April 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 59

" There are segments
of the economy
doing quite well.
Governments and
private industry that
rely on government
funding are the ones
having problems. "
Tom O'Rourke

on any more. They are laying off their staffs. There's a point
where it's not possible. "
If there's one " strategy " that Tulipane abhors hearing
about, it's the casually tossed " You just need to learn to partner with the private sector or with nonprofits. "
" I really get crazy when I hear that, " she says. " Our members are geniuses at partnering and have been partnering
for years, and they will continue to partner. But to suggest
that they haven't tapped into that resource and that there is a
bag of money out there and all they have to do is learn how to
partner is just really offensive. That's really a cowardly way

number-two plate, seen on around 18,000
cars. Hart believes one reason for the success of the program is because these were
some of the earliest specialty plates offered in those states and the field has become a lot more crowded since then.

not to deal with the issue. "
The only way to move forward will be to devise new ways
of funding and administering parks and recreation. It won't
happen overnight, and some approaches may well come
from outside the field. NRPA is currently creating a highlevel summit for later this year that will bring a variety of
minds to bear on the issue. Participants will come from within and outside the field-think-tank economists, Fortune 500
CEOs, mayors, and park and recreation agency directors,
for starters.
" We want everyone to really think out of the box, " Tulipane says. " Any idea will be a good idea. Let's start from
scratch. If we had to create this today, how would we do it?
How would we fund it?
" We need a recession-proof model-not just for the sake
of agencies, but also the general public-because when we
have these times is exactly when we need to be building up
our staffs, when we need to be providing more services, not
when we should be reducing them. "
O'Rourke in Charleston exhorts, " One thing is certain, the
need for what we do will never go away. "


search-and-rescue vehicle. The park provides a needs list to the friends group each
year, with the group raising money both to
meet specific needs or the money comes
from undesignated funds such as the license plate program.
" Although it does get more basic in
times like these, " Hart says. " Things that
sometimes would be paid for from their
budget slide over and need some help
from us. "

Chicago Park District Parking Garages
And Meters

" One thing that makes it worthwhile in
Tennessee and North Carolina is that you
can have the plate designed entirely-it's
not just a standard white plate with the
words 'Friends of the Smokies' on it....It's
distinctive, " Hart says.
Some of the uses for the funds include
hiring ranger-teachers for the Parks as
Classrooms program, preserving historic structures in the park, and purchasing a

Lurking under Chicago's Millennium Park is
a veritable gold mine-an enormous underground parking garage that happens to be
conveniently located near the city's Loop.
Through an intergovernmental agreement,
the Millennium Park garage, along with two
others, was leased to Morgan Stanley Investment Management for 99 years for $347.8
million in 2006. The funds were then designated for bond repayments, capital improvements at parks around the city, and
long-term investment, with interest on the
latter partially replacing the $5 million in annual parking revenue that previously went
to the park district. Although some have
criticized the leasing deal, saying that the
park district made more money running the

garages itself, the episode illustrates the level of revenue that parking fees can generate
in big cities.
In addition, the park district hopes to
net another $700,000 per year from privately managed " pay and display " multispace meters at 4,400 parking spaces in
Chicago's lakefront parks. Installed in 2010,
the meters accept coins, dollar bills, and
credit cards and can be used to purchase
several hours of parking at a time.

www.NRPA .ORG

-Elizabeth Beard

a pr i l 2 0 1 1

Parks & Recreation 57

April 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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