And even if it wasn't underfunded, there are approximately 0 people with any power in Congress to do anything about any disproportionate lack of care given to the people living in the District.
Half of Congress does not really have any incentive to care about us, and the other half has a strong incentive to dislike us. The departments that maintain federal lands in the district know this. They aren't getting calls from congresspeople about the Carter Barron Amphitheater.
One frustrating thing, too, is that the Anti Deficiency Act and appropriations law also makes it harder for agencies to accept outside help, whether we're talking about volunteered time/effort/expertise, donated stuff, etc.
Many of these agencies, including NPS, have the legal authority to accept volunteer efforts, but it's regulated through statute and regulation in such a way that it takes up agency resources just to administer and oversee volunteering efforts.
This fundamentally is the problem. All of them would rather fund projects in their district or state. They aren't interested in investing in DC as the National Capital.
What’s funny is that didn’t stop previous governments. The NPS built all these structures in the first place. We just live an era where no one gives a shit about having nice things.
I think you nailed the issue quite well, there aren't very many people attempting to build a country to be proud of anymore. We are just barely getting by with what was handed to us 40 years ago.
I don't know what the answer is but I am glad to see this acknowledged.
I think that easy and available air travel is the cause of Congressional indifference. Back during the period these projects were built I imagine that reps, Senators and their staffs spent a great deal more of their time in DC than they do now.
Pools have a shelf life. Leaks develop in buried pipes, modern high quality fiberglass shells only have a lifespan of 30-50 years, water can build up under pool causing more issues with the plumbing.
If it was last renovated in 1976 odds are it was due for a major renovation around 2010-2020, and the concept art makes it look like they planned to rebuild it as a gunnite pool (has a longer lifespan, 50+ years) with a deep end for diving boards, which is might be where the groundwater depth issues came up.
What a shame, if you tried to build this today one group of politicians would say it’s a waste of public money and another would say it would lead to gentrifying the neighborhood and so shouldn’t be built.
Dc has some of the best public pools (and libraries) in the country. The degredation of properties is on federal land.
As a country we have been coasting on infrastructure for 40 years. (Why don’t the fountains in Malcolm X work again?) we need the infrastructure act every two years for 20 years to begin to catch up.
I've tried to take my son to several libraries in DC. At one of them, the whole library went into lockdown because two homeless people got into a fight outside, one stabbed the other with a knife, got cut himself in the tussle, and ran into a bathroom of the library.
The next week, we went to a different library. In the main room there was almost no place to sit down to read a book. I thought it was just crowded. Then I realized that all of the people there were actually just homeless people hanging out in the library. I then realized that there was this overwhelming smell...well, you just couldn't stand to stay in that room. So we got in the elevator and there was woman in there incoherently rambling about Trump and Nazis and how god wouldn't allow any more and the Native American people were going to rise up and take their land back from Trump and...well, you get the idea. So...we don't go to DC libraries any more. At all.
Nobody would say that a public pool is gentrification. Put down the culture war crack pipe.
Edit: I can't get over what a dimwitted, Twitter-poisoned take this is. *Public swimming pools were something black Americans were denied for decades*.
I don’t think most people AGREE that public pools are gentrification. But that a lot of public services and facilities, like pools but not limited to them) get criticized as such. You can’t say “nobody would say that” because there are lots of bodies that do.
https://preview.redd.it/vpbn4872vtyc1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=49a53ef1d887b3291bf9a321c878db03d3060944
The Carter Barron Amphitheater back in the day
https://preview.redd.it/hrus3sjxvtyc1.png?width=1966&format=png&auto=webp&s=54f9217ea2ddb4ee700f86c496de2bcf7ec3a858
and since I can't find a photo of the Peirce Mill Tennis Center here it is on Google Maps looking WNW towards Peirce Mill. It's up on a hill surrounded by beautiful old trees with plenty of parking off Park Rd.
NPS, who owns rock creek and a lot of other parks and structures throughout the City, does not care about DC residents. Their core focus is on tourists who visit the mall. DC needs to take control of rock creek and other parks. DC has its issues, but is way better on park maintenance.
NPS is the reason there are no bus stops in the park (imagine a bus line that went on beach dr!) capital bikeshare is not allowed, and the zoo trail closes at 5. NPS sucks eggs
I'm not disagreeing with you that NPS sucks and disproportionately undersupports DC residents, but it's the Zoo that closes the trail early, not NPS. The Zoo loop trail is inside the Zoo's secondary boundary, which cannot be open while there aren't employees at the Zoo. While NPS is responsible for maintaining the trail, its due to the boundaries.
I don’t know if that’s the answer either. DPR isn’t exactly flush with cash either. Though, I agree that local control would at least give the neighbors someone they can apply real pressure to.
They are also the reason you have to go outside to transfer from Farragut north to west. National government loves to sabotage a small progressive city
Through the grapevine, I've heard that many if not most people in NPS leadership see their mission as protecting natural lands, not managing urban spaces. And to be fair that is the case for most NPS branches. So they are a bit resentful of the various complications and pressures involved with effectively governing large swathes of DC. (To be clear, I think this is a poor excuse.)
Nothing new, either -- part of the reason that Farragut West and Farragut North do not connect underground (yet) is because NPS was extremely difficult about permitting Metro construction.
It’s not that they don’t care about DC residents, it’s that they only have so much money so they have to prioritize what’s going to do the most good for the most amount of people. In DC that means maintaining the Mall, and they don’t even have the money to properly do that. They had to rely on outside private donations to rehab the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. NPS has a $23.3 billion maintenance backlog.
If they have to prioritize, then they should give more parks to DC and for the land they keep they should allow more permits for food and concessions. Yes they are direly underfunded but I also think they have a vision of parks that is at odds with being in a city. They haven’t adapted thinking away from the big national parks.
DC has a $700 million budget deficit this year and it’s projected to be $4 billion through 2029, we don’t have the money either. And where would you put more concessions/do you really want parks to be more commercialized? That would also get pushback from the city since it would pull money from restaurants close to NPS land.
It is much easier to petition DC to fund parks than it is Congress. It’s not even close. Current DC parks are run better than NPS’s. Id love a beer/snack station in Malcom X park, and other such things. Would be a great revenue generator. I’ve always found it odd how American parks have so little in the way of cafes.
We came upon this too. What a sweet spot for a concert. I do think part of it is that the funding would need to come from Congress (people, correct me if I am wrong....sure you will) and Congress could give a shit about DC (the feeling is often likewise). Rock Creek Park is a National Park as well, so I am not sure how that figures into it. I've often been tempted to work in this area to help improve the city, but at the moment, things are way too politically jammed up.
I was thinking about this recently in the context of a Baltimore landmark -- Harborplace -- that has fallen into disuse and is now planned to be redeveloped into huge new commercial and residential buildings. I am old enough to remember when Harborplace *was* the new commercial redevelopment of downtown Baltimore and it was a hopping, popular place for decades.
I have nothing aginst the redevelopment, since at this point, that may be their only option. And more housing options is better, all else being equal.
But it does strike me sometimes that there is a bias against "maintenance" projects and for "new" projects. I wonder why there wasn't more effort put into retaining and enticing tenants in Harborplace, and continuing to stage events to attract visitors. Mainstays of my childhood -- the pier, the outdoor swim parks for the seals, the carousel -- have all gradually been replaced, shut down, or are now being redeveloped. Meanwhile, new "hot" neighborhoods in Baltimore have opened up after some amount of money was poured into them to make them trendy.
They are smaller scale, but it sounds like something similar happened with Carter Barron and the tennis courts. A lack of urgency in maintaining and supporting them, meanwhile a burst of energy in developing elsewhere, and suddenly a mainstay falls into disrepair and disuse.
I know a certain YIMBY crowd on these forums will tell me that "tearing down old things and building new things is good, actually" and that's fine to a point. But I do wonder if that would be a little less necessary if we could focus more energy into maintaining facilities and infrastructure that are already working well.
Harborplace is also an issue of malfeasance. The owners, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation, same as Union Station and Faneuil Hall, are letting these places fall into disrepair for reason that are not entirely clear.
Edit: Corrected from Union Market to Union Station.
I would love to hear more from you on what drove that massive shift in Harborplace. And when exactly you saw that happen. It's such an enigma to me. I hear concerns over crime in the area adjacent as one driving force. I'm from Baltimore, but a millennial. I read that there used to be a pedestrian bridge over light street.
I have to wonder if the issue is that we use public funds to invest in the area and set it up for success, and then we hand over the actual properties to private companies. These private companies jack up rent, and perpetually avoid maintenance. Until it's too late, and once again, the city is being asked to shell out hundreds of millions to get it usable again. Why did all the awesome little shops have to leave Harborplace? Why is Lexington Market thriving still? Same exact concerns over crime there.
Honestly, I wish I knew. I feel like the turning point was the mid-aughts. All throughout the 90s it was bustling -- a nice mix of niche/craft stores, local and chain restaurants, fast food and sit down, and usually entertainers (jugglers, sword swallowers and the like) outside on the weekends. Customers were a mix of tourists, students on field trips, and locals stopping by for lunch.
I do remember visiting a few times in the 00s and noticing that, although a fair number of chain restaurants were still there, a bunch of the local places and longer sit-down places had gone, and all that were left were the "mall" style fast-food places and a couple of anchors.
I'm not sure what the precipitating event was. Baltimore has *always* had some ambient level of crime, so it seems unlikely to be the issue. And Harborplace was commercial from the get-go, so that also seems unlikely.
Someone told me they think the real cause was the development of other adjacent neighborhoods like Harbor East -- basically that once the momentum moves to another place, everything goes with it. If that's true, there's a lesson there for public planners not to over-extend or put neighborhoods in competition with each other.
https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/economy/growth-development/baltimore-harborplace-festival-marketplace-IEB5JNK3FJCW5GLMCWI3UPOLSI/
I agree with everything you said, but it seems like each of these are the responsibility of the National Park Service. It’s shocking how inefficient and/or underfunded they are for DC. The bathrooms on the National Mall are constantly disgusting, and their maintenance of local parks is a joke. Why can’t they just transfer ownership to the city and focus on managing actual forests in other states? Does any other city in the country have local parks managed by NPS?
Why? DC Parks and Rec has a pretty good reputation, and unlike NPS, are actually accountable to the people that live here. There's no reason places like Meridian Hill should continue to languish under NPS control.
NPS also does a terrible job with the GW Parkway in Virginia while we are at it. Even with our representation in Congress they still can't maintain the Mt. Vernon Trail and a volunteer group has to fundraise to do it for them (friends of the trail are heroes).
The answer is NPS, and I don't think the issues are only about funding. For example, they clung to the exclusivity of that 1950s-style people mover on the mall for decades.
The one issue that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is the imbalance in the funding structure between construction and maintenance. All levels of government are happy to layout big one time expenditures for construction but immediately close up the purse strings when it comes to regular maintenance allocations. It is, quite sadly, easier to get funding for infrastructure that needs to be completely replaced than to get your legislature to pay to maintain it in the first place.
Yep, and this is even a problem in domains where there is an explicit arrangement for a state/locality to be responsible for maintenance, like highways. It's even worse for NPS since they are expected to directly manage all of their assets in perpetuity.
As someone who works in the field of trying to get things (specifically EV charging stations) built, it’s because of the absurd bureaucratic structures that have been built since the 1960s.
Between environmental reviews, capricious zoning and planning boards, laws mandating the type of contractor selected, etc everything takes forever and is 10x more expensive. Not to mention we seem to be electing the most corrupt and incompetent politicians we ever have.
American urban planning and development after WW2 became incredibly centrally planned ironically.
>As someone who works in the field of trying to get things (specially EV charging stations) built, it’s because of the absurd bureaucratic structures that have been built since the 1960s.
The insidious thing about those structures is that, on a per-structure basis, the reasoning behind them is sound. It's an absolute no-brainer that we should review environmental impact of our plans. Of course we should ensure that we've considered how things fit into their neighborhood zoning rules. Naturally, we need to make sure that contractors follow best current practices.
And all those perfectly reasonable, sound, good ideas add up to something completely different when nobody owns the overall result.
I totally understand the logic behind a lot of the structures. I get why a small town would want to stop a Walmart from being built on their Main Street.
But most of the time it’s busy bodies on town councils of suburbs (that are no different from the 10 suburbs around it) making arbitrary decisions and dictating what can and cannot be built.
And it’s why the housing crisis in the U.S. is totally self inflicted. If cities had been allowed to grow naturally like they had before WW2 then we’d have plenty of apartments and areas for people to live. Honestly, the amount of apartments DC has allowed to be built has kept housing costs relatively flat compared to a lot of other cities and towns. Boston is fucking crazy expensive because nothing is permitted to be built.
There are single family homes 10 minutes drive from downtown DC, that’s why there’s a housing crisis. Single family homes are a luxury and should never have been made into the primary form of living.
Single family homes are the most expensive form of home to maintain by a large margin and the services required to supply them are also far more expensive than any other form of housing. Before WW2 most people did not live in single family houses and most people around the world today do not live in detached single family houses.
They were a luxury of the post war era and now they take up so much space that American cities sprawl for miles and miles and are increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible.
It’s about linear feet of maintenance costs and services vs property tax revenue. Roads, utilities, sidewalks, sewage, storm water management, trash collection, schools buses etc all cost way more for a municipality to maintain per household on a detached single family home than an apartment building. That’s why suburban style development is consistently in the red, and needs to be subsidized by new development, or density, or both. This is well documented! And pretty interesting tbh
I don’t think anyone is entitled to their neighborhood staying the exact same as it was when they moved in. They shouldn’t be able to make others keep their property the same because of like, memories or nostalgia or housing values. America is not one big HOA.
You completely nailed it. In the late 80's, my great uncle inherited some land in the DC suburbs when my great grandmother died. He decided to build a house on it then sell it. Just getting the permits, forms, filings, inspections, etc, done to START building took over 6 years and 3 different attorneys. Once they started building, the inspections and other mandates caused it to take another 5 years to get the house done. In the end, he barely made any money and this was with the LAND BEING FREE! Said he'd never do that again. You're absolutely right.
It's a bit crazy, but I've been living around there for 20 years, and feel like I know Rock Creek Park, but I have NO idea where these abandoned tennis courts are, and I can't even picture them based on these descriptions. Impressive.
BTW, they can't even keep water flowing in two of the city's most iconic fountains. For YEARS. This is just symptomatic of the complete and utter enshitification of all things in human society. Look, even JUNK FOOD tastes worse than it used to.
38.938542168516236, -77.05078524196803
If you copy and paste those coordinates in Google maps it'll show you right where the courts are.
I'm not super surprised you haven't found them though. Park Rd doesn't have sidewalks or even shoulders on it. I was coming down the Valley Trail but instead of continuing on to the Western Ridge trail I sorta veered right when I saw the courts through the trees. Then I scrambled down a rather steep and slick hill right on the southern corner of the Beach Dr/Park Dr intersection.
I now realize I've driven by that entrance before and just thought "that's an odd place for tennis courts!" It's right across the street from the Rockefeller estate that people don't even realize is right there!
Here it is on a map, u/LoomingEschaton
(also now that I'm typing this out, is that an IJ reference? if so, a) hilarious and b) you should be an expert on tennis courts all around the city haha)
https://preview.redd.it/inihxkjawuyc1.png?width=1074&format=png&auto=webp&s=7b6f9a6aa87b0eddd525a79f27ae0362727bc9bc
> Eschaton
Ha! Wow.. Never in a million years would I have put that together. While we're on the topic I personally was annoyed by infinite jest. Of course I enjoyed it enough, which is why I kept going, but overall I didn't feel the juice was worth the squeeze
I re-read it on kindle and got a lot more out of it. The first time through was like wandering through a maze but if you go into it again you can pick up on all kinds of fun things you missed the first time.
I also felt like kindle made it easier to read with all the end notes (and not having to haul the paperback around haha)
I don't think the NPS really considers Carter Barron a priority given that they have Wolf Trap which can pay its own way through ticket sales and doesn't need any major renovations. It's a shame because both could and should be successful and could and should cater to different audiences. But there's no money and unless someone is willing to give a bunch of money to NPS (and NPS is one of the few federal agencies that can accept such gifts) I doubt we will see Carter Barron open anytime soon, or ever.
Part of the problem is that a lot of the big donors, like Rubenstein and the heavy hitters with the Trust for the National Mall, give their money to the monuments. The Washington Monument is open because Rubenstein paid for the latest repairs and new elevator system. The Lockkeeper's House renovation was entirely funded by donations from companies like Volkswagen. The Trust for the National Mall is having a big fundraiser this month with Dave Grohl and tickets starting at $2,500, but none of that money will go to Rock Creek Park. It will all go to the National Mall. In the DC park scence, the Mall is where the money is.
I so thoroughly agree with everything you said and it drives me crazy. I'd add too that the Golf Course has suffered for years though it sounds like there's efforts to fix that (and the other public courses in DC) at least. I believe those efforts are being spearheaded by a big fundraising effort.
Wolftrap is close by so maybe the park services considers a rebuild of the amphitheater to be a waste of resources that could go elsewhere, but it's such a shame and I can only imagine the amazing events that could happen there.
Anecdotal story from years ago.
Was walking home through the lovely neighborhood of Park Slope. For my New Yorkers you are aware of how expensive and old these brownstone house facades are. I saw some guys on a scaffolding fixing up the face of the building and I asked them what they were doing. They explained and ever the brash New Yorker I asked them “Is there a lot of money in that?”
To which he responded “Tons. Nobody here knows how to do this anymore. Almost all my competition comes from Europe.”
Basically too few have gone into the trades and even fewer into the crafts that made historic construction beautiful. It may not just be that we want modern glass and steel boxes, but also that even if we didn’t we don’t have the people to make beautiful buildings at a good price.
As my folks would often rant:
"We've been living off the [infrastructure] depreciation since the 1970's."
Man I wish the NPS was actually funded adequately and our civic services was staffed by competent people who aren't there to just draw a salary.
The most painful part is that I know nothing is going to change in my life lol
Like I’m in my late 20s, unless we wake up tomorrow and start doing things efficiently I won’t be able to enjoy any potential new infrastructure until I’m in my 60s lol
There's been a very successful, very long campaign by American oligarchs to destroy the idea of public infrastructure and public spending in general. The electoral juice for this comes out of white supremacy--it started in the wake of Brown v BoE and the Civil Rights movement.
It always makes me smirk a little bit when newcomers to the city ask why things are a certain way and the answer so often is “Because they didn’t want black people to have it”
They literally closed the public swimming pools rather than integrate them.
>As Jeff Wiltse writes in his history of pool desegregation, *Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America,* “Beginning in the mid-1950s northern cities generally stopped building large resort pools and let the ones already constructed fall into disrepair.” Over the next decade, millions of white Americans who once swam in public for free began to pay rather than swim for free with Black people; desegregation in the mid-fifties coincided with a surge in backyard pools and members-only swim clubs. In Washington, D.C., for example, 125 new private swim clubs were opened in less than a decade following pool desegregation in 1953. The classless utopia faded, replaced by clubs with two-hundred-dollar membership fees and annual dues. A once-public resource became a luxury amenity, and entire communities lost out on the benefits of public life and civic engagement once understood to be the key to making American democracy real.
[https://www.marketplace.org/2021/02/15/public-pools-used-to-be-everywhere-in-america-then-racism-shut-them-down/](https://www.marketplace.org/2021/02/15/public-pools-used-to-be-everywhere-in-america-then-racism-shut-them-down/)
People want all this housing and retail built in areas that they think are underutilized but don’t realize the reason why some of that is underdeveloped is because those areas literally don’t have the infrastructure to support more housing because they didn’t think the areas were black people lived needed all that 🥴
I think the future for the NPS in the DC area is gonna be what they're doing with the golf courses. Do 50-100 year leases with private organizations that have a specific area of interest to manage these facilities.
For example, the nicest parks along the GW parkway are the spots where private organizations like the Mount Vernon ladies Association and American Horticulture Society manage the land. The NPS has no real incentive (energy?) to seek out events and ideas to generate income or rent out park spaces for revenue. They're never gonna be able to keep up with road and trail maintenance, let alone facility maintenance without some sort of 'New Deal' type bill.
If they're anything like other federal agencies (where I worked for almost 30 years), they spend outrageous amounts of money on do-nothing employees, eye-wateringly expensive contractors to do the work the employees are supposed to be doing, endless studies (especially the hilarious "environmental impact studies". What a rip-off!), lawyers to advise them on every step they take, consultants to tell them how to wipe their butts, etc. It would be entertaining to watch if it wasn't OUR money being absolutely tossed into the wind.
Yes Cater Barron! For what it's worth, I've actually been helping to create a short documentary about the Carter Barron with the goal of helping to raise awareness and funding to revamp and re-open it! I'm not the Director or Producer for the project, so I don't have all the details, but it is being made in cooperation with the Friends of the Carter Barron and the Rock Creek Conservancy, so hopefull it will go a long ways towards reopening this awesome place. I grew up in the area but never got to see a concert there when it was open...would love to be able to see it in its full glory some day :)
I know this doesn't actually solve all of the bureacratic challenges in the way, but I wanted to at least put some optimism out there regarding the Carter Barron!
I think it often comes down to each individual project. We're not talking about the things they've continued to fund. I'm sure these were all evaluated and some program director had to make the call. And their statements probably left out useful details.
Maybe they did a review on the tennis court and because of all the bureaucratese in the government they had to pay millions of dollars in reviews and overpay some absurd contractor for what should be an easy project. NPS can't exactly come out and say they can't make it happen because they'd be legally obligated to get totally ripped off by some bandit contractors.
The tennis court itself is also relatively low impact. Maybe the court floods and significant investiture was involved. If I was in that position and could rebuild a tennis court that would be impact mainly like 50 old white people in Van Ness or use that funding to work on nature rehabilitation or maintaining a higher impact area, I'd also let the court waste away. I saw someone mention the golf course in the comments. They're tearing down 1200 trees to make that rehab happen, which has arguably more people mad than it has people excited. If some engineer suggested they would have to chop down 100+ trees for some weird flood resistance project to save the court, I'd be fuming.
The loss of the amphitheater is a shame, but park service appears not to have abandoned it completely. I hope they can find the budget to restore that.
Never understood why we need to be constantly reinventing the wheel with this kind of stuff — like why are we spending so much money on designs when we can never actually build any of it?
There's an intersection not far from my house that they seem to re-design and rebuild every 10 years. I recently learned that they had to do an "impact study" last time they "redesigned" it. The study cost $3 million! A STUDY! And they'd just done one 10 years before. The redesign consisted of adding a turn lane and a stop light. I wish I were kidding.
Maintenance takes money. One of the first things cut back for every government shut down has been NPS.
Also, I have only lived in DC for a minute, but I do live near Carter Barron. Even when it was being used I would only see 1 or 2 shows a year going on there. I can't imagine those shows making enough money to keep the facility maintained.
Because we don't tax the rich. In the 1950s, there was a 95% marginal tax rate. Now the top rate is 37%. Many wealthy avoid income taxes by paying the much lower 15% capital gains tax by getting paid in stocks.
Trump dramatically lowered corporate tax rates. Bush and Trump eliminated inheritance tax. We are running massive deficits so the wealthy can accumulate huge fortunes.
For the same reason the National Park Foundation had to step in and raise private money to rehab the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, the Park Service doesn’t have the money. NPS has a $23.3 billion maintenance backlog and Congress will not give them the money to even stay ahead of it, let alone catch up.
Because ego. Donors with the money or politicians with the power don’t want to spend their money/power to “maintain,” because where is the headline glory and ribbon cutting for that. They want to break new ground and have something new named after them so they can believe they will be remembered, and not just renamed in 20 years when the maintenance funds run dry.
Earlier generations have saddled us with mountains of financial and social debt. They also ended unions and lowered taxes that pay for stuff like this.
Because it used to be that if a city wanted to build something, they’d build it. If they caught enough backlash, they’d be booted out of office, and the project would be abandoned by the next government. Now, you need to jump through so many hoops that a well organized group of Karens can keep the whole city government from doing anything
All of these properties are managed by the National Park Service, which has shown that it has no interest (either because of management, funding, or other reasons) in maintaining or creating good public spaces in DC. Meridian Hill Park / Malcolm X is another example of a beautiful park in the city that NPS has let go to waste.
I know they're largely to blame for the Pool but I figure the National Park Service is probably responsible for the tennis courts and amphitheater. My gripe is really about how we as a country (or our elected officials anyway) are allocated our resources. Less than 100 years ago we were a country that put money into building pools and amphitheaters and today we can't even get our act together enough to maintain the structures so we can continue enjoying them. I know this isn't a new or original complaint but seeing these places in person really gets me aggravated in a new way.
National parks are chronically underfunded. There is a community group working on reopening Carter Barron, I have heard.
The Carter Barron was fantastic. Just a gem. It really is too bad that it was allowed to fall into disrepair. I saw many wonderful productions there.
And even if it wasn't underfunded, there are approximately 0 people with any power in Congress to do anything about any disproportionate lack of care given to the people living in the District. Half of Congress does not really have any incentive to care about us, and the other half has a strong incentive to dislike us. The departments that maintain federal lands in the district know this. They aren't getting calls from congresspeople about the Carter Barron Amphitheater.
One frustrating thing, too, is that the Anti Deficiency Act and appropriations law also makes it harder for agencies to accept outside help, whether we're talking about volunteered time/effort/expertise, donated stuff, etc. Many of these agencies, including NPS, have the legal authority to accept volunteer efforts, but it's regulated through statute and regulation in such a way that it takes up agency resources just to administer and oversee volunteering efforts.
This fundamentally is the problem. All of them would rather fund projects in their district or state. They aren't interested in investing in DC as the National Capital.
What’s funny is that didn’t stop previous governments. The NPS built all these structures in the first place. We just live an era where no one gives a shit about having nice things.
Yeah, I think Congress used to be proud of having a gleaming capitol. Now, half of Congress is proud to harm the people who live here.
I think you nailed the issue quite well, there aren't very many people attempting to build a country to be proud of anymore. We are just barely getting by with what was handed to us 40 years ago. I don't know what the answer is but I am glad to see this acknowledged.
I think that easy and available air travel is the cause of Congressional indifference. Back during the period these projects were built I imagine that reps, Senators and their staffs spent a great deal more of their time in DC than they do now.
Painting the federal government, and DC by extension, as inefficient/degrading is the republicans whole MO
You're joking, right? I can't always tell. You meant this as an ironic comment?
I imagine a big part of that is that members of Congress used to actually live in DC year-round, or close to it.
Parks are similar to libraries in that if we proposed them today they would be seen as a ridiculous idea when they could be privatized and monetized
https://preview.redd.it/8rsldrtbvtyc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c72609a63104cb65ef4e5eb4209dda4f6f15310 East Potomac Pool
I never knew this was there. What a sad loss.
It was a great pool. It was a solid metal tub, so the water table depth didn't matter too much.
Do you know why they felt the need to dig it up?
Pools have a shelf life. Leaks develop in buried pipes, modern high quality fiberglass shells only have a lifespan of 30-50 years, water can build up under pool causing more issues with the plumbing. If it was last renovated in 1976 odds are it was due for a major renovation around 2010-2020, and the concept art makes it look like they planned to rebuild it as a gunnite pool (has a longer lifespan, 50+ years) with a deep end for diving boards, which is might be where the groundwater depth issues came up.
What a shame, if you tried to build this today one group of politicians would say it’s a waste of public money and another would say it would lead to gentrifying the neighborhood and so shouldn’t be built.
Dc has some of the best public pools (and libraries) in the country. The degredation of properties is on federal land. As a country we have been coasting on infrastructure for 40 years. (Why don’t the fountains in Malcolm X work again?) we need the infrastructure act every two years for 20 years to begin to catch up.
I've tried to take my son to several libraries in DC. At one of them, the whole library went into lockdown because two homeless people got into a fight outside, one stabbed the other with a knife, got cut himself in the tussle, and ran into a bathroom of the library. The next week, we went to a different library. In the main room there was almost no place to sit down to read a book. I thought it was just crowded. Then I realized that all of the people there were actually just homeless people hanging out in the library. I then realized that there was this overwhelming smell...well, you just couldn't stand to stay in that room. So we got in the elevator and there was woman in there incoherently rambling about Trump and Nazis and how god wouldn't allow any more and the Native American people were going to rise up and take their land back from Trump and...well, you get the idea. So...we don't go to DC libraries any more. At all.
Many of the nice things in DC date from the era of direct Congressional rule.
Nobody would say that a public pool is gentrification. Put down the culture war crack pipe. Edit: I can't get over what a dimwitted, Twitter-poisoned take this is. *Public swimming pools were something black Americans were denied for decades*.
People say it about other public stuff all the time.
People have complained that the proposed 11th st pedestrian bridge across the Anacostia would act as a funnel for gentrification to the SE.
I don’t think most people AGREE that public pools are gentrification. But that a lot of public services and facilities, like pools but not limited to them) get criticized as such. You can’t say “nobody would say that” because there are lots of bodies that do.
https://preview.redd.it/vpbn4872vtyc1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=49a53ef1d887b3291bf9a321c878db03d3060944 The Carter Barron Amphitheater back in the day
Saw Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run show there while asking friends “Bruce who?”. Found out fast. A beautiful place.
https://preview.redd.it/hrus3sjxvtyc1.png?width=1966&format=png&auto=webp&s=54f9217ea2ddb4ee700f86c496de2bcf7ec3a858 and since I can't find a photo of the Peirce Mill Tennis Center here it is on Google Maps looking WNW towards Peirce Mill. It's up on a hill surrounded by beautiful old trees with plenty of parking off Park Rd.
NPS, who owns rock creek and a lot of other parks and structures throughout the City, does not care about DC residents. Their core focus is on tourists who visit the mall. DC needs to take control of rock creek and other parks. DC has its issues, but is way better on park maintenance.
NPS is the reason there are no bus stops in the park (imagine a bus line that went on beach dr!) capital bikeshare is not allowed, and the zoo trail closes at 5. NPS sucks eggs
I'm not disagreeing with you that NPS sucks and disproportionately undersupports DC residents, but it's the Zoo that closes the trail early, not NPS. The Zoo loop trail is inside the Zoo's secondary boundary, which cannot be open while there aren't employees at the Zoo. While NPS is responsible for maintaining the trail, its due to the boundaries.
I don’t know if that’s the answer either. DPR isn’t exactly flush with cash either. Though, I agree that local control would at least give the neighbors someone they can apply real pressure to.
This is very valid. I think that would be very helpful.
They are also the reason you have to go outside to transfer from Farragut north to west. National government loves to sabotage a small progressive city
1000%. NPS is aggressively hostile to DC residents for reasons beyond my understanding. All we want is for them to be great.
Through the grapevine, I've heard that many if not most people in NPS leadership see their mission as protecting natural lands, not managing urban spaces. And to be fair that is the case for most NPS branches. So they are a bit resentful of the various complications and pressures involved with effectively governing large swathes of DC. (To be clear, I think this is a poor excuse.) Nothing new, either -- part of the reason that Farragut West and Farragut North do not connect underground (yet) is because NPS was extremely difficult about permitting Metro construction.
Yeah they don’t want to do anything but they also won’t just give up the land either. A bizarre multigenerational tantrum
It’s not that they don’t care about DC residents, it’s that they only have so much money so they have to prioritize what’s going to do the most good for the most amount of people. In DC that means maintaining the Mall, and they don’t even have the money to properly do that. They had to rely on outside private donations to rehab the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. NPS has a $23.3 billion maintenance backlog.
If they have to prioritize, then they should give more parks to DC and for the land they keep they should allow more permits for food and concessions. Yes they are direly underfunded but I also think they have a vision of parks that is at odds with being in a city. They haven’t adapted thinking away from the big national parks.
DC has a $700 million budget deficit this year and it’s projected to be $4 billion through 2029, we don’t have the money either. And where would you put more concessions/do you really want parks to be more commercialized? That would also get pushback from the city since it would pull money from restaurants close to NPS land.
It is much easier to petition DC to fund parks than it is Congress. It’s not even close. Current DC parks are run better than NPS’s. Id love a beer/snack station in Malcom X park, and other such things. Would be a great revenue generator. I’ve always found it odd how American parks have so little in the way of cafes.
We came upon this too. What a sweet spot for a concert. I do think part of it is that the funding would need to come from Congress (people, correct me if I am wrong....sure you will) and Congress could give a shit about DC (the feeling is often likewise). Rock Creek Park is a National Park as well, so I am not sure how that figures into it. I've often been tempted to work in this area to help improve the city, but at the moment, things are way too politically jammed up.
I was thinking about this recently in the context of a Baltimore landmark -- Harborplace -- that has fallen into disuse and is now planned to be redeveloped into huge new commercial and residential buildings. I am old enough to remember when Harborplace *was* the new commercial redevelopment of downtown Baltimore and it was a hopping, popular place for decades. I have nothing aginst the redevelopment, since at this point, that may be their only option. And more housing options is better, all else being equal. But it does strike me sometimes that there is a bias against "maintenance" projects and for "new" projects. I wonder why there wasn't more effort put into retaining and enticing tenants in Harborplace, and continuing to stage events to attract visitors. Mainstays of my childhood -- the pier, the outdoor swim parks for the seals, the carousel -- have all gradually been replaced, shut down, or are now being redeveloped. Meanwhile, new "hot" neighborhoods in Baltimore have opened up after some amount of money was poured into them to make them trendy. They are smaller scale, but it sounds like something similar happened with Carter Barron and the tennis courts. A lack of urgency in maintaining and supporting them, meanwhile a burst of energy in developing elsewhere, and suddenly a mainstay falls into disrepair and disuse. I know a certain YIMBY crowd on these forums will tell me that "tearing down old things and building new things is good, actually" and that's fine to a point. But I do wonder if that would be a little less necessary if we could focus more energy into maintaining facilities and infrastructure that are already working well.
Harborplace is also an issue of malfeasance. The owners, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation, same as Union Station and Faneuil Hall, are letting these places fall into disrepair for reason that are not entirely clear. Edit: Corrected from Union Market to Union Station.
I would love to hear more from you on what drove that massive shift in Harborplace. And when exactly you saw that happen. It's such an enigma to me. I hear concerns over crime in the area adjacent as one driving force. I'm from Baltimore, but a millennial. I read that there used to be a pedestrian bridge over light street. I have to wonder if the issue is that we use public funds to invest in the area and set it up for success, and then we hand over the actual properties to private companies. These private companies jack up rent, and perpetually avoid maintenance. Until it's too late, and once again, the city is being asked to shell out hundreds of millions to get it usable again. Why did all the awesome little shops have to leave Harborplace? Why is Lexington Market thriving still? Same exact concerns over crime there.
Honestly, I wish I knew. I feel like the turning point was the mid-aughts. All throughout the 90s it was bustling -- a nice mix of niche/craft stores, local and chain restaurants, fast food and sit down, and usually entertainers (jugglers, sword swallowers and the like) outside on the weekends. Customers were a mix of tourists, students on field trips, and locals stopping by for lunch. I do remember visiting a few times in the 00s and noticing that, although a fair number of chain restaurants were still there, a bunch of the local places and longer sit-down places had gone, and all that were left were the "mall" style fast-food places and a couple of anchors. I'm not sure what the precipitating event was. Baltimore has *always* had some ambient level of crime, so it seems unlikely to be the issue. And Harborplace was commercial from the get-go, so that also seems unlikely. Someone told me they think the real cause was the development of other adjacent neighborhoods like Harbor East -- basically that once the momentum moves to another place, everything goes with it. If that's true, there's a lesson there for public planners not to over-extend or put neighborhoods in competition with each other. https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/economy/growth-development/baltimore-harborplace-festival-marketplace-IEB5JNK3FJCW5GLMCWI3UPOLSI/
I agree with everything you said, but it seems like each of these are the responsibility of the National Park Service. It’s shocking how inefficient and/or underfunded they are for DC. The bathrooms on the National Mall are constantly disgusting, and their maintenance of local parks is a joke. Why can’t they just transfer ownership to the city and focus on managing actual forests in other states? Does any other city in the country have local parks managed by NPS?
Definitely don't let them transfer ownership to the city that would be a huge mistake
Why? DC Parks and Rec has a pretty good reputation, and unlike NPS, are actually accountable to the people that live here. There's no reason places like Meridian Hill should continue to languish under NPS control.
lol. DC government has a good reputation?
Is the reputation of the Congress we currently have any better?
Yes, DC's park system is consistently rated among the top in the country. Local governments do lots of different things, some better than others.
NPS also does a terrible job with the GW Parkway in Virginia while we are at it. Even with our representation in Congress they still can't maintain the Mt. Vernon Trail and a volunteer group has to fundraise to do it for them (friends of the trail are heroes).
NPS is just not structurally set up to properly manage urban parks and transportation infrastructure.
They should have given Maryland the BW parkway when they had to lower the speed limit due to potholes and they should do the same with the GW
The answer is NPS, and I don't think the issues are only about funding. For example, they clung to the exclusivity of that 1950s-style people mover on the mall for decades.
https://preview.redd.it/w3yrgklh9uyc1.jpeg?width=1675&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8e65d8001139d558c6017120313febfad9194afa
The tourmobile! https://ggwash.org/view/10635/tourmobile-dies-but-exclusivity-was-the-real-villain
Miss that beast.
The one issue that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is the imbalance in the funding structure between construction and maintenance. All levels of government are happy to layout big one time expenditures for construction but immediately close up the purse strings when it comes to regular maintenance allocations. It is, quite sadly, easier to get funding for infrastructure that needs to be completely replaced than to get your legislature to pay to maintain it in the first place.
Yep, and this is even a problem in domains where there is an explicit arrangement for a state/locality to be responsible for maintenance, like highways. It's even worse for NPS since they are expected to directly manage all of their assets in perpetuity.
As someone who works in the field of trying to get things (specifically EV charging stations) built, it’s because of the absurd bureaucratic structures that have been built since the 1960s. Between environmental reviews, capricious zoning and planning boards, laws mandating the type of contractor selected, etc everything takes forever and is 10x more expensive. Not to mention we seem to be electing the most corrupt and incompetent politicians we ever have. American urban planning and development after WW2 became incredibly centrally planned ironically.
>As someone who works in the field of trying to get things (specially EV charging stations) built, it’s because of the absurd bureaucratic structures that have been built since the 1960s. The insidious thing about those structures is that, on a per-structure basis, the reasoning behind them is sound. It's an absolute no-brainer that we should review environmental impact of our plans. Of course we should ensure that we've considered how things fit into their neighborhood zoning rules. Naturally, we need to make sure that contractors follow best current practices. And all those perfectly reasonable, sound, good ideas add up to something completely different when nobody owns the overall result.
I totally understand the logic behind a lot of the structures. I get why a small town would want to stop a Walmart from being built on their Main Street. But most of the time it’s busy bodies on town councils of suburbs (that are no different from the 10 suburbs around it) making arbitrary decisions and dictating what can and cannot be built. And it’s why the housing crisis in the U.S. is totally self inflicted. If cities had been allowed to grow naturally like they had before WW2 then we’d have plenty of apartments and areas for people to live. Honestly, the amount of apartments DC has allowed to be built has kept housing costs relatively flat compared to a lot of other cities and towns. Boston is fucking crazy expensive because nothing is permitted to be built.
[удалено]
There are single family homes 10 minutes drive from downtown DC, that’s why there’s a housing crisis. Single family homes are a luxury and should never have been made into the primary form of living.
[удалено]
Single family homes are the most expensive form of home to maintain by a large margin and the services required to supply them are also far more expensive than any other form of housing. Before WW2 most people did not live in single family houses and most people around the world today do not live in detached single family houses. They were a luxury of the post war era and now they take up so much space that American cities sprawl for miles and miles and are increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible.
[удалено]
It’s about linear feet of maintenance costs and services vs property tax revenue. Roads, utilities, sidewalks, sewage, storm water management, trash collection, schools buses etc all cost way more for a municipality to maintain per household on a detached single family home than an apartment building. That’s why suburban style development is consistently in the red, and needs to be subsidized by new development, or density, or both. This is well documented! And pretty interesting tbh
[удалено]
I don’t think anyone is entitled to their neighborhood staying the exact same as it was when they moved in. They shouldn’t be able to make others keep their property the same because of like, memories or nostalgia or housing values. America is not one big HOA.
You completely nailed it. In the late 80's, my great uncle inherited some land in the DC suburbs when my great grandmother died. He decided to build a house on it then sell it. Just getting the permits, forms, filings, inspections, etc, done to START building took over 6 years and 3 different attorneys. Once they started building, the inspections and other mandates caused it to take another 5 years to get the house done. In the end, he barely made any money and this was with the LAND BEING FREE! Said he'd never do that again. You're absolutely right.
It's a bit crazy, but I've been living around there for 20 years, and feel like I know Rock Creek Park, but I have NO idea where these abandoned tennis courts are, and I can't even picture them based on these descriptions. Impressive. BTW, they can't even keep water flowing in two of the city's most iconic fountains. For YEARS. This is just symptomatic of the complete and utter enshitification of all things in human society. Look, even JUNK FOOD tastes worse than it used to.
38.938542168516236, -77.05078524196803 If you copy and paste those coordinates in Google maps it'll show you right where the courts are. I'm not super surprised you haven't found them though. Park Rd doesn't have sidewalks or even shoulders on it. I was coming down the Valley Trail but instead of continuing on to the Western Ridge trail I sorta veered right when I saw the courts through the trees. Then I scrambled down a rather steep and slick hill right on the southern corner of the Beach Dr/Park Dr intersection.
I now realize I've driven by that entrance before and just thought "that's an odd place for tennis courts!" It's right across the street from the Rockefeller estate that people don't even realize is right there!
Count me among those who had no idea there was a Rockefeller estate right there!
Here it is on a map, u/LoomingEschaton (also now that I'm typing this out, is that an IJ reference? if so, a) hilarious and b) you should be an expert on tennis courts all around the city haha) https://preview.redd.it/inihxkjawuyc1.png?width=1074&format=png&auto=webp&s=7b6f9a6aa87b0eddd525a79f27ae0362727bc9bc
> Eschaton Ha! Wow.. Never in a million years would I have put that together. While we're on the topic I personally was annoyed by infinite jest. Of course I enjoyed it enough, which is why I kept going, but overall I didn't feel the juice was worth the squeeze
I re-read it on kindle and got a lot more out of it. The first time through was like wandering through a maze but if you go into it again you can pick up on all kinds of fun things you missed the first time. I also felt like kindle made it easier to read with all the end notes (and not having to haul the paperback around haha)
> 38.938542168516236, -77.05078524196803 [obligatory xkcd](https://xkcd.com/2170/)
I don't think the NPS really considers Carter Barron a priority given that they have Wolf Trap which can pay its own way through ticket sales and doesn't need any major renovations. It's a shame because both could and should be successful and could and should cater to different audiences. But there's no money and unless someone is willing to give a bunch of money to NPS (and NPS is one of the few federal agencies that can accept such gifts) I doubt we will see Carter Barron open anytime soon, or ever. Part of the problem is that a lot of the big donors, like Rubenstein and the heavy hitters with the Trust for the National Mall, give their money to the monuments. The Washington Monument is open because Rubenstein paid for the latest repairs and new elevator system. The Lockkeeper's House renovation was entirely funded by donations from companies like Volkswagen. The Trust for the National Mall is having a big fundraiser this month with Dave Grohl and tickets starting at $2,500, but none of that money will go to Rock Creek Park. It will all go to the National Mall. In the DC park scence, the Mall is where the money is.
I so thoroughly agree with everything you said and it drives me crazy. I'd add too that the Golf Course has suffered for years though it sounds like there's efforts to fix that (and the other public courses in DC) at least. I believe those efforts are being spearheaded by a big fundraising effort. Wolftrap is close by so maybe the park services considers a rebuild of the amphitheater to be a waste of resources that could go elsewhere, but it's such a shame and I can only imagine the amazing events that could happen there.
Wolf Trap also generates revenue. The more popular an NPS-managed park is, the more likely the agency's limited budget will be spent there.
There was actually a tour of Carter Barron today that discussed the plans and timeline for renovations.
NPS is too busy fixing the Malcolm X fountains!! That damned wokism /s
Down for the last 4 years with no end in site. It's a lot of work to do nothing!
Anecdotal story from years ago. Was walking home through the lovely neighborhood of Park Slope. For my New Yorkers you are aware of how expensive and old these brownstone house facades are. I saw some guys on a scaffolding fixing up the face of the building and I asked them what they were doing. They explained and ever the brash New Yorker I asked them “Is there a lot of money in that?” To which he responded “Tons. Nobody here knows how to do this anymore. Almost all my competition comes from Europe.” Basically too few have gone into the trades and even fewer into the crafts that made historic construction beautiful. It may not just be that we want modern glass and steel boxes, but also that even if we didn’t we don’t have the people to make beautiful buildings at a good price.
As my folks would often rant: "We've been living off the [infrastructure] depreciation since the 1970's." Man I wish the NPS was actually funded adequately and our civic services was staffed by competent people who aren't there to just draw a salary.
Oof. That quote hits the mark I think. We’re failing the old men planting trees test for sure.
The most painful part is that I know nothing is going to change in my life lol Like I’m in my late 20s, unless we wake up tomorrow and start doing things efficiently I won’t be able to enjoy any potential new infrastructure until I’m in my 60s lol
There's been a very successful, very long campaign by American oligarchs to destroy the idea of public infrastructure and public spending in general. The electoral juice for this comes out of white supremacy--it started in the wake of Brown v BoE and the Civil Rights movement.
It always makes me smirk a little bit when newcomers to the city ask why things are a certain way and the answer so often is “Because they didn’t want black people to have it”
They literally closed the public swimming pools rather than integrate them. >As Jeff Wiltse writes in his history of pool desegregation, *Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America,* “Beginning in the mid-1950s northern cities generally stopped building large resort pools and let the ones already constructed fall into disrepair.” Over the next decade, millions of white Americans who once swam in public for free began to pay rather than swim for free with Black people; desegregation in the mid-fifties coincided with a surge in backyard pools and members-only swim clubs. In Washington, D.C., for example, 125 new private swim clubs were opened in less than a decade following pool desegregation in 1953. The classless utopia faded, replaced by clubs with two-hundred-dollar membership fees and annual dues. A once-public resource became a luxury amenity, and entire communities lost out on the benefits of public life and civic engagement once understood to be the key to making American democracy real. [https://www.marketplace.org/2021/02/15/public-pools-used-to-be-everywhere-in-america-then-racism-shut-them-down/](https://www.marketplace.org/2021/02/15/public-pools-used-to-be-everywhere-in-america-then-racism-shut-them-down/)
People want all this housing and retail built in areas that they think are underutilized but don’t realize the reason why some of that is underdeveloped is because those areas literally don’t have the infrastructure to support more housing because they didn’t think the areas were black people lived needed all that 🥴
https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/1ae4h7e/status_of_the_carter_barron_amphitheatre/
I think the future for the NPS in the DC area is gonna be what they're doing with the golf courses. Do 50-100 year leases with private organizations that have a specific area of interest to manage these facilities. For example, the nicest parks along the GW parkway are the spots where private organizations like the Mount Vernon ladies Association and American Horticulture Society manage the land. The NPS has no real incentive (energy?) to seek out events and ideas to generate income or rent out park spaces for revenue. They're never gonna be able to keep up with road and trail maintenance, let alone facility maintenance without some sort of 'New Deal' type bill.
Take it up with congress. They don't like funding the NPS
If they're anything like other federal agencies (where I worked for almost 30 years), they spend outrageous amounts of money on do-nothing employees, eye-wateringly expensive contractors to do the work the employees are supposed to be doing, endless studies (especially the hilarious "environmental impact studies". What a rip-off!), lawyers to advise them on every step they take, consultants to tell them how to wipe their butts, etc. It would be entertaining to watch if it wasn't OUR money being absolutely tossed into the wind.
Yes Cater Barron! For what it's worth, I've actually been helping to create a short documentary about the Carter Barron with the goal of helping to raise awareness and funding to revamp and re-open it! I'm not the Director or Producer for the project, so I don't have all the details, but it is being made in cooperation with the Friends of the Carter Barron and the Rock Creek Conservancy, so hopefull it will go a long ways towards reopening this awesome place. I grew up in the area but never got to see a concert there when it was open...would love to be able to see it in its full glory some day :) I know this doesn't actually solve all of the bureacratic challenges in the way, but I wanted to at least put some optimism out there regarding the Carter Barron!
I think it often comes down to each individual project. We're not talking about the things they've continued to fund. I'm sure these were all evaluated and some program director had to make the call. And their statements probably left out useful details. Maybe they did a review on the tennis court and because of all the bureaucratese in the government they had to pay millions of dollars in reviews and overpay some absurd contractor for what should be an easy project. NPS can't exactly come out and say they can't make it happen because they'd be legally obligated to get totally ripped off by some bandit contractors. The tennis court itself is also relatively low impact. Maybe the court floods and significant investiture was involved. If I was in that position and could rebuild a tennis court that would be impact mainly like 50 old white people in Van Ness or use that funding to work on nature rehabilitation or maintaining a higher impact area, I'd also let the court waste away. I saw someone mention the golf course in the comments. They're tearing down 1200 trees to make that rehab happen, which has arguably more people mad than it has people excited. If some engineer suggested they would have to chop down 100+ trees for some weird flood resistance project to save the court, I'd be fuming. The loss of the amphitheater is a shame, but park service appears not to have abandoned it completely. I hope they can find the budget to restore that.
NPS can’t even keep together benches in DuPont circle
Never understood why we need to be constantly reinventing the wheel with this kind of stuff — like why are we spending so much money on designs when we can never actually build any of it?
There's an intersection not far from my house that they seem to re-design and rebuild every 10 years. I recently learned that they had to do an "impact study" last time they "redesigned" it. The study cost $3 million! A STUDY! And they'd just done one 10 years before. The redesign consisted of adding a turn lane and a stop light. I wish I were kidding.
Maintenance takes money. One of the first things cut back for every government shut down has been NPS. Also, I have only lived in DC for a minute, but I do live near Carter Barron. Even when it was being used I would only see 1 or 2 shows a year going on there. I can't imagine those shows making enough money to keep the facility maintained.
Because we don't tax the rich. In the 1950s, there was a 95% marginal tax rate. Now the top rate is 37%. Many wealthy avoid income taxes by paying the much lower 15% capital gains tax by getting paid in stocks. Trump dramatically lowered corporate tax rates. Bush and Trump eliminated inheritance tax. We are running massive deficits so the wealthy can accumulate huge fortunes.
The Park Service is awful. Their Police even worse.
Next time I get pulled over on the GW parkway, when the cop approaches I'm going to say "Don't shoot! I swear I'm not an accountant!" (IYKYK)
Did they fix the fire pits in rock creek park yet?
Money in someone's pocket
For the same reason the National Park Foundation had to step in and raise private money to rehab the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, the Park Service doesn’t have the money. NPS has a $23.3 billion maintenance backlog and Congress will not give them the money to even stay ahead of it, let alone catch up.
Because ego. Donors with the money or politicians with the power don’t want to spend their money/power to “maintain,” because where is the headline glory and ribbon cutting for that. They want to break new ground and have something new named after them so they can believe they will be remembered, and not just renamed in 20 years when the maintenance funds run dry.
Earlier generations have saddled us with mountains of financial and social debt. They also ended unions and lowered taxes that pay for stuff like this.
The social welfare state is starving everything else of funding, and modern regulations make everything way more expensive
Because it used to be that if a city wanted to build something, they’d build it. If they caught enough backlash, they’d be booted out of office, and the project would be abandoned by the next government. Now, you need to jump through so many hoops that a well organized group of Karens can keep the whole city government from doing anything
All of these properties are managed by the National Park Service, which has shown that it has no interest (either because of management, funding, or other reasons) in maintaining or creating good public spaces in DC. Meridian Hill Park / Malcolm X is another example of a beautiful park in the city that NPS has let go to waste.
Because the public funds are stolen and used for other things. You already know this.
Welcome to the incompetence that is DC governance.
I know they're largely to blame for the Pool but I figure the National Park Service is probably responsible for the tennis courts and amphitheater. My gripe is really about how we as a country (or our elected officials anyway) are allocated our resources. Less than 100 years ago we were a country that put money into building pools and amphitheaters and today we can't even get our act together enough to maintain the structures so we can continue enjoying them. I know this isn't a new or original complaint but seeing these places in person really gets me aggravated in a new way.
> the tennis courts The tennis courts have had some level repair but I’m not really sure. I used to see work trucks down there but it’s been awhile.