From Lafayette, Views Vary
Skaters, Walkers Praise Closure; Protesters, Homeless Criticize Barriers
By Linda Wheeler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 23, 1996
; Page A23
For the last year, Neal Peterson's route to work has been right down the
middle of Pennsylvania Avenue. He strides along a faded yellow stripe, three
lanes to the left of him, three lanes to the right of him, silent and
peaceful.
Peterson, a deputy director of the Thrift Depositor Protection Oversight
Board, gets to walk down the most famous block in the country because there
are no cars to dodge or traffic lights to halt his progress. In May of last
year, the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue NW was closed to through traffic
after the bombing of the federal government building in Oklahoma City. The
abrupt closing created instant traffic jams and a year-long debate about its
permanence.
"I guess they could improve the aesthetics of it all," he said, as the sun
rose behind him and he turned right onto Jackson Place, passing concrete
barriers and parked police cars.
In addition to Peterson's dawn patrol, thousands of tourists, hundreds of
in-line skaters and a handful of hockey players have made use of the street.
The noise of braking cars, horns and loud music is no more. The birds, always
a part of Lafayette Square, now can be heard along with the hum of the lawn
mower being pushed through the thick grass by John Allen, a National Park
Service employee.
All this quiet and concern for presidential security hasn't been good for
perennial protester Concepcion Picciotto, who has campaigned for world peace
in the park since February 1981. She asks for signatures on a petition and
takes donations for her hand-painted stones at her round-the-clock protest
site adjoining the closed street.
"This is like a fortress now," she said, shaking her head. "People used to
drive by and give us food and blankets. It was nice. Now, even the tourists
have a hard time getting here."
Sandy Crane, visiting from San Francisco, said that driving to the White
House would have been difficult but that she had no trouble getting there from
her Arlington hotel by Metro. She likes the closed road, saying it reminded
her of cities in Europe where pedestrians are given priority over cars.
"This works," she said. "I don't want to have to dodge cars to see the
White House. We read about this when it happened last year and didn't know
what to expect. It's just fine."
Street hockey players like the vacant avenue as well. Brooks Singer, a
Catholic University law student, said he and three classmates try to play
every day. There are few places with open pavement in the city, he said.
"I hope they don't change this," he said. "They need to think about the
people before opening it up again or making any other changes."
There have been a few changes in the park as well in the last year. David
Lockwitch, who has camped with his signs advocating nuclear disarmament for
more than a year, said he believes there is a conspiracy between the White
House and Supreme Court to keep the avenue closed, discouraging groups from
bringing free food to the homeless. Behind it all, he said, is not
presidential security but a wish to drive the homeless from the park.
"This is our living," he said. "This is our constitutional right to be
here."
There are indeed fewer homeless people in the park than a year ago, said
U.S. Park Police Maj. Robert Hines, whose agency has jurisdiction over the
federal park. In December 1994, a Park Police officer shot to death a homeless
man in front of the White House. The man had been brandishing a knife taped to
his hand, police said.
"Many of the homeless have moved on because of the increased presence of
the police," Hines said, noting that his two officers are backed up by at
least a dozen uniformed Secret Service officers. "Some of the homeless seek
the safety of the park, and others, bent on nefarious activities, have left."
A year ago, homeless men congregated by a fountain on the east side of the
park, ever ready to panhandle from anyone who walked by. Yesterday, there was
no one there except book readers and squirrel feeders.
Across the way, Jill Gibbons sat on one of the many wood-and-metal benches
that dot the park, eating her lunch. The legal analyst for the executive
office of the president said the closing of the avenue had improved the park,
a place she visits almost daily in good weather.
"It's more like a college campus now," she said.
Gibbons was one of thousands of daily commuters who got caught in traffic
jams prompted by the street closing. She said that for several weeks, her car
pool continued to take the same route, circling the park to get to 17th Street
NW.
"Then it dawned on us to try another way," she said. "One day we came
across the 14th Street Bridge, turned left on Constitution Avenue and zipped
up 17th Street. The old way was a mess. The new way works."
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