Memphis Greenline shows how unified the city could be

Because I Said So column for The Commercial Appeal

Oct. 14, 2010

I rounded up the family last weekend and herded them to our neighborhood’s block party celebrating the opening of the Memphis Greenline. Along the way we joined up with others like us, neighbors on bikes and on foot, pulling wagons and pushing strollers. Our arrival took on the look and feel of a parade, with the intersection of Podesta and the Greenline buzzing excitedly with talk of the neighborhood’s newest amenity.

People were greeting friends from across the city, eating hamburgers and hot dogs and listening to live music while the Boll Weevils handed out beads and merriment.

The party was everything the naysayers say Memphis is not. It was friendly and safe; it was communal and progressive.

Bikers, runners and walkers asked one another where they’d come from, where they were going and where their neighborhood lies in relation to the line. The answers varied — Binghamton, High Point Terrace, East Memphis and Shelby Farms beyond — and ultimately blurred together, because thanks to the Greenline, our neighborhoods are anyplace we can travel to easily and safely to work, live and play.

The Greenline is our city’s newest social network, the ribbon of asphalt acting as a common thread to stitch together neighborhoods and communities. “Online” took on new meaning as people of all races raced across town to see what was new, to learn where this new avenue leads. Two wheels and a chain are now doing what so many have tried over the years in bringing a city together.

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