Letter: Riverfront not BR’s top priority

• Published: Nov 4, 2009 - Page: 8B

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Those who support the Alive plan have cited many cities to which Baton Rouge is inferior because we don’t have a riverfront venue.

Baton Rouge is inferior to Austin, Texas; Nashville and Memphis, Tenn.: Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; and several others I can’t remember.

Let me just spotlight Nashville and Memphis, which are lovely places, but they also have several things in common that Baton Rouge does not have: Location, popular venues already located in the respective cities, and a military installation either close by or in their city.

Nashville is the home of the Grand Ole Opry, which draws close to a million visitors to Nashville each year. Fort Campbell, home to the 101st Airborne Division, is about 50 miles northeast of Nashville, and the military members and dependents spend money in Nashville, as do the civilian contractors and their families.

Some visitors may gravitate to the riverfront, but it is not their destination.

Memphis, of course, is the former home and resting place of Elvis Presley. Graceland attracts 500,000 to 600,000 visitors to Memphis every year. It is the second-largest visited residence in the USA, right after the White House.

Memphis also has the NAVSUPPACT Mid-South Naval Installation in its city, with Navy personnel, civilian contractors and retirees. Again, visitors may visit the riverfront, but it is not their destination.

Nashville has a state-of-the-art public bus transportation system. Their buses have bicycle racks to which you can attach your bicycle to ride to one of the many scenic bicycle trails around, the city. Memphis has more than 40,000 commuters a day using its bus system.

Nashville’s theme park, Opryland, closed after only 22 years because it could not grow; it was bordered on one side by the Cumberland River, which flooded the theme park, and the city of Nashville on the other 3 sides.

Baton Rouge is in an even more tenuous position.

“If we build it, they will come” is too risky in today’s economy. If we build it and they don’t come, we taxpayers are up a creek.

Our politicians have filet mignon appetites with a hamburger and fries pocketbook.

Baton Rouge does not have built-in tourist attractions such as the Grand Ole Opry or Graceland. If the downtown businesses want to promote themselves, let them form an association, pool their advertising dollars and promote themselves.