Norton Calls on NPS to Improve National Mall Experience by Allowing Food Trucks and Providing Sitting Areas in the Shade

Statement

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released a set of questions that she sent today to National Parks Service (NPS) Associate Director of Business Services Lena McDowall regarding ways to improve visitor enjoyment on the National Mall following last week's Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing examining current NPS concessions policies. Norton asked McDowall to permit food trucks on the Mall in order to diversify and update the current food options. She also requested that McDowall work with her on a public-private partnership to place tables and chairs in shady spots on the Mall so residents and visitors can sit and fully enjoy it as a park.

"The Mall is not a static national treasure like a painting," Norton said. "It is a unique park in the nation's capital that receives millions of District residents and other visitors annually. Allowing food trucks to operate on the Mall and providing residents and visitors with tables, chairs and benches in the shade would go a long way toward enhancing the Mall experience. This is not too much to ask, particularly considering the extraordinary rehabilitation the Trust for the National Mall is already undertaking. The visitor enhancement I am asking for could be accomplished while that work is occurring without cost to NPS."

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