A Fight to Claim Progress
Rewind to find a winning strategy
When I started my job as a parks planner in a small city, my first moves were to explore the park system and to introduce myself to the heads of the departments that I would possibly be working with. All but one- the Director of Economic Development- made time to meet with me.
Her disregard was telling, an indicator of how she viewed her role, and the role of her department as limited to the bounds of business attraction and retention. Not employee attraction, not quality of life for existing residents, not affordable transportation, and not environmental resilience. Her understanding of healthy city economics fit into a tidy box confined by the old-school ideas of trickle-down capitalism.
In contrast, for my introductory meeting with Community Development, the department head went above and beyond. He happened to be an avid mountain biker and offered to give me a tour of the trails that wove through and connected our biggest parks.
As we rode through a vast network of unpaved trails, he explained how an independent citizen group built and maintained the course. The trails were incredible, with water features, tricks, and beautiful woodland scenery. There was one branch that was particularly thrilling with its switchback climb, rocky descent, and rewarding bonus jump at the landing. We’ll call the course “Chili Pepper” for purposes of anonymity.
“The head of economic development told me to get ready to reroute it,” he said with a laugh that seemed to cover a pang of sadness.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“They’re going to develop part of the land that it’s on.”
He explained that even though it was park land, the Parks Department didn’t own it, and it wasn’t protected. Economic Development wanted to clear out part of the land that was flat at the top of the course to put in a shell building to attract manufacturers. Never mind that we had several of those sitting vacant in the same complex.
And forget the fact that the trails attracted hundreds of visitors from neighboring counties and states and were the site of big regional mountain biking events.
“That’s a shame,” I said, feeling a little rage-against-the-system fire rising in my chest.
“Well, you’ve got to have economic development. You have to bring in jobs,” he said.
“There’s more than one way to do economic development,” I said. He laughed. And we rode on.
Soon enough, Economic Development did construct their shell building. They went above and beyond and cut well past the structure’s site, supposedly to harvest surrounding lumber for an additional profit. To much applause, the young director proudly presented her accomplishment to City Council, touting all the revenue it’d bring to the city.
Meanwhile, our local environmental organization fielded calls from concerned park goers about the construction site’s runoff into our creeks and river. Erosion from the missing trees amplified the damage. The trail organization that built Chili Pepper felt disregarded. The mountain biking and trail running community lost a beloved place.
Cut to two years later and the building still stands empty.
This story infuriates me. It embodies so many of the challenges and injustices that park, environment, and community advocates face in shaping their communities. It also showcases the short-sighted ridiculousness of siloed economic development practices.
I look back at this experience and try to imagine what I could have done to prevent this outcome. The city system was really geared for Economic Development to go forward with its idea, but there must have been something that would have saved the trail.
These are steps I wish I would have taken as a planner and areas where I think residents could have been effective:
Visibility. We started to map the trails and put up video of the mountain biking trails on our website. I believe that having this visual resource could have highlighted the uniqueness of the trails, showcasing them as an invaluable resource for residents and a powerful tourist draw.
Numbers. We didn’t have any documentation of how the trails were used, by how many it was used, and what the economic value was to the City. In an ideal world, I would have monthly stats of trail usage, counts of tourists and race attendees, and an estimate of business activity related to the trails.
While I had no support staff and not a lot of backing from my department to focus on this, I could have reached out to and been proactive about working with our regional planning commission, who do take on regional trail developments and promote them for tourism and local business development.
Connection. The mountain biking community was amazing at building, maintaining, and improving the trails, but I rarely interacted with them. Having a stronger connection between the Parks Department and volunteers would likely have helped their needs be formally presented to the City. It definitely would have helped me make the case for keeping the trail, because I could cite how residents would be affected.
Activism. Residents showing up to council meetings, arranging meetings with decision makers, and building relationships with influential individuals and organizations could have made a difference. It is much harder for leaders to make decisions against the will of the people when they have to look those people in the eye.
These are immediate actions that work within cities’ existing flawed models and methods of growth.
They are important to employ as we look to reorient our city systems toward meaningful citizen involvement. They protect us as we vote out the profit-above-people politicians and replace them with those who believe in holistic economies that directly support people and the environment.
Let’s continue to show up for our communities in every possible way. Let’s get excited about voting away Trump and any local or national politician who would back him. From these actions, let’s send a big signal that says we reject the abusive political systems that harm us and the places we love.
With love and hope for our future,
Stephanie
Everyone needs to read this!
This shows the need for community involvement. Too often people show up to HOA or city meetings only when fees or taxes are going to be raised. Involvement is crucial.