Category Archives: Environment
Heat Emergency/Saturday Neighborhood Clean Up Cancelled
While fall weather will be here soon, the Capital Weather Gang report for this weekend is for oppressive humidity, high dew points and heat index values toward 105 degrees. Given Saturday’s weather forecast, the monthly clean up in Trinidad will be cancelled. If you can get out later in the week ahead or in the very early hours or late evening when the heat is not as oppressive, we hope you will continue to sweep or pick up trash in areas near your home. We do not want people out in the high heat and sun of the day to clean. It is safer for everyone indoors or cool areas when temperatures are so high.
The DC government has extended hours of the spray parks and they will be open this weekend. Please be mindful of heat emergency conditions and continue to watch out for neighbors that may need access to a cooling center. You can access information about heat emergencies on the DC website.
Stay hydrated and enjoy your weekend!
Trash Clean Up for Today Cancelled / Cooling Centers
Given the record high temperatures expected today, the second Saturday of the month clean up will be cancelled for today. The next community wide clean up will be on Saturday, September 10th.
There is an Excessive Heat Warning and Watch for our area from this morning through Sunday night. Temperatures are expected to be around 100 degrees with heat index values ranging from 110 to 115 degrees. Find ways to stay cool in air conditioned buildings, at spray parks, and by limiting outdoor strenuous activity. You can find information on heat emergency information on the DC website. If you know of a senior or other person that needs transportation to a cooling center, please call 1-800-535-7252.
#beattheheat
July 9 – Neighborhood Clean Up
The next Trinidad Neighborhood Clean Up is on Saturday, July 9th. We will meet at Joe Cole at 10 am and move around the neighborhood from there. Bring your neighbors, bring your gloves.
#TrashFreeTrinidadDC
It’s Almost Here!
There will be a second Saturday of the month neighborhood wide community clean-up this coming Saturday, June 11th.
Time: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. If you can’t make the whole time, that’s fine. Every little bit helps and you can check in the meeting point at any time during the two hours to collect trash bags.
Meeting point: Joe Cole Rec Center (Neal Street side)
Trash bags will be provided; consider bringing your own garden gloves. Dress for the weather but hopefully we will have a break from rains!
Please use the sign up registration on the Sign Up Genius page or check the Facebook page. That helps us plan for the event and a pizza party afterwards. It also sends email reminders prior to the event.
See you on Saturday!
A Successful but Rainy Garden Tour!
“Out of gardens grow fleeting flowers but lasting friendships.”
– Beverly Rose Hopper
The Trinidad Garden Tour was a wonderful day spent in the company of neighbors from here in Trinidad and from Carver-Langston, Atlas District and Brookland. Despite the rain and chilly weather about 35 people joined the tour today. We saw lovely flowers, garden beds, worm composting systems, bee hives, garden oasis with movie screen set ups, a library, some home renovations, and much more to spark conversation and new ideas for how to continue to transform our yards and build our community. This is the 7th or 8th garden tour and we are blessed to live in a vibrant community where long time and new residents can come together and celebrate our neighborhood and each other.
A special thank you to Laura Casperson for taking on much of the work to organize the day. Thank you to our many gracious and generous hosts including Tony, Chris, Elise, Julie, Liz, Aaron, Tiffany, Niraj, Cultivate the City and W.S. Jenks, Andy, Greg, Timothy, Rodolfo, and Rosetta.
A few photos from the garden tour are below. Anyone that wishes to share photos can either post them to the Trinidad Neighborhood Association Facebook page or send them to trinidadneighborhood@gmail.com. We will do another blog post with photos later in the week if we receive them to share.
Thank you again everyone and we hope that community networks and connections made or strengthened during the garden tour will continue to grow! See you again next year on the tour.
Cultivate the City garden.
We had a lot of umbrellas in some garden oasis.
Raised garden beds
Worm composting
Home brewed beer
Bee keeping
Cultivate the City back yard gardening
Enjoy the Little Things. Backyard Staples St.
A Little Free Library
Cultivate the City wall gardening system
Cultivate the City on W.S. Jenks rooftop.
Garden Tour Update!
The Trinidad Neighborhood Association Garden Tour is this Sunday, May 22nd. It is looking like it will be a nice day on Sunday but there will be plenty of rain on Saturday before we meet to socialize and walk around our neighborhood to enjoy local gardens.
We will meet between noon and 1 pm at Tony’s Secret Garden at the corner of Morse and Montello. Join us for refreshments and time to meet new neighbors or catch up with old friends. We will start walking at 1 pm and have 7 or 8 stops at gardens in the neighborhood as well as a visit to the rooftop at W.S. Jenks to see the Cultivate the City space and plants there. We will end the walk at 1708 Montello Ave NE, chez Rosetta.
We have a route map at this link so you can join the tour at any time. We will be a fairly large group and hopefully easy to find. We look forward to seeing you on Sunday!
Community Clean-Ups
Starting April 9, the Trinidad Neighborhood Association plans to host neighborhood clean-ups the second Saturday of every month (cancellations may occur due to weather). We need volunteers to come out and clean-up for a Trash Free Trinidad.
We hope you will join us! Please use the Sign-Up Genius link to RSVP — this helps us plan.
Dates: April 9, May 14, June 11, July 9
Times: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Meeting point: Joe Cole Rec Center (Neal Street side)
Trash bags will be provided; consider bringing your own garden gloves. Dress for the weather!
On April 9th we will have a post-clean up pizza party hosted by 405 Yoga for our volunteers and neighbors. We appreciate the support from our local businesses as we work together to clean-up our streets and sidewalks.
Mayor’s Walk Through Follow Up and Spring Cleaning
Last May 11th the Mayor and many city administrators and staff completed a walk through in the northern area of Trinidad with community members. During the walk many issues with street lights and signage, property in disrepair or abandoned, rodents, trash, and our streets and sidewalks were identified. The city worked to close out those issues to improve our neighborhood. The report is available on the Mayor’s website or on the following link: Ward 5 RESULTS Walk – TrinidadV2.
As we begin neighborhood clean ups this spring, we will all need to identify what areas residents can address. We can also initiate 311 requests for city support where city services are needed to fix street lights, repair sidewalks, address illegal dumping, and other areas.
Clean ups are scheduled for April 9 and May 14. We encourage everyone to come out and participate. We also encourage everyone to use the 311 phone number, online system, or phone app to report issues with street lights, rodent infestation, graffiti, unsafe sidewalks, and other issues. The system is easy to use and allows for follow-up and monitoring. Any issues that are not being resolved in a timely manner can and should be raised with your Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. The Ward 5 staff in the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services (MOCRS) can also be enlisted in collaboration with the appropriate ANC Commissioners to resolve issues.
Let’s work together to get our neighborhood spruced up for spring and summer so that we can all enjoy cleaner, safer streets!
How Green Does Your Garden Grow?
There are some exciting happenings around gardening this spring with resources, events, and news that you can use as you start to plant in your vegetable and flower growing spaces.
First, if you had a chance to attend Rooting DC in February there was a wealth of urban gardening knowledge being shared. If you could not attend the events, you can still access presentations on their forum website. The presentations cover everything from starting growing nutritious microgreens to small space garden design to use of compost in your garden and pickling vegetables to preserve them.
Second, the Trinidad annual garden tour is coming up! As spring weather continues flowers will be blooming earlier and edible plants will soon start producing. This is the perfect time to think about what you want to plant in your yard or window boxes or what you want to show your neighbors during the garden tour, which will focus on edible plants this year. If you haven’t been on one of the garden tours, it is a wonderful way to get gardening ideas, meet neighbors, and show off what you are producing. The contact for the garden tour is Laura Casperson. You can reach her at casperson.laura@gmail.com if you have questions or are willing to show off your garden during the neighborhood tour. Watch this space for details on the Garden Tour date, time, and route
. 
(Photos of the 2015 Garden Tour)
Finally, Cultivate the City has teamed up with W. S. Jenks Hardware on Bladensburg Road and will be opening a nursery on site. They are constructing a green house on the roof for their H Street Garden project (yes, we know it is not on H Street but it is very conveniently located in Trinidad). They already have a few plants for sale in the store and W. S. Jenks has seasonal gardening items in stock. There will be a seedling Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and a vegetable CSA program coming to the site. Cultivate the City is also holding a photography contest with prizes for selected photos leading up to the opening of the garden center and completion of the rooftop farm. 
Neighborhood Clean Ups: Save the Date!
Do you want to meet your neighbors, have fun, and have a cleaner neighborhood?
Trinidad Neighborhood Association will be organizing two spring neighborhood clean ups. Volunteers are needed for both clean ups and many hands will make light work. The first community wide clean up will be held on April 9th and second will be held on May 14th. Both are the second Saturday of the month. We will have supplies available and will arrange for the city to pick up filled garbage bags.
Mark your calendars and watch this space for event details as the dates approach!
Trinidad Neighborhood Association 