Just for fun, I pulled 20 books from my four-year-old's shelf. In three of them, the characters visited a park, and, in one, a squirrel with a predilection for art lived in the top of the carousel in Central Park. The exercise made me see that my son is the next in a long line of children whose literature - and culture -teaches them to value parks as integral parts of their communities.

Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger's 1867 novel for pre-teen boys, has perhaps one of the earliest park scenes in American children's literature. In chapter 10, our hero Dick, a humble shoeshine boy, takes his new, out-of-town friend, Frank, on a streetcar to see Central Park:

Central Park was now before them, but.... It had not been long since work had been commenced upon it, and it was still very rough and unfinished.... The time will undoubtedly come when the Park will be surrounded by elegant residences, and compare favorably in this respect with the most attractive parts of any city in the world. But at the time when Frank and Dick, visited it, not much could be said in favor either of the Park or its neighborhood.

From early on, we're taught that good communities build good parks to make better neighborhoods. But after reading this issue of Illinois Parks & Recreation, I think that that notion about parks and communities is only half right. Sure, good communities build good parks. But well-managed parks also reach back to the people they serve and, by doing so, re-build the communities that created them.

Ann Austin's story on page 56 gives some excellent examples of how parks partner with other civic organizations to respond to the needs of their communities. Diane Stanke and David Kindler's article on page 48 tells how the Park District of Oak Park reached out to its neighbors to gather input for its long-range master plan. The effort was so well conceived and executed that the district made many new friends in the community — friends who helped pass the first park district referendum in 37 years.

In Oak Park — as in so many communities across our state — the parks look far from 'rough and unfinished.' But our park professionals and commissioners understand that parks — and the communities of which they are a part — are never really finished. Every year, every week, every day a well-run park district, like a fine neighbor, works hard to shape and be shaped by its community.

RODD WHELPLEY
Editor

4 Illinois Parks and Recreation www.ILipra.org