Street Trash a Hugh Neighborhood Issue
610 Newton Place, NW, has been owned by the New Commandment Baptist Church since 2008. The church is located at 625 Park Road. Future plans for the property is not known at this time
While there has been a general outcry against the amount of tagging/graffiti that has cropped up along Georgia Avenue in recent weeks, something that is equally troublesome is trash and litter strewn along our streets.
I’ve long been mystified by the amount of clamshell food containers, empty liquor bottles, and general trash that can be found on our neighborhood’s streets. Often times you can find a crack bag or empty condom wrapper in the parkway in front of an otherwise well maintained row of homes. Sharing my frustration, residents in southern Park View largely along the Irving Street corridor have formed the Park View Beautification Crew and are now documenting their efforts on their own blog. Their community involvement and activism is something many of us should aspire to.
One resident's attempt to arrest public urination at their property
One street that has been a perpetual problem is the 600 block of Newton. The large, vacant apartment buildings on the south side of the block only serve to exacerbate the problem. Across the street from these apartments one resident has posted a sign (right) in an attempt to stop public urination on their property.
If ever there was a block in need of a Ward-1 Fix It crew, this would be it. Yet, I have little faith that cleaning up this area would last beyond a few days. Below are a few more images of the area around the empty apartment building.
The front yard of 610 Newton Place as seen on April 2, 2011
Looking west on the 600 b/o Newton Place toward the Ward 1 Senior Wellness Center/Georgia Avenue
Tags: neighborhood beautification, streets, trash
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Park View, D.C. 
April 5, 2011 at 10:04 am
I said it before… Where is Woodsy the Owl when we need him most?
DC should bring him back – give him Big Baggy Pants riding down around his butt – and start a new litter campaign. You have to be carefully taught.
This is our neighbors being lazy pure and simple. They were taught it is ok by their parents who did the same.
Carry you garbage to your house or to the corner can, don’t just drop it.
April 5, 2011 at 10:56 am
What is up with churches in this city? They seem more interested in real estate schemes than loving your neighbor and making the world a better place. The church I grew up in was saving its meager pennies to buy a steeple… though they later decided to put the money into charity and community programming instead. A church with investment property (and a nuisance property at that) is incomprehensible to me.
April 5, 2011 at 11:01 am
[…] It Up! Park View D.C. and nearby neighbors are fed up with the amount of trash in their streets. Writes Park View D.C., "I’ve long been mystified by […]
April 5, 2011 at 12:28 pm
I am guessing since its church owned property that they aren’t even paying tax on it. They should be taxed at the vacant rate in DC. This is disgraceful. Notify Councilmember Graham to see if he can get a fix it team organized.
April 5, 2011 at 12:34 pm
or contact the church directly…this is unacceptable.
625 Park Road N.W.
Washington, DC 20010
Phone Number:
202-291-5711
Email: newcomma625@aol.com
April 5, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Sadly, there are no laws against littering in DC. The only time someone can be fined for littering is if they throw something out of a car. Anyone can drop trash on the ground in front of a police officer and they can’t do anything about it. Until DC gets anti-littering laws I don’t think the trash problem is going to get better.
April 6, 2011 at 9:56 am
It is a open air drug block.
April 6, 2011 at 10:04 am
I’d be willing to go over and clean that shit up.
April 6, 2011 at 10:59 pm
To be fair that church does a lot of good work in the community and is the only church that offers any social services to PV residents. I have a feeling if this was brought to their attention they would do what they can.
That block is the worst block in PV and really is an open air drug market. The amount of open air drinking, drug use and prostitution is out of control on that block. MPD needs to target this area, so that there is less activity. Less activity will equal less trash.
April 7, 2011 at 10:54 am
to be fair… “if this was brought to their attention they would do what they can.”
This is their responsibility, the church should be publicly scholded and fined handsomely.
Make an example of them. You can’t hold on to a property so as to make money later or “wait for the right time.’
Clean it up. Good lord!
February 3, 2012 at 7:02 am
[…] trash is a perpetual issue in Park View, but February 1st was the first time in recent memory where a dumpster was itself the […]
August 15, 2012 at 7:03 am
[…] also includes the large empty lot behind the properties. More notably, 610 Newton has also been a nuisance location over the years. With the potential to not only rehabilitate the property but also increase its […]
June 27, 2014 at 7:01 am
[…] say that it has made a significant improvement to the block. Readers may recall that the property as recently as 2011 was a blighted shell that added nothing to the community. Now (with a large addition at the rear), its a 12-unit condo […]