April 12, 2006
Not Exactly Easy Street
Do you know the way to 9 1/2 Street NW? A disturbing story popped up on the Public Safety Area 305 listserve earlier suggesting that District police and emergency services do not. The following story was reported Monday by a 9 1/2 Street NW resident:
As some of you already know, yesterday was a big day on 9 1/2 Street, crime-wise at least. Yesterday afternoon a man was beaten and robbed in front of my house (around 4pm). I heard and saw part of the ruckus and called 911. The incident was a bit horrifying but one of the scariest parts was the fact that I spent quite a few minutes trying to walk the 911 dispatcher through the process of entering our street address. Finally, she got someone from the ambulance dispatch to explain to her (via conference call) that she needed to override the standard address feature and type it manually. Even after that, I received multiple calls when the police could not find our street (she kept saying that he was in front of our house but the only man in front of my house was unconscious and bleeding). Eventually, police and ambulance responded and the man was taken to the hospital.Now, we reckon we could forgive your average Muggle ambulance driver for being unable to respond to a call at Platform 9 3/4 -- even Harry Potter himself had trouble finding it the first time around. But 9 1/2 Street NW should at the very least be familiar to emergency responders in the neighborhood, if not easily entered into whatever software program our 911 service is using to direct their drivers. Maybe someone should craft a memo introducing them to Google Maps?
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Aside from Half Street, are there any other "1/2" streets in D.C.?
There is a 13 1/2 St NW between the Wilson Building and the Reagan Building downtown, off PA Ave.
does it not lie between 9th and 10th STs? as one logically assume?
Why 9 1/2 St? Why not 9 Pl, like many other streets in the city?
I remember there was a big City Paper article about the people trying to get their street a sign and the troubles they had with it. This was at least a year or so ago.
9 1/2 street always struck me as one of the few ally-dwelling communities that survived destruction. It is ridiculously easy to find: "South of U between 9th and 10th NW" should get anyone there.
I don't know how the cops work, but FD/EMS, you are supposed to know the streets in your "first due" instinctively - you may have to break out the map book for something beyond that, but you should be able to taxi-driver-style just get there soonest in your area. (Thugh admittedly, until the dispatcher's done with their data entry, you odn't even know yet that there is a call. She should have been quicker to override the CAD system - all it does is make paperwork more complex - e.g. early PG County dispatch systems wouldn't let you put in the Beltway as a response location because you hadn't put in a numerical address...)
Ideally, for a strange address (unnamed alleys, new streets, etc.) a first due engine should have shown up and talked everyone in; though once upon a time, this would have been something that dispatchers knew and were tested on...
Isn't there a Half Street SW? Around Nation?
Ah yes, 9 1/2 St. issues...I lived there for 6 years. I once had an argument w/ a 911 dispatcher about whether there actually was a 9 1/2 St while a car burned outside my front door. (PS-a GPS system dosen't identify 9 1/2 St either.) I got tired of giving directions to dispatchers everytime a dealer opened up shop or a stolen car was lit on fire, so I just bought a big ass scary dog. Instead of calling a dispatcher who couldn't find my street, I just opened up the door and let Ella (big ass scary dog) chase someone away.
Fortunately, I don't have to deal w/ these issues anymore now that I moved to Brookland.
The best part is that you can park your car anywhere on 9 1/2 Street, secure in the knowledge that even if the police found it, they wouldn't know what to write on the ticket. Of course, leave it there too long and someone might move in to it.
isnt this street like one block from fire department headquaters on vermont avenue? yes, there is indeed a half street SE and SW. the inspection station is half street SW and the bus barn is half street SE.
This sounds all too familiar. Several weeks ago, I was driving home from work heading west on NY Avenue and noticed a teenager with a handgun taking a round from a friend's pocket and proceed to load the gun ... while on the way to the Big Ben Liquor store at the corner of NY Ave and North Capitol NW. I immediately called 911 and spent 10 minutes arguing with her about teh location. She said that there was not a Big Ben store in NW ... that it was in NE and that she couldn't send the MPD until she had a correct address ... she even had the adacity to tell me to look at the street sign to make sure it didn't say NE .... I did and sure enough, it said NW ... but since she couldn't find it in the automated system, then she couldn't send anyone. Finally, she did something to locate the address and the MPD was finally sent ... but the armed teenager was long gone by then.
While driving home to Virginia with friends we saw an accident on the ramp to I-66 from the Rock Creek Park direction. I told the 911 dispatcher this and she kept asking for the road name. Perhaps I'm ignorant, but I am aware of any road name for the ramp. And instead of dispatching anyone she hung up!
last night there was a shooting in SE down the street from my building. i gave the 911 operator my address, but b/c the shooting happened in front of a different building, she wouldn't enter it into the system. she had to have the exact address of the building it happened in front of. and yes, after arguing for several minutes she hung up on me too.
Due to hard work by the neighbors, 9 1/2 Street finally has a clear sign out front, so it is a little bit easier to find. Also, the street has been totally transformed from a crime-ridden little alley to a cute street with cherry blossoms, petunias, brick sidewalks, and a great sense of community. Of course, like all urban streets, there are still some problems...but it looks 100% better these days. It's a real gem in the city. I just didn't want it to have such a bad rap!