Investing In The American Dream

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.- All too often, economic pressures distort the "American Dream" into an American nightmare of shoddily-built developments in isolated suburbs. Ray Suarez, senior correspondent with "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" and author of "The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration 1966-1999," will present the keynote lecture and moderate a panel discussion at a symposium seeking a new model of development.

Organized by the University of Arkansas Landscape Architecture department, the "Creating Value" symposium will take place Saturday, April 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Ark.

"My thesis is that good design with ecological sensitivity is good business," notes Landscape Architecture department head Fran Beatty, who organized the conference. "My conclusion from professional experience is that good and responsible design decisions happen only when government, business, and environmental leaders embrace similar values and speak a similar language."

Beatty has assembled a cast that will ensure a lively dialogue. Ray Suarez has twenty years of varied experience in the news business, including six years as host of National Public Radio's call-in news program Talk of the Nation. Suarez also was a Los Angeles correspondent for CNN, a producer for the ABC Radio Network in New York, a reporter for CBS Radio in Rome, and a reporter for various American and British news services in London. His essays and criticisms have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Baltimore Sun, among other publications.

Following his keynote lecture in the morning, Suarez will moderate an afternoon panel discussion that will address questions such as "how do we get from agricultural land to a Faux English development?" and "what ingredients are needed to make a community (not just a development)?" Participants will include the following:

• Honorable Dan Coody Since entering office in January 2001, Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody has worked to increase citizen participation in city government and partner environmental and business interests. Coody believes that with a focus on smart growth and quality development, Fayetteville can grow without compromising a high quality of life.

• Fran Alexander One of the founders of the citizens' group Friends For Fayetteville and the leader of NeighborWoods, which has planted over 300 trees in Fayetteville, Alexander is active in numerous environmental groups, has spearheaded many successful green initiatives (and a few lost causes) and writes a bimonthly opinion column for The Northwest Arkansas Times.

• Kenneth Berg A landscape architect with twenty years' experience in development, Berg is currently vice president of the Virginia-based Ryland Group, Inc., one of the nation's largest homebuilders and a leading mortgage-finance company.

• Tom Daniels Author of "When City and Country Collide" and co-author of "Holding Our Ground: Protecting America's Farms and Farmland," Daniels helped to preserve over 16,000 acres of farmland in Pennsylvania, where he managed Lancaster County's nationally-recognized purchase of development rights program. Currently a professor at the University of Albany-State University of New York, Daniels serves as a consultant to state and local governments and land trusts.

The symposium, which will include luncheon and a guided tour of Garvan Woodland Gardens, is open to the public with a registration fee of $80. Media representatives and students may attend free of charge. Garvan Woodland Gardens is located at 540 Arkridge Road in Hot Springs (see www.garvangardens.org for map).

Architecture and landscape architecture C.E.U.'s will be given for attendance. Members of the media are invited to attend a 9 - 9:45 a.m. press briefing with Ray Suarez; a complimentary lunch and press packet will be provided for all journalists who R.S.V.P. Kendall Curlee at 479/575-4704 or kcurlee@uark.edu.