Friends, This was forwarded to me by David Lutz of the Neighborhood Open Space Coalition - a NYC based coaltion of open space, greenway and community garden advocates. A sweet thought for a cool Wednesday afternoon:
Best wishes, Adam Honigman Volunteer, <A HREF="http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/">Clinton Community Garden</A> “THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS” Several years ago, in a meeting room in Brooklyn, a former mayor of Bogotá Columbia described his tough choices with limited budgets. “I could pave or fix roads or I could build parks and greenways.” Fixing roads, he noted, would stop a few complainers, but adding to green space would make people happy. He chose assisting in the “pursuit of happiness.” Sometimes a stranger to a place can see its assets, dilemmas and opportunities more accurately than a person who lives with them daily. Mayor Pena, in the United States as a visiting scholar, touched a raw nerve in an era of shrinking park budgets and threats to the federal transportation program funding that is making much of the greenway system possible.