Photo by a loves dc
The D.C. Department of Public Works suspended street cleaning for the winter starting on Friday, Nov. 6, a fact which they did not announce until Monday, Nov. 9. On top of not getting the word out until the following Monday, it appears they didn’t manage to let all of their parking enforcement officers know of the change on time, either. Several residents reported getting street-sweeping related tickets on Monday and Tuesday, which led to some fairly intense back-and-forths on various neighborhood email lists. Here’s a sampling of what went down on Tuesday on the Columbia Heights community email list:
- “What is someone from DPW giving out incorrect information? folks in Columbia heights be on alert … street cleaning doe snot end until Nov 20”
- “No. Street cleaning ended. It’s just that the enforcement agencies didn’t pay attention.
http://newsroom.dc.gov/show.aspx/agency/dpw/section/2/release/18532
The problem is not DPW. The problem is lack of communication between those who make policy and those who enforce policy.”
- “Sarah the operators at 311 do NOT have this information …. I repeat the operators at the mayor help line 311 do NOT have this information
I was told rather emphatically that street sweeping has NOT ended and I will get a ticket today if my car is NOT moved.”
The discussion went on and got even uglier from there, with colorful descriptions like “half-assed Southern backwater local government” and “Kafka at his best” tossed about freely. We’ll note for clarity’s sake that DPW is responsible both for street sweeping and for on-street parking enforcement, so the opinion expressed above that this was somehow the fault of an agency other than DPW simply is not true.
We’ve been trying to get a more thorough explanation of what really happened from DPW since Tuesday morning, and they finally got back to us today. We’ve republished their statement in its entirety below the jump, but the gist of it is, DPW Director William O. Howland, Jr. says he made the decision to suspend street sweeping at the last minute on Friday, and both apologizes for the confusion and promises to void any ticket that was mistakenly issued this week for a street sweeping violation. If you think you got a bunk street sweeping ticket, contact DPW at (202) 673-6833, or try emailing Nancee Lyons at Nancee.Lyons@dc.gov.
