The Cossitt - "Investing in a Sustainable Future"

"To be recognized globally as the city of choice in which to live, learn, work, and recreate" is stated as our City Vision on the cover of this year's CIP Overview booklet. It says we are "Investing in a Sustainable Future." So how does closing our libraries fit with this vision?

For years our branch libraries have been neglected, and none more so than the Cossitt, but closing the libraries to save $2M does not make Memphis a more vibrant city or a better place to live, learn, or work.

Before we close a library, its replacement should be planned and budgeted. Closing the historic downtown Cossitt will only leave us with another empty public building on the riverfront and a segment of Memphians without access to books and computers. There should be a public process to consider improvements and restoration of the Cossitt's historic addition, its use as a library or alternate public use, and, if it is to be closed, an alternate site plan for a downtown library.

Click here to read Otis Sanford's persuasive editorial on why we should save the Cossitt.
Click here to get a copy of Project for Public Spaces report. Their suggestions for ways to improve the Cossitt are on page 19.

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2009 CIP budget – RDC requests

The RDC is asking the City Council to approve $33.4 million dollars for their capital projects in the years 2009-2012. The projects are Beale Street Landing, the Cobblestone Landing, Mud Island Maintenance, and a new Confederate Park – Law School project.

Click here to see the RDC’s CIP budget request.

To pay for these and other capital projects and to pay for operating expenses, the Administration has said they will need to raise taxes. The City Council currently is reviewing the budget. If you would like to contact Councilmembers, contact information is given at the end of this article.


The CIP budget is how the City pays for big projects: a) the equipment or tools to do a division’s work, like a new police training station, b) rehabilitation and maintenance of facilities, like rehabing a library, and c) new construction, like Beale Street Landing. The City raises this money by issuing bonds that are paid off at a later time. The debt service on the bonds must be paid each year.

Funding for these projects is requested by the Administration and approved by the Council for a particular year. If it is not spent that year, it goes into a category called reprogram money. Each year that reprogram money must be reevaluated and a resolution passed by the Council for it to actually be spent. The Council is being asked to reconsider and approve $14.6 M in reprogram money and an additional $7.3 M this year for Beale Street Landing.

The total amount of money requested in the CIP for 2009 is $241 million. That amount plus the total requested over the next five years (including reprogram money, which has not yet been appropriated) makes up the CIP budget request. It is currently for $1.5 billion of debt financing.

According to Roland McElrath, the City’s Chief Financial Officer, the City tries not to issue more than $100 million in debt each year.
The debt is issued as commercial paper or as general obligation bonds to provide cash for the projects. It’s like borrowed money and the debt service or interest has to be paid out of the City’s operating budget. Today 20% of Memphis’ operating budget goes to pay the service on the City’s debt.

Mr. McElrath explained the process of determining which projects are included in the CIP budget requests.

Each division presents their budget requests for capital expenditures for the next 5 years to the Administration in April.
They are evaluated by a committee which looks at the necessity of each item. This committee is made up of division directors plus a few others. They look at the cost, cash flow, legal obligations, leverage of funds associated with project, operating budget impact, useful life cycles, and community service impact.

This process was started in 2007 when the City needed to pare back debt to highest priorities and those projects most critical to the City, i.e. funding for the most needed projects.

Councilman Strickland asked how Memphis’s debt compares with cities of comparable size. Mr McElrath answered that the bond rating agencies say our debt is slightly higher than comparable cities, but that it is manageable.

The City Council is currently reviewing the CIP budget division by division. Although the RDC is not a division of city government, it operates on a contract basis and its budget must be reviewed and approved by the Council.

Review of the RDC CIP budget request is scheduled for Wed., May 21 in the City Council committee hearing room on the 5th floor of City Hall. The public is not allowed to comment at the hearing, but you may send your comments to the Councilmembers by letter, e-mail, or phone call.

BILL MORRISON P O Box 281297 Memphis, TN. 38168 576-6786;576-7011; bill.morrison@memphistn.gov

BILL BOYD 125 N Main Memphis, TN 38103 576-7012; bill.boyd@memphistn.gov

HAROLD COLLINS 1314 Singing Trees Dr. Memphis, TN 38116 576-6786; 332-3691; harold.collins@memphistn.gov

WANDA M. HALBERT 3506 Barron Dr. Memphis, TN. 38111 576-6785X5; wanda.halbert@memphistn.gov

JIM STRICKLAND 267 Ridgefield Rd. Memphis, TN 38111 527-0255; 576-6786; jim.strickland@memphistn.gov

EDMUND FORD, JR. 917 Summer Shade Ln. Memphis, TN 38116 396-1555; 576-6786; edmund.ford@memphistn.gov

BARBARA SWEARENGEN WARE 1636 Sydney Rd. Memphis, TN 38108 458-9406; 576-6786; barbara.ware@memphistn.gov

JOE BROWN 1384 Jackson Memphis, TN 38107 576-6786; joe.brown@memphistn.gov

JANIS FULLILOVE 3320 Morningview Dr. Memphis, TN. 38118 205-4593; 291-1266; janis.fullilove@memphistn.gov

MYRON LOWERY 128 Harbor Isle Cir. S.Memphis, TN 38103 576-6786; 521-4300; myron.lowery@memphistn.gov

SCOTT MCCORMICK 8895 Hickory Trail Cordova, TN 38018 753-6014; 569-7127; scott.mccormick@memphistn.gov

SHEA FLINN, III 275 Goodwyn Memphis, TN 38111 324-5532; 576-6786; shea.flinn@memphistn.gov

REID HEDGEPETH 125 N Main Memphis, TN 38103 576-6784; reid.hedgepeth@memphistn.gov

ADDRESS: Councilman or Councilwoman or The Honorable--
SALUTATION: Councilman, Councilwoman, Mr., Ms., or Mrs.

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Council to look at $ for Beale Street Landing

Beale Street Landing(BSL) started out as a $10M idea to do something special at the foot of Beale Street. Since that time it has morphed into a $29.M public project.

Its need, cost, design, and intrusion into Tom Lee Park for land and parking are questioned by many. Project designers and proponents, on the other hand, describe it as "terraced islands descending to the river" and avoid questions about whether its real purpose is to serve as a boat dock for a "water taxi" to Tunica.

Since its inception, BSL has been controversial. Construction is scheduled to begin on landfill for the project this July and funding for other phases is currently being reviewed by the City Council.

Here are some links to information about the project and the continuing debate. click on the links below


Beale Street Landing - what, where, why, who,... Do we need it? Can we afford it?

Garage Gate, Part Two? The rationale for building Beale Street Landing is slipping away. By John Branston for The Memphis Flyer

What it will look like and Where it will be - BSL to pave section of Tom Lee Park S. to Vance for parking lot and cover section of Cobblestones

4 Problems with Beale Street Landing

BSL doesn't meet guidelines - Plan raises new questions

An Update on BSL - the details including letters to SHPO and illustrations of earlier plans for "something at the foot of Beale Street"

Beale Street Landing Revisions - Project Gets 106 Approval

A Ferry to Where?

Newspaper articles and documents relating to Beale Street Landing 1997-2008.

Information on Council votes:
What's happening at Beale $treet Landing?

Beale Street Landing cut in committee

Beale $treet Landing back in the budget

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

Dec. 18, 2007 City Council passes resolution to allocate $6M for Phase 2 of BSL

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Cobblestone Landing Plan Needs a Fundamental Change

A small group of “stakeholders” met with the RDC to discuss a “restoration” plan for the Cobblestone Landing. It’s all preliminary we were told. The plan, however, has been sent to the TN State Historic Preservation Office for consideration and a request to approve funding is in this year’s CIP budget.

For a long time the Cobblestone Landing has been neglected and allowed to deteriorate, so it’s good news that there’s a plan in the works and $6M on hand for the project. But this plan is not what most people have been expecting. It needs careful review and a fundamental change.

Since the 1980s, Memphians have envisioned an active Cobblestone Landing with floating barges and restaurants. Instead the current plan will no longer allow boats at the Cobblestone Landing and will make the Cobblestone Landing a vast empty field of rocks with a few historic markers and walkways right in the center of the waterfront - not the way to create a vibrant riverfront.

Somehow in Memphis we have quite a track record for building new projects and simply abandoning what we already have. It looks like we may be headed down that same dead-end path on the riverfront with the new $29 million Beale Street Landing taking over all the current and historic uses of its neighbor the Cobblestone Landing. It looks like the “restoration” plan could actually have the opposite effect and instead become a “decommissioning” of the Cobblestone Landing. One of our City’s most significant landmarks, the authentic Cobblestone Landing has been continuously used for 150 years as a commercial boat landing. FfOR believes that any “restoration” plan for the landing should stabilize, restore, and improve the usability of the Cobblestone Landing both for people and boats.

Michael Cromer, FfOR board member and webmaster, has set up a new website with information on the Cobblestone Landing. A blog, the site also gives you a chance to comment and make suggestions. Click here to learn more and get involved.
If you want to be sure that the Cobblestone Landing will be able to accommodate boats in the future, let the City Council know.

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Wetlands will go if landfill starts

With approval from the Memphis Landmarks Commission and the Center City Commission Design Review Board, the RDC appears ready to begin clearing the wetlands at the foot of Beale Street and adding 50’ of land out into the harbor for Beale Street Landing (BSL). This is Phase II of the project and according to newspaper articles a contract has been signed to begin Phase II.

BSL was described to the Design Review Board as a welcome mat for the City, a park of landscaped terraces and islands. Elizabeth Langston, who lives near the river, spoke before the Landmarks Commission and showed a picture taken just that morning of the cobblestones and wetlands that will be destroyed. With the fresh image of Old Forest trees cut to make way for the Zoo, one can’t help but think we’re seeing the same kind of hypocrisy on the riverfront and the real replaced by a synthetic replica.

Elizabeth has posted a new website Save Our Wetlands.
Click here to take a look and get involved.

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Placemaking report on Memphis riverfront now available

"A fresh look at the Memphis Riverfront," a placemaking exercise led by the Project for Public Spaces (PPS), brought Memphians together to gain insight and brainstorm about ways to make seven public spaces along the riverfront more celebrated, more enjoyed, and more valued.

A report on the suggestions from the workshop is now available.
Click here to read/download a copy.(5 MB, Adobe Acrobat).

The report is divided into two sections. The first compiles the ideas from the people in our community – what they saw and their comments. In the second section, PPS drew from their experience and the citizen comments to make short and long-term suggestions.

The March 2007 placemaking workshop was presented by Friends for Our Riverfront, Rhodes College Urban Studies Program, University of Memphis Planning and Zoning Institute, and Memphis Heritage. It was sponsored by the Crawford-Howard Foundation.

We hope you will enjoy this report and invite your suggestions and involvement.
Click here to let us know what you think.

Click here to learn more about the Project for Public Spaces.

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Walk the River with Jimmy Ogle

Jimmy Ogle knows more about the historic eccentricities of downtown than most of us could learn in a long lifetime. Right now he is delighting those who turn up for his lunchtime walking tours.

The first tour focused on sewer drain covers, the second on the Mississippi River. His third,"The Mississippi River - The Land" will be Monday, May 19 and will focus on land along the riverfront.

The 45-minute free tour will start in Confederate Park at 11:45 a.m., proceed south down Riverside Drive to the foot of Monroe, and conclude at the foot of Beale Street, right under the train trestle.

The tours, sponsored by the Center City Commission, are a great way to walk off calories and learn about downtown at the same time.

For more information from the Center City Commission about what's going on downtown, click here.

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