Delegate Says 'Have a Heart': Lift Sledding Ban on Capitol Hill

Children and the young at heart in Washington, D.C., hoping to sled down the slopes of Capitol Hill on the snowiest snow days of the year, had their hopes dashed when a spokesman confirmed Wednesday a ban on sledding will stand.

The Washington, D.C. area is under a Winter Storm Warning and is expected to get as much as 8 inches of snow Thursday. Perfect for sledding.

“If the forecast holds true, there are many families who will want to enjoy the snow tomorrow. Although, for security reasons, the Capitol grounds are not your typical neighborhood hill or playground,” Frank J. Larkin, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms and chairman of the Capitol Police Board, said in a statement Wednesday as the DC area awaited yet another snowfall.

Police are enforcing a regulation created long ago that has not always been enforced: “It shall be the duty of the Capitol police on and after April 29, 1876, to prevent any portion of the Capitol Grounds and terraces from being used as playgrounds or otherwise, so far as may be necessary to protect the public property, turf and grass from destruction or injury,” the regulation reads.

Officials have typically not enforced this policy until last month, when “a congressional grump complained,” the Washington Post reported. The newspaper noted that former Sen. Chris Dodd was able to “muscle a waiver back in 2010 so he could take his daughters sledding.”

But DC snow lovers have a champion in DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who did her best to open the slopes, asking for the ban to be set aside from Thursday to Sunday.

“This could be the last snowstorm the D.C. area gets this winter, and may be one of the best for sledding in years,” Norton wrote in a letter to Larkin. “Children and their parents should able to enjoy sledding on one of the best hills in the city. This is a one-time waiver that will allow D.C. kids to sled while we await a more formal review of the ban, which will likely come after the last snow has fallen in our region.

“Have a heart, Mr. Larkin,” Norton wrote, “a kid’s heart that is.”

Could there be some wiggle room? Although the Capitol Police traffic regulations state: “No person shall coast or slide a sled within Capitol Grounds,” the Capitol Police Board, comprised of Larkin; Architect of the Capitol Stephen T. Ayers; House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul D. Irving; and Capitol Police Chief Kim C. Dine, also have the ability to “waive any restriction or prohibition contained in these regulations.”

Protestors are planning a “sled in” at 1 p.m. today. Follow the controversy on Twitter: #SledFreeOrDie

Stay tuned.

PHOTO of U.S. Capitol courtesy of the Architect of the Capitol’s Office

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