I have lived in Memphis for 56 years, and for the first time in my life, I feel Memphis is slowly chugging down the right track to realizing its potential - and hopefully becoming a progressive, dynamic Southern city of choice. Sure, we have the same laundry list of urban problems that exist in other major metropolitan areas - crime, poverty, corruption, as well as recession related economic issues. In fact, many of those issues loom larger than in other comparable cities and may end up being more difficult to reverse. My optimism stems from the sincere belief that Memphis has a strong core of pro-Memphis citizen/leaders, a Mayor who is honest, understands the issues and sincerely wants to make Memphis a better place. As citizens of the City of Memphis, we can’t leave this job solely to the people at the top of the governmental, business and social strata. While they can get top-down initiatives started all day long, it takes a supportive broad based citizenry to make it all work. Instead of harping on the ever-present negativity, maybe we should start supporting positive initiatives, as well as thinking more about solutions and acting on those ideas.
Turning a city around is not done in 5 years. We are lucky to have a beautiful preserved downtown area, the largest Urban Park in the country, the longest rails to trails bike path conversion in Tennessee, a beautiful new Law School and Art School downtown, one of the best distribution networks in the world – and soon we will have a refurbished airport with Southwest airlines!
The path to success is not a destination; it’s a never ending journey that starts one step at a time.
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