Tag: parking on the Greensward

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Off the Grass in Overton Park — Forever.

CREDIT: Overton Park Conservancy

Overton Park Conservancy

It’s time to move forward and end parking on the Overton Park Greensward — forever. It’s past time, actually, and the neighborhoods and groups that make up the Overton Park Alliance and thousands of other supporters of Overton Park want to see the Memphis City Council accept $1 million in funding from the zoo and the Overton Park Conservancy at its June 20th meeting and move this process forward.

Overton Park, established in 1901, is a 342-acre park in the heart of Memphis with more than 100 acres of rare old-growth urban forest. The park was catapulted into national significance in the 1970s, when it was saved by the U.S. Supreme Court from government plans to bisect it with Interstate 40, leading to permanent nationwide protection of park land from highway construction.

The park suffered from years of neglect after that, especially after the City Council abolished the Memphis Park Commission in 2000. The Memphis Zoo’s occasional use of the Greensward for overflow parking increased in frequency over the years. The Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) was formed in 2011, funded in part by the city. The OPC has breathed new life into the park in a few short years. Overton Park is now safe, clean, and heavily used by diverse Memphians from all over the city. 

In early 2016, the Memphis Zoo removed two dozen trees from the Greensward and sued OPC, contending the zoo had rights to the entire Greensward. Mayor Strickland arranged for the zoo and OPC to engage in mediation. While the mediation was pending, large protest gatherings on the Greensward demonstrated the public’s strong desire to end parking in that space. Nevertheless, the council rushed through a surprise resolution giving most of the Greensward to the zoo and then moved toward passing an ordinance making the change permanent.

When the mediation ended in June 2016 with no agreement, Mayor Strickland stepped in with a compromise solution that became the basis for an agreement between the zoo and OPC. The City Council largely confirmed the agreement in a resolution in July 2016. That resolution requires reconfiguration of the zoo’s parking lot, plus 415 additional parking spaces. This will result in the loss of some park land on the northern edge of the Greensward and will allow the zoo to continue parking on the Greensward until construction is complete. That resolution also requires OPC and the zoo to share the cost of the zoo’s parking solution equally, despite the fact that OPC manages a free park, generates little revenue, and is funded primarily by philanthropic and membership contributions — and that the zoo will keep all revenue from the new parking lot.

In 2016, the city established a steering committee to guide the project that includes representatives of the zoo, OPC, the Overton Park Alliance, the public, and various city departments. (The meetings of the committee are open to the public; a website [http://www.memphistn.gov/Government/ExecutiveDivision/OvertonParkParking.aspx] provides information on the process, including a timeline.) In February, the committee selected Powers-Hill Design (PHD) to design and lead the project.

In April, the council was asked by the steering committee to accept $250,000 from both the zoo and OPC to fund the project’s design. The zoo threatened to pull out of the process unless OPC agreed to contribute half of the entire cost of the project up front. The council voted in favor of the zoo and mandated that both the zoo and OPC demonstrate they had $1 million to contribute to the project by June 11th.

With the support of over 1,000 donors and contributors from 40 states and 28 Memphis zip codes, including large and small donors (and some generous zoo board members), OPC has met the enormous fund-raising burden placed on it by the council and raised the required $1 million in two short months.

It’s time for the council to accept this funding and let the city-appointed steering committee’s process to go forward. It’s time to quit throwing roadblocks in the way of this painstakingly crafted solution. The Overton Park Alliance and other park supporters remain committed to monitoring the design and construction of the zoo’s parking solution to achieve the best possible solution, not only for the Memphis Zoo, but for Overton Park as a whole.

Mary Wilder is a member of the Overton Park Alliance, which is comprised of the Free Parking Brigade, Humans of Overton Park, Memphis Heritage, Midtown Action Coalition, Midtown Memphis Development Corporation, Park Friends, Inc., Physicians for Urban Parks, Stop Hurting Overton Park (Facebook group), and 10 Midtown neighborhood associations.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Silver Lining

Ordinarily, we don’t address the same subject in this space for two weeks running, but there are exceptions, once in a while. Last week, you may recall, we wrote about the Memphis Zoo board’s economic impact study, vis-a-vis Greensward parking at Overton Park. We dealt briefly (and by no means definitively) with both the study and the reaction of critics who distrusted its conclusions that Greensward parking was not necessarily a bad thing.

The subject (which shows no signs of going away, in any case) reared itself again this week in remarks to a Rotary Club of Memphis luncheon at the University Club by former city councilman Shea Flinn, now senior vice president of the Greater Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce and, as described by chamber chair Carolyn Hardy, the man who “moves the needle” on economic opportunity incentives pushed by the chamber.

Flinn oversees the Chairman’s Circle, a public outreach group operated by the chamber, as well as a series of innovative projects he refers to as “moon missions.”

His approach to the Greensward question was somewhat inadvertent and came his way during the post-address question-and-answer period, via an audience query regarding one of the aforesaid moon missions, this one designated as “Advancing Green Space.” Flinn was asked to comment on that mission in light of the current Greensward controversy.

Flinn made it clear that a) he was not advancing an official chamber position; and b) he was not bursting at the seams with an urge to speak on the matter as a private citizen. In keeping with that caution, Flinn’s first response was to express optimism that, as a result of ongoing mediation efforts initiated by Mayor Jim Strickland, there would soon be found “an adequate solution” to the controversy. He then went further, suggesting that there was an obvious silver lining to the whole wrangle, “if we could step back from the passion and Facebook of it all.”

Flinn reminded his audience that, “20 years ago we actually celebrated the fact of zoo parking.” It was because, he added, at that time the Memphis Zoo and Overton Park had each lost much of their luster and were not attracting nearly as many local citizens and tourists.

What he was saying, in effect, was that there is a problem today only because both the zoo and the park have been upgraded to the point that there is green space worth fighting over.

Well, that’s one way to look at it.

We were struck by several of Flinn’s observations, including his warning that “the best intentions” do not necessarily lead to “the best process.” In any case, said Flinn, it would be “a mistake to see ‘green space’ as meaning only Overton Park.”

Regrettably, however, that is the one green space that most clearly needs to be protected, however the process unfolds.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Toby Sells’ reporting on the Memphis Zoo/Greensward controvery …

Since it appears that certain members of the city council and Memphis Zoo administration are seeking to manipulate the Greensward situation into a racial/class issue, I am curious: How many members of the city council and zoo board are members of country clubs?

Not everyone can pay tens of thousands of dollars annually to enjoy protected, well-maintained, greenspace within the city limits. I would wager that at least half of the zoo board, if not more, are members of country clubs. And I would bet that Reid Hedgepeth, Philip Spinosa, Kemp Conrad, and Worth Morgan are also country club members, many of which to this day do not allow non-white members — or parking on their golf courses. Such irony.

Mary Ost

Memphis is very fortunate to have a world-class zoo in a gorgeous historic park in the center of our city. Their embellishment and preservation are the result of immense commitment and decades of hard work.

While I personally oppose continued development in Overton Park, there may be a parking solution that also increases park space. If park and zoo users decide that resolving the parking problem includes a garage, then why not aim for an ambitious innovative project, also world-class, that everyone could support? Why not make a spectacular parking structure that is a fusion of creature habitat and increased park space? The zoo experience could actually begin when one enters the garage, and the structure itself could become a vehicle for a new, permanent exhibit as well as a natural addition to the park.

A solution that vertically increases natural park space and provides car storage could be designed to connect the park and the zoo together instead of having them separated. Why not create something that’s so innovative, inviting, and beautiful that people come from all over to experience it, along with the park and the zoo? We could transform a contentious conflict into a fantastic, positive experience that brings us together and demonstrates what a wonderful, creative place Memphis is.

Roy Tamboli

I cannot believe that the city council would even consider giving land that belongs to and is used by the citizens of Memphis to the Memphis Zoo. I have always loved and supported the zoo, but since the zoo has displayed a total lack of respect toward nature and toward me, as a citizen, I do not feel the same way.

Overton Park is public land. I am an owner and financial supporter of public land, so, I am being disrespected by the zoo’s and the city council’s refusal to get off my lawn! The citizens of Memphis fought to keep the interstate from going through the park, and now we’ve been thrown into another battle against an organization that, up until now, I have always considered to be a great asset to Memphis.

Overton Park is also a great asset to Memphis, and the zoo and city council need to acknowledge and respect that. A parking garage needs to be built so that the zoo will have parking and our public land will still be ours. Funds can be found for a garage. A corporation in town would be willing to put their name on it. Just think how warm and fuzzy people would feel about the corporation that was smart enough to build it.

It’s time the city council started listening to the people who put them in office. We want the zoo to get off our lawn, get out of our Old Forest, and stay away from Rainbow Lake!

Linley Schmidt

About The Donald …

We the people are fed up with the lies and deceit of the greedy politicians who think more of themselves than the people they represent. They are a group of self-righteous individuals who capitalize on every opportunity to benefit themselves. Our voice is being heard, loud and clear. Politicians, you will mistreat us no more!  

We will elect a person who is not a politician and cannot be bought, one who is on a mission to take this country back and restore the greatness that it once had. We will elect Donald J. Trump! And so it shall be!

George Devine

Categories
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 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.