Our Founding Fathers created a democracy that allows us to thrive as a business community,
with freedom to choose our course of work and how we conduct our business. These freedoms,
and the leaders who secured them, are honored across the 700 acres of the National Mall.
Unfortunately, the National Mall currently is in dire need of repair: Its problems include
badly damaged lawns, a sinking sea wall around the Tidal Basin and inadequate signage,
restrooms and food facilities. Washington business leaders need to provide leadership
in fixing and restoring this great treasure.
The Trust for the National Mall, an organization I founded and chair, was launched last
month as the official partner of the National Park Service and the Department of Interior
to help raise the necessary funds to repair the National Mall. The trust is a public/private
partnership, like the Central Park Conservancy in New York, which has restored a crime-ridden
park to world-class status.
Washington's business leaders have a long tradition of creating a vibrant and thriving
atmosphere in our nation's capital: like the Sauls, whose family helped build the Mall,
the Carrs, Cafritzes, Benders and Smiths who helped build the city, the Marriotts and
Bainums and others who house the thousands of visitors to Washington and the countless
other business leaders who have made their livelihoods here. For those of us who live
here, the National Mall is in our backyard. But it is truly America's Front Yard and
needs the national leadership of the D.C. business community to repair and protect it.
Chip Akridge, founder and chairman of D.C.-based commercial real estate firm Akridge,
is chairman of the Trust for the National Mall
