Back to DC, back to school!

My family returned from our sojourn abroad in July, having reconnected with extended family and supported some family members through life transitions. We were grateful to be able to work remotely for much of the time and I was delighted to continue to serve as your ANC from Uruguay. Thank you to all my fellow Commissioners who attended in-person activities in 4D04 when I could not, and to my constituents for reaching out and keeping me informed while I was away, and to the Office of ANC for supporting remote service. I'm glad I was able to continue to serve the neighborhood in many ways.

And, I'm delighted that my kids went back at school at Barnard Elementary last week! They had a wonderful first week, and I was so thrilled to be present at the ribbon cutting with Mayor Bowser, Councilmember Lewis George, DCPS Chancellor Kim Jackson, and DGS Director Delano Hunter for Barnard's new wing. The school also got a much-needed new roof and new HVAC system in the older building, and soon the new soccer field, basketball court, and stormwater wetland will be finished. The new wing is BEAUTIFUL and I am so excited that Barnard will continue to serve generations of Petworth families with this gorgeous new facility.

We got kittens! Immediately after returning from Uruguay, we went back to Humane Rescue Alliance and adopted Top Hat and Mustard Bob. We really enjoyed fostering with HRA since our beloved elder cats and dog all passed away in 2024, and now we are just over the moon with the silliness of these two cuties. 

People hate rats. Me too! But I recently learned a lot about rats, and it really changed my attitude about how to deal with them.

I attended a DC Community Rat Walk organized by DC Responsible Rat Management, led by anthrozoologist Dr. Holly Gerberich and rodentologist Mr. Gerard Brown. Seven facts about rats we need to know:

1. A healthy breeding pair of Norway rats (the big brown ones) can produce 15,000 descendants in a single year.
2. An adult rat only needs the equivalent of a mayonnaise packet of calories per day.
3. If you reduce the local population significantly with poisoning or trapping, but there is still plenty of food around, the remaining rats will breed even faster and sometimes the population will bounce back even higher than the original numbers!!!!!!
4. When we put out poison bait, it causes internal hemorrhaging - it slowly kills any rats that eat it, but it kills or injure rats' predators like foxes, owls, and hawks. And, that stuff is out in the environment, so cats and dogs could eat the poison or the body of a dead poisoned rat and get sick themselves.
5. Rats are very smart and they can climb, chew, dig, and swim. We can't outsmart them.
6. They only live for about a year.
7. They don't travel very far - an adult rat's home range is only 90-150 feet.

So, with these facts in mind, I have started thinking of the rats as our urban shadows. However we poorly manage our food waste, litter, or neglect our properties to allow burrows to flourish - the rats are there. When we leave out breadcrumbs for birds, unfortunately, the rats are there. When we don't deal with our dogs' poop by storing it in a sealed trash can until trash day, the rats are there (they LOVE dog poop). They are truly our shadows, and we can't kill them all. 

What about DPW? Department of Health? Department of Energy and Environment? You may well ask! Well, they have a role to play for sure. Our Supercans are not good at excluding rats at all, and I think it's time for a redesign. And all our public trash cans should be rat-proof - that means solid-sided, solid-lidded, and not chewable. We should have a whole-of-government approach to our rat problem.

But we can't wait for that. We need to act ourselves, and talk with our neighbors. With the above facts in mind, here are some very useful tips I learned from the DC Community Rat Walk:

• Keep your trash out of the Supercans until trash day.
  • The best is to compost your food waste so it's out of the trash completely - store it in the freezer or a bucket and bring it to the Uptown Farmers Market at 14th & Kennedy on Saturday mornings, or to the Food Waste drop bins outside the Petworth and Takoma libraries, or enroll in the city's Curbside Compost Pickup Pilot. Click here to get on the waitlist for the service!
  • If you can't compost, buy an old-fashioned metal trash can with a lid (like Oscar the Grouch lives in) at Ace or Home Depot and store your trash bags in there until garbage day, then transfer to the Supercan for pickup.
  • Keep your Supercan clean - hose it out now and then so it doesn't hold odors that attract the rats.
• Close up all the cracks in your house and your fence if you have one. Rats can fit through as small a space as a 1/2 inch, and mice even smaller. Use caulk, steel wool, 1/4" wire mesh (called hardware cloth), and sturdy wood boards to reinforce your fence. Staple the hardware cloth to the bottom of your fence and dig it into the ground at least 6 inches to stop the rats burrowing under your fence.
• Keep your yard clean. Rats like to travel under cover, so overly bushy garden beds, yard toys your kids don't use anymore, and just storing random ancient stuff under your back overhang (guilty!) all provide places for the rats to feel safe and comfy in your yard.

Because rats only live for about a year, and don't travel very far, if a block or two did all these things, TOGETHER...they could dramatically reduce their rat population over the course of a year! So tell your neighbors and let's get started! Let me know if you are interested in becoming a Rat Captain and I will connect you with DC Responsible Rat Management. I think we get badges :)

Office of the Peoples' Counsel: Help with Utility Bills

Assistance for utility bills can be difficult to find, particularly when existing programs have limited funding. If you are struggling with utility bills, OPC's Water Services Division encourages residents to explore community-based resources available in their ward.

For example, DC’s Family Support Collaboratives work directly with families to help address their individual needs. In addition to potential financial assistance, the collaboratives offer a wide range of services, such as case management, violence prevention and intervention, and parental support.

These organizations can help address immediate needs while paving the way toward greater financial stability-- and the best part is that they can be found right in your own community. OPC partners with the following collaboratives to assist utility consumers.

Ward 4

Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative

4420 Georgia Avenue NW

(202) 722-1815