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.

St. Louis Blues

Just got back from a quick jaunt to St. Louis and probably the coolest museum ever built.

I got to see the world's largest pencil, play in the skateless park, buy shoelaces at the shoelace factory, and slide down seven stories (of course, I had to climb up those seven stories, too, and my thighs are still feeling it), all at St. Louis' City Museum.


City Museum is housed in a former shoe company building and was created out of reclaimed building materials. One wall, for instance, appeared to be created out of old catering dishes. It also includes a crazy outdoor climbable scupture with two planes, a fire engine, and a castle turret, or "the most monumental, monolithic, monstrous montage of monkey bars in the world."

Their website says the museum is "an eclectic mixture of chidren's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects," and I really couldn't have described it better.

I just wish I was a little smaller and a better climber. And that it had been a little warmer.


On another note, I also saw two skateparks just driving around the city. They looked more like small hockey rinks than anything elaborate, but they were both filled with kids.

Shelby Farms Skate

Yesterday, the County Commission's Conservation Committee approved a master plan for Shelby Farms that includes an expanded Patriot Lake, improved park access, and even a small beach area. The master plan was designed by New York-based field operations.

My colleague Bianca Phillips covered the meeting for the Flyer and she knew I would be interested in the fact that Commissioner David Lillard was looking out for roller bladers and skaters.

Apparently, Lillard is something of a skater himself and was concerned that the plan's proposed pedestrian entrance and loop around the landfill would be a stone dust trail. Which would be rather difficult for skaters to use.

field operations principal James Corner said that was something they hadn't thought about but would consider in going forward with the plan.

Lillard also cited a proposed boardwalk around Patriot Lake as a potential problem for cyclists and skaters.

I'm so glad he brought those issues up.

I used to skate at Tom Lee Park and it's just awful. Though there are these nice, wide, smooth squares of sidewalk, they are interspersed with about a foot of cobblestones in between each one.

I get that it's a nod to the cobblestone landing — I sure hope it is — but it's not fun to skate. It's like you're skating nicely along, though not for very long, and you hit this big bump. Then you're back on smooth sidewalk, then another bump, and it goes on like this, one jarring bump every 10 seconds. If that.

(I can demonstrate this concept better with my hands and some very strange noises, but I'm finding it very difficult to explain here.)

Once you get going pretty fast, it's easier to ignore it, but if a strong wind is blowing or you're tired, just forget about it.

I even once advanced the theory that Tom Lee was designed this way on purpose to keep skaters from using the park. I don't really believe that's true, but the other options are that it either didn't cross anyone's mind or it did and they didn't care.

Either way, it looks like I need to thank Commissioner Lillard for mentioning skaters before the path is built.

The Shelby Farms plan goes before the full commission Monday, August 4th.