polis - from the Greek - a state or society especially when characterized by a sense of community - Excerpt from Webster's Online Dictionary.

Where is vision today? Who is a person of vision today?

Where is our concept of community - polis?

What are the major challenges of the City of Houston today - crime, traffic congestion, pollution, flooding, lack of park space. Who is stepping up to offer a vision of our city for the future. We seem to address problems piecemeal and without a vision for the next 50 or 100 years. Do we think that our city is not going to last that long?

Crime: It is obvious that crime is a major problem and that putting more police officers on the street will help to stem this threat to our peace and prosperity. This is a no-brainer. Yet, the size of our police force has been allowed to decrease as our population has increased.

Traffic Congestion: It is obvious that our city will need a comprehensive public transportation system as is found in virtually every other large city in the Western world. Yet, the best we can do is buses and a one-route light rail system that runs on the surface of the street like a glorified street car. The longer we wait, the more it will cost as open land is developed and the price of all land increases. And, if there is another Rita, I would bet the farm that the situation on the highways will be virtually the same as before.

Pollution: Too many industries are "grandfathered" under regulations that exempt them from today's air pollution control laws. Why? Politics?

Flooding: The Harris County Flood Control District has undertaken some projects but nothing far-reaching and comprehensive to solve this problem

Park Space: It is obvious that we need more park space. The city needs to find the money to pay for parks when the opportunity for a park arises. In the case of the 11th Street Park, the city would only commit to contribute less than half of the funding to purchase the park. The burden for purchasing the park fell to the residents of the area who made a valiant effort to raise the funds. Fortunately, State Senator John Whitmire stepped in and was able to get state money to pay the balance. But it is essential that the city's responsibility to provide parks within its boundaries and not depend on rare state aid or the tenacity of citizens to collect monies.

Too often we hear that communities can't afford to create parks and protect watershed landscapes. Conservation is not an expense, but an investment that pays many dividends, including economic ones. Does land conservation protect the bottom line? Leading experts in the field assert that it does. See The Economic Benefits of Land Conservation published by The Trust for Public Land.

One way to measure the commitment of a city to parklands is the dollars spent per 1,000 resident of that city. The average dollars per resident average is $88 for the 50 largest cities in the U.S. Houston ranks 47th out of those 50 spending only $40 per person - less than half of the average.

Another way to measure it is to look at the number of acres of park space per 1,000 persons. The City of Houston's estimated population for 2005 is 2,012,626. It has 19,825 acres of land in parks which computes to 9.9 acres of parks per 1,000 persons. Fortunately, Harris County kicks in with another 13,384 acres to raise the total to 16.5 acres of park lands per 1,000 persons. The average of the 50 largest cities (including the high density cities of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles) is 18.2 acres per 1,000 residents. So, Houston is behind the average. Why should Houston - essentially a rich city where land is relatively cheap - be below average? We should be above average, indeed, we should be one of the leaders.

Many of Houston's parks such as Memorial Park and Hermann Park were set aside long ago under different administrations which apparently did contain some persons of vision. Without those large facilities - the products of a past generation of persons with vision - the City of Houston would be in very bad shape.

Our country, in the recent past, produced a person of great vision who inspired a whole generation. President John F. Kennedy had visions of humans going into space - of Americans going to foreign lands in peace instead of war to help the people there - of beginning the process of putting an end to discrimination in the land of the free. These were lofty ideas at the time that they were proposed - but they were all accomplished. This is America . We can do anything that we set our minds and will to do.

We spend millions to build sports stadiums and governmental buildings. Who will step forward today as a person of vision to appeal to our sense of polis - of community - of people building for the future - to offer a comprehensive plan to address one or more of these challenges for our city - independent and regardless of the immediate political consequences of proposing a plan that will certainly carry an immediate price tag but will reap great benefits in the future? Will it be a mayor - a county official - some other leader within government - a community leader outside of government - a President of great vision who inspires communities? Who will be called?