February 6, 2007
Dear Coalition Friends:
Two things:
1. The San Francisco Chronicle published two letters to the editor last Saturday, February 3rd, that respond to a notice in that newspaper about the National Park Service's nationwide call for public comment on its National Mall management plan. See below.
The first writer, Amy Meyer, an advisor to the Coalition, has spent over three decades as a citizen activist working to preserve the Golden Gate and is author of New Guardians for The Golden Gate. How America Got a Great National Park (2006).
[If your paper publishes articles or letters about the Mall, please let us know so we can notify our readership.]
2. Please note that you still have until March 16th to submit comments to NPS. Also, the NPS website now lists three additional public meetings at http://www.nps.gov/nationalmallplan/
Feburary 24th 10 am to 2 pm
March 8th 4 pm to 8 pm
March 10th 10 am to 2pm
Located at the Old Post Office Pavillion 12th and Pennsylvania Ave NW. Enter from the South Entrance go to Room M109
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
(scroll down the letters to these two)
Editor -- Although Congress declared in 2003 that it would add no more monuments to the National Mall, several monuments are in the pipeline because political pressure causes Congress to ignore its own restrictions -- and because there will always be a need for people and events to have national recognition.
The National Park Service (NPS) questions posed on The Chronicle's Jan. 27 editorial page are not the important ones and they are not about a maintenance plan for "the nation's town square." Cutting the grass, maintaining rest rooms, refurbishing signs, benches, plantings and walkways are maintenance issues. The problem goes back to the very definition of what constitutes the National Mall.
The mall encompasses and is surrounded by symbols and monuments of our national identity. It is the gathering place for events that affect our entire nation. In the 18th century, and at the beginning of the 20th century, the L'Enfant commission and later the McMillan commission made visionary plans for the mall, and each lasted for more than 100 years. Our citizens should be urging a plan that will carry an expanded mall through the 21st century.
What is required now is a master plan for an expanded National Mall, to be considered as a whole. Then these questions about design, construction and changes of use can have good answers. Several agencies are engaged in planning efforts for portions of the mall, but there is no coherent plan for the entire mall.
It is up to Congress to authorize expansion of the National Mall. Up to now, the NPS has not supported efforts to enlarge the mall. The NPS should confine its focus to getting sufficient public and private support for quality maintenance of their portion of the National Mall. The National Park Service should collaborate with efforts to enlarge the mall so that "sound systems" and "visitors' centers" and other amenities will not be mislocated or have to be duplicated.
AMY MEYER
Advisory Committee
National Coalition to Save Our Mall
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Editor -- Please don't add another thing to the mall! The area around the mall is truly our national back yard. It is as beautiful as in any city in the world.
I hope that all your readers will have the opportunity to visit the National Mall and the incredible collection of museums around it. I hope that your readers can take part in the Fourth of July celebration, the National Folklife celebration of our American life, in a march for a cause you espouse, in just sitting under those beautiful trees on a hot day in summer and watching the world go by. I guarantee your heart will swell with pride in our country and you won't be ashamed to admit it.
Please add no sound systems, visitors centers or other monuments. Maintain it the way it is and love it the way it is. Visit the mall and the treasures surrounding it.
After all, it's yours and mine. We paid for it.
SYLVIA WEAVER JONES
Napa
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