Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-06-03
Cities
nDsRepIe
The Man
In the Street
By ROBERT ]. LEWIS

OA4 S"SSAAAS, "a
our degree of optimism, one
thing is certain: If we count
on things staying the same
as they were before, we're
sure to be disappointed.
TIL csc days, everybody
seems to be wanting to take
time by the forelock and jos
tie the world. Millions of
voices seem to be saying
what Abraham Lincoln said
100 years ago: 1.-THE dogmas
Of the quiet past are made
quate to the stormy present.
We must diSenthrall
ourselves"
New decisions are always
having to be made in great
profusion, and the old ways
Of solving problems are un-
der attack from many di-
rections. There's a sort of
environmental revolution 60
ing on all around as.
From where we look, every
body seems to be up on a
soapbox trying to make the
world a better place. No
longer is the man in the
street just strolling along
and not paying much atten-
ton. Today his eyes are
open, he's seeing things he
never saw before, and the
: results are beginning to show.
CONSIDER, for example,
one Of the most spectacular
city views Of the Potomac
River. Without the help of
an average citizen whose eyes
were open, we'd never have
realized the view was there
at all. And you couldn't have
blamed us. For this sweeping
vista can be seen only from
one spot-the site of the Dis
trict Trash Incinerator at
Thirty-firSt and X in George
town.
ut was a crime to build
this incinerator here" the
citizen said. Something
should be done to get rid of
it,"
Consider, too, the matter
Of sidewalk cafes. its
It seems improbable today
that hardly more than a
year ago there was an issue
over whether to have them
or not.
Improbable, too, was the
doubt over whether a cock
tail could be served in such
an appropriate place.
Yet without a man in the
street who looked in a law
book, the favorable ruling
might never have been is
sued.
This is the way it hap
pened," explained the man
in the street.
1.-THE law says a cocktail
can be served in a reStau-
rant. 1t also says a sidewalk
cafe is a part of a restau-
rant.
But the law says, too, that
people shan't drink in the
street. That raised a new
question: rs the sidewalk
cafe a part of the street, or
is it a part of the restau-
rant?'
81 reasoned that if it's a
part of a restaurant it has
ceased to be a part of the
street. Therefore, it should
be legal to serve a cocktail
in a sidewalk cafe"
In a 12-page opinion last
week, the Districts top legal
counselor agreed.
BEFORE PEOPLE awak-
ened in such great numbers
to the world around them,
a small, seldom disturbed
hierarchy shaped the phys
ical image Of the city.
For go years, a cloth-cov-
cred book - strangely en-
titled 1.-THE Park System of
the District of Columbia
supplied the gospel of clas-
sicism that has largely ex-
cluded contemporary archi-
lecture from the Nations
Capital. This was the Nc
MILAN Commission Report
of 1902.
But the era of the book,
and of the hierarchy, too, is
apparently waning.
Last weeks White House
call for a more open-minded
acceptance, by the Govern
ment, of contemporary ar
chitecture seems to repre-
sent a massive defeat for the
classicists. A new dawn is
apparently rising for the