Thank You Thurgood!

40 years ago today, the Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling on Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe.

The ruling spared Overton Park and saved Memphis.

What I wrote 5 years ago.

Our Future's Got a Hole In It

I heard Chicago's Conservation Design Forum speak at the Brooks Museum in December 2007. They had come to Memphis at the invitation of the Mississippi River Corridor - Tennessee to speak about sustainable development. Until that talk, I had never really thought much (ever?) about stormwater runoff as an environmental problem.

And it's only with the recently publicized threat to the Greensward that I began to think about the talk's hyperlocal importance -- the importance lying just 100 yards away.



The core of CDF's message for me was this (and I paraphrase from memory):

we must use natural techniques to decrease environmentally destructive stormwater runoff, rather than engineer increasingly invasive stormwater runoff mechanisms.

While there isn't a recording of their talk in Memphis, they have amply outlined their strategies, including plans for the city of Chicago and for the Nature Conservancy. The techniques they recommend include:

• Green Roofs
• Bioswales and Rain Gardens
• Native Landscaping
• Permeable Paving
• Filter Strips and Level Spreaders
• Naturalized Detention Basins

These techniques seem to be of the 21st century kind that VECA resident Mary Wilder and Sierra Club representative James Baker called for in the VECA neighborhood meeting last week.

But they're also the kind of ideas that City Engineer Wain Gaskins politely dismissed as "long-term."

I think Memphians are increasingly sick of having the future deferred by a long term that is never begun. They're sick of regressive anti-imagination disguised as short term prudence. They're sick of a mediocre present digging a bigass mudpit that a good future has to climb out of.

And even if they're not, I am. The future is here.

Old Forest Jamboree This Wednesday

On the anniversary of the clearcut, come celebrate the Old Forest at the Hi-Tone.

Room With a View

I recently forewent free wine and networking so I could explore the terraces of Roy Harrover's Memphis College of Art.

I discovered that, like the studios, the bathrooms on the top floor opened directly to the outside terrace.

See?

Usually a bathroom that opens directly to the elements is a problem, of abuse and neglect.

But on the top floor of the MCA, open to nature but controlled access to the public, it's clean. And it's cool. At least I think it's cool.

Leaving the door open will probably get you expelled, but there is the view.

Magic: the Art Installation

Update: well this is a lot different than what I had assumed. I still love unexpected public art.

Go see the recently installed portals to the Overton Park greensward, I assume by an artist from the nearby Memphis College of Art.

Here I Rule . Com will take you to a website about the game Magic: The Gathering, of which I know nothing except that some friends play.

I had a puppy with me when I took the pictures so I didn't try to walk through the doorway, or look through the peepholes.

What would I see?

I love unexpected public art.

Go to the Park!

Being my usual underachieving self, I haven't updated much recently. I did write something for the Citizens to Preserve Overton Park however. It's the results of an experiment me and a crackerjack Gates Of Memphis Research team performed last month.

In an acorn, what temperature difference does the Old Forest make vs. nearby urbanized areas?

Rise Up Memphis Nature II!

Citizens to Preserve Overton Park (CPOP) is having its first public meeting on Thursday, June 5, 7:00pm-8:00pm, at Rhodes College in Blount Auditorium at Buckman Hall (a pdf campus map).

CPOP (which I'm now a board member of) will present a brief program on the devastating impact of the Memphis Zoo’s expansion into the Old Forest of Overton Park, and discuss strategies for protecting the remaining forest.

This meeting is open to the public. Everyone is welcome. Childcare will be available at no cost. If you need more info, contact Naomi Van Tol at naomi@spiny.com or 901-278-2396.

The mission of CPOP is to preserve and defend the Old Forest of Overton Park for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. You can visit us online at:
www.overtonparkforever.org

Progress of the Shell

A few shots taken over the past 2 months.

Early March:



Early April:



Early May:

Happy Day, Earth!

You know, when I'm not hugging trees, I'm planting more to hug.

Here's one I planted on Saturday.


It's a PawPaw Tree, one of two now in the shade of a willow oak, on the front lawn of a Midtown elementary school.

It was born at Lichterman Nature Center, where its wild parents still live.

Memphis Events in April

Here are some Memphis events you might enjoy this month:

Thursday, April 3: Sierra Club First Thursday Meetup at Otherlands. The Sierra Club also keeps a calendar and RSS feed of environmental events and alerts.

Thursday, April 3: Cooper-Young First Thursday Night Out. This is not just taking place at the corner of Cooper and Young. Many of the participating businesses are on Central. I hope this will become a huge monthly event.

Since they happen on the same night in the same neighborhood, you can go to the Sierra Club meetup first, then walk over to the Cooper-Young events (a block and a half away). Foot-powered connections are always the best.

Friday, April 4th - Sunday, April 6th: Dream Reborn Conference by Green For All organization. The conference is actually sold out, but there may still be a chance to volunteer.

Saturday, April 5: Old Forest Hike, led by the very active activists of Citizens to Protect Overton Park.

Friday, April 11th: a screening of Third Ward TX, a film about community building and art building in Houston. Details.

Saturday, April 12th: April Rock n' Romp.

Saturday April 19th: Old Forest Hike, led by the activists of Citizens to Protect Overton Park.

Saturday, April 19th: Wolf River Harbor Earth Day Cleanup, on the Memphis Riverfront, led by the Sierra Club.

Friday, April 25th: The Second Memphis Zombie Walk which starts on Beale Street and limps toward South Main's Last Friday Trolley Night.

Zoo Leaders Escape and Maul Nature

The only thing I can add to Naomi Van Tol's eloquent Letter to the Editor, which denounces the Memphis Zoo's hypocrisy of promoting nature while destroying it mere yards away, are the pictures below.

From above before...

And after...




Nothing left alive within the fences.


Saruman and the Orcs and other great defilers from history and fiction would be very proud of the Zoo!

Meanwhile mere yards away, sage words for zoo visitors.

and...


and...

But don't look backwards from the Amphitheatre...


Cause you might see once living parts of earth...

dismembered and left for dead by stewards of nature.

Why?

Maybe Chief Seattle can tell us.

Here he is guarding the Sacred Cave of the Donors.


Just read below his lines.

Sierra Club 1st Thursday Members Gathering

This Thursday, December 6, 5:30-7:00pm at Otherlands, 641 South Cooper, the Sierra Club is having its first Thursday members gathering. Sierra Club members, activists and friends can meet in a casual setting to talk about issues and interests. Contact Juliet Jones at 901.374.0582 or email for more information.

Check out the Sierra Club - Chickasaw Group's calendar for other events and activities.

It's not posted there yet, but I think there will be an Old Forest (Overton Park) Hike this Saturday.

Also, the Old Forest Hike on the 2nd Saturday in May will be a snake hike. Tell the kids and mark your calendars.

The Path to Rome Goes through the Paw Paw Patch

All the greatness of the world is here and now, in the forests and imaginations and backyards of Memphis.

Don't believe me? Read this Wikipedia article on the Paw Paw Tree, the ubiquitous understory of the Overton Park Forest. Afterwards take the Sierra Club's second Saturday Old Forest Hike (next hike, December 8th).

Then go back in time, to tonight, and see Rome: Impact of an Idea at the Memphis College of Art in Overton Park (details). Thus prepared, you will be free of the neo-colonial conceit that Memphis is unworthy of the Idea.

By the powers invested in me by the Holy Writ of the Blessed And Sanctimonious Gates of Memphis, I command thee to do all of the above.

Memphis is Rome. Rome is Memphis.

Explore, discover, imagine, create, build, teach, learn, refine, repeat.

The Dancing Trees of Overton Park

Drum Circle of Overton Park

Part of the vitality of Overton Park noted by John Branston. Part of the Creator Class noted by John Seely Brown.