The politics of the Malcolm X Park fountain

What D.C. Can’t Stop Talking About…

The latest on the stories taking over your group chats, social media feeds and happy hours.

Yesterday, I took a stroll around what some are calling D.C.’s hottest new club: Malcolm X Park. I asked locals what the restoration of the iconic fountain means to them, and I spoke with city and federal officials to learn more about the politics behind the repairs.

Here’s the top of my article:

As D.C. began to feel its first hints of summer heat this weekend, people flocked to Malcolm X Park to watch water flow from the fountain that had sat dry for seven years. Toddlers splashed in the reflecting pool, dogs lapped at the water, and sunbathers listened to the cascade from the fountain’s 13 basins.

The National Park Service reopened the park’s lower plaza on May 14, filling the Italianate cascading fountain and reflecting pool with water for the first time since 2019. The $16 million renovation to the park is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to repair nine long-defunct D.C. fountains ahead of America’s 250th anniversary celebration this summer. It also plans to update nine other fountains across the city.

The restoration has brought with it the usual political debate over the federal management and control of D.C. The repairs are certainly a win for President Donald Trump, as a White House press release Tuesday declared the fountain “an emblem of rebirth” that symbolizes “rekindling national pride” and “a rejection of mediocrity.” D.C. residents, who overwhelmingly voted against Trump, have had to begrudgingly admit that in a city where nearly 90 percent of park land is owned by the federal government, the Trump administration holds the key to whether community hubs like Malcolm X Park or Dupont Circle have a working fountain.

Those mixed feelings were evident when I interviewed residents there Tuesday morning, many of whom took issue with Trump’s characterization of the city as marred by crime and crumbling infrastructure.

"It’s not because he loves D.C. people, it’s because he wants to show off," said Florence Navarro, 60, referring to the president. “But thank you.”

The Plot Thickens

As the story develops, I’ll bring you updates on a topic that has been driving the D.C. conversation.

Could a viral brawl at a Navy Yard Chipotle mean the end of D.C. Home Rule? Likely not, but Republican Sen. Mike Lee thinks it should.

The debate over “teen takeovers” and youth curfews reached a fever pitch this past week when U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro announced she would crack down on parents, and a video showed teens throwing chairs at each other at a Chipotle as young children cowered nearby. The melee captured on video caught the attention of national media, and right-wing pundits are seizing on it to suggest D.C. is unable to govern itself. The FBI is helping local police investigate the brawl, and offering a $5,000 reward for information resulting in an arrest.

Nearly a month ago, I wrote that teen takeovers have become a fixation for Trump administration officials, D.C. leaders and local residents alike. If it was a fixation then, now it's an all-out obsession.

The D.C. Council passed a long-term version of the curfew last month, but has thrice tabled a vote on an emergency curfew bill, seemingly to avoid officially rejecting the bill and giving federal officials ammo to call the council soft-on-crime. But they’ve drawn plenty of ire anyway. The Chipotle fight occurred around 8:40 p.m., according to D.C. police. If the emergency bill had passed, the police chief could have declared a curfew in Navy Yard barring groups of nine or more teens from gathering after 8 p.m.

Pirro lambasted the council at a press conference Monday, during which she displayed a poster with the council member’s phone numbers and urged the public to call and demand an immediate curfew vote. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a proponent of the curfew, has also publicly disapproved of the council’s inaction on the emergency vote. And D.C.’s leading mayoral candidates, Kenyan McDuffie (in support of the curfew) and Janeese Lewis George (against), have capitalized on the debate to score political points.

The D.C. Council’s next legislative session is scheduled for June 2. They could do as Pirro says and call an emergency legislative session before then to vote, but unless one of the five holdouts changes their minds to give the council a supermajority, it seems unlikely.

My Latest Side Quest

Field notes from my most recent D.C. adventure.

It feels like every week my feed is dominated by a different look-alike contest: Timothée Chalamet in New York, Harry Styles in London, Jeremy Allen White in Chicago. D.C. has hosted its own versions – of course D.C. chose to focus on two different members of the Kennedy family – but our city has often gotten a bad rep for not being hot enough. That might be changing.

On Saturday, I headed to Wunder Garten in NoMa to witness D.C. crown its very own Scott and Kip look-alikes from Heated Rivalry, the gay hockey romance phenomenon. The competition was a much-anticipated follow-up to the Shane and Ilya look-alike contest last month that blew up after the winners shared a steamy shirtless kiss, then went on an 8-hour date the next day.

Making out turned out to be the key to success: winners Joey Scully (Kip) and Kyle Lazzaro (Scott) both stripped their shirts and shared a smooch, resulting in a win that earned them $100, a round of drinks, and tickets to a D.C. United game and a free show at Broadway at the National – not to mention some great lore.

When I asked the Scott and Kip look-alikes if love was in the air, I was interrupted by our Scott-doppelganger’s husband of 10 years. Awkward! Forgive me, the three lip locks I had observed just moments before had me thinking that might be a valid question.