Parking lot different today
The RiverCity Co. today will transform the parking lot next to the Majestic Theater into a temporary retail development to generate debate around how public space is created and allocated, the company said.
A faux building on the lot will contain a coffee shop, newsstand and other retail displays throughout the day. The publicity effort is part of PARK(ing) Day, a global project begun in 2005 to create “new forms of temporary public space.”
The second goal of the transformation is to call attention to prime locations near the river that are still available for economic development, said Elana Gulas of RiverCity Co.
Tennessee jobless rate falls
Tennessee’s unemployment rate for August was 9.6 percent, down one-tenth of a percentage point from the revised July rate of 9.7 percent.
The August 2009 rate was 10.9 percent. The national unemployment rate for last month was 9.6 percent.
“Though unemployment rates remain unusually high, August is the first time since April 2007 that Tennessee has equaled the national rate,” said state Labor Commissioner James Neeley.