The National Mall

Today's Examiner has a cover story (two inside full pages) on the National Mall and the constant squeezing in of new monuments, sales kiosks, etc. See "Mall sprawl."

Judy Scott Feldman of the National Coalition to Save Our Mall has been relentless on bringing out new ideas for the National Mall in the third century, including extending the Mall to the South, as well as adding an infill yellow line subway station to the area around the Jefferson Memorial.

The article quotes me including the last paragraph of the story. Now it's a good quote, referring to the ongoing "mall sprawl" that Michael Neibauer writes about. But often with interviews with journalists, your best quote is the one you come up with after the interview is over.

I said this:

But preservationists are skeptical that Congress will ever have the will to say no to organized, voting activists seeking their place on the national common.

“Congress is not in the business of saying no,” Layman said. “It’s not what they do.”

What I should have said is:

"Congress is not in the business of saying no to special interests. It's not what they do. But they have no problem saying no to federal agencies looking for adequate political and financial support to maintain current programs as well as deal with imposed expansion."

The other was more pithy though...

What we need is another Senator McMillan, someone willing to lay out a grand vision that Congress can support (I know that the McMillan Commission didn't have full support, and then he died besides, circumscribing the implementation of the grand plan).

Congress doesn't respect the National Park Service. It doesn't respect and pay attention to the National Capital Planning Commission. The Smithsonian gets (somewhat deserved) oversight but not enough funding to maintain its buildings that bracket the Mall and define the cultural patrimony of the United States of America.

These are our National Museums, a mandate that the various individual museums sometimes don't take seriously enough.

And Congress certainly doesn't pay much attention to the quality of the local experience and the efforts (for good or bad) by various local agencies that deal with this (DC Office of Planning, DC Department of Transportation, and tourism and history related organizations including the Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation).

And the National Park Service in turn doesn't pay much attention to the quality of the experience they provide, and the various local entities that try to shape and improve this experience.

And Judy Scott Feldman got dissed by the National Park Service, who went and created a public-private partnership headed up by a leader of DC's Growth Machine, John Akridge, a big developer and member of the Federal City Council. (See the Trust for the National Mall.)

Granted, if DC Parks and Recreation ran some of these installations, it would likely be even worse. But because of history, many of the city's parks are run by the federal government, and we have little input into how they are run. Benign neglect is one thing. Improvement is quite another.

In the meantime, we're screwed.

I don't deal a lot with parks issues. (It's hard enough dealing with the schleroticism of the DC government, taking on some issues of regional import, the tyranny of neighborhood parochialism without also trying to fix the National Park Service).

Some resources include:

-- the briefing papers for the American Planning Association's City Parks Forum effort of a few years back
-- reports and the Center for City Park Excellence from the Trust for Public Land
-- the Parks issue of Places Journal

-- which was produced in part with the Project for Public Spaces, which has a great Parks, Plazas and Squares initiative/division of the organization and this great article "Ten Principles for Creating Successful Squares"
-- PPS is known throughout the field for their revival of public spaces such as at Rockefeller Plaza and Bryant Park in New York City
-- this article from the New York Times, "Splendor in the Grass" discusses Bryant Park's revitalization and ongoing management and how the presence of women is an indicator of comfort and safety.

People like Cy Paumier, author of Creating a Vibrant City Center, and the Downtown DC BID have been trying to engage the National Park Service for a number of years on these kinds of issues.

I argue for the creation of a master destination management plan (it goes beyond tourism, cultural tourism, or wayfinding) that brings all the various stakeholders together, but including the critics (people like me and Judy Scott Feldman) who attempt to go beyond the tried and true.

I mean have you seen DC's entry sign posted at various entry points into the city? Can you think of a more pathetic sign?

They now have brick surrounds, I just haven't uploaded specific photos.

I like Chicago's better...

Photo from AA Roads.