Syracuse University has plans for a new dorm that fills an entire city block between Comstock and Ostrom avenues. It was slated to house over 700 students but, after some public kerfuffle about saving a gracious older mansion and some heat from another advocacy group, the dorm will now house fewer students, closer to 400 students. Why? Well, the section of the dorm nearest Thorndon Park will have one less floor so as to allow sunlight to reach the Rose Garden.
The Rose Garden is a located at the Ostrom Entrance to Thorndon Park, where the beauty of the garden is enthusiastically maintained by a group of dedicated volunteers. It is home to an award winning garden of roses of all kinds: old roses, floribundas, hybrid teas, climbing and shrub roses each carefully chosen to exemplify the best of the breed. It is difficult to downplay the exquisite beauty of this garden or its importance to Syracuse.
And yet ..
When the university was planning its new dorm, the thought that it might negatively impinge on the rose garden wasn’t considered until the Rose Society raised the issue.
This is one of those times when there is the “issue,” that is, that a rose garden needs sun and SU’s four-storied dorm across the street from the garden would impinge on that need at the same time being an example of the larger issue of change and the response to change.
Change happens. Change begins from the moment we are conceived in our mother’s womb, weather, climate, land and resource use, the westward movement, building canals, roads, your teenager gets a driver’s license, the internet, etc. …on and on, the forces of change mediate how life moves and adapts. But, how we respond to the idea of change is always on the edge of resolution, measuring the effects of change and our ability to evaluate those effects and modify that which needs modification.
In this instance, the change coming was planned. If the university had not lowered the height of the dorm, the volunteers who maintain the rose garden would have had to change what grew in the garden, perhaps even consider moving the plantings to a more hospitable site. Or, as did happen, a group of advocates could point out what the planners had overlooked and, with some rather effective publicity, move those who make those decisions at SU to modify the changes to accommodate the needs of the garden.
Oversight by government, non-governmental organizations and ad hoc advocacy groups is one of the ways that the effects of change are managed. Management by the negatively affected is not always successful because the proponents of the change in question may have more power. Think of the polluted waterways, the higher incidents of deadly diseases, etc. that have been linked to chemical plants and the inability of those affected by the relationship between the plants and the pollution and illnesses to effect any remediation.
Why do I write about this? My village is undergoing, as it always had …and having lived in that village for more than 50 years I can interject memories of retail outlets from candy stores to a woman’s clothing boutiques that have left … change. We no longer have a pharmacy, a fine dining restaurant or a grocery store. These missing services have decided effects on the lives of those who patronized them. I doubt very much whether anyone would deny the rights of those who closed their establishments to do so, and I don’t doubt that the people who are affected have the power to figure out how to determine what comes next … or they don’t believe they can.
It first means understanding that, as Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
There also needs to be what is often called the “political will” … the energy to do something, to engage enthusiasm for remediation or reimagining.
I invite you to visit the E.M. Mills Rose Garden on Ostrom Avenue in Syracuse and see the real benefit, not only of the loveliness of the roses but also the equitable way that change can be managed.
Whether we are talking about finding ways to make more services available in a small village, protecting the sunlight on roses or voting in a Presidential election, we do have the power to maintain or make better the effects of an ever-changing world.
