quote:Originally posted by LAWGRL:
Let's start brainstorming. What would you like to see, specifically, happen?
Okay, here is my idea:
The Tennessee River is incredibly under-utilized in this town. WE HAVE A BEAUTIFUL RIVER RUNNING RIGHT THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF OUR TOWN and no one uses it as the beautiful advantage that it should be.
The Florence Harbor is a good start. We need a nice place for folks to float in from all over the country and enjoy our town. The proposed walkway from the harbor to downtown Florence is a great idea that will help the floaters spend money here but it is not enough.
The current proposal for waterfront development (the "Riverwalk") includes a small amphitheater and walkway stretching from the Marriott to Florence Harbor. Great idea but I imagine it will be used by perhaps 20 people per day. It will be no more important than any other public park in the Shoals. What a waste.
My idea is modeled after the Charleston, SC "slave market" (as it was known in my youth - now it's politically-correctly called "The Market"). The Market is where slaves were brought in from Africa to be sold. It is now a long (3 to 4 city blocks) row of covered shelters (see http://tinyurl.com/2m5wja) that vendors use to hawk art, basket weaving, food, tee shirts, spices and more.
No visit to Charleston is complete without visiting the Market.
Florence Riverwalk needs a "draw" to get people to visit there and foster commerce and further development. My "Shoals Market" is a good start. I envision vendors selling artwork, antiques, trinkets, food and souvenoiers in our little market.
Perhaps we could honor our Indian ancestors by naming this market in honor of their sacrifice since my market would be located very close to where many of them were detained before being shipped to Waterloo and beyond (near Indian Mound). I don't know what that name would be but I'm sure we can think of something. Perhaps a naming contest?
The cost of the market shelters would be fairly minimal but much of the cost of building the Market to our city would be offset by license fees for each vendor. Artists and produce farmers would have a small license fee (we want to encourage them to be there) and perhaps "flea market" type vendors would pay a little more.
Some within the city will be concerned our market would become a little Uncle Charlie's Flea Market. That is not necessarily a bad thing but the "quality" of the vendors could be controlled by the price of the license fees.
That said, I would rally against any kind of restrictive fees and allow the free market to determine what is and is not successful down there.
The market could be situated on either side of the river (Florence or Sheffield near the entrance to Old Rail Road bridge) but one of the coolest locations would be on Patton Island. How cool would that be? It might be a little expensive to develop Patton Island for retail/market business since a bridge that could carry supplies and customers from Florence would have to be built but that ain't mothin' but money.
Once a bustling market is in place, Florence and Sheffield need to develop their properties further by encouraging retail and office development. I envision a long strip of upscale shops, restaurants and bars (YES, BARS!) and businesses along our Riverwalk.
Some good planning will have to take place. Aesthetic beauty is of utmost concern. A hodgepodge of cheap and expensive buildings simply will not do. The planning commission will have to develop a comprehensive plan that will strictly govern what kinds of buildings can be built and how they will appear.
Condominium development must also be included in the plan. I've hiked the proposed walk from the harbor all the way to the Marriott and there is ample room for Condominium development, too.
Florence will have to go to war on TVA to get this property conveyed to us citizens. This war may last for years and millions will die
but we citizens must have development access to Florence's waterfront.Having people actually live amongst the shops and bars will be an incredible boon to developers and yet another "draw" to our Riverwalk.
The bottom line is that a good, intelligently planned, retail-friendly Riverwalk will be an incredible boon to this area. As it is now, it's just another nice city park. Yawn.
I've got lot's of other thoughts on this but that will do for now. I presented this to the previous council long ago but received a great big yawn. If this strikes you as a good idea, take my idea and run with it, PLEASE. Forward this posting to your city council person. Plagiarize it to your heart's content and even call it your own. But let's do it.