You Are Not Alone

At the behest of neighbors from the 500-600 block of Irving, I checked out the alley behind their house.  It's safe to say that we're not the only ones with dumping problems.  In that alley, the rats live in the lap of luxury and lounge on old mattresses.

3112 Warder, which appears to be abandoned, has invited illegal dumping behind it.  In the front,  broken and boarded up windows.  In the back, shown below, someone has dumped a couch and chair.

                                                                      Front

                                                                 
  
                                                                         Back

Maybe they are trying to compost in the alley...

 Thanks to DPW for picking up all the bulk trash we gathered this past weekend.  It's great to look out our windows and not see a pile of junk staring back at us.

Despite our efforts and DPW's booklets, our neighbors still are placing trash in the alley 4 days early and without the protection of a Supercan.  As a result, animals tear open the bags and allow the trash to blow around the alley.

Status Quo

    During our cleanup yesterday, we were sad and frustrated to see that there were still many flagrant sanitation violations. We counted at least seven violations in the alley, probably three which were ticketable.   We're not talking about open trash can lids, but several instances of illegal dumping including mildew coated textbooks thrown into a trash can (that has been sitting there for two weeks), a broken table, a broken drawer, shattered aquarium, hoolahoops, and last but not least, open plastic shopping bags full of broken beer bottles--and shattered glass all over the ground.

 Above: The aquarium light left in the alley next to 426 Kenyon--matching the broken aquarium that was dumped two weeks ago.  Don't worry, you can still see the aquarium, it's still sitting out there.

Below, we gathered all the trash, bagged it properly, and left it for bulk trash to pick up tomorrow.  Hopefully.

Below: Our clean up on the surrounding 2 blocks

Are DPW's sanitation booklets effective? You decide.

The picture above is the trash scene two weeks after our meeting at CM Graham's office and a little less than a week after residents received thick booklets on DPWs programs.  It is unclear if DPW discussed the trash rules with residents as DPW had promised, not only because of the manner in which people disposed of their trash this week but also because a handful of people who were home last Monday reported that they received booklets but no one from DPW came to their door.

The pictures below are from Saturday, April 12--2 days after trash collection.  Note not only the lovely donated, vintage aquarium but also the trash cans littering the alley without any penalty.

The picture below was taken this afternoon.  426 Kenyon's can is filled with loose trash, old text books etc.

The pictures below are from this morning.  Looks like a few other bags were added to the mix. Monday, Monday...

Spring Sweep

What do we do on our sunny Saturdays?  Pick up beer bottles and McDonald's bags! Give me back that filet-o-fishhhhhh...

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

 I was excited to read an email from Councilman Jim Graham's Director of Constituent Services Wilson Reynolds explaining that he came out to our alley on Thursday evening, the night before trash day, to evaluate the trash situation.  He was happy to report there were no problems, such as dumped items or untied trash bags fluttering in the wind.  Unfortunately, that's because some residents decided to put their trash out on Friday night, after the Friday morning trash collection!  As I came through the alley on Friday night, two trash bags greeted me.  Not the kind of welcome I wanted after a long day.   They were the usual clear, thin bags--- all untied of course.  At least the rats and alley cats were excited about the proposition of tasty old chicken wings and pizza remnants.  As you can see from the picture, plates and pizza boxes had blown out of the trash bags and were lying at various places in the alley.   I thought households received solid waste tickets for behavior like this.

One of the members of the Parkview Beautification Crew on Saturday morning took the initiative to remove the bags, tie them, and put them in her own Supercan. Doesn't it look so much better?

Well it the alley did look better for a short time, until the same household put six additional bags of open trash out, a VCR, printer, old clothes, plus other assorted trash items.  It's so discouraging when we make an effort to clean the alley, only have to have residents, seemingly out of spite, resully the alley. 

Additionally, other items were illegally dumped on the Warder side of the alley.  This includes several trash bags, a drum stand, a food processor, a suitcase, a chalkboard, and other assorted items.  I reported the illegal dumping to the city, but we'll have to see if DPW talks to the residents of this house to determine who is responsible for this mess.

 To be continued...

Picking Up Where the City Left Off

It's no secret that many of city streets have suffered since November, when the city stopped sweeping some of them--not Georgetown and Dupont Circle of course.  As a result of the city's respite, coupled with the refusal of pedestrians to throw trash in receptacle and residents to pick up the areas outside their homes, the streets of Columbia Heights and Petworth have become an absolute mess.  It's like citizens began to throw their garbage out their front doors when the snow started coming down.
                     

Before

 

We asked the city's Green Team to come out and clean the 500-600 block of Irving, but we were met with no response.  As a result, two neighbors and myself decided to tackle 3 blocks surrounding our house, picking up 6 contractor bags FULL of trash. 

After