Sonny Bono Park

This place is pathetic. No one is upkeeping it, and it is just in a miserable disarray. I did see a homeless guy laying on its muddy ground the other day, and I’ve stopped here to briefly sit to kill time before going into work. Otherwise it isn’t much of anything other than a fenced-​in mud filled ground with some concrete benches in it.
Mr. Bono would roll over in his grave if he saw this memorial that is so called dedicated to him…

So sad… went by this «park» a few days ago and it s a patch of dry dirt… no grass, nothing growing. I think the family would be sad to see this. No one has tended to it quite some time.

I almost forgot about this place…
There’s not much to it and it’s pretty easy to miss, unless you’re on foot.
…and, yes, the «memorial» DOES look like a fancy manhole cover.

After his successful career in music and TV in the 1960s and 70s (as half of the famed duo, «Sonny & Cher»), Sonny Bono, the part-​time singer/​songwriter and affable comedic straight man, became an unlikely politician.
First, he served as the mayor of Palm Springs, California from 1988 to 1992; and, then, rising up the political ladder, he was elected to Congress as a U.S. Representative in 1994.
Tragically, his life was cut short by a freak skiing accident in January of 1998. Later that year, in a very generous gesture, a DC real estate developer (who had been friends with Bono) established this park as a memorial to the fallen entertainer-​turned-​Congressman.

Located on a small, overlooked, triangular wedge of land (at the intersection of three streets just southwest of Dupont Circle: New Hampshire Avenue, 20^th Street, and O Street, NW), the park probably escapes the attention of almost everyone who passes it.

The small plot looks more like a traffic island than a park, really; and, its unkempt appearance (which, I believe, is characteristic of a long-​running status quo) does it no favors. With more mud and dirt than grass inside its wrought iron boundaries, the «park» looks like a forgotten tract (much like most traffic islands would look — as they serve out their forlorn purpose to separate cars moving in opposite directions and as unwitting repositories for all kinds of trash and debris).

The only indication that Sonny Bono Park carries any significance at all is a manhole-​like plaque, affixed to the sidewalk, at the gate facing New Hampshire Avenue that offers these words: «In Memory of My Friend Sonny Bono (1935 — 1998): Entertainer — Entrepreneur — Statesman — Friend.»
While, in Hollywood, entertainers are commonly immortalized by having their hand and footprints permanently added to the sidewalk in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (where Sonny Bono, by the way, isn’t so honored), in Washington, at least, immortalization is usually taken a bit more seriously.
We, here, grant immortal status with grand monuments or buildings, larger-​than-​life statues, or noble, manicured public spaces. Really, only such things would befit historical figures like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Of course, someone like Sonny Bono (who served three rather undistinguished years in the House of Representatives and who was once famously called an «idiot savant» by the Washington Post), isn’t on the same level as these men; but, to be honored in the way that he is is just sad.

Maybe, years ago, when the park first opened to the public, it very much looked the part and was a grander place than it is now. Maybe, office workers during warm spring days actually came to sit on its benches to eat their lunches; and, pigeons flew in to frolic merrily with their human cohorts.
I don’t know. That seems like a long time ago, now. Personally, if I were ever honored with my own park after I’m gone (say, for my decades of indefatigable review writing — does Unilocal even do such a thing?), I think I’d be humbled and honored nonetheless; but, I’m not an elected official, a man of distinction, nor am I important at all.

Sonny Bono, however (regardless of his political beliefs and even if he wasn’t on par with Abraham Lincoln), deserves better. Maybe, erecting a marble statue (complete with Bono’s signature mustache and broad smile) would be asking too much; but, scattering some grass seeds and picking up the random litter that mars the park isn’t. Right now, even the homeless, knowing a bygone spot when they have seen one, have abandoned this place.

Seriously, this place exists, in DuPont of course. The park does always have some homeless person sleeping in it but it’s a cool little triangle of grass in an odd location. I like that the «memorial» is basically a manhole cover.
If you’re into Sonny Bono or just kitch, it should be a stop on your DC alternative tour. They also refer to him as a «statesman» which I just love. Bono is defintely on the short list of most odd Congressmen of all time, with Gopher from Love Boat.

What the heck? I said to myself as I came upon «Sonny Bono Park» today. IA giant plack of the ground said… IN MEMORY OF MY FRIEND SONNY BONO 1935 – 1998; ENTERTAINER — ENTREPRENEUR — STATESMAN — FRIEND.” I then remembered he was also a US Representative. I pictured him as Sonny and Cher singing «I got you babe» at first. Still… it was great to run into somthing so random. The tiny little park is in dire need of repair!