D.C. National Parks Need Some Serious Care

An $11.5 billion maintenance backlog isn’t helping.

Cherry blossoms trees are near blooming along the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

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Springtime tourists to D.C. may be in for some unsightly attractions. The Jefferson Memorial is falling apart and could even be a hazard to visitors.

“If you look up you can see the portion of the ceiling of the portico has fallen,” Sean Kenneally, acting deputy superintendent for the National Mall & Memorial Parks told radio’s Marketplace. “Fortunately, no one was injured.”

According to Marketplace:

The National Park Service, which administers the Jefferson Memorial and Tidal Basin as part of its National Mall and Memorial Parks (NMMP) zone, has $11.5 billion on its backlog of deferred maintenance costs. Of that figure, $850 million is slated for the NMMP. So while the Jefferson Memorial may look good from afar, when you get closer you can see that it’s falling apart.

The problems with funding have gotten worse in the past 30 years, according to Craig Obey, the senior vice president of the National Parks Conservation Association, who says it is a bipartisan issue.

“The Park Service gets about between $200 [million] and $300 million less than they need each year just to keep it even, not even to begin reducing it,” Obey told Marketplace.

National parks generate about $37 billion in revenue each year. While most people think of them as natural wonders and sprawling forestland, many of of them are in urban areas and provide critical economic boosts to those regions.

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Jenn Stanley is a freelance journalist, essayist and independent producer living in Chicago. She has an M.S. from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

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Tags: washington dcparks

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