Coalition Scrubs Adams Morgan

Improvement District Starts Small

For years, a stroll down the main sidewalks of Adams Morgan was a slalom run around empty cans and grease-stained paper plates discarded by nocturnal pizza eaters after the nightclubs had closed.

But since April, the sidewalks and street corners have had a tidy look.

"It's one of the best things that's happened in the neighborhood in 10 years," said Andy Miscuk, an advisory neighborhood commissioner. "It's clearly cleaner. You see the guys out there cleaning, taking up bags and bags and bags of trash. It's good for the neighborhood. It puts the community in a very good light."

Crews hired by the Adams Morgan Business Improvement District, the city's newest, removed 7,471 bags of trash, totaling about 225,000 pounds, from April 1 through Aug. 31, said Josh Gibson, the improvement district's executive director.

The crews have also removed 409 posters, cleaned up graffiti and put in 138 requests for services from the city, such as the replacement of streetlights, he said.

The workers come from Ready to Work, a program that employs men who were once homeless. The improvement district is also paying for security aides who patrol from noon to 3 a.m. and for four off-duty police officers who work weekend nights, when crowds are heaviest along 18th Street and Columbia Road NW.

In the past several months, Adams Morgan has seen a sharp increase in robberies and violent crime, including several homicides, helping to fuel what Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey has declared as a citywide "crime emergency."

The improvement district, which had been debated among Adams Morgan business owners for eight years before they approved it last year, is one of the smallest in the city. It has a budget of $300,000 and a full-time staff of one, compared with the Downtown Business Improvement District's $10 million budget and staff of 37.

"We're the scruffy little BID that could," said Gibson, who added that the improvement district plans to expand its scope beyond "clean and safe" to marketing Adams Morgan and attracting businesses.

Across the river in Anacostia, business leaders are watching the Adams Morgan improvement district with interest. "Anacostia is similar to Adams Morgan in that we don't have very large structures," said Albert "Butch" Hopkins of the Anacostia Development Corp., who is trying to organize an improvement district.

Because Adams Morgan mostly has two- and three-story commercial buildings and lacks the density of 12-story buildings common downtown, the financial burden of an improvement district on property and business owners in Adams Morgan is greater, Gibson said. Most are assessed about $1,000 a year, one of the highest improvement district taxes in the District.

Several property owners are unhappy about it.

"I don't think we should be doing the work that we're already paying taxes for," said Bill Duggan, owner of Madam's Organ, a popular bar, who wants the improvement district to dissolve. "It's insulting to the community to have to pay for security or trash removal. It's a testament to the inefficiency of the government."

Duggan was particularly critical of the security aides. "They're less than worthless," he said. "They have no authority, just a walkie-talkie. Most of the time, you see them walking in twos, talking to each other."

Pat Patrick, a real estate agent and member of the Adams Morgan improvement district's board of directors, agrees with Duggan. "Many feel this is a double taxation," Patrick said.