NEWS

On January 19, 2012 the Mississippi River Corridor - Tennessee (MRC-T) hosted a public meeting to share their findings on the portion of the Mississippi River Trail that runs through Shelby County and their recommendations for rerouting the current trail. Representatives from MRC-T, Shelby County government, the Memphis Regional Design Center, and the University of Memphis City Planning department were on hand to speak.

The changes to Downtown that were discussed included:

• Abandoning the current route down through the industrial portion of North Second Street in favor of the trail running from the north end of Mud Island to the A.W. Willis Bridge.
• Continue south on Front Street to Jefferson, where it would go west to Riverside Drive.
• The trail would continue south directly along the Memphis riverfront and then back up to Martyr's Park.
• From there, they proposed to abandon the current route across the Tennessee-Arkansas (I-55) Bridge and instead continue southward on a path along the site of the Metal Museum and President's Island.
• The trail would then continue through the neighborhoods and parks in southwest Shelby County and finally enter Mississippi at Walls.
• MRC-T will be working with the Downtown Memphis Commission and other local stakeholders to define and develop loops off the main route to bring trail travelers into Downtown to view our many architectural and cultural assets.  

Currently the MRC-T is finalizing comments gathered during the three public hearings will be posting their findings and recommendation on their website starting on February 1, 2012. Due to a pre-established deadline for presenting these findings to the Hyde Foundation for funding assistance, there will only be eight days from this posting to when they must submit their initial report. THE PUBLIC IS HIGHLY ENOURAGED TO GO TO THE MRC-T WEBSITE AFTER FEBRUARY 1st, REVIEW THE INFORMATION AND MAKE ANY REFINING REMARKS PRIOR TO FEBRUARY 8th. They repeated that the plan is a work in progress and would continue to be developed even after the February deadline.

For more information, to view the trail maps, and to review the findings and recommendations, please go to their website at www.msrivertn.org   

Your DNA hopes to be involved in the disccusions that impact Downtown and also welcomes comments from our membership. Please contact us at editor [at] memphisDNA [dot] org