"Creating value" symposium to air on local channels

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.- Bring together a nationally prominent journalist, a civic leader, a developer, landscape architects and an environmental activist or two and your're going to spark some lively discussion on development. Beginning this week, the Government Channel (channel 16) will air the proceedings of "Creating Value," a symposium organized by University of Arkansas Landscape Architecture Department Head Fran Beatty that took place at Garvan Woodland Gardens last April.

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," opened the dialog with a keynote lecture that contrasted the dense, socially diverse neighborhoods of yesterday's cities with today's subdivisions.

"When everything is the same, with no public spaces to bring people together, you've created a place where it's very hard to be anything but no-place," Suarez said. Suarez's commentary on the relationship between the built environment, natural resources, and community was amplified by a lively afternoon panel discussion that included Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody, environmental activist Fran Alexander, landscape architect and developer Kenneth Berg, and Tom Daniels, author of "Holding Our Ground: Protecting America's Farms and Farmland."

"Growth and development and environmental protection are topics we're all concerned about," Mayor Coody noted. "The more discussion we can have about these things, the better off we'll be."

"Creating Value" will air on the Government Channel on Monday, August 4, at 8:00 p.m. and Thursday, August 7, at 2:00 p.m., with more times to follow. Community Access Television and UATV will air the symposium proceedings at a later date.