- Pope Francis in the U.S.
Blocks From the Pope’s Mass, a Dumping Ground for the Nation’s Capital
The pope has decried our throwaway society and its impact on the poor. In Washington, D.C., one neighborhood has waged a three-decade fight over garbage.
For a striking example of people victimized by the world’s garbage, the pope need look no farther than a neighborhood nestled between two landmarks he’ll visit in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday and Thursday. Two miles northeast of the U.S. Capitol, where he’ll address a joint session of Congress, and just blocks from North America’s largest Roman Catholic Church, where he’ll celebrate Mass, families often cope with stench and vermin, trash truck convoys spewing exhaust, and seagulls circling overhead. (Read “Kids Struggle to Breathe in This Neighborhood on Pope’s Tour.”)
For three decades, people living in Washington’s Brentwood section have argued that they’ve been treated as a dumping ground for the nation’s capital. Many in the neighborhood, which is 93
