Reporter’s Notebook: City services on a taxpayer’s dime

Frank Uryasz drives along Gillham Road nearly every day on his way to work. The section of park land that runs parallel to his route always looked well-maintained south of 39th Street. Once he crossed 39th to the north, though, Uryasz noticed a difference: dense, overgrown foliage made those parts of Hyde Park seem dark and ominous.

So Uryasz called up the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and learned what several other people in this week’s feature also know: the Ward Family Foundation pays for the enhanced upkeep at Loose Park and at Gillham Park south of 39th Street. “The parks budget has been cut over the years, and the parks are aging,” Uryasz says. “Aging parks require greater maintenance.”

When sending a check to a national nonprofit, one can only assume that their donation is making some kind of dent in their cause. But a contribution to Parks and Recreation would result in a difference he could see right out his car window, Uryasz realized.

“My wife, Ann, and I agreed that we would provide funding for enhanced maintenance of Hyde Park,” he says. “What the Wards had done up to 39th Street, we could take and do up to 36th Street.”