We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
Fred Rivas finally found a way to keep loiterers off his Park View property’s stoop: He surrounded the 35-square-foot hunk of concrete with a 4-foot-high wrought-iron fence. Neighborhood troublemakers used to drink, smoke, and use drugs on the porch, on the 600 block of Park Road NW, much to the dismay of Rivas and his residents. Rivas cites problems getting police to respond in a timely fashion, so he says he took matters into his own hands. Thus far, the fence has worked for the Mayfair Apartments manager. “It’s a safety precaution for my tenants,” says Rivas. “A lot of them are scared. I have a lot of seniors in that building, too.” The results have yielded positive feedback from his tenants. One resident, a 72-year-old who goes by “Z,” says that loitering has cooled down considerably in the three months since the fence’s installation. Another, Blanca Abilis, who has lived at Mayfair for three years, calls the stoop transformation “a beautiful thing.” “Look now,” she says. “No more people!” —Constantine Caloudas