The Nationwide Park Service and the US Park Police introduced that they are going to shut Dupont Circle Park between 5 AM Friday and 6 PM Sunday, a window that coincides with a number of celebrations throughout WorldPride, together with DC’s Delight Parade.
The choice follows a curler coaster of occasions. NPS introduced plans to shut the park on Monday night. On Tuesday morning the Washington Put up reported that the Park Service had canceled plans to shut the park, citing a tweet from DC Councilmember Zachary Parker. Paperwork confirmed that the DC police requested the closure, then rescinded the request.
However unusually, from my perspective as an appreciator of native Park Service spokesperson Mike Litterst’s sterling report of responsiveness to even my dumbest emails, the Park Service remained silent throughout my many makes an attempt to verify whether or not NPS would honor the cops’ second request. On Friday morning, Litterst despatched a “Report of Dedication” that features paperwork that present why the businesses say they determined to shut the park anyway. No assertion accompanied the e-mail.
The Park Police say that of their “skilled opinion this closure is critical for the upkeep of public well being and security and safety of pure and cultural sources in Dupont Circle Park,” citing “a number of situations of injury to park sources” in 2019, 2023, and 2024, the identical years cited by the DC cops of their letters, in keeping with a letter from Nationwide Mall and Memorials Park Superintendent Kevin Griess. (The cops solely despatched Washingtonian Chief Pamela Smith’s rescission request this week; NPS helpfully included the police’s earlier letter, dated April 22, which requested for the closure.)
In response to a letter from Main Frank Hilsher of the Park Police’s Icon Safety Department, Smith’s subsequent request “doesn’t present any treatment or options to the numerous quantity of legal exercise and useful resource destruction that has traditionally been dedicated in Dupont Circle Park throughout DC Delight weekend, or the big pressure on legislation enforcement sources that might be remedied by a park closure with anti-scale fence.” Holster writes, “I proceed to utterly concur with Chief Smith’s first evaluation.”
Hilsher writes that in keeping with open-source intelligence, the Park Police have “recognized a neighborhood DJ promoting and promoting tickets to an unpermitted gathering/social gathering in Dupont Circle following World Delight occasions.” He continues:
This occasion is just not sanctioned by the official World Delight group and has not individually utilized for a allow that might allow the NPS to handle the occasion in such a approach that it protects attendees, bystanders, and the cultural sources in Dupont Circle. This social media commercial is stating that this is identical DJ and “social gathering” because the earlier a number of years, which have resulted within the unsafe situations and damages recounted above.
The Park Service has historically taken a lenient stance towards what it calls “First Modification actions” within the space, and infrequently writes permits on the spot for unpermitted demonstrations. In response to the specter of such a celebration, anti-scale fencing will encompass the park all weekend. You possibly can learn the Park Service’s paperwork under.
Dupont Circle Report of Dedication 06.05.25 by Washingtonian Journal on Scribd
