High-Speed Awesome

City Councilman Shea Flinn has a Smart City vision for Memphis 2009 and beyond:

We need to change (that damn word again) how we interact with the rest of the state and region. To this end, I would propose that our federal delegation get in the on the bailout package and try to get some high speed rail for our region. A few billion (remember when that used to be big money, now it seems like small change) would allow us to connect not only our city to Nashville in a greater way, but also with Jackson, MS, and Little Rock, AR, as well as providing the requisite short term jolt to our local economy.

This is a 2005 U.S. Department of Transportation map of possible high speed rail corridors.


See the gray hole in the right middle, between St. Louis, Jackson (MS) and Little Rock? That gray hole is Memphis. Not even a possibility.

Councilman Flinn's idea could change (that beautiful word again) that.

Detail from a Sinkhole

You've probably heard the good news about Amtrak service being restored to Central Station in Memphis after the sinkhole almost swallowed it.

When I saw the repair last Saturday, I noticed a little more good news.

When they rebuilt the retaining wall for the tracks, they detailed it the same way as the existing wall.

This is the wall as it's been for decades.

This is the new part of the wall, on the right, after the repairs.

They've replicated the detail, the planes and bands, of the original. Perhaps it was structurally necessary, but I doubt it. Since Memphis has had little respect for its public works architecture over the last few decades, seeing a detail as simple as this is a pleasure, and maybe a hope.

Thanks to everyone involved for getting rail service going again, and for respecting a simple, subtle detail.

Details texture Memphis.

The City of New Orleans from Memphis

I enjoy leaving Memphis -- and coming back -- by train. To and from New Orleans. My family and I have taken this trip 3 times over the past 5 years and we have always had a great time. We'll almost certainly take it again this summer.

Visually, it's a journey worthy of these mythic cities. You start off at Central Station in downtown Memphis early, but not too early, in the morning. With none of the blandness and placelessness of mowed freeway exits and medians, you pass through, and under, and over, the forests, swamps, farmland, lakes and small towns and Jacksons of Mississippi and Louisiana before arriving in New Orleans in the afternoon. It's a distinct Memphis experience, grounded in this place, where we are.

We've always made the trip in summer. For reasons obvious, New Orleans isn't as popular in the summer so we've always been able to get very good hotel rates in the French Quarter. Summer in New Orleans not only doesn't bother me, I like it. I feel (or imagine) the essence of New Orleans on a sweltering day.

Here's a Flickr slideshow for photos (most not mine) tagged with City of New Orleans:



Great for kids too!