National Park Service crews turned on the spigot Thursday to begin filling the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, capping President Donald Trump’s citywide beautification initiative for Washington, D.C., in time for America’s 250th anniversary. The plan, which included the reopening of nine historic fountains across the city, is a reminder that the decrepit state of most Democratic-controlled cities is a choice, and that all that is needed is political will to make our cities beautiful again.

The restored fountains show how Washington is supposed to look when the nation treats its capital as a place worthy of care. At Columbus Plaza, outside Union Station, water is flowing again after 19 years, turning what had become a dingy graffiti and trash-strewn homeless encampment into a gleaming civic gateway. “I’ve never seen it like this. It’s so blue,” one longtime D.C. resident posted on social media. “It is bouncing off the white marble. I’ve never seen the marble this clean.”