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A[ first glance, I louston can seem cnchant ing ly tush. Alongside the bayous that wend t h rough the

ci ty an a lmost pr imeva l g r o w t h f lour ish -es. T h e streets o f many ne ighborhoods stretch beneath a canopy ot in te r lock ing tree branches. And oat a long the urban edges, expanses ot emera ld lawns stretch t o w a r d the h o r i z o n .

But as Hous to n Parks and Recreat ion D i rec to r O l i ve r Spcl lman |r. knows , this image can be decept ive. Its semi- t rop ica l sett ing helps hide the fact that in terms ot

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Parks and Recreation Director Oliver Spellmon Jr. says Houston can't afford to put off addressing ifs need far green space.

counts the surface o f some o f its lakes as park land) . In For i W o r t h , it's 20 per thousand. A n d in Aus t i n , it's 27.St per thousand . The N a t i o n a l Recreat ion and I'ark Associat ion recommends between 21.25 and .*()..5 acres per thousand popu -la t ion as a good f igure to shooi lor, and the Urban Land Inst i tute agrees, recom-mend ing 25.5 acres o l park land per thousand residents.

Wh i l e I l ous ton has 509 park sites, on ly 277 of those are developed. A n d t hough many of the developed parks have been imp roved thanks to the Parks to Standard p rog ra m begun under M a y o r Bob Lanier, when the Parks to Standard money runs out in 2 0 0 2 , more than hal f of those parks w i l l st i l l need some renova t i on .

It was nisi those facts tha i Spcl lman and M a y o r Lee B r o wn la id out in m i d -M a r c h at a press conference in H e r m a n n Park, the purpose o l wh i ch was ro in t ro-duce a new master plan lor Houston 's parks. The p lan , the l irst o f its k i n d to be put together in decades, offers up a num-ber of aggressive no t ions , Chief among them is to add 68 new parks that w o u l d expand 1 louston 's u rban green space by more than 25 percent. A m o n g those new-parks w o u l d be t w o in excess of 200 acres, one nor thwest o f the c i ty near the intersect ion ot 1-10 and Beltway S, and tin- o ther in the far southwest near Mus tang Bayou. Hut also included w o u l d be ten new pocket parks (parks under an

THE GREENING OF HOUSTON BY M I T C H H I . I . J . S H I E L D S

Parks and Recreation Director Oliver Spellman Jr. would like to plant a few seeds, and watch them grow along with the city's building boom.

publ ic green space — green space that anyone can use, ami that isn't locked away behind pr ivate fences CM restricted to pr ivate use — I lousto i i lags behind most cit ies o f its size, and qui te a lew cit ies that are smaller. The numbers tell the story: Cur ren t l y , Hous to n has 2o.s Y? acres o l park land to serve a popu la t i on estimated in 1997 at 1.87 m i l l i o n . Tha t breaks d o w n to approx imate ! ) I I acres per thousand people. In Dal las, the f igure is closer to 21,3 per thousand ( though that number is a bit skewed, since Dal las

acre), t w o new ne ighborhood parks (one to ten acres), and one new regional park (50 to 200 acres) inside the increasingly bu i l t - up boundar ies o f ti le 610 1 nop .

Such an increase in pub l ic green space cou ld help p rov ide just the sort o f u rban balance that many have f o u n d lack ing in the current b o o m in inner city deve lopment . But plans, as H o u s t o n has f o u n d out more than a few t imes in the [List, can be easy to come by. What 's harder is pu t t i ng a plan in to ac t ion . A n d if th is par t i cu la r p lan is to d o more than gather dusi in someone's drawer , it w i l l depend great ly on the ef for ts of O l i ve r Spcl lman Jr.

• In most CIIV admin i s t ra t i ons , parks due t tor is nut a par t i cu la r ly h igh pro f i le posi-t i on . Bui when O l i ve r Spel lman ar r ived

in H o u s t o n a year ago t o take over the Parks and Recreat ion Depa r tmen t , he found h imsel f th rus t immed ia te l y i n t o the spot l ight . The re.isou w.is the ci ty 's you th soccer p r o g r a m , w h i c h had taken o n a l i fe o f its o w n , becoming the ta i l tha t wagged the rest of the Parks and Recreat ion d o g . It was clear that the soccer p rog ram had not on l y g r o w n o u t o f c o n t r o l , but that the a t ten t ion focused on it and its p rob lems were sap-p i n g the mora le and energy o f the rest o l the depar tment .

I leaning up a mess was not w h a t Spel lnian had hoped to be t u r n i n g his a t ten t ion to MI his first weeks o f w o r k , bur it was someth ing that his backg round at least had prepared h im for. A nat ive of Baton Rouge, the 4.5-year-old Spel lman spent his earl iest years runn ing a round the open spaces o l 1 ou is tana. Then in the tn id- '60s his fami ly relocated to N e w York Ci ty , where he learned that stretches of green were someth ing to be treasured.

It was in N e w York a roun d 1981 that Spel lman began his career in parks. The citv was l o o k i ng to expand its u rban ranger p r o g r a m , w h i c h is the enforcement d iv is ion o f New York 's parks depar tment , and Spel lman decided to take his back-g round in c r im ina l law and procedure and give the job a try. Prom enforcement he moved i n to mainst ream park admin is-t r a t i o n , and eventual ly became head of all the parks operat ions in the borough o l Queens. Then in 199.* he received a cal l f r o m the mayo r o f Cleveland ask ing if he'd l i ke to take over the park system there. A n d in I 948 In- received another ca l l , this one f r o m the newly elected Lee B r o w n , w h o wan ted to k n o w if Spel lman .. o t i ld be lured ti i I l ous ton .

It was not the lust t ime Spel lman had heard f r o m a I lous ton mayor. In l ' i . In had been part ot Bob I anier's search fo r a new Parks and Recreat ion director, and though he'd gone ro O h i o instead, Spel lman had retained an interest in H o u s t o n . " I n par t , I was at t racted by the chance to gel back to a Southern c l i -ma te , " Spel lman says. "C leve land can get pret ty c o l d . But at the same time, I was at t racted by Houston 's po ten t ia l . I knew it had some prob lems, but I also knew ih.it it of fered a lot o f oppor tun i t y . If you ' re really interested in being a parks d i rector , you look for u rban chal lenges." A n d a m o n g the nat ion's urban challenges, I lous ton was near the top of the list.

Spellman's l i rst p r io r i t y after a r r i v i ng in Texas was to get the parks bureaucracy back in w o r k i n g order. As he notes, one

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A map ol needed parks, as seen in the Houston Paths and Retreation Department's proposed master plan.

th ing lie's learned IN that .i parks depar t -ment is on ly as good .is lis support ser-vices — personnel , purchas ing, ma in tc nance, whatever. "Parks is v iewed as being a leisure ac t i v i t y , " he says. " W e l l , it's a business, one that in I lous ton has a $61 m i l l i on budget. You have to run it w i t h the same a t ten t ion to deta i l tha t you ' d run a f o r t u n e 5011 company . "

Mis second p r io r i t y was lay ing out a p lan ot future ac t i on . Short ly after he set-t led i n , Spel lman began meet ing w i t h the nonpro f i t s that have h is tor ica l ly suppor t -

ed park issues in Hous to n — the Park People, Friends o f I l e rmann I 'ark, the M e m o r i a l I'ark Adv isory Board — and whi le he found a lot of a t tent ion to spe-v i l k di ta i l , I I MM, i i became dea l to h im that there was no th i ng that looked at the parks system as a who le . A n d so w i t h the hack ing of M a y o r b r o w n , Spel lman set ou t to put in place a master p lan.

• In terms of his first p r io r i t y . Spel lman has received considerable praise. A m o n g those w h o w o r k w i t h Parks and

Recreat ion, it's general ly conceded that he has tu rned the depar tment a r o u n d , t ak ing an all b in demora l ized ins t i tu t ion and g iv ing it new energy. I he response to his second pr ior i ty remains t o he seen. There's no deny ing that the master plan unveiled in H e r m a n n Park is admirably comprehensive. Prepared by consu l tant Vernon ( i . Henry , whose connect ion w i t h Hous ton parks includes being one of the rounders of the Park People and tune spent as a park planner tor the c i ty , it lays ou t in a lmost daun t i ng derail just

what parks resources I lous ton now has, and what parks resources it w i l l need i f popu la t ion trends cont inue .

1'he next step is publ ic hearings, and then , perhaps in the f a l l , rak ing the p lan before C i t y Counc i l , but the wors t t h i ng to d o , Spel lman says, w o u l d be to fa i l to push the plan n o w that one is on the table. " A master p lan is really a requi red document for cit ies tha t are serious about their park space," he says. " W i t h i t , we can real ly answer a lot o f quest ions about

I where we shou ld go. W i t h o u t i t , about all g we can do is just try not t o sl ip f r o m j> where we are . "

Recogniz ing that asking fo r money I is a sure way to generate ob ject ions, the !~ plan emphasizes checking the property e inventor ies of o ther c i ty depar tments for - unused land that can he t rans formed in to

parks , l int it doesn't shy away f r o m po in t i ng out that as more and more peo-ple move back to the inner ci ty, and as more and more acres begin to sprout new cons t ruc t ion , n o w is the t ime to bu i ld up park laud lo r the fu ture . If he's learned one t h i ng in his short t ime in I l ous ton , Spel lman notes, he's learned that " t h e price o f land is on ly go ing to go up. So if there is a need tor add i t iona l publ ic green space inside o l I nop M O , and we believe there is, we need an acqu is i t ion system that starts as soon as we can. The pr ice, and the oppo r tun i t y , jusi isn't go ing to gel an) better." •

Art Goes Public I or years, I l ous ton has lagged behind other commun i t i es o f its si/e in its c o m -mi tmen t to pub l ic ar t . but now, thanks to a nod of suppor t f r o m M a y o r Lee B r o wn and the ef forts of a g r o u p of design pro-fessionals and civic leaders, i t appears that the city may be we l l on the was t oward enactment o f an ord inance that w o u l d p rov ide fund ing lor ar t is t i t enhancement ot capi ta l w o r k s projects.

T h o u g h nobody invo lved w i t h the proposed ord inance can say at the moment just when it might be presented to C i t y Counc i l , discussions have been tak ing place over the last few mon ths to try to cratt a proposal d ia l w o u l d game i b road suppor t . The central f igure behind the effort has been Jessica Cus ick , civic art d i rector for the C uh i i ra l Arts ( ounc i l o l Hous ton and Harr is Coun ty ( I \ ( M i l l . W i t h t w o decades o l exper i -ence in publ ic art programs in New l o r k ,

I os Angeles, and I l ous ton , Cusick is a veteran o f po l i t i ca l battles over public-ar t f und ing . N o t surpr is ingly, given 1 h u M o n ' s h i s io r i i reliance on pr ivate s,v to r suppor t fo r the ar ts , Cusick is qu ick to underscore the fact that the ord inance is a w o r k in progress. " G e t t i n g the lan-guage that adequately addresses broader design issues is d i f f i c u l t , " she says. " W e S. I I I ' i | i is i take somebody else's ord inance and apply it here."

The pol i t ica l w i l l to support c i ty fund ing of publ ic art has been a long t ime com ing . In late 1993, Ci ty t ounc i l passed a resolut ion encouraging the incorpora -t i on of publ ic a n i n i o s . i p u . i l wo rks pro-jects, but appropr ia ted no money to make d o i n g so easier. Then du r i ng the last years ot the 1 an icr admin i s t ra t i on , the budget to r C A C I I I I's civic a n and design pro g ram was slashed d u r i n g a b i t ter l ight in w h i c h the city's major pe r fo rm ing arts ins t i tu t ions wrested con t ro l o f much o f the city's arts fund ing .

The elect ion of b r o w n , t hough . brought in a mayor w h o views civic art as a qua l i t y -o f - l i te complement to his no t i on o f "ne ighborhood-o r ien te d gov-e rnmen t . " ( ity ( ounc i l members w h o are expected to marshal the ord inance th rough the process include Amuse Parker and Chr is Hell, the latter the spon-sor o f a f ledgl ing p i lo t project cal led br ight to b l igh t that 's intended to com-bine publ ic .\ifi.\ pr ivate resources to gci i-t r i ty decaying landmarks .

Wh i l e a cents-for-art o rd inance may be new to I l ous ton , the concept is wel l established in most o ther ma jo r cit ies. I he first percent tor-ar t ord inance was

enacted in Phi ladelphia 40 years ago, and coda) m a i n cities earmark I percent o f then capital works budget for the c o m -miss ion, ins ta l la t ion , and maintenance o f w o r k s of c iv ic ar t , a l though some leading pub l ic ar t cities such as M i a m i designate as much as 2 percent. The publ ic a n movement took oft in a b ig way in the

1970s w h e n Sun Belt h o o n i t o w n s , most notab ly Phoenix , d rew artists in to the design ani l cons t ruc t ion of major public w o r k s projects. This propel led publ ic . in hew,I I , I t in standard " t i n beau t i f u l " aspirat ions by ins t i l l ing educat ional value, greater c o m m u n i t y pr ide , or a dose • •I whiniss in to mundane publ i i , projects.

T h e f inancia l scope o l Houston 's p ro posed ord inance is the most fundamenta l del.nl tha i rein.mis to be i roned o u t , t hough the p rog rammat ic scope of the ord inance is also a mat ter of some debate, l o r example , one unanswered quest ion revolves a round whether some funds should be dedicated to the restora l ion o l ex is i ing wo rks of publ ic ar t . But even that quest ion, assuming as it does that publ ic money and publ ic arr go together, paints a p ic ture previously unseen in H o u s t o n . — fint Y\tuk