About 20 neighbors joined us for last night’s community walk through in the Mt. Vernon Triangle neighborhood. A little over a year ago, Tommy led some of the same neighbors on a walk to identify troubled spots and come up with an action plan to improve the neighborhood. You can read a recap of last year’s walk by clicking here.

Since that walk, a lot of progress was made (not to mention new retail opening up in City Vista). To highlight a few of the problems cited and the follow-up:

• - Crosswalk striping at 5th and I Street, NW was faded because of high traffic volume – DDOT installed new striping.
  - The National Park Service (NPS) maintained park south of Massachusetts Ave, NW was too dark and dangerous – after no response from NPS to improve lighting, Tommy had DDOT install new lights on the inside of the lamp posts that put more light into the park.
  - Neighbors were frustrated that their neighborhood didn’t have a convenient polling location – working with Downtown Neighborhood Association and the Board of Elections, Tommy created a new voting precinct, #143, with a polling location downtown.
  - Neighbors cited concerns with prostitution along 4th Street, NW – Tommy worked with MPD to step up enforcement and declared a Prostitution Free Zone, giving MPD more tools to stop illegal behavior.
  - Neighbors cited concerns about the street and park on the north side of the City Vista Safeway location – we worked with the Mt. Vernon CID and developers to get the street and park refurbished and the new Safeway opening its doors.
  - Neighbors cited concerns about abandoned and unsecure buildings on I Street, NW – the Mayor’s Core Team visited the block to inspect and issue citations to property owners.

Even with the progress, there’s more to do. Neighbors on last night’s walk highlighted new and ongoing problems – unsecure vacant buildings, need for RPP signage for resident parking, blocked sidewalks, and much more. Bill McLeod of the Mt. Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District also shared news and information with neighbors about plans and progress taking place.

Like last year, we will make a list of the problems cited last night and start working through them. If you missed the walk and want to make sure we’re aware of your concern, please use the comment section below.

Thanks to everyone who joined us last night and we hope to see you again soon.

One person has commented on this article.

(1) Untitled
2008-11-10 09:43:06

Thank you for your meeting recap and the work already accomplished. As a resident of 400 Mass, I look forward to the area continuing to improve. Providing for pedestrians to walk along Massachusetts Ave the entire length of Mass Ave is very needed improvement. I note, however, that the cross-walk striping only goes half-way across I Street and ends mid-street at the intersection along the south side of Mass Ave. It has remained that way for some time, creating an unsafe intersection. When will DDOT comlete the striping?

I also note that the property owned by Tony Cheng between The Rogue and the defunct Fun Fair is completely open to the elements save for the freestanding streetside wall. If the wall was not constructed to be freestanding, is this safe? It also provides an open campground for vagrants. There have been several postings that the property is not in the correct property tax catagory? Is this correct? Thank you.

\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ' title='Click to send email'>Written by Thomas Taylor ()

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