Reality in Memphis, impossible in Louisville: Cantilevered “wagonways” on an old bridge, adapted as shared-use paths.

The cantilevered K & I, off-limits to non-trains. 

To which I can respond in only one way: Nationalize the Norfolk Southern.

Say Hello to America's Longest 'Rails-with-Trails' Bridge, by Ben Schulman (CityLab)

After nearly 60 years unused, the Harahan Bridge’s wagonways have been converted into pathways for bikes and pedestrians.

 ... This coming weekend marks the official opening of Big River Crossing, a reworking of the Harahan Bridge, a Union Pacific railroad crossing over the Mississippi River. The truss bridge, designed by preeminent civil engineer Ralph Modjeski and completed in 1916, connects Memphis and the city of West Memphis, Arkansas. Modjeski configured the bridge to accommodate automobile traffic by devising cantilevered “wagonways” that flank the bridge’s railroad track. Now, after almost six decades without being used, those wagonways have been converted into pathways for bikes and pedestrians.

Big River Crossing rolls out for almost a mile over the Mississippi, making it the longest rails-with-trails bridge in the country. Development of rails-with-trails projects have accelerated in recent years—the nonprofit Rails to Trails Conservancy noted in a 2013 report a 260 percent uptick since 2000—but the scale and scope of BRX, as it’s been nicknamed, carries added weight to its unveiling.

Great Pyramid of Gahan planned for Summit Springs? Nah, it's just a Memphis thing.

It is with great hesitation that I link to this piece.

A pyramid at the apex of denuded Summit Springs would be plain tacky, although even I can see the symbolic advantages of a Sphinx ... but could we fit a Bass Pro Shop in one of those?

Pyramid Data, by Charles Marohn (Strong Towns)

... To briefly recap: A poor and declining city embracing the big project as their salvation builds a pyramid-shaped basketball stadium down on the Mississippi River in an attempt to attract an NBA team along with jobs, tax revenue and respect. NBA team relocates but is not enamored with the pyramid and winds up in a different facility. Pyramid sits empty. Silver bullet solutions abound – what else can be done when you’re this far vested – and with a disputed amount of subsidy (whenever I write about it, project proponents get angry with my numbers but we’re certainly talking in the nine digits) the pyramid is transformed into The Pyramid, a Bass Pro retail destination with amenities like a hotel, bowling alley and shooting range.

"There is enough real estate in our core city. The infrastructure’s already there. Why further tax yourself by trying to extend infrastructure?"

Bottom-line thinking about civic resources from Mayor AC Wharton of Memphis, Tennessee, who was asked "why he’s been such a supporter of protected bike infrastructure in a city that, before he came to office, didn’t have a single bike lane."

Real Talk: Why the Mayor of Memphis Is Building Protected Bike Lanes, by Michael Andersen (Streetsblog USA)

 ... Our favorite moment from this conversation is in the short video clip above, when Wharton took a moment for some Real Talk about the tradeoffs he faces as an allocator of civic resources.

There is enough real estate in our core city. The infrastructure’s already there. Why further tax yourself by trying to extend infrastructure, sewers, schools, whatever, into areas rather than just take advantage of the beautiful facilities and the beautiful land that you have already? … It is much more cost-feasible for me to fix up Broad Avenue, Madison, with some stripes on the pavement, protected bike lanes, than it is for me to go way out somewhere, put in sewers, street lights, have garbage pickup, all this stuff. So it bodes well for our citizens and their health — both physical and emotional — but it also bodes well for the finances of the city.

The tax rolls show that Wharton’s theory has paid off. Modest public investments in bike infrastructure on Broad have not only unlocked generous philanthropic support, they’ve stimulated private investment in a neighborhood that’s been suffering disinvestment ever since highways cut it off from its surroundings.