The Central Park Model, Some Thoughts on Nashville's Shelby Bottoms

I took a "green economics" tour of central park yesterday to explore the importance of green space to civic well being. The tour, unfortunately, bored me to tears. But nature shone all the more brilliant because of it. Eight hundred and forty-three acres of some of the world's most expensive real estate stands preserved for the use of New Yorkers. It's benefits are too great to recount. And I don't want to linger in New York. My mind is on Nashville.

Shelby Bottoms park is the largest green space in the downtown area. It's either the first or second largest in Davidson county (Percy and Edwin Warner is the other). Driving through Shelby bottoms is like encountering an afterthought of the city. There are some ballparks, a nature trail, a golf course. But little traffic. At least, no significant traffic to speak of. Citizens of Nashville do not use the park in the daily-ness of life. Central Park showed me the contrast. Bike teams, runners, mothers with strollers, teams, readers, chess players, couples, schools. Cross sections of civic life congregate in the park.

Shelby Bottoms, however, is "water locked" by the Cumberland and buttressed deep into urban neighborhoods. Getting there takes a special occasion. What civic planning should take place to not only make more inroads to the park for people but make the park something more frequently used by Nashville?

I have always loved nature, and my love for it has grown over the last years as my love for camping and hiking has grown. I've learned from this conference that Christians need to take an active interest in civic life in a way that uniquely reflects the giftings and passions God plants in them. I think Shelby Bottoms park might be one of mine. Now I need to find the organizations, the legislative bodies, the neighborhood associations, and the like-minded with whom I could add my vision and desire. It occurs to me that my interest, like NYC's Central Park impact on New Yorkers, will most likely lead me to a cross section of bikers, runners, mothers with strollers, schools, teams, and the like of a diverse Nashville. The vision for the park enables what the function of the park should be: integration, well being, service. And if a future vision for a better park is realized, one that engages Nashville's citizens and visitors, multiply the well-being of the few into the hundreds and thousands. The result, a more fully integrated--hopefully more empathetic, charitable, and compassionate--citizenry, the attributes of Christ in civic life.