Picking up riverfront trash, one piece at a time

Chad Pregracke has been named a CNN Hero for his commitment to our River. For the past three years, he and his Living Lands and Waters volunteers have visited Memphis each spring. With local volunteers from the University of Memphis (the River Warriors) and others, they've tackled the debris in McKellar Lake and our industrial port.

The scale was smaller when local Memphis volunteer groups and individuals hooked together to give downtown a spring cleaning, but the intention was the same. As Pregracke says, it's about more than conservation, it's about "creating a chance for people to go out there and do something positive."

Hook Up to Clean Up - on Memphis Cobblestone Landing (click to enlarge)
Click HERE for more photos from the clean-up and below for a short video on Pregracke and his fantastic work. This spring on McKellar Lake, Living Lands and Waters collected more than 120,000 pounds of garbage in 14 days.

 

Hook Up 2 Clean Up

(click to enlarge)
Time for a little spring cleaning to spruce up downtown and the riverfront. Lots of organizations are working together to make it happen, so put on your jeans and boots, come down, & help!

Sat., Apr. 13 
10am - 1pm 
Kicks off at AutoZone Park/Redbirds Stadium 
& there's an after party with food & music back at the park, too. 

Free parking in garage @ 250 Peabody Place.  (Print & bring flyer.)

 For more info. & to register ahead of time, click HERE.

Bass Pro to Rethink Road

(click to enlarge)

Today's sustainability/complete streets thinking calls for giving less of our cities to cars and more room to bikers, walkers, and mass transit.  This trend toward a more walkable, livable city has taken root in Memphis, and Bass Pro is reconsidering road options to the Pyramid.

Consultant Jeff Speck saw that the road to Bass Pro was being designed for cars and trucks only and made some suggestions about how complete street principles could be applied. His drawing (above)  suggests a "road diet" - narrowing the proposed road from 4 to 2 lanes of traffic and adding biking, parking, and walking along the sides. There are other road design options, too. Since the roadway has not yet been built and leads only to large parking lots and the store, it could be 2 lanes without parking; bike lanes and walking paths could be separate and located away from the road. 

At the request of the Memphis Downtown Commission Design Review Board (DRB), Bass Pro is reconsidering their exterior sign proposals for the Pyramid, parking lots, and roadway, and, based on Speck's recommendations, modifications to the proposed road design, too. 

Here's a video on Complete Streets in Memphis:

 

Creative Lighting - Citizens did it in Athens & Memphis

Athenians lit up Pittaki Street. It had been dim, poorly trafficked, and neglected, until a citizen driven experiment turned the street into a year-long installation of lanterns and lamps, a place they wanted to be.

Artist Robin Salant's Crosstown Solar Lighting was a big hit and brought Memphis Sears Crosstown back to life. And don't forget the "M" Bridge; it's become our City's best known image. Wonder how Memphians would light a street, alley, pathway, under a bridge, along the riverfront, ...?  What if Bass Pro asked us to light the Pyramid and Bass Pro Boulevard?

How we light public spaces is important.

 
Δημιουργώντας τη ΣΥΝ - ΟΙΚΙΑ Πιττάκη / Making SYN - OIKIA Pittaki from Imagine the City on Vimeo.

For more info. about Pittaki Street, click HERE.