January 27, 2004
Dear Coalition Friends:
Please don't forget to join us tomorrow, January 28th, for an exciting discussion about planning for the Mall's future!
The National Mall: The Next 100 Years
An Initiative for a Mall Conservancy
Wednesday, January 28th
6:00PM - 8:00PM
The Elliott School of International Affairs, 1957 E Street NW
Room 113 (First Floor)
The George Washington University
--Admission is FREE--
**A PRESS RELEASE WILL FOLLOW LATER THIS MORNING**
To learn about the forum and our very esteemed panelists from Central Park Conservancy and Golden Gate Parks and Conservancy, go to: http://www.nationalmall.net This promises to be a very lively discussion.
In other news:
Today's Washington Post, Metro Section front page, has an article about a new National Park Service (NPS) partnership established yesterday to raise money for the Mall. The purpose of this NPS "Trust for the National Mall" is to do fund-raising for maintenance and beautification of the Mall's existing landscape, a worthy goal. [BE SURE TO READ TO IT THE END, FOR A QUOTE BY YOURS TRULY.]
This is separate and different from our own citizen-based planning efforts and the January 28th forum. Our goal is 100-year planning, not fund raising. As the Park Service's John Parsons states in the article, the Mall "has lacked a comprehensive planning strategy." Our goal is to take up that long-range planning goal, in the tradition of the 1791 L'Enfant Plan and the 1901-1902 McMillan Plan. The Mall needs to be renewed, updated, modernized and revitalized so that it remains our nation's premier public open space and symbol of democracy.
See you tomorrow!
Judy Feldman
Beautification Is Goal Of Park Service Alliance
By Monte Reel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 27, 2004; Page B01
The National Park Service yesterday formed a partnership with a private nonprofit foundation that aims to raise $30 million in the next five years to revitalize and maintain the Mall and adjacent grounds.
The Trust for the National Mall plans to help the Park Service beautify the Mall and adjacent land, including the Ellipse and Lafayette Square near the White House. Initial projects will include renovating the Reflecting Pool near the Lincoln Memorial and the man-made pond at Constitution Gardens, according to Park Service officials.
The agreement, signed yesterday, is based on public-private partnerships that have helped restore Central Park in New York and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
Park Service Director Fran P. Mainella said that Congress will continue to provide funds for the Mall's normal operations. The trust is designed to help the agency ensure that other spending priorities -- including security upgrades -- don't result in a deterioration of the Mall's landscaping, she said.
Projects that the trust might help finance could include restoration of grass and trees, as well as the installation of irrigation systems, benches, walkways and sanitation systems.
"They will work with us to get to things that might not get done normally through congressional efforts," Mainella said. "They're working on areas that need more attention on the Mall."
D.C. resident Georgina Sanger, who formerly lived in New York and San Francisco and was familiar with park partnerships there, came up with the idea for the trust more than two years ago. She took the idea to real estate developer John E. "Chip" Akridge III, who agreed to underwrite the organization, serve as its board chairman and promote the concept among his contacts throughout Washington.
"It's really about beautification," said Sanger, who said she was disappointed in the Mall's condition when she moved here in 2001. "The whole of the Mall should look like the National Gallery Sculpture Garden. And it just doesn't."
John Parsons, regional director of planning for the Park Service, said the partnership is a major step in a long-term strategy for improving the Mall, which has lacked a comprehensive planning strategy.
Last year, Congress passed legislation banning the construction of commemorative works on much of the Mall if they have not already been approved. Because the legislation refers to the Mall as a "completed work of civic art," the challenge for planners centers not on building more memorials, Parsons said, but on beautifying what exists. The trust will allow the Park Service to develop a comprehensive improvement strategy instead of focusing on problem areas as they arise.
"We've been dealing with these issues piecemeal and have been justifiably criticized for that," Parsons said. "This gives us the opportunity to do just what's needed."
One of the models for the trust is the Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit group formed in 1980 and largely credited with making improvements in the vast Manhattan park. That organization has raised $300 million for restoration projects and now helps manage the park with the city's Department of Parks and Recreation.
"As public money becomes more scarce, these kinds of partnerships are becoming more common," said Linda Blumberg, a spokeswoman for the conservancy.
The trust will start on a much smaller scale than its New York counterpart, leaving the management of the grounds to the Park Service. But the trust does hope to add an educational component to its mission, put an interactive map of the Mall on its Web site and possibly conduct educational tours, said Selden Morales, president of the trust.
The trust is not affiliated with the National Mall Conservancy, another fledgling organization. That group hopes to create a long-term plan to guide planning on and around the Mall for decades to come, and it will hold a forum tomorrow at George Washington University to discuss its goals. Judy Scott Feldman, president of the National Coalition to Save Our Mall, is helping organize the forum. She said the conservancy's goals do not duplicate or clash with the trust's work.
"We're not trying to raise money, but instead we're trying to look at a 100-year plan for the Mall," Feldman said. "We are not competing."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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