Read-up on our 1st Library

We asked if you had stories about our landmark library, and a “friend” sent this anecdote connecting the library, the Cossitt family, and two LaGranges – one in TN and the other in IL.

The Memphis library was the dream of Frederick H. Cossitt and the result of a $75,000 gift by his children to see that it was built. But the connection between the Cossitts and this area doesn’t end there.

Frederick Cossitt wasn’t the only member of his family who headed to TN from CT. One of his relatives moved to LaGrange, TN. During the Civil War he was identified as a "Yankee sympathizer" and run out of town. Franklin Dwight Cossitt migrated to the Chicago area and established a new town – LaGrange, Il (now a Chicago suburb). The homes there look very much like those in LaGrange, TN with white clapboard and green shutters.

Cossitt Library opened in 1888 as the Cossitt-Goodwyn Institute, the first public library in Memphis. On April 23, 1893, the original sandstone structure was constructed at 33 Front Street on the Downtown Memphis Promenade, and the Cossitt Library began service.

If you have a story about our fabulous landmark, let us know.

[Click here to read more...]

1937 Flood

Local historian Jimmy Ogle sent this photo of high water at Beale Street during the1937 flood. Click here to see the photo of the river gauge at Beale Street.

[Click here to read more...]

Commissioner Ritz Comments on Bass Pro/Pyramid Deal

County Commissioner Mike Ritz sees flaws in the Bass Pro/Pyramid Deal and sent the following article. FfOR has not been involved in the City's search for ways to reuse the Pyramid and has not taken a position on the current Bass Pro/Pyramid Plan. We are posting Mr. Ritz's comments for educational purposes.

For information about Commissioner Ritz’s background and experience, click here.

The Bass Pro Deal Is Deficient
by Mike Ritz

The current proposal for Bass Pro to control and become the primary tenant of the Pyramid has many deficiencies. These deficiencies have been known and identified for months and have been ignored or glossed over by the City staff and others working on this matter.

First my opinion is that Bass Pro is a great company with a very good retail concept but the company is privately owned and thus their financial conditions and trends and management are invisible to the public. I have no problems with Bass Pro as a business, retailer or user of the Pyramid IF the public’s risk is low and the public gain is maximized.

An initial letter of intent was signed by the Mayors and Bass Pro in late 2005 with a 2nd letter signed in June 2007. Finally in February of this year a third letter was revealed to the County Commission containing conditions for a possible lease. This was the first time the County Commission, sworn in September 2006, was asked to review or consent on any matter related to Bass Pro. The proposal now in front of the Commission is essentially identical to the February letter.

The Deal’s major deficiencies as I see them:

1. RKG Associates, the City’s consultant, says that Shelby County will receive annually $10,448,787 from the County’s 7% sales tax. If this were only the case?! The County does not have a 7% sales tax rate. That is the State rate! This error has been in their report since 2005. We must assume there may be similar RKG errors.

2. Bass Pro will lease the Pyramid from a to-be-formed non-profit entity. This will assure Bass pro will not ever pay any property taxes for the 55-year lease term with options. Nor will any of the ancillary uses like a hotel or restaurants on the 31-Acre Pyramid site pay property taxes. The rent is limited to 2% of sales. If retail sales average $90,000,000 a year over the first 20 years, annual rent will be $1.8 million. On the other hand if we sold the Pyramid, or even gave it to Bass Pro, the current City, County, and CBID property tax rates would annually produce respectively $1,950,000, $2,424,000, and $390,000 on a realistic $150 million property valuation after improvements for the store, hotel and restaurants. This annual total tax of $4.764 million is 2.65 TIMES the rent Bass Pro will pay. If the tax rates go up the property tax receipts would go up. What is fair about a no tax deal? We have PILOTs to handle issues like this. Center City PILOTs are limited to 15
years.

3. Bass Pro expects a gift of $30,000,000 from the City and County when they sign the lease. The money is a gift because they do not have to pay it back.
(a) Based on some personal inquiries with experts in this subject area, only about $10.0 million of federal funds (Brownfield and New Market Tax Credits) are reasonably available to backstop this gift.
(b) If we borrow $20,000,000 to give Bass Pro, over 25 years we will pay $35 million in principal and interest. That is 1 cent annually on the County tax rate.
(c) The City proposed another source of money for this gift to be incremental property tax growth in the Uptown Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District. However, the property tax increments in that District are already committed to the Uptown Development, not the Pyramid.
(d) The best place for backstopping the $20 million will be State Sales Tax revenues (See # 1 Above!) from the downtown Tourist Development Zone (TDZ) subject to State consent. Some parts of the current TDZ state sales tax are committed to the Convention Center bonds and another portion is committed to the FEDEX Forum bonds. We do not need to put at further risk our ability to repay either of these bond issues which is why I asked County Attorney Brian Kuhn and our County Finance office during the Bass Pro presentation to identify our risk of using TDZ funds for the Bass Pro gift.

Is it any wonder why Bass Pro proposed this rent, tax and gift arrangement and why the president of Bass Pro was here asking for our approval? The question on these most obvious points is why did our representatives on this matter agree to this deal and ask us to concur. Why have the benefits to the County been so grossly misstated? Why didn’t someone from the County catch these mistakes?

At our February meeting in joint session with our City Council colleagues, I suggested, with some general agreement (we could not vote in that setting), that we employ real estate expertise and legal counsel experienced in deals of this type and complexity to negotiate on our behalf. We did not and here we are!

[Click here to read more...]

Bass Pro/Pyramid Plan

Critics call it the world’s largest bait and ammo shop. Supporters see it as tourism attraction, downtown asset, and economic generator all rolled into one.

Presented to the City Council and County Commission on Aug. 25, the project report says,

this project isn’t just about Bass Pro Shops. It’s about a new vision for the future of Memphis as landmark project after landmark project gets underway with completion in the next three to five years. In this way, The Pyramid project is a harbinger of equally great things to come.

To read the 156-page report, click here. For information about finances and proposed government programs that could provide funding, go to page 22.
The deal includes leasing more than the Pyramid itself --30.73 acres around the Pyramid, 4.23 acres of added parking land to be leased from the State of Tn,, an additional 4.77 acres of parking land across the railroad tracks along Front Street, and a perpetual access easement from Lonestar Industries. The proposed redevelopment includes 729,904 square feet -- 150,235 for the anchor retail, 42,416 for dining and drinking, 287,100for a hotel complex, 180,164 for an Aviary and museum, and 70,000 for 500 parking spaces.

For news coverage of the issue, click here.

To read Memphis Watchdog, Joe Saino’s thoughts, click here.

[Click here to read more...]

Sustainable Saturday

The focus nationwide is on sustainability, and Sat. Sept. 27, Memphis will be showing off a new pocket park and the proposed rail/trail greenline.

GreenForAll Event-Tour the Greater Memphis Greenline
There will be two “show & tell” chances to see the proposed rail/trail greenline project and to discuss the plans and benefits a greenway can mean in jobs, business and recreational opportunities.
When and where:
* 11:30 am where the trail intersects with Shelby Farms Park. ( Meet in the parking lot where Mullins Station crosses the railroad tracks (slightly west of Farm Road))
* 1 pm High Point Terrace neighborhood. (Meet at High Point Pizza (477 High Point Terrace at Philwood near Summer).
For more information, call Steven Sondheim at 761-1793.

Be at the Triangle or Be Square
Midtown is celebrating our city’s newest revitalized park, the Belvedere Triangle at Madison and S. Belvedere (across from Zinnie’s). There will be music, food, beverages, and family activities at the Belvedere Block Park Sat. Sept. 27 10 am – 6 pm.

[Click here to read more...]

Cooper Young "takes back the street"

Project for Public Spaces (PPS) tells communities, "take back the streets" -- get rid of cars for a day or a weekend, let restaurants and shops spill outside, and let people use and enjoy the street for special festivals.

That's exactly what Cooper Young is doing this Saturday (9/13) for the annual Cooper Young Festival.

FfOR will be on Cooper in booth 169, so be sure to stop by for a visit. For more info. on the festival, click here.

To read the PPS report on the Memphis riverfront, click here.

[Click here to read more...]

NY Times article on restored Bryant Park gives some ideas for future of Memphis Promenade

Sunday, Aug. 18, the Commercial Appeal looked at the Downtown Promenade – the public parkland up on the riverfront’s high bluff between Union and the monorail station -- and called for doing something great.
Here’s a travel article from Sunday’s New York Times , "Splendor on the Grass (and Near It)," that has lots of good ideas about what we could do.

New York’s Bryant Park and Memphis’s Public Promenade are about the same size, both hold a public library, and both were neglected and fell on hard times. Bryant Park has now been lovingly restored. It is full of activity; not just in the park, but all around it things are booming. Read this article and think Memphis -- Promenade, nearby hotels, restaurants, the Cannon Center,... and economic prosperity for downtown.

Splendor on the Grass (and Near It)
Bryant Park is a popular spot for lunch, which can be bought in or near the park.
By SETH KUGEL
Published: September 7, 2008

FASHION WEEK kicked off this weekend, and even visitors who couldn’t care less about what the hot look for next spring might be will surely notice at least two changes around town. Thanks to the models, average female thigh circumference has been reduced by about half; and thanks to the media you’ll hear endless mentions of Bryant Park, that seven-acre swath of green nestled between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas between 40th and 42nd Streets and that for a few days is the city’s tented center of couture.

Bryant Park is behind the main branch of the New York Public Library.
It has come far since it was rescued from urban decay in the 1980s. There's the vast green lawn, the shade of London plane trees, plentiful green chairs and tables you can move as you’d like (try that in the ’80s), an outdoor Reading Room, a carousel playing French music and the Manhattan equivalent of a Saharan oasis: public bathrooms so clean and attractive that you’ll think they must be a mirage. (The private organization that runs the public park, the Bryant Park Corporation, should give classes on urban bathroom management.)

The park is mostly known as a place of respite for lunching Midtown workers and for its Monday night outdoor movies in the summer — and come winter, holiday shops and an ice skating rink set up shop. But it makes for a great base of weekend operations, either at the (nearby) Bryant Park Hotel if you can afford the $400-plus room rates, or at one of the other, cheaper hotels in surrounding blocks. Tucked as it is between Broadway theaters and Fifth Avenue’s department stores, it’s missing the oppressive bustle of either. Should you hit town on a sunny weekend, you might be tempted to avoid both shows and shopping and spend a good chunk of your weekend in the park and taking in the attractions and eating places of its immediate surroundings.

O.K., maybe not its immediate surroundings. With some exception, the businesses right across from the park are a nightmare web of nationwide chains — Chipotle, Verizon Wireless, Staples, Starbucks, Jamba Juice — that threaten to turn any Weekend in New York into a Weekend in Wherever.

But stretch out in one block in every direction — south to 39th Street, north to 43rd Street, and out toward Seventh and Madison Avenues, and you’re back in New York.

One block away is a spot that even regular visitors who consider themselves avid museumgoers may have inadvertently left off the list: the International Center of Photography. An exciting series of exhibitions starts on Sept. 19, with works from Susan Meiselas (known for her work in Central America in the 1970s and 1980s), Cornell Capa (who established and directed the center for years and died in May) and W. Eugene Smith (who photographed World War II for Life Magazine).

The other main cultural attraction is staring you down at the eastern end of the park: the main branch of the New York Public Library. The library is as much museum as repository of knowledge these days, and in the next two weeks, two exhibitions open: “Art Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve” on Sept. 12, and, on Sept. 19, “The Stadium: Daily News Photographs of the House that Ruth Built,” which coincides nicely with the final games being played at Yankee Stadium and provides a counterpoint to the Mets Clubhouse Shop across the street on the north side of the park.

When it comes time to eat, you’ll notice that unless you count the Bryant Park Grill, which looks out over the park but generally gets mediocre reviews, or Koi, the pan-Asian palace attached to the Bryant Park Hotel, which couldn’t muster even a star in a 2005 review by The Times’s restaurant critic, Frank Bruni, the area does not lend itself to higher-end sit-down dining. So make the park your permanent picnic spot.

You can pick up a good sandwich or salad at the ’Wichcraft stand in the park, but that’s hardly the end of your choices. Tucked just south of the park on the gritty block of West 39th Street between Fifth and Sixth is the beginnings of one heck of a multiethnic picnic. The Kati Roll Company, which also has a branch in Greenwich Village, serves its Indian flatbread wraps — from mutton to paneer cheese to chicken and eggs, all under $6 — to Midtown-worker mobs during weekday lunch hours, but is calm on weekends. And just down the block is Szechuan Gourmet, which won an unlikely two stars from Frank Bruni in July.

Just south of the park is an odd choice for Italian: Simply Pasta. Even the most barely honed Manhattan restaurant instinct will tell you to shy away from this place, which has an awful name and a worse slogan (“A nice place to mangia”). But the place is surprisingly popular at pretheater time, and with careful take-out ordering, you’ve got the makings of a great picnic. (The $11.95 orecchiette pasta with chicken, sausage and broccoli rabe comes with plenty of Parmesan and a big chunk of bread.)

And here’s something that might come as a bit of surprise to wanderers: a virtual Little Tokyo in the area. The block of East 41st Street just across from the famous lions has several informal Japanese spots that attract little hoopla and a solid Japanese customer base. They’re all satisfactory and cheap — and the food counter at the currently signless Yagura Japanese Market is particularly charming in its cafeterialike charmlessness. While you’re waiting, entertain yourself in the food aisles by trying to guess what the Japanese-only labels mean; for the answer, turn over the can or box to reveal the English-language nutrition facts stickers that name the product. (“Seasoning sauce!” I knew it!)

THERE are also a few Japanese shopping stops. On that block is the Japanese chain bookstore Book-Off, specializing in used books. But more entertaining is the Kinokuniya store across the street on the other side the park, which carries everything from a book of Chinese propaganda posters, a 3-D eyeball jigsaw puzzle, a guide to Creepy Cute Crochet (Zombies, Ninjas, Robots and More) and a 2009 Welsh corgis calendar — and that’s just the window display.

There are even night-life options. For partying types, the Cellar Bar at the Bryant Park Hotel caters to a young, energetic, occasionally good-looking crowd. If you’re just in the mood for an early-evening drink, you can stop by the outdoor Bryant Park Cafe at the northeast corner of the park. In the warm weather it’s always buzzing, but that’s the buzz of a homogeneous after-work crowd on weekdays, and a touristy bunch on weekends. The crowd in the park itself is much more interesting, which might explain the number of couples drinking glasses of variously red and white beverages, which obviously must not be wine because that would be illegal.

A FEW GREEN ACRES

Bryant Park Hotel, 40 West 40th Street; (212) 869-0100; www.bryantparkhotel.com.

New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; (917) 275-6975; www.nypl.org

International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas (43rd Street); (212) 857-0000; www.icp.org.

Kati Roll Company, 49 West 39th Street; (212) 730-4280; www.thekatirollcompany.com.

Szechuan Gourmet, 21 West 39th Street; (212) 921-0233.

Simply Pasta, 120 West 41st Street; (212) 391-0805; www.simplypastanyc.com.

Yagura Japanese Market, 24 East 41st Street; (212) 679-3777.

Kinokuniya Book Store, 1073 Avenue of the Americas (40th and 41st Streets); (212) 869-1700; www.kinokuniya.com.

[Click here to read more...]