Thank you for the Nov. 20 front-page article “The deadliest roads in America,” about how the number of pedestrians killed by vehicles in the United States has surged. As someone who has lived in D.C. for decades and observes our traffic as both a pedestrian and driver, I can attest that walking on city streets is both maddening and frightening.
Many drivers run yellow and red lights. Speeding and aggressive driving are also out of control. I live on Connecticut Avenue, about a mile south of Chevy Chase Circle. Clearly, many view their commutes as a race. Large passenger vehicles thunder up and down the road, and trucks and large commercial vehicles add to the mayhem.
The District has speed cameras, stop lights at pedestrian crosswalks and other safety measures, but the mentality of the average driver needs to change. Double-parking is routine and turn-signals are rarely used.
Sharon Kershbaum, director of the D.C. Department of Transportation, summed the problem up in the the Feb. 23 Metro article “Region is twice as deadly for pedestrians as a decade ago.” The article noted: “The vast majority of deaths last year — nearly 80 percent — ‘were tied to reckless and antisocial behavior’ that is difficult to combat through engineering alone.”
Robert Trimble, Washington
How to make the Mall friendlier to tourists
More than 30 million people visit the National Mall every year. And about 1.5 million people come to visit the Cherry Blossoms during the festival alone. If you go down to the Lincoln Memorial or any of the Smithsonians, you will see crowds of people as far as the eye can see. Therefore, you might be surprised to learn that the streets surrounding the Mall dedicate similar amounts of space for parked cars and pedestrians.
Constitution Avenue runs along the north edge of the Mall, separating the Washington Monument from the White House and the Federal Triangle Metro stop from the museums. You might think, given the circumstances, that this would not be a place to shove a busy road through. Access to transit should be prioritized, as it is the most efficient way to transport these large crowds. Yet, millions of tourists each year are forced to cross eight lanes of traffic to get to D.C.’s most iconic destinations, sending the message that we value cars more than people. The streets must be downsized, and the easiest way to do so is by removing the parking lanes.
Retaining curbside parking preserves a low-value use that serves only a handful of drivers while imposing noise, danger and delay on everyone else.
Removing these spots would reflect how the Mall is actually used. By reallocating just a few feet of roadway, the National Mall can become a more welcoming, accessible and people-oriented place.
Kazim Hall, Washington
Phillips Collection sale erases trust
The decision by Phillips Collection leaders to sell some of its major works, as discussed in the Nov. 15 front-page article “Upcoming auction of Phillips masterpieces draws backlash,”represents a profound breach of trust between the museum and the public, and it chips away the seminal legacy of Duncan Phillips.
Jonathan Binstock, the director and CEO of the Phillips Collection, sits on the board of the American Association of Museum Directors. Transparency is one of the criteria for deaccessioning, according to the AAMD. But the public found out about the 18-month dispute over the sale only just this month.
I know these paintings intimately; I supervised the photography of every work for the Summary Catalogue. Selling core pieces after only two years of new leadership without a clear scholarly or curatorial rationale breaks with the museum’s founding vision. Phillips built the collection as an interconnected whole. To dismantle those artist units and pairings that define the museum’s character is to weaken the identity that draws visitors in the first place.
This sale trades a century of vision for a moment of convenience. In a city surrounded by individuals and institutions capable of raising far more than the $10 million to $15 million sought, the choice to liquidate the heart of the collection reflects a failure of imagination, not a lack of opportunity.
Institutions such as the Frick Collection, the Barnes Foundation, and the Morgan Library & Museum show that preserving foundational holdings does not preclude supporting contemporary work. Using irreplaceable masterpieces to fund acquisitions is not stewardship; it erases the very essence of the Phillips.
Janet P. Bruce, Brookneal
A better place for Teddy
When my beloved Yorkshire Terrier, Teddy, died, I had him cremated and paid a gravedigger $400 to surreptitiously bury him on my father’s plot in Minnesota, fearing local condemnation for burying an animal in a human cemetery. That was long before I discovered Aspin Hill Memorial Park in Maryland, which I used to drive by every day on my way to work.
I later became more curious about the eight-acre burial site that holds more than 50,000 pets and 55 humans.
For years, I took family members and guests to Aspin Hill to visit two grave sites: one for J. Edgar Hoover’s pets and the one for Gypsy, a capuchin monkey belonging to Eddie Bernstein, who worked as a legless panhandler in D.C. for decades and whom I remember seeing when I first came to the city.
Thus, I so appreciated the Nov. 16 Travel article “Pet memorials help us heal.” If I had known of Aspin Hill earlier in my life, Teddy would be buried there instead of lying alone among humans. If he were buried at Aspin Hill, I could regularly pay my respects and give thanks to the best little friend I had for 17 years.
Kathy A. Megyeri, Washington
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