Via LATimes -
Millions will cram shoulder to shoulder to watch Barack Obama take the oath of office this month as the nation's 44th president, another indelible snapshot of American democracy in full display on the National Mall.But beyond the reach of the camera's lens, the historic promenade that stretches from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol -- the place often called America's Front Yard -- is itself a monument to neglect.
Patches of the once-lush lawn have been trampled to dust. Half of the underground sprinkler system doesn't work. The sea wall around the Jefferson Memorial is sinking, and lately, wildlife is dying in the unfiltered waterways.Bill Line, spokesman for the National Park Service, which maintains the Mall, likes to say it has been "loved to death," an American treasure battered by 25 million visitors a year -- more than Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks and the Grand Canyon combined. As the crowds have grown, the budget has shrunk, and with $350 million in overdue care, the park service cannot maintain a standard that befits what many consider a national jewel."This is America. This is how we show ourselves to the rest of the world," said Line, 51, an encyclopedia of Mall trivia in pine-tree-green pants and a razor-brimmed hat.
If 700 acres in the shape of a kite can tell the story of a nation, the Mall is the embodiment of America. Its major monuments honor three wars and four presidents. It hosts the July 4 celebrations, contains war protests and oversees the nation's important conversations, including immigration, abortion and civil rights. It reminds us of where we came from and who we are.
Today, though, the Mall is a study in contrasts, glorious and broken all at once. The story of its place in history and its sad decline is best understood on foot, and so Line, who bikes past the monuments every day and walks the grounds every chance he gets, agrees to show us 23 of the nation's most treasured and timeworn blocks.
A cold December wind cuts sideways as Barry Porter looks out across the historic expanse for the first time in 30 years. He used to play hooky here, ditching junior high to check out the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum or marveling at Abe Lincoln's big concrete feet.
This isn't the way he remembers it. Straight ahead is the elegant pool that is supposed to reflect the Washington Monument. It sometimes still does, when the water isn't fouled by algae and goose droppings. The grass borders around it are pitted and bald. A plastic grocery bag slaps at one edge.
"It just looks beaten down. This grass used to be so green," says a disappointed Porter, 56, a respiratory therapist who now lives in North Carolina.
[...]
The Capitol, meanwhile, glistens with fresh paint and manicured lawns. There is a mathematical explanation to the disparity: Congress employs 2,000 maintenance workers to tend 300 acres where 535 lawmakers and their staffs come to work. The park service employs 300 workers to care for 700 acres where 25 million visitors come to play. "You keep your lawn better than we keep this," fumes Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's famously outspoken but nonvoting delegate, who for years has pressed for Mall repairs.
[...]
"We would call it a disgrace," said Caroline Cunningham, president of the Trust for the National Mall, a year-old group working with the park service to raise half a billion dollars for a face-lift. There are plans to fix the light posts, upgrade the waterways and shore up the sea wall -- if the money can be raised.
The Mall is probably its own greatest advocate; few who see it are unmoved by its majesty. Some, like Bentley Smith of Philadelphia, a first-time visitor, would even pay higher taxes to restore it, a sentiment seldom heard in Washington.
It has something to do with national pride, like sending the queen out in public in a frayed coat. Nobody wants that.
"This is the face of our country, and we need to make it pretty again," Smith, 49, says, back at the Lincoln Memorial looking out at America's tired front yard.
"Is this the best foot we can put forward?"
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Having been to the Mall several times in the last 4 or 5 years, I can personally tell that the area is in need of real repair.
There is nothing worse than visiting this great nation's capital in the spring or the summer and see loads of trash and smelling strange smells from the ponds....it just isn't right.
This isn't how I take care of my house and it sure isn't the proper way to take care of our nation's great historical monuments.
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