By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board

Six years after Kansas City adopted a program to improve its parks, significant progress is evident throughout the city’s treasured system.

Consider Ashland Square at 23rd Street and Elmwood Ave.

In 2003, broken glass was everywhere — on sidewalks, near the wading pool and in the grass. Graffiti marred large portions of a long stone wall and the playground. The tennis nets sagged badly. A city inspector labeled the park’s condition “unacceptable.”

Other parks weren’t much better, a sobering fact for a city with a rich park heritage since the 1890s, when famed landscape architect George Kessler outlined his vision for abundant parks and boulevards.

A Star editorial summed up the state of Kansas City’s fabled system in 2003:

“Restrooms are public disgraces. Drinking fountains don’t work. Trash and broken glass litter walking paths. Swing sets are broken. Tennis courts are cracked, sidewalks are deteriorated, benches have fallen apart and dead trees have been left to rot.”

But those words don’t ring true today, as recent visits to parks showed.

A return trip to Ashland Square found crews mowing the grass, children splashing in the clean wading pool and a playground area in good shape. No broken glass was evident, and only small amounts of graffiti were on the stone wall.

At Sanford Brown Plaza, Linwood Boulevard and Brooklyn Avenue, both drinking fountains worked; one didn’t in 2003. About 20 new trees have been planted in recent years. There was much less glass and graffiti than six years ago.

At Loose Park, 51st Street and Wornall Road last Wednesday, crews trimmed bushes, edged sidewalks and mowed. The men’s restroom near the entrance — padlocked six years ago — was open, clean and stocked with paper towels and toilet paper. The five unpainted benches that once sat near the tennis courts were gone, replaced with six black wrought-iron benches.

At Seven Oaks Park, 38th Street and Kensington Avenue, all three basketball goals had nets; only one had a net back in 2003. Trash cans have been placed near the playground, which formerly had none.

At Ivanhoe Park, 43rd Street and Brooklyn Avenue, the drinking fountain works (it didn’t six years ago) and a trash can is near the playground, which didn’t have one in 2003.

Parade Park, at the Paseo and Truman Road, now features four tennis courts with good nets and newer surfaces, a significant improvement over 2003. All four basketball goals have nets, up from two back then.

Three reasons are behind the general improvements to Kansas City’s parks.

First, the city in 2003 began the SHAPE program (Safe, Healthy and Attractive Public Environments).

It was modeled after a New York City plan and strongly pushed by former park board member Bob Lewellen. Inspectors report problems in parks, and the park staff largely has embraced the challenge of fixing them. Graffiti is often quickly removed, litter is picked up and playground safety surfaces are repaired. One problem now: Budget cuts have sliced the inspector staff in half, to one position. That decision should be reversed, given the job’s importance.

Second, the city has spent millions of dollars on new tennis courts, fountains, park benches and playgrounds.

The parks department, which for years had committed much time and money to running the zoo and Liberty Memorial, has correctly handed those entities off to quasi-public groups. Now, maintenance and upgrades of parks are higher priorities.

Third, many residents who live near parks have stepped forward to lobby for private dollars for park upgrades and to press the city for capital improvements funds to upgrade neighborhood parks.

Deputy parks director Steve Lampone says the city has concentrated on trimming unsafe trees, repairing holes in shelter roofs and installing new equipment that doesn’t need as much maintenance as decades-old swing sets, benches and shelters.

Today, SHAPE reports issued by the city often concern problems mostly created by park users; graffiti and litter accounted for almost a third of the most frequently noted complaints in 2008.

 In a system as expansive as Kansas City’s, many problems still exist at dozens of parks. They include broken swings (Loose and Ivanhoe parks), nonworking drinking fountains (Budd Park) and sad-looking baseball diamonds (Ashland Square Park).

The contribution of the SHAPE program — including prompt responses by the parks staff — needs to continue to make these public spaces vital gathering points for all Kansas Citians.