Harry Sanders died on March 10 after a brief battle with cancer. He was a good friend and neighbor. Some of the many tributes to Harry are presented in the blog Maryland Politics Watch. The obituary in the Montgomery Gazette and tribute in the County Council press release describe the big impact he has made for good, most notably as the co-founder of Action Committee for Transit and also of Purple Line NOW!
Both the Montgomery Gazette obituary and the Council press release listed Harry’s management of Silver Spring Trails as among his accomplishments. Harry did so many things for the community, but managing Silver Spring Trails was not one of them. I can understand why the Gazette and the Council are confused on this. Harry and I worked closely together, often testifying at public hearings on the same side on Purple Line issues – he for the transit and I for the trail. Harry referenced my website often and used material from it frequently to make the point that transit and trails are compatible. I used many of Harry’s photos and other source material he found to make the same point for the trail. I take it as a high complement that Harry is perceived as having managed Silver Spring Trails.
Harry was very effective as an advocate because he always tried to find the middle ground, to give respect to everyone’s point of view, and to give all groups and communities something positive as much as possible. As a passionate advocate for the Capital Crescent Trail, I always found Harry willing to listen, and quick to see the much higher benefit to all neighborhoods if both trail and transit could work together to share the Georgetown Branch Corridor. Over the years of working together his passion for transit and mine for the trail merged. We found we were both pushing together, for the combined transit and trail as the best and highest use of the unique opportunity the Georgetown Branch Corridor presents to us.
A recurring comment in the many tributes to Harry is that he is the person most responsible for creating the vision of the Purple Line, and for keeping that vision alive through many discouraging years. There are calls to dedicate the first train to Harry when it runs in a few years. That would be a very fitting tribute. But that alone would miss the other side to Harry’s vision – the Trail.
Without Harry’s early vision, the Georgetown Branch Corridor would not have been purchased by the County in 1988 and the CCT would not exist today. Without Harry’s perseverance in later years when most others had given up, the Purple Line project would not be alive today and the Interim CCT would be condemned to end forever in the obscure industrial park at Stewart Avenue, far from downtown Silver Spring, as it does now. The dream of linking the urban centers of Bethesda and Silver Spring with a direct, first class off-road trail that is so crucial to completing the trail network in lower Montgomery County is impossible to achieve without using parts of the CSX corridor, and that is not realistic without the Purple Line. After all of these years, those who oppose the Purple Line to “Save the Trail” are still unable to offer any realistic plan to complete the CCT into downtown Silver Spring without using rails-with-trails. Only Harry’s vision for transit AND trail makes completion of the trail possible.
I hope to be around to help lead that first bicycle ride down the newly completed CCT at the Purple Line opening ceremony in a few years. When I take that first bicycle ride down that new trail from Bethesda to the Silver Spring Transit Center, I will pay tribute to Harry.
I will miss Harry very much.
Tags: Future CCT plan
I’ll miss Harry Sanders too.
We already miss Harry in so many ways and as the months and years progress, we will continue to miss him, his vision, perseverance, ideals.