Performance Oversight Hearing on the Department of General Services 2026

January 29, 2026

Good Morning,

My name is Ezra Hollander, I use he/him pronouns, and I represent the DC Trail Ranger program, a nationally unique partnership between the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and the District Department of Transportation established in 2013. DC Trail Rangers go out each day on electric cargo bicycles to service over 25 miles of DC owned, paved multi-use trails, taking care of infrastructure that serves as vital transportation and recreation resources for DC residents in every quadrant of the city. In fiscal year 2025, the DC Trail Rangers biked over 8,000 miles on DC trails, while removing over 1,500 bags of trash and submitting over 100 requests to DC 311. 

The DC Trail Rangers deeply appreciate the work the Department of General Services does each day to keep DC’s parks, recreation centers, and other public spaces safe, clean and in good repair. Drawing upon our years of experience biking, walking, and stewarding DC’s trails and parks, the DC Trail Rangers submit the following comments regarding the Department of General Services’ performance over the past year. 

Approximately two years ago, the Department of General Services retired their Community Facilities Maintenance Request Form. DC Trail Rangers found this online form helpful because it allowed for the submission of a wide range of issues, and immediately put our team in touch with members of DGS’s FIRST Team to clarify details of service requests. When DGS transitioned their maintenance reporting over to DC 311, it made reporting some issues easier and others much more difficult. The current list of DC 311 service request categories for DGS does not reflect the full range of common issues that the DC Trail Rangers encounter on a weekly basis on DC trails and in parks.  The DC Trail Rangers and the trails they service would greatly benefit from the creation of additional 311 reporting categories for DGS, such as DGS Overflowing Trash Can (currently there is only an option for DGS Overflowing Recycling Can), as well as service request options for streets lights, benches, and illegal dumping on DGS properties.

When DGS responds to a service request on or near DC trails, the agency does a great job of resolving immediate safety hazards, but it is then unclear what the timeline is for the completion of more comprehensive repairs. For example, on the Marvin Gaye Trail by the corner of 46th St NE and Grant St NE there is a wooden pedestrian bridge that over the past several years has developed multiple large holes in its wooden boards. DGS staff have come out to the bridge on multiple occasions and installed pieces of plywood to cover the holes and prevent community members from tripping or falling through the bridge. While these plywood patches solve the immediate safety hazard, DC Trail Rangers have not been able to determine what the timeline is for making a more permanent repair or replacing the bridge. DC Trail Rangers have also submitted many service requests to DGS over the years for broken playground equipment. Similarly, DGS staff have been quick to resolve urgent safety hazards, such as filing down a rebar rod sticking out of a broken piece of concrete at a DPR playground, but then the timeline for replacing the damaged equipment is unclear. The DC Trail Rangers appreciate DGS’ commitment to quickly resolving safety issues, and believe that there is more work to be done to ensure additional prompt follow up for infrastructure issues that require larger repairs or full replacement. As a non-profit partner of the DC government, DC Trail Rangers interact with DC 311 on the same level as local neighbors and our concerns are shared by the trail users we engage with on a daily basis.

Finally, the DC Trail Rangers would like to take this opportunity to highlight the importance of clarifying ownership of the street lights along the Marvin Gaye Trail in Ward 7. The lights on the Marvin Gaye Trail are frequently broken, and DC Trail Rangers hear regularly from community members about feeling unsafe on the trail when it is poorly lit at night. When our program submits service requests for these lights to DC 311, the response we hear back from DGS and other DC agencies is that the lights are the National Park Service’s responsibility. According to maps produced by the District government and the National Park Service, Marvin Gaye Park is owned and maintained by the city, and our understanding is that the lights likely therefore fall under the purview of DGS. In addition to the question of infrastructure ownership, the issue of the broken lights along this trail is compounded by the fact that unlike on other trails in DC, none of these lights have a serial number or any other individually identifying label. Without an organized labeling system, it is extremely difficult to describe in a service request exactly which lights are in need of repair. As stewards of DC’s trails, DC Trail Rangers are committed to helping to solve long standing maintenance questions. If we are incorrect and DGS is not the appropriate agency for these lights, the DC Trail Rangers would appreciate any assistance the agency can still provide to help clarify ownership and resolve these urgent community concerns.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today about the DC Trail Ranger Program’s experiences working alongside the Department of General Service. Our program will be hosting a series of trail audits this March in collaboration with the trails team at the District Department of Transportation, and representatives from DGS have been invited to attend. We hope that DGS staff will be able to join these trail inspections to continue working on how to ensure that service requests in every corner of the city are resolved as quickly as possible.