Memphis 3.0 Looks at Mid-town

Memphis Comprehensive Plan needs your input

By Tim Wheat
Over 80 people gathered at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church to plan the next 30 years for Memphis. The out-of-state consultant group made many glossy maps of the core of Memphis and asked the residents to note the things we liked, did not like and what could be opportunities for positive change on the map.

The individual tables were asked to place red dots on the areas of concern, green dots on positive areas and yellow dots where there is opportunities for change in our city. My table choose Overton Park as our main positive in the core of the City, but we also liked Cooper-Young and the Memphis Center for Independent Living.

Most of the tables mentioned Overton park, but my table also noted the lack of sidewalks in the park, few accessible routes and the bus shelters with no bus stops and no sidewalks. We found Lamar and Cleveland areas in need of improvement. However, we also put the Trolley on the map. Not because the Trolley is an asset of Memphis, but because it does not run. We felt that few communities would tolerate the administrative incompetence that would sink so much time and money into the system and still fail to meet simple delivery dates.

I was mostly disappointed to learn that the Madison Trolley is not even scheduled to be running until 2019. That information is from the bumbling group that said the Main Street Trolley would be running before the end of 2017.

Caesar, who was the spokesman for our table, said that it was hard to find negatives in the city that we love, but we found that poor pedestrian infrastructure as the main problem. It is fun to think of the great ways we can improve our city, but it is also clear that Memphis has some basic improvements to make so that people can simply cross the street to enjoy many parts of the city.

The other 9 tables had many of the same ideas as we had but they also mentioned MCIL and accessibility as needs for our community. The downtown area and many streets were mentioned by the other groups. One table adopted the theme of “Make Memphis Great Again!” And they suggested that the goal should be to meet everyone in the city. The colosseum and lots of other Memphis landmarks were mentioned but the largest absence was no one had mentioned the Big River Crossing.

Our table even saw it as a problem because of the eight people at the table, only three had been to it. It is really a bike path and not pedestrian friendly, there are no bathrooms and the rail makes the view for someone using a wheelchair into more than a mile of aluminum fence.

Memphis 3.0 says they are a comprehensive plan or guidebook for growth and improvement for our city. They wish to hear from you. You can be part of the process: first you may call Memphis 3.0 at 901-636-6601; you may also email them at info@memphis.point0.com; visit their Facebook page at Facebook/Memphis3point0 or you can visit their website at: http://www.memphis3point0.com