DC delegate calls for end to Capitol Hill sledding ban

Washington, D.C.’s nonvoting representative in Congress has a message for the U.S. Capitol Police: End your war on sledding.

{mosads}Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) asked the agency Tuesday to nix its ban on sledding on the Capitol grounds.

“Although I understand that sledding has been banned for years, what I do not understand is why the U.S. Capitol Police have recently decided to enforce this Scrooge-like ban,” she said in a letter to the agency’s leadership.

“Because of high-residential density, there are few places to sled in the city, and the grounds of the U.S. Capitol — the Hill — provide a perfect sledding venue,” she said. “The sledding ban appears to be arbitrary. There is so little snow here that there will not be frequent sledding and, therefore, no significant damage to Capitol Grounds.”

The ban on sledding on the slope in front of the Capitol has existed since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, The Wall Street Journal reported last week, and was being enforced this week, after Washington received a significant snowfall.

Former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) reportedly helped arrange for the sledding ban to be lifted for a single weekend in 2010.