● The barricading of the U.S. Capitol,
after years of stepped-up security in
D.C., fuels the push for statehood● By Amanda Kolson Hurley
Library of Congress, and the U.S. Botanic Garden. It cuts off
main thoroughfares, effectively severing areas east of the
Capitol from downtown and the west of the city.
Pierre Charles L’Enfant planned Washington in 1791 as the
embodiment of American democracy, with its two poles, the
Capitol and the White House, each visible from the other,
an architectural check on one branch of government gain-
ing too much power. Now both are unapproachable and
half hidden behind fortifications. Resentment over the cor-
doning off of the “people’s house” is feeding into the D.C.
statehood movement—which, with the Democrats in charge
of the White House and both houses of Congress, now has
its most promising (if still narrow) political window ever.
Tim Krepp, a tour organizer who’s lived in the Capitol Hill
neighborhood since 2001, acknowledges the prudence of a
short-term fence at the Capitol but says there is “absolutely
no appetite” in his community for a permanent one. “This
is a wall for us,” he says. He’s not sure how his children will
get to school once in-person classes resume.
Emergency vehicles have to make a detour around the
fenced compound, costing critical time, says Charles Allen,
the D.C. council member for Ward 6, a swath of the city
that abuts the Capitol. Besides that, locals have lost cher-
ished green spaces where they took walks and relaxed, such
as the Capitol grounds laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, the
designer of New York’s Central Park. “For those of us that live
here, it’s a part of our neighborhood,” Allen says.
District residents are upset at the loss, but notIn the days after the Jan. 6 insurrection, a 7-foot-high fence
topped with coils of razor wire went up around the U.S.
Capitol in Washington. It was described as a temporary mea-
sure to protect the seat of Congress for a month or longer. But
on Jan. 28, Yogananda Pittman, the acting head of the U.S.
Capitol Police, called for making the fence permanent, citing
the need for “vast improvements” to security.
Even with the recent violence fresh in their minds, D.C.’s
elected leaders denounced the idea. Mayor Muriel Bowser
tweeted that the city “will not accept” a long-term fence.
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s nonvoting
congresswoman, introduced a bill to block it. (The D.C. gov-
ernment has no jurisdiction over the Capitol grounds, which
are federal territory, so Bowser can’t simply tell Pittman no.)
Local citizens bristled. An online petition against the plan had
garnered more than 20,000 signatures as of Feb. 23.
Patrolled by National Guard troops, the current fence
is about 3 miles around, encompassing not just the Capitol
but adjacent landmarks such as the U.S. Supreme Court, the◼ REMARKS
Fortress
Washington
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