WHAT WE STAND FOR
Preserve Our Parks battles to keep Milwaukee parks open and green, resists incursions for non-park uses, and fights for funds to properly maintain one of the County’s greatest treasures, its parks system.
POP was founded in 1999 by a group of Milwaukeeans
concerned about the future of our public parks and green spaces.
Over the years, we had seen our parks nibbled by sales, leases
and easements. We'd seen public policies on parks grow lenient.
We'd seen our parks invaded by non-park, non-public purposes.
In 1999 a loud alarm sounded when we learned of a
very quiet County-City agreement to remove the deed restrictions on 31 parks -- parks originally owned by
the City but transferred to the County in the 1930s. Without these deed restrictions, these parks would be unprotected
against sales, leases and conversions to other uses.
POP got organized. We raised funds and filed a lawsuit contesting the removal of the deed
restrictions. Our action prevailed, with both City and County agreeing that the deed restrictions must be
restored. Our lawsuit was settled out of court.
Since then, we have continued as watchdogs. We monitor park meetings, communicate with lawmakers and
officials at all levels, bring issues to public attention.
We have helped citizens wage campaigns to save parkland. We
obtained funding for a Public Policy Forum study
of the parks, sponsored a forum on the parks during the 2002
County elections and took the lead in sponsoring,
along with other environmental groups, a forum on how budget
cuts would affect the parks.
POP led the initiative to raise public awareness of the development crisis on the lakefront. We were instrumental in formation of the Lakefront Development Advisory Committee (LDAC) and in leading the fight against mooring the mothballed heavy cruiser USS Des Moines on our downtown lakefront. After a public hearing, the commission unanimously voted against the project and the matter was removed from consideration by the proponents.
Have we succeeded? Have we kept the POP promise to "preserve our parks"? The answer is: we have had
both victories and setbacks but, on balance, we believe POP has had significant success. Park preservation is a continuing
task. We thank our past supporters and welcome new ones, and
pledge to continue our efforts. Our magnificent park heritage is well worth it.
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