Maintenace Area Pondered

St. Jude wants to take over the downtown city/general services maintenance area near its campus, and the city is beginning to think about moving both it and the one in Overton Park to one consolidated location. The zoo has ideas about what might be a good use for that space. They want overflow parking first and foremost.

I think a better plan would be to have them build a garage (instead of continuing to add surface asphalt to the park) in their current staff parking/maintenance area, inside the current zoo footprint, and let them use a part of the maintenance area for greenhouses or whatever they need (provided they provide much more appropriate screening for other park users than they have been willing to along their other park boundary fences) and keep most of that area for park. Jimmy Jalenak of the zoo has been actively promoting this plan, but the tricky bit is finding funds for a parking garage (which is never as high on the zoo's list of priorities for its money as the new, sparkly exhibits).

The current masterplan has a second greensward in the Southeast corner of the park, and we need more free, open space in the park. Maybe we could put up soccer goals again, since the zoo never returned the ones to the Greensward that they removed for parking. Soccer was a highly popular activity until we lost the goals.

The CA has an article beginning the pubic debate. Let your voice be heard by the city!

Proposed Memphis Belle Memorial

A while ago the city administration signed a contract to allow the Memphis Belle Memorial Association to build a monument to the Belle adjacent to Veterans Plaza, between the Doughboy and the Korean memorial (at the zoo end). No park groups were consulted at that point, but I heard about it when they submitted their first design for review, and Parks Director Cindy Buchanan decided to form a review committee for Veterans Plaza in general, beginning with this project. It includes Cindy, me, Larry Franks (also DPS), Ritchie Smith, who designed the master plan for Overton Park, and John Weeden of Urban Art.

Their original proposal was a 40x20 foot concrete pad with a life-sized statue of Margaret Polk (the Belle herself) and a nine foot high granite "billboard" with information. We all felt that was too large, and they came back recently with the following proposal. It contains the life-sized bronze still, with a plaque that is laid back at a bit of an angle (unlike the current memorial plaques in the plaza), but it is still 4'2" high. The current ones are 5'5" high and feel far too high to me. They make something of a barrier to the views.

These are the drawings for the monument itself. They have proposed sidewalks on four sides, which would still mean a lot of concrete around it, but I hope we can reduce that.

The top drawing is the side view as you approach the monument from the plaza, walking past the Doughboy. You can see that the plaque is set at an angle, to be a little lower (if not a lot).

Below is the front of the monument, as seen directly from the plaza with the Greensward behind. The large bronze plaque will be a photo of the plane and crew.


This is the side view, seen from the zoo end of things.
There will be more historical information and a timeline in bronze on the back, facing the Greensward.

I am nervous about continuing to add things to Veterans Plaza, knowing that we also have two current wars underway and that the plaza is getting very full. We need to make sure that we don't get it too full (or worse, spill out into the rest of the park with such monuments), but it's a place that is very dear to the veterans of this community.

Anyway, here are the plans as they stand, and I thought it was time to at least get them out to be seen and have a public discussion if one is wanted. The Memphis Belle Association plans a groundbreaking at 11 am on Saturday, November 13th.

First Bicycle/Pedestrian coordinator for Memphis

Memphis has its first bicycle/pedestrian coordinator, finally, and I hope that smart growth and walkability will get more attention from the city now. Midtown needs a few north/south protected bike lanes to get people safely across Union/Poplar/Central.

The last time I asked one of the city engineers about a bike lane up Cooper all the way to Overton Park (they're planning one for further south, but they're not going to tie it in to the park), he responded that there is no sidewalk going in to the park from Cooper, and they didn't want to do a bike lane that far only to dump people on Poplar. That seems incredibly short-sighted to me, though I'm also frustrated that DPS has not taken the southern neighborhoods more into account for getting into the park. Lots of small areas funnel north to the park along Cooper, and there is no excuse not to have a sidewalk available there for strollers, kids' bikes, wheelchairs, etc.

Maybe the new coordinator can get that whole area properly taken care of.

Article on Memphis

Memphis, with a nice section on Overton Park and a tour around Midtown and Downtown, is the subject of this neat travel article in the Washington Post. It's about a new running tour of Memphis, for joggers who travel here and would like to see the city on foot. John Lintner, a Breakaway running employee (supporters of the park), and his wife Crissy started the company to help combat the image of Memphis as a fat, sedentary city. Good for them for highlighting our park and recreation side of things!

Flooding Meeting update

Here's a good update of the sanitary sewer meeting sponsored by the Lick Creek Coalition (including Park Friends) last night at Evergreen Presbyterian. This subject wasn't directly related to the storm water flooding that threatens the park (or the misguided solutions offered by the city so far do), but it's a related issue that is affecting various neighborhoods bordering the park. The coalition is working together (neighborhoods and park groups) to solve all the flooding issues in the Lick Creek basin.

The update came out with the Evergreen Historic District news today. Both Chris Morton and Bill Bullock of Evergreen were planners for the sanitary sewer meeting.

"Last night several dozen midtowners met at Evergreen Presbyterian Church to learn about plans for resolving the causes of sanitary sewer backups in basements during heavy rain events. Public Works Director Dwan Gillion was on hand with his staff to address issues. Also on the agenda was a representative of the Tennessee Clean Water Coalition, and a presentation of the data collected so far from affected Midtowners.

If you have had issues and filled out a survey, that information will be shared with Public Works to help them pinpoint the trouble areas and design and implement solutions. Public Works indicated they have been performing "smoke surveys" to locate breeches in the sanitary and storm sewers. If you have yet to fill out a survey, fill it out and send it in soon- it will presented to Public Works in a few days. To download a copy of the survey, click here.

Director Gilliom and staff indicated that the solution will require an assessment of the specific problems which they are doing now, the hiring of a consulting engineering firm to design the solutions, and then the implementation of those solutions which may include realigning existing pipe, lining existing pipe with a "cured in place" product, or replacing pipe. There was an indication that such fixes may take as long as two years from now.

Most evidence points to these issues being caused by breaches in storm and sanitary sewers in city owned right-of-way. However, Director Gilliom noted that some issues may be exacerbated by issues with a homeowner's service line - the sewer line from the road right-of-way into the house. He recommended making sure all clean-out caps in yards are in place. He also advised than any repairs to that line are the homeowner's responsibility. A clean-out cap is usually a 5 inch diameter metal or PVC threaded covering over a sewer pipe in your front, back or side yard. If it is missing, storm water or other foreign material can enter your service line."

Play Overton

The golf clubhouse is open for business, and it's not just for golfers. Overton is still lagging in rounds played and concessions sold, so please stop in to the clubhouse, have a soda or a beer, and sit on the lovely porch and watch the park go by for a few minutes.

We have several Park Friend members who are paying for a round of golf a week, whether they play or not. It's only $7 per round (another $7 to rent a cart), and only $4 a round if you're a senior.

You can also pick up one of our "Play Overton" stickers for your car.

The publicity about closing the golf course went away (for now), but we need to get the numbers up to keep making a strong case to the city council that Overton Park is an important course for the city to invest in and keep open.

There's a new foreman on the course who's been improving the greens and the roughs, so if you haven't played in a while, PLAY OVERTON and check it out!

Currently the course and clubhouse are open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, but Park Friends and Councilman Kemp Conrad, who's taken an interest in the course, are encouraging DPS to give it a trial period of seven days a week for September and October. Audubon is closed for renovations, and the weather will break any time now, so it's a great time to test our numbers out at seven days a week.

Skatepark at Tobey!

Finally Memphis is joining the rest of the country and getting a skatepark. I'm glad to see our recreation reaching out to more youth. The skatepark will be in Tobey Park, near the fairgrounds, where the new dog park already is. It's nice to see Tobey get some attention and amenities, and hopefully it will continue to benefit from the fairground redevelopment. You can read the full CA article here.