Don't demolish Domes. Central Park Conservancy the blueprint for Mitchell Park. | Opinion

In the film The Princess Bride, the hero, Westley, after having been tortured in the Pit of Despair, is taken to Miracle Max to see if he can be revived. In examining Westley, Miracle Max points out that ““There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead,” and finds Westley to be only “mostly dead.”

Given the recent cost analysis for restoration of the Mitchell Park Domes, and the response to it from Milwaukee County supervisors, it would seem accurate to say that the Domes are “mostly dead.” But, if current assumptions aren’t challenged, it is near certainty that they will soon be “all dead.”

What are those current assumptions? The first is that the Domes can only be thought of as a solely Milwaukee County site. The second is that the sole criterion for making a decision on the future is the cost of repair. And, the third, that the county does not, and will not, have the money to restore the Domes. Therefore, the only conclusion is that the problem is insoluble. There are no happy solutions.

But is that true? Or is this "almost" decision an inevitable, but wrong, conclusion the inevitable result of decades of austerity, shrinking budgets and shrinking hopes. And, most important, are there alternatives?  

Let’s, for a moment, assume that it is 2030. Here are two visions for the Domes, Mitchell Park, and the communities that they serve.

Two futures for Mitchell Park with or without the Domes

2030 vision one: Whatever the final decision process was, the Domes have been demolished, and there is still an empty space, two empty parking lots and a little used park. Because, with the exception of the football field and track, there is little use, the park has become less safe. The rule “safety in numbers” once again confirmed. And, because it has been a few years since the demolition, everyone has gotten used to the new reality, with a few wistful “gosh, remember those Domes” comments from older people.

No more taxes:Money isn't there to save Mitchell Park Domes. Protect Milwaukee County taxpayers.

2030 vision two: Instead of taking a static cost-driven approach, i.e., the Domes are the Domes, view, the key decision makers asked two very different questions and came up with a very different and powerful vision. These questions were: what can the Domes be in the future? And, given the reality that the county doesn’t have the money to finance either repairs or the expanded vision, where can we find it?

In the new decade, the restored and re-conceptualized Domes are now a major “must visit” for Milwaukee groups and visitors alike, rivaling and surpassing the Milwaukee Art Museum as a destination. Breaking out of the earlier belief that the Domes could only be a cost center, the new business model is generating significant revenues and also driving business growth in the surrounding communities.

Moreover, the revived botanical gardens have become the anchor and centerpiece for the revitalization of the park, including beginning the restoration of the historic Sunken Garden, and the base for making the Southside a healthier, more fit community.

New York's Central Park a fitting parallel to Mitchell Park

A fantasy? Not at all. There is a near-perfect parallel to the Domes current situation, and a model for achieving that second vision. That parallel is New York City’s Central Park.

Four decades ago, in a similarly financially strapped, austerity plagued, pessimistic city, Central Park was a deteriorating, dangerous, empty wreck, a late-night television joke. Today, it is a spectacular place,  the pre-eminent urban park on the planet, attracting 40 million visitors a year.

Astrodomes for nature:Mitchell Park Domes replaced a crumbling conservatory

How did this transformation come about? New York City and its Parks Department leadership realized that they would never have the public dollars needed to maintain, let alone restore, the deteriorated park. They formed and partnered with The Central Park Conservancy. And in the recent decades, the Conservancy has raised many millions of dollars and, in effective partnership with the Parks Department – never “the privatization” that people feared - spent that money wisely and transformed the park.

Anyone who says that you can’t solve problems by throwing money at them should visit Central Park. Or, if successfully done, consider the vision of the Domes thriving in the 2030s. A Domes/Mitchell Park conservancy can raise the needed large amounts of money from individuals, corporations and the philanthropic sector. It can also produce marketing, business, customer service and community engagement plans, which are beyond the capacity of county government.

Nothing described in the preceding paragraphs is “aspirational.” It is all doable, because it has all been done. And, a final note: Milwaukee has the invaluable added asset of having talented, capable and committed county parks leadership and management, exactly the kind of partners that a conservancy would want to have.

Frank Schneiger is a Milwaukee native, having grown up on the near South and near North sides who believes that he can define some of the best things in his life by three parks: Mitchell Park, Washington Park and Central Park in New York City. His professional career has been spent in the field of organizational change, as a leader of public agencies, and, for the past four decades, as the founder and leader of his own management consulting firm. Frank holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, and he and his family next to – and, whenever possible, in – Central Park.