First, new business.
Joe Spake wrote: “The cobblestones are a Memphis Historical treasure. The RDC seems to be doing everything it can to keep the public away from them.”
We posed his question to Benny Lendermon who heads up the Riverfront Development Corporation, and here’s his answer:
“Annual vegetation occurs naturally along the cobblestone landing; however, its growth was heightened by this year’s historic flood. The Riverfront Development Corporation (RDC) maintains the landing as close to its natural state as possible to avoid any negative impacts to the environment that herbicides would introduce. The RDC has designed enhancements to the Historic Cobblestone Landing to improve access, decrease maintenance, and grow its use by citizens and visitors. We are currently working with our community partners to ensure that it complements other downtown and riverfront developments.”
Meanwhile, we’re unsure if it’s a result of the Memphis Police Department ticket-writing slowdown, but parking in no parking zones downtown is even more rampant than before. Our barometers are two places: 1) the south side of Union from Main to Second; and 2) both sides of Madison Avenue between Second and Third.
For a short time, the police department tackled the lawless parking and even the constantly blocked eastbound lanes on Union between Main and Second were usable. Everything is back to normal again, however, meaning that the eastbound lane is regularly blocked again by a dozen cars.
Meanwhile, over on Madison, both sides of the streets have cars parking between prominently posted no parking signs.
When we think about the City of Memphis’ budget problems, we invariably think of the lost revenues that result from the lack of interest by police officers in cracking down on downtown’s “broken window” crime: parking in no parking zones.
If there’s an uglier building in Memphis than the new CVS building, what is it? Even without knowing the back story for the church the retail chain demolished to make way for this store, it’s hard to imagine a more pathetic looking building.
We were afraid that CVS would drop its typical suburban designed store onto the key Midtown neighborhood. We were wrong. This store is uglier than its suburban variety with the clumsy attempt to placate the anger over demolishing the church by tacking replicas of the church’s columns onto the new store.
If there is a monument to the failure of Memphis City Council as advocates for good urban design, this is it.
Finally, someone sent in an email complaining about the oversized planters that crowd downtown sidewalks. To accompany the email, the reader sent in a fine display of native Southern grasses growing in one.
“Why can other cities plant flowers and trees and we can’t seem to do anything that requires maintenance and care,” she wrote. Good question.
I continue to do my best to avoid the corner of Cooper and Union whenever possible. This excuse for contextual design is patronizing and I agree it is perhaps the ugliest building built along a major city street in years.
Regarding the issues of downtown planters- if maintenance is such a difficult task and adjacent property owners are uninterested in taking it upon themselves to care for the planters, would it be better to simply remove them completely?
Per the parking- if the police refuse to address this issue, perhaps it is time to simply eliminate a lane of travel in those blocks, stripe for parking and add parking meters. The city be able to gather some sort of monetary compensation for the use of this public space.
Good Lord. That CVS building has ‘Nashville’ written all over it. No offense, Nashville.
If you really want to get a sense of the extent of the neglect of our sidewalks downtown, go for a run. I did the other day and avoided the waterfront because of the wind. I ran around the south main area and back around to the redbirds stadium, spending some time on Danny T., Beale, etc. Even in the south main area where we are trying to create some kind of restaurant/gallery/living space, the sidewalks are abysmal. Cracked, uneven, disgraceful. Every city has some bad sidewalks, but this is nuts. At least in the areas where we hope there to be some pedestrians every now and again, we really need to do something about this. (and don’t get me started on the rest of Main, with its odd collection of gravel pits that have spilled all over the place.
A couple of observations about sidewalk condition and maintenance, a subject about which I am currently somewhat obsessed. First, the maintenance of sidewalks in front of private property is the responsibility of the property owner. Many owners are not aware of this and others may just not have the money because those repairs are expensive. Second, the city has not (as I understand it) put any money for sidewalks in the CIP budget for the past three years. In contrast, Nashville has allocated $15 million for sidewalks this year. As Mayor Wharton and others work to make the city more bike- and pedestrian-friendly, I hope that sidewalks get the attention they deserve. Sidewalks aren’t as sexy as bike lanes, but they are key to transportation, recreation, and the appearance of the city and its neighborhoods.
Me thinks Mr. Lendermon offers a very disingenuous reply to Joe Spake’s observation about the current condition of the cobblestones. The RDC has practiced demolition by neglect on the Memphis Cobblestone Landing for the pastdecade that it has been under their control.
If he would bother to ask Jimmy ogle, one of the RDC’s current employees, they would find out that herbicides were hand applied for decades to curtail vegetation growth which by the way was never a problem when it was working landing). And furthermore the current plan for restoration as proposed insures that this Industrial-age artifact will never be a working landing, free and avialable to the general public, again.
Regarding the picture of the overgrown planter: you would have a very difficult time finding one that is the responsibility of the city that looks that terrible! The Downtown Memphis Commission spends plenty on planting and maintaining the planters at the civic center, Court Square and all the planters along Main Street Mall. We will post some current photos ASAP.
j.c.h.summer: This planter is on the north side of Union near the intersection of Front Street. Whose responsibility is it? How do we know which ones are city responsibility and which are not? Perhaps, we could then contact non-city parties and ask for better maintenance.
Now I am confused, perhaps not a surprise to some regular readers. I though the purpose of a Business Improvement District (BID) such as the Downtown Memphis Commission was to provide for the beautification of the entire district- am I mistaken?
In this case, we seem to have beautification projects outside the responsibility of the DMC- fine and good as long as they are maintained. This probably goes back to the very basic issue regarding the range of responsibilities addressed by the DMC.
SCM et al – I know this will require a rehash of previous discussions, but can we review the very specific maintenance tasks for which the DMC is responsible for the sake of clarity?
want do you people expect ?? it’s MEMPHIS ! not some dynamic, progressive or really forward-thinking, prideful city that’s “on the move”.
get real
and the CVS structure does scream stupidity, so do the cobblestones, so does the airport design/element, so does the school system, so does the crime, so does the racism and blame, so does the design of Germantown Parkway/Cordova, so does I40….and a ton of other things.
gee, I’m not surprised one bit
“In contrast, Nashville has allocated $15 million for sidewalks this year.”
Most Nashville streets never had sidewalks to start with, most streets in Memphis did. Nashville is playing catchup on the sidewalk issue.
Pack- true. I am still curious as to the exact nature of the responsibilities of the downtown comission as a BID.