Cotton Row Rehabs

It's a win - win: Restoration of our important downtown historic buildings right across the street from what can be a beautiful Public Promenade for Memphians!

Distributors Holding will rehab 60 Front; Memphis in May will be next door at 56 Front, and Mortimer Enterprises LLC at 62 Front. This kind of sustainable redevelopment is happening around the country. What great new tenants for the Cotton Row Historic District.

Click HERE for the story in the Commercial Appeal.

Shelby County Gets $2.6M for "greenprint" planning!

The only location in TN and 1 of only 29 areas in the U.S., Shelby County will receive a $2.6M grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop a Mid-South Greenprint and Sustainability Plan. A lot of the credit for the award coming to the Memphis region goes to Memphis and Shelby County Office of Sustainabiliy and its new administrator, Paul Young.

The plan will address the critical need for long-term comprehensive land use planning in the region and demonstrate a citizen-based process. FfOR looks forward to being involved, and as planning gets going we'll keep you in-the-loop about meetings and chances to participate and share your ideas.
Read more »

To: Memphis

From: National Park Service
a present to our future from our past.

It's been a City goal since 1995, and on Dec. 12 Mayor Wharton received the good news: the National Park Service has recognized the national significance of the Memphis Cobblestone Landing, elevating it from local to national significance and opening the door for the Landing to become a National Historic Landmark like Beale Street, Chucalissa, Graceland, and Sun Studio.

Raising the historic and current Landing's status was unanimously recommended to the Park Service by the Memphis Landmarks Commission and the TN Historical Commission with the support of the Shelby County delegation and Rep. Steve Cohen. The nomination was prepared by architectural historian Judith Johnson under a grant from the Crawford Howard Foundation to Friends for Our Riverfront.

Our Riverfront in the Snow

With thanks to Outdoors, Inc.

MORE Problems, MORE $ @ Beale Street Landing

Tom Charlier reports for the Commercial Appeal,

Already years behind schedule and millions of dollars over cost projections, the Beale Street Landing project is mired in new troubles that will force modifications to its intricate, internationally touted design.

Click HERE for the article. Photo by Jim Weber/Commercial Appeal.

Cobblestone Landing - WYPL TV Program

Learn more about the Cobblestone Landing on Memphis Public Library's WYPL TV-18. The program is on the Nature of Conservation. Click HERE for the schedule.

Join the Effort - Help Clean-Up McKellar

Poster & Festival Link River History and Art

Dolph Smith's poster links our early river history to two days of street art and activities on South Main - River Arts Fest 2011, Oct. 21 & 22.

The 1st river steamboat headed from Pittsburgh down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Memphis and New Orleans in 1811, but most early river traffic floated downstream by canoe, keelboat, and flatboat.

Keelboats were usually long, canoe-shaped, and had a mast for sailing. Flatboats on the other hand were raft-like, rectangular, and built of oak planks with sides 2-3 feet high. Many had a shed in the rear for horses and cattle and a forward cabin for the owner and his family. To go upstream the boats had to be poled or dragged. Instead most flatboats, called "the boat that never came back," were broken up at the end of their journey and the lumber used to build houses and furniture.

Wolf River flowed into the Mississippi just north of today's Pyramid and provided safe harbor for the boats and their cargo, including whiskey from Middle and East Tennessee. The whiskey was shipped on flatboats to Natchez where it brought $2 a gallon, twice the going price in Nashville.

A famous flatboat visit: In 1828, then 19 year-old Abraham Lincoln, passed through Memphis on his journey down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans.

The Mississippi River Museum at Mud Island River Park has a life-size replica of a flatboat and the museum is open Tues. - Sun. from 10 am - 5 pm. Tickets: adults/$10; seniors (60+)/$9; youth 5-11/ $7; children 4 and under/free.

A Special Treat on the Memphis Riverfront

The Nina & Pinta have sailed into Memphis and are docked at the Memphis Cobblestone Landing. Well, actually life-size replicas of Christopher Columbus's boats, and they'll be here for public viewing and on-board tours through Oct. 24th.
What a sight!

For more information on Columbus's voyage and ships, click HERE.
For more information on replicas and the Columbus Foundation, click HERE.

Cobblestone Landing - A Memphis Icon & Living History

Joe Spake captures the Landing's beauty and the tragedy of its neglect.

History of Memphis Parks, & YES they started at the River

As Richard J. Alley wrote for the Commercial Appeal,

When Memphis was established in 1819, parks and open spaces were as much a part of the vision as the Mississippi River, commerce and cotton. With a total of 36 acres decreed by the founders (the earliest being Court Square, Market Square, Exchange Square, Auction Square and the promenade along the bluff), Memphis established itself as a city on the cutting edge of culture, recreation and meeting the needs of the community."

Click HERE for the article, a concise, fascinating outline of Memphis Park history.

Today, with activists and leaders intent on expanding and utilizing existing green space as an amenity to attract people and new jobs to Memphis, our parks and public spaces provide the opportunity.

2 Experiments / 2 Events for a Better Memphis

Broad Street Water Tower Wrap

&

Sears Light-Up

- 2 community experiments that don't cost a fortune and give citizens a chance to help build a better Memphis!* Click BROAD and SEARS.

-2 fun events this month:

Broad Avenue Fall Art Walk
Fri. Oct. 14
5-10pm

Memphis Heritage Architectural Auction @ Sears Crosstown
Sat. Oct. 22
6:30 - 11pm

* These are the kinds of inexpensive experiments the Project for Public Spaces recommended for the Memphis riverfront. Take a look; click HERE.

Cossitt - Wish List & Library Friends

The Cossitt is downtown's library, and two downtowners are tackling litter on and adjacent to the grounds each Saturday morning. They'd love to have more helpers, or you can show your support by joining Friends of the Cossitt Library (FOC). Here's information from a recent article by Barbara Standing for the Downtown Neighborhood Association Newsletter:

Downtown Neighborhood Association recently added strength to the Friends of Cossitt when several members joined Friends of the Cossitt Library, (FOC). FOC is a volunteer support group of the downtown neighborhood library which is the original first public library in Memphis (1893) and also the first TN Literary Landmark (1998).

Interested in joining Friends of Cossitt Library? Membership forms are at each library branch and also online: www.memphislibrary.org/friends. Be sure to indicate you want to join the Cossitt branch library.

Friends of Cossitt “Wish List” :
1. Bike rack.
2. Smokers disposal receptacles, fire-retardant, on library grounds and at bus stop.
3. Better placement of trash cans on library grounds and larger trash can at bus stop.
4. Grounds maintenance of library quadrangle, especially watering!
5. Signage at bus stop and inside buses: “Don’t Be a Litterbug at Your Bus Stop!”
6. Poster in Cossitt near plaque TN Literary Landmark, rotating bits of Cossitt History.
7. Volunteers to help sustain the Cleanup/Green-up campaign. Friends for our Riverfront and Friends of the Cossitt Library
promote a green-up campaign. They welcome volunteers to help pick up trash and do general cleaning, Saturday mornings, in the fall/winter 8:30-10:00 AM. Sign-up is not necessary, just show- up! Everyone is welcome. These two chicks with the brooms are Vernie Kuglin and Lynda Ireland. Thanks for helping to keep our downtown neighborhood library looking great!

Clean-Up Crew Grows/ Tackles Trash at McKellar

It was exciting to see -- about 80 people, many of them students from the University of Memphis and Christian Brothers University, down at McKellar Lake on a Saturday morning picking up trash.

Just like in the Wolf River Harbor, the culprit is "us" and our litter. What's tossed on the street in South Memphis is carried by rain into Nonconnah Creek and then into McKellar Lake. Some of it makes its way into the Mississippi, but large amounts are trapped at McKellar. Colton Cockrum, his students, and City Beautiful decided to do something about it. The volunteers are growing in number and commitment with long-term goals of a carrot and stick approach: a bottle bill to encourage people to return bottles for cash and enforcement of fees for littering.

Join the effort: Oct. 1 and Nov. 12, 8 - 10 a.m., meet on the Jack Carley Causeway to President's Island.

Dave Cornthwaite on the River @ Memphis

Paddle boarder Dave Cornthwaite made a lot of friends in Memphis. He was welcomed and escorted to Memphis by local paddlers up and left four days later dressed at Elvis. It was great to see Dave and Memphis paddlers use our historic Cobblestone Landing. Take a look, and, if you'd like to try stand up paddling, contact Brian at Outdoors Inc.

Play Tourist - Explore our own Downtown

There are so many wonderful amenities downtown, and Saturday (Sept. 10) downtown museums (plus a couple that are nearby) are inviting Memphians to come explore. Some have special events going on, and all are either free or offering reduced rates for the day. Here's a list; click to check addresses, hours, & rates.

Belz Museum of Asian & Judaic Art
The Cotton Museum
Elmwood Cemetery
Fire Museum of Memphis
Mud Island Mississippi River Museum
National Civil Rights Museum
National Ornamental Metal Museum
Slavehaven Underground Railroad Museum
Stax Museum of American Soul Music
Sun Studio
W.C. Handy Museum
Woodruff-Fontaine House

And while you're downtown exploring our cultural history, be sure to take a walk along the River, check out the Cobblestone Landing, and what about a cruise on one of the Memphis Riverboats?

Trash Rack to Catch Litter

Wolf River Harbor is the place litter from downtown and as far east as Elmwood Cemetery ends up. For years there have been complaints and promises to do something about it.

The Commercial Appeal reports that the City is signing a $902,648 contract with LCI to install a trash rack to catch the litter before it hits the harbor. Work is to begin by next July. Click HERE.

Public Boat Ramp NOT Public

or as it turns out, not unless you're considered a VIP or pay $150 to use it.

ABC 24 reporter Jeni DiPrizio has a three part series on the problem:

• Public Boat Ramp not available for Public Use, click HERE.
  
• Mid-South Boaters complain about new $150 Ramp Fee, click HERE.
  
• Riverfront Development Corporation is in charge and considers it a VIP ramp, click HERE.

Steamboat Company Hires Out-of-State Ad Agency

Strange as it seems, Memphis's new steamboat company has hired a Jackson, MS ad agency. Advertising and branding work must not have been part of the 580+ jobs Great American Steamboat Co. touted bringing to Memphis in exchange for a $9M loan from the City.

Click HERE

Bass Pro/Pyramid & Convention Center - Council Approves $215M Cost

Tuesday the City Council approved a bond resolution to pay for the conversion of the Pyramid to a Bass Pro megastore and the purchase of both Lone Star Concrete Co. and Shelby County's half interest in Cook Convention Center. Future sales tax revenue from downtown's Tourism and Development Zone, which now is being spent to pay the debt on the Convention Center, is to be used to pay off the bonds.

The Commercial Appeal reports the cost at $215M, with Bass Pro's share at $33M. Click HERE.

The Daily News breaks the numbers down a bit: $75M to buy the County's share of the Convention Center, $12-15M to purchase Lone Star, $25M to retrofit the Pyramid and land along the harbor to meet seismic code, plus $63M the Council approved for the project a year ago. Click HERE.

The Flyer begins to dig into the financing details. Click HERE.

WMCTV/5 has posted the Bass Pro design drawings shown to the Council. Click HERE
Bass Pro plans for the Pyramid
and HERE
RAW: New renderings of Bass Pro at the Pyramid

Strolling the Harbor - Public Access in Mind

Public access along the harbor has long been a downtown goal, and with bikeways and greenways becoming a reality, a few "friends" strolled the section between the Visitor's Center and the Willis/Auction Street Bridge cameras in hand.

Starting out on the blufftop at the new pedestrian bridge that connects the law school to Confederate Park, down the steps off the bluff to the lower-level and the TN Welcome Center, heading north on the west side of the floodwall behind Lone Star and the Pyramid, past the public boat ramp to the Coast Guard facility, and linking back to Willis/Auction Street and the Trolley stop on Main Street. Take a look.

Welcome Stand Up Paddlers to Memphis

Dave Cornthwaite and Tom Evans have taken on a big adventure – stand up paddleboarding down the Mississippi River! The goal: to encourage people to be good stewards of their own part of the planet and to raise money for charities and have fun along their way.

Come welcome them to Memphis and check-out stand up paddleboarding
Sunday (8/14)
2:30pm
@ Memphis Cobblestone Landing and Jefferson Davis Park.

Local paddlers are joining to usher them into the City, some at Shelby Forest, some at the N. end of Mud Island. If you’re a paddler and would like to join the group at Mud Island, contact Brian DeFouw of Outdoors Inc. (901)598-0712, Mark Babb of Ghost River Rentals (901)485-1220, or Keith Kirkland of Wolf River Conservancy (901)486-1919.

Before he heads south on the River, Dave will give a lecture about adventure, motivation, stand up paddleboarding the Mississippi, AND making the most of life in the theatre at Mud Island River Park, Tues. (8/16), noon – 4 pm.

Click on their websites for more information, photos, and videos of Stand Up Paddling the Mississippi.
http://davecornthwaite.com/#/sup-mississippi-river/4552135866
http://www.exceedpossibility.co.uk/

A Peek Back in Time - What's under the Pyramid?

Today the Commercial Appeal announced that the City and Bass Pro have reached a consensus on the above and below ground costs to stabilize the Pyramid to comply with seismic regulations ($19.5M to retrofit the building, $5.5M to stabilize the soil on the west side). Click HERE for the article.

As the redevelopment project gets started, here's a peek back in time to see how the land was used in the past.

1795 - Fort San Fernando de las Barranca sat here. It was a Spanish fort, built when the area was part of Louisiana. In 1797, the land was ceded to the U.S., the fort dismantled, and the Spanish army moved across the Mississippi River to what would become Hopefield, AR.



1844 - 54 U.S. Naval Yard. It was built at the foot of the bluff between Market and Auction streets. The soil was either accreted sand and clay, part of the bluff that had slid into the river, or, as historian John E. Harkins in his Historic Shelby County, suggests "dirt pushed down the bluff face for landfill... any traces of Fort San Fernando were in the rubble so deposited."





In 1990, the site was chosen for the new Pyramid.

Steamboat Purchased

The City of Memphis now has a $9M ownership stake in the American Queen riverboat. The 418' long, 89' wide, 222 room boat was purchased from the U.S. Maritime Administration this past week by HMS Global Maritime and its new subsidiary Great American Steamboat Co. which will be headquartered in Memphis.

All overnight travel companies on the river had gone out-of-business. The purchase and restoration of the American Queen resurrects the previously defunct segment of the travel industry, provides a user for the $41M troubled Beale Street Landing project, and promises to create jobs in Memphis.

For some political and financial background on the deal, click HERE for "Daily News" coverage.

For Mayor AC Wharton's letter-to-the-editor, click HERE.

Beale Street Landing "fiasco" - July Memphis Magazine

The Great Mississippi River Flood of 2011, unfortunately, did not wash away Beale Street Landing at Tom Lee Park. If it had, Memphians would have been spared several million dollars and the biggest downtown fiasco since The Pyramid.

If you missed the article in "Memphis Magazine's" July issue, it's now online. Click HERE.