Volume 29, Number 5 September/October 1998
It All Starts with CitizensCitizens have volunteered countless hours to preserve public land for parks and recreation in Illinois
Citizens are central characters in the story of Illinois park districts and forest preserves. In the mid-1800s in Chicago, citizens on all sides of the growing city were banding together to preserve public parks and recreational areas. Though the city had adopted the motto "Urbs in Horto"or "City Set in a Garden," little was being done by city leaders to acquire or care for open space. So citizens led the charge, including Dr. John Rauch of the Chicago branch of the National Sanitary Commission. He was particularly concerned about the health threat posed by the shallow graves in the Chicago Cemetery, where victims of cholera and smallpox were buried along the northside lakefront. His citizen drive was the catalyst to the formation of Lake Park, renamed in 1865 and better known today as Lincoln Park. The picturesque river town of Quincy can thank a group of 32 residents from 1888 for the early preservation and wise use of its riverfront and island land assets. They formed the Quincy Boulevard and Park Association and lobbied hard for public tax levies to acquire and maintain parks. These citizens even had the foresight to hire landscape architects H.W.S. Cleveland and O.C. Simmonds to design their early parks.
Peoria citizens were the first to petition for official park commission status resulting from the Illinois General Assembly's decision on June 19, 1893, to approve "An Act to provide for the creation of Pleasure Driveways and Park Districts." The special election on March 13, 1894, resulted in 2,672 votes for the creation of the Pleasure Driveway and Park District of Peoria and 1,110 votes against-- securing Peoria's place in history as the first official park district in Illinois. Citizen involvement is no less prevalent or important today. Recent examples of citizen involvement abound and several are highlighted in the articles that follow in this special focus issue of Illinois Parks & Recreation magazine. For example, on pages 34-37, the Waukegan Park District gives a lot of credit to the citizen group "The Committee To Save Our Parks" for its overwhelming referendum victory (a 58 percent margin for a $0.25 corporate rate tax increase) in 1997. "Friends" groups are growing in popularity, as districts seek to garner financial support and advocates for their programs and services. The Illinois Association of Park Districts announces in this issue the launch of its Friends of Illinois Parks program to encourage more citizens to get involved with park districts and forest preserves on a statewide level (see page 28). Chicago's Friends of the Parks is the state's largest and most active friends group at 2,000-plus members. |
By Dr. Ted Flickinger, PH.D.|
"Bottom-up planning ensures that the park that is developed really meets the needs of the neighborhood," says Erma Tranter, executive director of Chicago's Friends of the Parks, a citizen-based advocacy organization mobilized to protect, preserve and improve the city's parks.
"While it takes a little more time to get the community involved, the end result is always a better park. The community feels a part of it, has a stake in it, understands it, and that translates into commitment when the park is developed." Citizens love to get involved in their parks, and there are many ways they can do so. And the rewards are endless: from cleaner, safer parks to financial and in-kind donations that add value to your community. The sidebar opposite lists ten of the more common ways that citizens get involved in their park districts and forest preserves. Some of them are described briefly below; others are explored in full articles on subsequent pages of this magazine.
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The most common citizen role is the elected or appointed board member. These citizens commit to a term of service as policy makers and sounding boards for the public at large regarding the public delivery of park and recreation services in a community. They give direction to long-range planning, establish policy and serve as legislative advocates at the local, state and federal levels.
Advisory Committees
Citizen involvement via a 15-member citizen advisory committee helped the Urbana Park District improve its image and credibility and pass unprecedented referendums for increased recreation taxes. For more than 27 years, the Urbana Park District Citizen Advisory Committee (UPDAC) has been organized to promote citizen awareness and study citizen and district needs and concerns regarding parks and recreation.
Adopt-a-Park Programs
Individuals, groups and businesses can get involved with this type of program by caring for or "adopting" specific parks or facilities. For example, through the Springfield Park District's Adopt-a-Park program, which is coordinated by the district's foundation, a local business funded the purchase of storm shelters for Bunn Park Golf Course. In return, the business received media exposure, permanent signage and a sense of ownership of the park.
Volunteers
Whether citizens enlist for an Earth Day clean-up or form organized stewardship groups for neighborhood parks, volunteers are invaluable assets for park districts and forest preserves. They provide labor and experience. In addition to saving money and time, through their firsthand involvement in the parks, volunteers become stakeholders in their communities. Volunteerism helps build a sense of community and breaks down barriers among people.
Legislative Advocacy
For decades now, the strongest legislative force for parks and recreation in Illinois is its corps of 2,100 locally elected citizens who serve on the boards of park districts and forest preserves, recreation and natural resource agencies. These citizen volunteers work closely with legislators in their home districts and at the State Capitol in Springfield.
For the corps' statewide association, the Illinois Association of Park Districts (IAPD), citizen advocacy is directly tied to an enviable passage record for "pro-park" bills: more than 90 percent of IAPD's legislative platform passes each year, 78 bills in the last 15 years.
Referendums
Its clear that you can't pass a referendum without support from citizens. Of course, you need their votes, but you also need citizens as volunteers—youth groups, seniors, families and individuals—to fold and stuff, post signs, go door-to-door, speak to other groups and spread the word.
"Word of mouth is still the best advertising," says Brook McDonald of the Conservation Foundation, whose '97 campaign "Neighbors for Open Space" won a $75 million referendum for the DuPage County Forest Preserve District.
Donations
Citizens who believe in the parks and recreation cause can be very generous with their money and land. Financial contributions take many forms, including living memorials, corporate giving, fund-raising events such as golf outings and payroll deductions. In-kind donations range from land and equipment to professional services such as marketing, planning, referendum campaign management and legal counsel.
It was a 135-acre donation in 1894 by Lydia Moss Bradley that j ump-started the Pleasure Driveway and Park District of Peoria. More recently, the district received a $5 million donation from a local family, the Beihfeldt Foundation, to develop a wellness center.
"[The Beihfedlts] are living here, they want the quality of life to be as good as possible," says Bonnie Noble, executive director of the Peoria Park District." Their generosity encourages others."
The bottom line value of citizen involvement is the public's central role in the very existence of public park districts and forest preserves. History proves we owe a debt to citizens. Enduring legacies such as Chicago's Grant Park and Springfield's Washington Park exist today because early citizens were mobilized and active in their communities.
Today, on the local and state level, we must return to our roots,
opening the doors and involving citizens as volunteers,
benefactors and advocates for parks and recreation. Citizens are clout.
Ultimately, they are the creators and keepers of our public lands. ˛
DR. TED FLICKINGER, Ph.D.
is the executive director of the Illinois Association of Park Districts.
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