Norton Walking the Mall Tonight to Assure Safe Lighting and Personnel (5/28/08)

Norton Walking the Mall Tonight to Assure Safe Lighting and Personnel

May 28, 2008

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will walk the National Mall tonight at 9:00 P.M. on the Southwest corner of Madison and 3rd Street, SW. During last week's hearing on the National Mall, Norton said she would be walking the Mall at night before the high point of the tourist season to speak with Park Police and other NPS personnel concerning staffing levels and lighting. "The national mall has long been considered a crime-free zone in the District of Columbia. We mean to keep it that way by assuring ample policing and well lit tourist paths," Norton said. I am pleased that new Park Police officers have come through training and that Park Police have better equipment. With my bill, HR 3880, I also want to make sure that certain low-cost changes are made to the Mall itself."

Norton will pay particular attention to the previously dark spaces between the Washington and Lincoln Memorial and to dimly lit sections that contributed to the assaults in 2006 on the Mall. This walk is a part of Norton's larger effort to ensure that the Mall gets greater attention and becomes a place where local residents and visitors alike can enjoy a vibrant, comfortable atmosphere, with restrooms, places to rest in the shade and healthy food and drink options - not to mention "a bit of free entertainment and liveliness that has been absent from the front porch of the nations capitol," she said.