Gardens “Buzz”
It’s been a good dozen years since I first noticed a trend in how cities are perceived. There were urban turn-around stories – Austin, Portland, Charlotte, Denver and so on – that began with mentions among academic circles, then hit speaking circuits, and then, the capping moment: when the stories hit publications like the New York Times.
I don’t know what this whole pattern is called. I call it “buzz.” Sure, it’s great to see downtown Oklahoma City get mentioned during the NBA Finals, or when national news organizations recognize our river redevelopment and so on. But I’ll declare this following blurb in the New York Times story about urban parks as a hint that Oklahoma City is truly at a tipping point:
The New York story is a national one. In the center of Oklahoma City, a revitalized park complex, Myriad Botanical Gardens, recently took root. In downtown Houston, there’s Discovery Green. Dallas is building a park on a deck over a downtown freeway, and Los Angeles is looking at how to gussy and green up an old concrete river bed.
“We’re living in an era of re-urbanization,” said Catherine Nagel, executive director of the City Parks Alliance, which is sponsoring the conference in New York. And the increased population density means that “we need green space,” she said.
Amazingly, we’re getting it: because citizens have demanded as much; because governments have made it a priority; because public and private partnerships have been cultivated. New York is the bright flower of all that.
Now, think about this for just a moment. In arguing the case for the new urban parks movement, this New York Times writer noted Oklahoma City along with Houston, Dallas and Los Angeles. Folks, it’s getting real ….
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Comments
Commenter from Kansas City from the NYT article:
“Completely, enthusiastically agree about Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City. I had the great joy, mystical rejuvenation in those gardens a month ago. Alongside the basketball finals, a few blocks away, a good crowd watched the 25th Anniversary of the Graceland Tour right next to those gardens. Behind the stage, a 70 story tower, lit beautifully in digital magic. The next day, 10 miles from downtown, I rode my bike on a loop around a precious lake, an oasis in that dry climate.
I say that, and I’m not from Oklahoma City. Good things are happening here in Kansas City, but not yet on that scale. Not yet, but a lot of people are working on it.”
I love the theory of the tipping point first explained to me via the work of Gladwell. It never gets old, probably because it comes from epidemiology. Interesting, — the literal translation of the word is “the study of what is upon the people.” In the book, the little things count a lot; those things that collectively create the boiling point. I think about this a lot. I think we are close, too, but I think we need some more bold innovation and some more fearless leadership on the part of our citizenry. The elected, appointed, identified, volunteered and hired continue to their part, but we need the non versions of all these to show up in bigger ways and pursue their brilliant ideas unapologetically. …And, we need to support them.
I don’t know what the NYT is smoking, though. The modern highly-programmed park, while I absolutely concede pays homage to Olmstead parks like Central Park, has its modern root in Chicago. There, Millennium Park is the example every urban center is trying to recreate. Millennium Park has become the most iconic urban environment of this century.
NYC’s High Line is up there too, though.
Ha! Myriad Gardens. Wait a couple years and look a few blocks south.