A painter on Tuesday covered up messages people wrote in chalk on the barriers the US Secret Service placed around a small park adjacent to JD Vance’s house in Alexandria. Cops looked on while the painter worked. The park, which features a tot playground and a labyrinth, has become an unlikely nexus of national and local news in recent weeks. The feds closed it off in late August, then announced it would be open on some days. It’s closed Tuesday. Over the weekend, someone left a box of chalk atop the barriers, and passersby applied messages like “Harris 24,” “Not Going Back,” and “Love Everyone.”
That development was covered thoroughly by ALXnow and with less vigor by Washingtonian, which was alerted to Tuesday’s developments by way of a tweet from Axios D.C. reporter Mimi Montgomery. We confirmed the paint job in person and noticed that someone has made an effort to counter the constellation of Harris signs surrounding Vance’s house with a small Trump/Vance yard sign in the median on Commonwealth Avenue. Alexandria prohibits signs in public rights-of-way so it’s unclear how long that display will endure.
So who’s responsible for the paint job? The city tells Washingtonian the US Secret Service maintains the barriers. A Secret Service spokesperson says the agency “does not own or maintain the concrete barricades,” and that USSS “would respectfully refer you to the company who owns the barriers as to why that decision was made.” Reached by phone, a representative of Concrete Safety Systems in Midland, Virginia, said the company is “not supposed to comment on anything” and referred Washingtonian to the US Secret Service.
This post has been updated.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
