Fencing going up near Columbus Circle at Union Station in January 2021. Fencing going up in January by Elvert Barnes licensed under Creative Commons.

For more than a year, public life in DC has been gradually drained. First COVID-19 made it unsafe to congregate or interact with people outside our “bubbles.” Over summer 2020, authorities responded to widespread demonstrations by shutting off access to some of our most iconic public squares and parks. On January 6, the physical foundations of our cherished democratic institutions were egregiously assaulted, prompting even greater restrictions to places like the Capitol.

In recent weeks, the security landscape has begun to shift, with authorities removing some fences and making moves on others. Some of us felt a cautious optimism while others fretted that the shock of the Capitol attacks would underpin ongoing restrictions and “security theater” as opposed to tackling the root causes. On April 2, a driver crashed into the fencing around the Capitol, sadly killing a US Capitol Police Officer, and tempering hopes that the new fencing (which didn’t protect the officer) might be eventually removed.

Fences don’t necessarily provide security

But better security doesn’t necessarily mean more and stronger fencing that keeps the public out of important spaces for gathering or indeed simply seeing our democratic landmarks up close. Just as hygiene theater distracts from important, actual transmission routes for the coronavirus, security theater can distract from difficult, detailed, and multi-sectoral work (such as public health, education, community support) that’s needed to address the root causes of terrorism.

Law enforcement says that Friday’s attack was related to underlying mental health issues, which, as a society-wide public health issue, will only have been exacerbated by the pandemic and accompanying loneliness. No doubt fences are easier to build and manage. But if this pandemic has taught us anything, it should be that we can’t hide from systemic problems forever.

A Washington Post editorial on improving security after Friday’s attack focused squarely on structural and agency changes, not physical barriers that cannot think or respond to developing threats. This echoed similar themes to a GGWash call in January for the eventual restoration of DC’s public spaces, once the imminent threat had receded. The restoration has been partial, which is a problem: an equitable, sustainable recovery — in which important, enjoyable human interactions can freely occur — will require more accessible public space than before, not less.

Good fences and bad neighbors

As physical barriers have changed around iconic public spaces, locals have documented the progress with a mix of joy and confusion.

Capitol Hill was famously fenced off right after the January 6 attacks, with eye-catching razor wire.

East Capitol Street fencing by Joe Flood licensed under Creative Commons.

It’s been the source of demonstrations to restore access to the public space.

Demonstrations to take down security fencing by Joe Flood licensed under Creative Commons.

The fence was slightly augmented after last Friday’s attack.

The Ellipse near the White House is one area that briefly seemed to open up to the public…

The Ellipse the next morning…

The Ellipse has reopened by Joe Flood licensed under Creative Commons.

But as one fence came down, another (smaller, less obtrusive) fence seemed to go up.

The National Parks Service announced in late March that roads around the Tidal Basin area would be closed to automobile traffic, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy the cherry blossoms safely.

Spirit of Justice Park is back open for business - though this is one of the harder green spaces to access on foot.

And Bartholdi park, a flowery, classical garden near the Botanical Gardens, opened up to the joy of users.

Image by David Raboy used with permission.

A look at the geographical locations of these areas reminds us of where public spaces are, and aren’t. There are a lot more safe public spaces in wards 1-6, something GGWash has written about as a massive disparity in terms of who’s invited to have public life and who is discouraged. We should take this reminder of how valuable such spaces are as a call to expand more of them in lower-income parts of the district as a recovery priority. It’s not just the economy that will need rebuilding as the pandemic period draws to a close; society needs room to breathe too.

Public life needs public space

Public space is one of our most precious assets as a city. As an ANC once reflected about a years-long spat over a pocket park in my neighborhood (truly a story for another day), “public space is one thing they aren’t making more of.”

Access to space provides a physical narrative of what and who we value. Whether people can mix with each other on a human, non-digital level correlates with their social capital: relationships that allow a society to function well.

Will fencing stop the madness of politically-induced violence, or are those attacks symptoms of wider social ills that will return in other ways? The answer is probably usually a mix. But it’s not ambiguous that every fence that comes down paves the way for human interactions that we eventually need to come back. Because engaging with someone from six feet away is a lot better than across a fence.

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Tagged: capitol, parks, public spaces

Caitlin Rogger is deputy executive director at Greater Greater Washington. Broadly interested in structural determinants of social, economic, and political outcomes in urban settings, she worked in public health prior to joining GGWash. She lives in Capitol Hill.