End The North Capitol Street Tow Truck Trauma

Incumbent Commissioner Jones could have avoided a challenge to her seat from me. Here's how...

On October 11, 2005, I wrote an e-mail to the Commissioner:

Hello Ms. Jones,

I live at the 1800 block of North Capitol St NE, on the service road. The sign regulating parking on the street states that there shall be no parking in the a.m. from 7 - 9:30 a.m. during weekdays.

The regulation is a mistake and it is taking valuable parking from the area because residents cannot park their cars there before leaving for work via the metro. Parking is becoming more scarce.

The regulation presumably is there to free up traffic during rush hour, but hardly any cars use the service road during rush hour, because naturally they are headed downtown. Approximately one car uses the service road once a minute!

And even if traffic did use the service road during rush hour, banning the parking wouldn't help. I have never witnessed two cars driving side by side on the service road.

Please tell me the fastest way to get this regulation changed. This is a no-brainer.

Kris

Commissioner Jones responded the next day:

Hi Chris,

I have contacted DPW as Well as Ms. Reed, of DDOT to have this investigated as soon as I get a follow up I will contact you.

And that's the last time I heard anything. To be fair, I never sent her a follow-up e-mail. I forgot to mention that residents receive $100 tickets and that they are being towed as well.

The towing has picked up in recent weeks, and I recently took the photo you see here from my porch at around 7:11 a.m.

If Jones had taken that extra step to get back with me and if she had resolved the issue, I probably would not be running. I'd be too grateful.

Instead, some residents will vote for me because they know that I want to resolve this issue.

I have in recent weeks contacted the bureaucracy about the problem, and the response has been "we'll get back to you in 30 days" after I was very persistent. It takes a commissioner who represents 2000 people to break through the bureaucratic malaise.