While many memorials, parks and monuments overseen by the Park Service were closed off to visitors, others, like Lafayette Square, McPherson Square and Dupont Circle, remained open as “pedestrian pass-throughs.”
“It would be impossible to” close them, said Park Service spokeswoman Carol Bradley Johnson. In the cases of other parks, it’s difficult to make it evident that a park is closed, said another Park Service spokeswoman, Jennifer Mummart.
“In big Western parks, where you have an entrance gate, you shut the gate and itÂ’s very evident to everyone that itÂ’s closed,” she said. “Here, in D.C., itÂ’s pretty unique, because thereÂ’s . . . what essentially amount to neighborhood national parks,” she said. “Although theyÂ’re not fenced or barricaded, they are in fact closed because we donÂ’t have a (funding) appropriation.”
She said the Park Service sought to close the cityÂ’s 20 playgrounds at federal neighborhood parks for safety reasons. “Because we donÂ’t have anyone to patrol that playground area, and empty the trash and check for broken equipment . . . we just felt like itÂ’s better to ensure safety,” she said. David Shove Brown, 40, passed a locked-down playground at Lincoln Park with his 3-year-old daughter, Brighid, and two dogs. “ItÂ’s very surreal,” he said.
