Open letter to Alderman Cardenas

 

 Dear Alderman Cardenas, 

 

    We are members of the community who volunteer our time and skills to maintaining and beautifying our beloved McKinley Park. We are neighbors who find peace and joy in walking around the nature trails. We are gardeners who plant flowers for pollinators, and tend and harvest vegetables for ourselves and to share with our community.

As park stewards, we pick up trash with our families. We plant new native plants to encourage a safe environment for the birds, reptiles, mammals, and insects of our lagoon. We work with the Park District to cut back invasive species so a diverse ecology can thrive. We organize and attend educational activities to foster a sense of belonging and appreciation to our environment and our community.  

We dedicate our free time to taking care of our park because we love it. 

 

When big festivals set up in the City’s public parks, the destruction is inevitable, devastating, and irreparable. We don’t want this in McKinley Park. We don’t want this in Douglass Park, either, in solidarity with our neighbors: human, flora, and fauna. We have seen the shameful condition Douglass has been left in time after time, despite years of broken promises from the people in charge. Our 12th Ward children want to play and go to summer camp without obstacles and disruption. Our neighbors want to be able to get to work on time without streets being blocked off and nowhere to park. We want peace in the evenings so we can get a good night’s sleep without worry and noise. 

We don’t want the small pittance these for-profit entities offer in return for abusing our public spaces. We don’t want months of closed off turf in need of repairs. We don’t want the sudden influx of concert-goers disturbing the wildlife we’ve spent so much time caring for. We don’t want people urinating and vomiting in our gardens and common spaces.

 

We want to be able to use our public parks to celebrate our communities in the ways we, as residents, choose. 

 

Stop giving our public parks to private companies to destroy. Tell the promoters to find a private venue to rent, or to take it downtown, where residents will not be as impacted.

Do not let the Mas Flow Reggaeton festival come to McKinley Park.