On Common Ground - Winter 2016: Healthy Communities

The Bloomingdale Trail covers 24 acres and is the biggest piece of what locals call “The 606” — a moniker taken from the first three digits of Chicago’s zip code — that includes a pair of existing parks and several new ones, plus a solar observatory at the western end of the path. It opened in June and has two dozen bridges with new trees and landscaping that pass over city streets and 17 wheelchair-accessible ramps to reach the trail. More parks, lush green spaces and public artworks are planned along the route, too, which also runs through the Logan Square, Bucktown and Humboldt Park neighborhoods on the northwest side of the city.

But the 606 is just one of the many new parks that have been built — or are in the works — around the country. According to Beth White of the Trust for Public Land, which coordinated the project with the Chicago Parks Department, urban areas around the country are playing catch-up as downtowns and other neighborhoods grow and residents clamor for nearby places to play, relax and enjoy nature.

The Trust for Public Land partners with communities so people can go out their front door and within a 10-minute walk have access to nature, parks, gardens, playgrounds, trails and other calming places. In Dallas, the city put a deck over a stretch of the Woodall Rodgers Freeway to create a 5.7-acre park called Klyde Warren Park that connects a gentrified neighborhood with the city’s downtown arts district. In Savannah, Ga., a parking garage was buried to recreate one of the city’s historic town squares that was laid out in the 1700s.

New Yorkers boast of the High Line, another stretch of converted elevated railroad. In Florida, the New Tampa Nature Park features access to wetland habitats via an elevated boardwalk. And Madison, Wis., is in the early stages of planning a one-acre park near the University of Wisconsin that will require the demolition of four old student rental houses. The park is needed, city officials say, because more than half a dozen apartment buildings have gone up in the city center in recent years, adding thousands of new residents to the downtown area.

White, the regional Trust for Public Land director, said the 606 will cost $90 million when completed, with $50 million coming from federal funding, $5 million from the city and county, and the rest being raised in a private campaign.