Years of wrangling, $1.7M needed to fix crumbling park in heart of D.C.

Thanks to the military spending bill signed into law in December 2014, Pershing Park in Washington, D.C., is set to get a major makeover. And it can't come soon enough for one of the companies that owns the Willard Hotel, a District landmark located across the street from the run-down memorial. Redesignated as the World War I Memorial by a provision of the 697-page Defense authorization package, the 1.76-acre, trapezoid-shaped park was formed on top of a traffic island between E Street and Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest and is a short walk from the White House. The amphitheater-style plaza has fallen into disrepair since it was opened in 1981 to honor Gen. John J. Pershing, who led the American armed forces to victory over Germany in World War I. To advocates of the National Park Service, which is in charge of managing the site, it is a microcosm of the broader funding challenges facing the agency: Congress has grand plans for the revamped memorial but promises no new funding. Meanwhile, the decaying park is another line item in NPS's yawning $11.5 billion deferred maintenance backlog...more