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Norton Gives Parks Passing Grades but Vows Improvements
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Norton was living the adage that all politics are local -- down to examining trash cans and the paint on park benches.
Still, she has good reason to worry about the parks. The Park Service said national parks across the country need $6 billion in deferred maintenance, a figure that has more than doubled in eight years. The deterioration on the Mall has prompted Congress, the White House and private entrepreneurs to work on finding money for repairs.
O.B. Goodman, one of the National Park Service's local maintenance chiefs, bumped into Norton at Meridian Hill Park. "You'll never find a park that tells you they have enough money or enough people," he said.
Still, he said, Meridian is getting a face-lift. The benches have all been repaired or replaced in the past three years, new sod is being laid and bathrooms are under construction.
"We're trying to bring it back," he said.
The biggest problems appeared at a tiny park at Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. avenues in Southeast. The park is jammed on a grass-and-dirt strip between a gas station and a liquor store in a poor neighborhood.
But the park's problem isn't crime or graffiti. It is suffering from too much love.
The park, once a drug-dealing haven, was reclaimed in recent years by residents working with the National Park Service and the D.C. government. It now is a favorite gathering place for neighbors, many of them members of the D.C. Horseshoe Pitchers Association, who play in newly constructed pits.
Trouble is, there aren't nearly enough benches for the crowds, so people make do. Yesterday, people in the park squatted on plastic milk crates, an office chair on wheels, a plastic lawn chair and a wicker seat.
A group of men playing cards at a picnic table told Norton how they kept the park clean and free of people drinking alcohol.
"What does it need?" she said.
The answers came in a rush: "Some grass!" "Lights!" "A barbecue!"
Norton pledged to write to the National Park Service seeking more help for the tiny park and others in the District.
Terry Adams, a spokesman for the National Park Service in the Washington area, said it works diligently to address any concerns from the public.
"We welcome the congresswoman at any and all times," he said.
