“There’s this huge crack, and usually I pay attention, but a couple weeks ago I wasn’t,” Bruckmann said.

On her way to work, Bruckmann has to maneuver around a deep, wide crack in the middle of the sidewalk. It spans nearly the length of the full length of the sidewalk, as though someone had reached in and taken out a handful of concrete.

One day, she said, her wheels found their way to the bottom of that crack.

“I was texting, and not looking, and my front wheels went right in there,” she said. “I fell, hands and knees.”

Many sidewalk users would never notice the crack, but for those who use mobility aids, sidewalks in disrepair can be the difference between a normal morning and slow, difficult or even painful commutes. In theory, the Americans with Disabilities Act prevents this problem with a few requirements for all sidewalks. Some of those standards include curb ramps for wheelchairs; raised bump pads near those curbs for those with visual impairments; and no cracks in which wheels could get stuck larger than half an inch across. In practice, however, many sidewalks have fallen into disrepair and no longer meet accessibility standards, with local governments doing little to address these problems.

The District Department of Transportation acknowledges some of these problems, and in 2016, they released an . It opens with a promise: “The District Department of Transportation has a firm commitment not to discriminate against individuals with disabilities in its services, programs, or activities, and will honor and work to satisfy the requirements of Title I through V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).”

Despite the hope that plan provides, however,  obstructions, cracks and missing ramps still litter the District’s .

Data from University of Maryland-based accessibility application reveals that in Columbia Heights alone, there are nine missing sidewalks, 137 missing ramps, 38 surface problems and 434 obstacles.

Through the ADA Transition Plan and a variety of other goals, the District has clearly set out to make its sidewalks accessible—so why aren’t they?

The explanation lies with the . In Section V. D. of this policy, it states the five conditions under which a sidewalk can be exempted from construction or installation: if it would be “unduly expensive,” if “would not be used by pedestrians,” if the director certifies it’s not needed for anyone (including children or disabled people), if it would damage parkland, or if it would require an easement of property.

At first glance, this section does appear account for those with disabilities because it tries to ensure the “safe travel” of all, with or without a sidewalk. On the ground, however, as data from Project Sidewalks shows, many of the District’s obstructed, cracked sidewalks are not actually accessible.

District residents and officials report that construction projects are a major issue resulting in missing or unusable sidewalks. South Glover Park Commissioner and transportation construction expert Brian Turmail stresses the importance of maintenance and upkeep.

“The city has got to be a lot better at saying, ‘Look. If you’re going to cut up a sidewalk, you’ve got to bring it back up to the same condition it was in when you started,’” Turmail said.

Southeast neighborhood Hillcrest is one of the worst neighborhoods for District mobility aid users, data from Project Sidewalk suggests. In this neighborhood alone, there are hundreds of mobility obstacles.

Longtime Hillcrest residents Kathy Chamberlain and Cathy Keen walk their neighborhood daily for both exercise and to pick up trash on the road. At this point, they say their concerns are less about obstructed or cracked sidewalks and more on not having sidewalks at all in many places.

After a variety of construction projects wrapped up on Hillcrest streets, Chamberlain explained, several sidewalks were just never rebuilt.

On a tour of the neighborhood, Chamberlain and Keen pointed out a spot without a sidewalk, the path of which would be obscured by large tree.

“If you were in a wheelchair here, the tree trunk, or tree roots rather, would get in the way,” she said. “Now they might say ‘Oh, we can’t put a sidewalk here because there’s a tree.’ I don’t think you have to take the tree down. There are ways to work around trees.”

This is not the first time DDOT has been in the spotlight accessibility issues. Multiple District residents have asked DDOT about the problem on social media to no response.

The DDOT ADA Transition Plan seems to account for these issues, but it has yet to be updated. The plan accounts for several accessibility improvements, but has not been updated since 2016. The plan aimed to hold “ADA Compliance Counts” workshops, a grievance program and an advisory group comprised of community members from across the District and across ability levels, but by 2017 the Transition Plan seemed to have fallen by the wayside.

DDOT ADA Coordinator Cesar Barreto has yet to respond to requests for comment.

The ambitious ADA Transition Plan specifically called for a self-evaluation of the District’s accessibility issues, “primarily focusing on sidewalks, crosswalks, curb ramps, accessible pedestrian signals and bus stops.” Today, however, DC 311 data still shows the disparity for individuals with disabilities. Between October 2 and November 2, 2019, over 350 sidewalk-based work requests were submitted through 311.

A few bumps in the road may seem insignificant, but for those who rely on mobility aids, the time and energy spent maneuvering those cracks and bumps in the District’s sidewalks is crucial. For Bruckmann, these broken sidewalks she maneuvers on her commute are not just daily struggles. They also serve as a reminder of how local governments repeatedly fail disabled individuals.

“We have the ADA. And it’s put in place. . . kind of,” she explained. “Bare minimum, in a lot of places. And part of that is not only making sidewalks accessible, but the upkeep of them.”

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Three years after the creepy clown pandemic of 2016, when clowns took to the streets with masks, red noses and sometimes even weapons to instill fear into the hearts of people across the nation and even the world. The District even had its own when a 14-year-old student called in a clown threat.

By now, the clown scares have mostly receded, but last month that may have changed. On Nov. 13, a message appeared on the Columbia Heights NextDoor forum titled “Clowns running through the streets.”

The message quickly made its way to Twitter, where residents dismissed the post as a joke. But with the 2016 creepy clown pandemic just a few years behind us, 91���� decided to investigate the question central to this post: are there clowns roaming Columbia Heights at night?

I, for one, rise in salute to our new Columbia Heights clown overlords.

— Ben Harris (@BenHarris_1)

lmao certainly some CLOWNS running around columbia heights tho if not literal clowns

— leader of the hoeletariat (@_trashfox)

In an email statement, the Metropolitan Police Department reported they have received zero complaints of clowns in the Third District, where Columbia Heights is located. “However, if anyone feels unsafe, they should contact 911 immediately so MPD can respond and address any concerns,” said Public Affairs Specialist Alaina Gertz.

The clowns themselves could tell a different story, though. Christopher McCarthy of Melbourne, Florida, played a role in the 2016 clown pandemic. In October of that year, McCarthy put on a clown mask and drove around North Melbourne with a friend, with whom he shared a popular live streaming channel. The mask was later discovered in his car and police knocked on his door, but McCarthy is now glad to share his side of the story.

“We just thought it’d be a funny video, to just drive around with the mask on, just get people’s reactions,” he said.

Though he was not charged with a crime, McCarthy said the Melbourne Police Department later asked him to take down the video.

Creepy clowns exploded in popularity in 2016 when several cities reported clowns threatening residents. McCarthy, however, noted that they’ve been part of the popular imagination for quite some time. He first encountered coulrophobia, or a fear of clowns, with his aunt.

“I asked her, ‘Why are you deathly afraid of clowns?’ And she said that back in the ‘90s, she saw the first It movie,” McCarthy said. “That petrified her.”

Regardless of whether the NextDoor post was a hoax, Columbia Heights residents were simultaneously entertained by the concept and less likely to believe the clown epidemic has returned in 2019.

When asked if clowns have been roaming the streets, resident Dylan Waldner said, “I think I’ve seen some in the corner of my eye, but it’s a fleeting glance. I don’t know for sure.”

Aaron Rosenthal added, “I have not seen any clowns like my friend here, but I trust him, so stay safe out there.”

The post Satire: Are creepy clowns roaming the streets of Columbia Heights? first appeared on 91����.

The rail resulted in long delays on both the Green and Yellow lines, which lasted from the morning rush into the afternoon. To keep rail traffic moving, WMATA began single-tracking the trains, causing delays in both directions until around 10 a.m.

UPDATED: Yellow/Green Line Delay: No longer single tracking. Residual delays continue in both directions due to an earlier track condition outside Columbia Heights.

— Metrorail Info (@Metrorailinfo)

Meanwhile, other lines were experiencing their own delays. Red line commuters going to Shady Grove had difficulty getting to work on time as well.

UPDATED: Red Line Delay: Expect delays to Shady Grove due to a signal problem outside Silver Spring.

— Metrorail Info (@Metrorailinfo)

Green line rider Jacob Karson took to Twitter to report that he arrived to find that the trains were not running north.

“The first train in the queue after I arrived did not stop, so the station was overfilled,” Karson said.

no trains going north from Columbia Heights and the station manager announces that the next train south is skipping the station

— award recipient (@1000Trash)

Karson said he had left home about twenty minutes early, planning to eat breakfast near his office. After the delay, he said he was 10 minutes late to work. “So my day was not affected, just my breakfast.”

At the Columbia Heights station, Nolan Bush waited 30 minutes and had to work on the train, but he tends to work some extra time into his commute for delays just like Monday’s.

“I was late to work and had to take a call from the Red line,” Bush said. “But I usually leave early for exactly this reason so I didn’t end up being all that late.”

You know what ? I DID want to wait for the eighth train through Columbia Heights this morning! Thanks a bunch!

— Nolan Bush (@PNWNolan)

Former WMATA employee Michael Derricot did not take the Green or Yellow lines Monday, but he was able to explain how a cracked rail happens.
“It comes over time. Metal fatigues, it fails,” he said. “I’m no longer an employee there, but a lot of it has to do with probably non-strategically making the repairs on time.”

WMATA does do regular track maintenance via , which they describe online as an “accelerated work plan” combining three years of work into one. The plan aims to improve the safety and reliability of all tracks.

Despite the planned improvements, Derricot stressed the need for more frequent track repairs. The lack of preventative maintenance, he says, is possibly due to larger issues within WMATA.

91���� reached out to WMATA but did not receive comment back before publication.

“I think they try to make better the situation that they have,” Derricot said. “But I think from the past, there was past malfeasance, mismanagement, waste that probably still goes on.”

The delays did not phase commuter Will Peischel.

“I just stood on the metro platform for a frustratingly long time,” he said. “It’s WMATA, so I can’t imagine many people were very surprised, but definitely an inconvenience super fitting for Monday morning.”

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Jones is President of the Columbia Heights Tenants Association and has lived in the neighborhood since 1985. He’s seen the neighborhood grow and change in many ways, but even in the midst of this year’s series of shootings, he says that a violent crime wave is nothing new.

The crack epidemic, the completion of the metro and the tensions of gentrification contributed to crime back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Jones said. Today, crime is different in Columbia Heights, but it’s still a part of everyday life for many.

A new grassroots initiative hopes to change that. The Public Safety Coalition for Ward 1, launched by Bob Schlehuber and Calvin Jackson, aims to build connections between organizations that would not otherwise interact and give residents greater access to the full scope of resources in their community. Through monthly meetings, canvassing days and community events, the Coalition will serve as a platform for these Ward 1 organizations to collaborate towards solving community problems.

Schlehuber said that a resident interacts with their community in many ways: they may ride the train to school; stop by their doctor after class; go to work afterwards and then pick up something from a store on the way home. The Coalition would connect these health, educational, business and other resources for the wellbeing of the community.

“Students, young people and adults throughout their day go to all of these different organizations in a community,” Schlehuber said. “But those organizations themselves aren’t communicating and necessarily talking together about how they are collectively creating a safe and equitable community.”

The Coalition got its start after Schlehuber and a group of local organizers took inspiration from the principles and the public health approach to violent crime behind the .

The recent shootings, many of which have involved young people, are one example of how the community could step in to be proactive against violence, Schlehuber said.

“As a community, we clearly have more than enough resources,” he said. “How do we better start targeting those resources to those who are most vulnerable and those who are most close to violent crime happening?”

In the future, the Coalition also hopes to help empower community members by building a tool or database with phone numbers for different services that would otherwise be 911 calls. The numbers would range from youth homeless hotlines to crisis hotlines and would serve as alternatives to calling the police.

Today, though crime is different in Columbia Heights than it was 30-40 years ago, Jones is hopeful that the Public Safety Coalition for Ward 1 will help.

“I think it’s great that we have open dialogue on whatever the subject matter might be, and sometimes that’s a great start to find out where we are,” Jones said.

Jared Hart, who moved to Columbia Heights about a year ago, is just looking for simple fixes to his public safety concerns. Well-lit streets, he said, are one of the things that make him feel safe here in Columbia Heights.

“It’s just disconcerting sometimes, walking alone at night,” Hart said.

The Public Safety Coalition for Ward 1 will hold its first event, a luncheon, on Dec. 1, in Columbia Heights Village.

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Those are the ’s four steps to limiting your exposure to fallout and surviving a nuclear explosion within the first 15 minutes of a blast.

Shelter is key, with brick or concrete structures offering the best chances of your survival. Fortunately, the District’s fallout shelters are there for you.

Once you slide open the steel door and descend the cramped staircase to at least five feet below ground level, your new home awaits: a sturdy, compact place to wait out the fallout after the bomb. Equipped with a tiny kitchen, a bunk bed and a combination equipment room/bathroom, your fallout shelter is ready for you to hang out for two weeks, or as long as it takes. And don’t worry, a quality set of filtered air inlets and exhausts will keep you connected to the outside world and prevent your new space from getting too stuffy.

Thanks to remnants of the Cold War, just below ground level hides the District’s secret history of fallout shelters. Though no longer in the throes of the Cold War, the Doomsday Clock has been inching closer and closer to midnight. So, when that push notification finally comes and you need to find shelter fast, where will you go?

In a pinch, check out the shelter map on . This blog, dedicated to the history and preservation of fallout shelters in the District, has compiled the locations of all the shelters. Some are now missing their signature sign, and some they have yet to verify, but others also still have their original signs affixed to their original structures.

The District gets ready

So why does the District have so many shelters?

The short answer is a fun doomsday prep concept that swept the nation and its capital in the Cold War: civil defense.

The book This is only a Test: How Washington D.C. Prepared for Nuclear War, written by David Krugler, chronicles the District’s history in uncertain times.

Most of these shelters were built in the fifties and sixties. “These are the years of unprecedented prosperity in the United States, at least for the middle class,” Krugler said.

The Office of Civil Defense, not fully funded by Congress, encouraged what Krugler called the “DIY approach” to doomsday preparation. With home ownership rates rising, civil defense campaigns targeted the white middle class.

“The civil defense message says: ‘There’s a possibility your home will be destroyed, but it might survive too,’” Krugler said. “‘And if it does, and you and your family survive, this is what you need to have in your home to stay on, to live.’”

The Office of Civil Defense Mobilization’s 1958 Annual Report described the 5-point National Shelter Policy as placing “joint responsibility for fallout protection on the Federal Government and the American people.”

The report said fallout shelters were vital to protecting the public. District Fallout estimates that 1,624 shelters remain in the District, even if some have been converted to a church, apartment complex or library.

The problem with living underground

At the 1960 Symposium on Human Problems in the Utilization of Fallout Shelters, Reuben Cohen of the Opinion Research Corporation addressed public opinion on the need for fallout shelters.

“Fully half of the adult public said they knew of nothing they could do to provide for own or their families’ safety before a nuclear attack,” Cohen said in his report. “Only 15% mentioned building a shelter or preparing a shelter space in their home as something they could do.”

A 1959 study revealed that the previous year, only 2% of District residents had prepared or built a shelter space.

Parkfair Apartments, Mount Rona Baptist Church on 13th and Monroe Street and the Mount Pleasant Library all used to be marked as safe havens from a nuclear apocalypse. Today, they still look like sturdy structures.

The catch, Krugler said, is that in the event of a nuclear apocalypse, the vast majority of those shelters would never have kept you alive very long.

“Absolutely not,” Krugler said.

For one, many of the fallout shelters financed in this era were built under structures that would not have survived the blast. Even if the building would have survived, the next problem was food.

At the 1960 Symposium, Syracuse University researcher Edward J. Murray addressed the needs of fallout shelters.

The Office of Civil Defense, Murray said in his address, hoped to stock shelters with “enough food to provide 2,000 calories per day per person,” assuming occupants were in the shelter for a two-week period after the blast. Unfortunately, in most parts of the country, this wasn’t a reality.

“Most of the fallout shelter space was not stocked,” Krugler said. “Fallout doesn’t go away in two days, or seven days or six months.”

Survivability, he said, is low.

Outside the shelter door

As President Trump prepares to leave the Cold War-aged Open Skies Agreement, memories of nuclear war fears slip back into the public consciousness. For District residents, fallout shelters—effective or not—are abundant reminders of these past fears.

Columbia Heights resident Sarah Dunesing has noticed the fallout shelter signs in her neighborhood in the past. Today, she said, the threat of nuclear weapons worries her.

“But I can’t think about it too hard,” she said.

District resident Aaron Chafetz has also seen the fallout shelter signs around Mount Pleasant. Though intrigued, he would not plan on using these old fallout shelters.

“Even if you go into it and you have this nuclear attack, what are you going to come out to at the end?”

Read portions of the Cold War-era documents referenced throughout the article to learn more about civil defense and fallout shelter design.
DC Fallout Shelters: Historical Documents

The post The past, present and future of the District’s fallout shelters first appeared on 91����.

“I want them to clean up the bottles and teddy bears and stuff,” Judd said. “When I walk out, it’s too much. Stressful.”

Judd met with 91���� outside of Trinity Towers while she was walking Django. She asked if we could walk around the neighborhood as we talked, or if it would be too scary. She warned that seven months ago, her truck was shot multiple times. Then, last month, her new car was vandalized.

In the 15 years that Judd has lived in Columbia Heights, crime has always been an issue. This shooting felt different, though—it was literally close to home, and her sons, recent high school graduates, grew up with the victim.

The Trinity Towers shooting was just one of the shootings in a recent uptick in violent crime. Mayor Muriel Bowser has committed to reducing crime in the District through a variety of initiatives, the latest of which is the . The FCPI will deploy Metropolitan Police Department’s available resources to target areas (including Columbia Heights) to prevent crimes and enforce the law.

Mayor Bowser has previously invested in this public health-based approach to violence in the District. The FCPI is part of , which provides resources to programs for public transit, safety, employment, wellness and housing to help residents feel safe and supported in their communities.

More specifically, these programs include truancy prevention, career connections, criminal diversion, emergency prevention and home security, to name a few.

Statistically, these programs seem to be working. that in District 3, overall, violent crime rates are down. There has been an increase in homicides in the past two years, but the total number is down by 130.

Despite the decrease, in MPD precincts 302, 304, 305 and 307, violent crimes with or without a weapon from the past two years still lights up a map.

Sergio Velarde, store manager at Flip It LJ Diner, said that the crime used to be worse in Columbia Heights.

“Because I’m inside all the time, I don’t see it, but I read it in the newspaper,” he said.

Velarde himself, though, hasn’t seen anything firsthand—except what he suspects are drug deals in front of his shop.

“[Crime] has decreased, but it’s still a dangerous neighborhood after 9 or 10 p.m. It’s bad, especially that corner by the Giant. Or by the 7-11, 14th and Columbia Road.”

Q n Q Cleaners is at the end of a strip center across from the Giant on Park Road. Store Manager June Park has lived in Columbia Heights for 15 years.

Earlier this year, a robbery took place on Park’s block. This incident was one of many. He expressed his concern about fights, public intoxication and littering near his business.

Park would like to see a greater police presence in the area to prevent people from drinking and subsequently fighting near the corner of Park Road and 14th Street.

“If [the police] see people drinking outside, they’re going to have to stop them,” he said.

So far, his calls to MPD haven’t helped.

“They come here, and after thirty minutes they’re gone,” Park said.

Park has reached out to Mayor Bowser’s office on multiple occasions to request assistance and more resources for homeless individuals in the area. Her office gave Park a number to call if he witnessed any fights near his business, but it hasn’t been as successful as he hoped.

“You cannot call every day,” he said.

Judd shares in Park’s hopelessness. From their perspective, Columbia Heights’s problems with crime cannot be easily amended.

“There’s nothing they can do,” Judd said when asked what would make her feel safer. “They’re shooting every day.”

She stressed the toll living in Columbia Heights has had on her. The shootings, vandalism and stress of it all has greatly impacted her mental health, and when she goes out to walk Django, she always sees the vigil and again has to remember the boy who died below her window.

Later this month, Judd will be moving away from her corner of 14th and Columbia. Soon, she won’t have to see the vigil again.

“There’s nothing else to say. I can’t do nothing about it. I’m just living,” she said.

The post Residents, business owners react to uptick in violent crimes in Columbia Heights first appeared on 91����.

Within a thousand feet radius of the Franklin D. Reeves Municipal Center on 14th Street NW, nine bias-related crimes have taken place since 2012. They range from threats to assault with a deadly weapon, targeting people for their race, gender identity and sexual orientation. Once a month, this is where the meets to combat Washington D.C.’s burgeoning problem with hate crimes.

shows that 14th Street NW is a hub for hate crimes in the city. Mapped, this data reveals the extent of discrimination on our streets. On a street level, pins with details of the crimes litter most street corners in heavily trafficked areas, and zoomed out, the pins nearly fill in the shape of the District.

MPD released their latest data on bias-related crimes in Washington in June, revealing a continuation of a trend beginning in 2015. In 2018, the number of hate crimes in the District reached a new crest, with 60 crimes committed against people for their sexual orientation, 49 for their ethnicity/national origin and 39 for their race. Based on the June data, 2019 is on track to meet or exceed those numbers.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, a national group bringing together local organizations aimed at reducing violence towards the LGBTQ+ community, recognizes the need for more prevention programs for marginalized groups. In their recent report “,” they explain the importance of violence prevention programs for the LGBTQ+ community: “Few national violence prevention or intervention organizations highlight the needs of LGBTQ victims and, while some federal agencies include LGBTQ populations among their concerns, federal laws do not recognize LGBTQ relationships or families.”

In Washington, local organizations are connecting with law enforcement and the community as a whole to stay ahead of hate. Lt. Brett Parsons, Commanding Officer of MPD’s , has been with MPD since the early 1990s. He oversees the police units who work closely with marginalized groups in the city, including the Asian-American, Deaf and Hard of Hearing, LGBTQ+ and Latinx communities.

Lt. Parsons says it’s impossible to fully unravel why hate crimes are increasing, but there may not be an actual increase in the crimes themselves —  it’s possible that the upward trend is due to more people reporting their experiences, he suggests. In 2015, MPD retrained every officer on how to respond to bias-related crimes and incidents, so the reporting officers are now able to better recognize the characteristics of a hate crime — and, therefore, report them more accurately and often.

“We are amongst one of the only police departments in the country that has such a robust and active effort pursuing bias-related crimes,” Lt. Parsons says. “Pursuing those reports, educating our community, educating our officers, and then also how we respond to them afterwards.”

MPD places a special emphasis on maintaining good relationships with communities particularly vulnerable to hate crimes, Lt. Parsons said.

The Department of Justice’s Hate-Bias Task Force is a key group in these efforts. The Task Force serves as a collaborative space for law enforcement to work with local organizations to combat bias-related crimes. For the LGBTQ+ community specifically, the Violence Prevention and Response Team is a coalition between MPD’s LGBTQ+ Liaison and community organizations, such as the DC Anti-Violence Project, and , among others. According to the , VPART was created to “address, reduce and prevent crime within and against the LGBT community.”

Aside from law enforcement and community organizations, several local government agencies are making changes to improve the climate and prevent hate crimes. The DC Office of Human Rights, for example, has worked with other local agencies to respond to hate crimes since 2017. They also hope to improve the District for marginalized groups through their own campaigns, such as the Street Harassment Prevention Act.

This act defines street harassment as “disrespectful, offensive or threatening statements, gestures or other conduct directed at an individual in a high-risk area without the individual’s consent and based on the individual’s actual or perceived protected trait identified in the DC Human Rights Act of 1977.”

The office has identified high-risk areas for harassment, implemented a public education campaign and holds meetings for the Advisory Committee on Street Harassment.

“We continue to meet with residents, faith leaders and activists to address the harm and trauma caused by such toxic events,” Office of Human Rights Director Mónica Palacio said in a statement.

One of the signs for the office’s new #NoStreetHarassmentDC campaign is stationed outside the Reeves Center. At the start of the last DC Anti-Violence Project meeting, the activists passed around a picture of the sign, pleased that it had been placed where many had personally experienced harassment in the past.

Then, they began planning their next event, “Taking the Stage, Taking a Stand,” an expressive show geared toward giving survivors a platform.

As the conversation drifted away from past trauma, they turned their attention to a new topic: empowering survivors.

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