Friends of the Parks and community members help improve city parks

By Taylor Piper

According to the 2013-2017 Capitol Improvement Plan, the Chicago Park District plans to renovate 300 of the oldest playgrounds by partnering with Friends of the Parks. The plan allocates a five-year program with $250 million and 28 percent of those funds go toward park improvements, which includes Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Plays! Program. As of January 2014, 50 playgrounds have been updated.

Friends of the Parks and partner Chicago Plays! base selections on an application process allowing community organizations to nominate playgrounds in need of improvements. FOTP chose an application process to invest park improvements in communities that care.

The Mount Greenwood community created a Park Advisory Council in late 2005 to address park safety issues. Without the current relationship with Chicago Plays! Mount Greenwood was able to fund a full playground replacement in 2008. After failed safety inspections, the renovations were necessary. However, regular park goers such as Jacqueline Rowley felt a full park remodel may have been unnecessary.

“Mount Greenwood renovated the equipment in a park who’s flaws were really just some broken pieces that needed some TLC. But there are parks mere miles away that are dilapidated because they happen to reside in communities that people would rather ignore,” said Jacqueline Rowley, a 22-year-old raised in Chicago’s south side neighborhood Mount Greenwood.

Jacqueline Rowley leaning on a fence at Mount Greenwood Park.

Rowley has lived in the Chicago South Side suburb for as long as she can remember. “I have been hanging out in parks by myself and with friends since I was old enough to walk there myself. Normally, we would go to Mt. Greenwood Park.”

Mount Greenwood Park is located at 3724 W 111th St. in an area surrounded by homes and local food joints. The facilities, stretching over 24 acres, have regular hours through the week and weekend offering seasonal sports, preschool activities, softball, camps and after-school programs.

“When I was young, like between 4 and 6, I went to day camp at Mt. Greenwood. After that, I took art classes, and once I outgrew those, I took ceramics. I loved it. I love parks and swings and being outside,” said Rowley.

Rowley isn’t alone. Home to a large number of police families; Mt. Greenwood is among the safest neighborhoods in Chicago. Not only that, but this three square-mile town consists of more than 50 percent family households. Having a safe and local park location became an important issue throughout the community.

Knowing how parks aid in childhood development, Mary Vogwill spoke out at a town hall meeting in 2005. Her concern pulled Terri Oliver, Pam Waldrom, and Jennifer Lucid to come together and create the Park Advisory Council. Swing Into Action at Mt. Greenwood Park was then created. Their work caught the attention of Senator Edward Maloney and State Representative Kevin Joyce, both of whom donated to renovation funds.

 

Mount Greenwood Park’s new soft playlot made possible through the Chicago Park District and Park Advisory Council. (Photo by Taylor Piper)

The Chicago Park District and Mt. Greenwood Advisory Council successfully raised $1.2 million for a fully accessible soft surface playground.

The playground includes interactive artistic components, which were designed by local artists through the Chicago Public Art Group. Now complete with safe fixtures, proper fencing, colorful soft surfaces, the park reflects the commitment and involvement the community has with providing spaces for youth.

“Now the park looks modern and, as weird as this sounds, ‘high-tec’, but I often see kids enjoying the new equipment. I’ve always seen a lot of children and families enjoying the facilities. Nothing was particularity broken. Some of the benches fell victim to wear and tear and I was happy to see them replaced,” said Rowley.

The Chicago Park District lists among its core values that ‘children come first’ and to uphold a mission of ‘providing safe, inviting and maintained parks’ to Chicago neighborhoods. Friends of the Parks has partnered with the Chicago Park District and park councils throughout Chicago in a mission to develop healthy communities through connections to their parks.

Maria Stone, Director of Neighborhood Parks at FOTP, said, “At Friends of the Parks, we advise park councils, educate the communities, educate hundreds of students and build relationships. We serve as a community partner.”

At the beginning of the five-year renovation plan, the application process was open to all communities.

”Playgrounds are selected due to poor conditions and community priorities. We received over 100 applications from neighborhoods throughout Chicago. These applications ask for a minimum of 50 signatures, a letter from the alderman, and community contributions to show support,” Stone said. “We’ve received everything from homemade videos, posters, and children’s drawings of their dream playground.”

With over 500 parks total in Chicago, even with the help from FOTP and Chicago Park District, parks without an involved community experience more time between renovations.

Beth Long, a 22-year-old college graduate, grew up in Burbank and spent time in the parks of Midway and West Lawn in the south side of Chicago.

“Growing up on the Southside, most of my time was spent at West Lawn Park just few blocks from my grammar school,” Long said. “Throughout grammar school, this park was the home of all soccer practices, football games, homecoming cookouts, and everyday hangouts with my friends.”

The entrance to West Lawn Park on 65th St. (Photo by Taylor Piper)

“As I entered 8th grade, the quality of the park quickly declined. This caused a chain effect in how I spent my free time throughout high school. Same group of people at the same park, which was unrecognizable now from 5 years prior, and we just found opportunities to drink, smoke, and hang out with the wrong crowd.”

West Lawn Park is located just off Cicero Ave. at 4233 W 65^th St. and sits on almost 17 acres. It’s features include a gym, multipurpose fields, playground and new turf field. West Lawn Park, unlike Mt. Greenwood, does not have a council tending to and checking on park conditions.

“The lack of upkeep and supervision resulted in this being a dangerous place to be after dark. Gang fights and underage drinking were not controlled whatsoever,” Long said. “The place that was once a wonderful place of memories with family and friends turned into a horrible influence on me and everyone I surrounded myself with.”

Currently, West Lawn Park’s summer program consists of one Floor Hockey summer program for kids. Nearby schools utilize the donated turf field from the Take The Field committee.

“I firmly believe that if the park district continued to take pride in our park my life would have taken a different path and maybe a few lives would have been saved,” Long said.

She laced her fingers through the fence surrounding a space that used to contain a skate park and said, “Some of my most memorable moments happened at West Lawn, both positive and negative. I haven’t returned in over 4 years and would never recommend a parent to take their children there. Something is not right when we can’t send our own children to the playground.”

Friends of the Parks is changing those relationships and encouraging Chicago communities to take back their neighborhoods and parks. As Stone said, we move forward ‘one playground at a time’. All the community needs is two people to form a council and become the voice for that park.

“Neighborhoods all over Chicago have found great ways to raise funds for their parks. Just as Mt. Greenwood Park found local artists and raised funds through events, a park can do anything from create a yoga program to schedule weekly neighborhood events to get the community involved and interested,” Stone said.

“It’s really about knowing you’re giving back to your community. When kids see adults working to build a new playground, they not only feel loved but see what it means to be part of something more.”

 

Check out this interactive storymap that features the first 50 parks renovated last year at part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Plays! Program.

[View the story “Chicago Park District Community” on Storify]

2014 World Cup Teams

Preparation for the World Cup is well underway. Get to know the teams before the games begin!

Here is an interactive story map giving information about every team you can find playing in the world cup this summer.

 2014 World Cup Storymap

But are they clean?

Recently, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the 103 Chicago parks to be refurbished or updated. Upon the press release, the community voiced concerns that perhaps our park district’s priorities are skewed. I agree. Why build another baseball field in a park that isn’t clean?

With temperatures up into the 80s this past week, I thought it a perfect time to explore some of Chicago’s parks. I visited three parks on Mayor Emanuel’s list, and two other district parks. Below are videos featuring pictures from each visit that took place between May 8 and May 11.

Overall, the conditions in all parks appeared recently cleaned with visible park district garbage cans. Almost every park has people engaging with the offered amenities.

Interactive Map of Chicago Parks

In 2014, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a plan to build and refurbish 103 parks across the city. The Chicago Park District is responsible for more than 580 parks that cover over 8,100 acres of land throughout Chicago.

In his press release on April 17th, Mayor Emanuel said the plan is to provide a safe space for children to play. Chicago is already halfway through the planned renovations that when completed will have refurbished 103 parks.

This interactive map displays the locations of all Chicago Park District parks over Chicago’s neighborhoods. The parks are color coded according to the acres: green is under 15 acres, blue parks have 15-100 acres, and red are over 100 acres. You can select your zip code and locate a park near you. Clicking the point will provide information about amenities and facilities the park offers currently.

Mark Briggs’ Entrepreneurial Journalism: Marketing Online Media

Mark Briggs in on a mission, both within this book and in his career, to elevate journalists in the digital age by giving them the tools necessary to thrive online. In several chapters in Entrepreneurial Journalism, Briggs discusses the ins and outs of funding and marketing a website or online media tool. The chapters provide several different ways to successfully fund and market your websites and online project because they can generate profit.

One route several online news sites are taking is limiting access to users until they sign up for subscriptions. The Chicago Tribune offers a similar deal to those who subscribe by adding special content to their viewing. This is known as a pay wall; known to be disliked by many but it’s how the site stays afloat.  Other sites provide deals with a subscription to keep your loyalty.

The website Greenerdealz.com  pulls in subscriptions by offering email blasts including new deals and coupon opportunities. As an intern for the site, our incentive is not only for users to stay and return, but to sell that information to potential ad partners.

Different tactics can be found on social media sites. Facebook uses software to track their user’s online behavior and interests to tailor the ads to appeal to specific target audiences. This customized form of advertising pays off for both the website and advertiser.

Briggs also mentions sponsored ads or content. Sites such as Mashable are set up based on which sponsors paid for the top spot, also paying off on receiving the most views or clicks. Each of these strategies needs to fit the market and model of the online website or product to end up paying off in the long run.

 

 

 

Paper Moon Pastry, New Logan Square Vegan Boutique

By Taylor Piper and Taylor Holt

At 3523 W. Fullerton Ave. in Logan Square, a quaint storefront welcomes customers into a homey vintage pastry boutique.

Ana Katsenios, the 29-year-old store owner and baker, started Paper Moon Pastry with the goal of creating a unique, comfortable candy land atmosphere while supporting local entrepreneurs.

 “The look of my store is a Goth 90’s riot girl, Martha Stewart took over Willy Wonka’s punk rock chocolate factory, and had a farmers market,” said Katsenios.

                Interior look of shop laced with unique décor

Her iPod plays a mix of tunes ranging from oldies to indie punk. The windowsill displays a vintage desk and old typewriter lighted by Christmas lights and modern fixtures giving off a comfy, thrift store vibe, while contributing her own identity to the shop.

Customers walk into the small store and find a combination of walls lavished with colorful, eye catching artwork by local artists, collections of homemade jewelry, candles and products, all framing the front case featuring Katsenios’ latest baked goods.

The importance of supporting her local vendors is shown through the wide variety of products the store sells and by the market fairs she holds each month.

 “Part of the way I was going to raise money and gain exposure, I decided to start doing these monthly markets and invite craftspeople. People that I felt like were like me, one person who makes one thing and is really passionate about it, Katsenios said. “I want to showcase that and make a big deal of it because I feel really connected to that. The markets ended up looking really similar to the feel of my store. People were just sort of like, ‘Oh, I could just leave it here’. And it occurred to me that having a gift shop and pastries made sense.”

With renovations completed less than a week ago to incorporate seating, Paper Moon’s opening has been a steady work in progress.

                                      Newly renovated shop seating

The first stages of Paper Moon Pastry began over four years ago, operating from an apartment on Logan Boulevard as a wholesale bakery. From that, she’s come to own a space in Logan Square that was an ideal location because of its affordability and her personal vision for the pastry boutique.

The “Paper Moon” inspiration came from the restaurant Ana’s father, Bobby Katsenios, started with her uncle in Chicago when she was younger. Being involved in cooking and food service for the majority of her life has fueled this passion for the service she provides to her customers.

On her journey, Katsenios gained experience from working in several cake shops, restaurants and bakeries throughout the U.S. while traveling before returning to Chicago in 2009.

Along the way, she won awards such as Tucson Metromix “Best Desserts” and an Elizabeth Falkner internship from Women Chefs and Restaurateurs.

“The desserts I was making at the time when I won the Metromix award weren’t plated, they weren’t molecular. What I was doing was making the most full flavored traditional desserts and serving them by the slice from whole products,” she said.

This is the same concept she has taken and applied to the pastry products she currently sells in her shop.

With all these accomplishments however, being a small business owner will always have its obstacles.

 “The entire concept of being a small business owner is challenging,” Katsenios said. “Everything is challenging from creating the product to managing, so it really has to be something you find rewarding and think it’s worth it.”

Before owning her permanent shop space, Katsenios would visit events, bars, and farmers markets to spread the word personally about her products and vision.

She could be spotted all over town pulling her handmade Pastry Wagon, both displaying and transporting any array of her vegan treats, which have been carried in businesses such as New Wave, the Dill Pickle, Café Mustache , Township as well as the Logan Theatre, all after she independently developed these relationships.

“She really is a hustler in the good sense of that word,” said Dana Norden, a buyer at The Dill Pickle Co Op, in a recent interview on the Indiegogo website.

Residents of Logan Square and various customers also expressed their appreciation for her hard work and delicious pastries in recent reviews.

“I’m not vegan myself, but I’ve had plenty of vegan baked goods and desserts, and am not usually impressed. These were better than most I’ve ever had. She also was selling a cup of metropolis coffee for $1. If you live in the area, you should definitely stop in and support the business,” said Johnathan Adler.

“Ana is an ingenious creator and baker with an unmatched work ethic,” said Tino Valentino.

With over 15 other bakeries located in Logan Square alone, how is the new addition standing out?

Well, Paper Moon Pastry not only offers 100 percent vegan baked goods that she alone makes from scratch, but the shop also proudly exhibits Katsenios’ devotion to supporting her fellow local businesses.

Katsenios explained how the items featured on the selves of her store are from hardworking business owners like herself that reach out with an interest of support.

“The idea of having a gift shop mixed with pastries just makes sense,” Katsenios said. “People could come in and get pastries and a little item to go with it.”

                Menu of main food items the shop sells

Her business has ranged from selling products in her shop to catering for events held inside and outside of her shop. Her products range from pies, cookies and brownies to custom orders for cakes. She also makes cakes for special events, like the recent order of a two-tier pretzel caramel fudge and honey lavender butter anniversary cake.

 “I keep my cake designs simple. I want the cake to actually look like a cake and not get too fancy with designing it,” Katsenios said. “I like for all my products to look familiar even if they’re weird.” For example, her current sweet potato curry potpie sits in the display case next to the apple crumb pie.

Beyond her love for baking, Katsenios’ dream to create a space beneficial for all those who supported her journey holds a special place in her heart.

In December of last year, she launched an Indiegogo campaign, which raised $4,375 to officially open the Logan Square storefront that is now Paper Moon Pastry’s permanent home.

While sitting on the custom bench funded with the campaign money, Katsenios said, “This is really it. This is what I wanted. I don’t want a diner or anything. This is kind of it.”

Should School Closings Be Mandatory?

Listen to the audio post, then cast your vote in response to the question.

Russia’s Anti-gay law raises hipe during Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics

As the Winter Olympics opened Friday, the discussion of Russia’s anti-gay laws was well underway throughout the world.

Viewers tweeted and uploaded Youtube videos discussing the potential danger lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender  athletes may endure.

Here is a small collection of comments made by participants, viewers, sponsors and President Obama prior to and during the event.

2009 Lincoln Park Muggings

In late July and early August of 2009, several men were the victims of muggings in the Lincoln Park area. Police believe the first five of the seven muggings listed and sited in this map are related, while Police are investigating possible links to the other two.

Each mid-20s male targeted was walking alone. They told Police they were approached on foot from behind by at least four attackers, also men in their 20s. In each case, the victims were asked for their wallets, then beaten. Two victims were hospitalized.

As of April 1, 2011, no arrests have been made. If you have any information on the muggings, please contact the Chicago Police Department, or call 311. In the case of an emergency, dial 911.

Gov. Quinn: State Pensions Threatening MAP Grants

Gov. Pat Quinn talks about MAP grants at a press conference at DePaul University. (Photo by Josclynn Brandon)

By Josclynn Brandon and Angelica Robinson

Gov. Pat Quinn visited DePaul University’s Loop campus on Wednesday to discuss how pension reform is harming the Monetary Award Program (MAP) college scholarships and access to higher education in Illinois.

“This is so important to our state, not only in the past, but certainly now and in the future,” Quinn said.
“We want everyone to have the opportunity to go to college that has the ability to go to college.”

MAP grants are need-based college scholarships that allow merit students who are in need across the state and do not need to be repaid by the student. Quinn said that due to cutbacks and having to pay more money in the pension amount, almost 18,000 students lost their MAP grant scholarships this year.

“We do not want anyone denied that opportunity because of finances,” Quinn said. “We can’t afford to lose all the talent that exists, all the ability that exists for higher education to help our economy and to help all of us, because there are financial challenges that deny someone the opportunity to go to community college or a four-year university — public and private — in our state.”