Downtown sidewalks are in need of repair, and a new grant program hopes to help get them fixed.
The Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) wants to set aside $50,000 to help Downtown business owners fix sidewalks in front of their properties. The business owners would split the cost of sidewalk repairs with the DMC through grants up to $5,000.
For now, the program is only available for businesses located in the Central Business Improvement District (CBID). There, the DMC staff has identified 60 parcels that could be eligible for the grant program.
The main aim of the program is to improve walkability, said Brett Roler, the DMC’s vice president of planning and development. It’s also about unlocking the potential of parking lots and parking garages, and creating a better retail environment Downtown.
“Our retail strategy says that the way buildings look matters, the way the public realm looks matters,” Roler said. “It not only communicates to people that this is a place that folks care about, but it also makes it easier [to walk] and you likely feel safer walking within the retail nodes like South Main or the Edge District or the Main Street mall.
“It also makes sure that between those same nodes, you’re much more likely to stop at more places, shop at more stores, and it’s all just a more enjoyable, pleasant experience.”
Sidewalk repair is a thorny issue in Memphis, and it has a past. It’s up to property owners to fix them, not the city, and there’s a whole lot of broken sidewalks out there.
The city has 3,429 miles of sidewalk, enough to stretch from Texas to Hawaii. A 2015 survey of peer cities found Memphis has more sidewalks and spent less on them. Atlanta, for example, had about 2,200 miles of sidewalk and budgeted $4.3 million for them.
Since 2004, Memphis has cumulatively budgeted only $334,000 on its sidewalks. To fix them all, it would cost about $1.1 billion, city figures say, to the tune of about $19 million per year for the next 24 years.
However, sidewalks here are in bad shape. The latest figures from the city say 80 percent to 95 percent of the city’s immense sidewalk network is in need of repair. Immediate repair is needed on around 33 percent of sidewalks here.
Memphis City Council members cracked down on sidewalk repairs in 2014, threatening fines to homeowners who did not fix walks. The council relaxed after a number of those fined were on fixed incomes or could not pay and established a financial assistance program for some sidewalk repairs. Current council member Michalyn Easter-Thomas floated a proposal last year that would stop the sale of properties with noncompliant sidewalks.
For Downtown’s pilot repair program, Roler said his team will focus on the quality of the sidewalks (which ones are in need of repair) but also where they are. They’ll look for sidewalks along main pedestrian connections on “signature streets,” from South Main to Beale Street, for example, or Madison and Main.
Roler dislikes having to tell business owners they are responsible for their own sidewalks. The DMC, he said, has been hesitant to put money in sidewalk repairs because “you can argue sidewalk repairs are the responsibility of the property owner.”
“But, at the end of the day, if Downtown is not seen as a safe, comfortable place to walk, our retail businesses aren’t going to be successful,” Roler said. “People aren’t going to want to live here. Businesses are not going to move here.”
