Mud Island Skate

The Riverfront Development Corporation held its first public input meeting for Mud Island last night.

I couldn't attend, but there's another meeting tonight in North Memphis at 5:45 p.m., one next Tuesday in South Memphis, and one Thursday, April 4th, at the Botanic Gardens.

Unfortunately, I can't make any of those, either.

Fortunately, there is also an online survey component for those of us who are obviously way over-scheduled.

My friends over at Skatelife Memphis make a compelling argument for the inclusion of a skatepark.

Skateboarding has a high number of outings per year per participant, according to 2006 figures, and 72 percent of skateboarders are willing to travel 10 miles or more to their favorite skatepark.

What with all the skateparks we have here now — um, none — I'm sure there would be no trouble finding people to use it.

And at a price tag of $3 million for an 80,000 sq. foot park, compared to other public facilities where the majority of participants eat popcorn and drink coke while highly paid athletes perform, it kind of seems like a bargain.

UPDATE: Having now filled out the RDC's survey for the riverfront, I would suggest trying to go to one of the meetings. They asked several questions that I wish I could have qualified my answers for, such as, I don't think it's difficult to get to Mud Island, but the last time I tried to go, I was turned away by the guard on duty. Which made it difficult to get there. And I don't even really know why we were turned away. Private function maybe?

Also, they included several pictures of waterfronts and asked "which one of these water's edges would be best for Mud Island?" and I'm looking at the pictures and thinking, "What's the difference? Do any of them connect to the water? What am I looking at?" And, in one instance, "Are those people sunbathing?"

When in doubt, I went with the one where it looked like there was the most chance of someone falling in the water, b/c that meant there were actually people in the picture and that the river wasn't some thing you just stared out at from afar.