A community is more than its streets and buildings. It’s what it means to people and how it allows them to live, work, and play together determines whether it takes root in the hearts and minds of its inhabitants or is just a bedroom or passing through point.
Growing a community is easy to talk about and hard to do. Last Thursday, November 10, the Quail Valley Garden Club celebrated planting a grove of Golden Figs on the Edible Arbor Trail on Oyster Creek (between the Fort Bend YMCA on Cartwright and Mosley Park on FM 1092). It was a beautiful day and poignant for many club members.
Quail Valley Garden Club is 40 years old this year and planted its first five trees in 1974 at the Richmond State School. They’ve been planting trees ever since, particularly in Missouri City. They’ve also given plenty of scholarships, landscaped and maintain the Arbor at Ridgeview Park . . . and the list goes on.
It takes a lot of effort and commitment to fund raise and give service to the community. While some groups have grown large and have large fund raising efforts, it’s all the groups contributing and individuals becoming involved that makes a community. It’s having a variety of ways for people to meet, hold their club meetings, special events, or just informal happenstance like meeting in the park.
And people won’t use parks or trails unless they’re beautiful. People won’t support the community if parks and meeting places aren’t used. So it’s constantly planting trees, developing amenities and supporting gatherings that build a sense of community.
Roads and bridges may be a community's arteries. Parks and recreational opportunities are its soul.
Missouri City is really entering a new era of understanding this concept and having city ordinances that encourage groups to form, meet and then give back to the community.
And it was a special event, The Quail Valley Backyard Tour that paid for the grove of trees . . . and the city issues permits for those events. Up until now, special events by groups could only be held every six months. And for most events that’s more than enough. You know if you’ve ever organized one!
However, something like a Farmer’s Market that needs to meet periodically can’t develop unless it is held on a much more frequent basis. A Missouri City Farmer’s Market got its fledgling start celebrating the ground breaking of the Missouri City Recreation Center on October 8. The response was so positive, the market will host a Thanksgiving Harvest Special Event November 19 from 10 am to 1pm at 2601 Cartwright on the Cypress Point side of the shopping center across from the new MC Recreation Center.
Sponsored by Sorelle Deli that features fresh food from local farmers, the market will offer a wide variety of fresh, locally grown vegetables, fruits and yard eggs as well as the home growers who bring their “what’s growing” surprises. There are also crafters, custom orders of holiday wreaths and baskets as well as fresh baked goods inside the deli.
Missouri City Council will review on November 21, whether to authorize the market for several months while it is reviewing its special event ordinances as part of an ongoing review that is making our ordinances more relevant to businesses and residents. For example, we updated what colors are allowed on signs several months ago.
To get a flier that includes a list of produce that will be featured, press the following link Download Community Show & Sell
Illustrated from Musings column in the 11/16/2011 Fort Bend Independent.
To read about the Missouri City Recreation Center opening and "Sweet Celebration" that went with it, press here.
There's not always room in the newspaper to say thank you . . .but this picture of the audience at Edible Arbor Trail Ceremony speaks volumes in "happy taxpayers."
In my opinion City Employees often get picked on unmercifully. I've probably done some of the picking myself. City employees due to a sizeable budget shortfall are being asked to do more with a whole lot less, but that was true before this year.
They also don't make the ordinances they have to enforce--Council does.
Thank you MC Parks and Recreation especially Paul Wierzbicki for developing the concept of the Edible Arbor Trail and for Parks Director Larry Foos and Ass't Parks Director Randy Troxell for supporting it as well as to all the employees in the Department who make it possible and all the other dedication that goes unnoticed.
And thanks to the MC Public Relations department who photograph, film and put all this info before the public on the Website and MCTV.
And thanks to the MC Development Department that includes Planning, Permitting and Inspections including Gary Smith, Director; Travis Huff; Paul McKeever and Tracy Landrum for helping us identify how we might get a Farmer's Market legally started in Missouri City and working with us. We also appreciated Larry Foos and Shane Mize in Parks & Recreation for taking the time to acknowledge a market could be an important community building asset.
And Public Works uses the latest computer equipment to design the beautiful signs and know how to construct them.
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