Squeaky wheels

[from ANC 4C09 Commissioner Joseph Martin - edited for space, sorry Joe...]

Yesterday I attended a meeting of the Ward 4 Core Team, a weekly meeting of representatives from a full range of city agencies, including MPD. The purpose is to discuss the various issues that we are facing in Ward 4. The document used as a starting point was a print-out with a brief description of the previous week's calls to 727-1000 or service requests submitted via the DC government website.

The service request print-outs were broken down into categories such as "Alley Cleanings," "Alley Repair," Sanitation Enforcement," "Recycling Collection," "Sidewalk Repair,' "Street Light Repair," "Illegal Dumping," "Parking Enforcement" and so on. I understand City Administrator Robert Robb receives similar print outs on a regular basis. I presume MPD has a similar approach to addressing problems registered through 311 and 911 calls, and I welcome hearing from MPD on that point.

What became very clear was that a particular problem in an area would be especially noticeable if there was a VOLUME of calls.

Given that, I urge residents to consider setting up 'telephone trees' on your immediate blocks to use for responding to problems in your areas. In short, set up an arrangement so that the end result is a volume of calls within a short period of time about a particular problem. If you can, keep track of your calls and service request numbers. Those numbers are essential for tracking the progress of a request.

Residents who live near Taylor and Third and on blocks of Shepherd Street near Rock Creek Church Road have set up a telephone tree, even calling each other in the middle of the night if necessary.

There are calls to 727-1000 that must be made to fight the drug market. Those include calling when you see cars with expired, temporary tags on streets. On more than one occasion, an MPD officer has told me that a number of those cars are involved in drug sales. The police has also confiscated unregistered weapons by pulling over such cars.

If we are to turn the corner on the drug problem and address quality of life issues (dumping in alleys, broken sidewalks, speeding cars, etc.), yesterday's meeting was a reminder of the need for each block to be organized, assertive, to resist passivity and to speak out.

I post this as a reminder that we, the residents, have to do our part by vigorously making service requests to 727-1000 and calling 311/911 -- and doing so in volumes when we can. It establishes a record of requests and shows the city and the police in a very tangible way where work needs to be done.

Joseph Martin

Comments

[Joseph Martin]

SETTING UP A TELEPHONE TREE

1. Get to know your neighbors.
2. See who'd like to get more involved.
3. Exchange phone numbers.
4. Set up a system so that you call one or two people who then call one or two people and so on.
5. When it's time to sound the alarm (by individually calling 911, 311 or 727-1000), call that one or two people on your list and tell them they need to call NOW about Problem ___________ (fill in the blanks) and tell them where to call.

Each person in turn calls a designated neighbor or two. Ascertain in advance who wants to be called and when. I'm impressed that some of the folks around Shepherd and Taylor call each other in the wee hours.

Understand that callers need to be specific about the information they're providing, be it license plate numbers of cars doing something they shouldn't, illegal dumping (note license plates, time, date), description of people engaged in disruptive behavior, what have you.

I hope this helps.

Thoughts anyone else?

JM

[Joseph Martin]

Brilliant editing, as usual.

My Dad used to tell people when I was a kid who'd never shut up that when I was taken for my childhood immunizations, the nurse accidentally vaccinated me "with a phonograph needle."

For the younger readers, "phonograph" is what record-players were once called. In this day of ipods, do I need to explain what a record-player is?

Oy, vey!

Thanks, Bill. When I do my first book, I'll tell Beacon Press I want you as my editor.

JM

[Bill]

Thanks for an important message, Joe. Could you or someone provide any tips for setting up a 'telephone tree' with one's neighbors?