Hello and Happy New Year to everyone. I hope everyone is back in the saddle after the holiday season and ready for another great year with Team Wells. We here in the office are looking forward to another year of making Ward 6 one of the best places to live .

Whats Below: Free Reusable Grocery Bag Roundup, Top Southwest Stories of 2009, Conner Contemporary Art on H Street NE, NatsFest at Nationals Ballpark Jan. 31, Stakeholders Brainstorm About C St, NE

Free Reusable Grocery Bag Roundup – See where you can get your free reusable bags on the Penn Quarter Living Blog.

Top Southwest Stories of 2009 – The SW blog The Little Quadrant That Could, posts the top stories of SW in 2009.

Conner Contemporary Art on H Street NE – Frozen Tropics talks about the concurrent solo exhibitions by three gallery artists at the Conner Contemporary Art on H Street NE JEREMY KOST: Anyone Other Than Me …,TAYLOR BALDWIN: Living Fossil and MATTHEW SUTTON: Sounds a Grown Man Should not Make. January 16 – March 6, 2010

NatsFest at Nationals Ballpark Jan. 31 - Receive autographs and take photos with Nationals players, participate in question-and-answer sessions with Stan Kasten, Mike Rizzo, Jim Riggleman and The Washington Post columnist and Nationals Season Ticket Holder George Will, hit in the Nationals batting cages for a $1 donation to the Nationals Dream Foundation. See it on JDLand.

Stakeholders Brainstorm About C St, NE - DDOT, RCA, ANC 6A and Tommy kicked the New Year off with a January 2nd meeting of key stakeholders and community leaders discussing the conceptual design development of C Street, NE.  The Hill is Home wraps up the purpose of the meeting was to gather feedback from the neighborhood, to present early-stage conceptual options and elicit feedback in advance of a public meeting on the subject, to be held January 12th, 7pm at Eliot-Hine Junior High (1830 Constitution Ave, NE).

From the Department of Public Works:

Holiday Tree & Wreath Collection: January 2–16, 2010

Residents who receive DC trash and recycling collection services are encouraged to place holiday trees and other greenery in curbside tree boxes—without ornaments or tinsel—no earlier than Friday, January 1, and no later than Sunday, January 10. Trees will be picked up during a special two-week collection and chipped. Tree chippings are added to leaves collected during leaf collection season to make compost, which is provided free of charge to residents during the spring, summer and fall. Residents also can bring trees to the Ft. Totten Transfer Station January 2 through 9, from 1 pm to 5 pm weekdays and 8 am to 3 pm Saturdays for free tree chipping.

Trees not collected by January 16, should be placed with your regular trash. DPW will collect the trees, along with the regular trash, as truck space permits over the following weeks.

Over 80 people joined the community meeting last night regarding the recent carjackings.

MPD Chief Cathy Lanier led the discussion, along with Deputy Chief Diane Groomes, 1D Commander David Kamperin, 1D Inspector Michael Reese, Lt. Renato Caldwell, detectives with the Car-Jacking Task Force, and several other officers.

Tommy co-hosted the community meeting with ANC Commissioner Mary Beatty, and several other commissioners from ANCs 6A and 6C attended the meeting.

MPD officers first shared and outlined carjacking data and incidents, followed by a discussion of how MPD is deploying their officers to increase visibility, as well as not-as-obvious plain clothes officers in the area. They also shared that they felt fairly confident most of the crimes were being committed by a mixture of juveniles and adults from both the Kenilworth and Clay Terrace areas -- not from within the community where the crimes are taking place. MPD also shared that many of the vehicles are abandoned not too far from where they had been stolen. Officers announded that they have made arrests in about half of the cases that have taken place recently.

Chief Lanier, when asked whether MPD was taking the problem seriously, jumped up front to state that if she has to be at a community meeting like this, then there has been a failure with MPD’s response – and she vowed to have it corrected.

Chief Lanier committed to placing additional foot beat (Full Stride) officers in the immediate area, as well as sharing the name and beats for each of the Full Stride officers in the area. Cmdr. Kamperin also shared that he and his officers are putting in place new deployment plans based on the crimes.

Cmdr. Kamperin shared as an example that MPD had not projected car-jackings to take place as frequently in early afternoons on Saturdays and Sundays, and will be shifting officers in response.

Understandably, many neighbors shared their frustrations and fears with the spate of armed car-jackings. Many of the concerns focused on improving visibility, preventing repeat offenders, shortening the response time from officers, and ensuring MPD takes the up-tick in these crimes seriously.

Chief Lanier asked neighbors to both be aware of their surroundings at all times, but to not hesitate in using 911 or the text message tip line (50411) to contact police if you see anything suspicious.

Tommy asked for the community to get together in 30 or 45 days for a follow-up meeting to gauge the follow through and response from MPD with the neighbors. He’ll work with the ANC and others to schedule that meeting for late January or early February.

Announcement from the DC Department of Public Works: 

MOST DPW SERVICES TO RESUME AFTER RECORD-BREAKING SNOW STORM

Trash/Recycling Collections Resume; Leaf Collection Suspended to Allow for Snow Removal

(Washington, DC)  The DC Department of Public Works (DPW) announced today that regular trash and recycling collection services will resume Monday, December 21, while leaf collection remains suspended to allow crews to finish clearing snow in residential neighborhoods.

DPW officials say it may be difficult to trash and recycling collect from some alleys and the crews will use caution as their guide.  Residents are asked to place trash and recycling in their normal collection location and to be patient.

“Obviously it will be a little easier to pick up from residents with front collection service but we will do our best to collect from the alleys as well,” said DPW Director William O. Howland, Jr., adding that due to the Christmas holiday, all Friday collections will slide to Saturday. “We’re going to do the best we can but will err on the side of caution if an alley is determined too dangerous to navigate. Any trash and recycling that we can’t collect this week will be picked up next week.”

Collection from public litter cans will resume Monday at 10:30pm. Residents are reminded not to place their household waste in these receptacles.  While leaves remain covered with snow and these collection crews are continuing to work on snow removal, leaf collection will remain suspended.  An announcement will be made as to when collection will resume.