Damaged and Missing Heritage Trail Signs Continue to Dot Community
The Heritage Trail sign at Georgia and Morton is loose and in need of repair.
Since 2015, I’ve continued to ask why we have Heritage Trails and Markers in our neighborhoods if DDOT has no funds or staff to keep them in good repair. In order to bring attention to this issue, in March 2018 I introduced a resolution that was unanimously passed by ANC1A urging the Mayor and DDOT to address this growing issue. At that time I listed four known heritage trail signs that were missing.
Today, I personally visited the four sites of the missing signs as well as a few others to see if any progress had been made over the past year. Sadly, the four signs are still missing. I’ve also noticed two more that are loose and in need of repair.
The signs in question are:
- Sign #16: Lift Every Voice: Georgia Ave./Pleasant Plains Heritage Trail. Damaged sign reported nearly 6 years ago, sign missing (Location: Georgia and Kenyon);
- Sign #17: Lift Every Voice: Georgia Ave./Pleasant Plains Heritage Trail. Sign is loose in base. (Location: Georgia and Morton);
- Sign #4: Cultural Convergence: Columbia Heights Heritage Trail. Sign missing for nearly 5 years, since at least May 2014 (Location: 14th and Monroe);
- Sign #6: Cultural Convergence: Columbia Heights Heritage Trail. Sign missing for nearly 2 ½ years, since at least November 2016 (Location: 13th and Monroe);
- Sign #7: Cultural Convergence: Columbia Heights Heritage Trail. Sign is loose in base. (Location: 11th and Kenyon); and,
- Sign #17: Cultural Convergence: Columbia Heights Heritage Trail. Sign missing for nearly 3 ½ years, since at least July 2015 (Location: 16th and Harvard).
Tomorrow, I’m signed up to testify before the Committee on Transportation & the Environment at the Council’s Performance Oversight Hearing. I’ll be adding the issue of the heritage trail signs to my list of items that I need to address.
(The sign at 14th and Monroe has been missing for nearly 4 years.)
Tags: DDOT, heritage trails
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Park View, D.C. 
February 24, 2019 at 7:04 pm
Nothing to add but thank you for tracking this and keeping it an active concern. I have read some (not all) of these signs, find out fascinating things about the city and history this way, and am sad someone went through the effort to produce them but then let them disappear.
February 24, 2019 at 9:41 pm
I hear you and this is relevant, but is it a priority given the level of crime we’re dealing with? Or the fact there are needles all over the sidewalk? Or dealers at the bustops? What about the robberies? I know it’s not am either/or, but if resources are limited, I’m not sure this rises to the level.