THE CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT IN PROFILE

by Debbie Sabol and Len Cleary Jr.

Acknowledgement and appreciation is gratefully extended to the following staff members of the Chicago Park District who assisted in the compilation of material and information for this article: Mary Trass, Senior Staff Writer; Albert Fitch, General Supervisor of Physical Activities: Carrie Jacobsen, Area Supervisor of Physical Activities; and Robert F. Donovan, First Assistant General Counsel.

All pictures in this article are reprinted courtesy of Chicago Park District.

Debbie Sabol is Assistant Director of the Highland Park Youth Committee, Highland Park, Illinois. In that role, she plans, implements and leads year around recreation and social programs for junior and senior high school students. Ms. Sabol graduated from the University of Illinois, Champaign, in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Recreation Administration. Her current educational pursuits include outdoor adventure education and graduate courses in a variety of areas. Debbie's leisure interests include travel, photography, music, and sports.

Len Cleary Jr. is Coordinator of Therapeutic Recreation, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. His professional background includes extensive experience in community mental health, municipal special recreation, YMCA service, and consultation to agencies serving special populations.

INTRODUCTION

The Chicago Park District is the largest and most extensive city park and recreation system in Illinois. Highlighted by its famous and beautiful lakefront areas, the District encompasses over 7,300 acres of land incorporating a multitude of diverse facilities and programs.

Operating with a budget of approximately $160 million, the District employs approximately 3,700 full-time staff to operate 580 parks, numerous other facilities, and related program services. Annually an estimated 86 million visitations are made to facilities under the direct auspices of the District. Although the District's per capita acreage of park land, two and one-fifth acres per 1,000 people, is less than optimum as compared to the national average for metropolitan areas of seven acres per 1,000 people, the Chicago Park District is highly recognized for the comprehensiveness of its recreation program services.

In the following pages, the history, operational procedures, facilities, and services of the Chicago Park District will be outlined. This information, along with the reflected philosophy underlying operations, current and future directions, and problems and concerns described within the narrative, should provide the reader with a basic understanding of the role of the District in meeting the public recreation and leisure needs of the citizens of Chicago.

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT

The first park in Chicago was designated in 1834 by the City Council only one year after the city of Chicago began its administration and three years before it was granted a charter. Dearborn Park was established on the site of Fort Dearborn to provide open spaces to relieve the congestion of a growing city. These grounds are now occupied by the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center.

Chicago's oldest existing park, Washington Square Park, which has provided a forum over the years for citizen oration, was dedicated in 1841. Between 1844 and 1864, a relatively dormant period, only five additional parks (Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, Jefferson Park, Union Park, and Vernon Park) totalling 290 acres were created for the city's rapidly growing population of 229,000 people.

In 1869 the Parks Law of that year established three park districts as independent municipal corporations. A separate park commission was created for each of the north, south, and west sections of the city and a park fund was established for each of the three corporations on the basis of the assessed valuation of taxable real estate within each area. These park systems and the combined district they evolved into operated their own police forces and also maintained boulevards within the parks until these functions were assumed by the city in 1959.

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Lincoln Park, the major north commission park, had its beginning as the result of a land grant to the state by the federal government for use as a canal. In 1843 the city purchased the land and used it as a cemetery for confederate soldiers and cholera victims. By 1885 Lincoln Park, however, had been transformed into a 250-acre garden with a conservatory and a small zoo. Lincoln Park Zoo, begun in 1868 with a gift of two swans, gradually expanded into the present facility which houses over 2,400 different animals and is heavily involved in the preservation and perpetuation of threatened species.

The South Park system originally included more than 1,000 acres of uncultivated land in Hyde Park and had acquired the land for Jackson and Washington Parks by 1874. Between 1874 and 1893, The South Park Commission, spurred by the influence of the World Columbian Exposition, spent $24,000,000 to acquire and develop a 2,000-acre system of parks and 35 miles of boulevards. A heightened awareness had emerged that parks could be used functionally in addition to being aesthetic which resulted in a new approach to city and park planning.

The West Park System included the major parks of Garfield Park, dedicated in 1869, Humboldt Park, dedicated in 1877, and Douglas Park, dedicated in 1878. In 1907 Garfield Park added a conservatory.

As the acquisition and development of the parks progressed, the city of Chicago demonstrated leadership in regard to the public recreation movement as a whole. A model playground was started at Hull House in 1892, one of the first in the country. While many cities were setting aside land for parks, few were providing recreation facilities or programming services.

In 1903 Chicago voted $5,000,000 for small parks. The next ten years saw the development of many parks, some of which were built in poor socio-economic areas in response to the recreational needs of those segments of the population. These parks and shelters included provisions for both indoor and outdoor activities and programs for all ages.

Among other innovations were the construction of fieldhouses. Daniel J. Burnham, a leader during the developmental efforts of the Columbian Exposition era, designed the first fieldhouse in McKinley Park in 1905. Its facilities included a swimming pool, gymnasium, clubrooms and an auditorium. This fieldhouse was the first of nine in the South Park System.

Mr. Burnham, an architect, was also a foremost advocate that the city of Chicago should develop according to a logical plan along the lines of beauty and good taste. The Burnham Plan of Chicago (1909) outlined plans for a City Beautiful, which was adapted to "Chicago Beautiful." In this major architectual plan Burnham sketched 26 miles of lake front as a continuous system of parks connected by winding boulevards.

The early 1900s also saw the building of many monuments and statues in Chicago's parks. Military and ethnic heroes, artists, scientists, statesmen, and historic events were all commemorated by memorials usually financed by donations for that specific purpose. Chicago's Buckingham Fountain was built in 1927 as a memorial to Clarence Buckingham by his sister Kate Buckingham, a noted philanthropist. One of the most beautiful and largest fountains in the world, its light and water show is now controlled by a computer system and is capable of an almost infinite variety of displays.

By 1934, twenty-two separate park districts were incorporated in the city of Chicago. The Chicago Park District, as presently constituted, was officially created during the troubled times of the depression in 1934 by an act of the Illinois legislature entitled the Park Consolidation Act. The consolidation into one metropolitan agency was intended to solve the numerous problems of the previously separate districts. A non-salaried Board of Commissioners was appointed by the Mayor with the approval of the City Council. The goals and objectives of the district included a strong fiscal policy, a unified tax levy, the power to issue park bonds for development and improvement, and solicitation of federal assistance from the Public Works Administration.

The consolidated Chicago Park District was able to generate many noticeable improvements during its first year of operation. As the result of its strong fiscal policy, outstanding bills and employee salaries were paid and other existent problems under the old systems of closed facilities, low employee morale, poor park maintenance, and limited recreation programs were remedied. Fieldhouses which had been closed were reopened and operated full time with experienced staff. Recreation programs during

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the years of the depression were considerably expanded. Community programs for all ages featuring arts and crafts, athletics, dance, drama, music, and summer day camps were begun under the new consolidated board. George T. Donohue served as General Superintendent of the Chicago Park District from 1934-1960.

The free summer concerts in Grant Park were innovated by an early commissioner, James Petrillo, who was also President of the Chicago Federation of Musicians. The purpose was to provide free quality entertainment to a depression weary public, and work for unemployed musicians. The first Grant Park concert was held on July 1, 1935, in a band shell built for the 1933 Chicago's World Fair. These concerts continue as a major feature up to the present. The original band shell, and its modern successor completed in 1978, was ultimately named after Petrillo.

The period between 1959 and 1979 marked a period of great improvement and addition to the Chicago Park District system. One example of new programming directions occurred in 1965 when an extensive program for the mentally handicapped was initiated in ten parks with ten qualified instructors throughout the city providing activities including competition in basketball, volleyball, bowling and track and field events. This program eventually provided a partial basis for the advent of the Special Olympic program. At this time Chicago was the only large city in the nation utilizing municipal facilities for the handicapped.

In 1971 the largest construction project in Chicago Park District history was undertaken. Approximately $5 million was appropriated for improvements to existing fieldhouses while more than $19 million was spent for construction of nine new fieldhouses, six indoor-outdoor pools, additional tennis and handball courts, a new beach house, a pool house, and a major sport center. Improvements were also made to the Burnham Park Harbor lakefront and the median strip on Lake Shore Drive.

Additional land acquisitions included South Shore Country Club (1974), Warren Park (1975), and twenty acres formerly belonging to the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium (1977). The William C. McFetridge Sports Center, dedicated in 1975, offers a year round program of indoor tennis, ice skating, hockey, and programs for the mentally handicapped.

The East Monroe Drive Garage in Grant Park, supplementing three other park district garages, was completed in 1977. Having a capacity of 3,700 vehicles, its landscaped roof includes tennis courts, one outdoor ice skating rink, picnic and recreation areas.

At the close of 1979, the Chicago Park District was maintaining and operating 580 parks encompassing more than 6,000 acres and 256 fieldhouses. It is host to nine major museums and owns and operates the Lincoln Park Zoo and Soldier Field.

A young winner at Whitney Young Recreation Center.

LEGISLATION AFFECTING THE DISTRICT

The Chicago Park District functions as a separate governmental unit under the powers granted to it by the Consolidation Act of 1933, enacted in 1934. This act, and accompanying legislation, provide that any Illinois city of over 500,000 population shall act as its own government in regard to park district operations. The manner in which this governing process is effected is that the mayor, subject to the approval of the City Council, appoints a five-person Board of Commissioners. These unpaid commissioners are appointed to serve five-year terms and may serve more than one term. Generally, the duties of these commissioners include budget approval, establishment of policy, appointment of the Superintendent, and enforcement of regulations as defined in applicable legislation and ordinances.

In regard to financial operations, the fiscal year begins on January 1 and ends on December 31. A minimum of sixty days prior to the beginning of each fiscal year, a budget report, including proposed expenditures, is prepared and submitted to the elected president of the commission. The commission then makes the report and a tentative budget appropriation bill available for public inspection, scheduling at least one public hearing. Following this hearing, the commission again considers the budget report and must, before the beginning of the fiscal year, adopt an annual appropriation ordinance which appropriates funds necessary to meet expenditures. Two major sources of income for the Chicago Park District are generated by a general property tax and through the issuance of bonds.

General taxes levied by the district are the most

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common form of tax revenue used to support recreation and parks and are derived from property taxes with the monies going into a general fund. These taxes are determined by applying a tax rate (maximum $.60 per $100) to the assessed valuation of the real property of the municipality. These revenues may be used for construction, maintenance, and improvement of lands and facilities.

Bonds represent a second major source of support for municipal park programs and facilities. Upon approval of voters within the district the Chicago Park District is authorized to issue bonds payable within a maximum of twenty years. This authorization holds true without voter approval, so long as the monetary limit on the incurred indebtedness and/or issued bonds does not exceed 1% of total assessed valuation. A levy in addition to all other authorized levies may be placed on all taxable property in order to pay the principal and interest of these bonds. Examples of special bond issues include those pertaining to museums and harbors. When bonds are issued and sold for use on any parking facilities they are paid for through fees and charges established by the commissioners for use of the facility.

As the Chicago Park District borders on public waters it has the power to operate, build, improve, and maintain harbors for public recreational use anywhere within the jurisdiction of the park district. Money may be borrowed by issuing bonds in anticipation of the revenue from such harbors.

To maintain a sufficient cash reserve, the Chicago Park District may also issue bonds to create, maintain, and administer a working cash fund. This fund may not exceed $25 million and taxes levied for repayment are placed in a special fund applicable only to bond retirement. However, with the authority of the commissioners these bond funds may be transferred to the general corporate fund.

There are also numerous ordinances governing usage of park district facilities and lands. These ordinances are enforceable by the Chicago Police Department, which has the same powers within areas governed by the Chicago Park District as elsewhere within the City of Chicago. Violators may be charged with violation of the Chicago Park District ordinance and the City of Chicago ordinance even though they may be the same or similar ordinances. If a statute of the State of Illinois is identical or similar, the violator may also be charged with this third charge.

In addition to the laws governing fiscal matters, there are ordinances related to all other areas of operations. Included among these sets of ordinances are specific regulations for activities conducted on park district property, use of regulated facilities requiring permits, hours of operation, harassment of park employees, and destruction of park property. There are separate sections pertaining to harbor usage including operation, licensure, and storage of boats, and use of vehicles on park district property, including helicopters, snowmobiles, minibikes, and automobiles.

A complete set of ordinances regulate personal conduct of individuals utilizing any facility within the jurisdiction of the district. Appropriate social behavior, loitering, gambling, intoxication, possession of firearms, drug use, and littering are all covered in this section. Regulations governing animals, including both those owned by users and those belonging to the park district, constitute yet another section of the ordinances.

Grant Park concert—music for over 40 years.

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Finally, there are regulations related to fee usage of park facilities which empower the superintendent or board to fix and collect reasonable fees. This ordinance stipulates that rates be identical for all users.

Generally the legislation governing the Chicago Park District is quite comprehensive and specific. This legislation is rather dynamic as it reflects considerable revision over the years occasioned by evolving and changing needs.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE DISTRICT

The five-member Board of Commissioners of the Chicago Park District is appointed by the Mayor and approved by the City Council. The Executive Staff includes the General Superintendent, Assistant General Superintendent, and Associate Superintendent. There are ten major departments in addition to the Office of the Secretary. Following are brief descriptions of a number of these departments.

The first of these, the Department of Personnel and Civil Service, is responsible for enforcing the Chicago Park District Code and Civil Service laws as related to employment and personnel matters. The current number of full-time employees is 3672, 74% of whom are civil service.

The Department of the Treasury's dual role is to generate monies through bond issues and notes for various purposes as required by the District and to maximize return on any funds not immediately required to sustain operations. Some typical operations of this department, depending on fiscal needs, include purchase and redemption of General Obligation Bonds, and the selling of Park Improvement Bonds.

The Department of Public Information disseminates information to the public regarding park operations, services, facilities and recreation activities. Yearly, more than 2000 news releases are submitted to 300 news outlets. Additional publicity methods include generating radio and television coverage, developing brochures and posters, arranging dedications and exhibits, and providing a telephone information service.

Managing the District parking facilities, including all garages, is the responsibility of the Department of Auto Parking. These revenue producing facilities provide service not only to park patrons but to the public at large.

The Department of the Law acts as attorney for legal problems of the District and as legal advisor to the Board of Commissioners and all departments. In addition, it assists in securing funds for acquisition, development, and operation of park facilities from federal, state, and city agencies.

Processing purchase orders, notifying potential bidders for contracts, and issuing contracts for various supply and construction projects, is the province of the Department of Purchasing. Arrangement of cooperative buying agreements with the City of Chicago and other agencies is a high priority of this department.

The Department of the Comptroller includes the Divisions of Accounting and of Data Processing.

Functions of this department include preparation of financial statements and the annual appropriation ordinance, monitoring budgetary compliance, and maintenance of all accounts.

The Department of Engineering is responsible for the development of new district facilities and the improvement and maintenance of those already in existence. Eight divisions under the office of the Chief Engineer carry out these service functions. These divisions are: 1) Design, 2) Electrical, 3) Mechanical, 4) Repair and Construction, 5) Contract Construction, 6) Landscape Maintenance, 7) Landscape Construction, and 8) Records and Estimates.

The Zoological Division controls the many functions and services of Lincoln Park Zoo. In addition to being a major recreation attraction that attracts more than four million visitors annually, the zoo is recognized as an education and information center. The Indian Boundary Zoo, administered by Lincoln Park Zoo, is the only neighborhood zoo in the district and serves Chicago's far north side residents.

The functions of the Recreation Division, responsible for a vast majority of both active and passive program services, will be explored in detail in the following section of this article. Divided into the Division of Recreation and the Division of Facilities and Building Operations, this department provides extensive recreation opportunities to the District's patrons.

Each of the departments above, along with several units not described, acts in a cooperative effort to maximize service and utilization of resources.

RECREATION DEPARTMENT-DIVISION OF RECREATION
Philosophy and Staffing

The basic policy of the Chicago Park District is that programs are primarily designed to provide recreational activities for all community members regardless of age or athletic ability. Many recreation programs are offered free of charge or for a nominal fee so as not to inhibit participation by any segment of the community.

The Recreation Division includes forty-two full-time staff positions. The staffing pattern includes the Director of Recreation, Assistant Director of Recreation, Area Supervisors, Physical Activities Supervisors, Beaches and Pool Supervisors, Special Recreation Supervisors, and others. Many additional personnel are employed to conduct specific programs or on a seasonable basis.

Operationally, the Chicago Park District is divided into ten areas. There is an Area Supervisor for each of these areas which typically includes 25-50 facilities including parks, playgrounds, and fieldhouses. Each two of these areas has two Physical Activity Supervisors. The Beaches and Pools Supervisors work city-wide as do the Special Recreation Supervisors. The cultural programs are directed by Artcraft, Craft, Drama, and Music Supervisors. Additional recreation staff members include full and part-time attendants and matrons at the parks, playgrounds, and fieldhouses within the areas.

The Area Supervisors and Physical Activity

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Supervisors are required to spend Mondays in the Park District administrative offices. The remainder of their work week is spent in the field monitoring programs, park operations, staff, and program attendance. Their hours are flexible in accordance with their area's program and community needs. In addition to a full schedule of year-round recreation programs in their areas, the Physical Activities Supervisors are also required to plan two to three city-wide special events such as tournaments or holiday festivities.

Job descriptions for supervisory positions, including Director of Recreation, fall under Civil Service as approved in 1949. While detailed as to duties, responsibilities, and examples of work performed, they do not indicate requirements for training or experience.

Program Services

Throughout each year the Recreation Department provides active and passive recreation experiences for millions of Chicagoans and visitors. In 1979 an estimated 86 million user visitations were made to the park district's organized and/or supervised leisure activities. Approximately 1.5 million people used the picnic areas at more than 200 locations. The 63 outdoor pools, 33 indoor pools, and 21 miles of bathing beaches were utilized by close to 22 million people. Summer city-wide meets attracted 7,000 youth in competition in both swimming and diving.

The gymnasts of the Special Olympics.

Major programs include youth and adult sports (baseball, basketball, boxing, softball, and tennis), day camps, Jr. Citizens Programs, Grant Park Concerts, Senior Citizens Programs, and Special Olympics. Extensive involvement and continuous growth has characterized these programs over the last several years.

Baseball is one of the most popular pastimes in Chicago not only for youth but for young adults as well. In 1979 more than 3 million patrons participated in organized leagues, tournaments, women's baseball, and youth and adult clinics. For the past thirty years the Chicago Park District's summer baseball program has been ranked by the American Amateur Baseball Congress and the National Amateur Baseball Congress as the largest and most comprehensive in the United States.

Winter and summer basketball programs plus Hot Shot Basketball provide thousands of youngsters and adults the opportunity to receive professional instruction in basketball skills at all levels, and opportunities to participate in tournaments at their level. The Park District boxing programs have also been attracting an increasing number of participants yearly. Twenty-four boxing sites provide instruction and the staging of more than 60 separate boxing shows.

A major spring and summer recreation program is men's softball, drawing 75,000 participants in junior, intermediate, and senior divisions, and totalling close to 3,000 local teams and more than 300 area teams. Women and girls also participate heavily in this activity at several levels.

Senior Citizens meet at 52 centers operated by the Chicago Park District to pursue a wide variety of cultural and recreational activities. An annual awards luncheon honors outstanding senior citizens who contribute to the betterment of mankind throughout their life and through their retirement years. In cooperation with the Mayor's Office two gigantic picnics were held last summer attracting more than 40,000 seniors.

A year-round program for the mentally handicapped is in operation in fourteen parks. Included in the free recreational programs is training for Special Olympics. The first Special Olympics was hosted by the Chicago Park District at Soldier Field in 1968. Anne McGlone, a physical instructor at West Pullman Park, believed that there should be a program offering competition, satisfaction, and a sense of achievement to all people regardless of their abilities. She consulted with Dr. William Freeberg, Southern Illinois University, and Daniel J. Shannon, then vice-president of the Chicago Park District. Eunice Shriver of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation was contacted and after considerable shared effort and generation of financial support, Special Olympics became a reality. Today each school, residential or training facility, and recreational agency serving the developmentally disabled is encouraged to provide individual training, thus preparing individuals for competition in the Special Olympics Program. Participants compete in regional and state meets and can progress on to the International Olympics held every four years. Each person competes with others having similar abilities and the emphasis is on recognition of the effort of each participant.

A new program, designed for the hearing impaired, will be implemented at four or five park locations in 1980 as part of the District's recognition of the necessity and responsibility to serve all members of the community. The goal of the Chicago Park District is to integrate all handicapped individuals into the community and community life consistent with the current philosophy of "mainstreaming" reflected in human services.

Programs of special interest offered by the Chicago Park District include two very popular leisure time activities of music and theatre. This summer is the

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46th season of the Grant Park Concerts at the James C. Petrillo Music Shell. During the summer of 1979, 40 evening concerts were performed free of charge featuring the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra with famed soloists and conductors. The Park District also sponsors Summer Outdoor Community Concerts throughout the parks featuring pop, blues, jazz, and variety music. These free concerts provide leisure time enjoyment and interest in live music for community members.

Drama and theatre arts are popular pursuits at 84 parks throughout the city, and local plays are produced by participants. Additionally, the twelve professional theatre productions at Theatre-On-The-Lake will be conducted during its twenty-eighth season this summer. The purpose is to further the development of the cultural adult program and expose spectators to quality efforts in the performing arts. This season's plays include "Showboat," "Same Time Next Year," and "Candide." Auditions are held for the plays and the professional staff of directors, producers, and design engineers work with skilled volunteers to create quality productions.

The Chicago Park District Recreation Department offers one of the largest and most diversified recreation programs in the country, with the goal of fulfilling the leisure needs of all community members. Although a number of the District's major programs are described above, the total scope of the comprehensive programming available to consumers is inclusive of many other opportunities.

RESOURCES OF THE PARK DISTRICT AND RELATED RESOURCES

There is a total of 580 parks in the Chicago Park District encompassing approximately 6748 acres. The total area of other park properties is 80 acres, and 478 acres of property not belonging to the District are used for park purposes. The Park District maintains an additional 31 acres, bringing the total area of all properties used for park purposes to 7339 acres. The District operates 256 fieldhouses, 323 playgrounds, 504 playground apparatus areas, and 297 playlots within the parks.

Of the 580 parks, 491 parks are classified as active recreation areas and 89 as passive recreation areas. Parks are also divided into major parks (city-wide, sectional, and community) and minor parks (neighborhood, playgrounds, and playlots). Of the 156 major parks there are six city-wide parks, 13 sectional parks, and 137 community parks. Of the 335 minor parks there are 43 neighborhood parks, 75 playgrounds, and 217 playlots.

The 256 fieldhouses are classified according to the facilities they contain. There are 48 fieldhouses which contain two gymnasiums or special sports facilities while 87 fieldhouses contain one gymnasium. Fieldhouses without a gymnasium but having three or more assembly areas and natatoriums (indoor swimming pools) number 27. There are 94 buildings with one or more clubrooms or multi-purpose rooms.

In addition to District land, there are related resources available to Chicago area citizens. The Forest Preserve District of Cook County owns 64,323 acres of land inside the city limits of Chicago or nearby, and the City of Chicago owns 455 acres of parkways. Within the City there are approximately 50,000 acres set aside for swimming, boating, fishing, and other aquatic pursuits.

Lincoln Park residents help with fund drive.

There are nine major facilities under the broad category of museums located on Park District property. They are: Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago Academy of Sciences, Chicago Historical Society, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Field Museum of Natural History, The John G. Shedd Aquarium, The Adier Planetarium, The DuSabel Museum, and The Museum of Science and Industry. The Lincoln Park Zoo and its neighborhood subsidiary, Indian Boundary Zoo, are owned and operated by the Chicago Park District. The Chicago Park District participates in the Museum and Aquarium Bond Fund initiated in 1971 which provides funds for museums on a shared cost basis. Originally, six museums were provided with $60 million for capital improvements on a equal cost sharing basis by the involved museums and the Park District. Three museums including The Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Academy of Sciences are still active in the program.

Two conservatories, one in Garfield Park and one in Lincoln Park, are operated by the District. Garfield Park Conservatory contains a Garden for the Blind with 59 planting areas with identifying data in Braille, and other adaptations.

The Park District also owns and operates Soldier Field Stadium and Gately Stadium. In addition to hosting professional sports teams, Soldier Field has been the site of rock music concerts, Special Olympics Track and Field meets, and other special events.

Additional major attractions and facilities include the Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain, James C. Petrillo Music Shell, the Richard J. Daley Bicentennial Plaza, the McFetridge Sports Center, and parking garages located at East Monroe, Grant Park, and McCormick Plaza.

The net financial worth of District facilities and properties is probably impossible to calculate. However, the annual budget is in excess of $160 million. Recent declines in the property tax base and inflation have resulted in comparatively fewer resources being available. As a result the total number of employees has declined in recent years and expansion projects have, of necessity, been delayed.

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CONCLUSION

As has been described, the Chicago Park District is a multifaceted, comprehensive system with extensive resources offering diverse passive and active leisure opportunities to the citizens of Chicago. The District's history began with the city itself, and consistent with the changing needs of its consumers, evolved over the years into a model of recreational design often copied by the rest of the country.

Today the District is still considered one of the major systems in the United States providing a broad range of quality services. Its recreational programming, in comparison with other systems, continues to be regarded as outstanding. In the opinion of Edmund Kelly, General Superintendent, the Chicago Park District remains the best system in the country. Although there is apparently some consensus that many of Chicago's parks, particularly the lakefront areas, remain among the finest in the country, the District has reportedly been troubled in recent years by a number of problems common to many municipal systems as well as others specific to Chicago.

Contemporary problems shared with other major city systems include inadequate total acreage available which is also unevenly distributed, rampant vandalism, a diminishing city property tax base coupled with high rates of inflation, and rapidly changing neighborhoods that make adequate planning extremely difficult. Problematic situations more specific to Chicago, as identified by community groups and the media, usually begin with the alleged extensive political involvement affecting the District. This political "clout" system reportedly results in uneven distribution of District programs and resources, cronyism in the awarding of contracts, use of employees for political activities, employees being selected through patronage rather than by professional qualifications, and a lack of representative citizen involvement in planning and policy decisions. Difficulties have also been perceived in park security, inadequate maintenance, lack of responsiveness to community needs, and racial discrimination related to services.

In response to the problem of diminishing resources, the District has acted to reduce expenditures by several cost-cutting measures including decreasing monies spent for administrative support services, and reducing the overall numbers of employees. In addition, several expansion projects have been deferred or delayed. According to Superintendent Kelly, these cutbacks have been accomplished without decreasing programmatic services.

Regarding the question of political influence within the system, the extent and effect remain a source of debate that depends heavily on individual perception. It is worth noting that up to 74% of the positions have, by Park District report, been moved into civil service. The Office of Public Information also reports that all contracts above $5000 are awarded on a competitive non-political basis. However, there still seems to be a broad consensus that the District remains more politicized than a number of other major city systems.

Although numerous problems are cited, it should be recognized that few occurred, or can be resolved, without positive and responsible citizen attitudes and actions. Many of these concerns are reflective of the mores of contemporary society and are commonly manifested in all areas of urban life. The resolution of any of them, in any meaningful way, promises to be a tedious ongoing process where today's problems are continually replaced by tomorrow's. It would appear that the Park District can and should do better in being responsive to these needs and problems, but to acknowledge that should not discount the enormous amount of quality services and facilities the District makes available to its constituency.

The Chicago Park District's facilities and programs provide Chicagoans and visitors with a great deal of leisure fulfillment and enjoyment. It is a complex system that utilizes an extensive variety of resources to present a diverse range of opportunities designed to meet the recreational and personal leisure needs of all segments of the community. The Chicago Park District has a rich tradition of service which will hopefully be continued in the years ahead.

REFERENCES

Chicago Park District/Annual Report (1978)
Chicago Park District/Annual Report (1979)
Chicago Park District Spring and Summer Program Brochure (1980)
Chicago Park District Press Releases (1966-1979)
Illinois Revised Statutes Chicago Tribune Park Series (1979)

Illinois Parks and Recreation 24 July/August, 1980.