July
2007
A Walk through the Park - Milwaukee County’s inexcusable neglect
I’m a big fan of parks — I always have been. This week I took a walk through Doctors Park which is part of the Milwaukee County Parks system and I was again disappointed with what I’ve seen.
When you go on a nature walk, and that’s what the stroll down the hill toward the beach at Doctors Park has always seemed like to me, you expect to enjoy the plants, smell the forest smells and maybe see a little wildlife. One of my favorite things is sharing that walk with a family member so this week I took my 11 year old son. We both had fun and even saw a buck with velvety antlers grazing along the ridge above us but there were a couple things that detracted from our walk.
The park was a mess.
Litter, strewn about and not picked up out of the woods is one of the things that springs to mind. The George Tietjen memorial pavilion was closed and the beach needed someone to pick up the trash. (I wonder what his family would think of that? Why even have a memorial?) The parking lot is quickly deteriorating into rubble and the asphalt that once was, is merely gravel in many places. Garlic mustard, an invasive species, was left uncontrolled and has spread everywhere. Even the beach was littered.
Unfortunately this neglect is common in Milwaukee County Parks these days ever since Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker decided to start slashing the parks budget.
But is this not what intelligent people should have seen coming when they elected Walker? Does the majority of the public truly not care about the shameful shape that our parks have deteriorated into? Was this what they wanted when they voted him into office?
It always takes more money to rebuild infrastructure than it takes to maintain it. Milwaukee County Parks are now at a crossroads. In another year, voters will decide if they want more of the same or if they want a change. They should choose carefully because their actions will decide whether this jewel we call the parks should have the smudges wiped from them or whether they will be crushed under the boot of an neglectful caretaker.
Jim McGuigan
Jim McGuigan, Walker Watch, Watchdogging Parks, Watchdogging the Environment
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I too saw the deterioration in the parks when I took a visit afetr not having seen the city in may years. Back when I was raised in Milwaukee and my father worked as a Supervisor of Public works for Mayor Maier, the city took pride in its cleanliness and park systems. I saw a lot of money spent revitalizing the downtown (with the exception of the mall on avenue) was long overdue and looks great, but now the suburban parks need some attention.
One of the things I loved most about growing up in Milwaukee was the abundance of green space that was available for recreation. Some of my fondest memories as a child include the time I spent at Mitchell and Grant Parks, as well as Copernicus Park, and it saddens me to see the state of our county parks system today. Now I know some folks don’t see the value in our county’s parks system, but I feel you can’t put a price tag on our county parks when it comes to improving the quality of life for the residents of Milwaukee County.
I think it’s truly unfortunate that Scott Walker has been so neglectful of the county parks system, just so he can say he didn’t raise taxes. Now I’m no fan of higher taxes, but I’m also not a fan of cutting services just to save a few bucks. Scott Walker’s neglect of the county parks system has done this county’s residents a tremendous disservice, and I can only hope folks will wise up and replace him with someone who’s creative enough to find a way to put money into our parks system and still balance the county’s books.
Nice blog by the way. But have you checked out the parks where one can golf. They are in amazing shape and rightfully so. When we go we have to pay a user fee in order to use them and we also use the trash bins when we are finished consuming our beverages and such. Also if there is unattended trash we try to pick it up and put it where it belongs. The problem might be that people who use the park system only see it as a place for recreation and as one big trash bin. Why don’t we all do our part and help clean up this resource instead of bitching about why the government isn’t doing its part? Have you ever known our government at any level to provide a consistant and high level of quality? I look no further than the DMV. I would love to be able to walk in and out of there as if I was going to the grocery store but I always tend to find myself ’stuck’ waiting. Another government service that doesn’t do a very good job at service.
Fact: Baldwin was sheriff, at which time another fact was true: his wife was in charge of parks. Budget cuts were not as they are now. Back then, we had deputies in the parks and parks full of maintenance people. Walker, to save the museum(a questionable save in my opinion) spent millions to bail out an incompetent museum board. Where oh where should that money come from? Our parks are in need of staffing. All of our citizens don’t know what a garbage can looks like and yes, they make the parks look like crap. However, we HAD the staff to keep up with the lowly garbage dumpers. Walker cut the funding to the parks, hence the loss of staffing and to top off the money saving the board voted to increase their pay 3 percent every year for the next 3 years. Way to go Walker and the board. Couldn’t we spend some of that money to hire someone to make sure our parks are clean? Maybe,the board should be assigned to clean the parks.
Supervisors Holloway and coggs-jones could get a little exercise picking up litter instead of pandering to their black constituents …
I just stumbled upon your “walk in Doctors Park”. I’m the environmental chair of The Park People, a support group for the parks. We used to do “weed-outs” there, but have not had a neighbor willing to coordinate them in the past half dozen years. If you can rally your neighbors, or recruit someone to take charge (it’s not all that much work!) please let me know! We’ve also been organizing “Friends” groups allowing neighbors to take charge of THEIR parks. Without them little or nothing will get done.
The public can’t just pull out their lawn mowers to maintain the park. It would be a full time job. The asphalt has become rubble — another thing the public cannot fix. Walker’s neglect is inexcusable.
As a recipient of the Tescher award, I’ve worked closely with the Parks People over the years. They’ve done some nice work.
I wish it were as simple as people pitching in but I knocking back the garlic mustard in Doctors park would now be a massive undertaking.
I’m no fan of the present county exec, but the park problems precede him and go back to the time the county board took direct control of both the parks and the transit authority. It’s been downhill for both since then. It’s rock bottom now for sure, but until we can get the parks out of the county’s direct control, or until we’ve got a funcitonal relationship between board and exec, we as users and OWNERS of OUR parks need to take over the functions the county can’t or won’t do! Maybe our actions will embarrass them into doing THEIR jobs!
John,
You are mistaken.
The County Board is not in charge of parks or transit directly. The Exec draws up the budget and the Board approves it. The Exec draws up parks and transit policy and the Board approves it.
Walker is passing the buck and you bought his shell game.
No, I didn’t buy into Walker’s shell game. He does set the budget, and he does hire the head of the parks. The county board (as you know) approves the budget after give and take, mostly restoring many of the cuts Walker makes. There’s joint responsibility there, and joint fault. I’ll assigm most of the fault to Walker sicne he’s got this stupid attitude we can’t raise taxes in spite of rapidly rising costs. We also can’t expect park services to be what they were without sufficient full time staff and Walker wants to accomplish great things with termporary employees. But again, the staff numbers have been systematically falling since the early ’80s, not just since Walker appeared.