Over 400 people from around the state showed up at the Convention Center this afternoon to participate in the Smart Growth conference put on by the Oklahoma Sustainability Network and hosted by Sustainable Tulsa. It was a great event with near 40 exhibitors displaying elements of sustainability.
Many of the discussions were great. I am particularly enamorred with Alan Hart, architect/planner from Seattle/Vancouver. Between last night and today I was particularly encouraged by his presentations. He discussed much of the history of planning and development that occurred in Vancouver since the 60's and related many points to our city. He was blown away by Tulsa's assets on one hand and dismayed by how little we use toward our city's quality of life (river, architectural icons, institutions, neighborhoods).
I liked his allusion to our confrontational nature and how important it is when planning your city/neighborhood...to get participants to adopt an attitude of both/and instead of either/or. He was heavy on public participation.
He was scheduled to meet with the Mayor but due to scheduling conflicts had to settle for a meeting with Susan Neal. Apparantly there was a lot of agreement from Susan but then Susan has always been an agreeable person so because I didn't get too many details from him about the meeting I'm not exactly sure what that means.
This is definitely the type of guy I would like to see leading charrettes related to our comprehensive plan.
He encouraged us to think big but not to forget that the details can make or break the city experience. Also, encouraged us to do the projects that we must do, well. Pointed to Central (centennial) Park as an example of taking a mere detention pond and with a little effort and imagination we turned it into a CITY amenity (Thank's Theron Warlick and team on the 6th St. Task Force/Pearl District).
I'm not great at summary and I know that some of you that participate on this board were present at both events. I would love to hear your take.
Jeannie McDaniel (State House 78) also impressed me with her greeting to the group. She spoke somewhat knowledgably about smart growth and planning. I know she worked for the Mayor's office of neighborhoods for 10 years but I was encouraged to know that we have a state senator who appears to 'get it'.