At Home in the Park

About the Book

What's the difference between a group of houses and a real community? Author Lola L. Lucas explores this question in At Home in the Park: Loving a Neighborhood Back to Life.

Lucas chronicles the rebirth of Enos Park, a section of Springfield, Illinois, just north of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Like many cities, the area went through a period of urban decay before rebounding. The Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association (EPNIA) was largely responsible for this change.

Lucas's columns about Enos Park have appeared in the EPNIA Banner since 1992. With wisdom and wry humor, she shows why it's worth the effort to reweave a neighborhood's social fabric in order for residents to once again enjoy their homes. Lucas writes about community policing, ice cream socials, neighborhood patrols, and evening strolls on tree-lined sidewalks. Through the efforts of the EPNIA, the citizens of Enos Park reclaimed their streets and loved their neighborhood back to life.

About the Author

Lola L. Lucas earned a BA in English, an MA in management and an MBA in human resources. She works for a state agency as a research economist and teaches part-time at the University of Illinois. She and her husband, Kevin Brown, live in Springfield, Illinois, with their two standard poodles.