• MAIN
  • Podcast
  • Features
    • Where’s My Jetpack?
    • What’s Right – What’s Wrong
    • “I” Candy
    • Real or Fake? (Cheap Shots at Suburbs and Post War Design)
  • Blog
  • Archive
Rational Urbanism
Home » Rational Urbanism » The Greatest Generation Does Forest Park

The Greatest Generation Does Forest Park

This is what the Greatest Generation inherited:

20131020-172514.jpg

20131020-172531.jpg

20131020-172543.jpg

20131020-172558.jpg

When I was growing up, when the city was at its zenith of population and wealth and the GG was at the height of its power, this is what it looked like:

20131020-172748.jpg

20131020-172758.jpg

20131020-172807.jpg

The Greatest Generation’s idea of a park bench for an Olmsted park:

20131020-172826.jpg

The former site of the Barney Mansion:

20131020-173219.jpg

What a declining city with a poorer populace and limited revenues has done since 1990…right about the time the members of the “Greatest Generation” had all retired:

20131020-173526.jpg

20131020-173549.jpg

I had no idea that there was a pond at Forest Park called “Fountain Pond” because the fountains had never worked…that changed after the GG’s left:

20131020-174256.jpg

I could put names to the claim, but I’d rather not. When the old guard of park overlords left in the 1990’s things turned around. Anyone who denies it either wasn’t paying attention, is lying, or is deluding themselves. In my experience this one example is not an anomaly, the WWII generation did a terrible job of caring for the legacy of public infrastructure they inherited. The decline cities like Springfield suffered especially after 1980 was not the cause of this neglect, though it most certainly was one of the effects. It is trendy to blame Baby Boomers for being selfish and for selling out their values. It may be that they never lived up to the highest of their ideals, but the parks, pools, schools, and libraries of my hometown have certainly benefited more from their stewardship than of that of their parents.

« The Juice
The XX Factor »

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 123 other subscribers

[Valid RSS]
June 2022
S M T W T F S
« May    
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  

Archives

Recent Comments

  • Eric on Hey Friends
  • Tom on Hey Friends
  • Eric on Hey Friends
  • John Sanphillippo on Hey Friends
  • Neil on Hey Friends
© Rational Urbanism - Hammerfold Media