Carmen Barragan remembers the church bells ringing from her village’s plaza in Michoacan, Mexico. She recalls looking out at the bustling courtyard filled with fruit vendors, children playing games and the verdant trees that engulf the plaza in her hometown of Cotija. That vibrancy is a standard that she hopes to see in outdoor gathering spaces in her neighborhood of Brighton Park on Chicago’s Southwest Side. It led her to become a community organizer focused on promoting health through her neighborhood council. Her mission: create safe community hubs for her neighbors to use and come together. But it hasn’t been easy. “I would take my kids to parks in other neighborhoods and see that they are in better conditions, and it seems like people there didn’t have to fight for those parks to be maintained, but here we do,” said Barragan. Her organizing efforts contributed to multi-year campaigns that led to renovations at Kelly Park, a play area known as Hidden Park and a school playground in Burroughs Elementary School. This organizing is vital for Barragan’s community. Brighton Park is one of the hottest neighborhoods in Chicago, experiences high levels of air pollution and is susceptible to flooding. Its residents are also among the most physically inactive. At the same time, it lacks a key element to combat these conditions brought on by climate change: substantial green space and parks. Barragan was happy when the Chicago Park District announced plans to build its headquarters with a park in her neighborhood. The new facility, which includes indoor and outdoor recreation and nature areas, opened in the neighborhood last year - a significant win for the community known as a park desert. Still, the Chicago Park District has a long way to go to help Brighton Park and other neighborhoods catch up with other parts of the city with greater green space access. In a recently published study, researchers... |