November 15, 2007
Nonprofit Kicks Off National Mall Revitalization Effort
Roll Call had a subscriber-only story up yesterday about today's kick-off of an effort on the part of non-profit Trust for the National Mall to raise $350 million to revitalize Washington's top tourist destination. Students from Ann Beers Elementary School in Southeast are getting things going today by planting 3,000 daffodil bulbs in Constitution Gardens.
Citing maintenance needs due to heavy use like cracked walkways and patchy grass, the Trust will be working alongside the National Park Service to raise the needed funds to restore and preserve the National Mall. Pending Centennial Challenge legislation in the House could provide federal matching funds for some of the project's initiatives.
Have you noticed any particular areas of the National Mall that are in need of immediate attention? And what do you think of the apparent need to raise private funds to fix up our country's most visible national land?
Photo by Greg McElhatton
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They should sell Beers Elementary School shirts. I'd buy one.
How about the poor DC WWI memorial.
How about DC enter the 20th Century and put some automated, self-cleaning toilets on the Mall? Y'know, the kind that mentally ill homeless people can't live in?
Barring that, they need signs that say, "Visitors to the Nation's Capital are asked to cross their legs, hold it in, and squirm. Thank you for your cooperation and enjoy your visit!"
How about the poor DC WWI memorial.
The who what in the where when now?
the grass is pretty icky.
also, the toilets you linked to..why couldn't a homeless person live in there too? i mean, those look even more home-like. and self cleaning too! is there some anti-squat (insert joke here) device?
Some decent lighting would be nice . There are many places along the Mall that have terrible lighting.
How about the poor DC WWI memorial.
The who what in the where when now?
It's a small domed structure off on the southern side of the Mall nearby the US Park Police Mounted Unit stables. Often totally ignored, or used as a site for local wedding photos, strangely.
More info can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_War_Memorial
Here is another link regarding the memorial:
http://www.dcpreservation.org/endangered/2003/warmemorial.html
Apparently the NPS just ignores it.
With the self-cleaners, once you've done your business, the door locks and the interior sprays itself with cleanser and disinfectant. The computer detects whether there's a person inside and can be programmed to alert the police or paramedics if someone's had an emergency. Or if someone's in there for more than an hour.
The one I tried in Galway had a sink that spits out soapy water, then clean water, then the air dryer kicks in. That's some Buck Rogers s**t. But I doubt they'll ever come to DC; Metro tried them, but they weren't ADA compliant. Then 911 happened, and everybody's scared s**tless about bombs in toilets.
I would appreciate some better grass for softball games. And please don't give me the "if you want the grass to be nicer, stop playing softball there."
How appropriate that the WWI Memorial would be the victim of such neglect.
We had those automated toilets in SF. They were okay. They were definitely both ADA compliant as well SF DA compliant (SF has much stricter rules for accessibility -- of course).
But the homeless found ways to jam the locks so they wouldn't self clean and they could come and go.
Nothing like walking in a junkie in the middle of getting busy to really put you off public toilets for awhile.
I'm not sure whether Descataux and SF ever figured out how to repair the toilets that were getting broken. Of course SF has a LOT of homeless, so it's generally hard to keep up.
Yeah the grass is really awful in parts but at least we get to walk all over our grass unlike the crazy lawn police I had run ins with in France.
Here's a video on the one that's at Huntington Ave Station on the Yellow Line. But it doesn't really answer how you keep people from inhabiting the toilet. You'd think that the sanitizer would be the major deterrent, but as DC1974 said, if the locks can be jammed, no cleaner cycle...
Monkey, I've used the one at Huntington; it's still there and seemed waaaay ADA compliant, with room enough for two wheelchairs and plenty of handrails. Are you saying that they just aren't expanding the 2003 pilot potty program?
The only "expansion" of Metro's public toilet program involved placing an old school Port-o-Let at the Vienna Station.
I add my voices to those saying that the WWI memorial need to be repaired.
For those who dont know it you should be able to see a Flickr slideshow of the pictures here: http://tinyurl.com/252tc7
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51111474@N00/sets/72157602804138446/show/
is the full link if people dont like TinyURL's
Why is it that we have to raise private funds to fix the damn National Mall? Isn't that what our taxes are supposed to do?
Oh, that's right. We have a 2 trillion dollar war to pay for.
But still. $350 million ain't nothing in the overall Fed budget.
Allowing the Mall to languish as is is pathetic. We deserve better from our government.
I blame Congress and the American public for continually electing Republican thugs.
It is indeed completely ridiculous that a non-profit group has to seek out funds to keep the National Mall up to snuff. But not much surprises me anymore. To say that at 27 is kinda sad.
This type of action is going to be needed more and more in the years to come. Running against Washington is so popular that any member from KS or MI or OH or hell even MD or VA (not suburban districts) that favors an increase for funding to the mall will get slammed. I wish the nonprofit good luck but this is going to be a tough situation and needs the support of local business and government as well.