Save Our Treasures

Cultural tourism is important to West Tennessee and Memphis. That's one reason it's important to authentically restore our Cobblestone Landing. Statistics show that of the 10M tourists who visit Memphis in a year 81% are cultural heritage tourists who spend substantially more a day than other tourists. The jobs of 52,000 people in Memphis are directly related to cultural history tourism.

The program "Save America's Treasures" has been a driving force in the effort to protect places that tell our nation's story and one that has funded 1,100 projects, 16,000 jobs, and hundreds of millions in matched grants. Locally the Center for Southern Folklore received $210,951 through the program in 2007 to preserve the Rev. L. O. Taylor Collection of photographs documenting African American life and culture from the late 1920s to the early 1950s.

"Save America's Treasures" is on the chopping block in the federal budget.



For more info. and to get involved, click HERE.

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In Memphis an Event to Celebrate on Presidents’ Day

One of President Theodore Roosevelt’s lasting contributions as our 26th president was the preservation of some of our country’s most unique natural and cultural resources. His speech in Memphis in 1907 to the Deep Waterways Convention is hailed as a milestone in the beginning of the conservation movement.

Arriving Oct. 4 on the USS Mississippi, Roosevelt landed at our Cobblestone Landing accompanied by Gifford Pinchot and WJ McGee, all of whom saw the importance of the Mississippi Valley and a network of waterways linking the U.S. The President was greeted by the Mayor and governors of Tennessee and the surrounding states. According to his biography Theodore Rex, Roosevelt said this meeting “ought to be among the most important gatherings in our history”, adding that the time had come to make “an inventory of the natural resources which have been handed down to us. There is an intimate relation between our streams and the development and conservation of all the other great permanent sources of wealth.”

His speech in Memphis was the first address by a federal official and U. S. President on the need for a balance between commerce and conservation. The issue, then and now, is the stewardship of our land, water, and cultural heritage. It is the bedrock on which the National Park Service was founded.

Today the Cobblestone Landing, which has been in continuous use for more than 150 years, is the best preserved of all the great commercial boat landings on the MS River and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s proper restoration and maintenance as a fully functioning boat landing for the future is important.

Thank you to the website, Equal Gravity and its post, "Memphis: Birthplace of the Conservation Movement", for bringing this important historical conservation fact to our attention.

[Click here to read more...]

Channel 5 Reports on BSL Status

Channel 5's Jason Miles reported Wednesday that the RDC needs millions "more taxpayer dollars to keep the controversial Beale Street Landing project afloat."


MemphisCobblestones.com blogger, Mike Cromer, clarifies the dollar amounts needed to cover the shortfall - what the RDC is asking for now ($2M) and what will surface down the road at budget time in May ($7M more).

[Click here to read more...]

Illustrations of BSL - Where it started, Where it is now.

Here's the location:



















Here's what was there:













Here's what 2002 RDC MasterPlan called for:

















Here's the design from RTN in Argentina:























Here's a model:














Here's what we're building:



















































Tall buildings in background are One Beale, a private hotel/condo project on hold because of the economy.

Take a virtual tour HERE.


Here's where we are now:























Photo taken 2/10/2010. Near completion of Phase 2 with Phases 3, 4A, and 4B ahead.

• The cost has gone from $10.3M to somewhere around $37M.

• The overnight riverboats it was designed to serve have gone out of business.

• We currently have 2 commercial boat landings:

#1 Cobblestone Landing - serves our local riverboat excursion company


#2 Boat landing at Mud Island River Park - closed.

Do we need/can we afford a 3rd?

[Click here to read more...]

Good Government - a 2-way Conversation

At City Hall there's a new commitment to transparency and to government's role of serving and representing citizens. To work it requires two-way communication, and that means it's our responsibility as citizens to enter the dialogue - to let our government officials know our thoughts, needs, and priorities. They can't listen unless we talk.

Here are the e-mail addresses for Mayor Wharton and the Memphis City Council. Just click a name to send an e-mail or copy and paste the e-mail address in your own e-mail server.

Mayor@memphistn.gov;
Harold.Collins@memphistn.gov;
Bill.Boyd@memphistn.gov;
Joe.Brown@memphistn.gov;
Kemp.Conrad@memphistn.gov;
Shea.Flinn@memphistn.gov;
Edmund.Fordjr@memphistn.gov;
Janis.Fullilove@memphistn.gov;
Wanda.Halbert@memphistn.gov;
Reid.Hedgepeth@memphistn.gov;
Myron.Lowery@memphistn.gov;
Bill.Morrison@memphistn.gov;
Jim.Strickland@memphistn.gov;
Swearengen.Ware@memphistn.gov;

[Click here to read more...]

Emerald Necklace not just a Dream Anymore

Yesterday Mayor Wharton, Congressman Steve Cohen, Councilman Bill Boyd, Park Services Director Cyndy Buchanan, Lauren Taylor of the Hyde Fdn., and Hugh Fraser president of Wolf River Conservancy were all on hand, symbolic shovels in-hand, for the groundbreaking ceremony for the Wolf River Greenway Trail.

The cold weather couldn’t dampen the excitement. Smiles were on every face to celebrate the beginning of what will be a 22-mile greenway connecting parks, neighborhoods, and cultural amenities from Collierville to the Mississippi River.

A huge thank you to all whose efforts over a long period of time have made this possible!!

Click HERE for a short, beautiful journey down the Wolf River.

Click HERE for photos of the groundbreaking.

[Click here to read more...]

EPA & State sue Memphis for Dumping Raw Sewage in River

On Monday the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and the State of TN filed a suit in federal court seeking injunctive relief and damages from Memphis for discharging untreated sewage into area waters. The suit, reported by Andy Meek in The Daily News, alleges that the city’s Public Works Dept. has been discharging pollutants from the city’s sanitary sewer system and two wastewater treatment plants into area waters. It's a problem that demands quick attention and brings new costs and stiff penalties to the already stressed city budget.

EPA, State Sue City Over Waste Water Discharge
Monday, February 08, 2010, Vol. 125, No. 25ANDY MEEK | The Daily News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Tennessee are taking the city of Memphis to federal court.

They filed a nearly 20-page federal lawsuit against the city Friday alleging a series of major environmental violations.

The lawsuit is a civil action that seeks injunctive relief and damages from the city
under terms of the federal Clean Water Act and the state’s Water Quality Control Act.

The federal and state governments focus on the city’s Public Works Department. They allege the department contributed to the discharge of pollutants from the city’s sanitary sewer system and two wastewater treatment plants in violation of state environmental permits issued to the city.

The complaint alleges that between July 2003 and this month, the city “discharged untreated sewage into Memphis area waters and other Tennessee waters.” Those actions occurred at “discharge points within (the city’s) sanitary sewer system, which were not and are not authorized by any (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit.”

A spokesman for Tenn. Attny. Gen. Bob Cooper was not immediately available for comment to elaborate on the suit. A representative of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr.’s office was not immediately available for a response.

The federal and state governments want a U.S. district judge to order Memphis to improve and maintain its compliance with all terms and conditions of its NPDES permits, the Tennessee Water Quality Control Act and all regulations for wastewater treatment plants.

The maximum level of civil penalties the city could face is high. The city could be on the hook for penalties of up to $10,000 per day that a violation of the state act occurred; up to $32,500 per day for each federal violation after on or after March 16, 2004; and up to $37,500 for each violation on or after Jan. 12, 2009.

[Click here to read more...]

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.

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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.

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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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