Gallery Place/Chinatown is the place to be in the District these days. There’s a bowling alley and a Bed Bath & Beyond among many other attractions, and there may even be a pool hall and wax museum in the near future.

But what are there not enough of? According to the Post, garbage cans. Apparently the thousands of residents and daily visitors to the lively neighborhood have few places to dispose of their garbage, leaving alleys and streets strewn with litter. And when residents demanded that the Department of Public Works provide them with more on-street trash cans, what were they told? Writes the Post:

“Please note that DPW have no public space litter cans in stock,” Department of Public Works employee Kevin Bryant wrote in an e-mail. “A responsive Bidder have not been awarded the contract at this time. We do not expect to receive the first shipment of litter cans until Oct. 06. We are not taking additional requests at this time due to the increasing back log, however we will assess the area for other measures to reduce any litter issues.”

Groves was appalled. “You have 3,000 people who weren’t here five years ago, all paying taxes in D.C., paying transfer taxes and all paying property taxes,” he said. “And we can’t even get a trash can.”

It could be worse. You could have a bunch of double-parking churchgoers or environment-threatening geese.