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Plans For Protest Area In D.C. Attract Protests

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By MICHAEL E. RUANE, The Washington Post

Published: January 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - The National Park Service envisions a prime venue for demonstrations: a broad space at the foot of the Capitol with restrooms, seating, a paved surface, even a stand for the media.

Attorneys for activist groups fear a designated, government-approved "pit," limiting freedom of speech and movement in a hallowed place of protest.

The proposal to turn Union Square, the site of the Capitol reflecting pool and the Grant Memorial, into an "urban civic square" is one of many ideas the Park Service is mulling over as it plans the future of the Mall.

That and other suggested changes have sparked harsh debate between government officials seeking to preserve one of the country's most heavily used national parks and activists concerned about limits on free speech and civil rights.

The face-off prompted tense exchanges at a public meeting this month and demands for the Park Service to halt its planning and seek broader public input.

"This is a sugar-coating effort to conceal the real plan, which is to reorganize the Mall from its traditional venue as the heart and soul of this country's free-speech protest movement," said Brian Becker, national coordinator of the anti-war ANSWER coalition.

Susan Spain, project executive for the National Mall Plan, countered: "We are not seeking to restrict First Amendment demonstrations whatsoever."

The Park Service requires permits for most demonstrations and has "reasonable time, place and manner restrictions" for them, she said. What is proposed is only a better place to protest, with more facilities, she said.

Lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice, which advocates for protest groups, noted that the Capitol might not always be the protesters' target, however.

Demonstrators "also want to be able to protest as far back on the Mall as they need and as wide as they need," she said. "They have the right to ... not be shunted off to a protest pit."

None of the proposals for the Mall's future, laid out in three mix-and-match alternatives, has been adopted. The Park Service says they are only suggestions and that it is seeking public comment. The mail and online comment period runs through Feb. 15.

Information is available at www.nps.gov/nationalmall plan.

The proposals, which Spain said were developed from public input, are part of the Park Service's attempt to better manage the Mall, which has an estimated 25 million visitors a year and in many areas is worn from age and use.

The Park Service issues 3,000 permits a year for events on the Mall.

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