The Very Visible

You might have seen the good news that the Visible School is purchasing Frances Gassner's endangered masterpiece, the C&I Bank Building:

Beside the saving of an icon, the Visible School's purchase and move adds to the further redevelopment and reVITALization of central downtown Memphis. Within 4 blocks we'll have 2 colleges adding their students to the same street and into the urban mix. An unprecedented number of young adults on the streets of downtown Memphis during business hours.

Public Input about Dis/Connections

From Shelby Farms Park Conservancy and the Greatest Memphis Greenline:

Shelby Farms Park Conservancy, Shelby County Government and Greater Memphis Greenline have announced two public input meetings for discussion of the design and management of the new urban greenway connecting Midtown Memphis to Shelby Farms Park.

• July 6 from 7pm-9pm at the Benjamin Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar Avenue.


• July 7 from 6pm-8pm at Agricenter International, 7777 Walnut Grove Road.

The meetings will be an opportunity for citizens to talk about the opportunities and challenges that come with greenways and will feature national trails expert Robert Searns. Representatives from Ritchie Smith Associates, the trail designer, will also be present.

The greenway—a former rail corridor being converted into a multi-use path—will stretch from Tillman Street at Walnut Grove Road to Shelby Farms Park, connecting neighborhoods and providing a safe opportunity for people to recreate, commute and exercise.

Shelby Farms Park Conservancy will manage and operate the greenway, with support from Greater Memphis Greenline—a nonprofit organization whose mission is to collaborate in a public-private partnership with local government in the development of unused railway right-of ways and easements in Memphis and Shelby County, and to create a world-class recreational park/hiking-biking trail system.

And from the Memphis Regional Design Center:

Are you concerned about the designs of our highway interchanges?

Then plan to attend the

TDOT Public Hearing to review proposals for the I-55/Crump Blvd. interchange Tuesday, July 7th, 6 to 8 pm Central Station Corner of S. Main & G.E. Patterson

The redesign of the I-55/Crump interchange will have a major impact on the future of the Historic Marine Hospital, the National Ornamental Metal Museum and surrounding developments. Please plan to attend this important meeting that will clearly impact this important Downtown Memphis neighborhood.

There's a FAQ from TDOT on their proposed changes.

Beauty == Utility

The only voice of opposition at the Land Use Control Board's affirmative vote on the Unified Development Code a few weeks ago came from Memphis Light Gas & Water.The utility had a problem with several sections of the code, especially

A. New electric utility services shall be placed underground where functionally feasible...

(section 5.3.4)

I seem to remember the MLG&W rep stating that the aesthetics of the code would be a drag on functionality for utilities. A utility's utilitarian argument.

Yet the mass disruptions whipped up by last weekend's storms (mostly by trees and branches falling on above-grade power lines) and the historic storm data exposed by this NOAA map (hat tip Naomi)

show the impracticality of this opposition. Storms will cross the Mississippi, branches will fall from the sky, above-ground electric lines will get knocked out. But happily, safely, beautifully, increasingly buried electric lines will keep on humming.

Good aesthetics in tree-rich, storm-happy Memphis is good utility.

Begin Again with Trees

If you were alive in the Paris of Louis XIV, the impression of these new boulevards and avenues would be of a tremendous formalizing of nature, rather than of urbanization. The chief device, the parallel rows of trees was a fairly easy way to achieve stunning monumental effects and perspectives with little actual material and labor. These abstract diagrammatic schemes signified little beside the kings' ability to make a rural landscape orderly --something he clearly relished. However, when they finally were developed with buildings decades later, the boulevards and avenues of Louis XIV would become templates for the best of the Second Empire's new street typologies, and they remain models for excellent street sections into our time.

The City in Mind,

James Howard Kunstler
(emphasis mine)

Making ordered rows of great Memphis native trees could be the first, relatively easy step toward retrobeautifying our problematic ugly avenues and boulevards. Even -- especially -- in commercial districts.

Startups, Bikes, Hikes and Unity

Events this weekend:

The Bicycle Film Festival is a celebration of bicycles through film, art and music. We have a great line up of films and events this year. We're hoping to bring together cyclists from all over the South for this weekend of amazing bike-related events.


There will be free bike valet at all events.

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions. Hope to see you in a couple of weeks!

May 29
7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Film Screenings at the Brooks Museum (1934 Poplar Ave)

9 p.m. until late
After Party with Gold Sprints, a DJ and a one hour open bar!
at Nocturnal (1588 Madison Ave)

May 30
12 - 4 p.m.
Block Party at Overton Park with food, vendors, bike games / tricks, games for kids -- fun for everyone!

3 p.m.
Film Screening at the Brooks Museum, Road to Roubaix

9 p.m.
Bikes Rock with River City Tanlines, Magic Kids, The Warble, and Girls of the Gravitron
Murphys (1589 Madison Ave)

Three Days & Great Minds -- All That's Missing is You.

Startup Weekend will be returning to Memphis May 29 - 31, one year after the highly successful inaugural weekend. If you missed the event last year, or are unsure about what it entails -- Startup Weekend is a three-day event that brings great minds together to form viable businesses. Click here for tickets.

Have you already signed up? Make sure you join the Private Facebook group to get a sneak peak at the pitches in advance of the weekend.

Join us to support even more entrepreneurial activity in Memphis. This year, multiple businesses will simultaneously be moving forward in parallel, which promises to make the weekend even more action packed than last year.

Tickets are $40 per person for the entire weekend and includes meals, drinks and supplies. Be sure to get your ticket early because this event sells out and is limited to the first 100 people that sign up. Click here for tickets.

Startup Weekend is a national program that has selected Memphis once again as one of the cities it will visit. For more information, click here. Hope to see you there.

Nature Walk with Citizens to Preserve Overton Park

Sunday May 31, 2009 10:00 am - 11:30 am This event repeats every month on the last Sunday. Overton Park

Meet at the end of Old Forest Lane, next to the Rainbow Lake parking lot, for a free guided 1.5-mile walk through the Old Forest at Overton Park. Kids are welcome!

Questions? Email Naomi (naomi@spiny.com) or call 901-278-2396 if you need more info.

Unity Rally

Support Non Discrimination Ordinance

Sunday, May 31, 2009 1:00pm - 2:00pm First Congregational Church (front steps) 1000 South Cooper St

info@mglcc.org

This is our Harvey Milk moment. We're asking that ALL supporters attend a rally on Sunday to show your solidarity.

Support the right for people to work without fear.
Support tolerance in Shelby County Governemnt.
Support equality for all Mid-South citizens

The time is now. Please attend this Sunday!

It Matters

As Memphis and Shelby County prepare to take up the Unified Development Code, we should take to heart and law fearlessvk's wisdom, based on her first trip to Memphis:

...the physical landscape of space matters. It affects first impressions - and sometimes it's exceedingly difficult to put aside those first impressions. When you drive aimlessly around midtown for the first time, you can't tell how cool and creative the people are or how interesting some of the places are. You come to discover that later, but none of it is apparent from the window of your car. Coming from a dense city with a lot of pedestrian activity, midtown feels like a suburb. Its physical landscape doesn't do justice to its countless virtues - it sells itself short. They say you can't polish a turd, but perhaps you can do the opposite: midtown is like a golden nugget coated in shit.

The space created by Memphis' built environment matters.

That's why you need to come down to show your support for the UDC

By the way, I've discovered a summary of the code that might fill the void between the code itself and a brochure.

A Vote on Unified Development Code This Thursday

In what could be the most important civic breakthrough for Memphis' built environment in 100 years, the Land Use Control Board will vote on the revised and long-awaited Unified Development Code this Thursday, May 28th, at 5 p.m., in the Memphis City Council chambers at 125 N Main – City Hall.

If you, as a citizen, neighborhood, developer and/or leader, want better tools to rebuild a greater Memphis, or just want a better built Memphis, please show up to show your support.

If you're not up to inspecting the toolkit, 424 pages of development code, the Office of Planning and Development has created a short document which lists the organizing principles of the UDC. Given the importance of citizens and neighborhood groups to its real success, how-to's, case studies, mailing lists, websites, etc. would also be very useful auxiliary tools moving forward.