A Mall Overhaul

Who cares who is at fault, the point is to fix the problem. Are we going to waste more time on "what had happened was" or move toward a solution to the problem.
When my son and I went to Disneyland and he saw Cinderella's castle he was devastated that it was in such disrepair. We just determined that Mickey and Minnie were slum lords. Luckily, Mick and Minn have found a couple of gallons of paint.
Sometimes we overuse stuff and it just gets old. OK, now that we know that, LET'S JUST FIX IT!

Ah, you're so right. Everything is Bush's fault. Never mind that the Dem-controlled Congress has been in power for a while now - it's certainly not their fault. Nope, they share none of the blame. Nor does Clinton, who, as memory serves, was in the White House for 8 years.

Nice screen name, by the way.

As someone who lives five blocks from the mall, I can tell you I used to use it all the time for picnics and long walks with my dog however, the place is so disgusting my only visits now are for company softball, the rest of Washington has experieneced renewal while the mall is in decline, absolutely a disgrace!

as an American who has walked on the mall many times over the years thinking of all the events in our history that have taken place in this area,photographed,depicted in paintings and burned in my memory the thought of it being franchised and "beautified " is an affront to me as an American

AS AN INDIVDUAL WHO HAS WALKED ON THE MALL MANY TIMES
THINKING OF THE HISTORY OF ALL THE THE EVENTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY THAT HAS TAKEN PLACE AROUND YOU AND SEEING THE BUILDINGS
THAT HAVE BEEN IN SO MANY PAINTINGS AND PICTURES IN OUR HISTORY THE THOUGHT OF FRANCHISING THE AREA AND MAKING IT CUTSIE IS AN AFFRONT TO ME AS AN AMERICAN

Give me 30 Full time employees and pay them $50000.00 each to total 1 1/5 million dollars for employees. That leaves me 29 1/2 million dollars for maintenance and restoration on the mall. seems someone is not spending the funds available responsability. I agree, the mall neede to be preserved for America to enjoy and be proud of..

Last year I visited the homestead of FDR only to find it in disgusting disrepair. I wrote to all my elected officials and got the pat answer "thank you for taking the time to email me with your concerns" but nothing was done. Now this. Please would someone explain how we can send billions to countries like Iraq but not take care of ourselves. The funds being sent overseas are tax payers dollars and I for one do not want my tax dollars used to rebuild nations other than my own right now. We have so many problems with the biggest being the resident of the White House but that will soon be over with alot of money not well spent. Isn't it time we made our elected officials responsible again? Isn't it time we fix our infrastructure? Isn't it time to tell France, Germand etc that it is time to pay those loans back from WWII and they will get nothing from us until they do. Isn't it time that we took some pride in our counry and our monuments again? We have lots of illegal immigrants put them to work painting, cleaning up, hey if they serve in Iraq or a foreign war for 2 years give them citizenship, put the people on Welfare to work doing the same things. Cheap labor but it gets the things done.

Last year I went to the FDR homestead and toured and was disgusted with how badly it looked and now this. Do we as a nation no longer care about our history or how we project ourselves in the eyes of others? I know we have many problems the biggest will be leaving Washington DC on January 20 but that is already money wasted. If we have the funds to send to Iraq, or to other countries (some who still owe us from WWII) why do we not have the funds to take care of our own and our civil pride? Time to start using the tax dollars here at home and let the other countries rebuild their own.

Shame on the NPS. Riping out gardens by Lady Bird Johnson, not updating a map to include significant monuments. It's truly an embarassing sign to any visitor, citizen or visitor, that America's priorities lie in the wrong place. I do hope the Mall does not look like Sea World and that it can be rehabilitated and restored. Even an area as large as the mall can be maintained with $31 million. The right finess is all that is needed.

wraithofwonder,

Comment: Same goes for foreign car companies. Honda and Toyota use a great deal more American made parts than Ford or GM. I drive my Toyota with pride.

Completely NOT true! Where do you even get this idea?

Shame of the National Parks service - if I had $31 million a year I can guarantee that it wouldn't have gotten run down in the first place - if your giving out that many permits for demonstrations, you should be charging these people something for the cleanup and maintanence, that is solid business sense and for them not to be doing that all these years makes them dumber than dumb. We as citizens take steps like budgeting to maintain our homes and yards, you mean to tell me the National Parks Service hasn't done the same?

I too hope the end result doesn't look like the artists rendering, we don't need an amusement park as the "Nations Front Yard" is the design open to anyone to submit entries? If not, it should be!

Instead of rehabilitating the capital rebuild it in Port Angeles Washington. The weather is nicer, and it is supposedly designated if something happened to dc anyhow.

Same goes for foreign car companies. Honda and Toyota use a great deal more American made parts than Ford or GM. I drive my Toyota with pride.

BeachyKeen, where have you been? The deal with Airbus will create more American jobs and the planes will be made with more American parts than the Boeing alternative. Just because it is an "American company" doesn't automatically equal "Made in America". Learn a thing or two, or shut up.

BeachyKeen, where have you been? The deal with Airbus will create more American jobs and the planes will be made with more American parts than the Boeing alternative. Just because it is an "American company" doesn't automatically equal "Made in America". Learn a thing or two, or shut up.

I think that it is ABSOLUTELY DEPLORABLE that Newsweek would have an article about "America's 'Front Yard'" and on the same page display advertisements from Airbus-- a foreign company. Having advertising for a foreign auto-maker is one thing, but to see (American made) Boeing's biggest competitor, Airbus on all three pages of this article is extremely upsetting. The article talks about pride in our nation's landscape, well, what about our nation's companies? Our economy is taking a hit... It's about time we start supporting items "Made In America."

I hope it doesn't go the way of that artist's illustration. It makes it look more like an amusement park or suburban strip mall.