Monday, December 07, 2009

Oppose the Overton Square Demolition

The owner of Overton Square wants a permit to demolish these beautiful structures without a plan for rebuilding. Memphis Heritage asks you to contact our City Councilfolk with your opposition.
There will be a meeting Wed Dec 9 @ 4pm City Hall 125 N Main St. 5th floor about the owners application for a demolition permit for Overton Sq. Please call City Councilmen Shea Flinn and Bill Morrison (901-576-6786) and let them know you do not want the CC to allow any demolition at OS until the developers have submitted their plans.
For me, this isn't about saving these buildings at all cost, but losing them without an approved plan for replacement.

I want to see the future.

1970's Parkway Village, 1980's Covington Pike and 1990's Germantown Parkway are not the future.

Labels: , , , , ,

3 Comments:

Anonymous Joseph A said...

I don't live in Memphis so unfortunately have no stake in contacting local officials, but I have frequented several businesses in the area in the past (movie theater, Paulette's, Bosco's, Shangri La, etc.) and liked how the Square still at least has the potential of being a nice walkable center in one of the best areas of Memphis.

If the city allows the destruction of the Square, it will have to be one of the most backward planning decisions in any city in recent history. When other cities, such as St. Louis or Nashville, seem to embrace walkable neighborhood centers that expand and thrive, is this really a fate Memphis can afford?

For a developer whose only experience seems to come from developments in places that look like Southaven to basically own the rights to an entire neighborhood is just absurd. To build a Price Chopper store (which in New York always locate in areas that look just like the awful strips you mention) there should be criminal.

10:05 PM  
Blogger Roxi Bo said...

Join the "Save Overton Square" group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=app_2344061033&gid=193025191199#/group.php?gid=193025191199

12:55 PM  
Blogger gatesofmemphis said...

Thanks for the link Roxanne.

Joseph, Memphis definitely can't afford it but without a vision of a built, coherent, beautiful city, the danger is our leaders might not even know that it will cost us.

Still I'm cautiously optimistic that we can avoid speculative demolition.

11:10 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home