Dirty. Dank. Dangerous. Noisy. Nasty. Noxious. That is the "nature" of a city. Right? And Nature — with a capital "N" — is something else and somewhere else. Or can a city be clean, fresh, green, quiet, and healthy? Can urban citizens find Nature and a healthy natural environment close to home? What is and where is nature in our city?
We might imagine Chicago’s lakefront, Lincoln Park, the Zoo, the Forest Preserves, North Park Village Nature Center, and gardens in Chicago parks or planted along the city’s major thoroughfares. Surely they reflect Chicago’s motto, Urbs in Horto — City in a Garden.
Chicago adopted this motto with its City Seal, on March 4, 1837. It was significant when it was created and, though it may have lost some of its meaning and recognition over the decades, it is significant once again.
Historically, Chicago’s expanding metropolis grew within a natural garden; its citizens built vertically while chiseling away at existing green spaces. But at the turn of the last century new ideas began emerging about the relationship between the venerated country and the tolerated cities. Planners who faced an increasingly industrial and mercantile world began thinking of ways to bring the country to the city, in the form of parks.
Ironically, the mother of urban parks is Boston’s Mt. Auburn Cemetery, founded in 1831 by members of the newly-organized Massachusetts Horticultural Society. The "tranquil, natural setting for the burial and commemoration of the dead and for the consolation of the living" gave birth to the "rural" cemetery movement. It also inspired the Garden City Movement’s visionary and revolutionary notion that municipalities provide the space and create park environments in the city. City planner and park designer Frederick Law Olmsted, whose imprint is found in Chicago’s Washington and Jackson parks, led others into the movement.
Green Nature/Human Nature
Charles A. Lewis, in his book, Green Nature/ Human Nature: The Meaning of Plants in Our Lives, provides insight into the importance of green nature, especially in urban lives. Lewis, a horticulturist, is a former administrator of the collections program and research fellow at the Morton Arboretum in west suburban Lisle. A multi-talented greener of diverse experience, Lewis now consults, writes, and speaks about his research into people-plant interactions. His work with the People-Plant Council, established in 1990, provides international access to his ideas and his expertise.
Lewis offers insight into Olmsted’s theory of urban design:
"Disturbed by the unhealthy condition of families living in cramped tenements, where every breath was fouled with smoke from burning coal, Olmsted proposed a new role for vegetation to use its ability to relieve the stress of city life. He anticipated the intense growth of metropolitan areas and recognized that human benefit would accrue from setting aside land to remain forever green. Parks would be‘lungs’ for cities, places for social concourse, where people could relax and breathe air that had been cleansed and refreshed by trees.
"Olmsted strongly believed in the restorative quality of green nature.... Parks and tree-lined boulevards, Olmsted theorized, would produce strong social benefits by bringing disparate cultural groups together in a healing environment."
After the Chicago Fire in 1871, enlightened city fathers, led by Daniel H. Burnham, played upon Chicago’s role as host to the Columbian Exposition of 1893. They provided the political will and economic wherewithal to plan for and set aside remaining green space to create parks along the lakefront, connected to other parks within Chicago communities, and to preserve adjacent savanna, creating what we now know as the Forest Preserves. Danish-born Jens Jensen, horticulturist and self-proclaimed as the world’s first landscape architect, revolutionized the concept of the horticultural conservatory by establishing a natural environment for displaying plant specimens at the Garfield Park Conservatory and planting native plant areas in Chicago parks. He also supported moves to preserve Chicago’s "forests."
Wherever cities create or protect green space, people gather. That was true 100 years ago. It is true today. Yet, in the decades between the powerful green movement of the last century and the empowering green movement of the present, many parks and natural spaces in America’s urban areas have lost ground, been abandoned, disappeared altogether, or at the very least are constrained.
Lewis proposes we look at urban green in a new way. "Green nature in contemporary urban settings...planted within the strict geometric grids of streets and buildings... assumes a subservient role, much as do the people who live, work, and play within its steel and glass canyons. The trees, shrubs, lawns, and flowers that decorate metropolitan centers may be considered as elements of a garden constrained by its urban matrix."
Lewis reports on what he calls a renaissance of interest in — and an awareness of — vegetation in high-density areas. "Unfortunately," he notes, "great plots of open space...are no longer available. Instead, we are thankful for vest-pocket parks dotted within most major cities — small islands where trees, benches, fountains, and flowers offer respite from the assault of traffic, noise, and pollution."
Recent work by psychologists, biologists, physicians, and industrial researchers demonstrates the beneficial effects of gardening, garden environments, and green spaces. These professionals, Lewis reports, offer relevance to what were once considered romantic notions. "In addition to its ability to remove pollutants and cool the air through shade and transpiration, urban greenery is important psychologically. It provides a safety-valve, giving respite from the constant tension imposed by the built environment. Vegetation allows the human spirit to release itself from the inherent stress of the technosphere, and helps it regain stasis and ease."
But Lewis unveils the power of greening more dramatically when he writes about urban neighborhoods, where residents often participate in the process. Chicago is a leader among American cities with regard to this neighborhood greening. For example, he describes the recognition of the social, economic, and political importance of greening that led the Chicago Plan Commission to adopt the CitySpace Plan for open space in September 1997. He recounts the creation in 1996 of GreenNet coalition; and he details the "discovery" of Chicago’s Wilderness. He reports that these networks of green and growing advocacy and activism have been both supported and promoted by Mayor Richard M. Daley. Chicago greeners have reached into parks, onto street corners, and in school grounds throughout diverse neighborhoods. They are sowing new seeds of meaning into Chicago’s motto, City in a Garden, the seeds of many Gardens in the City.
CitySpace: Chicago’s Jolly Green Giant of Open Space
The Openlands Project inspired the CitySpace Project which developed Chicago’s CitySpace Plan. The Chicago Community Trust, a local foundation that grants funds for projects benefitting Chicago’s citizens, provided $400,000 for a two-year period, 1993-5, so that CitySpace, a joint project of the City of Chicago, the Chicago Park District, and the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, could develop a plan for Chicago’s open space. More than 100 government agencies and local civic, community, and business organizations contributed their efforts to accomplish the goal.
Patty Gallagher, Assistant Commissioner of Strategic Planning in the Department of Planning and Development, was project director for CitySpace. Gallagher told urban gardeners in attendance at the 1994 Green and Growing Fair, "Chicago is a pro-development town... [It’s] time [that] open land and space becomes part of it [the development] and the town." She added, "The big projects, the stadia, the waterfront project, the airports, the casinos, generate revenues, yes. But they don’t change or build a neighborhood. The small incremental things make a difference in neighborhoods. People coming together make a difference in neighborhoods."
The completed CitySpace Plan by the Chicago Plan Commission "makes its policies and initiatives a source for long term guidance," according to Joyce O’Keefe, Associate Director of Openlands Project, who testified in support of the Plan before the Commission. "[The Plan] identifies the need for open space throughout Chicago, neighborhood by neighborhood, and sets a course of action that combines both innovative initiatives and tried-and-true policies aimed at creating a new generation of community and citywide open spaces."
The CitySpace Plan is committed to sustaining public-private partnerships and to long-term continuity, both critical factors for success. Toward that end, CitySpace has created an inventory of open space projects in Chicago; an inventory of vacant lands for potential open space projects; and the Chicago Greening Pages, a Resource Directory, a cross-reference guide for those seeking assistance in greening their neighborhoods. The completed CitySpace Plan embodies possibility — it addresses many issues, promotes intergovernmental cooperation, and embraces the possibility of solution.
Casting a GreenNet Over Our City
GreenNet is a coalition of Chicago area organizations and individuals committed to sharing information and resources and developing joint projects to improve the quality, amount, and wide geographic distribution of sustainable green open space in the City of Chicago. GreenNet provides opportunities for its members and their constituencies to exchange ideas and pool resources to increase public awareness and participation in community greening and environmentally-sound management of urban open space.
GreenNet’s members include the Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago Department of Planning, Chicago Department of the Environment, Chicago Environmental Network, Chicago Park District, Chicago Recycling Coalition, CitySpace, CityYear, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Field Museum of Natural History, Friends of the Parks, Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, GreenCorps Chicago, Heifer Project International, John G. Shedd Aquarium, Master Gardeners and Food Preservers, NeighborSpace, Openlands Project, Safer Pest Control Project, and the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service.
Green from the Roots Up
GreenNet affiliates have helped Chicago community gardeners find access to policy makers, resources, and each other. These gardeners sow the seeds of community change in garden plots inserted among abandoned industrial buildings, between neglected apartment buildings, and within forgotten neighborhoods. These gardens, the organic institutions that make them possible, and the activities that develop from and give rise to shared experiences, break down barriers and open gates to opportunity.
Glenda Daniel, Director of Urban Greening for Openlands Project, notes, "We are big believers in small intimate green spaces in neighborhoods — within walking distance of every residence.
"Openlands sets out to have scattered vacant lot gardens, mostly passive in nature, with benches and flowers — a place to relax and enjoy the flowers. These gardens show concrete results in a single season. It makes a difference for the community. The gardeners feel ownership, and as an outgrowth, both the gardeners and other people venture from their houses. They get out and form networks, which result in other things happening.
"In poorer neighborhoods, people claim a lot and take it back from drug dealers or dumpers. They learn that if you work on something, you can make a big change, in a way you might not have imagined, at relatively little cost."
These projects help communities regain possession of their neighborhoods and protect or increase property values. This positive result, however, can create an ironic problem, Daniel reveals. Neighborhood improvement might also increase desirability to outsiders. Gentrification and displacement of long-time lower-income residents presents another challenge. But that is another story.
Community Education Broadens Understanding
Vernon R. Bryant, manager of Urban Greening Services for the Chicago Horticultural Society’s Chicago Botanic Garden, proposes an education connection that relates closely to the ideas of Charles Lewis.
"I believe it is critically important for all people to understand their connection to the natural environment. Only when everyone can make the connection can we change attitudes about how we care for it. Gardens and gardening provide one good way to connect people to the land.
"Often when we talk to city kids, we realize that they do not see a tree as a living thing. To them its like a light pole or building," Bryant said. "They don’t understand how important it is for their existence. Urban Greening Services hopes to show Chicagoans why the well-being of nature and living things is related to their own well-being."
Urban Greening Services helps local communities create gardens and open spaces. It also provides education and technical assistance, in fulfillment of the mission of the Chicago Horticultural Society, in order to foster horticultural education and to serve people throughout Cook County.
The University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service offers several opportunities to benefit from urban greening. Its Chicago Urban Garden Program teaches residents in low-income neighborhoods how growing food can supplement diets and save on grocery bills. Publications in the Backyard Gardening Series teach how to grow, harvest, preserve, and prepare food grown in home or neighborhood gardens. The Master Gardener, Composter, and Environmentalist programs each offer a selective and challenging course of study to those interested both in learning the vital skills required to master each discipline and in volunteering in communities to share the knowledge with residents.
These three organizations are only a sample of the resources available to help in your greening endeavors. Other organizations and opportunities abound. The Green and Growing Fair, sponsored by GreenNet, is one extraordinary opportunity to gain access to information and resources. It takes place this year on May 16 at the Field Museum. The fair is open to everyone, particularly community gardeners.
Going Wild in Chicago
A third coalition embracing and promoting the notion of nature in the Chicago area is Chicago Wilderness. Debra Shore, editor of Chicago Wilderness magazine, summarizes the three-part definition of Chicago Wilderness in the premiere issue, Fall 1997. "...first and foremost, Chicago Wilderness is an archipelago of 200,000 acres of protected natural lands stretching from Chiwaukee Prairie in Wisconsin, through the six counties of northeastern Illinois and Goose Lake Prairie southwest of Joliet, to the dunes of northwestern Indiana" — including "the plants and animals that live on the land...and the people."
It was the "human capital of the region... that bequeathed to us and our children a rare natural legacy," Shore explains. Today it is human capital that has formed a coalition of public and private institutions, a consortium called the Chicago Region Biodiversity Council. According to Shore, the council has "pledged to work in concert to protect, restore, and manage the precious natural resources of the Chicago region."
These three broad-based initiatives — the CitySpace Plan, GreenNet, and Chicago Wilderness — help to answer the questions, "Can urban citizens find Nature and a healthy natural environment close to home?" and "What is and where is nature in our city?" Although the three are composed largely of the same organizations with regard to membership and support base, each has made its own promise to Chicago — for its urban nature, for its human nature, for its green nature. Numerous Chicago organizations and individuals have imagined, recognized, authorized, implemented, and personified Lewis’s thesis that humans and plants must have a reciprocal relationship. They educate all of us. Our responsibility is to leave a legacy of education and human resources that promotes and protects both our green nature and our human nature.
Marti Ross Bjornson is a freelance educator and writer who specializes in environmental and urban greening topics.
Resources
Lewis, Charles A. Green Nature/ Human Nature: The Meaning of Plants in Our Lives. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
American Community Gardening Association, 100 North 20th Street, 5th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103-1495, e-mail: sallymcc@libertynet.org. list serve: community_garden@ag.arizona.edu
Chicago Wilderness Magazine, P.O. Box 5054, Skokie, IL 60076-5054; 847-965-9253
CitySpace, 20 North Clark Street, Suite 2800, Chicago, IL 60602; 312-742-0820
GreenNet: GreenNet Hotline: 312-427-4256 ext. 385. For information about GreenNet activities, or to contact any of the GreenNet member organizations, leave a message.
Diane Relf, chair, People-Plant Council, 407 Saunders Hall, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, VA.