Tag: West Memphis

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News The Fly-By

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Going Down

WMC’s excitable news reporter Jason Miles gets to the bottom of things. And sometimes he gets on top of things. Over the years, Fly on the Wall has shared images of Miles crawling under a car. And we’ve shared images of him crawling under a car recreated in icing on top of a birthday cake. When LEGO Jason Miles was introduced, we even shared a photo of him crawling under a car. Now, because we are completists, here’s a photo of Jason Miles crawling under a building.

It’s interesting to note how Miles’ legs appear to bend backwards, which is most likely an evolved trait allowing the reporter to scamper about while under things.

Listed!

Last Wednesday, the website RentApplication.com published a list of America’s hotspots for sexually transmitted diseases (STD) based on data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Memphis makes the top 30 but is outdone by West Memphis, Arkansas, which clocks in at number three, just behind Montgomery, Alabama and St. Louis, Missouri. Given that most STD hotspots are located inside the Bible Belt, some consideration should be given to changing their designation to “Abstinence Transmitted Diseases.”

Wiped Out

File under weird crime. Three Memphis men were arrested in Sikeston, Missouri last week after stealing a semi-trailer loaded with $70,000 worth of toilet paper. The trio is destined to be the butt of many jokes.

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News News Blog

Opposition Heating Up on ‘Old Bridge’ Closure

More than 1,500 people have signed a new change.org petition online in opposition to the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s (TDOT) plan to close the Memphis Arkansas Bridge to build a new interchange at Crump and I-55.

The petition was started last week by Arkansas state senator Keith M. Ingram, who is also a former mayor of West Memphis. In his petition, Ingram wrote the plan to close the “Old Bridge” is “not just an inconvenience. It’s dangerous.”

“Closing the ‘Old Bridge’ will devastate local economies throughout eastern Arkansas and will cripple emergency services in the event of an accident or natural disaster,” Ingram said in the petition.

He’s asked petitioners to tell TDOT, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, and Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam to “go back to the drawing board and develop a solution that works best for everyone.”

Find out more about the petition here. 

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Editorial Opinion

Downtown Memphis: Less is More

An early proposed version of Beale Street Landing.

The one thing Memphis and Shelby County have surely learned from the past decade or so, during which hard times visited and stayed around for a while, is that necessity truly is the mother of invention — and often a single mother at that. 

Even before the Great Crash of 2008-9, there was a general sense that we had let our ambitions on the development front soar a little too much. Take our riverfront: Organized opposition on the part of Friends of the River and other environmentally interested citizens was, along with alarms about the anticipated costs of the project, a major reason why some of the more ambitious iterations proposed by the Riverfront Development Corporation did not come to fruition. 

What was left on the plate was Beale Street Landing (BSL). Beset with delays, cost overruns, design controversies, and intermittent failures to cooperate by a sometimes unruly river, it finally got done within the past year. The public spaces are welcoming, the views are spectacular, and BSL has proved, if nothing else, to be a great place to have a party. The Flyer‘s own annual Best of Memphis celebration was held there to good effect earlier this year. 

It brings to mind the phrase — and the concept of — “less is more,” a term which, we discovered upon doing a little research, was originated not by the minimalist architect Mies van der Rohe, as was long supposed, but by Robert Browning in the British master’s 1855 poem, “Andrea del Sarto (Called ‘The Faultless Painter’).” 

We were stirred into admiration of a sort a few months back at an insight offered by Mayor A C Wharton (whom we had previously taken to desk, along with city planning maven Robert Lipscomb, for the grandiosity embedded in some of the ideas floated out of City Hall): Frustrated  by the scarcity of the times, by the drying up of public and private funding sources, and by overt warnings about fiscal over-reach from the state Comptroller’s office, Wharton offered a new, leaner version of development, which cast downtown Memphis as an open-air arena, with its parts — among them FedExForum, the National Civil Rights Museum, the soon-to-be Bass Pro Pyramid, and, yes, Beale Street Landing — being connected by relatively inexpensive public transportation. 

This was how the mayor saw us responding to tourist and convention competition from, say, Nashville, with its massive (and massively expensive) new Convention Center. 

“Less is more.” Yes, indeed. And even the nascent Main Street to Main Street Big Water Crossing project (aka Hanrahan Bridge project), establishing pedestrian connections between downtown and West Memphis, involves minimal transformation of existing natural surroundings at relatively low cost — the key component being a $14.9 million “Tiger Grant” from the federal government. Greg Maxted, the project’s executive director, made that modest but far-reaching project sing when he described its prospective glories to a luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of Memphis on Tuesday. 

We have much to look forward to, and much of what is to come is already there, in a landscape that needs only some judicious tweaking, not a massive overhaul.

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News The Fly-By

West Memphis Plans For Big River Crossing

When Big River Crossing is in the news, you can bet someone in Memphis will, again, call it the “bridge to nowhere.”

Construction began on the project last week, and officials said it will open in the spring or summer of 2016. 

Big River Crossing is the $17.5 million project that will transform part of the Harahan Bridge over the Mississippi River into a path for bicyclists and pedestrians. The Crossing is part of the 10-mile, $43 million Main Street to Main Street Multi-Modal Connector project that will create bike paths and walkways from Uptown Memphis to West Memphis, Arkansas.  

Calling the Crossing a “bridge to nowhere” is a two-sided insult. On one side, the slur means the Crossing is a boondoggle, a costly and unnecessary government infrastructure project. The other side is aimed directly at West Memphis. That the bike and pedestrian walkway will lead Memphians there implies that the small Arkansas town is “nowhere” or that there’s nothing for bikers or pedestrians to do when they get there. 

Before and after images of Big River Crossing

“We obviously know those comments,” said Jim Jackson, director of the West Memphis Office of Tourism. “We want to, and are working on, dispelling any of those.” 

Plans have been developed for an eco-park on the West Memphis side of the Crossing. The park would span the area between the bridges at I-55 and I-40, Jackson said. The plans feature a wildlife refuge, education spaces, trails along the river’s edge, and farming exhibits. If that’s not enough of a draw, Jackson is banking on at least one thing West Memphis has that Memphis doesn’t.  

“Everyone in Memphis can look toward us and see … a bean field,” Jackson said. “From our perspective looking back … it is a phenomenal view, looking at the Memphis skyline.” 

He said West Memphis and Arkansas are committed to making the Crossing a major attraction and pointed to Little Rock’s Big Dam Bridge, the longest bridge built for pedestrian and bicycle traffic in North America. But, he said, projects take money, and West Memphis and state officials are hard at work to find it for the Crossing.

Meanwhile, cyclists are already riding the levee tops around West Memphis along the Big River Parkway. That project’s backers want to open the Mississippi River levees up to bikers on a 660-mile trail from Memphis to New Orleans. 

National Geographic is working with those in the Big River Strategic Initiative to brand the parkway as a National Geographic geotourism destination. The society’s Center for Sustainable Destinations serves as a tour guide for people looking to travel to natural spaces. It has worked in the past with places like Greater Yellowstone, California’s Redwood Coast, and the East Tennessee River Valley.   

Back in July, board members of the St. Francis Levee District of Arkansas unanimously approved bikers on their 63-mile segment of the levee system. Bicyclists hit the trail in August on the first ever Big River Parkway Levee Ride that ran from West Memphis all the way to Marianna, Arkansas.

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News The Fly-By

Southland Park Undergoes Renovation and Expansion

Memphians will soon be able to do more than play slots and watch greyhounds race when they travel across the bridge to Southland Park in West Memphis, thanks to a $37.4 million expansion and redesign of the gaming and racing facility.

The highlight of the expansion is Sammy Hagar’s Red Rocker Bar & Grill. Southland Park Gaming and Racing partnered with Rock Hall of Famer Hagar to create the 150-seat sports bar.

The restaurant will feature hand-prepared, signature bar food like wings, burgers, jalapeno poppers, and pulled pork nachos as well as beer distilled at 29 degrees and Hagar’s Cabo Wabo Tequila and Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum.

Troy Keeping in Southland’s new Red Rocker Bar & Grill

“We realized in the market, there are some sports bars but nothing like this in terms of a partnership with Sammy Hagar,” said Troy Keeping, Southland’s president and general manager. “We have a living room concept. You can come out, have a casual, relaxing living room feeling and be able to order and eat at the coffee table. Or you can sit down at the regular restaurant.“

The Red Rocker Bar & Grill will be adorned with a guitar chandelier, display cases featuring Hagar-signed rock memorabilia, 55 flat screen TVs, and a ceiling decorated with guitars. It’s slated to open around Thanksgiving.

The 41,000-square-foot expansion also includes an extended gaming floor. Gaming options will expand to more than 1,750, and there will be a new grand entrance. LED lighting has been installed across the building’s exterior, and Southland’s valet station has been expanded from two to four lanes.

“The real issue was our valet,” Keeping said. “We didn’t have the capacity for the demand. What this has done is given us four lanes to handle the issue. And then we redesigned the traffic flow through the parking lot, so it’s more of a boulevard that takes you right into valet. And then when you got in and you wanted to go eat at our restaurants, there was always a wait. And there were people waiting to play games, so you’re trying to play a game, and there is someone standing behind you, waiting for you to get up. [This expansion] should alleviate some of the pressure on our existing outlets and grow our business.”

Keeping said the expansion has been in the planning stage for about two years, but construction began in January. Prior to the latest endeavor, Southland underwent several revisions. In 2006, the lower grandstand of the facility’s greyhound racetrack was replaced with a gaming floor. A few years later, in 2011, the gaming floor was expanded and the Shine Blounge, a large bar and lounge, was added. It began operation in 2012.

Since 2006, Keeping said almost $150 million has been invested in expanding the facility. He said he hopes the latest expansion drives more traffic to Southland and provides patrons with an unforgettable experience.

“I want them to walk in and go, ‘Wow,’ and I want them to have fun,” Keeping said. “We’ve always done things with kind of a unique twist here. We really want people to come in and have a good time. We have something for everybody — from a sports bar to a buffet to a steakhouse to greyhound racing to gaming to black jack and poker. You name it, we’ve got it, and we want people to come over and have fun.”

There will be a ribbon-cutting and grand opening ceremony to celebrate Southland’s expansion on January 30th.

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Editorial Opinion

Keeping Hospitals Alive

The pending shut-down of Crittenden Regional Hospital in West Memphis, which followed several months of highly publicized financial crisis, should sound the alert for medical authorities in Memphis — especially at Regional One Health (formerly known as The Med), which will inherit much of the now stranded patient load at the expired hospital.

The loss of Crittenden Regional and the resultant further shift of the medical burden to Regional One highlights once again still unresolved questions of the degree to which both Arkansas and Mississippi should compensate the Memphis facility for taking care of underprivileged patients from those states who seek medical assistance on our side of the state line.

And the closing of the facility in Tennesssee’s neighboring state should stand as both a warning and a reproach to Governor Bill Haslam and the Tennessee General Assembly — the latter for its callous indifference to the needs of our state’s stressed and financially challenged hospitals, as evidenced in the Republican-dominated legislature’s persistent refusal to consider Medicaid expansion funds available through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and the former for letting himself be cowed into acquiescing in that refusal.

As Tennessee law now stands, the General Assembly having passed legislation in last year’s session giving itself de facto veto power over any future decisions Haslam might make on the issue, the governor’s hands are more or less tied. But he had ample opportunity before that point, when hospital administrators all over the state were begging him for financial relief, to avail himself of Medicaid expansion funds. He should have accepted the funds, even at the potential cost of inviting threats to his reelection. No profile in courage there, Gov.

It is true, of course, that Crittenden, like other public hospitals in Arkansas, had the benefit of Medicaid expansion funds, thanks to the fact that the state’s governor, Mike Beebe, is a Democrat, like the president, and therefore is not bound to an ideology of refusal that too many Republicans, for purely political reasons, are bound to. That fact alone kept the hospital alive for a season or two. But a pair of serious fires at the facility, one as recently as this year, pushed the hospital over the fiscal cliff.

There are numerous hospitals in Tennessee that are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, and, failing the kind of unforeseen accident that happened in Crittenden, could easily survive with a fair share of the $2 billion that our state officials have opted to deny them.

Back to Arkansas: Another Democrat, U.S. Senator Mark Pryor, is running for reelection with a campaign that features public speeches on behalf of Obamacare/Medicaid expansion (both of which, however, he, rather too cautiously, calls by euphemistic names), pointing out that he himself was able to survive a bout with cancer in the 1990s, despite the fact that his insurance company back then declined to pay for the expensive treatment he required, which he then had to pay for out of pocket.

Obamacare, Pryor notes, prevents insurors from doing that to others. It can help keep hospitals alive, too.

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Opinion

Biking the Harahan Bridge as $30+ Million Thrill Ride

harahan3.jpg

Once called the Harahan Project, the Main Street to Main Street Connector Project is nine miles of street and sidewalk improvements in downtown Memphis and West Memphis, Arkansas and one mile of pedestrian and bike bridge across the Mississippi River.

“This is a number-one priority for us,” Mayor A C Wharton said Monday in a briefing on the project that is now estimated to cost “more than $30 million” in local, private, and federal funds. It will tie Main Street in Memphis from north of the Convention Center to Main Street (Broadway) in West Memphis. The ten-mile project includes one mile of cantilevered boardwalk off the Harahan Bridge, 3.8 miles in Arkansas floodland and downtown West Memphis, and a little over 5 miles in downtown Memphis from desolate blocks of Main Street north of The Pyramid and convention center to South Main Street and a new pedestrian bridge over Riverside Drive at Channel 3 Drive.

Because $14.8 million in federal transportation funds are involved, all of this has to be compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Construction will begin in September and the bridge section should open in August of 2014.

The bridge section will be either 10 feet wide or 12 feet wide, depending on how much planners and funders decide to pinch the budget. There will be a high, unclimbable fence on the railroad side and a lower fence with a mesh screen on the other side to permit river views. The deck will be light-weight aluminum coated to lower the summer heat. New steel bridge supports are raising the project cost. The “boardwalk” will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and have security cameras and emergency telephones.

There will be a parking area on the West Memphis side close to the western entrance to the pedestrian bridge. The western approach is covered because it is lower than the train tracks.

Wharton said it is time to accept the Main Street Mall with its trolley tracks, empty buildings and vacant storefronts in downtown Memphis for what it is — a pedestrian and trolley mall where (most) cars are banned.

“What we need to do now is make it the absolute best we can and make it distinctly Memphis,” he said.

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News News Blog

MATA Responds to Video of Southland Route

Screen shot from the video showing MATA passengers being dropped off on a frontage road off I-40

  • Screen shot from the video showing MATA passengers being dropped off on a frontage road off I-40

On Monday, we reported that a MATA bus to Southland Park Gaming and Racing in West Memphis was no longer letting passengers off in front of the Southland building and was instead dropping passengers off on a nearby frontage road off Interstate 40. The accompanying video shot by members of the Memphis Bus Riders Union shows passengers navigating the unpaved side of a frontage road and traveling up an exit ramp to get to Southland Park.

As to why MATA was no longer allowed to drop off riders on Southland property, Troy Keeping, manager at Southland Park Gaming and Racing, responded that Southland Park asked the city of West Memphis to relocate the bus stop because of safety issues the bus stop was causing in the Southland parking lot.

“We had a couple of potential almost accidents and there were too many people waiting for the bus in high traffic lanes where the bus stop was located,” says Keeping. “So we asked them to relocate it off of our property because of safety issues.”

Alison Burton of MATA says she had also heard complaints of MATA bus riders panhandling on Southland property, and that was perhaps another reason Southland asked the bus to be rerouted.

Burton also says the reroute to an I-40 frontage road was not determined by MATA, but by the city of West Memphis planning division.

“MATA has been under contract with the city of West Memphis since June of 1999 to provide service for mobility within [the West Memphis] community,” Burton says. “Routing, schedules, all of those things are determined by the city of West Memphis.”

Since the video was taken, Ford of West Memphis has asked the city of West Memphis to have MATA cease dropping passengers off on the frontage road in front of their dealership. The stop has now moved further up the road, closer to Southland Park. But the stop will likely change again Burton says, as MATA and the city of West Memphis are in conversation about rerouting the Southland bus in a way that will be safest for passengers.

“This decision [to remove the bus stop] is one that Southland is welcome to make,” says Burton. “It was not received well by some of the people who ride over there, but the people who live in West Memphis didn’t complain. From what I understand, [the city of West Memphis] didn’t get a lot of complaints from their constituents, and the service was developed for tourism, to get people [in West Memphis] to come over to Memphis.”

The Southland route, according to Burton, was originally intended to be a free shuttle, paid for by the city of West Memphis, for West Memphians to get to Memphis. In recent years, however, Burton says the free shuttle had actually worked in the opposite direction, with Memphians using the bus to get to West Memphis more than the other way around. As such, the city of West Memphis decided to shift the bus from a free service to a paid service in February of this year.