About Memphis' Downtown Memphis

I'm posting a link below for Joplin's main source of information to the world, KZRG Radio.

You can phone the radio station at 417-782-1310 if you need information about loved ones, friends and call in your support.

Click this link to listen live:

KZRG

The main page is http://www.1310kzrg.com

The devastation and destruction in Joplin is incalculable.

-David-

Since moving my office to Downtown Memphis, I've been amazed at how many wonderful places there are in Downtown to live ... and how nice each of them can be. I've always loved Downtown Memphis ... lived there after Grad School ... but it has matured and grown so much now. The vacant lot where my friends and family used to go to look at the fireworks on the River on the 4th of July and Memphis in May now has elegant townhome living on them. The warehouses where cotton used to be stored now has lofts. The bluff villas (I was so impressed in the 1980s when actress Cybill Shepherd purchased a bluff villa) are a growing complex. It is impressive. There is so much happening in Memphis.

So why not give me a call and let me help you find a downtown condo today.

The Delta Queen is a legend on America's rivers, especially the famous river towns along the Mississippi, St. Louis, Memphis, Natchez, New Orleans. I worked at the Memphis Queen during college and saw the Queen dock at the mouth of the Memphis harbor dozens of times. And when I couldn't see it, I could hear the distinctive steam whistle or the old fashioned songs played on the boat's steam calliope. I saw the races between the big steamers and talked with passengers who became tourists in Memphis. There was a real feeling of history there.

Last year, the Feds forced the historic Queen to cease cruise operations due to potential fire hazards in the wooden cabins, and the Delta Queen was de-commissioned, never to transport overnight passengers again.

Memphis seems to get some bad press about the river front: the rather un-welcoming cobblestones fronting a still water harbor, and the lack of businesses close to the river banks, the maneuvering of developers and preservationists to control the future of Memphis' front steps.
What a great permanent attraction the Delta Queen would be near Beale Street Landing on Memphis' very historic riverfront. Once swarmed with steamboats loading thousands of bales of cotton grown in the Mississippi and Arkansas Delta, a berth for the Queen would be in keeping with Memphis' history. Operating as a boutique hotel, perhaps, the Queen would be a great landmark to set Memphis apart from other cities and to capture our heritage.

Well, forget it folks. Yesterday the Commercial Appeal reported that Chattanooga Water Taxi and Fat Cat Ferry has leased the Queen to serve as hotel on the Chattanooga riverfront across from the Tennessee Aquarium.
Did our business and political leaders pursue the Delta Queen? Did anyone here know it was available? Or is it just easier to throw up another new synthetic stucco mini-hotel Downtown?

The national news media is full of flooding stories, but if you want to see some BIG flooding, take a trip to Downtown Memphis and check the Mississippi River. The National Weather services says today is the crest (the highest it will get) at Memphis at over 37 feet; flood stage here is 34 feet, so as you look west toward the Arkansas bank, there is at least 3 feet of water over the delta lands as far as you can see, until the levee holds it outside of West Memphis and Marion.



Here is a shot i took this morning from the Mud Island River Walk Park parking area, and the same scene taken a few weeks ago when I was downtown.