D.C. Ice Rink Needs Your Windy City Flint, Mr. President

Allow me to pick up the icy gauntlet that President Obama threw down on the District during last week's snowfall. And then, with all due respect, throw a challenge back to him.

So the president doesn't believe D.C. can handle slippery conditions with grace and style. Then get a load of the kids at the Fort Dupont Ice Arena in Southeast, where budding Olympians from some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city strive for excellence through discipline and practice and discover that in life as well as on ice, getting up matters more than falling down.

There is one problem with the ice, however: not enough of it. With about 10,000 youngsters receiving free skating lessons each year, and hundreds more clamoring to enroll, a bigger rink is needed.

Plans for a $20 million arena have been in the works for almost a decade. They are being held up -- unfairly, many believe -- by red tape in what is now the Obama administration.

Here's the problem: The Interior Department recently agreed in principle to free up a few acres of Fort Dupont parkland for an expanded ice rink -- but with an odious condition attached called the "reversion clause."

If the Park Service objects to how the rink is being run or how the land is being used -- all based on vaguely outlined standards of approval -- then the feds get to take back the land and everything on it.

Try persuading donors to fund the construction of a state-of-the-art ice arena that could be taken over by the Park Service, willy-nilly, and maybe even end up as a multimillion-dollar storage house for government lawn mowers and fertilizer.

So, Mr. President, having put down your new town for not having "flinty Chicago toughness" when it comes to removing ice from the roads, perhaps you could show us how Windy City flint can remove this minor bureaucratic iceberg.

"There is no reason for the federal government to place so many restrictions on an ice rink -- or to have penalties that are so severe," D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray told me yesterday.

Park Service spokesman Peter May offered a more benevolent take. "We are in favor of making the land transfer, but we need the restrictive covenants in place to ensure the appropriate use of the property," he told me. "We are currently negotiating the enforcement provision with city officials and are optimistic that we can come to an appropriate conclusion."

Still, plans for the rink have been on the drawing board for years, and construction costs increase with each passing day.

"It's only the kids being hurt by the delays," said Willem Polak, chairman of the Friends of Fort Dupont Ice Arena, which manages the facility. "With a new ice arena, we could provide recreation and physical education programs to another 10,000 kids throughout the city."

A youth baseball academy, which has the support of the Washington Nationals, would be built next to the rink -- if the same land-use obstacles can be overcome.

Together, the facilities would make for an athletic complex the likes of which has never been seen east of the Anacostia River, a socially isolated part of the District that is home to almost 40 percent of the city's children, a majority of them poor.

The rink's signature program, called "Kids on Ice," offers lessons in figure skating, speed skating and ice hockey. As students progress, they are provided with opportunities to participate in various ice sport competitions with kids in other parts of the country.

All of the volunteer coaches are expert skaters, including Nathan Mills, a former Olympic speed skater.

Mills also teaches a life skills class at the rink called "Olympians for Life." During a recent session, elementary school-age children answered his questions about what makes an Olympian.

"Respect for yourself and others," one said.

"Joy in effort," said another.

"Friendship and teamwork," said one.

"Nonviolence and peace," replied another.

Many of the participants come from the sprawling Stoddard public housing complex, just across the street. Despite evidence of economic depression all around them, those kids hit the ice with high spirits and a steely resolve that would warm even a Chicagoan's heart.

They have shown their moxie, Mr. President. Your turn.

E-mail: milloyc@washpost.com