Trump says he wants to make D.C. parks great again. That might be harder than he thinks

If President Trump were standing on the balcony of the White House surveying the city, he probably wouldn’t notice a small plot of land 3.5 miles to the north. And it’s easy to understand why: It isn’t particularly big (only slightly larger than the Rose Garden), it’s hardly monumental or historical, and its name sounds like a cartographical afterthought – Reservation 312I.

But Reservation 312I is his administration’s domain. Owned by the National Park Service, the triangular-shaped site just above Grant Circle in Petworth is one of the hundreds of plots of land that the federal government controls in D.C. Many are large and historic – think National Mall, Rock Creek Park, and the National Arboretum – and others are, well, just like Reservation 312I: small and easy to miss.

But as Trump pledges to make D.C. beautiful again, Reservation 312I stands as a test of whether the president’s campaign will actually address the city as a whole, or just the parts where the tourists and members of Congress tend to wander. The parcel is a popular draw for Petworth families, who have been fighting for NPS to replace a playground that was removed almost two years ago.

The fate of plots of land like Reservation 312I also complicates Trump’s narrative that D.C.’s elected government – run by those dastardly Democrats, of course – is incapable of making the city a national capital all Americans can be proud of. But local officials don’t control 90% of the parkland in the city, and they have complained for years that the federal government has failed to steward its land – or empower the city government to do so instead. 

Historic and architecturally stunning places like Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park, just 1.5 miles due north of the White House, are aging poorly; dozens of fountains owned by the federal government haven’t flowed for years; and popular neighborhood parks can’t get basic amenities or repairs completed without anything short of an act of Congress. (Tough to pull off, since D.C. residents don’t have any voting representation there.) 

Trump isn’t wrong that many parks in D.C. could be greater. But residents and experts tell The 51st that they doubt that he wants to do much more than quickly spruce some of them up and move on, all the while avoiding the thornier issues that make federal parks such a persistent concern for D.C. residents. And actually accomplishing Trump's stated goal will likely take more than some new grass or even a $2 billion investment. In fact, it would probably take a whole lot more money than that – and a willingness by the federal government to admit that maybe D.C. could do a better job itself.

“It’s very analogous to all the other things we’re seeing,” says Rachel Clark, the author of a 2023 report on the state of federal parks in the city. “The federal government is not set up to run the city of Washington, D.C.”

‘It’s very confusing’

To better understand the challenge Trump might face in truly beautifying D.C.’s parks, you need look no further than the map of all the federal parcels in the city: there’s some 360 in all. And while there are outliers like Fort Dupont and Anacostia Park, most of the plots are small – an estimated 70% are less than an acre in size.

All of this, of course, is a product of D.C.’s unique history as the nation’s capital, where the federal government penciled out swaths of land for its uses and to create a monumental city that could rival any European counterpart. But it also resulted in a random mishmash of federal holdings that aren’t particularly monumental or memorable.

The entire grassy median that runs the length of Pennsylvania Avenue SE from the Library of Congress to the Anacostia River is federal. On a roughly 10-block stretch of Maryland Avenue NE, there are eight small triangular-shaped plots of land where the avenue intersects with the regular street grid; all of those are federal, too (and rarely cleared of snow and ice during the winter). If it’s a traffic circle, a rectangular-shaped neighborhood park, or a golf course, it’s most likely owned and operated by Uncle Sam. 

If that weren’t complicated enough, who’s actually responsible for all those federal parcels and parks depends on which NPS superintendency they fall under. And D.C. has a bunch: Rock Creek Park, National Capital Parks East, National Mall and Memorial Parks, the C&O Canal National Historic Park, the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and the White House. 

“Most residents have no idea who owns what, and they don’t know that NPS has such a presence beyond the National Mall,” says Clark. “I have not found a person yet who knows who owns every single thing. Nobody has a completely accurate inventory so things will fall into the cracks.”

‘Neighborhood parks are outside their realm’

Things have certainly fallen into the cracks plenty of times over by Grant Circle and Reservation 312I. 

Residents and elected officials in that part of Petworth complain that grass on those federal parcels isn’t consistently mowed, trees aren’t trimmed, and garbage cans aren’t always emptied. (They also say things have gotten worse due to budget and staffing cuts this year.) One resident who asked not to be named told The 51st that rats have been a recurring issue, and recently one actually bit a resident. (Walk a block away, and the garbage cans owned by D.C. are much more frequently tended to.) This, of course, is particularly ironic, since Trump has criticized D.C. for being “rat-infested.” 

And then there’s the playground that no longer exists. What was once a widely used neighborhood fixture was removed by NPS in January 2023 after residents raised concerns about the aging play structure. But despite repeated requests, the federal agency never replaced it. Some neighbors went as far as trying to scrounge up old playground equipment from DCPS schools that the city might donate, and there was even an unsuccessful effort to get an earmark in a federal spending bill to pay for a new playground to be installed. (Trying to score an earmark for a playground? So damn D.C.) 

Local elected officials say that getting anything done on federal land – whether mowing the grass or getting a new playground – can often take navigating a bewildering bureaucratic thicket.

“It takes a concerted effort by constituents submitting requests, ANC commissioners nudging, everyone getting together until there's like a groundswell,” says Eric Heller, an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for a part of the neighborhood near Grant Circle. “And that's really, really challenging. I think people kind of give up at a certain point.”

It’s no different even in lawmakers’ own backyard. On Capitol Hill, residents have struggled for years to get NPS to address maintenance issues at Lincoln Park – which was both part of Pierre L’Enfant’s original plan for D.C. and is a popular neighborhood draw.

Amber Gove, an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner who represents a portion of the park, ticks off a laundry list of issues that she raises with NPS: a lack of running water fountains, an irrigation system that hasn’t been working for a decade, playgrounds that haven’t been renovated in nearly twenty years. 

And don’t even mention all the dogs. Many owners let their dogs run off leash, which is against NPS rules – and on Tuesday drew the attention of a U.S. Park Police officer, who drove his cruiser into the park and used his loudspeaker to order that they be put on leashes. At the same time, the agency has also rebuffed requests that a formal dog park be created.

“Their mission is to preserve and protect, not provide amazing facilities to use and engage with,” says Gove, adding that while NPS may effectively manage Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, “neighborhood parks are outside their realm.”

Spectacular (dry) fountains

Were Trump, this time standing on the roof of the White House, to look straight up 16th Street NW, he may well just see it: Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park, the picturesque, 12-acre park that occupies an incline running from W Street to Euclid Street. And the park would probably speak to his interests: Built almost 100 years ago in an Italian style by real estate developer Mary Foote Henderson, the site had initially been pitched as a location for the presidential mansion.

It has since been lovingly adopted by D.C. residents – who often refer to it as Malcolm X Park, a name stemming back to it's era of Black activism in the late 1960s. 

“Every weekend it’s packed with people. It’s so many people’s default,” says Miguel Trindade Deramo, the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner who represents the area. “The physical condition of the park, though, is a C-minus. It’s usable. There’s no caution tape up or anything. But we’re getting close to that.”

Deramo says the grass is scruffy and scarred by wheel ruts in places, both from NPS and U.S. Park Police vehicles. (Those federal officers have recently stepped up patrols in the park.) The upper tier is suffering structural issues, while the magnificent cascading fountain and reflecting pool at its base have been dry for years. 

“In my decade in D.C. I’ve seen them working,” Trindade Deramo says. “It’s spectacular.” (So spectacular, in fact, that it made the local news when water started flowing in 2019. It didn’t last long, though; officials turned the water off later that year and, after finding the fountain needed additional fixes, never turned it back on again.)

Persistent funding issues for NPS, though, have delayed a fix; the agency recently said money wouldn’t be available until “at least” the 2027 fiscal year. And it’s certainly not the only water feature that needs to be repaired. According to documents obtained by The 51st from Trump’s D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, which was created in late March, NPS has more than 200 fountains that require repairs worth $125 million – with a smaller high-priority list that would cost taxpayers $37 million. Even the iconic fountain in Dupont Circle is currently not flowing.

In his two terms as ANC, Trindade Deramo has been working to align the proper bureaucracies, personalities, and funding to get more attention for Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park. The work is slow and frustrating, and like his colleagues in Petworth and on Capitol Hill, he says it can easily wear just about anybody down. But he says that while many D.C. residents may recoil at Trump’s politics and the way he has treated D.C., there might be an opening – albeit a narrow one – to take advantage of his sudden interest in beautifying the city.

“I think we could find common ground and get stuff done,” says Trindade Deramo. “For as blunt an instrument as Trump is, he recognizes the value of real estate and beauty and urban design. We could have a conversation, maybe through gritted teeth, ‘This is your property, sir, here’s the bill of what it’s going to take to fix it.’” 

No easy fixes

The challenge, of course, is divining whether Trump truly wants to fix what ails D.C.’s parks – or merely put a quick coat of (gold-colored?) paint on everything and call it a victory. Just about everyone we spoke to for this story leaned towards the latter. And to understand why, Nathan Harrington, the executive director of the Ward 8 Woods Conservancy, told us to look no further than the grass.

That’s what Trump said he wanted to focus on in D.C., after all. "The grass is old, tired, exhausted," he said during a brief visit to Anacostia Park in mid-August. "We're going to be redoing the grass with the finest grasses. I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses. And if you don't have good grass, you're not in business very long."

While that may work for the National Mall and a subset of places like Lincoln Park and Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park, Harrington says it misses the broader complexity of the types of federal lands, parks, and parcels that D.C. boasts.

“Anyone who knows about urban parks knows that grass is not what makes a great park. It doesn’t provide the ecosystem services that forests or wetlands or meadows provide,” he says. “If your view of parks is nice lawns, that’s inadequate.” 

Clark adds that residents’ needs get the short shrift. “The federally controlled parks don’t have the amenities people want to see and there’s no community engagement,” she says. 

Over the years, D.C. and NPS have found middle-of-the-road solutions in some cases – often involving giving residents or the city more power over federal parks. The Friends of Lincoln Park, for example, works to pick up the slack for projects that NPS may not have funding for (the group has recently been running a fundraiser for the $20,000 needed to bring water back to fountains and the irrigation system). Over at Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park, Washington Parks and People runs frequent trash cleanups. Up in Grant Circle, NPS has largely turned a blind eye to local efforts to brighten up the space – including those by Petworth Blooms, which has slowly been clearing out shrubs and planting new flowers. 

There have also been more formal efforts to let D.C. gain more control over federal parkland – and improve it. One of the most famous recent examples is downtown’s Franklin Square Park, which reopened in 2021 after a $21 million refresh – paid for by the city (and after a literal act of Congress.) There’s also the Georgetown Waterfront, a former piece of federal land that was only transformed after three decades of local organizing and fundraising – and an assist from a U.S. senator who lived nearby, of course. Poplar Point, a 110-acre park on the eastern side of the Anacostia River, could soon be transferred to D.C. – nearly twenty years after the process started.

Could Trump move to give D.C. more control over some of the city’s federal parks and parcels? Republicans helped make that happen over at RFK, where a new Commanders stadium will be built. But such efforts are complicated and fickle. And while a document The 51st obtained showed NPS considering transferring “over 50 small, isolated federal parcels” to the city (to “enhance long-term maintenance outcomes”), a D.C. official with knowledge of the matter tells us nothing formal has moved forward.

“Even a stopped clock is right twice a day,” says Harrington about Trump’s interest in beautifying D.C. parks. “If they decide they want to decentralize the control over parkland and return it to the people of Washington, I will not oppose that.”

But most assume that what Trump is offering is band-aid solutions, like using the National Guard to pick up trash in federal parks. (As of Sept. 2, the Guard has reportedly gathered 677 bags of trash and five truckloads of plant waste.) Harrington says that while he appreciates their efforts – they recently collected trash at Pope Branch Park in Ward 7 – they aren’t sustainable over the long run. 

“If Trump is serious about the D.C. park system, some of the things he should be doing is full funding for NPS,” he says. But Trump instead unleashed DOGE on the agency earlier this year, resulting in significant cuts. (We asked to speak to someone at NPS for this story, but were directed to the White House, which did not respond to us.) 

That point was similarly made by Mayor Muriel Bowser in a letter she sent to the White House in April, noting that the city was eager to partner with federal agencies to enhance public spaces, but “challenges persist on NPS properties where reduced staffing has impacted trash collection, graffiti removal, and overall maintenance.” That, she adds, only creates more “safety concerns.” In a sense, the federal failures to maintain their parks can create public safety issues that Trump seems to be blaming D.C. for.

Bowser has said more recently that she supports Trump’s pledge of $2 billion to fix up D.C.’s parks. But even that amount provokes skepticism about whether he really understands what he’s getting into. “The amount he’s proposing is enough to do deferred maintenance and not to make any improvements beyond that,” says Clark, who notes that NPS’s tab for deferred maintenance in D.C. is already $1.6 billion – the third highest in the country by state. “It’s pretty staggering,” she adds.

Ultimately, Trindade Deramo says that he’s not holding his breath for anything. 

“We take everything with a huge block of salt,” he says. “If federal attention can be focused on local stuff, I am here for it… If they are going to come and make a lot of noise and use us as a punching bag, we’re not here for that.”