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

To the Wooden Rulers: An email to the Petworth Action Committee email list, titled “Trashcans and Kitten Invasion,” says the following: “Does anyone know who I would contact about requesting a trashcan to be installed on the corner of either 4th and Crittenden or 4th and Decatur in front of Barnard Elementary school? Every morning I walk on the sidewalk and pickup trash including beer bottles and candy wrappers, but there is no place to dispose of the waste except in my own house bin. Also, there seem to be a large number of stray kittens in and around our neighborhood, would the humane society be the best place to contact about having them collected? This morning alone I counted 12 un-collared and very stray-looking cats/kittens on my street.” Another member suggests contacting Alley Cat Allies for the latter, and says of the former, “Thanks for being a good neighbor and picking up trash, as annoying as that it. There are a lot of us who do – daily. When I catch people in the act, I tend to speak up.  Within the last few weeks, I’ve witnessed an old lady at a bus stop and a younger woman, both within feet of a litter can, heave their trash on the sidewalk (at 8th and Upshur). At moments like that I keep wishing we had tough nuns dressed the old fashioned way patrolling every block, wooden ruler in hand.”

Like Salmon: A member of the Hill East email list suggests the following: “I am an avid jogger, and like many Hill joggers, I like to use the bike lanes on East Capitol St. when I run. I’m hoping I can persuade a few more of us to jog in the opposite direction of traffic. While the bikers and drivers on East Capitol St. are a careful bunch, when you run with the traffic behind you, you are completely reliant on everyone else for your safety. If you run facing traffic, you get a heads’ up if someone is, say, texting and swerving into the bike lane. Plus—bonus community benefit—those are BIKE lanes, so the bikers ought to have the right of way. If we run facing them, we can get out of their way more easily, with less inconvenience to both parties.” Though a few other members agree with the suggestion, many disagree. One writes, “As an avid marathon runner who has lived all of his life in places with sidewalks,  I would tell runners with or without strollers and ipods that you should run on the sidewalk.  That’s why sidewalks are there.” Another sends along a response from the mayor’s office: “Please be advised that pedestrians are not allowed in on-street bike lanes in the District, except in circumstances where an adjacent sidewalk is not present.”

Shaw Slowdown: InShaw takes a look at various projects underway in the neighborhood, including the O Street Market, Shaw’s Tavern, and the Engine Company 12 restaurant. In general, it looks as if things aren’t too far along. For example: “Over at the O Street Market, what is happening? Nothing. Not that I can see when I pass by on the bus or walk through Giant’s parking lot. Well there are some small things. Weeds are growing and the top window on the building, looks like half of it is about to fall out.” One commenter writes, “Good digging on the EC12 stuff. I’ve been waiting for them to toss their application on the firehouse website like they said they would, but it still hasn’t appeared. I wonder how the neighbors will like the weekday midnight closing time on the outside patio.”

Tree-son: Says a poster on the Brookland email list in a thread entitled, “missing trees on 12th street”: “Driving from Rhode Island Ave to Michigan Ave along 12th street, I recently counted 31 missing trees on just the east side of the street. I couldn’t safely count both sides. None of my requests through the urban forestry department, last year, for trees to be planted on my own block produced any results, either. None of my calls to Casey Trees about this were returned, either. This is not good. Presently, no other members have weighed in with more precise counts.