Alleys, a brief follow-up (reprint)

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Reprinted from June 2006
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Kings Court SE, an alleyway between 14th and 15th Streets SE, south of South Carolina Avenue. It looks like No. 29 is the only address on the alleyway. Flickr Photo by Michael Grass.

The Express blog did an alley feature, "A 14-Mile District Alleywalk," following the Post's article on alleys, "Alley Homes Fight for Respect -- and Trash Pickup," by Lyndsay Layton, from earlier in the week. It outlines a 14 mile tour, starting in Hill East, with the old box factory near the Kentucky Avenue SE Safeway supermarket. The blog entry has links to additional photos and a map of the itinerary.

Michael Berman's studio inside the box factory. Washington Post photo by Nikki Kahn.

A group of us are working on laying out an agenda to make alley dwelling units (note that the word dwelling means that someone can live there) legal and able to be built again.

And we plan to offer a tour of a number of alleys and alley buildings, sometime with the next couple months.

The DC Alley Dwellers Alliance (DADA) has a yahoogroup, which includes photos, files, and an e-list.

Photo of a Philadelphia Alley, by Mark Nevitt of DADA. According to Steve Pinkus, alley dwellings are widespread in Philadelphia, Boston, and Hoboken, New Jersey. We need to compare their zoning codes to DC's to determine why this is so.

Here is the DADA "manifesto":

D.C. Alley Dwellers Unite

Our aim is to improve the conditions of both owners and renters who live in D.C.'s inhabited alleys. Citizens living in D.C.'s alley areas have suffered from neglect and stigmatization by both the city government and street dwelling neighbors. This shameful history must come to an end. Alleys are now desirable places to live, no longer harbingers or breeding grounds for crime and decay.

Alley inhabitants have struggled for years to bring attention to our attempts to improve the appearance and condition of our homes and properties. The only way to address the official apathy and to encourage a positive and beneficial response to our needs is to band together to fight for our betterment. Citizens of D.C.'s alleys should not have to live the lives of a second class or diminished attention while we pay some of the highest municipal tax rates in the U.S.A.

Some issues for discussion and consideration with regards to alley and those who inhabit them:

• Re-bricking and improvement of alley surfaces/updated utilities
• Poor police response because alley locations are not listed correctly in police computers
• Most inhabited alleys NEVER see snow removal
• No new garbage cans have been provided for alley dwellers
• Illegal dumping in alleys. This is a frequent problem. Can we increase fines for dumping in inhabited alleys?
• Traffic Safety – Installation of mirrors, speed limit signs and traffic calming measures for alleys
• Encourage more residential and appropriate, tasteful development in alleys
• Illegal parking in alleys – lack of enforcement by Police and Parking Enforcement
• Encourage pedestrian/alternative transportation for alleys - Why don't we have bike racks for alleys?
• Install better street signage for alleys
• Produce a census/map of occupied alleys of D.C.
• Pest and Termite abatement (Alley houses suffer greatly from this problem- why not a city sponsored termite/pest control effort?)
• Beautification of alleys with plants or public art
• Social gatherings for alley dwellers. Why is it illegal for alleys to be closed for block celebrations while streets are allowed to close for the same?

Calder Loth's award-winning alley garden in the Fan District, Richmond, Virginia.