More on Dogs and One-way Streets

No posts recently because I was away and then catching up.

I'm not sure what's happening with Bundy Park. I spoke with one of the ladies who walk around the park in the morning last weekend. She said people are still taking dogs into the field despite the signs saying that is prohibited and someone seems to be taking down the signs. Also, some owners are still not picking up after their dogs. She also said that the walkers were afraid of the unleashed dogs and that she had been attacked or at least rushed by dogs a couple of times. I saw her a couple of days later and asked how things were going, and she said she thought it was a little better.

I still think it's a shame that both walkers and dog owners couldn't share the space, but there really is no excuse for not picking up the poop. Also, dog owners may know their pets, but to other people the same animals can look pretty scary--particularly big dogs not on leashes. I think it would be great to have a dedicated dog park, but in the meantime I think it behooves everyone to abide by the rules. I don't know if signs have been disappearing, but I only saw one on the fence this morning.

In my view, both groups have valid points to make, so why not try to engage each other in a dialogue instead of splitting into hostile camps. I think these little contacts can do a lot to reduce suspicions and quell unfounded rumors.

About the one-way street, there is a flyer being circulated by ANC incumbents Thorpe, Brooks, and Curtis, and candidate Sutherland, which implies, among other things, that the plan to make O Street between 6th and 9th one-way was part of an opposition conspiracy. The flyer says: "Look at what happened in the 600 block of O Streets, when they tried to turn it into a one-way street. We had no warning, no knowledge what-so-ever, about a one way street until we saw the signs going up; not only was the residents not notified, neither was the ANC representatives, that's how much they respect us. Because of calls made to DDot from our ANC representatives (Leroy Joseph Thorpe, Jr., Doris Brooks, Barbara Curtis) along with Mary Sutherland and residents of the affected communities, you will notice that the one-way street signs have come down. At least now we will have a say as to whether O Street is one-way or not, which is what should have been done at the beginning. SECRETS!"

As I noted in the previous post a couple of weeks ago, I personally don't really care if O Street is one- or two-way, but I thought it was odd that such a change was made without community notification. But I think it's equally odd that this would be attributed to these candidates' opposition. So I decided to ask councilman Evans's office if they could shed some light on how this plan came about. This is what I got back:

DDOT Director, Michelle Pourciau... provided the following information related to the changes in traffic patterns at 6th & O Streets, NW whic was received October 5th:

"I have confirmed that due to a mix up in DDOT, notification was not properly provided for the effort and the installation was not done properly. We have been working with the community and religious institutions in the area to expand parking opportunities along this street. Our original analysis envisioned angled parking and two-way traffic. We later found that two-way operation might be problematic with angle parking and did not give notification of this concern. We are proceeding immediately to restore two-way traffic while maintaining the angle parking as originally indicated in the notice. DDOT staff will be on site tomorrow, October 5, 2006, to initiate this process and work should be complete before the end of the week. Thank you for bringing this to my attention and again please accept my apologies for the delay in response, the DDOT mix-up, and the inconvenience to the community."

So, the original one-way parking from 6th to 7th Streets will remain. However, the idea of one-way from 7th - 9th is scrapped.

So it looks like the one-way plan was conceived by DDOT staff as part of a solution to the issue of Sunday double-parking near neighborhood churches. There seems to be no basis for the notion that any of the opposition candidates were behind the idea.