Riverfront, Fairgrounds and Overton: Our Trillion-dollar Trio

Here's a scary thought. Memphis without The Peabody or The Orpheum, Beale Street or Overton Square, Overton Park or Shelby Farms.

It could have happened. All of those places that make this home were once but a decision or two from demolition or destructive intrusion.

Sense and sensibility prevailed. Now it's a bit frightening to imagine Memphis without them. Those are some of the old places that keep us from losing our civic bearings.

"Old places,” wrote Tom Mayes of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, “provide a sense of orientation to our society, using structures and objects of the past to establish values of time and place. Old places are critical to people’s sense of who they are, to their capacity to find meaning in their lives, and to see a future.”

Decisions to save old places aren't made merely to preserve the past. They're decisions made to protect our future. As Memphis moves toward its bicentennial in 2019, we have more monumental decisions to make.

In the coming weeks and months, decisions will be made about the future of the Downtown riverfront, the Fairgrounds and Overton Park — arguably the city's three most priceless civic assets. Call it our Trillion-dollar Trio.

This week or next, the city will ask for state approval to expand its Downtown Tourism Development Zone to include Mud Island and a six-mile stretch of Mississippi riverfront from Greenline Park to Martin Luther King Jr. Riverside Park.

That TDZ already is fueling the Bicentennial Gateway redevelopment of the nine-block Pinch district between the Pyramid and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

An expanded TDZ could continue Downtown's transformation with a freshwater aquarium on Mud Island and a "Civic Terrace" on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff that could include a new art museum.

Earlier this month, the board of directors of the Brooks Museum of Art asked that the 101-year resident of Overton Park be included in the new riverfront plans. A few days later, the board of the Memphis College of Art, which moved to Overton Park in 1959, announced that it would be closing by 2020.

Suddenly, parking isn't the only issue that will impact Overton Park's future.

Meanwhile, next Monday, Nov. 6, the city will present a comprehensive "draft" plan to redevelop the 155 acres we all know as the Fairgrounds. That includes the Mid-South Coliseum.

Nov. 6 is a fitting day on which to announce a decision that will impact Memphis for generations to come. On Nov. 6, 1934, Memphis became the first city to join the Tennessee Valley Authority.

As anyone who has ever met Duckmaster Jimmy Ogle knows, November 6th Street, an alley that runs from Court Square to Beale, was named to commemorate that momentous decision.

More momentous decisions are ahead for Memphis, decisions about preserving the past and protecting the future of this place.

"Three main qualities attach people to place,” a Gallup study of 43,000 people in 26 communities concluded in 2011. "Social offerings, such as entertainment venues and places to meet; openness (how welcoming a place is); and the area’s aesthetics (its physical beauty and green spaces)."

The riverfront, the Fairgrounds and Overton Park are beautiful places to meet and welcome each other. How can we imagine Memphis without them?