BACA Snow ServicesThe District of Columbia’s Mayor’s office, DPW, and DDOT have neglected the needs of our community during this storm. The City has provided almost no snow plowing, removal or salting. Per DC’s own reporting, our community has been completely neglected compared to other neighborhoods in the city.
If you as a tax payer are as outraged and angry about this lack of attention to our needs, I encourage you to contact the Mayor’s Office (Richard.Norwood@dc.gov – Mayor’s Liaison), our Council Member’s Office (VLeonard@dccouncil.us Council Member’s Liaison), DPW and DDOT and express your outrage. To view the maps, click on the link (BACA Snow Services).
These two maps illustrate how often streets were plowed and treated around P ST NW and First ST NW compared to P ST NW and 20th ST NW.
Bates Area Civic Association 
We had some light plowing around 4am today, Tuesday morning, along Unit block of P ST NW and First ST NW. Cars are getting stucked at the intersection though.
I walked to work yesterday (Monday) along P Street, as far as 23rd and P. I fully expected to see a big contrast between our neighborhood and areas to our west. Instead, I found the same lack of plowing all the way through, with 14th St. the only exception. Even Logan Circle and Dupont Circle were unplowed. However, traffic had tamped down snow on those streets and others that are busier than ours.
I got a ride home, and we didn’t travel on P. Conceivably, plows had been through some of the areas west of us that hadn’t been touched in the morning.
Overall, my impression isn’t that our neighborhood has been especially neglected. What I see is a city administration that’s overwhelmed on all fronts.
Pete – agree with you this was a major effort for any city that does not deal with this type of storms on a regular basis. I don’t know if you looked at the link to the maps I provided, but according to DDOTs logged, our area received minimum to no snow removal services on 2/7 and 2/8. The map compares our neighborhood to the P and 22nd ST NW, in that area, streets were being plowed and salted every 4-6 hours. I also compared how often strees around 37 ST NW/ Van Ness and Tenley Town were plowed and found that they were also plowed every 4-6 hours. What is even more upsetting when you look at the DDOT maps is that the concentrated efforts to clear road (again 2/7 and 2/8) seem to end at NJ Ave, jump over us and pick up again on N. Capitol Street and move east. So my beef is why certain neighborhood received 4-6 times the amount of our tax dollars to deal with the storm compared to what we have received. Will be happy to email you the maps if you cannot access the link.
Thanks, Geovani. I did check the maps. All I can say is that what they say and what I saw don’t match – unless a lot of the plowing/salting took place during the day yesterday (though when I was getting driven home we went around Dupont Circle, which sure didn’t look plowed to me).
In general, of course, unequal treatment is not exactly uncommon. And we should all take what actions we can when we spot it. But yesterday morning, what I saw was inadequate performance everywhere I went.
I just saw a WTOP news item saying that 25 percent of snowplows had broken down and salt supplies were running low. Now THAT’s consistent with what I saw.
I have to agree with Peter. I drove yesterday around the city and on the highway. It was bad everywhere. It seems they kept to snow emergency and bus routes.