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This morning, Councilmember Wells and staff hosted his monthly H Street, NE Community Office Hours at the H Street Playhouse. Many thanks to Adele Robey for opening up the space for the community. The topics of conversation largely focused on abandoned and vacant property and strengthening the corridor to support the small businesses. To address the vacant and abandoned properties, Tommy is partnering with ANC 6C and 6A to create a task force dedicated to tackling the vacant properties along the H Street corridor, as well as both ANCs, and moving those properties to be taxed at five times the normal rate to stop speculation and dereliction, and encourage the owners to either move on their plans, or sell to someone who will.  We also took a stroll around the corner to 1400 Maryland Ave, NE. Commissioner Bill Schultheiss had brought the property to our attention. We found about 10 school-age children hiding behind the building smoking and hanging out before heading to school. When we approached them, the kids moved along and headed toward class. We also found 2 abandoned vehicles and a lot of illegal dumping, all of which we notified to DPW for removal and follow-up.
At the property (an abandoned former used car dealership), it appears to include a large public lot that could become metered parking for the H Street Arts and Entertainment District. Especially with the streetscape worked planned to take place beginning this summer, we need to find additional and safe parking for patrons. Working with Commissioner Schultheiss, Tommy will be requesting DDOT to evaluate the lot to convert into a temporary metered parking lot during the streetscape work. We'll need to work through a few details such as providing access to the private property for that owner and also looking at how the property could be made more pedestrian friendly once the streetscape work is completed, but we will work with the community and ANC 6A to see what can be done on a temporary basis to help the businesses and patrons along H Street (and also remove a dumping ground in the neighborhood for residents).
Readers have left 2 comments. (1) Untitled
2007-05-18 09:00:00 Thank you for paying attention to the abandoned parking lot at 14th and Maryland. I had to call 311 this past week as a group of youths were in the lot passing around a joint as I waited for the morning bus. I felt uncomfortable waiting at the bus stop so I stood on the corner, basically out in the street, to be farther away from the group. (2) Untitled
2007-05-21 15:26:22 I had sent you an email regarding a serious littering problem on H Street NE. People litter garbage and food and it's a disaster to look at the streets in late afternoons. Pennsylvania Ave. SE is much, much cleaner because the people on that corridor don't litter as much. The root of the problem is those people who litter are not prosecuted to the fullest extent of the DC Anti-Litter law. They're not held accountable for their actions. Enough is enough!
Please take my concern seriously and ensure that the law is enforced. No one is enforcing it and DPW is always behind in cleaning up. I see them cleaning up every morning and the problem will always continue until the root of this problem is fully eliminated.
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Tommy Blog 
