Tom Lee Park shows revamp
30-acre park can expose poor kids to nature’s gifts
If the Tom Lee Park redesign goes as planned, it won’t just be an example of how to transform a bland stretch of riverfront into a place where nature, recreation and concerts coexist.
It’ll be an example of how to invest in environmental equality.
That’s because a key part of the redesign of the 30-acre park, which had been delayed as the Memphis River Parks Partnership ironed out its differences with organizers of Memphis in May, is a raised canopy for walks through the forest, and places where people can observe birds and life along the Mississippi River.
There also are plans for a sand beach. Groves. All kinds of ways to connect with nature.
Which is something that African American youths, and especially poor African American youths, are rarely able to do because nature parks are rarely in their neighborhoods — or in a neighborhood that they can reach without having to rely on a bus or a car.
But ZIP code 38126 — where 61% of the people are poor and where the median age is 24 — borders Downtown. So do other ZIP codes where many black youths — 33% of whom are poor — live.
Which means that the park redesign, with its ecological features, can introduce many youths in those ZIP codes to nature without forcing them to rely on a field trip to Shelby Farms or to other natural spaces that are out of reach.
For Carol Coletta, president and CEO of the Memphis River Parks Partnership, being able to use the redesign to expose more youths to nature is especially fulfilling.
“I am so thrilled,” Coletta said. “We didn’t have to worry about a new bus route, or getting people to drive them there, because a lot of the kids ride their bikes to the park every day. …
“It’s going to be like a vacation in the city. In Habitat Gardens, the nature is going to be overwhelming … it will be enjoyed equally by tourists and by people who don’t have many options at all.”
Actually, for the youths who live nearby, it’ll be more than that.
A number of studies have shown, among other things, that youth exposure to nature appears to bolster their academic performance.
For example, a 2009 study in Pubmed Central, a journal of the National Institutes of Health, cited literature that showed that being out in nature boosts children emotionally, and that even views of nature could enhance children’s ability to learn and concentrate.
The problem, though, is that disparities that run along racial and ethnic lines restrict children’s access to nature.
“Green spaces and parks have historically reflected racial discrimination,” said Laura Mylan, a vice president of Children & Nature Network, an organization that works to boost child development through improving their everyday access to nature.
“It’s like any other place where you find food deserts, where you find opportunity gaps, academic achievement gaps, and other challenges, you almost always find a parallel to lack of highquality green space.
“We know that kids living in communities with more stress, with more crime, with more poverty, they also benefit proportionately more (from being around nature) than kids in affluent communities with fewer challenges.”
“I think more access to green space is good,” said Cardell Orrin, director of Memphis Stand for Children. “And it (Tom Lee Park) is certainly closer than Shelby Farms. It also lowers crime and is good for their health.
“But if children had more green spaces in their neighborhoods, more of them would want to go and explore more and bigger green spaces.”
Also, Mylan said, such natural spaces must be built and promoted in ways that are welcoming to African Americans.
“Even if you build it there are still perceived barriers by many communities of color that this place might not be ours, or this might not be a place where I can take my family and feel welcome,” she said.
Yet the Tom Lee Park revamp, with its lush ecological features, could show many youths who live nearby that outdoors isn’t just a space to play sports, or to mingle, but a place to observe and appreciate nature, and to learn from it. To be inspired by the Mississippi River and the life that it gives.
“This is so needed in Memphis and so relevant to our future,” Coletta said. “If we ever needed public space, we need it now.”
As we need to continue to take steps to make Memphis a more equitable place for everyone.
Especially the kids.
You can reach Tonyaa Weathersbee at 901-568-3281, tonyaa.weathersbee@ commercialappeal.com or follow her on Twitter: @tonyaajw.