I & I Editorial BoardEarlier this year, there was a frenzy about the Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
President Donald Trump wanted to clean up what was mostly a fetid swamp, and decided to paint the bottom of the pool a royal blue, in part to help seal cracks but also because, why not?
“Critics” went beserk, saying, as CNN reported, that “the Reflecting Pool will look more like a swimming pool, with the shine of a country club, like the president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida … — and that the pool will actually be less reflective.”
“It’s not supposed to look like you’re going to dive in and swim; it is intended to reflect the great geometry of the classical temple that is the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument,” said Judy Scott Feldman, of the National Mall Coalition, a nonprofit that helps protect the area’s legacy.
“It wasn’t intended as a place that looks jolly like your local golf course,” Feldman added.
A lawsuit filed against the paint job said, “The new coloration will cause the pool to resemble a large swimming pool rather than the reflective civic landscape it was designed to be, distorting the experience of the site for the millions of visitors who come to it each year.”
The Washington Post quoted Charles Birnbaum – “a renowned expert in landscape architecture” – saying that “painting the basin blue would cause it to compete for attention and fundamentally alter the existing harmony, solemnity, and dignity of the current memorial landscape.”
Early photos showed a light blue paint color, without making it clear that this was just an undercoat. The final coat is a much darker blue.
In any case, now the work is done and the pool is filled up.
Was the freakout worth it?
One District resident told NPR that “The more water it fills, the more similar it looks [to before].”
USA Today said that “When water began to trickle back into the pool on Thursday, it was evident the pool did not resemble a swimming pool, (but) once again showed reflections of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial in both directions.”
So, naturally, the complaints have shifted to the $13 million price tag.
Of course, left unsaid is that the Obama administration spent $34 million and two years refurbishing the pool (which, by the way, included a new, tinted bottom – try to find any story freaking out about that), only to see it quickly overcome with algae and continue to leak.
This is how it goes. Trump does something. Everyone freaks out. The results don’t justify the panic. The TDS brigade moves onto the next freak-out.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
You don’t even have to read the Wash. Post article. It is an anti-Trump newspaper so of course it is going to find an “expert” that disagrees on the pedigree and loveliness of the Reflecting Pool.
The same with CNN, only it didn’t hire an “expert” (financial conditions, at the news site, being what they are).
DJT was one of the most-if not the preeminent-realtor and builder in the world. However, I’ll listen to one of the “experts” who decries the new pool. She, of course, is not a billionaire-but she is associated with a non-profit.
One more thing, you would think that the patina of “the experts” had been sanded off after COVID (where the “experts” said masks and Zoom learning was a good thing) and the COVID vaccine (which “experts” lauded as safe and effective).
Maybe the Wash. Post and CNN (and, perhaps, the renowned “expert” on old and worn out things), all three, could use a good gander at their own reflection
Well worth looking at a recent video of DC residents saying how wonderful it is to have the city’s fountains and sculptures cleaned and now filled with water after decades of being empty, covered in graffiti and filed with trash and homeless camps. They attribute all of this change to Trump and they praise him!
I’m wondering if Trump Derangement Syndrome is curable.
When they die.
Apparently not. Much like CJD or Alzheimers, the brain is permanently altered. They are one step closer to “walking dead” humanoids.
The reflecting pool is full of algae and workers are dumping bleach into it today.
This article aged like milk. Paint is already peeling off and floating to the top. The real question is who got the $14MM and why was it a no-bid contract? Those are illegal.