DC’s Green Spaces Looking Not So Green
DC’s Public Parks: A State of Emergency
Restoring Life to the District:
Improving Public Green Spaces
Sabrina Schaeffer

Late last month, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) took press on a city-wide tour to visit eight district parks. While she vows to work more with the National Park Service to improve many of DC’s most prominent and most hidden green spaces, Norton claimed that on balance parks are in pretty good shape.

She must not have seen the parks I have . . . although that’s difficult to imagine. The most prominent, tourist-centered parks in the city are in serious need of care and revitalization, and I suspect some of the lesser known green spaces off the beaten path are much worse.

A recent Sunday drive down K Street left my jaw hanging open. McPherson Square, just one block from the White House, had devolved into a dustbowl of sorts – what was once a beautiful public square had become a patchwork of grass and dirt with swarms of pigeons pecking away.  Sadly, a line two blocks long of DC’s most vulnerable flanked the park (and beyond) waiting as a van unloaded food and supplies, turning this green space into a makeshift homeless shelter. 

Just two blocks west at Farragut Square, a similar scene greeted me. Summer concerts had taken a toll on the park, trash littered the square, and what was once another beautiful public area used for lunch and relaxing looked bare and uninviting.

Part of what is so wonderful about Washington, is the number of parks that freckle the city. Some are primarily intended for recreation and set off on their own; Montrose Park, Dumbarton Gardens, and parts of Rock Creek Park. But large swaths of DC are organized around small public green spaces that delineate neighborhoods, each with their own personalities.

Like mountains and valleys, public parks scattered throughout the city carve out a diverse and interesting landscape. The downtown region alone is home to Dupont Circle, Farragut Square, McPherson Square, Franklin Square, Mount Vernon Square, and Lafayette Square, to name a few. And each of these public spaces attracts businesses and residents who seek not only natural beauty but also neighborhoods that accommodate their lifestyle.

For instance, it’s no surprise to find a Japanese specialty store carrying Ichebana flower arranging supplies situated in the heart of quirky Dupont Circle, while the historic Hay Adams hotel borders the traditional Lafayette Square.  The neighborhood distinctness created, in part, by these parks is part of what gives Washington a small-town feel and makes it attractive to so many people from such different walks of life. 

Unfortunately, too many of these squares and public green spaces are in various states of disarray, often creating a sense of disorder and insecurity for the local community. Instead of serving as the base of a neighborhood from which residential streets, storefronts, and restaurants can branch and flower, they have become sewers for pests, trash, dying landscaping, and improvised homeless shelters.

And the fact is the degrading condition of DC’s parks is having an effect on our neighborhoods and quality of life in the city. A few weeks after my Sunday drive past McPherson Square, it was no surprise to learn about a double stabbing just a block away at the corner of Vermont Ave. and L St.  Certainly, I thought there would be an attempt in the immediate aftermath to reclaim this public space. Sadly, however, nothing could be further from the truth.

Exactly a week after this disturbing crime, my family had plans to visit a new restaurant in the neighborhood. That Saturday evening, we found the same corner where the double stabbing had occurred to be full of life …for roughly two dozen drug dealers and addicts freely and unabashedly moving around in what appeared to be an open air market reminiscent of a scene out of The Wire – hardly a selling point for residents, businesses, or tourists. 

And the fact is, we haven’t returned to that restaurant.

Sadly, however, too many people seem resigned to the state of their public spaces – much the way many New Yorkers were in the 1960s and 70s when the city experienced a wave of muggings, vandalism and general crime.  But DC has an opportunity to make big changes to the city by repairing small spaces.

The situation afflicting McPherson Square and the surrounding neighborhood is a text book case that could practically be ripped from the pages of James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling’s 1982 “Broken Windows” article.

Addressing small problems immediately, the authors suggest, is the best way to avoid escalations in crime.  Cleaning up DC’s public spaces – before building another luxury condo – would be a great place to start. If the city is really committed to preserving the health and longevity of the nation’s capital, and to retaining residents and businesses – and ultimately revenue – they ought to consider how to improve the quality of life that so many urban-dwellers have sought in the district.

Restoring DC’s public parks and green spaces is not just about repairing broken fountains. It’s an opportunity to restore community ballasts that bring stability and security to our neighborhoods.

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