B$L - Numbers in Disarray

Time to call a "time-out", get independent audit and analysis!

Sports fans all know that a time-out is a good thing - a chance to see what's working, what's not working, and make adjustments. Memphis definitely needs one on the riverfront.

The numbers are in disarray. They keep changing and the city's share keeps going up. No one is clear what's been spent, what the earmarks are actually for, or what contracts have actually been signed. And no answers have been given to the important questions about paying for future maintenance and operation of the boat dock.


May 2009 Hand-out to City Council during budget hearings showed:

Total estimated cost of BSL - $33M
City’s share: $22.3M
Breakdown:
$ 7.4M City money spent
$ 3.6M State money spent
$14.9M City money, not yet spent
$7.9M Federal money, not yet spent
(Click image at right to enlarge hand-out)

Dec. 13, 2009 Commercial Appeal reported:
$8.9M additional funding request to City as a result of $8.2M in cost over-runs and $1.4M reduction in federal funds.

Based on those numbers, it looks like the design and construction cost of BSL is now around $41.3M, with the City’s share at $31.2M. And that doesn't include what we'll have to pay to operate and maintain the boat dock if it's built.

[Click here to read more...]

Vibrant Riverfront for Less

A letter-to-the editor at the Commercial Appeal had
5 good suggestions for how to reduce the cost of BSL and get more bang for the buck on the riverfront.

Check them out HERE and share your ideas. Several comments so far: make it a deck not a dock; get rid of the “pods/islets” and put a playground at the N. end of Tom Lee Park; convert it to a skate park; make it a plaza with food vendors.

You can add your comments at MemphisCobblestones.com or e-mail your suggestions to us at info@friendsforourriverfront.com

[Click here to read more...]

"Baby, It's Cold Outside"

And the perfect day to stay inside and
read John Branston's "Frozen" in February's Memphis Magazine.

In fact, don't miss it!! It sheds some much needed light on the controversial Beale Street Landing and raises questions that need attention before the City decides whether or not to sink more money into the boat dock. Brandon Dill's spectacular photos capture the immensity and power of the winter Mississippi. For non-subscribers, the magazine should be just-out on the newsstands or coming soon.

[Click here to read more...]

2 FfOR Board Members Profiled on City Beat

June West, Executive Director of Memphis Heritage, and Virginia McLean, both founding members of FfOR, were profiled on City Beat as preservationists to be reckoned with. Added to a long list of women who have stood up for their communities, congratulations June and Virginia!

Preservation is not about protecting old buildings as relics; it's about saving our significant places for present and future use. At the core of new urbanism and smart growth, the preservation movement is about revitalizing our cities and neighborhoods as places people want to be and live. It's why people advocate for protecting the Old Forest, the Cobblestone Landing, the fabric of downtown, and neighborhoods citywide.

Hooray for the work and voices of a long list of Memphians, men and women! Today Memphis retains an authenticity and vitality that is the envy of many cities who have lost their sense of place to the wrecking ball and short-sighted decision making. Check the post out HERE.

Preservationists: Women on a Mission
Posted by John Branston on Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 9:03 PM

Preservation is about persistence and patience in this city that stopped Interstate 40 from going through Overton Park.

Like the women activists who led that fight that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court in 1971 and was not resolved until ten years later, Virginia McLean and June West have plenty of both, as Memphians who have been following the riverfront and Overton Square stories know. McLean is head of Friends for Our Riverfront. West is executive director of Memphis Heritage. Like them or not, those are organizations to be reckoned with.

So who are they?

Virginia McLean is 62 years old, married to attorney Hite McLean. They are parents of two grown children. She graduated from Hutchison School, a private school for girls, and Vanderbilt University, and she has a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Virginia. She once worked as a columnist for Newsday while living in Washington D. C. in the 1970s and has written a guide book on Memphis.

Born and raised in Memphis, McLean is sometimes referred to as an "Overton heir," a term she doesn't like because "it makes you sound like some rich kid." She prefers the term "Overton descendant" for her fifth-generation connection to city cofounder John Overton, a law partner of President Andrew Jackson 180 years ago. There are more Overtons in Nashville who are her kin. She describes them as "the ones who want to make money off the Promenade, not keep it a public park." Getting the Overtons to agree among themselves, much less with the city or proposed developers, has so far been impossible.

The promenade is the west side of Front Street downtown along the Mississippi River, dedicated to public use by the city founders, including Judge Overton. McLean got her unpaid job as head of Friends for Our Riverfront in 2003 when the Riverfront Development Corporation floated a plan for private development of the Promenade to finance public improvements along the river. Friends and the RDC have been at odds ever since, with websites with similar names but opposing views.

"Friends needed a poster child, and I was too stupid to say no and I had standing in court," she says. "The descendants have no control over the property other than to protect it. The city is the trustee. I would like to see it set up in a conservancy."

Despite her historical pedigree, she said the house she grew up in near Poplar and Highland did not have hoary pictures of the judge hanging on the walls. When she shows up at public meetings, McLean is usually dressed casually in an outdoorsy way. Her son has worked as a Nantahala River guide. She's always up for a beer or hunting an obscure restaurant.

But there's iron in her veins, too, as the RDC and its board have learned. Her insistence of keeping the Promenade public has galvanized preservationists and frustrated would-be developers. She occasionally gets lambasted in letters to the editor of the newspapers.

"I'd never been attacked before, and I don't like it," she says.

She says Friends has a list of 3,000 names in its data base, thanks to the aborted land bridge idea that rallied opposition six years ago. When I asked her if most preservationists are women, she agreed. She also believes there is a strain of sexism in the criticism of preservationists.

"I am beginning to learn that I need to take a man with me to public meetings," she says. "They listen to me, but they don't really listen."

June West does not agree that most preservationists are women. She cites the late architect Jack Tucker, Memphis Heritage board chairman Marty Gorman, and attorney Charlie Newman as supporters. West has been the paid executive director of Memphis Heritage since 2002. She has one part-time assistant and a budget of $110,000. According to the most recent available tax form, the nonprofit paid about $60,000 in salaries.

West, 58, was born in Arkansas but grew up in Memphis and graduated from Lausanne private school. She attended Memphis State University for three years before dropping out to pursue her interest in riding, training, and grooming horses.

"I was a hippie," she says. "I grew up in a very conservative family, and I consider myself very liberal."

Her father, a farmer, was a close friend of segregationist Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, famous for his role in the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock in 1957.

She went back to college and earned a degree in sculpture and art history from the University of Arkansas.

"I went into art out of rebellion, not talent," she says.

Most of her career has been in social work, specializing in services for senior citizens, with stints at St. Peter's Manor, the Memphis Park Commission, Kirby Oaks Guest House for Assisted Living, and working as a consultant for government and nonprofit services for Alzheimer's patients. She lives in Midtown with her two Jack Russell terriers. Both her home and office are within walking distance of Overton Square. She recommended McLean for the leadership of Friends for Our Riverfront.

"I'm a networker," she says. "I'm a community organizer. It's what it takes to move things forward in this city, and I'm sure I drive a lot of people crazy."

Memphis Heritage claims 400 members, and West says Facebook and other social networking websites, along with the publicity generated by Overton Square, "has been a tremendous benefit to us."

Just as Virginia McLean doesn't like the term "Overton heir," West resents the charge that Memphis Heritage only cares about boarded-up buildings. She notes that warehousing historic buildings can pay off over time, as in the case of South Main District downtown, but agrees that it can also result in stagnation, such as the Sterrick Building, an empty skyscraper built nearly 80 years ago.

"We pick our battles," she says. "We don't try to save every building. If somebody meets me and talks to me they realize I'm grounded. I'm not nuts, and I'm not a brick-hugger."

Her "dream job," she says, would be working for a think tank to come up with solutions to problems. She said she would be opposed to the current plan to redevelop Overton Square with a grocery store and other new buildings even if some catastrophe leveled the empty buildings on the south side of Madison.

"If you buy property high, then you have got to build cheap," she says, confident that a better plan will come along if opponents stand firm.

The owner of the property has said it is ending talks with the grocery store.

[Click here to read more...]

Opportunity to Protect Old Forest

Great news from Citizens to Preserve Overton Park: Rep. Jeanne Richardson and Sen. Beverly Marrero have sponsored legislation that will provide legal protection to the old growth forest of Overton Park!

Citizens to Protect Overton Park (CPOP) is asking that Memphians stand up for the Old Forest by writing letters supporting the bills, SB 2415 and HB 2563. Click HERE for more information and the names and e-mails of those to contact.

[Click here to read more...]

1 family has captained local fleet and given Memphis proud tradition

Photos of Dale & William Lozier by Amie Vanderford.

For the late Capt. Thomas Meredith Meanley, his daughter Dale Meanley Lozier, and now his grandson, William Lozier, a love of the river has provided Memphians and visitors a trip on the “Mighty Mississippi.” They’ve built, owned, and operated a fleet of boats that have headed out from the Cobblestone Landing for 50 years. And they’ve done it with little support from the City.

After a stint in the Navy, Capt. Meanley, the grandson of newspaper tycoon E. W. Scripps, moved to Memphis and (click read more below) became a reporter for the now-defunct Memphis Press Scimitar. Assigned to cover outdoor news, he became intrigued by the Mississippi River and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his stories. In the early 1960s he traded his press pass for a captain’s hat, bought a fleet of riverboats, and launched a new career.

His love of the river became a family affair. As he taught himself how to design and build boats, his family learned too. “We all have mud in our blood, and catfish in our bones,” said Dale Lozier. “Our goal is to give the passengers of these vessels a glimpse into the soul of this city.”

The boats have delighted Memphians and offered a chance to experience the Mississippi to out-of-town visitors including such well-known public figures as Mother Teresa, Ringo Star and Al Gore.

[Click here to read more...]

Unrealistic to expect local company assume cost increases of switch to BSL

With overnight riverboat companies out of business, our local Memphis Riverboats will be the only company using Beale Street Landing. Right now they pay to dock at the Cobblestone Landing, but plans for BSL call for ticketing and boarding of local tours to shift to the new boat dock.

Q: Is there a need for Beale Street Landing, or would the cobblestone landing we already have, with improvements that would cost less, suffice?

A. In an interview for the Daily News in 2006, the current owner of Memphis Riverboats Inc., Capt. William Lozier, said he thinks the cobblestones are a better investment. “We like where we’re at,” Lozier said. “Yeah, we’d like a new facility, but a new facility comes with new problems.”

BSL will come with serious debt (roughly $2M in annual interest alone) and new maintenance and operating expenses. What will those costs increases be? No one has said, but it’s unrealistic and unfair to expect our local company to assume them.

[Click here to read more...]

BRRRR - Ice Flow

Even in the coldest weather, the river is beautiful and fascinating. Here are two photos by Joe Royer taken while kayaking earlier this week.

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Memphisshelbyinform.com Looks at B$L

Calls for Change on Riverfront

New citizens' group, led by Memphis watchdog Joe Saino, looks at Beale Street Landing, RDC finances, and says WHOA-Beale Street Landing? $$$$

The Riverfront work is only about 20% complete and now is the time to put it on hold, call for an audit of money spent and committed and form a citizen RIVERFRONT CONSERVANCY group to make a plan that has broad public support, contains no self interested parties and with the objectives of a lower cost, lower maintenance, historically accurate and publically usable and accessible riverfront. The present plan keeps growing in cost and now is the time to put it on hold and come up with a plan that makes sense and that is not so costly and controversial.

Memphisshelbyinform.com's goal is to monitor and investigate government activities, conflicts of interest, waste and abuse, ordinances, and regulations “in the hope that a better-informed electorate will lead to better government."

[Click here to read more...]

Setting Development Guidelines

FfOR is committed to good urban design, strong neighborhoods, and a revitalized/healthy downtown.

This Sat., Jan. 16, from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. at the Memphis College of Art Memphis Heritage, Memphis Regional Design Center, and Memphis & Shelby County Division of Planning & Development will hold an open public meeting to discuss:
* Status of the Overton Square Redevelopment Application
* Questions from Citizens on the Status of Application
* Work beginning on Special Guidelines for future Infill Development in Midtown
* Citizen Comments & Ideas for future Development in Midtown.

It’s an opportunity to learn more and participate in setting good design principles. For more info. call 272-2727.

[Click here to read more...]

Law School Opens

Students are downtown! It’s a promising new burst of energy, and the U of M renovation of the historic Customs House on the Public Promenade is something all Memphians can be excited about.

An opening reception will be held this Sat., Jan. 16 to celebrate the move.

[Click here to read more...]