Chicago Park Districts and Real Estate

Who does't love a good park? From a place to have a picnic, bring family to, play sports, workout, relax, and much more, they play such a critical role in our lives. Also, they are essentially protectors of land. Without parks, we would be in a gridlocked city of buildings, cement, and traffic. Parks do a wonderful job at creating something beautiful for all residents.

While I would imagine many agree for their loves of parks (or at least general appreciation), I feel like many buyers have put a backset to parks being of an importance within their search. School districts, entertainment, transportation, and other lifestyle factors tend to be up there in the criteria but parks, while a great marketing tool and terrific bonus to the buyer, tend to be further down on the search. Many feel like parks are great in the area but something I have recently learned about parks is that they actually take a ton of work. I am not just talking about upkeep and maintenance, but long term planning and acquiring upgraded items, repairs, or general infrastructure planning. The city does a good job but a lot goes into our parks. It's also a juggling act of knowing what a neighborhood and surrounding area need in a park, where the money will come from, then how it will be kept up for the years to come. Active park committees that consist of the public have residents that may come and go, both living in the area as well as ability to be engaged,

A few things you can do to maintain your local parks:

1) Get active and participate in events.

2) Join clubs and organizations.

3) Participate in local planning/action committees.

4) Bring family and friends to them for actvity.

5) Keep them clean - pick up litter if you come across it.

6) Do charity for the parks.

7) Think something would be cool at your park, contact the Park District on how it may become a reality (others may be thinking the same).

8) Donate to the parks.

9) Share special items via social from the park - spread the message!

10) Just go and enjoy them!

Check out the Chicago Park Districts Page for more information!

Also, wonder what's going on in the picture above? It was from a Ground Breaking Ceremony for updates and work to be done at Kelly Park near Wrigley Field in Lakeview. It was years in the making and too many organizations and people coming together to get it going! It should be amazing! Stay tuned!