Tag: Cobblestones

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Opinion The Last Word

Promenade Stand

CREDIT: Georgios Kollidas | Dreamstime.com

Last week, Friends for Our Riverfront indicated its intention to fight the development of a new convention center hotel downtown, citing its location on land allocated by city cofounder John Overton as a public promenade.

Seeing only “public promenade,” my reflex was to be outraged. Are we really going to start this up again, as Riverfront Funtime Season cranks up? Good grief. I remember the battle between the FfOR and the Riverfront Development Corporation over the promenade in 2004 that resulted in the Cossitt Library, the fire station, and the hideous parking garage at the corner of Front and Monroe being “saved.”

I saw both sides, but ultimately, an ugly fire station is still useful. Though the riverwalk doesn’t connect to the promenade because of the aforementioned buildings, the path along the bluffs and network of little parks is well utilized. Some of the city’s best views originate along the riverwalk, where I spend many evenings jogging off workday stress. The proposed high-rises might have altered or even obstructed those views. This is different, though. A little history: In 1818, Andrew Jackson, in his post-War of 1812, pre-Trail of Tears era, negotiated a land deal with the Chickasaw tribe. For $300,000 (equivalent to about $5.5 million today) he and Isaac Shelby “convinced” the Chickasaw to relinquish their claim to west Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky to the United States. This was known as the Jackson Purchase. The next year, Jackson and two of his friends, James Winchester and John Overton, went in on a city together. That means we’ve got a big birthday coming up: May 22, 2019. Next time I feel like a screw-up, I’ll remind myself Memphis is 200 years old and still doesn’t have its life in order. The city’s original survey had a public landing, four public squares — Auction, Exchange, Court, and Market — and a public promenade between the Chickasaw Bluff, what is now Front Street, Jackson, and Union.

Georgios Kollidas | Dreamstime.com

Andrew Jackson

An argument can be made for protecting the city’s original public spaces, until you realize the space in question is the derelict Mud Island parking deck currently occupying the land at Front and Poplar. Last year, Denver developer Bob Swerdling proposed the location for a new convention center hotel. For now, while Swerdling arranges private financing, the hotel is just an idea. Others are reported to have inquired about submitting plans, prompting the city to issue a request for qualifications (RFQ) for “consulting services including analysis of a proposed additional convention center hotel in downtown Memphis, and the feasibility of such a hotel being successful.” The 16-page document is available at memphistn.gov.

Y’all almost got me all fired up to save a parking lot.

Mud Island is in disrepair and the north end of downtown is practically a ghost town, but I guess John Overton was just that passionate about preserving the view of the tangle of interstate ramps over the river that leads to West Memphis and beyond. Now, street lighting near the convention center is inadequate after dusk. Cars speeding off the I-40 ramp and poor visibility at garage exits create pedestrian hazards. If that’s a “promenade,” either Overton’s vision was lost a long time ago, or I don’t understand the definition of the word.

Though Winchester’s son, Marcus, was the city’s first mayor, none of the three founders lived in Memphis. Jackson, as anyone who spent their K-12 years in Tennessee can tell you, grew his fortune in cotton at The Hermitage. Overton, the Nashvillian who wrote the 1828 document outlining the promenade’s parameters, was said to have owned more than 65,000 acres of land. The fact that Memphis was home to one of the country’s biggest slave markets is not a coincidence. The city was founded so rich landowners could use the area’s resources — cotton and the river — to get even richer.

So forgive me if I’m unmoved by the notion that 200 years later, their wishes should dictate the economic future of the city, particularly if they involve preserving that space in its ugly and dangerous state. I don’t know how anyone who has seen the Convention Center in its current condition can dispute the need for an overhaul. Maintaining the city’s character and ensuring citizens come first are essential, and there are valid reasons to be concerned about a massive project. This time, opponents will need a better reason than the promenade.

Jen Clarke is an unapologetic Memphis and a digital marketing specialist.

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News The Fly-By

Plan Calls for Improvements to Cobblestone Landing

CREDIT: Toby Sells

Navigating the cobblestones on the Mississippi River bank makes most people look like drunken deckhands returning from shore leave.

The field of uneven and awkward stone makes for an uncomfortable walk and is completely inaccessible for those in wheelchairs. But historians say Memphis would not be the city it is today without those stones, and for that reason, preservationists say they must be kept.

A plan is now moving, albeit slowly, to not only keep the cobblestone landing but to improve it. The project will cost roughly $6 million, and it will give Memphis Landing (the formal name for the cobblestone landing) an overlook, historical markers, a sidewalk for a smoother walk, and possibly a small boat ramp for canoes and kayaks. But Benny Lendermon, president of the Riverfront Development Corporation, said to not expect big changes.

“What you’re basically doing is restoring and saving a historic resource,” Lendermon said. “Yes, there will be some nice improvements, which will allow people to walk in some areas, but at the end of the day, the money is going to be spent on a historic resource.”

Toby Sells

Cobblestone landing

The latest move forward for the cobblestone project was an approval of the new sidewalk plan by the Memphis Landmarks Commission (MLC). That plan would create the Cobblestone Landing Accessible Trail, a sidewalk that will run along the wall below Riverside Drive. It will stretch from Court to Monroe with handicap-accessible ramps on both sides. The walk will feature two bump-outs for viewing and will be even with the cobblestones in the center.

“So, if you’re in a wheelchair, you could lean over and pat [the cobblestones],” Nancy Jane Baker, MLC manager, told the commission last month. “If you’re a child, you can walk on them and not get too far away from your parents, who don’t want to chase you all over the cobblestones.”

The new plan will also put a large mat at the bottom of the stone field that will shore up the field where it meets the river. The mat, unlike the stones, will move with the river. But it will be “yucky muddy,” Baker said, when the river is low and the mat can be seen, which will be about 20 percent of the time.

The area will also be cleaned, and some patches of concrete on the field will be replaced with reclaimed or new cobblestones. The area will remain the home for Memphis Riverboats, though some of the boats may begin docking at Beale Street Landing.

Lendermon said the project could include the creation of a small boat ramp at the north end of the landing, close to Mississippi River Park, for small, non-motorized watercraft, like canoes and kayaks.

A contractor will likely be selected for the project this year, Lendermon said, and the project could be completed as early as next year. The city and the Tennessee Department of Transportation are finalizing another plan to make the area safer for cars and pedestrians, especially over and around the trolley tracks that run along Riverside.

This new plan for the cobblestones basically began three decades ago. In the summer of 1994, the city built a foundation at the foot of Beale Street to be used for the relocation of the Tom Lee monument, according to a 1996 study from Memphis-based Garrow & Associates. Crews removed a large section of cobblestones, and the project was halted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for historic preservation.

A number of government agencies have piled onto the cobblestone project over the years. But in all that time, the cobblestones have largely remained untouched.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Kickin’ Around the Cobblestones — in Downtown Memphis

On a day when most Memphians concerned themselves with such mundane matters as rain, work, school, crime, foreclosures, and the fights and shootings that broke out at four city schools, 40 of us met at City Hall Wednesday to hear a two-hour discussion of rocks.

The rest of you can be excused for wondering if we have rocks in our heads.

The rocks in question are the cobblestones at the foot of downtown. The rock hounds included two reporters, representatives of the Tennessee Department of Transportation and various state and local historic preservation groups, and supporters and foes of the proposed Beale Street Landing.

The rocks are next to the landing. To a handful of people, the rocks are a historic treasure comparable to Beale Street or the Mississippi River itself. The $29 million landing might have “an adverse impact” on the rocks, which are slated for additional millions. Hence Wednesday’s meeting.

“The current design reflects a primarily recreational use of boarding and disembarking pleasure boat and cruise ship passengers,” says the state report. “In doing so, the design overwhelms any sense of the historic commercial use of the riverfront.”

This is the problem with projects like Beale Street Landing and the proposed new stadium at the Fairgrounds. They absurdly inflate the importance of something that matters little if at all to most people and prevent progress on smaller and easier projects with potentially far greater benefits.

For decades, the cobblestones were so treasured that downtown workers and visitors used them as a bumpy and treacherous parking lot. Now they might be “adversely impacted” by the “verticality” of Beale Street Landing.
As Benny Lendermon, the head of the Riverfront Development Corporation, noted, the elevation of the river fluctuates 57 feet. In high water, most of the cobblestones are submerged. In low water, big touring riverboats can’t get in the harbor.

Hence the proposed landing at the north end of Tom Lee Park. It will be used by recreational boats, small day-tour boats, and big, fancy, cruising boats like the Delta Queen. That is, if the Delta Queen doesn’t go out of business in 2008 because the government has deemed it a fire hazard, as The New York Times reported Thursday.

The design of the docking part of the landing is unique. After some sharp discussion Wednesday, it was determined that “unique” means nothing like it has ever been built before. RDC engineer John Conroy said its structural soundness has been certified.

The people from state government who hosted Wednesday’s meeting are not “big-picture” deciders. They are, as one of them explained, a “pass-through” agency. They will go back to Nashville and weigh the historic considerations and announce, sooner or later, if and how the project can proceed.

Beale Street Landing, whose cost may now fluctuate like the river elevation, is to be funded by a combination of local, state, and federal funds. Some of the federal funds come from the Department of Homeland Security, because there are ferry-boats involved.

And you thought Homeland Security was just to protect us from terrorism.