Cleanup at Southwest Twin Drive-In a sign of things to come
Katherine Burgess | THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
The long-abandoned Southwest Twin Drive-In on Third Street was filled with life once again on Saturday.
Community members dug up tree roots, assembled furniture, spread mulch and painted a mural.
The action was a sign of more to come, with planned pop-up events soon leading the way for full development of the site.
“You’re going to see me smiling all day long,” said the Rev. Melvin Watkins, pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church and founding board chair of Uplift Westwood CDC. “I’m so happy and so glad to see so many people out here.”
A series of pop-up events will take place throughout the year planned by community partners to bring people to the site. Pop-ups will include an end-of-summer block party, a concert with Overton Park Shell on Wheels, possibly a fall Trunk-or-Treat and a winter holiday event. Details of events will be posted at southwesttwin.com/events as they are planned.
Then, in the future, there is support for possibly moving a police precinct to the site as well as the Levi Branch Library, according to Memphis City Councilman Edmund Ford Sr.
There also is a desire to see retail, family entertainment and dining options at the former drive-in, said Stephanie Hill, board member of Uplift Westwood CDC.
The drive-in has been an eyesore for longer than Hill has lived in Memphis, she said. Now, there is a “huge opportunity” for the space, both to honor the neighborhood’s history and to bring in new residents to help the community thrive.
Hill, a former educator and school administrator in Westwood, now works with Juvenile Court. Those experiences all intersect with the need to have development in the community, she said.
“Knowing the outcome data for schools in 38109 and knowing on the Juvenile Court side the contact we have with youth from 38109, I can absolutely see a nexus between disinvestment in communities and outcomes for youth,” Hill said. “We’re extremely excited about what this means for the future. … We want the Crosstown Concourse here. We want Raleigh Springs here, but the 3.0 version that’s even better.”