When Mayor Brandon Johnson tapped staunch ally and former self-identified democratic socialist alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa to run the city’s massive Park District, many weren’t sure what to expect. Some were downright skeptical. We were somewhere in between.
We’ve been plenty critical of Ramirez-Rosa’s views in the past. Today, we’re lauding his management skills.
We had a chance to meet with the parks CEO Wednesday to learn more about his administration’s oversight of Chicago’s 9,000 acres of parkland. We found ourselves in a room filled with ex-cops Ramirez-Rosa had hired while he lamented far-left activists wreaking anti-capitalist chaos in Northwest Side parks and undermining his own compassionate but firm approach to the problem of encampments where kids want and need to play.
Ramirez-Rosa finds himself doing that most unusual thing in American politics: making room for both sides of an issue.
He’s taken the fifth floor’s directive on homelessness to lead with a “housing-first” approach, maintaining a case-by-case basis of enforcement in the parks. (He told us, as priorities go, if you’re pitching a tent on a playground, you’re out; if you’re somewhere off the beaten path posing no threat, that gets handled differently.)
At the same time, he’s taken a clear, unequivocal position on so-called tent cities, which have become fixtures in the parks and beyond.
“Long term, there should not be encampments in our parks,” he told us from the Park District’s high-tech new security facility at the Northerly Island Visitor Center, which is housed in the historic terminal building of the former Meigs Field airport. We agree.
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That he has drawn this line may surprise some people, his supporters and detractors alike.
With these words, he made it clear that the “parks are for everyone,” and that means they have to be clean and safe. Chicago parks are not meant to serve as long-term housing sites.
He told us his posture on this issue has led what we’d describe as disgruntled anarchist types to call him, among other things, a “fascist,” alleging he is carrying out President Donald Trump’s agenda. That last bit elicited smirks on our part.
“I’ve been told social workers going out to offer services is a form of state violence,” he said, acknowledging that one particular group of activists, Parks for All, has become a proverbial thorn in his side. He referred to them as “to the left” of himself politically, and lamented the group’s ideological approach.
“Some progressives don’t want to govern,” he added.
He, however, does.
And he seems to appreciate that effective management means dealing in pragmatism.
Over the past year, he has both hired a homeless support specialist and upped security.
His new homeless specialist, Dannette Salaam, undoubtedly has a challenging role. It is one thing to bemoan a crisis while sitting in comfort; it is another to look into the eyes of someone suffering, with nowhere else to go. Even without the ongoing crisis, having someone like Salaam on staff makes sense as a point person responsible for connecting individuals experiencing homelessness with service providers.
The solution to homelessness will require compassion with safety.
At a time when Flock cameras are drawing public backlash — rightly so, given that law enforcement officials have been discovered to be using the system for unsavory private purposes — Ramirez-Rosa is actively ramping up surveillance in the parks.
“We’re not using Flock,” he said.
His Northerly Island outpost does, however, include a Park Operations Center replete with screens playing footage of more than 360 cameras across the parks, along with footage from thousands of other cameras spanning parts of the city adjacent to the parks.
“We need to know what’s going on in the parks,” Ramirez-Rosa said.
Hitherto, the district’s ancient cameras didn’t feed the system in real time. If you wanted footage, Park District officials told us you had to go out and obtain it manually from the site. Now, Chicago park cameras are connected.
Ramirez-Rosa has tapped former police and private security professionals to make it happen. Heading public safety is Chris Kennedy, a former Chicago Police Department deputy chief of counterterrorism and former suburban police chief.
He’s also expanded hiring to include more front-facing roles, such as “aquatics ambassadors” at public pools and beaches to assist patrons, keep watch over the property and eyeball new arrivals to see if there is something that appears off about them. This may not seem groundbreaking, but more eyeballs — and bodies — go a long way toward improving oversight and safety at individual Park District locations. This parks administration seems to understand the important role deterrence plays in warding off bad actors.
It’s not all sunshine and roses in the parks, of course. Encampments are still a problem, illustrating the persistent nature of the city’s homelessness crisis. Some critics maintain that enforcement mechanisms aren’t doing enough to address the problem, and that encampments continue simply moving from one site to the next. We have echoed these concerns previously.
Homelessness is not the only crisis playing out, in part, in the parks. A mass shooting Aug. 29 at Washington Park left one person dead and injured 14 others.
Ramirez-Rosa, to his credit, isn’t shying away from this challenge. He’s allied himself with technology, understanding that doing so enables faster, more effective response when something goes wrong. The weekend after the mass shooting, he said, the Park District placed one of its mobile surveillance units in the park to deter another violent incident.
Upon leaving Northerly Island, we were left with the impression that Ramirez-Rosa has matured into a highly competent manager of a massive parks system. He comes across as direct and professional, with a clear-eyed vision of the many challenges facing the district and ideas for how to improve. And he has made what appear to be some very good hires.
It struck us that many of the solutions Ramirez-Rosa is applying in the parks could just as easily be applied to the CTA. The transit system should ask him for his opinions.
Missing from Wednesday’s conversation was any whiff of partisanship or political posturing. Ramirez-Rosa and his team were all business, even though their primary business is Chicagoans at rest, play and rejuvenation.
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How refreshing.
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