Whether we want it or not – Council votes to pay for boat dock

The Council Chamber was packed -- standing room only. But neither the size of the crowd nor impassioned pleas to cut Beale Street Landing, resonated with the City Council. The vote was 7 to 3, with one abstention, to spend $29.4 million of taxpayer money to build the new commercial boat dock.

Sue Williams, June West, Lynda Ireland, James Baker, Steve Sondheim, and Susan Caldwell presented persuasive arguments that the boat dock may not work, that federal approval has not been received, that the design has nothing to do with Memphis, and that the general public has many other higher priorities.

As Susan Caldwell said,

Beale Street Landing is not a small public project, and your vote today is important. $29.4 million is a lot money, almost half of what we paid for the Pyramid. And all of that is taxpayer money.

It has been estimated that each year it will cost $100,000 more just to operate the new boat dock. Where will that money come from?

The Med is gasping for breath. Swimming pools are closed. Students desperately need summer jobs. Everyday the newspaper’s front-page reports more crime. Neighborhoods cry out for speed bumps, parks, libraries, crime control, better schools, not for a new boat dock.

In fact, I have yet to hear one Memphian ask for a new boat dock.

My job is to recruit bright young people to work in Memphis. I can unequivocally say, that not one of them is making a decision on where to live based on a new commercial boat dock.

Two of the three commercial boat companies that dock in Memphis prefer landing on Mud Island and at the Cobblestones. The third is in financial trouble and has moved their headquarters to the West Coast. Whether or not we build a new dock, these companies will all continue to dock in Memphis.

I ask you to consider: What real community needs and future needs will be cut in order to build this project? What maintenance will be ignored? What libraries and parks will be closed?

Once built, this project will not go away.

I ask you to listen to the voices of those in your districts. If a new commercial boat dock is on the top of their list, then vote for this project.

But if they, like so many I’ve heard, think there are more important things to do with our money, better and more effective ways to improve the riverfront, don’t give a hoot about a new boat dock, and think we should first figure out how to improve Mud Island and fill the Pyramid, then I respectfully ask you to vote for a better future for our city and to remove this expensive new project from the budget.

Rickey Peete, who championed the project for years, has resigned, but Benny Lendermon, retired Director of Public Works for the City and now Executive Director of the Riverfront Development Corporation, the public-private body in charge of the project, argued that the boat dock go forward.

Councilmembers Brown, McCormick, Marshall, Lowery, Brittenum, Ford, and Swearengen-Ware voted for the project. Councilmembers Chumney, Jones, and Sammons voted against the boat dock. Councilmember Madeleine Cooper Taylor abstained. Councilmember Brent Taylor was not present for the vote.

The vote is not final until the minutes are approved at the next meeting, which is on June 19. If you’d like to let the Councilmembers know where you stand, you may e-mail them at this Web page.

See also: Gates of Memphis: 4 Problems with Beale Street Landing.

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FINAL vote Tuesday -- whether to pay $29 million for new boat dock?

Right now $29.4 million is back in the budget to build a new commercial boat dock for the city. That's about 1/2 what we spent on the Pyramid.

This Tuesday, June 5, at 3:30 p.m. at City Hall, 125 N. Main, the Council will vote "yes" or "no" on the project. If approved, the RDC says work will start this fall.

The February Project for Public Spaces (PPS) newsletter took a look at “Waterfront Renaissance” and the opportunity waterfronts bring to create great public spaces that attract and inspire us?”

Does Beale Street Landing do that? Here's what PPS thinks.

In their draft report on Memphis, PPS says about our current Cobblestone Landing and Beale Street Landing:
Cobblestones – Beale Street Landing

The unique Cobblestone Landing offers a terrific opportunity to create a great destination with minimal investment and infrastructure.

Adding temporary seating, perhaps a food vendor, some public art that children can play on, perhaps a temporary water feature, a spot for private boats to tie-up, a barge restaurant, could start to develop some momentum here and give further clues about what more could work.

In the longer term, inexpensive wood platforms, shade structures (umbrellas, tents, trellises, etc.), water features and planters can help evolve this into a destination where the city meets the river.

The Beale Street Landing will not achieve the desired outcome unless the design is allowed to be more flexible and evolve with a strong plan to emphasize management and programming of the space. While perhaps well intended as a much needed riverfront destination, its expensive rigid design elements will likely preclude this section of the waterfront from becoming a valuable public space.

The design should come out of a community generated use plan and should be more temporary and inexpensive to support a range of changing uses. As this area becomes more successful, it may be that more money should be spent on design, but at that point it will be clearer what the design should support. The direction now seems to be a design that nobody will want and worse nobody will use.

Click here for more information about Beale Street Landing and to access what the Commercial Appeal and Flyer have said.

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