More on the Fairgrounds

An article in today's Memphis Daily News looking at the redevelopment of the Mid-South Fairgrounds contains one bit I don't recall reading in the Commercial Appeal stories: the possible closing and relocation of Fairview Junior High school.

I am, unfortunately, of several minds on the Fairgrounds. I think it's fine to shut down the Mid-South Fair, for one thing. It's another relic of our rural past, like the Zoo. It's from a era when farmers and their families wanted to get together after the harvest to do some farm-based competing, celebrate with their friends, and just have a general good time.

Today's Mid-South Fair is a distant echo of what it used to be. It is, mostly, yet another reason for Memphians to "party." Another reason to separate people and money, with food and alcohol involved. It's another fantasy recreation of our past, done in tacky cheap fashion like Beale Street or Graceland.

So in that sense, I'm fine with cutting it loose. On the other hand, the historian in me cries for yet another link to our heritage being cut and folded away.

On the gripping hand, I very definitely want to see the Coliseum kept. Even fully rehabbed for the ADA, it's a bargain, and a community necessity. We hear the barrage of talk from Downtownies about all the necessity of this or that plan for them, but I dare anyone to name another 10,000 seat multi-use auditorium in Memphis! For a city that claims music as one of its touchstones, to lose the region's only mid-sized venue is criminal to the point of treason. Razing the Coliseum would devastate Memphis' music community and the possibility of getting pretty much 75% of the mid-level shows that tour the country at any given point.

We need to keep and rehab the Coliseum. Then we need to exempt it from the FedUp Forum's "cherry picker" first right of refusal contract. It's already sending shows to DeSoto; we don't need them killing the meat-and-potatoes of the touring circuit.

There is also the question of the use the land will be put to. Most everyone at the City planning level wants the Salvation Army Community Center to happen there. It's a lot of "free" money that only requires a little bit more private money to make some "world class" happen for the city. But that's the rub: the Salvation Army is a private, religious organisation being given a large swathe of prime public Memphis real estate. I'm not opposed to that, on the local level, but I have to imagine that some will be. Or that others will use the example to press for their own projects on public land.

I also worry about turning over public land for private commercial use. Who will own it? Who will profit? Will the City have to give yet more tax breaks to make it happen?

Of course, the biggest use request seems to be for sports. You just can't get a property that large in the city center that easily. Everyone wants their particular sports field placed there. Will the "green spaces" that the Looney, Ricks, Kiss plan has be slowly whittled down to make room for more? What about sufficient parking? What about just plain ol' grassy, tree-rimmed fields for families to lounge around on, like in Overton Park?

Of course, what about the costs of maintenance and upkeep? We can't keep up what's there already. The years of neglect and "next year" irresponsibility have brought the Fairgrounds to this pass. Are we to believe that suddenly the City Council will awaken to their duty and find the money?

If I were someone living around the Fairgrounds, I'd be worried. New construction is going to play hell with your property taxes. The western side of East Parkway especially, leading to Cooper-Young. It's good, I guess, to have the gentrification yuppification New Urbanisation of C-Y, but a lot of folks will be pushed elsewhere, just as all the destruction of public housing Downtown pushed those folks elsewhere in the City. More than a few people will not be able to afford their suddenly popular location. The boho charm of Cooper-Young will be Laurelwooded.

I think the biggest things we need to watch for are who is going to profit from the public-private land uses (aside from the developers), and from the rebuilding that will start up in nearby Cooper-Young. We also need to make sure that the new Fairgrounds actually provides some uses for the locals, some unadorned open spaces like Overton Park, and that it doesn't just "fit the context" of the neighborhood but serves to leverage it in the proper direction.

Given the present example of the corruption-soaked City "leaders" we are saddled with, I despair of anything good coming of this. This isn't Memphians against a clueless and lumbering State and Federal government, a la Overton Park and I-40, but a massive family fight for control and money. Every side has learned well the Overton Park / Shelby Farms lessons and are girded for this.