Parks and Recreation Re-Enact A Historic Preservation Win
The Grizzl arc from Parks and Recreation is a remarkable example of a historic preservation win-win situation, where not only is parkland preserved, but adaptive reuse becomes part of the solution and a legacy business is saved from an unfeeling developer.
Back in the day, before the black hole that is the COVID-19 shutdown and during the black hole that is grad school, I worked for the City of Los Angeles, and with the City of Pasadena, within different departments. Because of this experience, I know that Parks and Recreation was an accurate picture of city worker life and the bureaucracy that comes with it. This equally applies with dealing how constituents view historic preservation - whether they are for or against it, it can become a real headache. But, with careful planning and compromise, good things can happen with the reuse or protection of historic buildings and monuments.
There were a few episodes from Parks and Rec that touched on historic preservation, namely these:
94 Meetings (Season 2, Episode 21 - the one where she tries to save a historic gazebo)
Article 2 (Season 5, Episode 19 - the one where she stays in a historic house to win a bet that would allow her to change archaic laws)
Save J.J.’s (Season 7, Episode 6 - the one I’m talking about here so just keep reading)
Although exaggerated, based on what I’ve seen while going to council meetings, working with constituents, and doing plan checks, they paint a pretty accurate picture of how people view historic preservation and the desire of preservationists to find “win-win” compromises. All the episodes are great, but I’ll focus on Save J.J.’s.
It all starts with Grizzl
*SPOILER ALERT (though honestly it’s been years y’all)*
Grizzl, a tech company, moves into Pawnee. They bring a lot of money and a lot of “cool” to the city, so they are embraced - until the citizens find out they’re stealing their data. They begin to lose any good PR they initially had. They are looking to build a new campus in or near town and pay Jessica Wicks (a wealthy widower who loves anything that will make her more money) $125M for pristine parkland.
Now, if you know Leslie Knope, you know that all she ever wants to do is open parks. The land Jessica Wicks just sold could be the biggest park Leslie ever opens - a national park.
Meanwhile…
A gross developer and entrepreneur, Dennis Feinstein, buys the building that houses J.J.’s diner. He then proceeds to kick J.J. out so he can sell the building at a profit. J.J. can’t afford the lease on any other spots in Pawnee because the prices have gone up since Grizzl came to town. Leslie Knope and her friend/ex-boss Ron Swanson love J.J.’s and hate to see it go. Leslie Knope was already feeling sour about Grizzl because of the data situation, and also for once had the backing of Pawnee to do something about it. The only question was what to do.
Ron Swanson didn’t want to get involved initially, but when his son is targeted in Grizzl’s lack of data ethics, he joins Leslie in a sort of the-enemy-of-my-frenemy- is-my-enemy-and-also-I-hate-them-now-and-want-to-knock-them-down-a-peg-or-two situation.
There is one affordable option for J.J.’s, but it’s in historic Pawnee, an area of town that has been overtaken by raccoons. No one goes there so in reality, it’s a terrible option for J.J.’s
How it all sorts out
Ultimately, Leslie and Ron manage to persuade Grizzl to take over historic Pawnee and build its campus there. It’s a break-even deal for Grizzl since they don’t have to build infrastructure or streets if they’re in town. They’re then free to donate the land they bought for a national park and get some good PR out of it. Since they would be cleaning up historic Pawnee, it will become a safe place that people go to, which makes it amenable for J.J.’s diner. Ron gets the contract to build everything. Everyone wins! (well, except maybe J.J.’s in the long run if he’s not able to buy his building outright before the prices rise there as well).
Reality vs. Educated Storytelling
I don’t think there’s a such thing as a show that shows all the realities of the issues they bring to light - it wouldn’t be very interesting if they did. Most things in reality are very boring. Even being on set filming a movie or TV show can be boring. That’s why we have movies and TV shows - to tell us stories in entertaining ways to brighten up our beige little lives.
But the Grizzl arc does manage to get quite a lot right here, with the added input around parks and green spaces. There is a whole other field dedicated to preserving the actual land we live in, and this episode brings it in along with building preservation, adaptive reuse, and landmark businesses. It even speaks on gentrification on top of that! So much of the preservation field is pulled into this arc, and particularly with the Save J.J.’s episode. There’s no way there wasn’t someone in the writing room on this one who didn’t do some crazy research, and if they did, they probably shouldn’t be a television writer. They should be working with the National Parks Service.
I love looking at preservation and themes of cultural heritage in fictional work because it allows the viewer to take away key real-world ideas and themes about this field that may not be interesting or be afforded goodwill otherwise. It educates, inspires, makes us laugh or cry or both. It plants a seed that with further nurturing, can expand into a garden and bring more advocates, and more diverse advocates, into a field that feels like it’s been stagnant since damn near the 1960’s. I believe in the power of fictional storytelling to change minds, and thus, the world.
Some Real World Examples
Grizzl is a hybrid of Google, Amazon, and Apple. Their effect on Pawnee is also very similar to the effect any of those tech companies have on the location that they build in. Sometimes, those corporations take similar actions that Grizzl ended up doing. I don’t think it’s for good PR - whether they have good or bad PR is irrelevant to their pocketbooks now, but it does make them look cool, anyway.
Google has at least four campuses that have been adaptively reused for their needs around the world - one of which is located right here in sunny SoCal.
Amazon plants trees, or at least make it possible for customers to donate via Alexa to plant trees.
And Apple…recycles.
Meanwhile, organizations like the Los Angeles Conservancy work with their local cities and counties to uplift and protect legacy businesses. These businesses become cultural landmarks for those that patronize, and help support the local economy; as such it is super important that we support them however we can.
Well, what say you? Do you think Parks and Recreation represented historic preservation well? My voice is just one voice, after all. Sound off in the comments (but only after you watch the episodes; let’s be “educated” about this)
some other digital goodies to consider:
