Port-a-Potty in Lick Creek

view this morning looking down from the stone bridge at hole 2 over Lick Creek

This blog has been moribund for quite a while -- some pressing park issues kept me busy for all the time I could spare from working on my own career. However, today when former Park Friends board member (and current Overton Park Conservancy board member) Melanie White flagged me down to tell me that a port-a-potty was wedged under a bridge on the golf course, the photo op was too great a temptation. So I'll start trying to post some park news here again.

The port-a-potty washed into the creek from down in the golf course maintenance area. We periodically lose trash cans too close to the creek during flash floods, and yesterday's rain was a doozy. Several trees were down right around the bridge as well, so it hung up right under one of the old WPA stone bridges (the one between holes 2 and 3 of the golf course).

For the record, all that trash didn't originate in the park. Every time it rains hard, trash from upstream in Overton Square and other areas washes down the storm drains and ends up in the park.
Above is Lick Creek backed up because of the debris. Below, you can see that city parks crew was out there working on the problem first thing this morning. Department of Park Services continues to do great work in the park, even though the conservancy has taken over some responsibilities. I'm perpetually grateful to Larry Franks and his crew at DPS for all the time and attention they've given Overton Park over the years. They have a limited budget but are out there doing all they can whenever they're needed.

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.

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.

Graffiti

There has been a strong uptick of graffiti in the park over the last months. It is all through the forest trails, on water fountains, posts, anything that doesn't move. It's always something of a problem, but I'm seeing a lot more of it lately.

I asked Larry Franks at Parks about it. He promptly got a police gang expert out to look at it, and it doesn't seem to be gang related, which is the good news. (And I hadn't noticed any change in the usage of the park over that period, so that makes sense.)

The bad news is that means that some of our regular park users have a destructive bent. So please remember (and remind anyone you see with a spray can) to take only pictures and leave only footprints. We could do without the litterers as well.

Tree Planting Thanks

Many thanks to Park Friends board member Melanie White, who arranged an impromptu tree planting effort last week. Mel, Gretchen Wingbigler (also on our board), Cristina Pinkham, and Ann Foshee helped DPS horticulturalist Richard Beckwith plant 42 baby shumard oaks, which will grow up and help replace the tree canopy that is fast falling in Midtown. What a great gift to the future for all of you to make!

Great CA photo

I failed to notice the photo slideshow attached to the article I posted earlier, but Larry Franks of DPS, who took charge of special trash collection for the morning after clean-up, sent me this, and it's too good not to share. The photo is by Nikki Boertman of the CA, and you can see the whole series of photos here.

4/20 Roundup

It was a quieter day than I expected yesterday. Apparently the police presence this year (greatly increased, probably due to the zoo free day problems last month) deterred a bunch of the usual people from coming out. They had a watch tower in place the night before to greet all comers, and the crowd looked to me to be less than half what it had been the last couple of years.
DPS put out extra trash containers this year. Last year the crowd really tried to clean up after itself, but the available cans were not up to the task. Thanks to Larry Franks for getting us backup trash cans ahead of time this year!

Linda Moore, a CA reporter who always has park interests on her radar, wrote an article today that said the police made about 30 arrests. All was peaceful when Merlin and I walked over to restock Old Forest maps in the Park Friends kiosk and check out the scene. No fights, no upsets. It's always a friendly, welcoming crowd out enjoying the park. I'm sorry I missed the dancing banana.

4/20 Today

4/20 (the national pot smoking day that has become a day out on the Greensward the last few years) has its own poster this year. There will be bands, a huge crowd of people, a police blue crush tower (in place yesterday), a multitude of trash boxes (many thanks to DPS getting those out ahead of time), and zoo free day parking traffic. All in all, it should be a wild day on the Greensward today, so either go and enjoy the chaos, or consider yourself forewarned. I think I'll wander over with my camera to see the fun.

Parks Director Buchanan not yet reappointed

The CA is reporting today that three city directors, including parks director Cindy Buchanan, have not been reappointed yet. Most other directors are being submitted for the council's consideration. There seems to be some doubt if a parks department will even exist as a separate entity. Having lost the independent Park Commission somewhat earlier, thanks to previous council members and mayor not wishing to have any check on use of the parks for their purposes, we cannot afford to lose a director who focuses exclusively on the well being of our city parks. Memphis is already near the bottom nationally of spending on its parks, and we need someone to be looking out for their welfare.

I'm especially disappointed because Director Buchanan has been very responsive to park users' concerns and requests. Maintenance requests have been handled quickly under her watch, and when General Services planned to bulldoze a sewer line directly through the Old Forest a few months ago, she went to bat for the park and got that stopped in a day, even though she was out of town on vacation at the time. According to people who have been on the Park Friends board longer than I have, we have not always had such a responsive parks director.

Mayor Wharton's emphasis on Greening Greater Memphis made me hope that he would honor and preserve our parks better than the previous administration. I hope he will make the parks' welfare a major priority for his administration. The public parks are Memphis' welcome mat that greet guests to our city. If we do not maintain them, it sends a city to anyone looking to move or relocate a business here that Memphis does not take care of itself and is not worthy of investment by others.

If you would like to make your opinion known, you can email Mayor Wharton at Mayor@memphistn.gov