Norton Report Looks to Obama Transition Team to Jumpstart Revival of the District's Neighborhood Parks

December 11, 2008

Washington, D.C. -- As the federal government prepares to host record-breaking crowds here, the Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released a report entitled Arresting Deterioration in the Valuable National Park Service Neighborhood Parks in the District of Columbia. Concerned that the well-known deterioration of the National Mall also would be found in the District's valuable parks, most of them owned by the National Park Service (NPS), Norton and her staff this summer visited a cross section of representative parks in the NPS inventory in every ward. Conditions varied, from rat holes around the borders of the otherwise significantly improved Lincoln Park in Ward 6, to virtually no maintenance at Ft. Bunker Hill park in Ward 5, but most parks fell between these poles, reflecting the problems the NPS has had in maintaining its national assets in the face of chronic undertaking.

"Because of what we knew about the deterioration of the Mall, we expected even worse of city NPS parks, instead we found that the deterioration on the Mall had simply spread citywide" the report concluded. Residents' involvement was found to be an invaluable underused approach that could be of great benefit for residents' use and park upkeep alike.

The report will be forwarded to the Obama transition team considering that NPS is located in the U.S. Department of Interior.

A copy of the report is attached.

Arresting Deterioration in the Valuable National park Service Neighborhood Parks in the District of Columbia

Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton

Introduction

The National Park Service owns and is responsible for most parks in the District of Columbia, including the National Mall and most D.C. neighborhood parks. This report concerns a cross section of neighborhood parks my staff and I visited this summer as well as a summary of what we found on the last of several visits to the Mall. Since 2006, we have regularly monitored the Mall to ensure it is safe and to asses its general condition after the first muggings in memory occurred there. The criminals were quickly apprehended and convicted. The Mall remains one of the safest places in the region, but has serious maintenance problems, which Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has been working to address in Congress and with the Trust for the National Mall. On our last visit, we found a significant number of lights out or dim. The most serious concern on the Mall this summer was lighting - burnt out lights, dim lights, electrical problems and dirty shades that kept light from reaching the Mall. A system for regularly cleaning lights and quickly replacing burnt out lights should be established before next spring to assure Mall safety. A numbering system for streetlights, suggested by a Park Police officer during one of our visits, would allow the implementation of regular pole-by-pole checks for dim and burnt out lights, improve the receipt of timely information by the National Park Service (NPS) and improve safety on the Mall. A similar system would be helpful in neighborhood parks.

The analysis in this report is based on visits to representative NPS parks in every Ward in the District: Ward 1 Meridian Hill, Ward 2 Dupont Circle, Ward 3 Glover Park, Ward 4 Fort Stevens, Ward 5 Fort Bunker Hill, Ward 6 Lincoln Park, Ward 7 Fort Dupont, and the Ward 8 park at the corner of Malcolm X Ave. and MLK Ave. Our work with NPS and the Park Police over the years has made us strongly aware of serious congressional underfunding of the NPS here and around the country. Therefore, in visiting the parks, we did not apply the world-class standards residents and visitors to the nation's capital should expect, but looked for basic maintenance and standards of upkeep, access, and a people-friendly atmosphere.

MERIDIAN HILL

Ward 1, 15th Street, Euclid and Chapin Streets, NW

Meridian Hill is a beautiful and historic park, but it is not people friendly for children or adults. Benches lined only half of the section we visited; in the other half there were no benches. In the same area, new grass sod had recently, been planted but we saw an operating sprinkler system saturating the ground, creating large puddles and areas of mud. Lighting also seemed sparse, and although we visited during the day, neighbors informed us that poor lighting discourages walking through the park in the evenings. We saw several children in a neighborhood with many families with children, but there was no playground or even a place set aside for children to play. The most important need in Meridian Hill is a play area with play equipment. The water fountains located in the park just above the steps leading down to the lower part of the park were working but were very dirty. We were pleased to see that the restrooms on the northern end of the park (at the corner of 15th Street and Euclid Street) were in the process of being renovated and reopened.

DUPONT CIRCLE

Ward 1, Connecticut Ave and New Hampshire Ave NW

The centerpiece of this park, its majestic fountain, is in such deplorable condition that it degrades the park itself and is a sore point in the community. The water was flowing unevenly from the top of the fountain, possibly signaling debris in its upper bowl, with green water at the base and algae covering the fountain and a statue. In the park, only one drinking fountain was functional, and a number of benches were under police tape because of the need for repair. The downtrodden hedges revealed a park where upkeep falls far short of what is required, particularly for a centrally located park that receives more visits from residents and visitors than most parks in the District of Columbia.

GLOVER PARK

Ward 3, New Mexico Ave and 42nd Street NW

Glover Park is a neighborhood jewel and a model for neighborhood involvement that should be spread to other parks in the city, for example, Ft. Stevens in Ward 5. The community has long embraced Glover Park's community gardens, originally created during WWII as "victory gardens," and has preserved this wonderful neighborhood tradition. Neighbors pay a $25 sign-up fee and $20 annually to rent specific garden plots for personal use. Walkers and runners help maintain the park trails. Glover Park is an object lesson for NPS and residents alike. There may well be other parts of the city where parks, neighbors and community gardens could similarly come together.

FORT STEVENS

Ward 4, 13th Street and Quackenbos Street NW

Ft. Stevens is an historic battleground site and something of an historic treasure created to commemorate the only Civil War battle fought in District of Columbia, but it is also serves as a grassy park. However, Ft. Stevens is more battleground than park, despite its open green area, much of it hilly. It is not people friendly. The park lacks any programming, lighting, has few places to sit and only an identifying sign at the entrance. The park does not invite casual walks at night. Although the close cut grass shows considerable upkeep, constituents in the neighborhood have complained to our office of finding broken glass, and we found some broken glass near the replica cannons. Councilwoman Muriel Bowser, who joined us at the park, said that the community would welcome and would join in activities to make Ft. Stevens a suitable neighborhood amenity. In many historic sites throughout the country NPS has installed lighting that does not offend the historic nature of the sites as well as benches and other comforts for visitors that fit in well with the site. With installation of lights, benches and historic community programming, Ft. Stevens has the potential to be both a more inviting tourist attraction and a much needed true community park.

FORT BUNKER HILL

Ward 5, 13th and 14th Streets and Otis and Perry Streets NE

Ft. Bunker Hill is the antithesis of Ft. Stevens park. Most of the potential of Ft. Bunker Hill as an historic site and neighborhood amenity is lost to the virtual absence of maintenance and upkeep. Although the park is the site of an historic fort and amphitheater, neither is maintained for visitors. A massive amount of underbrush, including fallen trees and overgrown weeds and bushes make movement difficult, and poison ivy lines the sidewalk along 14th Street between Otis and Perry Streets. A lone picnic table and bench on the sidewalk corner was the only recognition that the site is considered a park. Clearing the underbrush would allow the placement of picnic tables and benches under the large trees, creating a mini Rock Creek Park. Restoring the fort would be too costly, but respect for its history with maintenance would assure access to the ruins of an amphitheatre and fort area. Ft. Bunker Hill is located in a community that would be eager to work with the NPS on clean-up and facilities.

LINCOLN PARK

Ward 6, E Capitol Street SE, Between 11th and 13th Streets, SE

This Capitol Hill park has been renovated recently by NPS, with equipment to accommodate the influx of children to the neighborhood and benches with bars down the middle to reduce the number of homeless people sleeping in the park. This park features two playgrounds, working drinking fountains, new fences, new playground equipment, and creative lighting to ensure safety. We found an electrical junction box that had no lock (located at the Southeast side of the park), and constituents who were in the park complained of a non-functional sprinkler system, which hurt many recently planted trees throughout the park. We also saw what appeared to be rat holes around the borders of the park. However, this park has been greatly improved through renovations and enjoys significant citizen involvement.

FORT DUPONT

Ward 7, Massachusetts Avenue and Fort Dupont Drive

Fort Dupont park is one of the city's largest and most voluptuous parks and a neighborhood park in the Ward 7 community. The Massachusetts Ave. and Fort Dupont Drive area of the park showed signs of frequent use, with benches and picnic tables spread out under the trees. There were working restrooms, but, upon inspection, we found them to be dirty. This park is very valuable to this neighborhood. Continued and improved attention to its maintenance promises great benefits to this community.

MALCOLM X/MARTIN LUTHER KING PARK

Ward 8, Martin Luther King Ave. and Malcolm X Ave. SE

This popular park has no official name, as far as we were able to ascertain. The park is little more than a green space which runs the block south from the intersection of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Avenues SE. This park might have been simply another of the many lots owned by the NPS, but, today it has become a neighborhood created park. Residents who use the park clean and maintain it, including bagging the trash for pickup by NPS. NPS has provided horseshoe rinks, and there is colorful playground equipment at the far end. Bi-weekly horseshoe tournaments provide regular activity for participants and residents and there is even some bleacher seating. The community has embraced this park, which provides respite from one of the busiest corners in Ward 8. There were many residents enjoying playing cards and socializing when we visited. Two picnic tables and bench seats were fully used but there were not nearly enough, and some residents were sitting on milk crates. The only electrical outlet in the park was broken, and residents especially wanted it repaired. There are no restrooms or drinking fountains, and the hedges throughout the park needed trimming. There are no lights in the park. While we were there, residents also requested the return of barbeque grills. Residents say that WMATA Police monitor the park and that it is rarely, if ever, visited by the NPS.

Conclusion

The poor condition of the Mall led this office to embark on a comprehensive tour of many national parks in the neighborhoods of the District of Columbia. Because of what we know about the deterioration of the Mall, we expected even worse of neighborhood NPS parks, instead we found that deterioration on the Mall had simply spread citywide. We did find that the struggle to sustain maintenance in the neighborhood NPS parks was wholesale. Only Ft. Bunker Hill in Ward 5 appeared to have received virtually no attention, but from beautiful Dupont Circle park to the Ward 8 park with no name, created by the community with help from the NPS, these valuable NPS neighborhood parks were witness to years of inattention.

Years of low priority for funding make it impossible to know whether the Mall and other NPS parks here have been well managed. Inescapably, however, chronic deterioration of these parks is strongly related to chronic underfunding. The administration's decision to create the Centennial Fund, and the congressional promise to match the funds raised by the Mall Trust, is a welcome admission that simply funding the Mall to get by with daily maintenance cannot make up for decades of decline. A similar effort is necessary for the equally valuable NPS neighborhood parks assets in the nation's capitol, which are there to serve the residents and visitors alike.