By Peggy Sturdivant

My relationship with Seattle Parks began the afternoon my two-door Chevy Chevette pulled into town, moving me here sight unseen. Within hours I was on the beach in Madison Park aware of palpable joy due to a cloudless day in March.

Within two days my late husband had found his disc golf tribe and been introduced to even more Parks & Recreations offerings in Seattle. Our first house was a half-block from the Ballard Community Center. From the cake on the opening day, before Emily was born, then through ballet, piano, Foosball and Pilates together, the center raised us a family. Peek-a-boo in the boat, the swings at night; the front area was her playground and the back was her playing field. It’s where Emily learned to ride a bicycle, and there was always company.

So when the new Superintendent of Parks & Recreation Jesús Aguirre asked the attendees while on the 18th stop of his Listening Tour about the role of Seattle Parks & Recreation in our lives it brought back a lot of memories from days as a single parent, and beyond. So I appreciate, and do not take for granted, the Seattle Parks system. But as Aguirre’s presentation indicated (before the listening portion) no matter how much we love our parks we always want more from them than the city can afford.

Aguirre formally started as Superintendent on June 1st and moved here along with his family as of July 1, 2015. Since August 5th he has been getting to know the city’s parks, community centers and people by presenting himself at what will total 22 ‘Meet the Superintendent’ events between August and December 3rd.

At his Loyal Heights Community Center presentation on Tuesday, October 27 the crowd was 50-50 residents to Parks Staffers. So along with hearing their new boss’ presentation Parks staff are also getting an earful from the public. “What are we doing well?” Aguirre asked. “And what aren’t we doing well?”

Aguirre is a former teacher, principal, State Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia and managed the department of parks and recreation there. He was hired after a national search. His responsibilities as Superintendent now include 6200 acres, 26 Community Centers and 465 Parks and the equivalent of nearly 1200 full-time employees in the summer. He’s inherited a budget still trying to recover from the economic downturn, deferred maintenance, overdue capital projects and growing needs due to increases in school-aged children, overall density, and homelessness. I should have asked him why he wanted the job.

I hadn’t planned to “cover” the event but found myself taking four pages of notes with circles around the bullet points and comments that jumped out at me. “Parks is always actively seeking to acquire more land.” “We’re not talking enough about how we’re going to deal with climate change.” “We need to be rethinking open space.” And what really perked up my ears was his reference to a Chicago study about property values benefitting more from proximity to small parks than large ones. What a case for keeping small parcels of public land in public hands.

Along with just about everyone else in attendance (of those not on the payroll) I had an agenda. Given my current obsession with repurposing publically owned lands I proposed that Parks review its criteria for park size. Dawn Hemminger of Groundswell NW and East Ballard Association commented on the challenges of working with multiple departments. Finally a woman in the back said, “I want to know why all the community center programs for seniors are in the morning, because we’re not all morning people.”

Having thoughtfully responded to any and all of our compliments and complaints, Aguirre finally looked surprised. “That’s the first time I’ve heard that comment,” he said. “I’ll look into it.”

As the clock neared the 8 p.m. Aguirre answered questions about the use of synthetic materials on playing fields and public restroom safety concerns. He ended by asking himself a question as the head of Seattle Parks & Recreation. “How are we going to respond to these pressures?”

Given his candor and breadth of knowledge on the four-month listening tour I am hopeful that Jesús Aguirre will be able to lead Parks & Recreation to even greener pastures. Answering his own question about responding to all the challenges and pressures he said, “It’s our job.”

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