>> I'd like to call to order the parks and environmental committee meeting.
mr. Wilson, could you please call the roll?
>> councilman ford. >> present.
>> chair warren. >> present.
I think we have two meeting agenda items this morning.
the first one is going to be an overview for the council members to, I suppose, watch at their leisure
later today about what's going on in overton park and how things are working.
matt, I think we probably had you sort of spearheading this.
would you come up, grab a seat at the table, and as people come up to do whatever presentations y'all have today,
just come on up and sit at the table too.
tina, good to see you guys.
just name and address and organization for the record.
and I guess, mr. Walker, do you have anything you want to say starting off?
go right ahead, sir.
>> nick walker, parks director, city of memphis, 2599 avery avenue.
yeah, no, this was -- first of all I want to thank dr. Warren for asking for this presentation to come forward.
as both the chairman of the parks committee and
as an advocate for all of our
park x and it gives us an opportunity to highlight
successes as it
relates to manage properties and partnerships and it is a
wonderful example and probably one of the more complex examples of this
and not just in the region
but nationwide examples where you have multiple nonprofit entities
and city run facilities inside the property like overton
park. Like you, am interested to hear this and because of
our relationship it oversees the management agreement or in the
case of the metal museum the ground lease for the property
and, again, we do still operate the golf course that sits on the
property. I to hear a lot of this. I am excited
to hear updates from partners. With that I will turn
it over to matt thompson.
>> I want to thank you for calling everybody
and talking to them and thank you for organizing this. But go
ahead.
>> good morning, everyone.
I have a prepared statement that I would
like to --I have a prepared statement because
I want to encapsulate
-- and the golf course. Each of these
entities brings a unique experience, opportunities to our residents and
visitors creating a cultural recreation hub in our collective efforts
have been focused on fostering a spirit of collaboration
and unity. We do recognize the strength of this lies in our ability to work
together to support one another
and create an enriching experience for all who visit. Others
will elaborate on our joint successes.
but the aim is to make sure that overton park remains a
cherished and driving part of memphis and the amenities
are more
than just attractions but vital to the cultural and economic health of our
city and provide education
opportunities, promote physical and mental well-being and
offer space for community engagement.
as we look to the future, we look at enhancing this
and continue to
evolve the park to meet the needs of our community and
I would like to extend my gratitude for all of the entities that make it such
a special place and are shared commitment to excellence
and passion for serving the community are what drive us
forward so it is with pleasure that I introduce tina sullivan the
executive director of the conservancy who will
share more about our efforts and the exciting
future ahead for overton park.
>> [ inaudible - low volume ]
>> you have
to hit that input closer.
>> thank you for this opportunity and thank you for the
wonderful context. If you are walking across big river crossing
and you get to that point where you have 1
foot in arkansas and one in tennessee, that is not overton
park.
you could travel from the zoo to the playground to the shell and not really
distinguish between these entities managed by
different nonprofit organizations.
the partners in overton
park lane into that and we operate under a shared
programmatic premise that we call the one
park vision and we do know that when you move through
the park, you're looking for your experience to
be seamless. We have been collaborating on ways
to make that park visitor experience feel
seamless and positive in every direction. Under this one
park vision, we have had a strong collaborative
approach that takes into account how we operate collaboratively and support
each other through operations, efficiency, and
security and how we develop and implement joint programming offerings, which
you will see as the
recent summer camp with the art garden and how
we could lift each other up through marketing efforts sharing social media
platforms and highlighting and celebrating
the respective events and functions, and then also how
we might greet you as a governing body together and seek
your help in furthering the
mission of overton park and her partners within it. What we
want to see is a unified vision for all of
our partners are enriching the visitor experience for
everybody who walks into one of our spaces. So now we
will ask some of our partners here to share
a little bit of detail and if I might introduce
natalie wilson and she manages the shell at overton park
and talk about some of the public safety
and security.
>> let the record
show that.
>> good morning. >> good morning.
natalie wilson, 1928 poplar avenue.
am thrilled to be here.
just as they spoke about, we are honored to be a part
of one
park. This is safe and positive, cohesive. It is logistically sound.
there are so many pieces to making sure of that. And one
of those --key pieces is what we call the park
patrol and we came together a year ago this month actually
in a mou with the memphis police department on the shelby
county's police apartment and the tennessee bureau of investigation
and homeland security who came together in support to us to say we
believe in the care of overton park and the visitors who
come here and we will come together every month
to understand --this but they also feel that it
is engaging and how the law enforcement agencies are working and
learning and meeting the families.
it is been incredible.
that is one piece to this one park vision and it's working
which we see the reducing of experiences in the park that could
be negative and we have more proactive safety and strategies in place that we share
with our programming. It is wonderful.
for me being the overton park shall we bring thousands
and for concerts. I can tell you that I see the work that a
family saying that I haven't been to a show in a
while but I feel more comfortable to come and I park and come in and
I see the safety precautions put in place in the appreciate it.
>> can you describe a little bit about
what protocols you are talking about and what has been done?
>> absolutely. Instances such as the perimeter in the park in the streets
and neighborhoods and the parking lot. We don't have a parking lot.
most of them park street side. We do have
patrols on the trails and in the park
and making sure the parking lots are safe and
walking on patrols, biking patrols and it is incredible.
every month, they are -- I can't say enough
about what the police are doing and the leadership of
colonel jackson. They are taking pride in the experience and it
is everybody's park but if we all don't come together and make
sure we expect that experience it isn't
guaranteed. So, yes, I can't stay enough but the strategies we continue
having enough every month.
>> that is with every group here
met individually? I guess the other question is, whether extra security
people hired for events and
things like that? If so, how much is that costing?
>> that is a good question. I could
speak for the shelf and I will let my partners talk about
other areas. For us we have a private entity that
comes in alongside the park patrol who are on the perimeter and
we have ramped up both security entities that are
in uniform but also in plain close to make sure
there is care around the
perimeter of this and inside but also looking at roof lines and
making sure all of the concerts from the backstage to front of house and
everywhere that people are and children
are running that people feel safe and we are proactive
but the cost of that for the shell is roughly $5000 a concert
for our security.
>> interesting. >> what about the zoo and what have they
been doing for
security?
>> we do a lot for security and we do
appreciate your asking. If you do remember, unfortunate events with
shooting that happened, we heard directly from our
members that -- a lot of them live in the
suburbs that they didn't want to come back
into town. We did see a significant reduction in
our attendance. So we have really worked on ramping
up security and trying to create a safe space
along with our park partners. As you know, parking is
limited at the zoo. When the lot is full, they extend
into the lot and if they don't feel safe, they won't
come. The short answer is two years ago we were spending about
$40,000 annually on security. And that is
off duty npd officers and
then at the close of this fiscal year we have
had spent $270,000 on security. I
will say, it is a tremendous increase and we hope it doesn't
last forever. But we do survey guests weekly and have heard directly
from them that they do feel safe at the zoo
and at the park and they see the patrols come through which is the
city and county as a
result of us working with them.
anyway, significant resources, but it is
working.
>> tina then zoe.
>> we mainly limit our private security operation to
special events in the park where we may have a critical mass of people
attending the festival and we need to
manage traffic and public safety generally. That is a few times
per year. Under $10,000. We have invested also in
park ranger staff. We believe that having that positive visible presence
in the park on the weekends when the park's busiest is
an impact and we also hear feedback from visitors
that that staffing presents makes people
feel safe and somebody is watching and taking care and maintaining the
space which creates a more positive experience. And then between that
and coordinating with the police and the sheriff's department, the two-way
munication between them and
our park partners has been helpful getting a heads up when something
is happening and it allows us to prepare and communicate. And with that I will
introduce zoe from the brooks museum.
>> thank you,
tina and thank you for inviting us and it is wonderful to be a part of
this park partnership and talk about the work we do together. My name is
zoe the executive director of the museum of
art and just to talk about security for a second before we talk about
other things, as a museum, security is a huge part of what
we do any significant portion of our operating budget. We also proactively
go out and walk around so we have eyes on things, but we also have been
really happy with the work we have been doing as a park
partnership with mpd and the sheriff's office. We do see them
in the park and we could see the
impact of their presence in terms of break-ins and activity. And then to
answer your question, we also bring in
extra security anytime we have a large-scale event. Etiquette
to talk about a fun thing, which is we all love working together. We proactively
look for opportunities to find connections
between our programming and build connections between art and nature,
animals, zoology, music and there is so much to
do together. It is something we have really enjoyed. Part of the benefit
of the regular meetings both to the
security team and we work closely together on programming and actively
look for ways that we connect anything the museum
is doing to what other partners are doing and vice versa and that has
been powerful as we have cross pollinated audiences
and built stronger I think the more people come the more they feel comfortable
in a setting and the more they understand
the park is theirs and that is what we are trying to do together. And if
you keep clicking through, these are images of recent projects we have
done together and one that we were really proud of as
we cohosted karaoke along with opc and the symphony and that
was a really fun festive
holiday evening. And if we click through again, and
just a few other images of recent things and maybe you can
see in the last slide to talk about the ultimate collaboration
which is this summer we were pleased to
work together on a summer camp and we partnered with
the art garden and we each took turns providing
an amazing in experience for a group of kids so this is a
pilot program and we also funded that this year and
really devoted a significant amount of materials and staff time
to it. But a wonderful collaboration with
the carpenter art garden.
>> this was a weeklong
camp?
>> right. >> what they did is they went and they went to
each program after they were bussed over
one day a week so one day was the zoo and one day was at the
brooks and one day I think and you can explain it better but that is the general idea?
>> we each took
turns taking this group and providing a
different experience so they all get a slice of the amazing opportunities that
are available in the park.
>> with the record show that
councilman green is present.
>> any questions?
>> I do want to chime in.
the one thing, unfortunately, the gulf manager is currently at the course
working but, patrick
is just as much a part of this programming is the partner
sure ships -- partnerships created through
the nature --of the kids that
come through the 25 summer camp programs and have them participate
in things at the brooks, the zoo and to participate in programming
taking place last summer. We had one of the family fun friday
events at overton park and had the closing ceremonies
at the shell. It is a wonderful opportunity
for us to always
remember, although this is not one of the 162 parks that
they operate, but the resources are available to
us every day.
not only are they available, but I do get phone calls from all
of these participants saying, how can we participate in the programming?
or extend or provide opportunities that you normally wouldn't have? So
we are appreciative of that.
>> let the record show that
chairwoman walker and white
are present. Is that the last speaker?
yes?'s -- we asked
to come back and give us specifically for those organizations
a vacancy with the problems are.
>> as we are working together in a
wonderful way as we have talked safety and
security and serving tens of thousands of
schoolchildren annually, we came up with three things for your consideration.
and this is in terms of support for us
collectively within the park. That is
just support for summer camp 2025. We do love what we do for
the children and how they make stops at all
of the amenities in the park and we would
love consideration for that, support for security technology. The
memphis police department has requested we install flock cameras that feed
directly into the npd system and the more we have around the city the better
that they can
serve us. They have suggested that we do that and
they aren't free.
we would love that support and finally for security
in general. It is expensive and we all do pay for
it individually. And we do want, as I said earlier, when people come to
the zoo, they may be coming to the
zoo and we are a big draw, but overflows are in
the park and they go eat lunch there.
they go to events afterwards.
they want to know that they are safe.
again, we have seen people safe --say they feel safe because
of the increased security. We are getting
this, but
encouragement and in shelby county to continue to
support us as a matter of security. Thank you.
>> thank you all for coming so bright and early and really impressed
that there are people who got here this morning.
thank you, councilmembers. Any questions for
these guys? I think we have one more item on
our agenda. Thank you. We appreciate it.
>> as they are wrapping up, I do
want to just say, memphis parks overseas 13
things and 10 leases and one quarter of those agreements are inside this
park and soon to be two of those 10 leases are inside of
that park. They do vary about the level of engagement
across the board and we talked about this and the fruitfulness of those agreements.
so as a point of personal privilege I would like to
say that every single person sitting behind
me here has reached out multiple times
and more so than the contract demands and they have gone out of their way to
make sure that the partnership is strong and I would
like to again take
a second to say thank you to each and every one of them for their partnership,
friendship, and support.
>> thank you.
>> item number two is a question about the future
of the mud island park. Mr. Walker, I will turn that
over to you and this is requested by councilwoman
swearengen-washington . Do you have any
questions before you start?
>> thank you, chair. I would like to
share some pictures that I had taken on
a park visit on july 8. It is on the screen at
this time.
and the amphitheater still has
the seat numbers in there. I was really surprised at how beautiful the
park is. Beautiful. And as I was walking through
the park, I saw some people from out of
town and they stopped me and said what is going
on and what happened? And I said I don't
know but we are going to find out and we are
on top of it.
it is absolutely beautiful and that is the
pool area. I was surprised that the water was clean.
and there is a
thought that the park is abandoned. It really is a
beautiful park. Am hoping we can utilize it
more and be intentional, mr. Walker, with planning
activities, whether it be yoga or many concerts
or something, but some of the activities that we are having at other parks
if we could start with that
or planning some activities over there so
people will migrate over there and enjoy the park.
some of the areas it seems as if needed some
power washing.
it really was a beautiful experience , and I just wanted to share some
of the pictures.
and I also would like us is a counsel to go over there.
it is something you really just have to see
to believe. How beautiful it is. Okay. I yield the floor.
>> mr.
walker, go ahead.
>> I will be incredibly brief.
we had this conversation when councilwoman swearengen-washington
reached out to have a conversation, and truthfully, historically,
the connection between memphis parks
and the riverfront development corporation has varied
throughout administrations. The way that the
management agreement as written is that essentially the city appoints
a representative to interact
, and under the previous administration, that was not the parks director.
we have had conversations, and I believe in conversation
with counsel, they have been pretty clear that the
relationship between memphis parks and memphis river parks
partnership needs to strengthen. We have begun that work
with conversations we had about making sure that there is a more
regular cadence of participation on all of those things that I think truly
are a great idea. I'm glad we are having this phone right now.
at the end of the day, similar to the presentation that you just
saw from that conservancy , they are in this park every day.
and so in fairness to them, I think that
my goal was to get some feedback this morning from counsel and
then put on the council agenda in two weeks
a presentation from memphis river parks partnership to talk about
the vision , what is being done, what is being
done today, what will be done in the future, and what it will look like.
I don't have a whole lot to add this morning.
I appreciate the pictures and sort of the direction of where we would
like this conversation to go.
>> thank you,
mr. Walker.
I think the council, recently, we just placed
mrp p under parks jurisdiction.
can you explain how that and if it's us
as a parks department and national grants and things along that line , what
that does for us as a city? And then I
will take questions.
>> probably the quickest
way to describe it is particularly outdoors constituents
have talked to you about a study that is
done annually. It is called the 10 minute walking plan.
and there's actually two of them.
the parks court is sort of the number assigned to every municipality
in every jurisdiction that has a parks system.
parks traditionally has not been great. Part of that is we are
300 square miles, and it is difficult to
have density of parks.
the important thing about it is that one of the things that
is factored into it is what your municipality spends on
the parks. And again, at the end of the day , the city is spending
$3 million on parks, but it is counted as a grant underneath the
mayor's office and not listed as a part of
the parks budget.
so by simply doing an accounting change to
reflect that, what we have done has shown
to funders and statewide entities and outside entities that the
parks budget looks more like what the parks budget actually is.
>> increasing our score does what forest?
>> anybody that has applied for a grant, there's
a narrative that goes along with that.
a nonprofit, whatever, should give us some money.
and one of those is to show the improvements that you
are making in terms of things like those scores. And so
by increasing our scores, and by increasing to accurately
represent what we spend on the parks, we are telling
other people that we value ourselves, and
they should in turn value us as well.
>> thank you.
let the record show that councilman logan is here . We
have two people in queue. The floor is yours.
>> thank you, chair.
good morning. Thank you councilwoman swearengen-washington for bringing
this up . We visit over there with that beautiful restaurant, mahogany,
that is over there. And the food is
absolutely delicious.
thank you for the pictures of your analyst. I walked over there
about a month or so ago, and I concur with everything
that councilwoman swearengen-washington has set as well.
but I want to clear up a myth. I don't know if it's
a myth, but I don't like to hear things and I don't have
a clear understanding. It's something about $4
million that is floating around that was supposed to have been
given to m rrp or whatever to do something with.
can you explain that, if that's true or if that
isn't true? Was the city of memphis given any money? Was
this part of a package? Can you just kind of clear that up
so we can get a clear address handing , and
as my colleague has said, if we are going to invest or start something,
let's clear something up about these $4 million so I can get a
clear understanding . I need to understand that.
>> is a great question.
I will give just a general answer, and I will
rely on my friends from the finance office and the cro's office
to get more detail, and that I will make sure that a further
explanation is given in the explanation in two weeks.
as a part of accelerate memphis, there were $4 million identified for various project
at mud island. A lot of it had to do with lighting
and repairs, because a big focus of accelerate maintenance was deferred maintenance.
we can get for you a specific breakdown of what that is. The notes
I received from them to be able to answer some of these questions
--one of the last two improvement project that
was a part of that is the removing of the memphis belle structure
and improvements to the watershed walls , which are being paid for out of
those funds. I think that where confusion lies is that the
city council has set aside --I want to say it was $3 million
--for improvements to be made to mud island.
there was a pullback of some of that money in fy '23
, and then the remainder of it was reallocated to
memphis fire and memphis parks in fy '24 .
and so there are two separate things.
they were given $4 million as a part of accelerate memphis.
I'm sure they will be happy to share with you what repairs were made to mud
island as a part of that, and again, there was $3
million originally allocated for memphis parks that was
then reallocated to other projects through counsel action
--prior counsel action.
>> so were those repairs
made? I need to know if there's repairs were made.
thank you.
I see him.
>> I sensed it. >> I see him coming. Thank you.
always ready. That's what I love about you.
>> antonio adams, chief operating officer and --
>> art davis,
chief operating officer for memphis parks.
>> is a part
of the overall accelerated office package, $4 million
was allocated to this writer parks.
part of these projects,
they were delineated out at all levels.
they talk about the packages and the projects that
were identified, and either under
contract, has been completed, or in progress right now.
>> so our city entered into a contract --
direction on the projects.
we have contracted to all
but one of those projects.
it is the watershed repair.
and all others have been contracted.
all of them have been completed, except
for the belle structure and the repaving of
the parking lot that we are in the process of doing now. I
have a list of those. They include
the north courtyard pavers, parking lot, restaurant, pole light, signage, golf,
roof pavers, escalators, elevators. There
was an amount for river terrace. And belle
structure demo , wi-fi, and some work in
the museum and transfer of assets.
>> so all the work has been completed except for the belle structure?
>> and the repayment of the parking lot once that structure
is gone. Additional parking will be available across the mahogany
and the video installation that is happening.
>> okay.
I would like it in full detail to see what
it's look like. After this, I would like a tour of everything
you said that has been done. My colleagues said
that the bathrooms were locked.
>> we would have to check on that.
>> we would like to know why they are locked and would love to
know what the inside of those restrooms looks like.
>> absolutely. >> to yield the floor. Thank you.
>> thank you. Councilwoman swearengen-washington.
>> what is going on with the museum area?
>> last week, there was a fire sprinkler
head system --sprinkler head that was activated.
so there was a lot of water that was lost during that period so there was
prior damage. We had to go in, remove a lot of the
sheet rock on the second floor that
went down to the first floor, so the remediation of that
is being worked on at this point.
>> what is the plan in this area?
>> right now, general services is going to come over along
with contractors to mitigate the damage , and in the course, we will have
contractors move in.
we have a plan to bring appropriations to you this week.
we were just a little too late to get in.
we want to get on the next council's agenda
, moving with restoration. Because they do have a down
effect on the chillers as well.
you be able to repair the lines, and have some repairs as well.
it will be coming out of their cover line.
>> is that a plan ?
>> there is a lease, which is
an interactive experience.
they were to be open by the end of the year.
it may be the first of january. It's an immersive experience
that christopher wray is building , so we do have a lease on
that space.
>> thank you, councilwoman.
councilwoman walker.
>> thank you, mr. Chair. Okay.
thank you, mr.
chair. Good morning, everyone, and thank
you so much, councilwoman swearengen-washington for this . I have
some comments, and then I had a question .
so I don't know how many of you all are maxwell fans, but I have
been a big maxwell fan for years.
and the first time I saw maxwell, and I think the
first time I attended a concert at mud island was to see maxwell,
and the opening act was those two young ladies who had
little duet thing going.
but I just wanted to --I wanted you all to know that. I wanted to share
that.
>> thank you, councilwoman.
>> I have a lot of great memories at mud island
over the years, and even up to recent times.
when people say that individuals are being nostalgic
back in the day, in recent years,
I have attended lionel river, produced by dr. Phil boutin.
cgi entertainment, curtis gibbons.
tonya dyson , she is a local vocalist, producer, and
executive entertainer of the memphis collaborative over and souls bill.
when deja vu was at the river terrace, I celebrated my
birth day there, and I believe it was on a wednesday day and they were
already having jazz going on. And I do have pictures.
the mahogany river terrace --and so
I was part of a luncheon with the ladies several
months back , and attorney mccullough has done
an incredible job with the redesign. It is absolutely beautiful
. And in taking the tours many times that I have been
over there, I didn't know they had a rooftop. We
had to experience that as well.
I guess that said, with my comments and my question
is about the monorail. Have you all specifically
spoken to the monorail today? There
was a survey in the paper several years ago
about how people felt about the monorail,
and people said they didn't like being up in the air over
the water . But simultaneously, a lot of people do like the monorail,
and that was part of why
they liked it. The most recent thing I
found was in 2022, a few of our outlets reported with
the counselor given five -- $5.5 million specifically to the monorail.
can someone comment on the status of the monorail?
>> let me help you with
that, councilwoman.
the monorail is 1960s technology, and it is a
lot like --I have a lot of antique cars.
it is hard to find the parts. They don't
run on a regular basis.
because they look nice.
and the issue is, we have looked at this and
gone into detail about, what would it take to do that? It is way more
expensive to do it and that to keep it going
then we possibly could based on the technology.
if we wanted to take that thing down and
try to find a new technology that my work there, that might be something.
but using that whole technology would not
work. At least that is what we have been told
with the research that has been done.
but the record show that councilwoman easter-thomas
is also here. Do you have another question?
>> thank you , but I'm not done.
I think you for that. So what happened to the
$5 million, and do any of you want to comment on
the monorail?
>> I may be conflating the two, but I believe
that was tied up with the money that was reallocated.
I believe any funding that was set aside
for buddies, more work to be done on the monorail was reallocated
by council for other projects.
>> I concur with that recollection as well.
>> thank you for that. One moment, mr. Chair.
somebody might have been sending me something.
>> councilman jones is here.
>> so
--so in my notes here --
so in my notes here, there were two different
allocations, 4 million from innovate memphis . Accelerate memphis.
and then that was separate from that.
>> the subsequent --so subsequent to accelerate
, the chair at the time did desire
to upgrade and identify upgrades to the monorail. Subsequent councilmembers
did reallocate those funds to other projects. So the
funds no longer existed as you identify. So the original intent, you
are correct . But the reallocations were made to
the project.
>> thank you for that. So the reallocation is being
made to other project. So if a plan was
requested --if a plan was requested, was there never a plan submitted,
and that's why the funds were reallocated?
>> a plan was requested, then the body decided
to go a different direction. And then the funds
were reallocated to different areas .
so that is why no plan was submitted.
>> to the body need permission to go in another direction? Are they
just took it upon themselves --
>> you all are
the funding body. So until the funds are in our hands, we have no way
to act. So without funds, we can act. And so the body
decided to go in a different direction.
>> I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here, but it seems like
there would supposed to have been a plan for these
funds, and the plan never happened. So the funds
were reallocated .
>> the council voted --
beneficial and
cost display too much, and so we did not do it. And we
reallocated those funds.
>> to yield the floor and I need to get
back to you.
thank you.
>> the floors councilwoman logan.
>> thank you, chair.
bringing this forward. Today's discussion --
what I would like to ask , I am really
interested in seeing administrations comprehensive plan for
the riverfront an entire riverfront, riverside .
we have been focusing a lot on what is going on
with memphis river parks partnership, and rightly so.
but I can understand how the money got reallocated, because I'm not sure
if we needed to give that responsibility
to a nonprofit or another entity.
that is something that we need to come up with, in
my opinion, as an administration , council, however.
what do we want the riverfront to look like? What do we wanted to do?
what we wanted to be for the city of memphis
and the citizens?
what is that cost, and how long will it take? That type
of thing. We will continue to piecemeal all the
way down the riverfront, and people come in, they have come in
with the zip line part --somebody came in and did a
presentation on that. And right now, it looks like the river
parks partnership has done a remarkable job with that area that
they have, but I still don't see the vision of what is downtown
, what it looks like.
they have the wharf, and you know, they have a plan
and a purpose, a destination for their riverside. We
don't have that, and I haven't seen that plan.
you know, we keep the money --we can talk about the
monorail and all that, but we are throwing money into
an area or a project that has not been defined, and it is not
phased in. Were we going with it?
and so I don't think it is wise of us , I don't think it is prudent. I don't
think it is good management of the city's resources
for us to continue in this vein for anything, everything, wherever we are going
to invest dollars. So downtown , I want to make certain that we have
a holistic plan before we just start
accelerate dollars. I appreciate the effort
, but because it was no holistic comprehensive plan
for that entire way , it probably was just going to sit there until
somebody figured it out, and then they come
and pitch it, and it could have been
--you know, it could have been a plan, but I don't think
it is money well spent. If you could eke to if you all
have started one, thought about it, if that's a direction that you feel we
need to go in, how can we approach it? Can
you all come back to our next meeting with some information
with how we are going to move forward with
our riverfront?
>> councilman logan, before you got here, mr. Logan had said
that next meeting we are going to have a presentation looking at that
very thing.
>> that is good. I don't mean to interrupt, chairman, but that's
not what I'm looking for. I want administration to come and pitch some ideas,
and we together have a dialogue about what it looks
like, and then maybe include two were there will be some community
involvement later on in that type of thing.
so a long-term plan, like we did with memphis 3.0, that was for land-use
of the city, the more so for the riverfront. That's a great
resource. We have the most beautiful water --the most beautiful opportunity downtown.
so if you can use that, build on that, and
if it creates the money for us and revenue for people coming to visit
our riverfront, especially if we can tap into
our money. I mean, are water.
>> I have been asked by administration
to move us on, and we will continue this discussion
at our next meeting. I know I got a number of people in the queue.
please save those questions --
>> I just ask next meeting for them to
come back.
>> we will work with river parks, because I'm
pretty sure that they have studies, and as director walker mentioned,
for --
>> when we have the opportunity, we will
lay out a plan for an income plan, incorporating
what has been done in the past, and then
moving it to the future. We will relay it out
to you. A conference a plan by next week, maybe not. But charting
a course for the future, definitely.
>> okay. So if it's not, if you can let us
know when you're able to come back, you know, whether it's three months
or two months, we will --
>> we will do.
>> we are now adjourned.