The Role of Parks and Recreation
in Illinois' Long-Term Development

by David E. Baker

Recently, a number of national studies on economic competition among geographic regions have indicated that the quality of a state or community, its schools, its culture, and its recreational opportunities are looked at closely by business executives contemplating a move. A study by David Burch of MIT declared that the effect of business incentives in attracting firms to communities paled beside the perceptions and preferences of the chief executives of the firms. This is particularly related to small firms, which create more than two-thirds of all new jobs today.

These results suggest that business and industry, chambers of commerce, and local and state governments must work together to support development of parks and recreation in Illinois' future. Further, open space, state and regional parks, camping, fishing, and hunting also attract tourist dollars which so often are deflected to Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan, and Kentucky.

ILLINOIS 2000

Illinois 2000 was launched in 1977 as a private, not-for-profit affiliate of the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce. Its purpose is to lay the foundation for a strong economy and adequate job opportunities in the coming decades through volunteer participation of individuals from all walks of life and all parts of the State. Illinois 2000 focuses on the economy —the source of support for the achievement of many of our other social and environmental goals, including increased funding for parks and recreation.

Illinois 2000 is a carefully organized, sequential process to set long-range economic goals. After forming a board of trustees and an advisory council of the state's key economic leaders, we set down a three-year, three-phase program which identified major economic trends and alternatives, set long-range economic goals, and developed specific economic strategies to achieve the goals.

David E. Baker is Executive Director, Illinois 2000 Foundation. Illinois 2000 is a three-year program organized to involve business leaders, farmers, community leaders, academicians, and government officials in a private sector-based examination of Illinois' economic future. Mr. Baker is also a consultant and seminar leader in long-range trends analysis and futures planning for corporations, business associations, and other groups. Recent assignments included Illinois Bell Telephone Company, The Water Systems Council, and The Association of Agricultural Cooperative Planners. He co-authored a book, Anticipatory Democracy, published by Random House, and has published several articles on futures planning in the states. Mr. Baker holds an M.A. in international affairs and development from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and an A.B. from Stanford University in history with a minor in economics.

FUTURE OF THE ECONOMY

What did this involved process tell us about our economy and its future prospects? First, we reaffirmed that Illinois continues to enjoy one of the strongest, most diversified economies of the states. It has a per capita personal income $935 over the U.S. average, nearly the highest among the major industrial states. It is still very attractive to business because of its central location, access to resources, water, transportation network and large, diversified workforce. Its joint wealth in manufacturing and agriculture make it the second leading exporting state. It has the richest agricultural land in the world.

There is one resource, however, of which Illinois does not have an abundance: open space and recreational land. With so much land under tillage or converted for industrial, commercial, and residential use, Illinois is poor in public recreational area. In a 1972 U.S. Bureau of Outdoor Recreation study, we ranked 46th in public recreational space, with 1.87 percent of total area in recreation. By contrast, Wisconsin had 9.82 percent at 18th and Minnesota had 26.27 percent at 7th. Our vast prairie, 20 mil-

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lion acres in the 1800s, has shrunk to 8,500 acres, of which only 2,400 remains undisturbed. Illinois has gone from 14 million acres of forest land to 3.5 million today, and 93 percent of it is in private hands. Because most of Illinois soil is flat, well-drained, and very fertile, land values for agriculture are very high, making acquisition of that land for park use extremely expensive. And, given the tremendous future demands on our food growing capacity, we must assure that as much of that land as possible stays in agriculture.

Although Illinois does have a strong economic base, a number of recent negative trends have generated serious concern for the future. First, Illinois has been losing manufacturing jobs over the last 10 years, on a net basis, while gaining slowly in other sectors. This is a pattern being repeated across the Northeast and Midwest. It means that we are losing high paying, productive jobs to other regions and other countries, replacing them with service jobs, many of which do not pay as much. Second, the business community has experienced major increases in costs from new workers' compensation insurance premiums, high unemployment compensation taxes, and major jumps in resource and labor costs.

We also share a malady with most of our older neighbors: obsolescence of plants and equipment. As a result, reinvestment is occurring elsewhere than in Illinois, and our overall economic and population expansion is two-thirds of the national average. Unless national trends change significantly, Illinois is in for 20 years of slow growth in income. Our population outmigration will continue to more rapidly growing states, and there will be fewer opportunities for new workers. However, the slow growth should give us time for environmental improvement and better management of our land resources.

DEVELOPMENT OF GOALS

To respond to these trends, Illinois 2000 developed a number of key goals: improvement of the investment climate, to focus on Illinois jobs and Illinois factories; an expanded business retention and expansion program to capitalize on existing firms, rather than to hunt for outsiders; and a halt in the decline of our manufacturing sector. We are also very concerned about the health of our older urban centers.

Underlying these four goals is a concern for the quality of life of our neighborhoods, communities, and rural areas. One of our key objectives under the investment goal is to improve the quality of life of our communities through joint public/private action. We are now examining specific strategies to relate our recreational opportunities to our economic development goals.

In the energy and environment areas, Illinois is on the threshold of a new era. On one hand, we have the potential with coal and corn to become one of the major energy producers for the nation. On the other, we must consider environmental consequences and environmental restrictions on coal production and utilization. If our energy use is to increase between 60 and 80 percent in the next 20 years as projected by Illinois 2000, we have to start now to decide how, when, and where that coal resource will be exploited.

We in Illinois—environmentalists, business, and government—must join together in the '80s to figure out how to implement regulations for air, water, and land pollution abatement without hampering economic activity. One Illinois 2000 proposal is for examination of the use of natural means, such as tree breaks, water plants, and the like, for pollution abatement.

Another important goal in the environmental area, which recognizes once more the symbiotic relationship between quality recreation and a quality work environment, calls upon the business community to support the active acquisition of more lands in Illinois for recreation and open space. We are working with the State Department of Conservation to explore ways, in a fiscally constrained society, to expand our recreational and open space.

MANAGING PARKS AND RECREATION

The baby boom generation that crowded our schools and playlets is now crowding the job and housing markets. Parks and recreation officials must be sensitive to demographic changes in their communities which will cause a shift in the kinds of activities demanded, from youth-oriented to adult-oriented, with a requirement to serve the smaller numbers of youths and the growing senior population as well.

The advent of the two-salary family as a way of life, coupled with the declining birth rates, will mean more disposable income for our families, if we can manage inflation and the energy crisis. Most futurists predict an intensification of spending on leisure activities, boating, second homes, longer vacations, more flexible work schedules. These add up to more pressure on parks, lakes, and rivers. Of course, energy constraints could make the types of activities less energy-intensive in the future.

There is another significant, potential, and countervailing trend to watch: the revolution in home entertainment systems. Will the advent of cable television, video-discs, sophisticated light and sound systems, video cassettes, and other electronic devices increase a sedentary, plug-in-your-vacation-at-home atmosphere? Tastes and wants will be much more sophisticated.

The '80s and '90s will herald this electronic revolution. People will book tennis courts and campsites, check out equipment, plan trips, and undertake nature studies through computers hooked up to their televisions and

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telephones. The recreation community has to be ready for this revolution, just as the banks and utilities must be. California has had a computerized reservation system for years; the pressure on scarce campsites will bring this to Illinois as well.

Another area of investigation for Illinois 2000, which affects parks and recreation directly and stands in contrast with the pushbutton age just described, is the health and fitness revolution. Suddenly, all across the nation, people are discovering that jogging shoes, tennis racquets, swimming lessons, and bikes are much less expensive than doctors' bills, and have a much more healthful effect. As health care costs climb, the fad of fitness becomes a pocketbook necessity. Parks and recreation officials can do more for the health of the community's residents than most of the medical facilities combined by providing the population with safe, accessible jogging and bike trails.

MAJOR CONSTRAINTS

As parks and recreation officials attempt to respond to these demands, provide quality recreation, and preserve our natural and historical heritage, I foresee two major constraints: fiscal restraint on government, and competition from other uses. These are nothing new to the parks and recreation community—they just may become more intense.

The first restraint is embodied in the Proposition 13, and now Proposition 4, mentality of California. Illinois is always a little behind California, but some form of spending limitation is coming to Illinois. Parks will be pressed to justify their existence and some form of user fee system for city and regional parks will probably have to be instituted, as will increases of rates in state parks. At the same time, continuing inflation will be attacking wage rates, equipment and materials costs, and land costs.

The land competition pressure will also continue. Agricultural land is increasing in value, and pressure for stripmine land may increase with rising coal demand. All trends point to further exurban growth as well. In a positive reaction, more and more counties, most recently Sangamon and McHenry, have adopted comprehensive land resource plans based on community goals for preservation of open space, agricultural land, and recreational space, along with continued development in areas most suited for it.

Many developers are very uneasy with these processes, but there are a growing number who recognize that land and development costs will force them to develop contiguous to cities and on smaller plots. Many are also being encouraged, in a trade-off for increased density zoning, to include parks, bike trails, and the like in their developments. This is a very healthy and economical way to have both development and preservation of open space.

In our urban areas, the opportunity exists to develop parks in areas where old buildings have been torn down, as focal points for building new communities. Although there is great pressure on local government to put taxpaying structures on every plot of redeveloped land, they should realize that the openness and greenness of the suburbs caused the original abandonment. Interestingly, the Chicago Economic Development Commission considers landscaping and open space to be essential to their plan to retain and attract industrial firms to new locations.

CONCLUSION

Illinois in the Year 2000 will be in great measure what we make of it by our decisions today. The business community recognizes the important role of recreation, open space, and outdoor activities in making Illinois an attractive place in which to live and do business. In most polls, Illinoisans outside the metropolitan centers indicate satisfaction with their parks and recreational activities.

Our joint commitment must be to improve the facilities in the areas where they are still lacking, provide recreational alternatives to neighboring states, and somewhere find the money to keep the park systems viable. We will never compete with a Wisconsin or a Michigan in vast wooded recreational areas. But, as the energy crisis reduces the reach of vacation and recreational travel, we will be happy that we took the time now to acquire and improve facilities closer to home.

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