Sadly, the National Mall, and the National Mall Coalition, lost a champion and friend with the recent death of Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor of The Washington Post. Fred generously provided us op-ed space, and he promoted our biggest ideas over the years. Early on, in 2003, he published our op-ed, “We Must Save America’s Mall.” In 2005, his personal op-ed promoted our idea to “Let the Mall Grow” — to expand the Mall boundaries to provide new locations for future public activities, museums, and monuments.
By the time we met with him and The Post’s Editorial Board again 2008, with “Appalled by the Mall,” he agreed with the Coalition that fragmented management resulted in uncoordinated development, and that the solution was for Congress to create a new McMillan-type Commission to plan the Mall’s long-range future.
And Fred was an early, enthusiastic champion of our National Mall Underground in “One Fix for Three Problems.” When heavy rains flooded the Mall in July 2019, he once again provided op-ed space for the Coalition to make our call for urgent action.
The Coalition mourns Fred’s untimely death. Our condolences to his family, to his Post colleagues, and to all of us who benefited from his far-reaching openness to all ideas, including new and unconventional ones.
Tags: National Mall, National Mall Coalition, Washington Post
