Act Responsibly For A Better Future

The Present is Borrowed from the Future

Decisions we make today will affect our children, our grandchildren, and future generations. We owe it to ourselves and to all of them to make decisions today that take into account long term consequences and create a better future.

Positive, Long Term Visions Mark the Path to a Better Future

Adapting to new environmental, economic, and social conditions will require many changes, including changes in our urban development plans and policies. These changes should be guided by formally-adopted, long term, community visions that are developed with broad community participation, based on long term sustainability, and acknowledging the community’s obligations to meeting the long term needs of our region, state, nation, and planet.

In Santa Clara County, for example, we now enjoy and take for granted an extensive public system of streamside and Bayside trails and pathways, most of which did not exist thirty years ago. The creation of this system seemed like an impossible dream three decades ago, due to the formidable combination of physical, financial, and political obstacles it faced. But through the development and adoption of a visionary countywide Trails and Pathways Master Plan that established the blueprint for today’s countywide trail system, the successful long term effort to create the system we have today was set in motion.