Finding and Lauding America's Prettiest Cities
By Marvin Miller, America in Bloom Past President
Over the last 13 years, America in Bloom has
endeavored to help cities achieve their full potential. It has been central to
our mission to help cities and towns across America understand the value of
trees, shrubs, flowers, turf and groundcovers and what they can do to enhance
the lives of citizens and visitors alike. Indeed, I have written more than a
few of these columns about the value of plants in enriching the economic and
environmental surroundings in cities, and enhancing the psychological and
sociological well-being of folks living, working and visiting those
municipalities. And over the years, more than 200 cities have taken the challenge, many
repeatedly, to see how they fare when two pairs of fresh eyes visit their
locales to compare their cities with others from across the country. Truly,
this has been a labor of love for our volunteer judges, who are now once again
making their ways across this country comparing cities of like size to find
some of our prettiest and most livable cities.
For several years now, the AIB Board has challenged
itself to find additional ways to help spread the word. Our “Best Ideas” book has been an excellent vehicle for spreading the news of some of the more
innovative approaches cities in our AIB Family have undertaken to enhance their
municipalities. Many of our AIB volunteers have given talks to Master Gardener
conferences, to park district boards, to garden clubs, to Chambers of Commerce
and tourism and visitors bureaus, among others, to help encourage cities and
towns to get on the beautification bandwagon. Thousands of copies of our “Discover the Surprising Side ofPlants” brochure have been distributed and many more have been downloaded from our
website. We’ve also been attending the National League of Cities’ annual
Congress of Cities each fall, for over a decade now, in an effort to raise
awareness of the importance of plants in the municipal landscape, talking to
mayors, city managers, and city council members about this topic. And we’ve
even had a YouTube video contest for a few years now that has helped us gather a number of great testimonials
about our impact on various communities.
This year, we are challenging yet another group,
photographers, which truly believes that “a picture is worth a thousand words,”
to help AIB spread the word on the importance of plants in the urban landscape.
Photographers have certainly moved our nation in ways that words alone
cannot! Over our country’s history,
photographers have been instrumental in helping to gain support for our
national parks, in helping to sway public opinion for or against various
endeavors from wars to the civil rights movement to public safety and more, and
in reporting the news. And with this year’s America’s Prettiest City Photography Contest, we hope photographers help us spread the
news about America in Bloom and the power of plants to affect people’s lives. Certainly
cities can engage photographers to tell their stories, and as our publicity for
the contest suggests, any number of groups, from Chambers of Commerce, to visitors’
bureaus, to merchants associations, to garden clubs, camera stores and others
can coordinate a city-wide effort to tell the story for a city.
In March, I had the opportunity to visit the
Newseum in Washington, D.C. This prominent Pennsylvania Avenue news museum,
dedicated to safeguarding our nation’s First Amendment rights, has a first
floor wing dedicated to the Pulitzer Prize-winning images and to the
photographers who took them. As I toured this exhibit, there was no doubt why
each shot captured both the viewers’ imaginations and the prize. There was no
doubt that photographs can stir men’s souls. And there was no doubt that the
events recorded in each of the photographs were pivotal to America’s, if not
the world’s, story.
We truly hope our Photography Contest will
attract some equally moving images and some fantastic portfolios of America’s
prettiest cities! Special thanks both to
Monrovia and to Home & Garden Showplace for helping America in Bloom to
sponsor this contest!
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