The partial closing of Pennsylvania Avenue NW may mark a grim new era in
the way Americans think about security. But for legal secretary Kimberly
Windell, it means a daily race against the clock: She pays $5 for every three
minutes she is late to pick up her daughter from day care.

Windell leaves her job at 15th and L streets NW about 5:30 p.m. to pick up
5-year-old Kerry in Alexandria. With Saturday's permanent closing of
Pennsylvania Avenue between 15th and 17th streets, she worries that she may
not be able to make it by 6 p.m., when her sitter imposes sanctions at an
hourly rate of $100.
Even in yesterday's light traffic, Windell said it took her an extra 10
minutes to make the trip downtown, where Kerry and her older sister tried out
their roller blades in front of the White House -- one of the few forms of
wheeled traffic still allowed on that two-block stretch of Pennsylvania
Avenue.
While Windell worried about baby-sitting, other commuters recalculated
their routes to work and the times they would need to leave their homes this
morning. Alie Mohammed, an Afghani immigrant who has sold ties near the White
House for the last four years, said he planned to wake up 30 minutes earlier
than usual to get to his stand during morning rush hour.
Office of Personnel Management officials said yesterday that about 210,000
federal workers would be on a "delayed arrival" schedule and could arrive an
hour late for work. "We're just trying to be sensitive to the fact that people
may have problems sorting this out on the first day," said spokeswoman Janice
LaChance.
Linda Grant, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Public Works, said
the only traffic-management plan in effect today will be a parking ban on 15th
and 17th streets NW. Other measures may be taken as officials see the effects
of the new traffic patterns, she said.
For all its inconvenience, Windell had mixed feelings about the street
closing in front of the White House. "Maybe some good will come of this," she
said. "Everybody's having a great time."
And Kerry, her knees dirtied from a few falls, was grateful to the "man in
the big house," who she said closed the street "so everyone with wheels can
skate here."
"It's very agreeable," Monica Ipina, of Manassas, said in Spanish. She sat
with her husband and 3-year-old daughter, Cristina, under the shade of a
massive oak tree in Lafayette Square.
Ria and Piet Vanderhulst, in town from the Netherlands for a microbiology
conference, were surprised to hear that Pennsylvania Avenue had carried six
lanes of traffic just 48 hours earlier. "We didn't realize this was an unusual
situation," Ria Vanderhulst said. "I think it is a wise thing to do. There are
a lot of terrorists."
Yadullah Nasaullah, a Kurdish immigrant who snaps pictures of tourists
standing with cardboard stand-ups of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton at 17th
Street and Pennsylvania NW, said he was pleased to see so many people out
enjoying themselves.
"Whoever has done this plan has done very well," Nasaullah said. "People
are happy."
And Mike Rogers, a Takoma Park resident who works as an analyst at the
Environmental Protection Agency, said the closing made his trip into the
District easier yesterday. He took the Metro with his wife, Karen Sokal, and
their infant daughter, Mikaela. They strolled across Pennsylvania Avenue
without waiting for a light to change.
"I think this is a great idea. They should close more streets," Rogers
said. "I think it's nice to be able to walk around, push a baby carriage and
ride a bike without being worried about getting run over.
"Of course, I wish they would have come to this decision under different
circumstances and for different reasons," he added.
Rogers questioned whether the closing would deter terrorism. If someone
wants to hurt people, he said, there are plenty of other sites where a car
bomb would do serious damage. No one, for example, has proposed closing the
street in front of the EPA building, he said.
Ellen Thomas, who has stationed herself across the street from the White
House for the last 11 years as part of an anti-nuclear vigil, said she worried
that the street closing could be the first step toward eventually excluding
pedestrians from the area.
"Are they going to have metal detectors at the corners?" Thomas said. "If
they stop with what they've done so far, the air is cleaner, and people like
dancing around in the middle of the street. But what's next?"