I remember when I first moved to Congress Heights two and a half years ago the very first DC agency I had contact with was the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA). For those of you unfamiliar with DCRA their responsibility is to “protect the health, safety, economic interests, and quality of life of residents, businesses, and visitors in the District of Columbia by issuing licenses and permits, conducting inspections, enforcing building, housing, and safety codes, regulating land use and development, and providing consumer education and advocacy services.”

Two and a half years ago my experience trying to engage DCRA was a total nightmare. To be fair I was forewarned. Everyone told me that DCRA was the worst-run agency in the District and my experience definitely didn’t score them any brownie points. I remember after I  moved to my neighborhood and sending over seventy (70) emails to multiple people at DCRA just to come out and look at some of the really neglected properties in the neighborhood (I didn’t start getting any replies until about 25 emails in); properties that were posing serious health, sanitation and yes, crime risks to the community. It was without a doubt one of the most frustration experiences I had had with a city agency to date. It was the perfect example of how NOT to run a city agency. No one seemed to know what was going on, you would spend time with one DCRA representative and just when you thought you were making some headway they would be fired or transferred and you would have to start the process all over again, inspectors would say they would come out and they wouldn’t and the worse of the worse,  if you called their office you would be on hold for over an hour. At that time I hated DCRA with a passion it was an exercise in the worst kind of inefficiency.

Two years later and my experience with DCRA has totally transformed. They are much more customer friendly, no more hour long wait times on the phone, they are much more modern (they have a Twitter account for goodness sakes) and they are way more proactive. Several times I have posted DCRA related issues on Congress Heights on the Rise and faster than you can say “building code violation” Mike Rupert from DCRA (who also updates the DCRA twitter account) is all over it. I don’t know how Mike finds the time or the energy but he has made my DCRA experience (and the experience of a lot of my fellow neighbors) a much better one. They are definitely one of my best tools in my community tool-kit when it comes to improvements in my neighborhood. Vacant properties are being boarded up (or better still are being renovated), building code violations are being addressed,  and businesses which had been operating illegally and under dubious conditions for years are being told to clean up their act. DCRA may not be perfect but for me they are now one of the better DC agencies when it comes to engaging DC residents, addressing their concerns and replying to them quickly. Whatever they are doing I hope they keep it up!

To contact The Advoc8te or to submit an article for posting on Congress Heights on the Rise email congressheightsontherise@gmail.com .
 
Share on Facebook