Meet Juanita Irizarry of Friends of the Parks in Loop

Today we’d like to introduce you to Juanita Irizarry.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Juanita. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I came to Friends of the Parks fresh off a big loss. I ran for alderman in Chicago’s 26th Ward in the last municipal election cycle while working in the office of Governor Pat Quinn. He lost his election and then I lost mine, coming 143 votes short of a run-off. I needed a new challenge and a paycheck.

My early career was in non-profit affordable housing and economic development, interests which grew out of my childhood context. I grew up on the border of Humboldt Park and Logan Square, right near what is now The 606 trail. That experience, back when it was not a trendy area, shaped me and sent me down the path I am on today. Although, it is a surprise to many people that I have ended up working at a parks advocacy organization.

The neighborhood was in decline as I grew up in the 1970s. As Latinos and other people of color moved into the neighborhood, the incumbent white ethnic population moved out. Banks decided that the property values in the area would go down and chose not to provide mortgage loans or home repair loans — a practice called “red-lining” which is now illegal and which created a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many property owners rented their units as they moved out since they couldn’t sell them. They couldn’t fix them up either, so they “managed them toward demolition” or burned the houses down to collect on their fire insurance. People died in arson fires in my neighborhood during those years and the area was left pock-marked with vacant lots.

I became very intrigued with the built environment and systemic oppression. So after college, I went on to graduate studies in urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago and then worked for a few non-profit community development corporations in Chicago over the years. The organizations I worked for engaged residents to consider strategies to reclaim the abandoned and neglected spaces in neighborhoods like mine, and the end result tended to be new affordable housing and community gardens. Therein, began some of my experience in wrestling with the tension over what to do with open space — in the midst of different ideas about what “highest and best use” means — and how to foster healthy communities.

After 15 years in the non-profit world, I earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School and did stints in philanthropy and government. As I came off my pursuit of elective office in my long-time neighborhood in 2015, different subsets of the community were struggling over differences of opinion about Riot Fest in Humboldt Park and what the new 606 trail would mean for community residents in a gentrifying neighborhood. While debating these issues, some were also coming together to save the Humboldt Park beach, and I was immersed in these issues in my volunteer community and political roles just as I was looking for a new gig. So, I have brought my particular perspective informed by my lifelong context to Friends of the Parks as I have come back around to lead this non-profit.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Throughout my journey, I have faced both burn out and boredom. And, there has often been a very fine line between my professional life and my community activism. But whether paid or volunteer, my work has always been about public service and empowering residents to have a say in determining what is best for them. And my approach to it has always been rooted in commitment to my community and others like it. And, the strength I derived from growing up in the ‘hood.

Somewhere along the way, I learned that I have a high tolerance for risk. I enjoy the challenge of stepping into a program or organization in disarray and figuring out how to fix it. But that also gets me in sticky situations.

At one non-profit where I worked — where I really began to name myself as a “turn around specialist” — I discovered that the organization was in such bad shape that I was not able to pay myself regularly during my first year as executive director. But as they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. (I eventually was able to get caught up with my pay and I was happy to leave the organization in better shape than when I found it, setting the stage for its next iteration and its current success.) And, I develop lots of relationships and a name for myself that contribute to my success today.

And sometimes, life just gets in the way. During my run for alderman, my elderly father died in the middle of my campaign. In fact, the last time that I saw him alive was at my official campaign launch party. I was so busy being a candidate that I hadn’t had a lot of time to visit with him during that period, though he would call me to give me advice and to check on my safety in the midst of sometimes scary Chicago politics. Though, I knew he had been declining due to a failing heart, I didn’t know he was so close to death. That was a serious punch in the stomach and I dealt with a bit of guilt.

Later, I was glad my father was already gone so he didn’t have to worry as I and my current organization, Friends of the Parks, faced death threats in response to our advocacy to keep the Lucas Museum off the lakefront. I literally thought during that time that the stress of my work would have given my dad a heart attack. But, I grew up in Humboldt Park and it takes a lot to scare me.

So, I just keep on fighting for what I believe in. Sometimes I have to pick myself up and dust myself off but I just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Friends of the Parks – what should we know?
Friends of the Parks is a fierce non-profit organization that has been advocating for more than 40 years for parks in every corner of Chicago.

Our programming includes environmental education for youth, technical assistance and training for local Park Advisory Councils and other park partners, engaging of community residents to steward parks and natural areas, and advocacy for existing and new parks and park amenities. Founded in 1975, our work really took off when the federal government sued the Chicago Park District in the early 1980s for discrimination against minority communities in Chicago. In response, Friends of the Parks was contracted to help organize residents in disinvested communities to develop a local sense of ownership of neighborhood parks around the city in the form of Park Advisory Councils that conduct volunteer stewardship and advocacy, as appropriate.

Nearly 30 years ago, we founded the Midwest’s largest Earth Day celebration and clean up. Last year, the April event brought together approximately 5,000 volunteers to plant and mulch trees, pick up trash, and combat invasive species in 135 parks and forest preserves across Chicago.

But our claim to fame is our often-risky and bold defense against real estate development in public parks. Our lawsuit to fend off George Lucas’ attempt to build his museum on “public trust” land in Chicago’s Burnham Park on the lakefront culminated in 2016 with a controversial victory for Friends of the Parks and lovers of Chicago’s lakefront. We stand on the shoulders of Chicago’s park and lakefront preservationists who have been fighting for over a century to challenge encroachment on our green and blue spaces.

Since then, we have been working in coalition with “parktivist” and historic preservation voices–from small neighborhood groups to national non-profits–to push the Obama Foundation to develop the Obama Presidential Center somewhere on Chicago’s south side other than in a park. Just as public sentiment about the proposed location of the Lucas Museum was mixed, we are sitting at various tables representing different points of view about the usurpation of public land for a presidential museum; all the while we educate community groups and the broader public about the important role that parks and open spaces can play in the public, environmental, economic, and social health of a community. While we are fundamentally opposed to real estate development in parks and continue to call for the Obama Foundation to locate its center on vacant land across the street from Chicago’s Washington Park rather than in Jackson Park, we have staked our position around promoting a “park positive” outcome which would mean that any green space and recreational amenities that ultimately are displaced by the Obama Center must be replaced in the immediate vicinity.

While Chicago has a number of green-space oriented organizations, Friends of the Parks is uniquely willing to stand against the powers that be, if necessary, to demand the protection of our public lands and keep Chicago’s Lake Michigan shoreline “open, clear and free.”

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Friends of the Parks is willing to both take on controversy and to commit to the long haul in our advocacy for parks.

For example in 2017, we celebrated the completion of the remediation of thorium contamination at a site that was dedicated as DuSable Park 30 years ago by Mayor Harold Washington. We and the DuSable Park Coalition have been following progress, or the lack thereof, for decades, as we have sought to bring this dream of fruition. Though, the seawall still needs to be rebuilt and the existing park framework plan turned into reality, we now believe that the completion of this park at the confluence of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan is in sight. What better time to finally have a park that honors the Haitian-born settler who is remembered as the founder of Chicago! Of course, we won’t let up on the pressure on the Chicago Park District and the City of Chicago until we step foot on the completed park one day soon.

Similarly, we celebrated the completion of a couple of years ago of Northerly Island Park. Many years ago, we advocated in coalition with other Chicagoans to see Meigs Field turned into a park. Though it took a very long time, and we didn’t agree with Mayor Daley’s famous tactic to close down the airstrip suddenly in the middle of the night, we are thrilled to see the actualization of another lakefront natural area for residents and tourists alike to take in the beauty of Chicago.

Currently, we keep casting a vision for the completion of the remaining 4 miles of Chicago’s lakefront park system. Our Last 4 Miles Initiative, launched in 2009 at the centennial of the Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago, calls for 2 more miles of connected lakefront parks and bicycle baths from Edgewater to Evanston and from the South Shore Cultural Center to the Indiana border. Some people think we’re crazy! But we’ve seen small, but significant steps taken–like the new-ish Steelworkers Park in South Chicago–and we keep working to connect all the dots!

We are often confronted by skeptics. But, just like I do personally, Friends of the Parks just keeps putting one foot in front of the other as we march onward to eventual victory.

Pricing:

• Individual Annual Membership in Friends of the Parks $50.00
• Family Annual Membership $75.00

Contact Info:

• Address: 17 N. State St., Suite 1450
  Chicago, IL 60602
• Website: www.fotp.org
• Phone: 312.857.2757
• Email: info@fotp.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/friendsoftheparks/

Image Credit:
Charlie Billups

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