Last week the St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview David Fisher, Executive Director of Great Rivers Greenway.
Great Rivers Greenway is administering the new parks and greenways sales tax in St. Charles county, St. Louis county, and St. Louis city. Great Rivers has an ambitious greenways plan for the St. Louis region.
Why is the greenway plan important?
It's job attraction; it's the quality of life. What the new studies are showing is that in my age, we used to move where the jobs were. In today's age, (workers) move to where the quality of life is. Companies recognize that and move to where the people are.
So, if we make a quality of life significant enough, where people want to move here and live here, (we'll get) jobs of quality.
In Minneapolis, you developed parks along the rivers, and it created economic opportunities: bike rental shops, restaurants. Will that happen here?
I think so. Even with something as simple as the River Des Peres greenway ... people are using that now and they want to be close to something like that. We don't do ugly. People don't deserve it. It's got to be pretty, it's got to be inviting, it's got to be part of their psyche. It's about walking and talking and meeting and greeting your neighbors. It's about health and fitness, and it's about being connected.
