Updated: I've updated this post with additional info. See below.
Before I attempt to answer that question, let me ponder a bit about this picture. First, here are the details. This mattress was discarded over 10 days ago. I first noticed it Saturday April 28th, that's 2 Saturday's ago. It's located in front of the condo at 1404 11th Street at the corner of 11th & 0 Streets NW.
I assume this is from someone living nearby. It could be a random drop-off, but probably not. Someone needs to discard of a mattress and they drop it on the side of the road, thinking they've seen this done before with other objects, that's fine. A day, two days, a week goes by and they keep seeing it there. Clearly by this point they obviously know that's not how to properly discard of the mattress and they don't care. So this person just keeps walking by as if it's not their problem anymore. Amazing.
Back to my initial question of why this mattress is nobody's problem. We are all islands in this city. Both private citizens and public servants, we are all just cruising along doing our own thing. And that's valid. We are busy city dwellers working to pay rent, mortgages, school, or whatever. However, the city has ultimately broken down when there is no linkage of responsibility. We all see that mattress as someone else's problem, but we should all be empowered to take responsibility and fix the problem.
Here’s my breakdown on this. Basically all the people I could see as playing a role in fixing these issues in the community but these are the people who see this as not their problem.
- Condo Owners/Property Management. They walk out the door every morning and see this. I guess they don’t think it’s their problem.
- Sanitation Dept. The city trash can sits less than 15 weeks away and ha been emptied in the last week. They don’t care about this because it’s not in their duties.
- Police. Shouldn’t the police have the necessary tools to communicate to someone to fix this? Aren’t the officers on this beat supposed to be invested in the community? I thought the idea of a beat patrol was to know the residents, keep an eye out, and when they see something wrong to work with their community partners? Either they don't care, not trained properly, or they don't have the right tools to work within a community.
- Local Business Owners. Well, not too many nearby businesses. The Annex market probably likes it. However, Pepco owns a half a block of real estate next door of course they don’t see this as their problem.
- ANC. This lies in ANC2F and I would assume one of the elected members has seen this in the past 10 days and could report it to the proper channels. Probably not.
Well, I’m sure this list can go on and on. We are all islands and to me this illustrates that no one feels empowered to take responsibility. And ultimately I guess most people probably just don’t care.
Update.
One mattress begets one more and a box spring. See pics below. As Si noted in the comments anyone who is interested can use the DC Service Request website to report this problem. I've done this for multiple other issues, but have decided I'm going to hold off for now on the mattresses. I'm curious to see how long people will let these hang around.
Comments (12)
i care!
Posted by kbb | May 9, 2007 2:01 PM
Posted on May 9, 2007 14:01
These mattresses tend to be dropped in the alley between 11th/12th/O/P. In fact, there are two new ones in that alley waiting to join this one on the street. I'm guessing someone who actually cared dragged this one out by the trash can for the city to ignore. The mattresses are undoubtedly some of the larger, but certainly not the most disturbing things dropped back there. Indeed, it's messed up.
Posted by keg | May 9, 2007 2:59 PM
Posted on May 9, 2007 14:59
anyone who cares can easily submit a bulk pickup service request to www.dc.gov
Posted by Si Kailian | May 9, 2007 4:49 PM
Posted on May 9, 2007 16:49
Thanks KBB. I know you care.
--
I've actually purposely avoided the DC service request. This is one part comical and sad to me, and I'm curious how long they'll hang around. I guess I'm feeling a bit cynical this week.
Posted by Jason | May 9, 2007 7:16 PM
Posted on May 9, 2007 19:16
Keg - Check the new photos. Someone decided to take the 2 other ones out there too.
Also, the trash bag has been there too. Another thing the sanitation dept didn't pick up.
Posted by Jason | May 9, 2007 7:18 PM
Posted on May 9, 2007 19:18
it's really sad....i watched garbage pile in the same place on my block in bloomingdale all winter, though it would appear now that the people at that house have either 1) run out of garbage or 2) they're actually disposing of it properly now, because i haven't seen the old garbage piles for a few weeks.
Posted by IMGoph | May 9, 2007 11:28 PM
Posted on May 9, 2007 23:28
I placed two service requests on the mattresses in the alley, then they migrated. DC will like that; two fullfilled service requests without doing anything. Mattresses tend to hang around for a long time. Perhaps that's because once they get rained on, they exceed the weight limit for DC trash to deal with. Otherwise, I understand your cynicism... frankly it wouldn't surprise me if a dead horse remained on the sidewalk for several months.
Posted by keg | May 10, 2007 9:50 AM
Posted on May 10, 2007 09:50
I can tell you from personal experience the pile will grow. At 6th & M, one treebox vodka always becomes a huge trash pile within days consisting of furniture, bags of refuse, chicken bones, more liquor bottles, chip bags, beer cans, carpets, clothes, mattresses...you name it. last weekend i set a couple branches out to be picked up by the city that were too big to bag and already the pile is growing. Ive already submitted 2 requests. The trashmen will never pick that stuff up on their own.
jeez at least they could dump without obstructing the sidewalk!
ok funny story: a week after i moved to 5th st, someone dumped an entire nasty refrigerator in my front yard. Which is about 3.5 ft taller than the sidewalk. we took that one to ft totten ourselves.
Posted by Si Kailian | May 10, 2007 9:50 AM
Posted on May 10, 2007 09:50
Actually, I saw one of the mattresses down by the 11th & N bus stop this morning. I am not sure who moved it or why -
Posted by kbb | May 10, 2007 9:58 AM
Posted on May 10, 2007 09:58
Hey, that's my mattress!
Now if I could only find my sofa.
Posted by ed | May 10, 2007 12:46 PM
Posted on May 10, 2007 12:46
So the mattresses were both picked up by DC trash. Probably based on Keg's report.
The box spring is at the 11/N bus stop with a pile of branches.
Posted by Jason | May 15, 2007 8:55 AM
Posted on May 15, 2007 08:55
they drop them at 8th and Q every end of the month!!!
Posted by sailor_girl | July 5, 2007 11:03 PM
Posted on July 5, 2007 23:03