Often, it seems that many elected officials overcomplicate things.
What the public really wants more than anything is for government to get the basics right. It’s just so hard to have confidence in government when it can’t.
That level of confidence downtown has been eroded by the sorry state of Main Street, pockmarked with amateurish and unsightly plywood repairs to the grates along the trolley tracks, paver bricks shattered more than 15 years ago from cars driving over them, and the generally sad state of downtown’s main drag.
A few years ago, we walked from Poplar to Peabody Place and counted 59 plywood patches along Main Street, and some of them were eight feet long. All in all, things had gotten to the point that it was embarrassing to walk a visitor to Memphis down the street.
And all of this existed while city leaders rhapsodically talked about the “renaissance of downtown Memphis.” Finally, things are changing for the better, thanks to the Main to Main project.
Fulfilling The Pledge
It is a sad irony in Memphis that most improvements are made only when there is money from some place other than City of Memphis. While the city needs investment in so many ways, especially for maintenance for everything from Mud Island to downtown sidewalks and streetscapes and from neighborhood streets and sidewalks to public facilities all over the city, it often takes grants from federal or state government to improve things while more and more city money is put in larger police budgets or the notion of a higher standard of public space is treated as a luxury.
While the Main to Main project is exciting and produces an asset that will bring national attention to Memphis, what has excited us more have been the plans to improve Main Street. That’s why we wrote two years ago: “By far, the most exciting part of the ‘Main to Main Multi-Modal Connector Project’ for us is that it is supposed to fix the eyesores and poor maintenance that have plagued Main Street for more than 15 years, sending the message that Memphis is a city that doesn’t really care for itself.”
At the time, Paul Morris, president of Downtown Memphis Commission, pledged that as part of the project, whose main feature is the pedestrian/bike connection across the Mississippi River via the Harahan Bridge, the condition of Main Street would be a priority.
That pledge now appears to be in the process of being fulfilled. Already, Main Street looks better – the embarrassing boards covering the ineffective drainage system have been removed, and replaced with a system that works and requires no maintenance – and according to Mr. Morris, more is on the way.
Progress Report
Asked for an update, he wrote us: “The project is almost complete on North Main through the Pinch and Uptown, with new or repaired sidewalks, ADA ramp curb cuts, pedestrian bump outs, and new landscaping. If you remember, the condition of North Main Street was deplorable before, with missing sidewalks or broken sidewalks being the norm.
“We’ve just recently turned on new, pretty, bright lights on Main under I-40 to help make the walk nicer between the Pinch and the Convention Center. (We also installed some cool new lights under the rail overpass on Carolina just west of Main.)
“South Main Street, south of Talbot, is nearly done, with new or repaired sidewalks, repaved street (except the few feet between each set of trolley tracks), ADA ramp curb cuts, pedestrian bump outs, new benches, and new landscaping. North of Talbot will get the same treatment as part of this latest contract. And the new contract will fix the few feet between each set of trolley tracks.
“We’ve removed about a dozen dead, dying or inappropriate street trees and replaced them with new trees. After a design adjustment, we saved all the big, shading trees along the Mall, which means we are making some of the tree wells larger to accommodate them.
Reason to Celebrate
“We will be fixing loose or missing pavers on the Mall as well as building and designating an ADA route along the Mall that will be easy for wheelchairs, bikes, and strollers to negotiate. L ED lighting will be installed up and down the Main Street Mall as part of the new contract.
“As part of Main-to-Main, Civic Center Plaza in front of City Hall has gotten new landscaping and will be getting major drainage improvements to prevent flooding in City Hall, which has been a major problem.”
There are an awful lot of good things going on downtown, and while progress is slow and uneven, there’s no question for us that improvements to Main Street are reason enough to celebrate. Finally, Main Street has been made the main thing.
I work in that area and can vouch that North Main is still in pretty poor shape. The repairs have fixed the obvious visible stuff, but the entire stretch of street is still unattractive with very little street vibrancy, even on week days. The lack of office workers doesn’t help. The trolley fiasco makes things worse.
Downtown and North Main still have a very long way to go!
I know one thing…..with the NBA playoffs approaching, and the Grizzlies potentially having home court advantage, a lot of national media and out of towner’s will be in the city. Can’t our city government at least create a task force to perform hourly sweeps in the downtown core to collect trash. Also, the city median strips throughout the city look absolutely HORRIBLE. Over grown with grass and weeds and its only April. (Germantown pkwy, Sam Cooper, Shelby Drive, etc etc).
Yes. The medians and sides of the interstates and major roads are absolutely filthy. Driving into town from the airport is a disgrace. Lamar Avenue is among the worst of all and Sam Cooper Pkwy is horrible.
I agree that the drive from the airport into downtown (or the other direction to E. Mem) doesn’t look good. I wonder if this is supposed to be part of the “Grit and Grind” marketing that we hear so much about
THe message seems to be very mixed. One day you’ll hear people trumpeting about how gritty and unrefined Memphis is, then the next you’ll hear from the very same people about how shabby and rundown it looks.
Overall, public works in all of Memphis is poor. I agree about the litter and trash on roads and highways and in the many vacant lots. The many blighted buildings do not help. This says a lot about the state of the city and the lack of pride city govt and citizens have in the city. In my opinion, gritty, unrefined, shabby and rundown all mean the same thing. Bad.
Smart City,
Why must we wait on Federal dollars in Memohis to repair streets and sidewalks?
Is it legal for Memohis to have ADA non-compliant sidewalks?
Will you commit to making Smart City a forum for candidates for public office this election cycle?
Guest editorials, tough q&a questionnaires and I think the current conditions of our public spaces is a great place to start.
“Do you support a city issued bond to pay for making our sidewalks ADA compliant and for repaving our streets”
Of course since non-compliance of ADA statues is illegal maybe a local lawyer can just file suit.
Sad….I called Public Works regarding the city’s under maintained medians…they referred me to 311. Called 311, and they can only take two claims per call. So I asked the operator why doesn’t the city just send out crews, city wide, every 2-3 weeks to cut the grass/pick up trash in all the medians….she had no answer.
Sadly, I gave them Germantown Pkwy/Trinity Rd & EastPwky/Poplar.
TDOT maintains all exit ramps/expressways in the area, so you also have to call for that too….shameful.
TWISTED ANKLE, SOUTH MAIN STREET MEMPHIS
I ended up in a wheel chair having fallen on uneven paving outside 387 South Main Street near the Civil Rights Museum. The stupid thing is that the paving in this stretch was in a good state of repair but it had deliberately been made on two levels and when looking from above when you can’t see any shadow cast the paving looks level and I put my unsuspecting foot right on the split and I went over severely twisting my ankle. I was on holiday from the UK and the next day I was due to travel by train to New Orleans. I managed to get a taxi with my wife back to the hotel and just hoped I would be alright in the morning. Fortunately I was able with assistance to limp onto the train. But on arriving at New Orleans it got so bad that I couldn’t even put my foot down and had to use the hotel wheelchair for about 24 hours. I thought I was going to have to cancel our cruise but I was determined to try and overcome the pain and the next day was able to limp onto the boat. Walking awkwardly with the foot then caused my back to be painful. Now home a month later I’m much better but my foot still catches me now and then. What stupid planner designed the lethal paving at this location?