and welcome back to Houston newsmakers
and I say hello to Barry Mandel the
president and park director of Discovery
Green good morning good to see you
thanks for having me celebrating year
number 10 what a journey this park has
made in 10 years yeah it really is
amazing it's amazing what it is done for
the neighborhood in terms of economic
development it is amazing what it has
done from this the city's image from the
city that people used to associate with
concrete now if we really have this
image of green and Parks when the Super
Bowl people come they leave that's the
place they want to come if you have a
big event you know that that can be the
center of location we have created an
incredible campus on that side of
downtown with two convention center
hotels that bookend a really fantastic
Convention Center and this green oasis
that kind of pulls it all together you
know I remember very vividly what this
area looked like more than ten years ago
that's a picture of it now it was a
parking lot that's all it was a parking
lot in between different things that's
where we parked when we were going to
the gorge our Brown nothing remarkable
about that space and then Minute Maid
Park was built we can see that off in
the distance there but still that
parking lot was the focal point of where
all the conventions were and now we have
what we have in place now we're getting
ready to start the fall season what kind
of events are gonna be happening here in
the next so since this is our 10th
anniversary we've decided to kind of
segregate ten events okay and really
call attention to those that really
epitomize what we try and do every day
in that Park and so a couple of them are
art installations we've got an Art Fair
that'll be happening we've got a da dia
de los muertos event that we're doing
for the first time this year and then we
bring back some of our classics like our
outdoor ice skating rink for the winter
and then we convert it into an outdoor
roller skating rink all right that was
the last couple of years we started
doing roller skate he started doing over
the last two years when you take a look
at the aerial look at what the park
looks like now from the sky it is just
amazing watching that transformation
what a difference it's made from that
parking lot a few decade or so ago now
this amazing place where people can come
and relax and celebrate we got the
kinder Lake
and that's been amazing to see that
happen and their fountains that you you
know you don't get in the way of kids
who are heading to the fountains on a
hot day that's for sure
what more can be done and let's talk
about how this came about because it's
just somebody didn't just say oh let's
put a park there this was not a grand
scheme but somebody who had a heart for
the Oasis that it is now really led to
this happening it was really former
Mayor Bill White and he had this vision
and he had had it for a while and he
called together the heads of the four
major foundations in Houston and he said
will you come together will you work on
this and will you create this green
oasis in the middle of downtown and once
they agreed he then let them know that
he needed it done within the next three
years which was an unbelievable effort
for them to have to one first come
together they traveled the country
looking at best practices all over to
see how do we create a model that really
is sustainable and that will serve as a
model for other parks not only here in
Houston but actually all over the
country and they spent their time doing
that and this whole process now it seems
to me that everybody in that room
because the foundations that were
involved or they're all forward-thinking
foundation so they could envision this
end product do you think I think some of
it was they could they could buy into
the vision I think there was some
skepticism and I think they had some
issues you know that they really wanted
to make sure that they addressed number
one being how are we going to get you
Stoney ins to come downtown number one
and Recreation number two I think was
probably primary on their list okay
Howard what are the hurdles we're gonna
have to overcome and the process now
people should understand it would remind
people that it's free there was no
charge to come down and enjoy Discovery
Green and you have a number of things
that are going on every day you have the
big events but you have a number of
things going on every day yeah our
calendar is full almost seven hundred
free events that happen on an annual
basis and it's everything from exercise
classes to movies to concerts all of
which are free plus you can just go and
sit if you want to you can go and
exercise if you want to you can really
enjoy these beautiful garden areas that
we have as part of the park too how
would you
people to engage if they want to become
a partner with you to help in this
process going forward
well this year we've instituted a new
membership program we've not a city park
so it really we depend upon the kindness
of others that enable us to do these 700
events so we have a membership program
called forever green honoring our tenth
anniversary $10 a month a hundred and
twenty dollars a year and you can
support the park as well as get
discounts on the things we do in the
park and from the vendors as well as
invitations to special receptions well
even I can do that you can
Barry thank you so much I appreciate all
of this and I'm looking forward to
coming down and just doing something
that you just suggested which is come
down and just relax
exactly you still have those little
areas where you sit down and there's a
concave it's a listening vessel
listening people kids can sit on either
end of it and whisper and hear the other
person and if you sit there by yourself
you can whisper and not hear anybody
right bear it's always good to see you
thank you you have great events I love
coming down there you do great work
everybody down there was just fantastic
love it very nice congratulations by the
ways you hit into the next decade I'm
gonna take us to the next point build
another Park yeah maybe