From Rome to Memphis - FfOR Website the Link

She travelled the farthest to attend The Delta - Everything Southern conference at University of Memphis.

Laura Sanderson Healy was in Rome when she read about the conference on this website and flew to Memphis to attend. Healy, who grew up in Memphis, now lives in Los Angeles, but the lure of the MS River and this area are in her blood.

Healy’s parents Bob and Jane Sanderson lived in a neighborhood on the riverfront along withRead more »

Tom Lee Park on Father's Day

The sprinkler was working, people were there to enjoy Father's Day, but Tom Lee Park wasn't in the best shape. A "friend" sent these photos as a plea for quicker park repair and better maintenance.

Hot, but Fun & Beautiful

It was HOT, but fun and beautiful at Randolph for the Sunset Cook-Out yesterday.


Special thanks to Nancy and Tom Ream of the Sierra Club Chickasaw Group for manning the grill and making sure things ran smoothly and to TN Parks and Greenways Fdn. for sharing the site with all of us.

Councilman Strickland e-mails Tax Warning & Request

City Councilman Jim Strickland has e-mailed a warning and request concerning the city budget and your taxes. He urges citizens to speak out and show up Tues. (6/16) after 3:30 pm at the City Council meeting (ground floor of City Hall (125 N Main)).

Click below to read the e-mail.Read more »

Sunset Picnic Upriver at Historic Randolph Bluff

You're Invited!
Sat., June 20, 3 - 9 pm, at a spectacular site on our river.








Hosted by: Sierra Club/Chickasaw Group and Friends for Our Riverfront. Please RSVP by e-mail to info@friendsforourriverfront.

Where is Randolph Bluff?
On the 2nd Chickasaw Bluff, Randolph is an unincorporated community in a beautiful rural area about 45 minutes NW of Memphis.
For a map and directions, click HERE.

What do I need to bring?
Bring a side dish - maybe a favorite family recipe! Hot dogs, hamburgers, and soft drinks are provided by your hosts. We do need a head count, so please RSVP!

What's notable about Randolph Bluff?
In its heyday, Randolph rivaled Memphis as a river port. Until 1840 it shipped more cotton annually than Memphis did! It declined commercially due to failed railroad development, an unfavorable mail route, and the town burned twice during the Civil War. Even so, today the site itself is still so beautiful that it was recently purchased by TN Parks and Greenways Foundation, and is protected as greenspace by a conservation easement for the public similar to the Memphis Public Promenade.

To learn more about the site and the important reasons to protect it, click HERE.

Councilman Strickland on City Budget

Councilman Jim Strickland says the City Council has the right, and the duty, to perform some drastic fiscal surgery on the City Budget. Wrap-up sessions are taking place this week. The budget goes to the Council for a vote next Tues. (6/16/09). Click below to read Strickland's article that ran in "The Flyer" and links to an interview and the website of Memphis Watchdog Joe Saino.Read more »

The Delta – Everything Southern!

If you’re interested in history, music, art, and literature, you won’t want to miss “The Delta - Everything Southern!” on Thursday June 18th. It’s a daylong look at the region that brings leading authorities to the University of Memphis’s Fogelman Center. To see presenters and a schedule, catch a sneak preview of Eden Brent on the piano, and register, click HERE. The cost for the day is $75/adults, $25/students, which includes lunch and parking.

Solstice Hike Along River

Sat., June 13, 6:45 pm
Yes, the hike is a few days before the solstice this year, so be sure that doesn’t throw you off.

Join Sue Williams for the Sierra Club Chickasaw Group’s walk on the Chickasaw Bluff Trail. The Trail was saved for the public by the Chickasaw Bluffs Conservancy, the Sierra Club, and other organizations. There will be information about: their successful effort, effluent being discharged from the wastewater treatment plan, and the effect on air quality of electricity production at the TVA steam plan, visible from this area.

It’s an easy 2.5 mile walk on paved surface with a spectacular view of the Mississippi River - a great location for sunset photos. Meet at the Butler Park entrance on TN Street at the intersection with Butler Ave. next to the old Tennessee Brewery. For a map, click HERE.

High Line Preserved, Transformed, and Open

The High Line project is a dream come true – an abandoned elevated rail line rediscovered by a neighborhood writer and painter, saved from demolition by community advocates, and preserved and transformed into what’s being called New York City’s great new park - "a space borrowed from early generations, cleaned-up in ours, and handed to the one that follows".

It’s the success story we seek for the Public Promenade on the Memphis riverfront and for greenways and parks city and county-wide.

Click below for the New York Times article, some FAQs, and a link to the High Line website.Read more »

Facelift at the Cossitt

The Cossitt is looking much brighter these days with new carpet, renovated restrooms, a fresh coat of paint, and soon new landscaping. Inger Upchurch and her excellent staff are thrilled and invite all of us to come take a look, check-out a book, reserve the meeting room for an event, and use the computers. During June and July they will have a mother/son folk art exhibit of work by Mattie and Michael Williams.

Celebrate at the Cotton Museum

Join the fun and take a look at what Cotton Row means to Memphis.

Update: Congratulations to Cotton Museum on a Blockbuster Event:
Several blocks on Front Street were filled morning and afternoon with almost 200 people from all over the city and suburbs to learn about our city's history as a center of the cotton industry.

"Of course, we had tourists, but the real thrill was having so many Memphians at our event," said Director Carol Perel. "Our grant from TV History Channel made it possible, and we're hoping to do it again in October."

The museum is the site of the original Cotton Exchange, where the movie "The Firm" was filmed, and only a block from Cobblestone Landing where cotton was hauled up the cobblestones to the Front Street cotton merchants.Read more »