Tag: Harahan Bridge project

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Big Empties, Redux

“They dot the Memphis landscape like craters on the moon — old bridges, shut-down factories, and abandoned office buildings. In their day, all these places were humming with activity, helping to spin the wheels of Memphis commerce and industry.”

That was the opening sentence of Michael Finger’s 1997 story in the Flyer called “The Big Empties.” Cited in the piece were the Sears Crosstown Tower, the Tennessee Brewery, and the Harahan Bridge — all now undergoing renovation and reinvention.

Now Bass Pro has brought the Pyramid (the pointiest big empty in the world) back to life in a grand way. And just this week, it was announced that the long-dormant French Quarter Inn near the now-booming Overton Square will be torn down and replaced by the 134-room Hotel Overton. On South Main, the Hotel Chisca is coming back, and numerous other downtown and Midtown properties have gotten or are getting new life — too many to mention here. As I wrote last week, a renaissance is happening. And more big empties are filling up.

Twenty years ago, you would have been hardpressed to find anyone who thought any of those edifices had a future. Remember the huge debate about the wisdom of building AutoZone Park downtown? Lots of folks were insisting that it should be built “out east, where the people are,” instead of in what was perceived by many then as a dying downtown. Now the ballpark is one of the city’s crown jewels.

Visionaries like AutoZone’s Pitt Hyde and forward-thinking developers like Henry Turley and Jack Belz, and precious few others, put their money where their hearts were and invested in the city core when many businesses were fleeing to the hinterlands. Their commitment to Memphis is now bearing fruit for all of us.

And I know this isn’t often said, but we also owe a debt to former Mayor Herenton, who first unleashed Robert Lipscomb on the city’s wretched public housing, almost all of which has now been transformed into livable and attractive multi-income housing. I predict that Lipscomb’s often disparaged role in the city’s redevelopment will be one at which future historians will marvel. He’s gotten a lot of things right.

There are still plenty of big properties lying fallow, of course, still acres of blight in some of the city’s poorer neighborhoods, but the conversation has changed from “What can we do about these eyesores?” to “What’s the best way to reinvent this property?” That’s huge.

Looming ahead is the battle over the future of the Fairgrounds and the Mid-South Coliseum, which pits Lipscomb and an as yet unknown developer against a core of Midtown activists who want to save the historic venue. I won’t predict how that will play out, but one thing is certain: The “save the Coliseum” proponents can point to numerous examples where reinvention has paid off handsomely for all of us.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (November 20, 2014)…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter from the Editor on urban vs. rural voters and fear …

You’re seriously comparing racism to a fear of… cows?

Count Dracula

“Aren’t you worried about those cows coming after us?” That’s the funniest line I’ve read in a long time.

Nobody

One of my favorite movies is Defending Your Life with Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep, and Rip Torn. In a nutshell, Brooks’ character dies and finds out the afterlife is a review of one’s life, and it’s to determine if you have to return to earth and try it again or get to move on to the “next destination.” The determining factor is fear. If you let fear rule your life, then you will return to earth and try again in a new life.

Rip Torn’s character explains it with this quote: “Fear is like a giant fog. It sits on your brain and blocks everything — real feelings, true happiness, real joy. They can’t get through that fog. But you lift it, and buddy, you’re in for the ride of your life.”

Charley Eppes

About Harold Ford Jr.’s Viewpoint column, “A New Day in Washington” …

Yikes, a lot of that made sense. How did that slip into this week’s Flyer? It’s not sour grapes like every other piece.

Not a Midtown Liberal

Why should the president take advice from a perennial loser? Yes, this election is a wonderful opportunity for soulless, bottom-feeding Democrats to suck up to Republicans and sell out your party and your people for an invitation to a Washington cocktail party.

Thanks ever so much for bringing up our old friend, the Keystone Pipeline. This Canadian boondoggle that promises to bring thousands of well-paying, short-term jobs (not including strippers, I suppose) in exchange for a leaky pipeline delivering, as Charles Pierce says, the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel across an aquifer that waters America’s breadbasket — and then to the world’s, but not America’s, gas tanks. It’s such a sweet deal, the Canadians themselves didn’t want it crossing their land, so they looked south for a sucker and found one named Harold Ford Jr.

Jeff

Was he out of the country during the 2010 and 2014 elections? Blue Dogism is dead, so are the careers of Lieberman, John Barrow, and all the others. On Election Day we settled all family business, and we are drifting rightward as a party no more.

LeftWingCracker

About Clay Skipper’s cover story, “Drake’s Dad” …

How nice that you featured Dennis Graham. Excellent approach to journalism. Terrance and I have met him at DKDC for one of Marcella’s shows, and he rocks! Very cool man — down to earth, warm, and friendly.

Cynthia Simien

This was a very good article. People rarely write articles like this, these days. It was like a novel.

Odera Okoye

About Toby Sells’ post, “Big River Crossing Construction Begins on Harahan Bridge” …

This is one of the biggest boondoggles ever concocted. Total waste of money. The proponents must have never been to West Memphis. It ranks as the mother of all armpit jewels in the U.S. Can’t this colossal waste be stopped? I sure hope so.

xtraxtra

Talk about a bridge to nowhere. What a waste of money.

Wicketr

It’s not a bridge to nowhere. It will connect with the Mississippi River Trail and, once across, you will be able to ride the levee to New Orleans and eventually north to the river’s source in Minnesota. From what I have seen, projects like this boost a city’s draw, making people want to live inside the city limits. Having people stay or move into the city will be a long-term benefit to the tax base. Think of it as an investment.

Mark Hendren

Categories
Opinion

A Darn Good Week for Downtown

riverfront.jpg

Wow. First the Harahan Bridge Project funding announcement Tuesday, then the Bass Pro Pyramid media event Thursday. Two projects that bookend a third project, Beale Street Landing and the steamboats, that is also changing the face of the riverfront. Over $300 million in public and private investment by my math. And a successful relaunch of the Outdoors Inc. Canoe and Kayak Race last Saturday.

At the Bass Pro deal, someone collared me to say “nanny nah-nah” in reference to some skepticism I expressed over the years, and someone else grabbed me to say how much she likes Bass Pro but the only problem is their clothes hardly ever wear out. A third person came over to reminisce about the Pyramid groundbreaking or “Big Dig” we both witnessed in 1989. It seems like it was only 20 years ago.

Sturdy footwear and garments, along with ammo and camo and Tracker boats and fishing rods and bait and stuffed animals and zip lines and big ole trees in a swamp and live demonstrations and restaurants serving fried catfish and hushpuppies. As the King and the Duke say of their tomfoolery in “Huckleberry Finn,” if that don’t fetch ’em then I don’t know Arkansaw. Or Tennessee either.

Except that Bass Pro is putting another store in Little Rock at about the same time. The apologists who say no big deal are kidding themselves. I’ll drop at least a couple hundred bucks a year at Bass Pro Pyramid and take every visitor there for the rest of my Memphis life. But that 4 million visitors estimate sounds high with so many outlets within 220 miles. I like the band of glass on the exterior of the building but was surprised to see such a major change in the renderings at such a late date in this deal that has been in the talking stages if not the doing stages for seven years. And the fate of the observation deck is still unknown. Sounds like someone hasn’t decided where to spend those funds yet.

The $30 million Harahan Bridge Project, also known as “Main Street to Main Street” is a classic example of politics and creative draftsmanship. Get some repairs done on the mall in Memphis and on Broadway in West Memphis and a very cool but expensive bike and pedestrian bridge paid for in part with federal transportation and stimulus funds. As Bill Dries of the Daily News pointed out, Whitehaven and Graceland got screwed, if you will, on the TIGER funds allotment. Hats off to Charlie McVean, the driving force behind the bike deal. Others have talked and written about it for at least 40 years, but McVean, nothing if not determined, got it done. I agree that every able-bodied soul in this area with a bike will want to do it at least once.

And “once” may be the operative word. It’s no greenline, people. While you’re waiting for the completion of the Harahan Project, which is a couple years away, here are two things to try: bike to Mud Island park on the walkway above the monorail, envisioned as a dramatic sky train 30 years ago. And, for the adventurous, drive to Crump Park next to the National Ornamental Metals Museum, park your car, jump on your bike or put on your Bass Pro sturdy boots, and climb the embankment to the narrow walkway on the south side of the Interstate 55 bridge just south of the Harahan. There is absolutely nothing stopping you. Step out on it and head for “the other side of the river” which can be as much as a mile or more away depending on the river level. You can hear the roar and feel the wind as trucks speed past so close you could reach out and touch them.

It shakes. It shakes a lot. There is a 30-inch concrete wall on one side and a 40-inch railing on the other side. Scary. And hot on a day like today. Nice view, and about the same one you can get from Martyr’s Park or the metals museum. I know there will be all sorts of safety features on the Harahan bike and pedestrian walkway, but that’s the point. This stuff is expensive. It takes maintenance. I can’t remember a day in the last few years when I did not see workmen working on the pilings under the interstate ramps near Riverside Drive and the Pyramid. I wonder how many people have thought this through.

Once it is completed, I hope the Harahan path connects to the levee in Arkansas and a true bike trail on the Tennessee side to make a national destination worthy of attention from Adventure Cycling Association, this Missoula, Montana outfit.

The key to both deals (and Beale Street Landing), says downtown visionary Henry Turley, is leveraging them into lasting broad benefits to downtown and Memphis in general. The Downtown Memphis Commission and the Riverfront Development Corporation have their charge. Whatever mistakes they may have made in the past don’t matter now. That was yesterday, we move on. We bought it, we got it. Now get the cobblestones done, figure out Front Street and Memphis in May and Mud Island Park and the Pinch. Then we’ll really have something to celebrate. We better do this, because a bike bridge, a boat dock, steamboat cruises for $3000, and tax money for a retailer sure doesn’t sound like government belt-tightening or a city and a country supposedly in the throes of a great recession.