My letter to the Alders regarding Shoop Park. Please write yours

My letter to Racine Alders:

I’m forwarding the comments I made last week at the July 7th meeting at the end of this note.  Thank you for listening to all of the speakers. 

I wanted to comment first on something one of the developers talked about on Monday night.  He talked about people being able to fly in and stay at a hotel here and play a round of golf and then fly out the next day to play another round somewhere else in Wisconsin.  And isn’t that great… I was waiting to hear how the dune golf course he wants to build will serve low income families.  I never heard anything about that.  Yet this was the population Dr. Shoop intended to serve when he created the deed stating that Shoop Park would be a Public Park forever. 

Public Parks became part of the National consciousness in the mid 1800s.  Most citizens were considered working class or working poor at that time.  Public Parks were created to give people a chance to be in nature in a city setting.  Central Park in New York is among the first Public Parks in the country.  Families were able to breathe fresh air, play the outside games of the day, go on picnics and enjoy community.   When Dr. Shoop wrote in the deed that he signed in 1917 that he intended that Shoop be a Public Park, he had all people in mind.  Not just golfers. 

Dr. Shoop was involved in the development of the Park Department in the early days around 1906.  He would have known about the difference between a Public Park and a golf course.  He wanted to make sure that the land he donated could be used by everyone so he stated in his deed that Shoop Park should be a Public Park forever.

Just a year or two prior to his signing the deed, the Park Board had suddenly changed directions on the purpose of Washington Park in West Racine (around 1916) from being a place for picnics, recreation and leisure (designed by Jens Jensen with this in mind) to a golf course.  A friend of mine did extensive research on the evolving story of Washington Park and has given talks about it at the library and other venues. Dr. Shoop may have had this in mind when he left a deed in 1917 to show future generations his intentions.  Unfortunately, the Park Board didn’t wait long to change directions at Shoop Park as well.  Dr. Shoop passed away in 1924.  In 1926 the board announced they were creating a six hole golf course on the east side of the park. It opened in 1929.  I’ve been doing research at the Heritage Museum since last December or so to learn these things. 

I don’t know how a course that will be utilized mainly by the wealthy when the land was set aside by the donor to be used as a park for all citizens of Racine can be acceptable.   I don’t know one person who devotes a weekend to playing golf and jetting around, but I guess they exist.  It’s sad that children will not be making memories there with the proposed changes.   Will the sledding hills even remain intact? 

With the current parking lot being moved from where it is now, unless you golf, a Racine citizen is not allowed to set foot in a park that belongs to them.  How can that be ok?

I don’t understand how your body can disregard a legal document - the deed.  And disregard Dr. Shoop’s wishes.  It’s all beyond my comprehension.

Please pause the vote on Tuesday, July 21st until the developers receive their permits. 

There has to be grants out there that could pay for repairing the bluff.  I used to do grant writing in my job as recycling coordinator for the town of Mt Pleasant and again in my job as the YMCA Earth Service Corps Director (a community service club for middle and high school students).  The kids and I did the native restoration back 2002 or 2003 at Barbee Park at Rick Jones’ (the Public Works Director) request.  We received a grant from Root-Pike Win.  I’m happy to help with grant writing, forming a Friends of Shoop group to help take care of the property, fundraising, anything that will help us keep Shoop as a Public Park as our benefactor, Dr. Shoop, intended.  

Thank you for listening.  Please pause your vote. 

Wendy Sorenson

July 7, 2026

To Racine Elected Officials regarding the Dune Golf Course Proposal 

My name is Wendy Sorenson.  I grew up in Racine on the north side near Jerstad-Agerhom.  Shoop has always been a part of my life.  First, sledding as a kid and picnics on the south side of the park where the first hole is now, watching fireworks with friends from high school in the 70s and smelt fishing from the jetties. The picnic area closed when the course was redesigned in the early to mid 1990s.  

More recently, I began walking frequently with my dogs at the lighthouse and Shoop when I lived in Wind Point between 2003-2020.  The lighthouse and Shoop were just a 10 minute walk from my house.

I am deeply concerned about the loss of trees and its impact on birds and other wildlife.  The dune course plan is a dramatic change from what it has been for decades.  It will be devastating to birds, squirrels, raccoons and other forest animals as well as butterflies and other insects.    I am also concerned about a private developer who is asking for a multi decade lease to take over a beloved public park, left to the people of Racine in 1917 by Dr. Clarendon Shoop and his wife Ida - with explicit instructions in the deed they signed that it should be a public park.  The deed states:  “It is understood between the parties that the hereinbefore described property shall forever be held, maintained and improved by the City of Racine for Public Park purposes…and shall perpetually bear the name Shoop Park.”  Do we care about legal documents anymore? 

The dune developers have not received their DNR and US Army Corps of Engineers permits yet.  I’m hoping that the Common Council will hold off their vote until the develpers are granted permits for their plan.  

I’m also hoping that you remember that Wisconsin is known for protecting the environment.  Our own former governor and United States Senator, Gaylord Nelson is the founder of the first Earth Day in 1970.  It is still celebrated all over the world every April 22nd.  He also oversaw what’s known as the environmental decade of the 1970s when congress passed, among other things, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and created the Environmental Protection Agency.  

I’d like to leave you with a quote from Aldo Leopold, another Wisconsin environmental hero.  He wrote the Sand County Almanac which was published in 1948 and also created UW Madison’s Wildlife Management program.  He is known for coining  the phrase the Land Ethic.  The Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin is world renowned for their leadership in advocating and teaching responsible stewardship of the land for future generations.  Aldo says,  “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”   The land belongs to all living things…to all plants, to all animals, to all of us.   And we are stewards of the land. 

I hope each of you will be able to visit Shoop Park before a final vote to witness the beauty there. This will be gone forever if you vote for the destructive dune golf course plan.  

There are currently 1,758 signatures on an online petition opposing the proposal.  I will provide the link to everyone. 

Thank you for your time and attention. 

Wendy Sorenson

Racine, WI