No. of Recommendations: 7
I'm frankly surprised they didn't design the Reflecting Pond with something like that originally...because everyone who's ever seen a stagnant pond knows that you get (a) algae and (b) mosquitoes if you don't do something.
Exactly. The right thing to do would be to take some time and study what the problem was - not rush out with a quick no-bid contract like this was just another swimming pool. People are protesting because this is a heedless "act first and plan later" approach to something that ought to have been treated with more care. Similar to their anger about the East Wing, where the Administration just tore down a big chunk of the then-existing White House just on their own...because they could.
When they first laid down the blue and put the water in, it looked absolutely fantastic. Amazing how hard it is for some to admit that. Not a single person here focused on that, though - instead, they went right to ORANGEMNBADBDBLUBBLUB and similar because they just can't be normal for 5 minutes.
Because they were smart enough to realize that if you do a rush job because you're in "move fast and break things" mode, without competitive bidding or open scrutiny of qualifications or even the plans for the renovations, there's a good chance it might not be the highest quality. That it might look good on day one and then start to show problems once the check clears and the contractor has moved on to the next job.
There's a reason we normally have government jobs go though public bidding with multiple competing companies and a more considered process for developing the job scope for these things. Trump decided to bypass all those protections....so if it ends up we have the sort of botched job those protections are supposed to prevent, it's natural that people will get upset at how cavalierly he has treaded our national heritage.
