Norton To Tour Parks in 8 Wards: Invites Emails from Residents to Track Park Conditions (8/19/08)

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton will inspect parks in every ward of the District on Thursday, August 22, beginning at 10:30 a.m., to be followed by specific recommendations to the National Park Service, which owns most of the parks in the city. Norton also is inviting residents to e-mail and send photos to her at dc00.wyr@housemail.house.govto help her track conditions of the parks in their neighborhoods. Her visit to neighborhood parks will begin at 10:30 at Dupont Circle in Ward 2, proceeding then in the following order: Malcolm X Park/Meridian Hill Park in Ward 1, Glover Park in Ward 3, Fort Stevens in Ward 4, Fort Bunker Hill in Ward 5, Fort Dupont in Ward 7, the Park on the corner of Malcolm X and MLK streets in Southeast in Ward 8, and ending at Lincoln Park in Ward 6. However, if other parks are nearby (for instance, Stanton Park and Lincoln Park in Ward 6 are within a few blocks of each other), she will stop by those as well.

Although Norton's office has not received many complaints about neighborhood parks, she has picked up complaints from blogs, largely about downtown parks - broken fountains and locked restrooms at Lafayette Park, uncollected garbage and sightings of rats at DuPont Circle, and trash at Benjamin Banneker Park. However, Norton said, "Our parks are the favorite gathering places for residents and I need a personal first-hand sense of their overall condition in order to make realistic recommendations to NPS."

Norton continually has sought more funding for the parks, but striking NPS underfunding persists nationwide. She expects an infusion of funds for the National Mall in this year's federal appropriations because of growing concern about the Mall, House hearings on the Mall this year and the formation of the Trust for the National Mall to raise private funds to supplement federal funding. Norton has been concerned about the Mall since 2006 when there were several muggings within six weeks. The Mall almost always has been crime-free despite widespread crime in the District, and keeping it that way has been important to the District's tourist-based economy. However, the poor lighting and neglect that Norton has uncovered at the Mall, "the nation's front yard," leads her to believe that there may be similar problems at neighborhood parks as well.

Norton brought Park Service and other federal officials to a community meeting last month so that residents near Fort Reno Park could question officials about an arsenic scare that resulted in its brief closing.