Music in the Parks

Di Anne Price plays the Shell

My friend Mark Jones reposted some news of bygone days from the Commercial Appeal.

100 years ago: 1910

"Main Street retailers have petitioned the Park Commission to have a band concert every Saturday night in Court Square. The businessmen point out that music will induce people to come downtown and will improve business Saturday night."

How lucky are we to have the Shell doing the same thing for Overton Park? Tons new people have been introduced to the beauty of our park thanks to the free concert series at the Shell.

Please remember, though, that the concerts aren't really free. The Levitt foundation is making a donation for the first five years, but that only covers about 25% of the current season. If we want this great music to continue, we need to support our shell and make a donation to help them get great bands.

This year's season starts May 21st. Come on out, bring the blanket and a group of friends, and put something in the bucket.

By the way, don't you miss the Park Commission? I wish we still had that layer of protection for our city parks. The recreation opportunities they provided (concerts in a bandstand, athletic leagues, etc.) were a real benefit to the city.

Construction update

Cindy Buchanan, director of Park Services, got in touch with General Services, which is the division building the new structure in the maintenance section of Overton Park. The building is within the maintenance area fence, but they had planned to run the sewer line out toward Poplar Ave. along an MLGW right-of-way through the Old Forest. Cindy talked to their administrator Larry Jenkins, however, and he agreed to keep the sewer line within the compound (tie it back into the existing sewer lines there) instead of encroaching out into the rest of the park. Many thanks to Cindy for standing up for the park and keeping city government from viewing it as their annexation area for government buildings and projects.

The Park Commission used to do this kind of bird-dogging of projects within parks, and our parks are less protected without them. The current mayor's race and change of administration seems like the perfect time to push for the restoration of an independent Park Commission. Please consider lobbying the candidate of your choice for more protection of our public parks.