I went to St. Louis last year and was amazed at how beautiful the city was. Everywhere I looked the parks were manicured, there were plantings with flowers blooming, there were hanging baskets of plants all over downtown; it was a city with a welcome mat rolled out. That experience made me embarassed for Memphis and made me pine for the days of Memphis City Beautiful when we routinely won awards for how the city looked. There are a few lovely plantings in Overton Park right now, which give me a bit of hope, but I wonder how long they'll last in a city that is closing popular golf courses because of lack of funds.
I hope our new administration will recognize how powerful the visual impact a city makes can be in selling that city to potential investors and inhabitants. Maybe we can improve our green spaces and pick up our litter and attract the investors and young, dynamic workers that any city needs to survive.
No comments:
Post a Comment