Orga­niz­ers of the punk rock music fes­ti­val Riot Fest announced last week Wednes­day that after three years in the Hum­boldt Park neigh­bor­hood on Chicago’s West Side, it would not be return­ing to the neigh­bor­hood in 2015. Instead, it is set­ting up shop in Dou­glas Park in the North Lawn­dale community.

Residents stood up against the privatization of their park by Riot Fest and won; they can stand up against the gentrification that is displacing the poor and erasing the presence of people of color.

Alder­man Rober­to Mal­don­a­do had come out pub­licly against the music fes­ti­val after sup­port­ing it for the last three years and is receiv­ing a lot of the praise (and crit­i­cism) about Riot Fes­t’s announce­ment. But the alder­man doesn’t deserve all of the cred­it. Grass­roots orga­niz­ing among the cit­i­zens of Hum­boldt Park led Riot Fest’s departure.

Dur­ing this past elec­tion cycle, Grass­roots Illi­nois Action-Hum­boldt Park Area (GIA-HPA), an inde­pen­dent polit­i­cal orga­ni­za­tion com­prised of com­mu­ni­ty res­i­dents, (full dis­clo­sure: of which I am a mem­ber) emerged as a pow­er­ful force in Hum­boldt Park. Intend­ed as a venue for res­i­dents to orga­nize around issues in the area, Riot Fest quick­ly became one issue mem­bers want­ed to address. After three years in Hum­boldt Park, res­i­dents were tired of what we saw as the con­tin­ued pri­va­ti­za­tion of the park that not only left it severe­ly dam­aged, but lim­it­ed its usage for res­i­dents months after the festival.

Through col­lab­o­ra­tion with groups like Hum­boldt Park Cit­i­zens Against Riot Fest, GIA-HPA helped orga­nize a mass of peo­ple that showed up to Alder­man Rober­to Maldonado’s ward nights, launched a pub­lic peti­tion against Riot Fest, held a press con­fer­ence in the park and came out in full force to the com­mis­sion­ers of the park board meet­ing. This con­tin­u­al pres­sure on Riot Fest and our elect­ed offi­cials ulti­mate­ly led to the oust­ing of the festival.

Fam­i­lies will no longer have to see Riot Fest fences go up that sep­a­rate the park from the com­mu­ni­ty. Lit­tle League teams won’t have to wor­ry about their fields being unfit to use. Res­i­dents will no longer have to feel that their com­mu­ni­ty park is con­trolled by pri­vate hands.

What once seemed like an insur­mount­able goal against a mul­ti­mil­lion dol­lar fes­ti­val has come to pass, and it sends a strong mes­sage about the usage of our pub­lic parks. Through­out the city, we see cor­po­ra­tions exert­ing more pow­er over spaces that were ini­tial­ly intend­ed to serve com­mu­ni­ties, not for prof­it-gen­er­at­ing festivals.

From ques­tions over a pres­i­den­tial library in his­toric South Side parks to con­cerns about the Star Wars Muse­um on lake­front park­land, city res­i­dents want parks that serve the peo­ple, not pri­vate inter­ests. Despite our vic­to­ry in Hum­boldt Park, we see its relo­ca­tion to Dou­glas Park (with­out any com­mu­ni­ty input) as a con­tin­u­al dis­re­gard of the rights of res­i­dents to their pub­lic parks. Fes­ti­vals like Riot Fest should oper­ate in venues that don’t encroach on pub­lic land. Res­i­dents of North Lawn­dale, the com­mu­ni­ty that encom­pass­es Dou­glas Park, are already meet­ing and dis­cussing ways to address Riot Fes­t’s arrival, and we will be sup­port­ing these efforts.

Despite the short­falls of our vic­to­ry, this out­come is also an impor­tant win against gen­tri­fi­ca­tion in Hum­boldt Park. In a gen­tri­fy­ing com­mu­ni­ty, there is often an air of inevitabil­i­ty to changes, but through this fight res­i­dents were able to show that they don’t need to take these changes light­ly. Res­i­dents stood up against the pri­va­ti­za­tion of their park by Riot Fest and won; they can stand up against the gen­tri­fi­ca­tion that is dis­plac­ing the poor and eras­ing the pres­ence of peo­ple of col­or. While our efforts are cen­tered on our com­mu­ni­ty, these issues are widespread.

Through­out the city, our city ser­vices are being pri­va­tized and com­mu­ni­ties are becom­ing inac­ces­si­ble to the poor as new devel­op­ment caters to the wealthy. The idea of ​“build­ing a new Chica­go” nev­er seemed less inclu­sive. Neigh­bor­hood by neigh­bor­hood, we are show­ing that that’s not the Chica­go we want to live in. We want a Chica­go that does­n’t only cater to the rich but the poor and work­ing class. We are com­ing togeth­er and fight­ing for a bet­ter vision of Chicago.