Most of the time, when D.C. residents call the city’s 311 hotline, it’s because no one came to take away their trash—or, as was the case earlier this year, because no one came to take away their trash cans. Other calls to 311, however, reveal a more exotic litany of requests for municipal aid, from “tree pruning” to “graffiti removal” to the rather ambiguous “bicycle issues.” Also among residents’ complaints: animals, both alive and dead.
This June, the city received dozens of 311 requests for “rat abatement” and “dead animal removal.” The rodent-related pleas, predictably, are concentrated in D.C.’s denser central neighborhoods as well as its more liquor-soaked corridors. Meanwhile, the critter-carcass complaints are spread fairly evenly around the city, illustrating that if there’s anything that unites District residents across neighborhoods and economic strata, it’s a pancaked squirrel.
For good measure, here are the places where D.C. residents took issue with bicycles left outside, trees grew out of control, stuff was ditched where it shouldn’t be, and graffiti artists left their mark.