Manor Park News You Can Use

Sidewalk Repairs: 

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will begin a Sidewalk Improvement project along 3rd Street, N.W., between Rittenhouse Street, N.W., and Oglethorpe Street, N.W., on or about Monday, March 18, 2024.

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will begin a Sidewalk Improvement project along Blair Road, N.E., between Milmarson Place, N.E./North Capitol Street BN, and Madison Street, N.E., on or about Tuesday, March 19, 2024.

Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration Notice:

The Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA) is notifying you of a license application that was placarded within your affected area. Below is a copy of the placard that will be posted on the applicant’s establishment on Friday. 

Mr. Daisy, LLC Renewal for Internet Alcoholic Beverage License - 5909 Blair Rd NW

Mr. Daisy sells beer, wine and spirits online only for off-premises consumption.  The location is not open to the public.

If you have questions about this notice, the attached placard or the protest process, please contact ABCA’s Community Resource Officer Sarah Weniger, at Sarah.Weniger@dc.gov or (202) 397-3971.

245 Peabody Street NW - Former Mennonite Church

The former Mennonite Church at 245 Peabody Street NW, in ANC 4B07, has submitted an application with the Board of Zoning to become a child development center.  Commissioner Cohen, 4B07 has provided the below information in his most recent newsletter:

On February 20th, Councilmember Cohen held a special SMD meeting to discuss this proposed location.  The video can be found here.  If you need assistance accessing the video, please contact Commissioner Cohen at 4b06@anc.dc.gov.

In addition to the BZA application, Commissioner Cohen has also sent a letter outlining areas of concern, some of which were discussed during the February 20th meeting.  I will be working with the Commissioner on this issue as any proposal will affect the residents of ANC 4B06 as well as 4B07.  

Commissioner Cohen has compiled a list of questions from his February 20th meeting into a Google Doc.  He also created a short survey that I'm hoping everyone can complete. I'd like to try and get a better understanding of how neighbor concerns line up based on where they live in proximity to the property. 

The hearing on this application scheduled for May 1, 2024, is being postponed at the request of the owner MENDONMAS in order to address some of the communities' concerns.  In the interim, Commissioner Cohen and I will be submitting a letter to the BZA outlining those concerns.

DPW Service Level

Special Waste Collection Event (i.e., Household Hazardous Waste, electronics recycling, and document shredding) will take place on one Thursday and one Saturday each month through March 2024 at RFK Lot 3, 2400 E Capitol St. NE (across from the DC Armory). View the current schedule here.  The Last Event is Saturday, March 16th, 7 am to 2 pm.

Please be advised that after Saturday, March 16^th, the Special Waste Collection Events will be conducted twice quarterly.

Here are the dates for the future special waste collection events:

• Thursday, June 27^th from 10am to 2pm @ Anacostia Skate Park 1500 Anacostia Drive SE)
• Saturday, June 29^th from 8am to 2pm @ Cater Barron Tennis Center 1698 Kennedy St NW
• Thursday, September 19^th from 10am to 2pm @ Anacostia Skate Park
• Saturday, September 21^st from 8am to 2pm @ Carter Barron Tennis Center

The Department of Energy and Environment will still have E-cycling events. Visit https://doee.dc.gov/ecycle for more information

Join the Mayor's Office of the Clean City at their "Roll-Off Days." Roll-off days rotate to different wards on Saturdays each month and allow residents to responsibly dispose of bulk trash, debris, and electronics to E-Cycle! For additional information visit Cleancity.dc.gov

Here's the schedule: 

Spring Services

Assigned Mechanical Street Sweeping resumed Monday, March 4^th. Parking enforcement issued warning tickets to vehicles parked during Street Sweeping hours for the first week. The warning period was from March 1 – March 10^th. On Monday, March 11^th parking enforcement began issuing $45 tickets and $100 relocation fines for vehicles parked on Assigned Mechanical Street Sweeping streets during sweeping hours. If your street is missed, please contact 311 to submit a Signed Street Sweeping Missed service request. The full complement of spring services resumes April 1^st including street sweeping (resumed March 4^th), street cleaning, alley cleaning, mowing/grounds maintenance, and graffiti removal. For more information regarding DPW spring services visit dpw.dc.gov/page/spring-operations

Unified Communication Center UCC

DPW is committed to delivering efficient and effective services to our residents and quickly resolving issues. As our partner in providing streamlined and effective resolutions, we wanted to share the best channels for residents to utilize.

In order to improve our customer service and our internal tracking mechanisms, DPW launched the Unified Communication Center (UCC) in November 2023 aimed at decreasing our response and resolution times. Through the UCC, we have consolidated our call centers and phone numbers into one accessible line. In February 2024, our average hold time was under 2 minutes, affirming our swift assistance for all callers. We also consolidated our emails into one central address. Each contact, whether by phone or email, is provided a Service Request (SR) if they don’t already have one. For a service inquiry, our representatives offer service information and pass along Service Level Agreement (SLA) benchmarks. In instances where an SR is past our SLA benchmarks, our operational escalation team intervenes to quickly resolve the outstanding request.  

To ensure smooth communication for everyone, as a first step, we kindly request you share the contact details of the UCC with all members in your office and constituents who reach out to you. This will make the service resolution process quicker for residents and raise awareness about DPW's new communication center. DPW’s leadership team is here to address continual issues or problems that have not been addressed satisfactorily by the UCC.  

The UCC is still new, and staff are still learning. If you have used the UCC, please share feedback on what’s working well and what needs improvement. We’d love to hear from you so we can continue to improve!  

UCC Phone: (202) 673-6833 (Mon – Fri) 8:30 am – 4:30 pm  

Central Email: dpw@dc.gov. 

DC WATER’S 2024 RATE ADJUSTMENT TOWN HALLS

Monday, March 11, 2024

Director of Community Affairs: Emanuel D. Briggs               

(202)787-2003 or emanuel.briggs@dcwater.com

Greetings ANC Commissioners:  

It’s that time of year again! DC Water will soon be hosting our ever-popular Town Hall Meetings to provide important updates and address customer questions and concerns regarding the proposed rate adjustment for the upcoming Fiscal Year. In addition to a formal presentation on rates, these meetings will also provide opportunities to engage with customers on our various services, programs, projects and operations.

Customer attendance and feedback during the Town Halls are very important, as these comments are shared with our Board of Directors and heavily considered by our Board while voting on the proposed rate increase later in the year.

For this year’s schedule of meetings, we will be hosting two in-person Town Halls, and two virtual Town Halls. Please see additional details below:

• The virtual Town Halls will be held on Thursday, April 4 and Tuesday, April 30. Both meetings will be on Microsoft Teams and scheduled from 6pm-8pm.
• The in-person Town Halls will be held on Saturday, April 20 and the following Saturday, April 27. We are currently working to finalize the locations for these meetings, but both will be scheduled from 11am-1pm.  For the in-person Town Halls, we will follow our traditional open house format, with a presentation and knowledgeable staff at information tables to help address any questions or concerns customers may have.

We are in the process of finalizing our meeting flyers, and we will provide these, along with log-in information for the virtual meetings and confirmed locations for the in-person Town Halls in a follow-up email. In the interim, we wanted to get the word out to you now, in hopes that you will save these dates and help us to publicize these meetings by circulating this information to your constituents and through your various social networks.

Thanks much for your time, please stay tuned for additional information, please let us know if you have any questions, and we hope to see you all at one (or more) of our Town Halls!

MTPD to begin issuing citations under new law that toughens enforcement of fare evasion

Legislation also increases penalty for assaults on transit operators.

Beginning on Monday, March 18, Metro Transit Police (MTPD) will enhance the issuing of citations for fare evasion in the District, following the passage of the Secure DC Bill. The emergency legislation, passed unanimously by the DC Council and signed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, includes a provision requiring anyone stopped for fare evasion to provide their true name and address, allowing police officers to issue civil citations.

The new law also increases the penalty for assaulting bus and rail operators or Metro employees under the Transit Operator Protection and Enhanced Penalty Amendment Act.

Before the Secure DC Bill passed, MTPD officers could engage an individual who did not pay the fare but were unable to compel compliance. Instead, officers could only ask an individual to leave the station or go back and pay their fare, severely limiting enforcement efforts. Under the new law, anyone who refuses to provide their true name and address may be arrested and face a fine of up to $100 for failing to comply.

In November 2022, Metro launched a new safety initiative to crack down on fare evasion. The civil fine in the District is $50, and in Virginia and Maryland, fare evasion is a criminal violation punishable by up to a $100 fine. Metro is also in the process of modifying faregates at all 98 Metrorail stations with new salon-style doors that make fare evasion more difficult.

The Secure DC Bill provides additional tools for MTPD to stop and deter criminal behavior, and is critical to running a safe, efficient system. The changes also support Metro’s Strategic Transformation Plan to provide safe, reliable service, support equity and sustainability, protect employees, and foster collaboration with our regional partners.

Metro offers reduced fare programs including Metro Lift for SNAP recipients, seniors, and student programs to make Metro equitable and affordable for everyone in our region to use public transit.

Additional information about Metro’s fare enforcement efforts can be found at wmata.com/paythefare.

Prepare to Weigh in on the DC Budget

Next week, Mayor Bowser is expected to release her proposed DC budget for next fiscal year. And in just 10 days, the Council will begin holding budget oversight hearings on how the proposed budget will impact our communities. There is little doubt that the lapse in federal funding, DC's slowing revenue growth, and our growing investments in Metro and the workers who keep the District running will make the DC budget process more challenging this year. We already know that several of our schools are facing budget cuts, and that nearly every agency is on the table for budget reductions. Please take a moment to review the full schedule of budget hearings and sign up to speak or submit comments on the issues that matter most to you. Your voice will matter even more during a tough budget year. And we need residents to make it clear that DC will not become safer or stronger if we underfund schools, violence prevention, food assistance, housing, or other programs that DC families depend on. My team can answer any questions you have about participating in Council budget hearings at teamjaneese@dccouncil.gov. I am eager to hear from you as we kick off another budget year!