Parking remains a serious concern of residents in our neighborhood, as it has been for well over a decade. Our residential neighborhood has a high demand for parking from residents, visitors and business patrons; balancing those needs is a key role for ANC Commissioners and something that I have led for nearly two years.

Earlier this year I established (and chair) the Transportation and Public Infrastructure Committee within the Dupont Circle ANC – something that has never existed before – to build consensus on neighborhood transportation issues and act to improve them. This isn’t just platitudes or guesses about what will work and what won’t, this is real conversation with a broad group of stakeholders and the city to find real, implementable solutions for our neighborhood. We have real goals and you can read our meeting minutes to get a sense of the work we’re accomplishing.

The ANC has identified four problem areas related to parking in our neighborhood. They include residential parking, visitor parking, business customer parking, and underutilized space. As recently as August we brought in the DDOT citywide parking manager, Evian Patterson, to discuss the feasibility of options to address these issues. We have a list of feasible options that fit into the recently released DDOT curbside management study. The ANC is committed to pilot testing innovative parking solutions in our neighborhood and DDOT has committed to reaching out to us first.

Separately, I've begun a conversation with commissioners from other Ward 2 ANCs and Jack Evans' office on how changes to parking policies in Dupont could impact their neighborhoods positively and negatively. A ward-wide and city-wide solution is the goal, but we shouldn't hesitate to pilot test innovative parking policies in Dupont. 

Why not just reserve all residential streets for residential parking?

Enhanced residential parking restrictions have been tested in many parts of the city with limited success. Our own test case, Caroline Street, has found more available residential parking but extremely limited visitor parking for when friends come over for dinner or repairs are needed on a home. Because of this, DDOT is no longer accepting petitions for enhanced parking restrictions until a city-wide plan is developed. They found that changing one block’s parking policies just pushes the problem down another block. As you can see, there is no silver bullet, but there are a lot of great ideas to implement together.

ANCs have such a wide area of responsibility and opportunity for positive impact. We depend on great ideas coming from our neighbors and then working with each of you and the city to implement them. If you have thoughts or ideas to address parking concerns, please contact me or join our committee! We would love to see you on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7pm at the Dupont Circle Resource Center.  

UPDATED: Read the response from Third District Lt. Lindsey by clicking "Read More" below.

Recently, a discussion began on the Caroline Street listserv about crimes of opportunity in our neighborhood. This started with a friend who saw police outside her home after a car was broken into overnight. I wanted to post my response and continue the conversation with the broader neighborhood: 

It is not acceptable that these crimes occur and we need to keep talking, continue sharing stories and learn best practices for preventing this kind of crime in our neighborhood. 

While violent crime is way down in our area, what has gone up is burglaries and thefts and I think that's because of a specific effort led by many in the neighborhood, including me, to report package thefts more frequently throughout the year. This has been really successful on the 1400 block of S and Swann Streets. Reporting all crimes when they happen is how we are allocated more police resources as a neighborhood. 

Over two years ago, when I was interested in public safety issues, I got involved. I attended ANC meetings, I held public listening sessions on the topic and I was appointed the Public Safety Liaison for the neighborhood. We met with the Chief of Police and her Deputies and advocated for more police in our area. This is all before I was an ANC Commissioner. 

One thing I'm really proud of is that last year the ANC submitted a Community Impact Statement to a judge after a serial car thief was again arrested in our neighborhood. You can read more about what we told the judge. The judge sentenced him to 3 years in jail, which is much more time than the average car thief receives. The ANC works with the police regularly to recognize serial criminals and use our great weight to put them behind bars for a long time. 

I remain convinced that the best deterrent is an educated neighborhood who knows how to prevent these crimes of opportunity. MPD has some great tip sheets about exactly how you all can do that. I agree with some that we need more walking/biking police officers patrolling our streets and I continue that conversation with Commander Kishter and Lt. Lindsey. 

You can view our most recent crime stats below and perform your own search here. We all know that these statistics don't always accurately reflect what happens on our streets. I'm really looking forward to continuing to work together to prevent and reduce crime in our neighborhood.

For well over a year the 1400 block of T Street has been the victim of persistent water shut offs because of emergency repairs required to the underground water main. It happened again earlier this month and according to residents, this is at least the fourth or fifth time that the water has been shut off without warning within a year. 

Residents and businesses on T Street are being hit hard. Here are tweets from a resident and Lupo Verde at 14th and T. 

I reached out to DC Water immediately and asked that the water main be replaced as soon as possible. The regular disruptions cost the city time and money to repair on an emergency basis. The water main feeds both residents and growing small businesses, and the regular repair work blocks a well traversed street and bike lane. 

As of now, the main is scheduled to be repaired in 2016 at the earliest, which simply isn't good enough. Emergency fixes clearly are not working. DC Water did note that "following selection of water mains [for replacement] there is an extensive design phase that can take up to three years before construction will begin." 

While I continue to push the timeline with the city, neighbors should feel free to express their concerns directly to DC Water. You can email Lisa Barton in the Office of the General Manager at lisa.barton@dcwater.com. Tell the city that three years is too long to wait. Thanks!

Join your neighbors, the Shaw Dupont Citizens Alliance and the Meridian Hill Neighborhood Association for an ANC Candidates Forum on October 16 at 7pm at the Thurgood Marshall Center. Details are on the flyer below. 

Special thanks to David McAuley, the fantastic local blogger behind Short Articles About Long Meetings for moderating! 

Each month the ANC posts its official votes on its website, www.dupontcircleanc.net within a day or two of the meeting. We publish our official letters to city boards and other agencies here within a week or so of the meeting. You can see the votes from the October 8th ANC meeting by clicking here or by "read more" below.