Nashville's Waterfront - Going Green & Environmentally Sound

Memphians have been enjoying the beauty and benefits of a natural riverfront along the Bluffwalk and at Greenbelt, Tom Lee, and Jefferson Davis Parks. And we’re starting to think about the bigger picture of cleaning up the harbor and creating a greenway around the harbor, along the waterfront, and a walkway/pathway to cross the Mississippi.

Now Nashville is jumping on the bandwagon. They’ve looked at Chattanooga and Louisville and seen the enormous benefits of waterfront parks. In Louisville the 85-acre riverside park is attracting a million people a year, and Nashville doesn’t want to miss the opportunity.


They've started to view the Cumberland River as a natural asset and a greener, people-friendly waterfront as the goal. A 6.5 acre play park on the river’s east bank will open this summer. But that’s just for starters. The future plan for 32-acres of Nashville’s waterfront includes environmental clean-up, trails, lawns, and an urban forest.



Click here for the article in the Tennessean.

Dumping apparently OK


Photo/essay by Dave Darnell, Commercial Appeal 2/20/2011.

This junked truck, or whatever it once was, sits next to a "No Parking" sign on the cobblestones near the Memphis Queen Lines boats on the riverfront. The cobblestones, which for many years offered free parking for Downtown workers, have been off limits for that purpose for some time, but these remains apparently fall under a different rule.


The city, the riverfront, the Cobblestone Landing deserve better.

Going Natural on the Riverfront

In a Feb 4 letter to the Commercial Appeal, Alicia King explains what Memphians and tourists enjoy about a natural riverfront and its setting: People playing ball and outdoor games, families picnicking in warm weather or sledding in the snow, walkers, runners, bikers, children. She describes Greenbelt Park along the Mississippi River on Mud Island, a park that has no artificial attractions, same as our highly popular Tom Lee Park on Riverside Drive.


The main attraction is the river itself and plenty of open space for all the people who come to enjoy it just the way it is: natural and free. What a welcome breath of fresh air it is!

Celebrate Valentine’s Day near the River with the Memphis Symphony


There are so many things to love downtown – plays, music, restaurants, sports, history,... - and they're all near the Mighty River.

Why not sit next to your sweetheart near the Mississippi at the Cannon Center and celebrate Valentine's Day with music from West Side Story, Gone with the Wind, and Doctor Zhivago?

"In the Mood" Valentine Pops Concert, Sat. Feb. 12 at 8 pm. Cannon Center for the Performing Arts. 255 N Main. (901) 576-1269.

Walking/Biking Across the Mighty Mississippi

A great project to extend the greenline across the Mississippi!

A huge thank you to all involved.

Mistake Memphis Escaped

Denise Scott Brown, one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century, talks about her work in Memphis --
* the beauty of our riverfront,
* the incredible sense of history on the Memphis Cobblestone Landing, and
* how we barely escaped the mistake of building a freeway across them.

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Louisville Wasn't so Lucky

Today an expressway cuts off downtown Louisville from the Ohio River and their Waterfront Park.

Park Becomes Parking Lot

Strange as it seems, in Memphis parking for cars still beats out parks for people on our waterfront.

The levelled, football field-size area in Tom Lee Park is not a skate park, playground, or outdoor terrace under construction. It's a chunk of park on its way to becoming a new parking lot for Beale Street Landing.











Except for a tenth of a mile, the west side of Riverside Drive will be lined with parking lots.















Two City-owned parking garages, built in the 1950s, stand on and block our riverbluff promenade. Now we're repeating the mistake in Tom Lee Park. Even with public parking and trolley stops nearby, a waterfront park for people is beoming a parking lot for cars, not something normally associated with a project billed as "world class."

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