A regular summary of irregular news and notes from neighborhood blogs and email lists around the District.

Another Ward’s Garbage is Still Garbage: The city has put in used parking meters on Martin Luther King Jr, Ave in Anacostia’s Business District, according to Congress Heights on the Rise. Pictures of the “new” meters do not show the shiny new ones you may see in Georgetown, but possibly those taken from the garbage heap. The blog cites the meters ID numbers as proof that they are coming from another Ward in DC. Residents already feel slighted being “across the river” and this did not make readers feel any more welcome in the D.C. community. “After reading this post I was instantly taken back to Boyz N Da Hood — Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood (Ward 8).” Another commented that due to the demographic of the area there is no reason to have meters on the street at all. “I still don’t understand the logic of putting parking meters on a mainstreet still very heavy with social services programs and nonprofits. Who is supposed to be paying these parking fees and what is the point of parking fees on a Saturday? There are only 3 businesses (at best) open on that end of the street on a Saturday.”
Rock the Vote: A member of the Ward 8 email list took the initiative to rid their subscribers of advertisements promoting powerful peens. “Hello Ward 8! In order to free our [email list] from the daily penis and sex messages, we need to elect a new moderator. Please choose someone from our [email list] to manage the email and block spam. This will enable us to maintain an online conversation without the clutter of spam!” There are three candidates for the new position, buy only two people have voted so far. Perhaps they do not mind the penis enlargement advertisement; they may need good chuckle while at work, or some penile inspiration.

All of the Lights: The 1300 block of Fairmont Street NW was out of power again this week according to a member of the email list. “This is the third major power outage on our block/area in less than a year. This is NOT what you would expect of a world class city or the nation’s capital.” ANC 1BO3 Chairman Sedrick Muhammad responded by going over to check out the problem, “I’m here now. There’s no power from Euclid to Harvard, 14th to Sherman. Streetlights are on 2700 block of 13th.”

Welcome to Wal-Mart: Several neighborhood emails lists were in a flutter about the six Walmarts to be build in the city. One member of the Shepherd Park email list who was upset over the recent news blames Councilmember Muriel Bowser for the number of new stores: “[Bowser is] quietly, and secretly behind the scenes, attending fund raisers by the strongest voice in DC political circles David Wilmot who is making major money from Wal-Mart.” With several views about the new Walmart, which are positive, negative and undecided, there is much debate on whether D.C. should have gone forward with the deal. A proponent of the stores said, “It’s pretty encouraging to see two Wal-Mart’s in Ward 4. I probably will enjoy the grocery shopping as opposed to the filthy Safeway on Piney Branch Road…”