Call To Action

Friends--

This Thursday, the city engineer, the county engineer, the director of MATA, policymakers, community specialists and other leaders from all over the county will gather to vote on Shelby County's sustainable agenda. It will be a very important and very historic meeting, as you can stated by the MPO's Paul Morris. His comments are attached below.


This is an opportunity for us to put bicycling at the forefront of city and county planning. I have served on the Sustainable Shelby Transportation Committee for the last 6 months or so, and we have written bicycle lanes, bike signs, and bike paths into the set of recommendations submitted by the transportation committee. Now, six other committees will join us to decide how high bicycling will be on our county priority list. The recommendations that receive the most votes will begin to be implemented within 90 days.


If you can come to the University of Memphis this Thursday at 9 a.m., your support would be greatly appreciated--not to mention that if other voters see you ride your bicycle to the meeting it may influence how they vote on bicycle policy. I do not think you can vote if you were not on one of the seven committees appointed by the mayor, but if you can come and support the bicycle vote it would be a great asset to developing a truly sustainable Memphis.




Please pass this on to anyone you think might be interested.




Thanks so much,


Anthony Siracusa
--
First Congregational Church UCC
Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop
1000 S. Cooper St.
Memphis, TN, 38104
(901) 949-1201
www.revolutionsmemphis.com
Thursday 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Sunday 2-5 p.m.






At Thursday's meeting from 9-12 in The Zone at the FedEx Institute of Technology at University of Memphis, you and your fellow committee members will rate these priorities using wireless keypads. In addition, Steve Ethridge will cast votes on behalf of the public, based on the results of the polling that was done for Sustainable Shelby.

Each committee co-chair will explain the recommendations of that committee and the voting will be conducted at the end of each committee's overview. That's why there are boxes besides the priorities on the attached document of recommendations, so you can jot down the values that you give to each priority – from 1, strongly disagree, to 7, strongly agree. There will be copies distributed at Thursday's meeting as well.

As Mayor Wharton has said, this will be a unique experiment in public policy development, so we hope that you can be with us. Once this list is set, Mayor Wharton says these will be the priorities for immediate action and within 90 days, staff members will develop plans of implementation for each of them. However, while these are the immediate priorities, all of your recommendations, including your goals, values and other material, will be included in the final report to be presented July 8 at the Sustainable Shelby Call to Action meeting at 2:30 p.m. at the Memphis Botanic Garden.

If you have any questions, please let us know. We look forward to your help at the Digital Congress Thursday morning.

Continental breakfast will be from 8:30 until 9 a.m., and we will begin promptly at 9. Parking is available across the street at the Fogelman Executive Center garage. Please bring your parking ticket to the Digital Congress so we can provide you with a parking pass.

If you have any questions please let us know.





Paul Morris

Transportation Planner

Memphis MPO

1075 Mullins Station Road

Memphis TN 38134

901-379-7849 (office)

901-379-7865 (fax)

paul.morris@shelbycountytn.gov