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{"id":842,"date":"2013-09-16T08:48:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T14:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/pullman-national-park.html"},"modified":"2016-10-11T21:50:16","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T03:50:16","slug":"pullman-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/pullman-national-park.html","title":{"rendered":"Pullman National Park?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Editorial in the Tribune today<\/a> \u2014 a small issue in the grand scheme of things, but disturbing, nonetheless:\u00a0 there are plans in motion to name the Pullman neighborhood a National Park.\u00a0 Not a Historic Landmark, or even a National Historic Site, but a National Park.\u00a0 And the Tribune calls on Obama, in service to his hometown, to skip the subsequent economic feasibility study and act of Congress and declare it so.<\/p>\n

To be sure, the neighborhood, formerly the company town of the Pullman passenger rail cars, then the site of the\u00a0strike that led to the first black union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, is from all reports, a neighborhood of charming architecture, though fallen on hard times.\u00a0 And the Tribune hopes that National Park designation will be a spur for tourism and general neighborhood revitalization.\u00a0 (Indeed, they are very focused on Obama taking an action as president to shower favor on the neighborhood, suggesting that it might, alternatively, be the site of\u00a0his Presidential Library.)\u00a0 <\/p>\n

But \u2014 wow.\u00a0 Digging a little further<\/a>, I learned that the \u201cresource study\u201d was conducted at the behest of the now-disgraced Jesse Jackson, Jr.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the National Park Conservation Association<\/a> has to say about this proposal:\u00a0 \u201cAnd since the site is just 15 miles south of downtown Chicago, Pullman could become one of the very few \u201ccommutable\u201d national parks. Countless families and schoolchildren could have their first national park experience for the price of a train ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Irritatingly, I can\u2019t find the actual study anywhere online.)<\/p>\n

But a National Park isn\u2019t a place to be visited solely because of the designation \u201cNational Park\u201d and it\u2019s not a means of delivering federal largesse to a community.\u00a0 Or, at least, not the last I checked.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

And a \u201cnational park experience\u201d should mean something more than just being at a location designated \u201cnational park.\u201d <\/p>\n

I\u2019m having trouble even following the logistics here.\u00a0 Will the homes remain privately-owned, just with (it\u2019s hoped) tourists filling the streets?\u00a0 Are the vacant buildings to be built out into visitors\u2019 centers and museums (with the further costs of building a generously-sized museum)?\u00a0 And how much of a museum can you make solely out of the topic of unionization?\u00a0\u00a0Or is the purpose of the designation just to have the label \u201cNational Park\u201d with a small office for passport-stamping, and to further the goal of \u201cequitable\u201d distribution of national parks in a bean-counting sort of way?\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Has the National Park Service become, like any other government agency, more interested in its own growth and budget, and boosting \u201cpark attendance\u201d numbers by increasing park count<\/a>,\u00a0than meeting its mission?\u00a0 <\/p>\n

This is mission creep.\u00a0 This is brand dilution, if \u201cnational park\u201d doesn\u2019t even merit being a AAA Starred Attraction.\u00a0 For the National Park Service to become just another means of delivering pork is shameful.\u00a0 And for the Chicago Tribune to make a pitch for national park designation solely for economic benefits is equally wrong.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"