Interview by Debra Shore and Stephen Packard

Chicago Wilderness: Was nature important to you as a child?

Richard Daley: Yes, definitely. We had a house in Michigan. I loved to fish. All the vacant land in Bridgeport was "prairies." We called a 25-foot lot a prairie. That's gone now. Today city kids just have the parks. Kids need nature. If it's all turf grass, there's no nature there. Kids need ball fields, but they need nature too. We're putting nature back in the parks. Our lagoon restoration is very important because it's not just restoring the water but the land around it. We're putting in fishing piers, so people will have places to fish and not trample and erode the banks. We're putting in native vegetation. When you restore it, you have to protect it more. But if it's beautiful, people will respect that.

What are your favorite parts of Chicago Wilderness?

I love the lakefront. No city has anything like it. More of the city should be as green as the lakefront. Here's what I see — lake, river, open space, migratory birds, fishing, families, quality. The river could be like that too, like a second lakefront. We're working to improve the river. Already the water quality is better and now we're buying land and doing setbacks. The river will be compatible for nature and recreation.

Do you think the average person cares about nature?

Sure they do. That's why so many people left the cities. They want nature and they want education. So they move. That's the problem with America. We need to learn how to restore the kind of neighborhoods people like. They move out, and the suburbs get to be like the city. It's all becoming concrete, steel, and engineers. We've lost contact with what life is all about. What's really important? It's the personal things. A tree, a child, flowers. We need to soften the cities. Neighborhoods need nature. We're taking 19 abandoned gas stations and making pocket parks. These become little areas for birds, flowers, and trees. That's what it's all about.

We're building an environmental park on the roof of City Hall. It's not a recreational park; it's an environmental park. It's going to help clean the air, cool the Loop in the summer; the Loop needs that. We're looking at all the flat roofs — old construction and new construction — to see how we can enhance the environment of the city.

The federal government is spending too much money out West, not where the people live. They don't look at urban areas as part of nature.

Too high a proportion of the U.S. conservation budget gets spent in the West. The big national parks are wonderful. Believe me. They should be larger. But how about what's in your back yard? The State of Illinois is helping us with the environment much more than they ever did. Governor Ryan gets the credit for that. The Forest Service ought to be helping us with Meigs Field. It's important habitat and open space when we restore it — a place for a wonderful appreciation of trees, frogs, birds, flowers, fish. It will be a major part of the Museum Campus. This could be the biggest public park built in the last 50 years. No other city in America is thinking about parks on this scale.

Meigs is a dream and a symbol, but this has to be in the neighborhoods too. We can help people by planting trees, by putting in pocket parks that are habitat. When you have people start to appreciate their piece of property, they can do more about everything else. Taking care of nature is part of life. If you don't take care of your tree and don't take care of your child, they won't thrive. In the past, people's experience of a school in the city was concrete and broken windows. So we're putting in landscaping and play yards and trees. Our forefathers did a great job with the forest preserves but everywhere else is all concrete and getting worse. It's really scary.

What do you see when you look beyond the city?

The suburban mayors are seeing the same problems as Chicago. They're saddled with brownfields that need clean-up. If you look at it, we are creating more open space in the city. In the suburbs, they're losing it. In Lake Forest and Hinsdale, they're taking down one house and putting up five. And those walls along the expressways! If we're not careful in America, when you get into a car you will go through a tunnel. There will be one wall from Los Angeles to New York. I think you can build something to keep noise out, but at the same time it can be a part of nature. Put vines, bushes, trees. We can solve these things, it just needs creativity and determination. We're working with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus to create gateways with greenways and bikeways. The mayors are more and more interested in pursuing environmental initiatives these days. The city and the suburbs are in this together.

The Chicago Wilderness "Recovery Plan" is like a Burnham Plan for nature. It's been approved by the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, county Forest Preserve Districts, the region's great conservation institutions, the federal agencies. Would you consider bringing it to the Chicago City Council?

Yes, Alderman Virginia Rugai (chair of the City Council Committee on Energy and the Environment) and Alderman Mary Ann Smith (chair of the Parks and Recreation Committee) introduced a joint resolution February 16 in support of the Biodiversity Recovery Plan. This is important. What I'm trying to do in the city is to make good habitat for nature and people. We didn't used to allow nature to exist in a small little park. But we can. I want to bring more nature into parks and boulevards so they can be habitat for trees, birds, flowers, and people. The neighborhoods and schools need to be comfortable and green. To make this city...quality. That's what it's all about.

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