Beale Street Landing - "Frozen"
… A barge crane stands like a giant sentinel at the mouth of the harbor just off the north end of Tom Lee Park. A partially completed iron dam and two red columns jut out of the water. The tip of the park is gouged and cluttered with supplies and equipment. This is the construction site of Beale Street Landing, a boat dock, restaurant, and public space scheduled to open in the summer of 2011.
The controversial project, frozen like the mighty river in January, is faced with escalating costs, pushed back timelines, and once hoped for federal funds unavailable.
Memphis Magazine's article about the project, "Frozen," is now online. Click HERE.
Labels: Beale-Street-Landing
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.
Labels: Cobblestone-Landing
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. Read more »
Labels: Cobblestone-Landing
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).
Labels: Beale-Street-Landing
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 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?
Labels: Beale-Street-Landing
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;