It seemed like a good day to go to Mud Island and check in on the BVO immersive experience developed by some of Memphis’s most creative minds.
Baron von Opperbean and the River of Time lived up to its advanced billing – brilliantly conceived, cleverly implemented, and a major new attraction to bring residents and tourists to Mud Island.
Therein lies the rub.
BVO and Mahogany River Terrace restaurant are the only tenants at Mud Island, and they deserve a canvas better maintained and more appealing to greet their customers.
It shouldn’t be this hard.
It begins in the parking lot. Despite hundreds of empty spaces, there’s a sign about paying to park. $8 later, I’m immediately wondering why visitors are being charged at all.
Later, I visited Tom Lee Park, where I had one free hour of parking before I was required to pay to park there. That policy would be progress for Mud Island.
It’s hard to come up with an appropriate adjective to describe Mud Island. There’s a forlorn pall that hangs over the place.
It doesn’t have to be this way. It just has the feeling that no one is paying attention to the basics.
Many online sites refer to the incredible scale model of the Mississippi River from Cairo to the Gulf of Mexico. It was always a wading highlight for my children and my grandchildren enjoyed it the same way.
It was always a favorite of mine and I hadn’t seen it in a few years. As a result, I was looking forward to seeing it again.
A few months ago, there was publicity that the scale model of river was being pressure washed and returned to operation after way too long without any water in it.
When Mud Island opened, the pledge was that the river level would be changed each day to match whatever water levels were being recorded on the river itself. These days, it would just be progress if it had water in it.
The Memphis Tourism website warns visitors that the river model is dry but “you can still walk alongside it” as if that should be something your kids would love. In fact, a family that had driven to spend a few days in Memphis was getting into their car in the paid parking lot at the same time I was leaving. The parents were shaking their heads in disappointment. They had been drawn to Mud Island by the idea of their three children wading in the river model (which is seen in dozens and dozens of photos online).
I encouraged them to come back another day and go directly to BVO. I promised their children would love it.
But it’s hard to escape the fundamental question: Is the present condition of Mud Island our best welcome to visitors?
That said, at least these visitors got into Mud Island. Visitors walking across the half-mile pedestrian walkway were greeted with barriers blocking their entry into the park.
Meanwhile, another family who entered Mud Island from the parking lot were intrigued by a sign about the monorail on the fourth floor. The boy in the group was excited because he wanted to go up to ride it. They were told the monorail wasn’t running. What does it say about city with signage giving directions to a monorail that has not run in eight years?
Memphis has a troubling history of opening buildings and attractions and failing to fund regular maintenance. Mud Island is the poster child for this lack of planning and funding. City of Memphis provided funding for almost 40 years and now while Mud Island gets lip service in the administrative and legislative branches of city government, its infrastructure is deteriorating.
It was bad enough when there was no plan for the island, but it’s egregious when space is being leased to a restaurant and a cutting edge immersive attraction.
The most troubling result of my visit is it prompts another question: What message is the current state of Mud Island sending to Memphis taxpayers about their hometown, much less visitors who could easily think that it’s a city that doesn’t really care enough to invest in itself?
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Mud Island and its deplorable condition is symptomatic of the way the whole city looks – forlorn and unkempt. 2 prior Mayoral terms of “brilliant at the basics” didn’t do a thing to make the city look more presentable. A writer in another post elsewhere described Memphis as looking “shabby” and that is a perfect description. Meanwhile, we continue squandering money to give it away to dubious non-profits and “consultants” who produce nothing but invoices with nothing to show for them.
Our city leadership is asleep at the wheel where image and maintenance are concerned.
I have grandchildren coming to visit this summer, and we were looking forward to B.V. How sad that I must apologize for Memphis ‘ not being ready for company’.