Group wants to bring National Mall to life

WASHINGTON -- There's a lot happening on the National Mall, but a preservation group believes not enough of the activities allow the public to enjoy the tract stretching from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.

The National Coalition to Save Our Mall wants to pursue the idea of Major Pierre L'Enfant, the designer of the capital city, who described his plan in a letter to George Washington.

The Mall should be a "place of general resort" lined by theaters, assembly halls, academies and "all sort of place[s] as may be attractive to the learned and afford diversion to the idle."

Smithsonian museums now line much of the Mall's sides, and a number of memorials have been built. The latest is the World War II Memorial, which the coalition opposed because it believes the Mall is becoming too crowded.

It plans to unveil a proposal today calling for more activities and access designed to allow the public to enjoy the Mall.

"Mostly we want to make it livelier and more friendly," said Judy Feldman, an art historian who heads the coalition. She pointed out that there are few benches, little shelter from rain, and not many restrooms when museums are closed.

She said the Mall is animated largely by tourists bused from museum to museum along its margin. She wants the museums to develop more outdoor activities, like the Smithsonian Institution's summertime folklife festivals.

This year's festival brought oyster shuckers and boat builders from Chesapeake Bay, demonstrating their skills and cuisine. It also celebrated creativity in Haiti and Latino music.

The coalition also wants to encourage the enterprise of private citizens to promote the Mall's public purpose. Such enterprises cost money, and Ms. Feldman isn't sure where it should come from.

The coalition plans to try to get public bodies such as the Smithsonian to do more on the Mall. The Smithsonian receives its funds from Congress, private contributions, and moneymaking activities such as gift shops.

The group looks to undertakings like the free performances on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, which gets government money and charges for all other performances.

Feldman said money questions could be taken up by one of the nine private task forces to be recruited at a meeting today. These are to be privately funded and manned, with participation invited from government agencies.

Together the task forces would make up a kind of "conservancy," such as exists for Central Park in New York and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, with more attention to public participation and historical meaning than on conserving the physical area. Work already has started on the task forces, with one of them up and running.

Feldman said private initiative is needed because at least seven government agencies share authority over the Mall, and while each of them has contact with the public, no easily available information exists on the Mall as a whole.