Double jeopardy or another unique opportunity?

The advent of the Los Angeles riots has increased the ambiguity surrounding fee-based park and recreation services. Many park and recreation managers are just arriving at a perception of their values/position with the marriage of leisure and business. Many have recently begun to integrate the idea of an entrepreneurialship-business approach or profit motive on the standards of professional practice of parks and recreation. Ironically, just as managers have begun to combine business practices into their mode of operation, the pendulum is venturing to swing toward social, humanistic and altruistic concerns. While interest is a contributing factor, demands for services resulting from current social conditions plaguing our cities (homelessness, child-care, drug abuse and at-risks youth) are paramount causes. The magnitude of such demands is enough to wonder what's going on-double jeopardy or another unique opportunity?

As a profession, are we being forced to social reform, the nature of our history? Should we be proactive and accept the reality that current social conditions are pleading our attention? Should we wait for the federal government to once again intervene; or has the government already failed us? Should we become the catalyst in empowering people to address their own personal issues? As Thomas Jefferson stated, "If things need to be changed, we need to change them."

After all, the Berlin wall came down as a result of the people mobilizing themselves. Certainly, we can generate programs to positively affect children and address youth issues (child-care, drug prevention, gangs, suicide). Additionally, we can concurrently act as catalysts in related social problems concerning the family, racism, homelessness and other issues.

The current and seemingly endless series of budget revisions, cutbacks, and other difficulties represent but a reflection of the national climate. These things require attention and energy we would rather spend elsewhere; they constrain our rate of progress toward our goals; they have changed our goals and are threatening changes in our mission - to enhance the quality of life of all citizens through the provision of program, facility and leisure education. Again, I ask what's going on -double jeopardy or another unique opportunity? Have we forgotten about the conditions of the early- and mid-19th century that gave impetus to the evolution of the profession? I challenge you to compare the

conditions that propelled Luther Gulick, Joseph Lee, Jane Adams, Dorothy Enderis and Howard Curtis to become involved and the social conditions that are prevalent today.

What's going on? As we move forward toward the 21st century, can we afford to abandon the traditional values of our heritage of service and continue to align ourselves with propriety enterprise? Can we idly sit back and ignore children who are being dropped off by their parent(s) in our parks and told to stay there and take care of their younger siblings until they return at the end of the day. Or, can we disregard the homeless' interferences in the daily operations of traditional practices? The answer is emphatically No! The situations are too close for comfort.

Rising costs and departmental budget cuts have caused parks and recreation agencies to adopt creative techniques of finance and business. However, just as professionals are beginning to become comfortable with the ideas of strategic marketing, self-sustaining programs, pricing objectives and policies, and generation of differential pricing strategies, the pendulum is being forced to swing in the opposite direction once again. What's going on -- double jeopardy or another unique opportunity?