By Barbara Bradley

Memphis has taken hits this year. It's been called "miserable," by Forbes; ranked near the bottom for quality of life by portfolio.com, and dubbed one of the worst cities for cycling by Bicycling Magazine. This is in addition to perpetual low marks for having obese citizens.

Environmental activists agree we deserve many of these criticisms, yet they see new attitudes and progress toward a healthier, more sustainable Memphis.

"What's missing is city, county and regional policy," said Sarah Newstok, program manager for Livable Memphis. "We have a roadmap." It's Sustainable Shelby, she said, a collection of wide-ranging green strategies initiated by A C Wharton with a lot of citizen input when he was county mayor. "But nothing has come out of it yet," said Newstok. "If someone were hired to implement those policies, then we'd be getting somewhere."

"We're way behind compared to our peer cities in things like parks and greenways," said Keith Kirkland, former director of the Wolf River Conservancy. St. Louis, for example, has 77 miles of bike lanes and is working on a 600-mile regional web of parks and greenways. Memphis has about two miles of bike lanes and about six miles of greenway trails, he said.

Yet change is afoot. Construction began this year on what has been called Memphis' most ambitious green project: the $28 million Wolf River Greenway, a 22-mile nature corridor that will one day allow Memphians to walk, jog, bike and skate on a 10-foot pathway all the way from the eastern border of Memphis to Downtown.

Kirkland predicts we'll have it in 10 years. "There's too much excitement about it and too much at stake if we're going to be a successful city."

When segments go down expect a clamor from nearby neighborhoods to be connected, said Kirkland. Then we'll have green corridors branching everywhere, quality of life will improve, diverse neighborhoods will be linked, property values will rise and the image of Memphis will move up with it.

Memphis will get a taste of what a greenway can do soon when the $2.4 million Shelby Farms Greenline officially opens with fanfare October 9 offering 6 1/2 miles of mostly paved trail from Tillman to Shelby Farms along the old CSX railroad.

"I think among the public there is a growing consciousness for green issues," said Newstok, " and it includes recycling, pollution and litter. But it also includes people's willingness to stay committed to where they live - the opposite of urban sprawl." To "live where you live," a local slogan of Livable Memphis, means to live, shop and play in your own neighborhood and not let it deteriorate to go build something new, she said.

In August, the city and county approved the first major overhaul of zoning regulations in more than two decades. The new Unified Development Code aims to encourage walkable neighborhoods and reduce hallmarks of urban sprawl; encourage the building of more dense neighborhoods, which planners say are more sustainable; make it easier to establish farmers markets; allow more widespread neighborhood gardening; improve conditions for cyclists and more.

There are other reasons for optimism. In July Wharton announced that 55 miles of bike lanes would be added during the next 24 months, and the city has recently hired a "bikeway/pedestrian coordinator," a new position intended to encourage alternative transportation.

Also in July it was announced that Memphis Bioworks Foundation would make Southwest Tennessee Community College its principal partner in a program to train students for green jobs including in alternative energy such as solar and wind power. The program will be funded with $1.4 million of a $2.9 million grant that Bioworks received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Less showy but just as important are the number of grassroots groups that have sprouted like mushrooms in the last two or three years. They include Clean Memphis, which organizes community clean- ups; Green Hope Foundation, which provides entertainment events for sick children in a clean environment; Project Green Fork, which encourages green practices by restaurants; and GrowMemphis, administered by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, which has helped create urban community gardens all over Memphis.

Change is coming. In the meantime, citizens can take heart that at least one Memphis institution has received green accolades this year. In April, The University of Memphis was acknowledged as one of the country's most environmentally responsible universities by The Princeton Review, which included the U of M in its "Guide to 286 Green Colleges." Among its achievements is the new Living Learning Complex, a student residence complex that opened August 26 . It is, according to the university, the most sustainable public building in Tennessee.

-Barbara Bradley, 529-2370.

Originally published by Barbara Bradley bradley@commercialappeal.com .

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