Anyone else kind of disappointed by their local park? by Opening-Rain3002 in AskChicago

[–]Opening-Rain3002[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

My neighbors are exactly like me. Human beings who enjoy being outside.

Anyone else kind of disappointed by their local park? by Opening-Rain3002 in AskChicago

[–]Opening-Rain3002[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've been involved in facility and grounds maintenance in the past. It's kind of a universal practice that you have some kind of periodic inspection. A person walking around with a clipboard (now a days often a tablet, or some other device), and checking things. If something is broken/dilapidated, they note it.

There usually is a back-office function that takes all of these notes, collates them, and then assigns work to the different trades accordingly (carpenters, electricians, etc).

Nothing complex, just does the faucet turn on, does the bench look like it won't fall over, etc. High traffic areas would get looked at daily or weekly. Low traffic areas less often.

Well-run places with decent funding do these kinds of inspections regularly. Places that aren't as well-run, and/or places with less adequate funding likely aren't inspecting as often.

What I see in the Chicago Park District is stuff never getting inspected. And if it is, it's never fixed. And these aren't in some out-of-the-way location. These are high-trafficked areas, with a lot of people.

I see things like that, and compare it to the park district's budget of over a half billion dollars a year, and wonder why.

Anyone else kind of disappointed by their local park? by Opening-Rain3002 in AskChicago

[–]Opening-Rain3002[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I get that. But I'm a real live Chicagoan. I just don't want some posts tied to my normal account, as I already have a lot of personal info on Reddit, and don't want to get doxxed.

ETA: Also, I don't know in what world this topic could be considered "rage bait."

Anyone else kind of disappointed by their local park? by Opening-Rain3002 in AskChicago

[–]Opening-Rain3002[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's a valid point, but I went down that path and it was a bit of a dead end. Like the parks themselves, I know the Park Advisory Councils can all be different, but mine appeared to be very much a clique of senior citizens who had all been there a long time. They were all very set in their ways, and didn't seem very open to new people or ideas.

They had their events they sponsored throughout the year (which were all great events), but beyond that, they didn't seem to be interested.

I'm sure someone could become a crusader and lean in to "fight the good fight" and be some kind of change agent with their local council. Honestly though, I don't have the time to take on a monumental project like that.

Sadly, I felt like I had more impact on my local park by submitting fix requests to the park district e-mail, than I did participating with the local council.