A community activist is calling on federal authorities to step up patrols and maintenance of dozens of tiny parks scattered throughout the District. The National Park Service and U.S. Park Police hold jurisdiction over dozens of triangle and circle “pocket” parks built into downtown and District neighborhoods, but the federal agencies are failing in their upkeep, charged Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. Meanwhile, Lynch claims, the parks are beset with drugs, prostitution and crime.
“The park service and their security arm have to take responsibility for what’s theirs,” Lynch said. “If not, cede them to D.C.”
The District’s Department of Parks and Recreation has oversight of more than 400 triangle parks and cul-de-sacs spanning all eight wards.
It is unknown how many parks are under the control of the park service.
The NPS employs a maintenance staff to regularly remove garbage, mow lawns and maintain trees in small parks, said Bill Line, agency spokesman.
“Can we be at these places 100 percent of the time?” he asked. “No, and I don’t believe anyone would expect that we do.”
In the past year, U.S. Park Police responded to approximately 128 calls for service between the Mount Vernon and Stanton parks, said Sgt. Robert Lachance, park police spokesman.
“It is our mission to serve the communities and to aid them when they ask for help,” he said. “We’ll be reaching out [to Lynch] because we do want to help them.”
Cary Silverman, president of the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association, cited a federally controlled triangle park at Fifth Street and New York Avenue as poorly maintained and a “frequent staging ground for transvestite prostitution.”
The District, he said, “can’t rely on the federal government to maintain our parks.”
The Downtown Business Improvement District recently established a formal partnership with the NPS to improve the maintenance of all 33 parks in the BID area, said Richard T. Reinhard, BID’s deputy executive director of planning and development.
