Sunday, December 6, 1998

White House renovations would create new problems

The White House -- and this is a difficult concept for the National Park Service to grasp -- is just fine as it is.

Ever since the British torched it in 1814, the White House has endured numerous well-meaning attempts to make it an imperial palace, most recently in 1995 when, under the guise of security, the feds closed Pennsylvania Avenue and blocked off other nearby streets with concrete barriers.

Now the Park Service is back with a more '90s threat: A $300 million plan to turn the White House and its grounds into a presidential theme park, much of it underground.

Tourists would gather in an underground visitors center and travel to and from the White House via tunnel. The White House staff would get two large underground parking garages.

The first family, whose quarters are said to be cramped, would get a new combination den, gym and entertainment center, also underground. The problem of hauling in tables, chairs and catering equipment for every large reception and dinner would also be solved by a network of tunnels.

Wrong approach

The park service is trying to solve small, and perhaps insolvable, problems by creating larger problems.

In Washington, power is measured by proximity; that's why a converted closet down the hall from the Oval Office is infinitely more desirable than a high-ceilinged suite with a fireplace in the Executive Office Building across the driveway. As long as we have only one president at a time, no amount of tunnels and underground parking will make access any easier.

The simple physical fact is that in the height of tourist season not everyone can see the White House. It's a logistical miracle that 1.2 million a year already do.

Not an amusement park

Unlike Disney World, the White House is not an attraction that can be expanded to meet tourist demand. It is a very historic, fairly small building that cannot be changed. That's part of what makes it special.

If entertaining is such a problem, do what European royalty would do and build a beautiful state banqueting and reception hall on one of those wasteland sites overlooking the Potomac that Washington is always trying to develop.

The family quarters may indeed be cramped -- not that any presidential candidate has ever complained -- but spacious Camp David is only a short helicopter ride away.

The National Park Service will ask the public for comment. When it does, say no.