Quote:
Originally Posted by photoLith
On another note, I hope this restoration of the cobblestones maintaines their historic character and they don't change it up too much.Its amazing that the cobblestone landing has survived this long. New Orleans doesn't have one, st Louis doesn't have it's left so it's important that Memphis keeps it as intact as possible. There's only one other historic cobblestone landing that I've seen on the Mississippi, and it was in Helena Arkansas. Cairo still might have one but both Helena and Cairo are so far gone and screwed that it doesn't even really matter.
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We'll see what happens regarding the cobblestones. The main reason why Memphis still has the cobble stone landing as well as the huge historic building stock is the lack of development, which now is a good thing, but put a choke hold on Downtown Memphis, while other downtowns were booming. You sometimes here people say Memphis is stuck in 1968 and that when MLK was assassinated the city stopped growing, and its somewhat true.
As far as riverfront development now, Memphis is trying to catch up and is failing miserably. The city has invested $42 million into Beale Street Landing, which was supposed to be a $21 million investment. It was supposed to be completed already, but is way behind. The landing is supposed to house the new American Queen riverboat, which the city loaned $9 million. The riverboat is only going to be in Memphis 9 times a year, and the average cruise on the riverboat is $1,200. Dumb investment, but w/e. I don't know who would pay that money to cruise on the Mississippi, when you could pay 1/4 of that a year in advance and go wherever you want in the Caribbean.
Anyways, here are some photos of what's supposed to be there, and what is actually there now:
Figured I would include this rendering, including One Beale, which is now shelved.
^Both of those are from river.freshbits.com
And these are from April 27 at the "Grand Opening" with the landing way behind...I've heard everywhere from 3 months to a year, but I visited back in October, and not much more had been done between then and April.
That's not a lot of bang for your buck, imo. Sorry I don't have any recent photos of the structure which is to house ticket offices, lounges, and a restaurant.
Here's a video from ABC 24 news with a video that shows the unfinished structure.
http://www.abc24.com/news/local/stor...XGBnNWHrA.cspx
I was actually on the news that night at 10 when a friend and myself were interviewed about the landing, but they didn't post that video on their site. I pretty much said that it was nice to have development coming to the riverfront, but it was far too expensive when other issues in the city need to be addressed.
Anyways, I'm done ranting.