Our city was founded on the banks of Buffalo Bayou, but this waterway is more than an just intrinsic part of our history and identity. It has an important role to play in the economic future of our city.

There was a time when the heart of Houston investment and economic growth was situated along the banks of our bayous. Now, setting aside the vital part bayous plays as watersheds, recent investment in these areas is once again demonstrating their value as robust corridors of commerce not seen since the days of cotton traders and steam ships.

No longer are bayous maligned merely as “a bunch of drainage ditches with weeds and critters.” With the establishment of new parks, our bayou system has become indispensable green space for the city. Thanks to a combination of civic leaders’ vision, the generosity of private citizens and public financing, these green spaces, hiding in plain sight, are now improving the quality of life for the thousands of Houstonians who use the parks each week.

They are wonderful amenities, but they serve just as much as necessities — and relatively inexpensive ones — that keep Houston highly competitive in the battle to attract new businesses and talent and to spur economic growth. In the current tight labor market, companies are in daily bidding wars for the best and brightest people. In addition to compensation, quality of life is an important consideration for people deciding where to live and work.

Let’s face it. We were in the back of the line when God was handing out scenic views: mountains, oceans and canyons, and at the front for heat and humidity. As the most affordable and culturally diverse major U.S. city, however, Houston offers a fantastic quality of life, not to mention world-class restaurants and low-cost housing. These are great, but not enough. Houston must also offer an appealing public space experience for its citizens and guests, or they will live and visit — and spend their money — somewhere else.

Having planted these seeds of development along our bayous, we are now starting new projects. The alternative transportation trends that we are seeing in other cities — such as bike and electric scooter sharing programs in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Chicago — hint at how our greenways can shift from recreational paths to serious transportation corridors.

As these transit-trail corridors are built, development will grow around them, providing new places for people to live, work and play. Those people will, of course, generate property and sales taxes. All of this works together to create a virtuous cycle of new residents attracted to improved public spaces and trails, which continue to provide a significant financial return to the communities that build them and which continue to attract new residents, businesses and economic development.

If you doubt the impact that these bayou corridors can have on commercial development, just look at the stores and restaurants that have already popped up along new hike-and-bike trails. When the developer of the wildly successful Heights Mercantile, located along the Heights bike trail, was asked about whether parking was an issue, the response was that “you would always like more parking, but where we really underestimated was in the number of bike racks we needed, so we put more in!”

That is an incredibly powerful statement. Not only are bayou paths bringing in business, but they’re also diminishing the need for expensive and wasteful parking spaces.

The proverbial genie is out of the bottle. Improving our bayou greenways works, and it is a proven economic investment. As we finish these important projects as part of Bayou Greenways 2020, our city will continue to reap the rewards, and the success will be exponential and transformational.

In this post Harvey era, we know that, with input from the best and brightest expertise, we must and can develop wisely and responsibly and create great spaces and places without putting people and property risk of flood or creating greater burdens on our drainage systems.

For so many years, our city seemed to be somewhat like a teenager — growing faster than it could handle, a little gangly and not nearly as cool as we thought we were. Now we are different. We have matured. Through the magic mix of our diverse culture, limited government intervention, smart public-private investment, an undying can-do attitude and remarkable resilience, we are finally reaching our full potential. Opportunity runs through our veins. And those veins are our bayou greenways.

Fish is executive managing director of JLL Real Estate Capital Markets and serves as chairman of the board of Buffalo Bayou Partnership.