Posted on 07/05/2017 7:38:43 AM PDT by C19fan
The Mall is overbuilt and overcrowded. We keep shoehorning more stuff in, and every new development detracts. Now that we're going the identity politics route, there will be no end to it.
Congress needs to man up and say simply that the Mall is finished. Period. Start carving out a new axis for commemorative monuments and buildings in DC. If we decide it should be linked to the existing monumental core, fine; the South Capitol Street corridor still has some potential. So does North Capitol. East Capitol is in the Capitol Hill Historic District and is now beautifully restored out to the Stadium-Armory site on the Anacostia, but that parcel is now very much in play. Most of the neighborhood is hoping for a neighborhood park integrated into the Anacostia trail system and with a youth sports emphasis on what are now the RFK North parking lots. But that still leaves enough acreage for a new monumental entrance into the city with appropriate monuments and a couple of museums.
That said, there are better sites across the river along the first ridge east of the Anacostia. DHS is building out the St. Elizabeth's campus, which is a spectacular site that should have been redeveloped decades ago. But there are other real opportunities along the left bank of the Anacostia. The Smithsonian already has its Anacostia Community Museum over there. The Frederick Douglass house is a gem, and is an NPS site. The riverbank is parkland stretching up to Bladensburg, and the ridge overlooking all of that should be premier real estate.
The U.S. does not currently have a national museum dedicated solely to contributions from men, either.
Similar to always giving-in to a child -
once a so-called victim group gets used to years of preferential treatment and gets regular boosts to the ego (deserved or undeserved), it never, ever ends.
Anyone who thinks this will satisfy the malcontents is mistaken.
As the Good Book says: “A house divided cannot stand”.
Typical. Who is going to have the stones to oppose this? I hate this pandering to different groups. Thanks Rats.
What a waste of time and taxpayer money.
Besides, the Women’s Museum will have to be closed five days every month due to cramps.
(Fran Leibowitz’s line, not mine)
;^)
It's called "The Smithsonian" - all the stuff there was made by white guys. :-)
Does E pluribus unum mean anything? We are now a Caste Society and it's disgusting. Chalk another one up for the "transformation".
Perhaps part of the problem, is aren’t many of the areas you mention bad neighborhoods? I haven’t been back to Wash DC area in years so many some of those are gentrifying. But also, could it be that being on The Mall means that some monument or museum was considered important enough to locate there? Such as the black museum?? Because being on The Mall is a sign of of prestige???
Where’s the Smithsonian Caucasian Male Museum?
False. Men & Women’s stories are called History, the rest is bupkis...an attempt to warp history into a cause.
“Can’t wait for the American Museum of Islamic Art and History.”
It’s called The Sackler Gallery, a 4-story complex underneath the Haupt Garden immediately behind the Smithsonian Castle.
“The U.S. Women’s Museum is destined to become a liberal shrine to feminists. Next up will be a LBGTQ Museum... The SMITHSONIAN is on a slippery slope.”
Wrong. As a three-decade senior scholar of the SI, I can promise you they have already dived off the cliff. There is literally no totalitarian collectivist or deviant idea that they do not endorse whole heartedly.
You mean I missed it??? Darn the luck!
DC is gentrifying rapidly and there are many other locations that could be transformed into museum districts. Just how to do this would be highly site specific, but the North and South Capitol axes could be elevated, so some other area entirely be repurposed. As it stands now, however, we are trashing the Mall.
How much room in Washington D.C. is there for all these museums?
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