City Desk

Christmas is but a dim memory, New Year’s Eve is over, Orthodox Christmas has come and gone, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is history, and so, even, is Bill Clinton. Yet neighborhoods across the District are still littered with the detritus of the festive season long past: hundreds of rotting Christmas trees, piled on parkways and splayed across sidewalks. Will the Department of Public Works (DPW) ever haul them away? Don’t hold your breath. The official Christmas tree pickup was Jan. 8 to 12, according to DPW spokesperson Mary Myers. All the trees dumped by the curb since then are supposed to be picked up during regular trash collections. Except that the trash collectors will take only trees that have been placed alongside regular trash bins, and only when they have space for the bulky conifers. So might the trees get picked up by Valentine’s Day? Easter? Next Christmas? “I wouldn’t feel safe giving you a date,” Myers says.

—Howard Witt