ABSTRACT
A course in urban nature writing demands new theoretical frameworks. The essays for the class actually have a triangular structure, requiring three levels of inquiry—a conceptual premise, rhetorical modeling, and field observation. Some of the more thoughtful come to see the urban waterway as something more than an object of pity. With the domed stadium slated for demolition, city leaders and developers have eyed the former Gas Plant area for gentrification; local blacks, meanwhile, harbor strong feelings about the broken promises that came with “urban renewal.” At a particularly spirited moment, a panelist mentioned the array of fruit trees once found in the city—different varieties of mangoes, guavas, avocados, mulberries, and plums. A meeting of built and natural environment on Booker Creek, to return to the Greg Garrard quote from the beginning of the essay, has the potential to restore “social virtues in the cityscape.”.
