Chicago parks are so badly organized and staffed that two out of three Chicagoans “never” or “hardly ever” use the parks in their neighborhoods, according to a study by a parks watchdog group scheduled to be released Wednesday.
Based on more than a year of intensive surveys of residents in a “representative” area of the city, the study was commissioned by Friends of the Parks, a 19-year-old citizens organization.
Praised Tuesday by the Chicago Park District’s general superintendent, Forrest Claypool, the study probably will be used as a blueprint for changes in the district’s neighborhood programs. The report will be presented at a press conference at Union Park Field House, 1501 W. Randolph St.
It paints a bleak picture of the city’s park system, said Erma Tranter, executive director of Friends of the Park.
More than half those surveyed didn’t know the name of the public park closest to their homes, she said. The study goes on to document “a severe lack of park programs for children, teens, women and senior citizens.”
“The telling figure in our report is that two-thirds of the people interviewed did not use the parks in their area,” Tranter said Tuesday.
“Their reasons? Uninteresting, ineffective programming, poor supervision and a lack of information. Interestingly, only 13 percent of respondents identified safety concerns as a reason for staying out of the parks,” she said.
Claypool, named general superintendent of the district in July, several months after the study began, welcomed the report, which he said he has reviewed.
“It reinforces with evidence what I’ve been trying to do since I came here,” Claypool said.
“That’s why I created a marketing department, so that we can find out what each community wants and we can then tailor programs to community needs,” he said.
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The study, undertaken in late 1992, was conducted by Northern Illinois University Public Opinion Laboratory, focusing on residents of the “Harrison Park Cluster,” one of the district’s 13 divisions. It is an area bounded by Lake Michigan, Division Street on the north, Western Avenue on the west and Cullerton Street on the south.
Researchers used telephone surveys, focus groups and site visits to the area’s 48 parks to obtain data, Tranter said.
The study showed that even though a majority of those surveyed thought city parks “do not offer attractive recreation programs,” 83 percent still think parks “are important to their community.”
She said the Harrison Cluster was chosen for the study because it closely reflects Chicago demographics, including Chinatown, Little Italy, the Gold Coast, Wicker Park and the Cabrini-Green, Henry Horner and ABLA public housing developments.