{"id":25455,"date":"2022-01-06T05:15:53","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T11:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/?p=25455"},"modified":"2022-01-06T05:15:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T11:15:53","slug":"thursday-update-217","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/06\/thursday-update-217\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up super early to watch the precipitation move in this morning. Reloading the @memphisweather1<\/a> Twitter feed frequently. I heard the pitter-patter of sleet against my window 2:45-3:00ish AM, then it changed back to rain.<\/p>\n

The DM has a recap<\/a> of the press conference held by a group called Tom Lee Park for All yesterday morning. It’s a diverse group of individuals who hold different opinions on what should be done with Tom Lee Park, but they have one common interest: parking.<\/p>\n

The original redesign of the park included about 140 on-street parking spaces on both sides of Riverside. However, that plan reduced Riverside to 2 lanes. When Mayor Strickland announced his intention to keep Riverside a 4-lane road, designers went back to the drawing board and came up with a plan that had on-street parking only on the west side of Riverside, reducing the number of spaces to only 68. The group claims this violates the mediation agreement between the city, Memphis River Parks Partnership, and Memphis in May. They say that there won’t be enough parking under the current design to make the park accessible to all Memphians.<\/p>\n

The city has said there will be plenty of free on-street parking near three of the park’s entrances at Vance, Huling, and Butler. However, the Tom Lee Park for All group responded, parking there would require walking up and down the bluff, which is a challenge for those with disabilities.<\/p>\n

Tom Lee Park for All wants the parking lots restored to the master plan for the park. They’ve filed a suit in chancery court over the matter.<\/p>\n

A couple of days ago, I told you about a new mocktail available for a limited time at Bardog. It turns out that is just one of many mocktails available this month around Memphis as part of an Edible Memphis promotion: ChampionSip<\/a>. 16 mocktails will compete in a bracketed tournament to crown the best mocktail in Memphis. Voting will take place in the first round, quarterfinals, semis, and finals January 17-31. Downtown bars participating include<\/p>\n