2 hr visitor limit. As result many of the older citizens especially feel if we leave a spot during the day we will never find a spot when we return. Calls to 311 don’t usually result in enforcement of the 2 hr limit but only resident side of the street restriction thus the same VA MD commuters park here all day!!