Walking in Memphis

I traveled to Memphis a few weekends ago for the Beale Street Music Festival. I was not drawn there by a Facebook page or a Visit Memphis advertisement or by some pop up ad on Travelocity. A friend of mine from Oakland called me and said, ‘Hey, we’re doing some traveling back east and plan to pass through Memphis the first weekend of May for this music festival. Any chance you can make it?’”

So yes, I was drawn to Memphis by an event … and by the fact I’d never been there before. I would not have gone otherwise. Says the guy from the town that no longer holds a Jazz Festival, Bluegrass Festival, Wine Festival or Mud Run, even though it has an annual marketing budget of nearly $6 million. Who needs events when you have such an impressive welcome mat, er monument?

I didn’t know anything about Memphis. Didn’t do any research. Booked a room through airbnb because every downtown hotel was sold out – and also because I wanted to check out how airbnb worked. The room looked like it was a walkable distance (on the website map anyway) from downtown and the music venue at a park on the banks of the Mississippi River.

It was walkable, if one considers walkable 2.5 miles through the projects. Memorable moment: A guy leaning out the window of his apartment building, pointing at me and yelling to another person inside the apartment, “Hey, there’s a white guy on the sidewalk!”

Still, it was $89 for three nights ($25/night plus fees). I don’t know what, if anything, the city received in the transaction.

Memphis and Mammoth share more than a few characteristics. Like Mammoth, Memphis is desperate for capital investment. Delta closed its hub there last year and reduced the daily flights coming in and out from more than 200 to 37. This is what a Delta flight attendant told me. He still lives in Memphis, but commutes to Salt Lake to go to work. I’m not kidding. He flies Memphis-LAX-Salt Lake as a passenger, and then goes to work.

Downtown, the entire tourism district was essentially four blocks of Beale Street and at the far end, the FedEx Center where the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies play. Next door is the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. On the other side is a four-acre vacant lot.

Like Mammoth, the Memphis economy is predicated upon tourism and liquor (and barbecue), and not necessarily in that order. I did see a billboard for Graceland.

Unlike Mammoth, Memphis doesn’t drink coffee. Apparently, it interferes with the alcohol schedule. There was exactly one Starbucks. There were no bookstores. There was one breakfast joint I saw. It had a line out the door at 3 a.m., but was closed when I tried it at 9 a.m.

The concert venue was like a line of railroad cars – four massive stages stacked one after the other along the waterfront. Meanwhile, you’d see huge barges traveling up and down the river.

The biggest culture shock I had as a Californian was that the festival organizers did not supply nearly enough trash cans or recycle containers. Most people were quite content to simply leave their trash on the ground, and they didn’t mind sitting right next to it, or even on top of it. By the end of any given day, you could not find a five-square foot patch of empty terrain.

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As an FYI, after Mammoth Lakes Tourism made a big fuss about how TOT revenues were tracking through February, it got real quiet. I guess reason being that March TOT came in 17% below last year and 43% below the 2008 number.

Expect April numbers, anecdotally, to be even more brutal.

On the positive side, we’re still on track to have our third best year ever in terms of TOT revenue.

On the negative side, that’s measured in gross revenue and doesn’t give an apples-to-apples number reflecting increases in the TOT tax rate or inflation.

Overall, we’re tracking at a 2007-2008 pace.

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Given all the attention paid lately to the ice rink debate, it was interesting to hear Michael Ledesma’s take on what he’d prioritize going forward.

Ledesma is an owner of Gomez’s Restaurant and Base Camp Cafe. He also sits on the Mammoth Lakes Tourism Board of Directors.

Forget ice rinks, he said. We shouldn’t be spending a dime on anything unrelated to bringing in new business and more business. He believes the Town’s first priority should be in building a convention center to accommodate corporate business, retreats, events and weddings for as many as 600 to 700 guests. He believes a convention center is a good way to promote shoulder season business.

There are times to build parks and ice rinks and such. Now is not the time, he said.

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From Bodine: Some Mono County residents are thinking out of the box when it comes to economic opportunities for their communities, all the way out to Inyo County. Mono Supervisors heard a proposal at their regular meeting Tuesday for designating some county highways for combined use for both red sticker and green sticker, or Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) use.

This is similar to Inyo County’s Adventure Trails program, which will allow OHVs to travel on select county roads to and from backcountry trail systems and town amenities such as a hotel or gas station, legally.

Residents from northern Mono County filled the Supervisor meeting room Tuesday to express support. Dave Robinson of Topaz used the Coleville/Walker Eastern Sierra ATV Jamboree as an example of what kind of business can be generated from such a project. The fundraiser helped purchase $9,000 worth of fish last year.

Pam Hamic, president of the Northern Mono County Chamber of Commerce and owner of the West Walker Motel, said people come for the Jamboree, discover the many wonders and adventures available in the area, and end up coming back to enjoy the fishing and hiking.

Bridgeport resident and former County Supervisor Bob Peters said that there are not many attractions in Northern Mono, especially in the winter. He said even in the summer, activities are limited. He said mountain bikers are okay for business but they are not of “the quality” of OHV owners. Peters presented some optimistic numbers in calculating possible revenue from such a project. He gave an example of a single, three-night event that would fill up 100 motel rooms, generating approximately $125,000, not including other tourist dollars spent on food and fuel.

Other members of the public admitted to not being able to physically hike or walk far into the backcountry, be it due to age or illness, and OHVs offer a chance to get out there. Robinson told a story of his grandchildren seeing wild horses in the backcountry from the seat of his OHV and their amazement and excitement. No one commented on how an influx of OHVs could or would effect those wild horses and other wildlife. An Environmental Impact Report on the project would be mandatory.

Supervisor Larry Johnston said the entire proposal creates a giant controversy, both financial and philosophical; does Mono County want to be a motorized or non-motorized community, and he noted the County is financially strapped and staff is stretched thin as it is.

“Mono County is a unique place,” Johnston said, and once these things get started its hard to stop them.

Supervisor Tim Fesko said economic development and growth is one of his top priorities.