Comments on: Shelby Farms is a Huge Deal!

By: MemphisConnect

MemphisConnect — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:10:42 +0000

Thanks to each of you for contributing to this dialogue. We can all agree that Shelby Farms Park is a huge deal not only because of its size (however it ranks), but more important, because of the fundamental and dynamic role the park can play as the “green heart” of our community—the nexus at which the CSX trail and Wolf River Greenways flow together, and the model for the 21st-Century urban park.

By: Tom Jones

Tom Jones — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:13:41 +0000

Lauren makes our point well. While there are other urban parks that are larger, there’s no park that can have more impact on a city, particularly because of its role as the axis for a network of green assets like Wolf River greenway, CSX trails, etc. When Shelby Farms Park was first labeled the largest urban park in the U.S. 30 years ago, I asked the park superintendent where he got that information. He said he didn’t get it anywhere. He just thought it was true. Our point on our blog is that rather than make claims that aren’t right (size doesn’t matter ), let’s concentrate on quality.

That’s a message for Memphis at large. In today’s competitive environment, it’s all about quality. Cities that base their competitive advantage on cheapness are cities that will inevitably fail. That most of all is the reason that Shelby Farms Park has symbolic, as well as physical, importance. It – along with some other important Memphis projects – sends the message that we are seeking to set national standards.

There’s nothing more important, because it attacks the pervasive lack of self-worth that inhibits our ambitions and our aspirations.

By: Lauren Taylor

Lauren Taylor — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:53:11 +0000

To Shelby Facres: I agree that Shelby Farms Park is not the largest park in the country, even when you include the Agricenter acreage. However, while I do not claim familiarity with all the parks that rank ahead of Shelby Farms Park in TPL’s report (http://www.tpl.org/content_documents/ccpe_100LargestCityParks.pdf), I wonder if it’s accurate to identify all of them as “urban” parks (as Shelby Farms is often described)? The parks on TPL’s list are all affiliated with cities, but are they all truly urban–in the middle of metro areas, surrounded by commercial and residential development on all sides, like Shelby Farms? Until it’s proven that the TPL list offers a fair comparison, I think it’s safe to count Shelby Farms Park in the top 10. Let’s not waste anymore energy being our own worst critics. Shelby Farms can be the greatest park without being the biggest.

By: Shelby Facres

Shelby Facres — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:53:04 +0000

I love Shelby Farms just as much as the next Memphis citizen, am proud of its size, and am eager to see the reforestation plan enacted.

But it’s continued disservice to proclaim it the largest urban park in the country, as Smart City Memphis noted last year:

http://smartcitymemphis.blogspot.com/2008/08/memphis-parks-crucial-competitive.html

“Despite 25 years of rhetoric that it is the largest urban park in the U.S., Shelby Farms is ranked #34; however, its acreage is listed at 3,000. If its total acreage of 4,500 had been used (which is dubious considering how unwilling Agricenter seems to cooperate in the public use of its side of Walnut Grove Road), Shelby Farms Park would move up to #17.”

A full list of the top 100 city parks was published in 2007 by the Trust for Public Land:

http://www.tpl.org/content_documents/ccpe_100LargestCityParks.pdf

We’re not alone in this boasting — many cities are prone to praising their own parks as “the largest urban park” in the country:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/617/what-is-the-largest-city-park-in-the-u-s

Let’s be honest with ourselves and enjoy this terrific resource without claiming it to be something that it is simply not (the largest in the country).