It was as ideal a fall weekend as anyone in D.C. could hope for — sunny, mild and with only a light breeze — and the crowds at East Potomac Park reflected that.
Golfers played rounds on the 106-year-old municipal course as bird-watchers ambled along the perimeter with their eyes and binoculars trained on trees in the distance. A group of cyclists gathered to attempt what one admitted was a “bucket-list item” — a 100-mile ride around the island. There was a 5K run for Oakwood University’s class of 1997, fishermen cast their lines into the Washington Channel, and a group of men set up camping seats in a parking spot just to chat.
For some, it was just a chance to enjoy the beautiful fall weather. For others, it was something more.
“I’m down here because I wanted to protest this attempted takeover. I’m so angry about it. There’s so many awful things that this administration is doing, but this cuts somehow differently,” said Krista Riddley, a Maryland resident and member of the DMV Caribbean Ridazz cycling club.
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But Riddley’s anger over President Donald Trump’s plans to close East Potomac Park so he can renovate the golf course — and in the process largely demolish Ohio Drive, the perimeter road popular with runners, walkers, cyclists and drivers looking to access Hains Point, the picturesque southern tip of the island — also mixed with another emotion: an unplanned desire to say goodbye.
“I was like, ‘I’ve got to do some laps because I don’t know when this is going to end,’” she said.
Those sometimes conflicting emotions — simmering anger and wistful sadness — have only become more pronounced over the last week, as Trump has barreled forward with his plans to close East Potomac Park on Nov. 15 to “build a World Class Championship Golf Course on the site of the current East Potomac Golf Links,” as he wrote on Truth Social last month.
The popular golf course seems likeliest to shutter that day; the National Park Service recently announced it had severed its partnership with the nonprofit National Links Trust to operate the course. But whether Trump manages to close off all of East Potomac Park to its many other users remains an unsettled question, and one that’s currently fueling activism and the legal fight waged against it.
“The goal right now is to make sure it doesn’t get shut down,” said Rebecca Miller, the executive director of the D.C. Preservation League, one of the plaintiffs in ongoing litigation over Trump’s ever-evolving plans for the island. To that end, her attorneys are planning to ask for a temporary restraining order this week in hopes of keeping public access to East Potomac Park while the legal battle plays out.
The growing expectation that Trump will engineer a way to close East Potomac, regardless of residents’ best efforts, brought hundreds of people to the park on Saturday for a protest organized by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.
Protesters held signs — “Don’t Oligarchize East Potomac,” “Corrupt (Tiny) Hands Off Hains Point,” “No Gilded Golf Course” and “Golf Balls Don’t Hurt People, Selfish Presidents Do” — and wore costumes, both to make a point and to celebrate Halloween. One woman was a “park deranger” with the “National Park Disservice,” a man with an oversized 20-pound Trump head drew laughs and boos, and there were multiple people dressed up like the Lorax, a famed Dr. Seuss character who “speaks for the trees.”
“I think this is pretty on the nose for all the trees coming down, so I wanted to speak for them,” said Hannah Dighton, a D.C. resident, triathlete, and Lorax, referencing the recent felling of hundreds of trees by the National Park Service that drew an angry rebuke from the federal judge overseeing the lawsuit against Trump’s plans.
One protest sign read: “I’m the Lorax who speaks for the trees, which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please! Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
Over the weekend, park users conceded one point made by Trump: East Potomac needs work, notably the seawall surrounding the island. It is slowly sinking, leading to flooding during periods of heavy rainfall or high tides.
“You can repair the seawall, you can close off Hains Point temporarily to make things safer, but you don’t have to turn the park into a one-use location after that,” said Megan Jones, an Arlington resident and longtime cyclist who from 2012 to 2019 organized an annual New Year’s Day 100-mile ride around the island.
According to a filing with the National Capital Planning Commission late last week, fixing the seawall alone would cost $304.5 million and take between two and a half and three and a half years to complete. Critics of Trump’s plan say the investment would make more fiscal sense if he kept the park open to all users and didn’t just limit it to those who would play on the planned 18-hole golf course.
“I fully support the fixing of the seawall if the property remains for how it’s used today,” said Alex Dickson, a local golfer, publisher of Beltway Golfer, and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to stop Trump from moving forward with plan to build a course that takes up the entire island. “Cyclists, walkers, barbecuers, people partying, the fishermen — are going to be pissed. A lot of people use this place.”
Ashley Krupa is one of them, and on Sunday she helped organize her cycling club’s second 100-mile ride around East Potomac Park. “This year with the potential closure it attracted a lot more people,” she said. “We wanted to do it before we lose access.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser has struck a diplomatic tone on the issue of what should come of East Potomac Park, though on Monday she made clear that she wants some type of roadway like Ohio Drive to remain in any future iterations of the island.
“I think we should think about it not necessarily as a road as it is now, but a recreational use road that would accommodate people having access to the park, would accommodate people riding bikes, and pushing strollers and jogging and having a place to walk to get to the playgrounds and other facilities that can be there,” she said. “I think the bottom line is that the park accommodates a great golf course now. Do we want a world-class golf course? Yes, but we think that it can and should accommodate other uses.”
Alex Cohen, the D.C. resident behind the Save East Po campaign, says he doesn’t want people to be resigned to the fact that East Potomac will close on Nov. 15. “People that say they don’t care about politics. I appreciate that, but politics is coming for them and their literal places of recreation,” he said.
To that end, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association is hosting a congressional lobby day on Nov. 12 to oppose any further funding for Trump’s plans for East Potomac Park. Davey Hearn, a local cyclist who drew widespread attention after federal prosecutors unsuccessfully tried to go after him for what Trump said was vandalism of the Reflecting Pool, said more needs to be done.
“Maybe we can have a 24/7 vigil with bikers and runners here in the critical period approaching Nov. 15,” he said at Saturday’s rally. “We’re not going to put up with this. We know it’s going to be a long fight, but we have to be ready for the long haul.”
Dickson agreed. “November 15 might come, but you’ve got to keep fighting. If the bulldozers come out in December, you’ve got to keep fighting. If they rip up Ohio Drive in February, you gotta keep fighting,” he said. “Don’t stop fighting.”
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