Tag: Overton park Greensward

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Detention Deficit

CREDIT: Andrew J. Breig

Andrew J. Breig

Exactly seven years ago this week, I wrote a column decrying a proposal by city engineers to turn the Overton Park Greensward into an 18-foot-deep “detention basin” designed to stop flooding in Midtown. The engineers claimed we’d hardly notice the football-field-sized bowl. “Except,” I wrote then, “when it rains hard, at which time, users of Overton Park would probably notice a large, 18-foot-deep lake in the Greensward. Or afterward, a large, muddy, trash-filled depression.”

It was a horrible idea, and it was opposed by all the same groups that now oppose allowing the Memphis Zoo to take over half the Greensward for parking on “peak days.” The basin was debated for a while, but in June of that year was rejected in favor of finding another solution — which turned out to be building a parking garage in the new Overton Square development with a water-detention basin underneath.

Brilliant. Innovative. Win-win.

It was the second time in Memphis history that park activists had stopped the government from destroying the Greensward, the first time, of course, being when “little old ladies in tennis shoes” went to the Supreme Court to stop the construction of I-40 through the middle of Overton Park and Midtown in the late 1960s. Many contend, and I agree, that stopping that interstate from splitting the park — and the established old neighborhoods of the center city — made possible the housing and retail renaissance that is now happening. Oh, and, by the way, those activists also saved the Memphis Zoo.

Which makes the latest assault on the Greensward even more ironic. Had the very activists the zoo is now dismissing as self-interested dilettantes not stopped the detention basin, the zoo would have had to come up with another idea for parking by now.

By taking the backdoor action it took last week, the Memphis City Council showed it has little awareness of the park’s history and no sensitivity to residents who have waged a decades-long battle to preserve the city’s premier public space. The spectacle of wealthy white councilmen, most of whom belong to country clubs that are, shall we say, less than diverse, playing the race card is beyond hypocritical.

I take my dog to Overton Bark almost every weekend, and finding a place to park is always difficult. The playground, the dog park, and the Greensward draw large — and diverse — crowds. Toss in visitors to the Brooks Museum, students at the Memphis College of Art, and golfers, and you’ve got peak usage of public space. And when the increasingly popular Levitt Shell concerts happen, the parking problem extends into the evening hours.

Parking for Overton Park isn’t just a zoo problem. It’s a Memphis problem. And it’s only going to get worse as more and more people move back into the center city. Finding a solution will require cooperation from all park tenants and innovative thinking by our mayor and council, who need to put aside loyalties to their financial patrons and do the right thing for all of us.

Don’t make us put you in detention.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Memphis’ Central Park

CREDIT: overtonpark.org

overtonpark.org

Some describe the clash over the Memphis Zoo’s frequent and unacceptable practice of parking cars on Overton Park’s Greensward as an absurd battle over a grassy lot. In fact, it is about the right of Memphians to actively craft their urban environment.

When I moved to Memphis in 1998, Overton Park’s playgrounds were in disrepair, its infrastructure was crumbling, and crime was common. Today, Overton Park is thriving, thanks to the work of the Overton Park Conservancy and the advocacy and volunteer efforts of park users. Every day, a diverse spectrum of Memphians enjoys renovated playgrounds, large picnic tables for family reunions, a weekly farmers market, fenced dog parks, and more, all without charge.

The Memphis Zoo has also grown during that period, adding four major exhibits, most recently the Zambezi River Hippo Camp, but not one additional parking spot. In response to increased parking pressure, the zoo was temporarily permitted to park cars on Overton Park’s Greensward during times of peak demand.

The Greensward is not an unused field or stretch of vacant land. It is an integral aesthetic design feature of the park, offering pastoral views created with specific scale and proportion. Parking cars there is akin to erecting a cell tower in the middle of the zoo’s beautiful China exhibit. Nevertheless, park users endured this ill-conceived stopgap measure in silence for many years.

Unfortunately, Greensward parking has increased and now occurs on virtually all weekends and holidays when the weather is nice, exactly when people want to use the park. Even when cars aren’t present, tire ruts carved in the soil make the area unsightly and unsuitable for intended uses such as walking, playing Frisbee and soccer, and kite-flying.

In response to rising calls to end Greensward parking, the zoo has sabotaged the efforts of community partners seeking alternative parking solutions. For example, the zoo actively discouraged its members from using shuttles during a trial run in 2014. They refused to partner in or contribute financially to the OPC’s expert-led, public traffic and parking study currently underway.

Recently, the zoo has become more aggressive. They uprooted 27 trees to accommodate more cars, trees that were donated to the OPC by a long-time park supporter and planted in memory of her mother. They are attempting a landgrab by suing for management authority over part of the Greensward. They plan to install a parking surface, a prospect that is unacceptable to park users. The zoo clearly views Greensward parking as a permanent entitlement, not an interim measure.

The Old Forest is another wonderful Overton Park amenity. It is heavily used by runners, cyclists, and walkers; it is an educational resource; and it provides the tonic of wilderness for city dwellers. It is home to an uncommonly wide range of plant and animal species.

Sadly, the zoo has done significant harm to this ecosystem and threatens further injury. In 2008, without warning or soliciting public comment, it clear-cut four acres of rare, old-growth urban forest to make way for its Teton Trek exhibit, which was built in such a way as to expose park users to the kind of industrial views that they go to the park to escape. The zoo plans to develop an additional 17 acres of forest, again with no scheduled opportunity for public comment.

Such development would radically and permanently damage the Old Forest. The zoo should honor its stated values: “The biodiversity of ALL [emphasis theirs] flora and fauna have value and as a zoological and botanical garden we have a responsibility to support their preservation. The destruction, degradation, or loss of functional ecosystems and the species that occupy them is unacceptable.”

Memphians are tired of the zoo management’s elitist and destructive tactics. “Save the Greensward” signs are present in hundreds of yards and businesses around town. Our elected officials have received hundreds of emails criticizing the zoo. Letters to the editor, responses to zoo board members’ editorial columns, and posts on the zoo’s own Facebook feed tilt heavily against the zoo’s heavy-handed tactics. The zoo’s characterization of its critics as a “vocal few” is demonstrably inaccurate.

The zoo is a beloved Memphis institution, but we have accommodated their selfish behavior long enough. We taxpaying Memphians want our park back. It is time for zoo leaders to solve the problem created by their failure to plan for adequate parking within their own boundaries. Whatever form this solution takes, this much is clear: All Greensward parking must end, and no additional park land can be allocated to the zoo.

Eric Gottlieb is a proud Memphian, a daily commuter through Overton Park, and a member of the Memphis Zoological Society.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Winds of War

“Nice little trees you got there. Be too bad if something were to happen to them.” — Nicky “Big Panda” Flacco, Memphis Zoo press secretary

After years of simmering unrest, tension has been racheted to a fever pitch in Memphis’ Midtown district, specifically in the long-troubled region known as Overton Park. The natural areas of the park are controlled by the Overton Park Conservancy, but the park is also home to the Levitt Shell, the Memphis College of Art, the Brooks Museum of Art, and the Memphis Zoo.

In recent years, the Zoo has been flexing its muscle, annexing portions of the OPC-controlled zone known as the Greensward for overflow parking, and doubling down by charging money to its customers to park there. The OPC has filed several complaints with local authorities against the Zoo’s actions, and has gone so far as to put picket lines of volunteers at its border to stop the invasion of foreign vehicles. This has led to minor skirmishes: cars bumping protestors, angry complaints to local police, etc.

There had been an uneasy peace in recent weeks, but in the waning days of the Wharton administration, the Zoo obtained a letter from city council attorney Allan “Wood Chips” Wade that it claims gives it the right to annex the Greensward for parking. Then, without warning, the Zoo removed 27 trees that had been planted near the Zoo border in 2012 by the OPC.

A local faction supporting OPC called Get Off Our Lawn (GOOL) reacted vociferously, staging a plant-in, complete with a marching band, signs, and flags. Emotions were at a boiling point. There was open talk of war.

Then things really got out of hand …

Secret Zoo documents obtained by GOOL leaders were released showing that the Zoo had designs on annexing Rainbow Lake for a proposed “AutoZone Crocodiles of the Nile” exhibit, and also had plans to take over portions of the Old Forest for an interactive “Jack Links Messin’ With Sasquatch” diorama.

The Zoo responded by saying it had uncovered evidence that GOOL operatives had infiltrated its Northwest Passage exhibit via the Lick Creek aqueduct and planted kudzu, privet, and poison oak. GOOL denied the charge but did not rule out the possibility of future guerrilla planting raids. “We have thousands of seedlings,” said a GOOL spokesperson. “We would hate to have to use them, but the Zoo may force our hand.”

Then, on Monday, 87-year-old golfer Myron “Stroky” Teitlebaum was taken hostage by the Zoo after he bladed a 7-iron across the “Geezer Strip” into Zoo property and tried to retrieve his ball. An anonymous GOOL spokesperson told a WMC Action News 5 reporter that “getting a few meerkats out of there wouldn’t be that difficult,” and that such an action might be necessary in order to arrange a prisoner exchange. “Stroky is not in good health,” she added. “He needs his fiber pills.”

The Zoo then announced that it would begin a program called “Free Tank Parking Tuesdays” on the Greensward, and that it had made a deal with Sunrise Pontiac GMC to open a dealership on the land now occupied by the Overton Bark dog area.

“We get a million visitors a year,” said Zoo president Chuck “You and the Horse You Rode In On” Brady. “We’ll do whatever we have to do to keep them happy, if you get my drift.”

Alertly sensing that there just might possibly be a problem in Overton Park, the new Strickland administration announced that Secretary of State John Kerry would arrive in Memphis this week to try to bring all parties to the table for peace talks.

That’s where things stand as of this writing. We can only hope that cooler heads will prevail and that lasting peace can somehow be achieved in this turbulent region. Our children’s futures depend on it.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Zoo Blues

CREDIT: Clewisleake | Dreamstime.com

Clewisleake | Dreamstime.com

The last time I visited the Memphis Zoo was the first “Fake Spring” day of 2015. Fake Spring is the term I use for those late-winter, 70-degree teases everyone savors because they signal the impending change of seasons, though there’s also a 50/50 chance an ice-nado or some other freakish weather event is about to roll through town within a few days.

It was a Sunday afternoon. My friend and I weren’t the only ones eager to get outside for a glimpse at the majestic animal kingdom in our own backyards, as we were joined by practically every family in the tri-state area.

After I paid my five bucks and circled the lot a few times, I wound up having to park on the grass. My friend, who is not from the area, couldn’t believe cars were allowed to park there.

“This is not ideal,” I thought. The ground was still squishy from a recent rain. I hated to think of what the vehicles were doing to the grass and soil, and my hatchback isn’t exactly built for off-roading.

Had I known, I probably would have found a free spot on the street and walked the extra distance. The mosquitoes weren’t out yet, and I have two working legs.

Until last week, “this is not ideal” was about as strong as my opinion ever got on the matter of the parking situation at the Zoo. I saw room for compromise. “We’re so popular, no one can find a parking space” seems like a good problem to have, one that all parties involved should, ideally, be eager to solve together. I read a handful of options for a permanent solution, and I assumed we citizens could sit back and watch the two sides work it out for the sake of the community.

How, after 25 years of living in Memphis, could I be so naïve? Working out a reasonable solution that benefits everyone — that’s crazy talk. When has it ever been that simple?

The latest battle in the war over the Overton Park Greensward (“Treegate,” if you must) is too petty to ignore. Did anyone at the Memphis Zoo envision a scenario in which cutting down — excuse me, removing — 27 trees would result in anything other than a public relations imbroglio? Who signed off on that? Did they think no one would notice? And then, to double down by accusing the conservancy of maliciously planting the trees? Surely at this point the intention must be to alienate the entire city. It’s the only possible explanation. That’s one way to eliminate the need for overflow parking, I suppose.

I understand the challenge the Zoo is facing. They’re trying to get people through the gates. They keep renovating, hosting events, and adding exhibits and attractions to provide us a reason to come back, and it’s working. The facilities have come a long way since my elementary school field trips. Ya Ya’s fertility struggles aside, the Memphis Zoo has the distinction of housing one-sixth of the United States’ giant panda population. The Teton Trek exhibit is magnificent. The polar bears are super cool (har, har). Success hasn’t come without cost, though.

Parking wasn’t as much of a concern in 1906, when the Overton Park Zoo was founded, but now the Zoo is literally backed into a corner. And 45 years after citizens fought to keep I-40 out of the heart of the city, Overton Park is still fighting to keep the cars out.

It may no longer be in the name, but the Memphis Zoo is a part of Overton Park, for better or worse. Trees are not a “nuisance to patrons.” They’re a feature of parks, in case our friends at the Zoo forgot that “park” is not short for “parking lot.” Removing trees and destroying grass are actions that aren’t just un-neighborly — they’re incompatible with the mission of conservation, whether the space in question is used 60 days a year or 365.

Overton Park and the Memphis Zoo share a common goal of bringing joy to local families. It’s time to remember that and start acting like adults.

Jen Clarke is an unapologetic Memphian and digital marketing strategist.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

A Zoo Solution?

CREDIT: overtonpark.org

overtonpark.org

Overton Park Greensward

Unpopular admission of the day: I’m kind of a cynic about saving the Overton Park Greensward. The Greensward is the parcel of land that sits adjacent to the Memphis Zoo in Overton Park, which has been frequently repurposed as an overflow parking lot on heavy traffic days at the Zoo. It’s hard to miss the green yard signs, visible everywhere within the Parkways, that implore us to “SAVE THE GREENSWARD!”

It’s not that I’m an advocate of people parking their cars in a place that should be rightly used for hacky sack, pop-up aerobics, and dog-and-frisbee stuff.

Parking is undoubtedly a bad use of Overton Park, which was designed as a space for repose at the turn of the century, part of a national movement for more peaceful urban surrounds. Considerate people should leave their minivans elsewhere and put in the pedestrian time it takes to enjoy the Teton Trek or the Hippo Camp. (Side note: the Zoo should have called this the HippoCampus because, come on, hilarious!) Overton Park may not be the most stunning of American vistas, but it is ours, and we love it, and it would be great if people didn’t park their vehicles there.

My generalized apathy about the fate of the Greensward is that the campaign feels frivolous, compared to some of the other objectionable stuff we have going on in this city. I’d be happier in a world where “SAVE THE GREENSWARD!” signs were, if not replaced, at least accompanied by little beseechments to “TEST THOSE RAPE KITS ALREADY!” or “STOP MESSING AROUND WITH PUBLIC EDUCATION!”

I’ve resolved, though, that the only way to save ourselves the trouble of having to think about the Greensward is to actually save the Greensward. Thankfully there is an easy way to do this, and do it cheaply.

Here’s the pitch: Younger Memphians, myself included, may not recall a time when people accessed the Zoo from the eastern side of Overton Park, back before there was that dumb plan to put I-40 through Overton Park. (Credit where credit it due to those not-in-my-backyard crusaders.) This was in the 1970s, when the area that now houses the end of Sam Cooper Boulevard was a neighborhood. People either walked through the park or down N. Parkway, where there used to be a Zoo entrance on a part of the property that now houses an employee parking lot.

Though there are still a few residential streets between Summer and Sam Cooper, this is no longer a viable parking plan. You’d be better off parking in the Evergreen neighborhood or spending time waiting in the cluster of cars that blocks up McClean on low-ozone-warning summer mornings. But the area around the eastern side of the park is about to change: At the beginning of November, the Tennessee Department of Transportation put the eight acres of unused land that sits on either side of the East Parkway/Sam Cooper intersection up for sale. The largest of the lots is just under five acres; the smallest is just over half an acre. No date has been set for the sale, yet, but local media have reported that Loeb Properties has expressed serious interest in acquiring the parcels.

To whomever it may concern: That land, or at least, some of it, should be turned into parking for the Zoo. You could fit 750 parking spots on that five-acre lot. The Zoo could run a shuttle — or a trolley or a beer bike or whatever — in between E. Parkway and its main entrance, allowing visitors to see beautiful wooded areas of the park. George Kessler, the park’s designer, who kept company with landscape architecture giants such as Frederick Law Olmsted, would be proud. We would all be relieved.

During chillier seasons, when zebras and humans do not seek each other’s company, the land could be used in other ways. We should get imaginative. Maybe take Crosstown Arts’ lead and create a cheaply-rentable outdoor space for cook-outs and concerts. Or host roller hockey events and food truck meet-ups or town-hall-style meetings. There are ways that this could be fun, environmentally conscious, and turn a profit.

We need a parking lot. We want more great public spaces. What we don’t require is condos. Please. No more condos.

Eileen Townsend is a writer for Memphis magazine and The Memphis Flyer.

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We Recommend We Recommend

Memphis Margarita Festival and Tamale Festival Saturday

Is there anything better than a pitcher of margaritas and a pile of handmade tamales, piping hot inside their corn husks? If your answer to that question was anything other than “all of that and a rack of ribs,” you’re wrong. That’s why a pair of dueling festivals, both being held this Saturday, will present right-thinking Memphians with something of a dilemma. They will be forced to choose between tamales at the Latino Cultural Center’s first Tamale Festival at Caritas Village or margaritas at the Memphis Flyer‘s first Margarita Festival on the Greensward in Overton Park. Or maybe, since they’re both in Midtown, folks can figure out a way to have a little taste of one and a little sip of the other.

“The heart of our festival is the tamale competition,” Tamale Fest spokesperson Kristin Fox-Trautman says. “We have 10 teams headed by experts who’ve learned to make tamales or who have old family recipes that have been passed down for generations.” Samples of the competition tamales will be available, and there will be plenty of Mexican and Delta-style tamales for sale. “I’ve been a volunteer with Latino Cultural Center for a couple of years,” Fox-Trautman says. “When we got ready to grow our efforts, someone joked and said a hot dog festival would be perfect. Everybody loves hot dogs. But the tamale has a special place in so many Latino cultures. And even here in the South with the Delta tamale. And the corn dog!” Burritos, tacos, paletas, and funnel cakes will also be available for purchase. And hot dogs. General admission is $5 and includes two tamale tastes.

Michael Gray | Dreamstime.com

Tickets to the Memphis Flyer Margarita Festival include 15 margarita samples. Margarita mixologists will be competing on behalf of restaurants like Babalu, Swanky’s, Happy Mexican, Molly’s, Agave Maria, and many more. Proceeds from the event go to Leadership Memphis’ program, Volunteer Memphis.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (May 21, 2015) …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

On Bianca Phillips’ post, “Citizens Make Demands of Memphis Zoo in Petition” …

The Greensward is for ass parking only.

Scott Banbury

A responsible approach to growth at the zoo would have called for appropriate actions to handle the additional vehicular traffic generated by the building of additional exhibits. That reasonable course has not been followed. Instead, the zoo has become the playground for well-heeled donors who are perfectly happy to donate funds to build new exhibits but who ignore the problems caused by additional traffic generated by those exhibits.

The alignment of parking spots in the current zoo parking facility does not utilize the space for maximum efficiency. The plan to reconfigure the current parking lot will have a positive effect. That effort is long overdue. Additional parking is necessary.

The construction of a parking facility alongside the North Parkway entrance to the zoo, across from Rhodes College, is a possible solution. When the city vacates the current maintenance facility on East Parkway, a parking facility, either a surface lot or a garage, which would serve all attractions at the park, could be constructed.

The only thing missing from a possible solution is the dedication of zoo leaders, city leaders, and zoo donors to work for a solution that does not involve the continuing destruction of the Greensward. The current situation is unsustainable. Sustainability is one of the key goals expressed by the organizations that guide and accredit zoos and aquariums. The experience offered to visitors could be enhanced by providing parking, which preserves the Greensward. If the zoo is to be faithful to the mission to conserve, it must seek a course that differs from the one that has been taken for decades. The zoo, and the leaders thereof, must learn the art of being neighborly.

Enrico Dagastino

On Toby Sells’ Fly-By story, “Multi-millionaire’s The Kitchen restaurant promises healthy food, leads to healthy debate” …

Well, Kimbal, we can always go on a diet, skip a third helping, but ugly goes to the bone (are we seeing a theme here?).

CL Mullins

Please note that Musk is not denigrating Memphis, the author of the [The Medium] blog post is. And, really, how many people have seen that? Is The Medium a big thing?

The only thing that Musk says is that line about opening in other, larger cities, if not for the social aspect. And that’s just good business. What’s wrong with that?

Frankly, I’m really excited about The Kitchen. I wish he would open other locations before waiting for Crosstown.

nobody

On Tim Sampson’s May 14th Rant …

I read with some vexation Tim Sampson’s “Rant” about Pamela Geller and her “Draw Mohammed” event. Well, at least, it started out that way before he digressed about being kidnapped in Peru, but I digress. Seems Tim thinks that Pamela Geller is nuts for doing it. While, yeah, probably. That’s okay, Tim, you don’t have to date her, and, no, Tim, the media has not just focused on the attackers — she has been in for her fair share of abuse. And, yes, I’m sure she did it just to be provocative and is such a nasty person that as you pointed out, they won’t even let her in the United Kingdom. She may even go out of her way to step on ants for all I know. Having said all this, so what?

Let’s look at the larger issue. If you draw the wrong cartoon or maybe I should say the right cartoon about the wrong person, someone may very well kill you or at least try to kill you because you offended their religious sensibilities. And your rant is about Pamela Geller? What’s wrong with this picture? Where’s your perspective? What about free speech? Remember the first amendment of our constitution where we get to say, write, and draw things even if it is offensive? They don’t have that in the United Kingdom. Just saying.

So, Tim, the next time you want to rant about something, try ranting about the mindset that thinks it’s okay to kill artists if you don’t like what they draw. No one should die for a cartoon.

Bill Runyan

Categories
Cover Feature News

The Wearing of the Green

CREDIT: Brandon Dill

The short-term peace on Greensward parking negotiated between the Memphis Zoo and the Citizens to Protect Overton Park (CPOP) expired late last month when the last shuttle ran from the Overton Square parking garage to the park. 

Memphis city officials say overflow parking will likely resume on the Greensward. CPOP says it will continue to encourage people to enjoy the Greensward. But continuing the “Get Off Our Lawn” campaign — the peaceful, sit-in style protest — will depend on the continued cooperation of all parties to find a way to keep cars off the grass for good.   

Brandon Dill

Tina Hamilton (left) and her Great Dane, Dominic, relax with Allison Tribo and her dog, Foxy, inside Overton Bark dog park.

The fight for the Overton Park Greensward has cooled somewhat, especially from the tense beginning that threatened the arrest of a CPOP protestor. Now, all involved seem focused on a new, more-distant horizon that promises a long-term solution to the parking problems at Overton Park and the Memphis Zoo. They await proposals for a fix from Memphis City Hall, which are expected in a couple of months. The city’s chief administrative officer, George Little, says he’s agnostic on the solution but that all sides need to have skin in the game.

“My position is when everybody feels like they’ve got something to gain and everybody feels like they’ve got something to lose, that’s when we’re going to see some movement,” Little says. “It’s not going to happen as long as one side is like ‘I’ve got mine, you’re not getting yours.'”

The Opening Salvo

The guy directing cars for parking at the Memphis Zoo pretended not to see Jessica Buttermore. He walked right across the field to her and turned his back, stopping just two feet from her blanket on the grass. He pumped his palm toward his chest until a big, whirring SUV came to a stop just four feet from where Buttermore was reading a book.  

She sat up and gave him a look, but the attendant moved on and so did the people from the SUV. None of them said a word to her or even looked her way. Buttermore remained on her blanket, sitting in bemused disbelief. Did that just happen?

More cars came as the day wore on. By the time Buttermore’s group packed their stuff, they found themselves marooned, an archipelago chain of islands in a dusty sea of parked cars. No one parking cars that day acknowledged the people on the lawn.   

This incident lit the fuse for what has now been a weeks-long fight for the Greensward in Overton Park. 

“It became really clear that the zoo … felt like it was their space,” said Buttermore, chair of CPOP. “They had ownership of it and we had no right to it as members of the public, when, in fact, it is a public space. At that point it became really clear that we have got to really amp this thing up.”

And they did. The day after she and others were ignored by the parking attendants, they showed up with warnings written on big signs: “Don’t Park on Our Park.”

Wind of a bigger, more organized protest planned for the Greensward the following weekend reached City Hall. So that next Saturday, Little rode by on his bike for a first-hand look.

“I felt like I was riding up and down the line in Braveheart,” Little said. “You know when the English and the Scots are on the opposite sides? I felt like I was riding up and down the line. All I needed was a shield to bang on. I mean, really? C’mon. We’re all Memphians.”

Two Sides and the Mayor

Like in Braveheart, people on both sides of the line Little saw that day believe in something bigger than themselves. Unlike most movies, there was no clear good guy or bad guy in the Overton Park parking war. 

Brandon Dill

Pip Borden, 9, enjoys a popsicle during a hot afternoon on the Greensward at Overton Park.

The protestors believe everyone benefits in keeping that corner of Memphis uncluttered and open to any who want a respite from urban life — as it was designed to be by George Kessler in 1901. Zoo officials believe everyone benefits if we allow parking in the Greensward because it helps a top-tier Memphis attraction that educates thousands each year and is a major tourism and economic engine for the city. 

The physical stand-off between the two sides got tense that weekend. Cops were called. But they were called off by Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, who closed the Greensward to parking soon after that weekend. Shuttles were hired to take visitors from the new garage at Overton Square to the zoo, or the park, or the Brooks Museum of Art. It was going to be an uninterrupted, five-week pilot program.

But zoo officials asked Wharton to reopen the Greensward for what was going to be a busy Memorial Day weekend. He did, but only for that weekend. Then, zoo officials asked Wharton to reopen the Greensward for a major corporate event for Toyota that was going to bring in an additional 4,000 visitors to the zoo. He did, but only for that event.   

The Greensward was closed every weekend until the end of June. And Wharton’s administration has been working with all sides to forge a new short-term compromise and to find that long-term solution.

So, passionate factions with claims to the same land? Frustrations coming for all the major players? Clear victories blunted by compromise? A saga that began like Braveheart has become more like Game of Thrones. 

What is a Greensward?  

The word “Greensward” is foreign to many — even many native Memphians — but it’s the name for the large grassy field that surrounds Rainbow Lake and the new playground on the west side of the Old Forest. It’s 21 acres from end to end and side to side. (FedEx Forum sits on less than 14 acres.)

Brandon Dill

Brian Sanders enjoys a cold drink along with (from left) Elaina Norman, Patricia Duckett, and Kim Duckett as they watch Cedric Burnside Project perform during the free summer concert series at the Levitt Shell in Overton Park.

The Greensward is at the height of its intended use on the first warm days of spring. It’s always bustling with people walking dogs, families having picnics, couples lounging together on blankets, games of Frisbee and hacky sack, drum circles, and more. It’s a large, open, natural area, which is hard to find in Memphis.

The land technically belongs to the city of Memphis. That is, it belongs to everyone in the city and is wide open for them to use it. But the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) manages the park for the city. So, upkeep on the Greensward falls on them. 

The Memphis Zoological Society has a similar management contract with the city for the 70-acre zoo and the 3,500 animals there. That contract says the city will provide parking, and for more than 20 years, that has meant overflow parking on the Overton Park Greensward.

Memphis Zoo CEO Chuck Brady calls it an “old problem” and says the zoo has been misunderstood on the issue for years, not just during the recent dust-up.

The decision to use the Greensward for overflow parking was made when the city — not the Memphis Zoological Society — managed the Memphis Zoo decades ago, Brady says. A new master plan for the zoo in 1986 called for 1,000 parking spaces to be built in front of the zoo. Neighbors complained, and that number was shrunk to 655, which the zoo has in its front lot now, Brady says. The idea then was that any overflow parking would be put on the Greensward.      

Permanent parking solutions have been proposed twice by the new zoo management, Brady says. One was a new parking deck slated for the east side of the zoo. It was scrapped because it would not best perform its secondary purpose as a floodwater retention basin. 

After that, Brady says zoo officials proposed building a parking lot on the strip of land on the southeast corner of East Parkway and Sam Cooper. The zoo planned to use a tram to cross the street into the park and then into the zoo. Brady said that plan was axed as city officials said they had other plans for the land. 

“I bring these things up because we’ve heard a lot of criticism that we haven’t tried anything,” Brady says. “But we have been trying — not successfully, we can say that — but we’ve definitely been trying to find a permanent solution that’s doable.” 

That’s part of what frustrated Brady when the latest parking controversy began a few weeks ago. But he was more frustrated because he said the zoo and the Overton Park Conservancy were “very close” on a new agreement on parking, an agreement that was scrapped in the wake of protests, shuttles, and the promised new way forward. 

The basics of the agreement would have allowed the zoo to use the Greensward while they work together with OPC to find a long-term solution that would eventually yield the Greensward completely back to the park.  

“The [memorandum of understanding] really outlined how we would work together over the next few years to achieve some short-term and long-term parking solutions,” says OPC Executive Director Tina Sullivan. “There was tacit understanding that OPC needed to work with the zoo on a long-term solution before we took any actions to try to remove them from the Greensward.”

Brandon Dill

Citizens to Preserve Overton Park members (from left) Naomi Van Tol, Stacey Greenberg, and Roy Barnes stand on part of the contested area of the park’s Greensward used for overflow parking by the Memphis Zoo.

Brady says he was taken completely by surprise when Wharton kiboshed Greensward parking in the beginning of the dust-up. It stung to be so close to an agreement and have it dashed and supplanted with ideas that zoo officials thought wouldn’t work.

So, the zoo issued a lengthy news release that shocked many. It accused Wharton of joining with the “protesters’ mission” and said his proposals for a fix would “lead to the demise of the zoo as we know it.”

CPOP’s Buttermore says she couldn’t believe the release made it past the zoo’s public relations department, but she’s glad it did.

“We always tell people we’re not anti-zoo,” she says. “Then this statement went out and — wow — you just did a really big favor for our campaign. We don’t have to go around really being anti-zoo because you just made a bunch of people really mad.”

And it did. Wharton issued a formal statement saying the “tone of the press release was disrespectful and inappropriate,” but he committed to continue working with the zoo and park officials to find a common solution.

“It was a strong response, and I apologized to the mayor that it was personal,” Brady says. “We’re passionate about this zoo. We built this zoo to what it is today. I don’t mean me. I mean this whole organization. We work hard every day.”

New Solutions?

Wading into the land of parking solutions for the park is much like wading into Rainbow Lake to look for something you lost. You know it’s in there somewhere but you can’t see it from the surface. You know finding it will be hard, dirty work. You’re not exactly sure where it is. And you’re not sure what you’ll bump into while you look. 

Wharton outlined three solutions in May. Those solutions are the ones that drew the ire of the zoo officials. 

One idea was the short-term shuttle trial. Depending on who you talk to, the experiment had limited to moderate success. Ridership was lower than expected but some thought the program wasn’t promoted enough or given enough time to catch on. Even Brady agrees that shuttles might be a part of a long-term parking solution for the zoo.

Wharton also opened up the General Services area for free parking to zoo visitors willing to walk through the Old Forest to the zoo. It was originally panned by zoo officials because the 1.2-mile round trip would make the option prohibitive for children, the elderly, or disabled. But zoo employees are now parking in the General Services area, which has freed up about 100 parking spots in zoo lots.

The final idea that came from Wharton in May is the one that likely has the most long-term traction. It’s the most expensive, most permanent, and probably toughest to execute. But it’s the one that has the most support from the city, the zoo, and the conservancy. 

Wharton proposed a $5 million, 400-space parking deck to be built somewhere on zoo property or near the zoo. Zoo officials quickly said a garage needed to be 600 spaces and the cost was likely closer to $12 million. But how big it should be and how much it will cost are almost secondary questions.

Brandon Dill

Childbirth educator Sarah Stockwell (left) talks with Mary Beth Best of Birth Works Doula Services during an event at Overton Park benefiting Postpartum Progress, a nonprofit that supports new mothers with mood or anxiety disorders.

City and zoo officials agree the toughest questions for a garage are: Where will it be built? Who will pay for it?

The easiest and quickest location seems to be the city’s General Services area that fronts East Parkway. But that land has been promised to the backers of a museum devoted to the works of photographer William Eggleston. Little says the city is now in a development deal with that group and that the negotiations pretty much lock up the property. Messing with part of that deal could mess it up completely, Little said, especially when it comes to luring private investors. 

A parking deck could also be located where the zoo’s maintenance facilities now stand. But where would those facilities go? Again, the General Services area could easily stand in but that puts the Eggleston deal at risk.     

A deck could even be built on top of existing zoo parking but that would, of course, take away valuable parking spots. And the deck would have to pass some pretty high design standards to blend into the zoo, the park, and the surrounding neighborhood.

But if a proper site was found and if a design was approved, Little and Brady both balked at financing a garage.

“There’s no way on God’s green earth that this mayor can come in and pledge general obligation bonds to build a zoo garage,” Little says. “You could make a case for the Cooper-Young [garage] deal that there is business activity and yadda, yadda, yadda, But the zoo? Heck, I don’t know if you’d even get five votes [from the Memphis City Council] for that.”

The zoo raised a total of $35 million from private sources for Teton Trek and the coming Zambezi River Hippo Camp exhibits, Brady says.

“But raising money for a parking garage is almost impossible,” he says. “People don’t give dollars for parking garages. Our donors want to see what their gifts do in the community. For example, there will be 60 million to 80 million visitors in the 50-year life of the hippo [exhibit].”  

The Nuclear Option

Little offered up one other solution in a conversation last week. He says it was maybe only one wrung down from a “nuclear option” and to avoid it, park advocates could be spurred toward a compromise: trams running through the Old Forest to shuttle zoo visitors from satellite parking lots. 

“We’ve checked and there’s nothing that precludes it,” Little says. “Is it inconsistent with the [1989] master plan? Maybe. But there’s no prohibition to doing the trams.” 

The idea was abhorrent to Buttermore. CPOP’s biggest recent victory was getting the Old Forest designated as a state natural area, which offers it special protections (against motorized vehicle traffic, among other things, Buttermore says). To them, the Old Forest is the hallowed sanctuary in the park they love, and running a tram through it would, indeed, be the nuclear option, Buttermore says.

“If the city and the zoo are upset about people going out and sitting on the grass on the weekends, people are going to throw a fit [if trams are allowed],” Buttermore says. “So many people run and walk their dogs [in the Old Forest]. The daily users of the road in the Old Forest is probably like 110 times that of the daily users of the Greensward. [The Get Off Our Lawn group] was a small group of protestors. If they ran trams through the Forest, they’d really see a protest.”

Brandon Dill

Poppy Belue, 9, stands up on her father Michael Belue for a better view as they watch Cedric Burnside Project perform during the free summer concert series at the Levitt Shell in Overton Park.

Show Me Yours? 

No matter what happens at Overton Park, it’s pretty clear that all of its residents — the zoo, the park, the Memphis College of Art, The Memphis Brooks Museum — are going to be neighbors for a long time. And as those venues get more popular (as they have in the past few years) then they all need to show each other plans on where they’re headed, says Sullivan.

“I feel we need to consider how we’ll accommodate new visitors as we make improvements to the park and to the zoo as it continues to grow in popularity and it will,” Sullivan says. “We need to be looking ahead,  years down the road, and making sure any improvements we make or plans that we make now are flexible enough to accommodate that future usage.”

Buttemore says it would be as easy as getting all those neighbors together and sharing master plans. 

 

Conserving on Conservancies

The fight for the Greensward is not done, but it has impressed Little with another idea that could affect parks across the city in the future. 

He says conservancies are great on the surface, and he likes the idea of private citizens rallying behind a park to make it better for everyone. But he’s afraid the structure of these public-private partnerships have maybe been too loose and given too much power to the private managers such as OPC. He’s also afraid private groups could end up cherry picking the city’s nicer parks.

“We could turn around one day and all of the prime city assets are under some kind of conservancy,” Little says. “The fact is, these [partnerships] reinforce the idea that ‘this is my park’ as opposed to something that belongs to everybody.”

Sullivan, the OPC’s director, says Little’s idea was “interesting.”

“I would absolutely say that we don’t consider ourselves owners of the park,” Sullivan says. “This is very much a city park and we manage it on behalf of the city and behalf of the citizens of Memphis. So, we’re trying to deliver what those citizens want.” 

Conservancy deals are coming together now for Audubon Park in East Memphis, Little says, and also for Downtown’s Morris Park at the corner of Poplar and Manassas. Decisions on those deals, he says, will be informed by what’s been learned at Overton Park, including the fight for the Greensward. 

Game of Parks, anyone?

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

About Jackson Baker’s post, “Putting the Clamps On” …

Excluding the networks from any control over the GOP presidential primary debates is controversial? The networks might actually have to report the news rather than make it.

When the presidential debates were going to finally include a Libertarian candidate, the Democan/Republicrats decided the League of Women Voters would no longer make the rules. The Republicrats decided to make the rules and chose to NOT include the Libertarian candidate. Guess they can’t handle the competition.

FYI, the Libertarians are the only political party that actually believes the national government (we haven’t had a federal government in many decades, but that is another subject) should follow the U.S. Constitution. Harry Taylor

About the Flyer‘s editorial, “The New Politics of Black, White, and Brown” …

If by magic or unbridled lust, we become a perfectly dun society, who are we gonna get to do the shit jobs for sub-poverty wages? People who are in more desperate circumstances than our own huddled masses, that’s who. And if they and we all look alike, then will the liberal guilt be assuaged?

CL Mullins

CL, I think that’s the point. If we could get past the race issue, maybe we could actually focus on the real issues driving things like poverty and not waste so much energy on race debates.

GroveReb84

About Toby Sells’ cover story, “$outh Main”…

I moved downtown two years ago and the front doors of my apartment building open onto South Main.

I have a wonderfully small studio apartment, am within walking distance of Beale Street, The Orpheum, the Redbirds stadium, and just about anything else interesting in Downtown Memphis. The energy level down here is awesome, the people are always friendly, local visitors and tourists have a great time, and I have a good time mingling with them.

I’ve lived in several states and cities, in the suburbs and several apartments and, all in all, Downtown Memphis is the best place I have ever lived. It’s really exciting knowing what is being done and planned for the area. At this point, I can’t even imagine wanting to live anywhere else.

RD

About Toby Sells’ Newsblog post, “Update: Memphis Zoo Apologizes to Mayor for ‘Personal Attack'” …

Where are all of these hippies when Tom Lee Park (Riverside) gets trampled and torn up every Memphis In May? It turns to a mud hole for months, and no one complains. This logically means that if we bring horrible music and lots of hot chicks and BBQ to Overton Park, it will resolve the issue.

Greg Cravens

People who support the zoo and those who support the park should be natural allies. This fight is petty, unnecessary, and probably a great source of amusement to those who support neither the park nor the zoo.

JDM

Why wasn’t extra parking/new parking lot or garage put into the equation when the zoo started expanding, many years ago. Common sense would tell you if you make something bigger and more attractive, more people will come. The zoo is now one of the city’s main attractions. There have been many times that I have skipped going due to the traffic alone and just went to the Pink Palace or the Children’s Museum.

Kimbrlyrut

As long as cars are being left in the middle of our public parks; we should treat them accordingly as public playground equipment.

Count Dracula

Me thinks it’s high time to show the zoo that opposition to parking on the greensward comes from more than just a “small group of protestors.” I’ve been silent on this issue up until now, but no more. When does the Get Off Our Lawn group plan to hold its next meeting? I’ll do my darndest to be there to lend my support. Maybe it’s time to for us to rally, picket, protest or do whatever it takes to get the message across to zoo officials.

Strait Shooter