Scissortail Park will benefit future generations, mayor says
Against a backdrop of children flying kites and tossing Frisbees, Mayor Mick Cornett said Thursday the new downtown park will be a canvas for Oklahoma City, continually reimagined by future generations.
Christened Scissortail Park with the turning of 50 goldpainted shovelfuls of dirt, the park that was promised to MAPS 3 voters a decade ago ceremoniously began taking shape on downtown’s southern fringe.
Central to the idea of the park is its role as catalyst for transformation of a residential and commercial area, condemned to blight by the old Interstate 40, into a vibrant urban district tying downtown to the Oklahoma River.
“As we stand out here today it looks a little bit like a blank canvas,” Cornett said as children played behind him and adults, including elected and civic leaders, stood beneath a shade tent before him.
“There’s a lot of open space out here,” said the city’s longest-serving mayor, who is stepping down next year. “In a way it reminds us of those young people and their lives yet to unfold.”
Cornett painted the park as an ever-changing element of the city, and the city as an everchanging community, always searching out its next self.
“How will they continue to grow this city?” he asked of the children. “How will they continue to reinvent this park,
generation after generation — because their lives are blank canvases as well.”
Unlike a building, where one day the foundation is poured and on another a ribbon is cut, “this is a project that’s never really going to be completed,” Cornett said.
“A park has to continually be reinvented as its uses and the generations change through the years.”
The park’s name was announced by children who lined up in white T-shirts, each bearing a letter to spell out “Scissortail Park.”
Children in blue YMCA T-shirts and shorts paired with Cornett and other city leaders to turn the first dirt — short-handled shovels for the little ones and longer handles for the adults.
Ward 6 Councilwoman Meg Salyer called the park an “oasis that is going to change the face of Oklahoma City,” with trees surrounding a lake and gardens designed to appeal to all the senses.
Redevelopment role
She put in a word for renovation of historic Union Station, a still-unfunded element viewed as central to the park’s success, sitting asit does at the confluence of the upper and lower park.
Salyer also reminded her audience of the value Central Park brings to her native New York, saying land development opportunities are “at its core what MAPS is all about.”
The 1-cent MAPS sales tax, approaching its 25th year, provides public “amenities to attract private investment in our ever-changing and evergrowing community,” she said.
As blight gives way to new homes and businesses, Salyer imagined the prestige that one day could be attached to addresses such as Scissortail Park south or ScissortailPark east.
The scissor-tailed flycatcher is the state bird of Oklahoma and inspiration for the Skydance Bridge, which will connect the upper and lower sections of the $138 million, 68-acre park.
New district
Anchored by the park, the district will be further defined by the MAPS 3 convention center complex, including a highrise luxury hotel, and the MAPS 3 streetcar, scheduled to begin service in late 2018.
The upper park will be completed first and is to open in early 2019. Amenities will include a promenade, fountain, cafe, lake and boathouse, great lawn and stage, playgrounds and gardens.
The lower park between Skydance Bridge and the Oklahoma River will be completed later.
Lower park work will include the environmental cleanup after the auto parts yards of Hubcap Alley along S Robinson Avenue are relocated.
“I think more than any other MAPS project … the citizens of Oklahoma City are going to enjoy watching this one grow and deliver its destiny,” Cornett said.
“I want you to be able to look back upon this day,” he said, “as a day that Oklahoma City stepped up and fulfilled a lot of the promises that we made to the voters and a lot of the promises that we made to people that are no longer with us.”