The threat of a takeover is looming over the D.C. government. The Mayor’s office is taking to the streets to address some of President Trump’s grievances. News4’s Mark Segraves reports on the man in charge of cleaning up the city.
With the threat of a federal takeover looming over the D.C. government, the Bowser administration is taking to the streets — literally — to address some of President Donald Trump's concerns about the District.
Trump has made numerous threats to take control of D.C.'s government, and one of the reasons he's given over the years is litter and graffitti.
Last year, after travelling to D.C.'s courthouse to plead not guilty in the federal case alleging he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Trump claimed that the city had declined since his first term ended.
"It was also very sad driving through Washington, D.C., and seeing the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti," Trump said on the tarmac of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. "This is not the place that I left. It’s a very sad thing to see it."
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Since 2024, before Trump's reelection, the District has been deploying beautification crews. On Tuesday, they met with News4 along New York Avenue and North Capitol Street.
"Mayor Bowser started an initiative where we're focusing on the highways and graffiti, and the major corridors in and out of the city and just handling everything from the illegal dumping to the graffiti to posters," said Anthony Crispino, deputy director of operations for the D.C. Department of Public Works.
Crispino pointed to discarded tires as one of the biggest problems.
"In some areas we're encountering 70, 80, 100 tires, [on] 295, same kind of thing where we're removing significant tonnage," Crispino said. "I think last year on 295 alone we removed 23 tons of illegally dumped tires."
While the beautification crews have been attacking the problem since before Trump's reelection, Crispino acknowledges his teams are targeting exactly what the president has been complaining about.
"And we will take over the horribly run capital of our nation, horribly run," Trump said at a campaign stop in Iowa last year. "We have a capital that we all love. Right now it's a rat-infested, graffiti-infested, and we're going to take it away from the mayor. And again, that doesn't make me popular there, but I have to say it. We have to take the graffiti off those magnificent statuary marble columns all over the city where they have swastikas printed on them."
Crispino said his crews have been working proactively on the problems.
"Yes, we're addressing issues that the president is mentioning, but we've been doing this all along," he said. "Just since November we have removed over 1600 pieces of graffiti, 400 posters across the city. We have an agreement in place with the National Park Service where we're cleaning Rock Creek Park, all of the major bridges that are crossing the park we've been cleaning graffiti off. We're having our vendor do that."
The beautification crews have also been assisting the National Park Service with homeless encampments in the area, Crispino said.
One noticeable, immediate upside to the graffiti removal is that the area smells like lemons when the work is done.
"Yes that's the silver lining to the graffiti removal," Crispino said. "The chemical that we apply to take the graffiti off, the manufacturer puts in some sort of citric acid, so it leaves it with a nice smell when we're done."
Residents of D.C. can call 311 to report graffiti or illegal dumping in the District. This Thursday, D.C. is holding a hazardous waste drop-off event at RFK, in lot three.
