Waukegan tries to relive its days of verdant glory

Waukegan once was so lush that native son Ray Bradbury called the city "Green Town" in stories loosely based on his life.

Though Waukegan still has magnificent gardens, leafy neighborhoods and densely wooded ravines, the city is more urban and paved than it was in Bradbury's youth in the 1920s and '30s.

But with Bradbury's blessing, an initiative called The Green Town Project is under way to restore some of the city's lost green glory during the next five years.

Plans call for a farmers market, prairies and gardens to fill some vacant lots. Long-term goals include green roofs, wind power projects and a Ray Bradbury Center dedicated to exploring green technologies.

The University of Illinois Extension and a local task force have helped launch the project, gathering volunteers and collecting materials. The first harvest of those efforts will be on display Friday when workers dedicate a half-acre garden overlooking Lake Michigan. The lot, across from empty storefronts in downtown Waukegan, is filled with flowers, vegetables, herbs and native plants and edged with 10-foot sunflowers.

"This could change the image of Waukegan in a fundamental way," said Newton Finn, a Waukegan attorney and chairman of Task Force on Waukegan Neighborhoods, or TOWN.

"The green revolution is sweeping the country, the world. Why not Waukegan?" he asked. "Chicago is going to be the greenest city on Earth. ... We could do it here."

A five-year plan for greening Waukegan, starting with an "urban farm" and market on the south side, was prepared by TOWN with the city and the University of Illinois Extension.

Among the initiatives on the table are to build:

*A farm on 3 acres south of the Barwell public housing development.

"A market could provide healthy, homegrown produce in an area with limited access to grocery stores," the Green Town proposal states.

*A wildflower prairie for the ComEd power line right of way that runs through the north side.

*Vegetable and flower gardens in vacant lots, planted in partnership with neighborhood groups, schools and churches. The gardens would turn "often unsightly spaces to productive and unifying use awaiting redevelopment," the proposal states.

*Vegetation "buffers" along the Waukegan River ravine system.

Green roofs, wind farms, honey production, lakefront "bio-cleansing," a Green Town culture and music festival and the Ray Bradbury Center are possible future projects, Finn said.

"Green Town could have a larger impact than just one garden," said Larry Sell, a Round Lake teacher involved in the project. "Community gardens can change the image of industrial, Rust Belt cities. ... They can bring people together, create new relationships, give people something to share."

Diverse Waukegan could use some of that, he said.

Green Town's next challenge is to raise money. "We need $2.7 million over a five-year period," Finn said.