Another Street Sign Death

Some street signs fade away. Others experience tragic deaths. Our community deserves prompt repair and replacement of damaged, deterioriating, or "totalled" signs.

Well, the D.C. Department of Transportation has sometimes fallen short. Signs have laid on the ground for six months at a time before being picked up.

So here is another opportunity. The sign in the photo above can be found at the corner of 1st Street N.E. and Quince Place [update: it disappeared the morning after this post]. This is another opportunity to see how well the automated on-line service center (dc.gov) works this time.

When I submitted the request, the system told me: "We were unable to verify the location Quincy Place NE AND 1st Street NE, WASHINGTON, DC." The service request number is 1712458.

Are there DDOT sign success stories? Sort of.

This stop sign, which appears to be a temporary sign that replaced a sign that was destroyed, ended up on the ground about a week after police had tied yellow "Do Not Cross" tape to it in support of a local event. The police never took the yellow tape away, and the sign fell down not long afterwards.

I filled out a request online and the followed up with DDOT's Sharelene Reed. She soon informed me that the request had been fulfilled, and that the case number was now closed.

So what was the catch? Whoever fixed the sign didn't bother to remove the police tape. A neighbor burst out laughing when he saw the sight. Ever get the feeling that someone doesn't care to make the neighborhood better, they just want to get the job done and go? Maybe it's more than just a feeling.