Jeff Speck's 12 Suggestions for a Great Memphis

1. Build Memphis for Humans, Not Just for Cars.
   
   
2. Stop Demolishing Your Economic Advantage
   
   
3. Plant Trees.
   
   
4. Organize Neighborhoods Around Schools, Around Neighborhoods
   
   
5. Fix Downtown First
   
   
6. Practice Urban Triage
   
   
7. Fix the 3rd Street Promenot
   
   
8. Fill the Main/South Main Knuckle
   
   
9. You Deserve an Urban Waterfront
   
   
10. Build the Missing Monument
    
    
11. Stop the Outer Loop
    
    
12. Put Cars Back on Main Street for $50k.
    

Made at Speck's fantastic Memphis Regional Design Center talk last Thursday. He was a self-described blunt instrument, a polite and funny blunt instrument.

Listen to it:

The entire talk (mp3).

Or, if you want it in smaller chunks:

The introduction (mp3).

General urban planning principles (mp3)

6 general suggestions for Memphis (mp3)

6 specific suggestions for Memphis (mp3)

Q/A (mp3)

Enjoy, learn, talk, act, then enjoy some more.

(by the way, thanks to Justin for lending me a recorder, and and Mike for paring the audio files to reasonable sizes. )

Rome Redux

My take from the film, Rome: Impact of an Idea: Sixtus V began the creation of modern Rome by joining special places -- piazzas -- with arteries he laid out to connect the piazzas. His plan created dynamic connection as people moved between the places, pulled visually by the piazza's monuments in the distance and spiritually/economically by the piazza's uses and meanings. His and his architect's (Domenico Fontana) monument of choice: the obelisk.

After the film, there was a great discussion on the film's thesis and its application to Memphis. I hope all of the Urban Land Institute films (the next is Edmund Bacon's film on Paris) will have discussions like this. In fact, I think ULI should hold regular discussion forums, movie or no.