The City in a Garden
The American city means many different things in the eyes of our society. It is a place where opportunities lurk at around every corner and danger does the same. It is a place of progress, of industry and of culture. It is a place of concrete and steel. But it is not, in the eyes of the American public, a place of nature. True or not, the modern perception of cities is that they are a place of gray, not of green. The perpetuated myth within the suburban American’s head is that cities are always polluted and busy and ugly, they are never natural or peaceful or beautiful. This is a myth that I have set out to dispel with my map of Lincoln Park. I believe that a city has the potential to be a place of beauty in many forms, where people congregate and share their unique ideas and backgrounds. Through the prevalence of ample and open greenspace, a city can grow closer to becoming the ideal habitat for human civilization.
Chicago came to be known as the “City in a Garden” thanks to the efforts of individuals like Daniel Burnham, a famed architect who believed that this city could be something more than a polluted industrial wasteland. When he headed the Columbian Exposition in 1893, he inspired the whole world to rethink the way cities are designed. Where cities of the time were characterized by narrow and crowded streets, Burnham built broad plazas and lawns in his “White City”. People left astounded and ever since Chicago has been working on improving on the work Burnham left behind. Chicago has some of the best parks in the world and today we are expanding on that reputation.
Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel believes strongly in the power of public greenspace, citing Chicago’s history in his editorial: “Building on Burnham”. In the essay Emanuel argues that investment in public parks is good for the city’s youth and for people’s health. That’s why he has promised to make Chicago’s riverfront the city’s next great park. But what will it take to actually fulfill the dream that Daniel Burnham and Rahm Emanuel share?
In her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs discusses what is necessary for a park to be a good addition to a neighborhood. She argues that a good park:
1. Cannot be too common within a neighborhood
2. Needs intricacy or variety in landscaping
3. Needs a center or a climax of the park
4. Needs Sun
5. Must have diverse types of surrounding buildings.
If a park does not meet these standards, then it will become boring and therefore dangerous. So, I’ve set out to find where my own neighborhood of Lincoln Park fits within those guidelines.
I visited every public greenspace in Lincoln Park. On my walk I discovered the beauty of the neighborhood and the special places within it where people can meet, play and linger. These are the greenspaces of Lincoln Park.
The first park I happened upon was Julia Porter Park. This park was about 50 x 50 feet, so calling it a park is really a bit of a stretch. The small area is beautifully wooded, but it has no lawns in which people can sit and linger. People sleep on the long benches in the park, but no one plays or talks or smiles. This park has a somber vibe to it, and there is a statue in the center that invites people to hold hands with a circle of playing children. After a moment I leave the park in search of a space in which there is a more natural landscape.
I arrive at a Jonquil Park and I am greeted by a great statue of an eagle at the entrance. Here I see a woman playing with her young son and a man playing fetch with his dog. Tennis courts line one end of the area and in the center a broad green lawn hosts few individuals, though this is mid-day on a Monday. This space has the sun, yet it fails on most of Jacobs’ other tests. I move on.
The next space I find is a dog park titled Wiggly Field. Brilliant name aside, this is park is hardly green enough to include on my map. The poor pups are forced to play on a concrete surface rather than a grass lawn. Although the dogs there are adorable, the space does not fulfill its role as a public green area very well. Throughout my walk I encountered several spaces similar to this, which weren’t quite greenspaces but still meaningful points of congregation. I came to think of these as micro-parks, as many were not much bigger than a back yard.
Among these was Park West Park, the park so nice they named it twice. In actuality, this was the smallest park I saw, and it was more of a courtyard than a park. It was squished between two apartment buildings and there was not a person in sight.
Similarly, I encountered Mid-North Park, which was essentially a street corner where members of the community put up some trees and a fountain. This one I enjoyed actually, as it felt like an important part of the neighborhood and several people were there lingering around the fountain. When a community adopts a space like this as their own it takes on more meaning than the parks that are spontaneously erected by city politicians.
In the same area, I happen upon a home for the elderly. I tried to walk on to their great park, but it is unfortunately fenced in and a sign outside warns against trespassing. It saddens me to think that while these old folks have a nice green area to enjoy, they are essentially barred from interacting with the public. They have been stripped of their freedom due to their age. I am thankful that I still have the power to walk where I please, while these people do not. A fence quite defeats one of the primary purposes of greenspaces which is to enjoy social interaction with other members of one’s community.
From there I walked to Lincoln Park itself, the pinnacle of Chicago greenspace. Lincoln Park is a beautiful slice of nature within the great metropolis, and I found it filled with life, even on this quiet day. The wind chills slightly but the bright sun warms me up. In the park I am stricken by the beauty of the world around me. It is an oasis of Zen within the busy city and I slow down the pace of my walk to enjoy the world around me. Gorgeous landscaping envelops the park and grand old trees surround the pond in the center. I catch sight of an old woman with two small dogs who are determined to catch the squirrels that roam the area. I talk for a moment with the woman about the loveliness of the day and she wishes me a nice walk. I bid her the same.
I walk onwards through the park and gaze out at the serene waters and bright fields. The golden leaves look beautiful beside the calm lake. This is not what people imagine when they imagine they think of the city, but it should be. Some of the greatest wonders of the urban environment are those greenspaces that punctuate the pavement. I walk out to my favorite view in Chicago: Lake Michigan as seen from the Lakefront Trail outside of Lincoln Park. There is nothing more beautiful than pure, uninterrupted water stretching out to the horizon, seen from a comfortable and quiet public lawn.
When people look at maps of cities they see very few things that make the city what it is. They look at the map and they see street names and so-called points of interest. These are not what make a community. A community is made up of interactions with the people who live there and the places in which those interactions occur. It is made up of public spaces. My map places an emphasis on nature, but it also places an emphasis on interaction. People like to spend their leisure time in nature, whether they’re from the city or not. This makes greenspace the ideal environment in which these interactions can take place.
In my map I list the different things I saw on my walk through the parks. These are experiences, usually something that isn’t included in a map. By listing my experiences, I was able to build a portrait of the different greenspaces throughout Lincoln Park. These experiences, rather than the physical attributes of the space, are what make my map unique. I set out to challenge the popular perception of what it means to be urban. By stripping away the street names and other popular identifiers of the neighborhood, It was easy to focus on these specific points of nature and human interaction.
A city is more than industry and commerce. It is more than architecture and design. It is about people, and people need nature in their lives. Public parks provide a place for people to come and take a breath of fresh air and enjoy the beauty of nature. Look at my map and think about your own community, and the places that make it special. Where do people congregate? Where do they linger? Public greenspace is often the answer to those questions, and that is their importance to the modern city.
