WEDNESDAY THOUGHTS: IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Years ago, Bellevue in far SW, DC was the focus of a beautification project. The new library on Atlantic Street makes me wonder if it is, once again.

What's been playing out on one street, however, speaks to one of the reasons people abandon neighborhoods and flee to the suburbs---only, perhaps, to find that there are people living there who don't care, either.

What's wrong with wanting the inside AND outside of your home to be pleasant, clean, and attractive? 

Have you ever seen the side of a sidewalk? 

Residents on the South side of Galveston Street have been looking at it, and the underside for years. They've also been looking at residents of the Wingate garden apartments and hi-rise enter the broken gate, use the lawn as a short-cut, trample the grass, and scale the fence that borders the property. 

Now, when it rains, the dirt turns to mud, rolls down to the gate entrance collects there, and ends up on the bottoms of every pedestrian's shoes.

Sadly, the residents of Friendship Square have been watching their condo services slowly disappear, one after another. 

Until a few weeks ago, they were getting nowhere in resolving a hoarding situation (cats included) that was exposed in 2006. 

Representatives from the police and fire departments, social services, The Humane Society, Washington Gas, Office of Aging, and condominium cleaning services have all been aware of the situation since then. It's been reported, inquired about, and nothing has been done. Residents have been taking turns disinfecting and deodorizing the stairwell.

 

Each summer, the stench has been horrific requiring residents to run their A/Cs around the clock. 

In winter, the stairwell windows must remain open. In a perfect world, the residents should now have stock in Clorox, Lysol, Pine-sol, Glade, and Arm and Hammer. 

When you reside in a place, any place, you shouldn't have a problem cleaning, but it gets a bit ridiculous when you find yourself constantly cleaning up behind able-bodied adults. 

I will never understand why people who can't, or won't adequately care for their pets, think that others should endure the odor and cheerfully understand. You're a liar if you say you're an animal lover and allow your pet to live in squalor.

On Monday, the noise of the contents of heavy bags being dragged down three flights of stairs, reminded me of the decision someone made, years ago, to tar the roof of the now closed Patricia Roberts Harris Educational Center while school was in session. 

Did it not occur to anyone that the situation was hazardous? Did no one consider what the workers would be handling, or what they were walking into? Did anyone think to notify neighbors, and give them a chance to spray, bomb, suit up, don masks or leave the premises altogether?

I know I heard a garbage truck around midnight last night. I was so relieved. I doubt if I've ever considered the sound of a garbage truck to be particularly musical, but that one was. 

Finally, the garbage hauled out of the unit on the third floor, and the stench that came along with it, would be gone. 

I opened the blinds this morning and looked outside. I saw that the sanitation contractors only took what was in the dumpsters. They were obviously not prepared for the load on the lawn, so it remained all night and was saturated by the rain.

I wanted to cry when I opened the blinds and saw that mountain of bags still sitting there like a foul welcome wagon. 

I got dressed, grabbed my phone, and went outside. 

I was trying so hard not to be angry. 

I was trying to have faith in systems and processes and chains of command, but hearing, 

"I don't know." or 

"There's nothing we can do.", or 

"There's no money", or 

"It's not that bad", or 

"Sorry about that", or 

"We don't handle that. Call so and so....", gets old after a while. 

I'm a little weary of people with titles, positions, and websites that say they are supposed to provide certain services, but they prove to be woefully incompetent and ineffective.
WHY did it take 8 years?

Today, I wished for eminent domain. 

I wished for a minute that the District of Columbia government would just seize the property. 

I wished that some wealthy developer would come and make an offer.

There are four senior citizens, and two children under the age of 7 in the building. 

No one should have to put up with another person's filth. 

One ought to take pride in one's community, whether it is gated or not.

Since 2006, the conditions at Friendship Square have fluctuated. 

There have been times of daylight interspersed. 

They should be the rule, not the exception. 

No amount of remodeling or fresh paint can affect people's hearts and habits, if being nasty is what they prefer. 

It's hard to convince some people that when you live in an apartment or condo community, everything you do is going to affect someone else. 

How hard you walk across the floor, how loudly you play your music or adjust your television volume, how you dispose of trash, how you park your car, how you care for your pet, how and what you cook, how much you use utilities...EVERYTHING affects someone else, and so, consideration, respect for others, and cleanliness have to be among the traits of an apartment or condo resident.
Between people using and selling drugs, smoking in the hallway, breaking into the laundry room, destroying washers and driers, breaking the doors and gate, allowing children and pets to destroy property, robbing neighbors, it gets discouraging.

Moving out CAN'T be the only option. It just can't. 

It CAN be better. 

Something CAN be done. 

It doesn't have to be this way. 

Clean, safe, and neat are not unreasonable expectations.

I don't want to start repeating or believing what "THEY" say. 

Black communities CAN have nice things. 

Black people DO care. 

Black people don't tear up EVERYTHING. 

Black people DO care about neighbors. 

Black people DO clean. 

Black people DON'T just let neighborhoods go to pot, and then complain when other ethnic groups move in and beautify them. 

Black people DO like grass on the lawn, and next to the sidewalk.

My grandmother used to say, "You can live in a hole, but it can be clean, Baby." 

Sometimes we lament not having the money to do things, when the issue simply requires soap and water; a mop or broom; a little elbow grease, and a caring attitude. 

What happened to the lessons every mother taught? If you break it, fix it. 

If you dirty it, clean it. 

If you can't do it, step aside and allow someone who can to get it done.

Yesterday, when it was clear that no one was coming to do it (again), I went into the stairwell and started sweeping. A neighbor said sarcastically, "Somebody is getting paid to do that". 

I wanted to ask her when the imaginary cleaning fairy was going to show up, but I just kept sweeping, and soon realized I was doing my mask-wearing self more harm than good. 

What was I breathing in? 

What had we ALL been breathing in? 

When I made it to the ground level, another neighbor looked at me and said, "Sweetheart, your eyes are watering."
I admit, I thought it. Yep. I played the race card. Would the clean up have been better handled if we were a  condominium community of a different persuasion? 

On Monday morning, 4 or 5 Latino people wearing street clothes, emerged from a standard, unmarked vehicle. Not one of them was prepared. 

They should have turned and run screaming back to their car. 

No masks. 

No hats. 

Only a couple had gloves, and they looked like the kind that come with a box of hair dye. 

They dragged, threw, and burst bags in the stairwell from around 8 AM until 3:15 PM on Monday. 

The mud, trash and debris they left behind made me almost wish they had never come. 

They just left all of the bags on the lawn when they finished, then dusted themselves off, entered their car, and drove away. 

No one bothered to say what would happen next. 

The stairwell smelled like a toilet, and roaches were congregating in the ceiling fleeing from a neighbor's frantic spraying. 

It's February, and the stairwell windows were wide open. Then it started to rain. 

I know now why people snap.

If we were a different community, would our condo community have been descended upon by professionally trained OSHA workers wearing regulation haz-mat gear? 

Would they have been carrying industrial equipment from a truck that had a professional, reputable company's name emblazoned on the side? 

Would someone have set up a chute from the hoarder's window, and sent the filth careening down to the bed of a big truck, so that it wouldn't so horribly impact the neighbors and commons areas? When they left, would the garbage have left with them? 

Would someone have whipped out a vacuum cleaner that had a state-of-the-art hepa filter, cleared the debris from the floors and stairs, and left it lemony fresh?

Would they have noted the smell of mold and mildew, demanded to enter the offending unit, and proceeded to clean it out, too?

In my wonderful, wishful dreams, Junk Guys came in the night and took the bags of garbage and broken furniture away...then Service Master came to clean and remove the stench from the stairwell...then Stairs and Rails came to remodel the staircase...then Empire came and replaced the carpet...then Kehoe Landscaping contractors came and beautified the lawn...then Four Brothers, LLC came and remodeled the laundry room and storage spaces...and then everyone vowed to paid their condo fees in full and on time...then the condo association learned, by heart, the names and numbers of every absentee owner--and phoned them to remind them to come and handle their investment...then the association made sure that empty units were thoroughly cleaned and not sources of mold and mildew, vermin and insects...then residents cleaned up behind themselves when they spilled stuff, and they didn't smoke (anything) in the hallway, or sell, buy, or use drugs, or block the doors or stairs, or break the front door when they couldn't get in, or break the gate when they couldn't get in, or break the front door glass when they couldn't get in, or holler in the halls, or talk so loud outside so that you can hear entire conversations without even trying, or let their dogs poop all over the lawn. 

Maybe people would change their cat's kitty litter before it began to reek, and put the used litter in secure bags. 

Maybe they'd decide that pets, at least in this space, aren't a good idea at all.
I can dream.

Thankfully, I didn't dream that Calhoun Trash Service showed up sometime before 11AM. 

The 4 men looked even more bewildered than the Latino workers, but at least they were dressed for the job, and the outside air absorbed the stench. 

They hauled the bags from the lawn to the curb and onto a truck. 

It seemed like the more they picked up, the bigger the pile grew. 

At times, they just stopped, shook their heads, stood there and stared. 

When the truck was filled to capacity, it was driven away while two workers were left behind to continue taking the bags to the street. 

It took two trips for them to clear all of the bags. 

I suppose the wind and the birds will take care of the scraps. 

I can't help but wonder, "Now what?" 

Will the ball that finally started rolling, suddenly stop? 

Will we be able to open our doors and not be hit with hazardous smells? 

Will the effort to replace damaged flooring, in the units affected when the pipes burst 2 weeks ago, be in vain because the offending unit has yet to be cleaned out and inspected? 
I am grateful that a custodian from Friendship Commons did come with a mop, broom, and a spray bottle and try to tackle the stairwell. It was better, but that stairwell needs industrial-strength help.

I hope the city will do more to make sure condominium communities can thrive, but no government can't change people's individual values and habits. 

I hope Section 8 abusers, who take the money and run to the suburbs will be identified, and made to take care of their property in the District, or be forced to forfeit it. 

I hope that disabled seniors know about, and take advantage of the services available to them, but you can't get help if you don't want it, or are too proud or ashamed to ask for it. 

I hope that those tasked to serve seniors will really serve.

I hope that anyone associated with Calhoun Trash Service will be rewarded for the tremendous service they provided-- and never get blindsided like that again.