Photo by Jamie.

After a spate of shootings was reported in Petworth this December, then Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser toured the streets of her home Ward and promised that the issue was of utmost concern to her. In an open letter to neighbors, she wrote: “The violence of the last few days is unacceptable—no resident should expect to live in fear in Washington, DC.”

Things quieted down for a few months, but another round of shootings this month—including a homicide in Brightwood early this morning—has neighbors worried again—and wondering what exactly the city is doing about the issue.

“The job of our elected representatives is to communicate plans and things … and I don’t feel like we are getting that information,” said Chloe (she requested her last name be withheld for safety reasons), who started a petition calling attention to the shootings after she began feeling uneasy about going on walks with her baby. Her worries clearly resonated.

Nearly 500 people signed the petition, which calls for the mayor to release a specific plan of action to address the gun violence.

“I have heard more gunshots in the last three months than the previous seven years that I have lived in Petworth,” wrote one resident who signed the petition.

Another neighbor, Jonah Goodman, had also noticed the uptick in December and began tracking the shootings on a Google map (he added in data from several months prior, too). “You can hear gunshots from your living room,” said Goodman. “If this is happening now, what happens in two months when it gets warm out?”

Last Saturday, an emergency police meeting was packed with worried neighbors.

“Police are coming right away when they are called. People are pleased with their response, but there is only so much the police can do after the fact. People just want to know that there is a concrete plan,” said Drew Schneider, who runs the Petworth News blog and a website that publishes Q&As with the candidates in the Ward 4 Council race.

But Bowser has not responded to the petition, and police said at the meeting that a plan was being developed though could not yet be shared.

“We have a plan in place, however I cannot comment on operational tactics,” Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump told DCist in an email.

She noted that 24 guns have been recovered in the 4th District since the beginning of the year and cited two cases that were closed within days: a homicide at 8th and Jefferson Streets NW and a shooting in the alley of the 5200 block of 5th Street NW.

LaToya Foster, a spokeswoman for the mayor, cited similar statistics and was emphatic that the mayor is on the case. “She’s concerned about the entire city, but this is in her own backyard,” Foster said. “It is very much on her radar. It is something that she is very concerned about.”

She noted the work of Khalil Thompson, the Ward 4 liaison from the mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services, who has been extremely active around the neighborhood.

But, many think that the mayor could and should be doing more, especially since her former seat is still vacant.

“We’re kind of abandoned up there in [Ward] 4. Since the primary, Bowser has been MIA,” said Goodman. “We have a liaison to the government … but we don’t have a city Councilmember to do the heavy lifting.”

Meanwhile, none of the 12 people running for her former Council seat showed up to last week’s police meeting (“They would’ve gained 70 votes right there,” said Schneider).

“These are systemic issues,” said Joseph Martin, an ANC commissioner who has lived in the neighborhood for 11 years. He noted that the shootings are often retaliatory and certain streets or alleys are crime hotspots. That is why neighbors are looking to city leaders for a plan to that also addresses the socio-economic issues behind the violence.

“Throwing police at the problem will just displace it,” said Schneider. “We need long-term strategies that can help provide opportunities.”