Manifesto

In case you weren't able to read it Thursday night, here's the Greening Greater Memphis Manifesto dated February 8, 2007 and a way to sign-up electronically. It's exciting to be a part of the proud history and bright future for parks and public spaces in our community!

Whereas, Regions across the U. S. are discovering what the Greater Memphis area has known from its earliest days - that quality parks and public spaces are crucial if a city is to achieve its highest potential for its people; and

Whereas, Memphis and Shelby County have in their history served as national models, whether it was in setting aside the riverfront for public use in the early 19th century, laying out a grand network of parks and parkways during the Progressive Era of the early 20th century, or preserving Shelby Farms for parkland three decades ago; and

Whereas, As region after region in the U. S. turn to green assets to differentiate themselves and stake out strong competitive positions and create improved quality of life, they have identified parks, outdoor recreation, and trail projects as bold strategies for their future; building on its history, Greater memphis should be a leader in these kinds of exciting projects and in unifying its citizens in support of them; and

Whereas, Few regions can boast of natural resources that rival ours, and there is no reason that our community lags behind other areas and is not again a national leader in breakthrough green strategies that offer high-impact, multi-dimension benefits including health, safety, youth development, economic competitiveness, and civic cohesion; and

Whereas, The Greater Memphis area has rich potential for capitalizing on its assets by excercising renewed leadership to reclaim its reputation as the nation's leader by realizing the rich potential of signature projects like Shelby Farms park, Wolf River Greenway, the Greater Memhis Greenline, and neighborhood parks and adopting a green ethos in public policy that characterizes transportaion, land use, economic growth, environmental stewardship and health programs; and

Whereas, A historic alliance of environmental organizations, neighborhood groups, and community leaders are joining hands today to launch the Greening Greater Memphis movement that will visualize a future in which the region is again nationally recognized for its vision, that will mount grassroots support for new public funding and leadership, and that will capitalize on our distinctive opportunities;

Therefore, we the undersigned affix our signatures to this historic manifesto as a public acknowledgement of our personal, organizational, and collective commitment that ultimately results in our region becoming the U. S. leader in parks, parkland, trails, and outdoor recreation.

Click here to connect with the Greening Greater Memphis website, leave comments, and sign-up to support the Manifesto.