Parks for Sale
For more than four decades, towns and cities in all 50 states have bought or built new public parks with money levied from oil companies that operate offshore oil drilling operations. The National Park Service has made about 42,000 park grants to states and local governments, and each grant imparts special protection: the park will never be closed to the public without written permission from the Park Service and a guarantee of a replacement of “equal fair market value and reasonably equivalent usefulness and location.”
An InvestigateWest investigation has found multiple failures in the Land and Water Conservation Fund leading to what parks advocates contend is an increasing number of park closures and conversions. The Park Service’s internal controls fall well short, and only in recent years has it started to request detailed information about park location. State compliance is spotty, and a five-year inspection cycle has slowed, with some parks going without inspection for up to a decade. And even in cases where the Park Service is consulted in a park conversion, an imbalance of power between local advocates and wealthy developers means uneven deals sometimes get struck and promises get broken.
In reporting this story, InvestigateWest tracked a handful of park conversions for more than three years, reviewed thousands of pages of documents, and compiled a database of federal grants under the Land and Water Conservation Fund. We’re asking readers to use this searchable database to identify local parks that have received such funding and file reports on the current status of those parks. InvestigateWest would like to thank MSNBC.com, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and its members, without whose financial support this story would not have been told.
Wealth & Poverty | February 2013
End of the Line
“It was just common knowledge – when you turn 18, you’re done,” Sharayah Lane said. “After the checks stopped coming, we all went our separate ways."
End of the Line is a new series by Claudia Rowe asking what happens when teens get too old for foster care in Washington State.
Photo Credit: Jon Connell/Flickr
Environment | January 2013
Sharecroppers of the Sea
Meet America's newest sharecroppers. Guys like Jared Bright who vie for control of the Pacific fishing industry's lower rungs, the only rungs that seem to be left. They don't own the halibut, not even when it lands in their boats.
Lee van der Voo uncovers absentee landlords, brokers and bankers, and fish quota that costs more than your house — realities that fly in the face of more official, rosy portrayals.
Health | November 2012
The Mystery of MS
Kids with multiple sclerosis, historically an adult disorder, offer researchers a set of intriguing new clues about the disease that could lead, eventually, to better treatments.
With adolescent MS on the rise in the Northwest, Carol Smith meets a young patient who is learning to live with the disease at the age of 16, and the doctors and scientists trying to keep her healthy.
Environment | October 2012
Clean Water: The Next Act
In 1972, Congress enacted legislation to end water pollution. Forty years later, American rivers and lakes are still badly contaminated, and new threats to clean water are outpacing the Act's enforcers. Follow along as InvestigateWest and EarthFix investigate.
Immigration | September 2012
Center of Detention
The Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Wash., generates millions in revenue for its private operator by processing thousands of deportation cases each year. Oscar Estrada is one of those cases.
Environment | June 2012
Parks for Sale
As local governments trade away public parkland, the safeguards put in place by the Land and Water Conservation Fund to protect that land are full of holes.
Robert McClure tracked a handful of park conversions for more than three years, reviewed thousands of pages of documents and compiled a database of over 40,000 park grants.
Public Health | January 2012
The Prescription Epidemic
As Washington enacts the strongest prescription drug law in the country, InvestigateWest presents a six-month investigation into the origins of the prescription epidemic, the challenge it poses for communities, and what lessons other states might learn.
Check out the full list of news outlets publishing the story, and visit KCTS.org to watch Prescription for Abuse, a KCTS 9/InvestigateWest documentary and roundtable with prescription drug experts.