Green Space

One of the things I love about Memphis is the fact that it is so green. Not in the new conotation of the word meaning we have hybrid buses (although we do), recycle everything possible (we are making progress), people share rides, ride bikes, etc. Yo but in the sense that overall there are a lot of plants (trees, grass, shrubs, vines, you name it). this time of year you see those wonderful yellow and burgundy coreopsis blooming in deserted areas, growing out of cracks in the sidewalk. We have the wonderful old growth forest in Overton Park and many of our streets are lined with trees (lots of them very large and old). The more I have thought about it, the more I've realized that the thing that would really make the edge feel more like home to me would be green space and lots of it. A few planters would be nice but those are high maintenance. Someone has to weed them and water them. When I visited Austin, TX last year one of the things that struck me was the greenery. Everywhere I went in the heart of the city there was greenery. There were trees along the street, and tall grass in the median.A friend of mine posted some pictures of Ocean Springs on Facebook and I like the way they inserted triangles in the parking lot to plant trees in.

There are a couple of green spaces in the edge. One is the large grassy, treed area pfrom the Trolley Stop Market. It seems under-utilized perhaps because there is no seating. It seems like a great place for a picnic lunch or a cup of coffee and a read if there were tables or benches out there. Another existing green area is between the parking lot between Monroe (Kudzu's and the Church) and Union. This is a nice shady area but again there is no seating and in this case, discarded clothing and other trash, perhaps a nice sculpture or something interesting and beautiful to look at. it also didn't feel very safe because of the out of the way location between abandonded buildings, a busy street (although the trees somewhat buffered against the traffic) and a parking lot. And another thing!- that parking lot. Couldn't part of it be dug up and trees planted (perhaps triangles or a rectangle along the fence on Monroe or in the middle creating little islands like at Target in Germantown ( I don't actually know this, I'm just guessing). Not that I want the Edge to look like Germantown but along with all this charming urban decay we are trying to inject a little life right? I saw that someone had tried to inject some life into the area with what seemed to be guerilla art on the front of buildings on Union, poles, and in the alley. The buidlings however stand empty and boarded up with lots of trash accumulated. As with a park, people don't use a park because they don't feel safe, but they aren't going to feel safe unless other people are out there using it positively.

It took so long to upload these images I lost my train of thought.... oh yea, there were lots of places where concrete could be busted out and some plants put in and no one would miss it. It might even provide a bit of life, a friend providing shade, flowers, food for wildlife, a respite from the hustle and bustle. Perhaps an old delapidated automobile filled with dirt with a tree growing out of it. I realize that this used to be the automobile center of Memphis but if we want our city more livable we have to make it more pedestrian friendly and less car-centric. We have to have shade and urban gardens and places for dogs to take a dump (before we pick it up of course). Perhaps a verticle garden with cars turned sideways or stacked on top of each other with trees growing out of the windows. Perhaps a wall covered with tires turned into planters. Perhaps forget the whole car idea and just have artistic shapes of greenery. Oooo maybe a planter in the shape of a loaf of bread. Here's an interesting article about Wonder Bread: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/10/22/roman_mars_99_percent_invisible_the_surprising_origin_story_of_wonder_bread.html

The loss of the wonder bread factory is not sad because of the bread, I mean does anybody actually like that stuff? It's about job loss and loss of industry. I like that the Edge is a production zone, we produce a lot of good things, food, art, car repair, contstruction, music, beer, tourism, etc. Going forward what kind of things do we want to produce in the Edge to make it more livable? Bicycle repair, coffee, farmers market, bookstores, artisan locally made bread? Sorry this blog is so random, just food for thought.