It's a no brainer. Bring an urban river back to life and people and businesses will follow. It's biological; we're drawn to water, no matter where or when. Just check out any urban playground with a water feature. Give a kid even a few drops squirting out of the tarmac and they'll frolic for hours.
So it shouldn't be a surprise that when officials and taxpayers in Oklahoma City decided a while back to restore their local waterway, the North Canadian River (newly renamed the Oklahoma River; the Army Corps had essentially eliminated the river from the landscape by redirecting its flow beginning in the 1920s), good things were soon to come. So far, the $54 million the city invested in the river's restoration has brought $700 million in new development along the waterfront. Even more compelling, the river has become a premier venue for watersports, from kayaking to sculling to canoeing. The Great Plains: A Rowers' Mecca. Go figure.
Bottom line: It pays to bring nature back to cities.
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