Now, we’re really worried about the state of things downtown.
Over the past decade, the Riverfront Development Corporation has been the target of several controversies but there has been nothing but praise for the dependable quality of its landscaping and maintenance of downtown parks and the median on Riverside Drive. While the rest of downtown often had trash blowing down the streets or littering the sidewalks, Riverside Drive has been a source of civic pride.
But in recent days, the median in particular has been looking ragged with weeds that are three feet high and flowers and low shrubs chocked by weeds that have overgrown and hidden them.
In another bit of RDC business, now that the $43 million Beale Street Landing is about to finally come online (albeit with an ugly parking lot and a trash receptacle on its side and an elevator box on its top), we hope that somebody can shake few a few dollars loose to get decent looking gates designed for the parking lots at Tom Lee Park.
The gates have always looked more like a high school shop project than a smart design for the city’s most prominent park, but design aside, these days they are bent and rusted, serving as an undeniable reminder of our urban indifference to good design in the public realm.
Maybe the RDC wants to achieve a high level of bio-diversity in the median.
The RDC took a world class design (Beale Street Landing) and ruined it. It’s a simple case where greed (cars, ugly signs) and tacky taste rule.
This city cannot even maintain a median on one of the more important streets.
Is there any real hope for this burg- I am about ready to throw in the towel.
The RDC has gone with large, hard-to-accomplish projects like Beale Street Landing when it should have focused on smaller, easier projects with more impact for everyone (such as bike lanes and parking on Riverside). Also, take care of medians and infrastructure. Think small, inexpensive and impactful instead of large, complicated and specialized. After all, it’s the PUBLIC realm.
Urbanut: We will despair if we lose you. We need you and everyone with your concerns to demand change and become leaders for a new era.
This is a much bigger (and more expensive) problem, but could we PLEASE repair the road itself? It’s one of the most bumpy that I drive on regularly.
SMC-
It is hard not to be worn down by these issues and others. On the best of days, despite the complete commitment and efforts of so many (and yet so few), we are simply treading water. On the worst of days, it feels like we are taking one step forward only to lose two steps on another front. What is highly bothersome on these aggravating days is more often than not the injury is “self-inflicted” from within the community.
It grows tiresome to have useful information on choosing the correct path (or at least knowing what option represents the wrong choice), sharing that information, and in some cases taking it on oneself to physically demonstrate the proposed approach only to have it wither away in the face of complete indifference.
At this rate, I am not sure what exactly a new generation would be leading if and when they rise to the occasion. A platform of challenge, incredibly hard work and personal sacrifice all committed with the knowledge that the fruits of that labor may not yield for a decade or more is not going to win one the support for many leadership positions either private or public. We have seen the demographic information enough to know that those who would support such a movement are a small and dwindling segment of the regional population.
Sorry to be such a downer- I need a breath of fresh air…and for somebody to cut the G– d@mn grass in the median!