The News from National Mall

Park Service Selects Director for Capital Region

The National Park Service has selected a veteran park ranger as the next director of the national capital region.

Peggy O'Dell has served as superintendent of the National Mall since 2007. As regional director, she will oversee more than 87,000 acres of federal parkland in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

National Book Festival: Travel Guide Authors Arthur and Pauline Frommer

Nearly 70 authors will be on the National Mall Saturday, September 27 for the 2008 Library of Congress National Book Festival.

Among them will be Arthur and Pauline Frommer, the father and daughter behind the best-selling line of Frommer's Travel Guides.

They Have A Dream

"America's front yard" needs a cleanup crew. Several million in cash would help, too.

From afar, the National Mall, the majestic expanse of parkland from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, looks postcard-perfect. But don't get too close.

They Have A Dream

"America's front yard" needs a cleanup crew. Several million in cash would help, too.

From afar, the National Mall, the majestic expanse of parkland from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, looks postcard-perfect. But don't get too close.

'Stage of Our Democracy' in Disrepair

"America's front yard" needs a cleanup crew. Several million in cash would help, too.

From afar, the National Mall, the majestic expanse of parkland from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, looks postcard-perfect. But don't get too close.

The famous Reflecting Pool is stagnant and full of muck. The lawns are flattened in places and just patches of dust. The sidewalks are cracked, the walking paths are crumbling and public restrooms need repairs.

House panel told National Mall needs improvements

The National Mall is unkempt and in need of a major facelift that could cost $500 million, some federal lawmakers and activists say.

"There's no great national park that suffers from this kind of neglect," D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said Tuesday at a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing.

Norton and others criticized the lawn's condition, saying there are dying trees, trampled grass and a lack of restrooms and other amenities for visitors. They also said its lakes and pools are dirty and walkways damaged in some spots.

Young guides give free tours, but welcome tips

With a little bit of rap (about King George III, of all people: "He was a meany and we were so teeny"), a healthy but not overbearing dose of history and a whole lot of nerve, two recent college graduates are rattling the genteel world of Washington tour guides. Ben Hindman and Brody Davis are giving tours for free.

Working only for tips, the two friends in bright orange caps are attracting tourists who find themselves on the National Mall knowing little more than that the really tall one has to do with Washington; the squat, columned one is where Forrest Gump liked to hang out; and the one with the dome is where the president lives, or something like that.

"A lot of tourists really don't know anything about Washington or history," Hindman says. "We thought we could entertain people and get them interested in history at the same time."

Unhappy With 'Confrontational' Image, U.S. Panel Wants King Statue Reworked

A powerful federal arts commission is urging that the sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. proposed for a memorial on the Tidal Basin be reworked because it is too "confrontational" and reminiscent of political art in totalitarian states.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts thinks "the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries," commission secretary Thomas Luebke said in a letter in April.

By law, no project like the memorial can go forward without approval from the commission, the federal agency that advises the government on public design and aesthetics in the capital.

Trust Launches Campaign To Restore National Mall

More than $500 million is needed to restore the National Mall, according to a group that is launching a campaign to fix up "America's Front Yard."

Business and community leaders held a benefit luncheon on Thursday to launch the Trust for the National Mall, a private-public campaign to raise $500 million for the Mall."This is the icon of freedom for our children, our grandchildren, for the entire world," said John "Chip" Akridge, who founded the trust. "This is where democracy is showcased, and this is something that all Americans are, or should be, proud of."