It must be that time of year when annual lists and reports are released. Several have crossed my desk this week dealing with health and environment as well as the Forbes ranking. The problem with snapshot lists is that they don’t capture trends, and may ignore the positive momentum cities like Memphis may be experiencing. To read the Forbes description, for example, the outside reader would have no idea about any of the positive initiatives happening right now.
So I propose a What’s Right Memphis Eco-Asset Map that lists the following projects (an illustrative not exhaustive list):
*Project Green Fork-certified restaurants
*Greater Memphis Greenline route
*Community Gardens (Sow to Grow and Grow Memphis)
*Green Publications (Edible Memphis and Going Green)
*Stores selling fresh fruits and vegetables
*All farmers markets
*All parks and recreation areas
*All fitness and yoga studios and bicycle shops
*All current and proposed skate parks
*Stores that sell or make biobased products
*All green and LEED certified buildings
*Recycling centers
Certainly I’m forgetting some things to include, so please fill me in on what should be included in this asset map. This would be a great tool for regional tourism, for real estate agents, for list-makers and for urban enthusiasts. I’m serious.
We should map these things and promote what’s right with Memphis. Not only would it show where things are going well, but it will show areas that need attention and certainly there are many, as I note in the Green Jobs Memphis post about recent health indicator reports. However, a community-wide “what’s right” map would show how and where all these individual efforts are making a difference. To fix the problems outlined in the recent health and environmental reports, you have to start somewhere.
Hopefully my next Smart City post will include said proposed map.
My GOD! How can you NOT KNOW that almost every other city is so far beyond this low bar list you provided?
What a JOKE.
You need to investigate other cities to see how far behind Memphis is. it’s EMBARRASSING.
I’m sure Forbes DID know about these earnest but VERY LATE to the game efforts.
You know what Memphis has? We haver some of the best people on earth here, BUT, because our leadership has been a bunch of DIRTBAGS for so long they get overshadowed.
We have NEELY’S. Case closed.
We have two Whole Hog Restaurants.
We have a couple of other fantastic BBQ places, not the usual suspects either.
We have some great churches, not the usual posturing hacks we’ve had for ages, but, new ones that are DOING things.
However:
We have people that know what to do, know exactly what to do to make things better, being completely squashed by their Sith Overlord’s, their bosses government, oppressive taxes, employee bloat, lack of accountability, and developer corruption.
I believe it is time to call out the federal government to pay attention, particular attention to THEM.
Zippy, um, I don’t think Leah’s saying that she doesn’t know that “every other city is so far beyond” Memphis, as you lament. She’s trying to celebrate things that are proliferating in, and subsequently improving, our City. How is that a bad thing? Don’t you think that celebrating only creates more similar endeavors? You’re ignorant if you don’t think our local/healthy food options and “eco assets” have increased significantly in the last few years. I have lived here for more than 10 years, and, as an outsider, the positive changes are obvious to me. Is your point that if you are “late to the game” you can never play at all? If yes, that’s ignorant. Get out from under your paranoid rock and do something positive–like supporting the things Leah mentions. And, frankly, I’m a little tired of the same old same old about BBQ. We CAN celebrate other things, too.
Leah: Great idea! I love celebrating the greatness of Memphis and all the organizations and people that are contributing to it’s greatness. Happy to help, however you see fit.
Anonymous: Thanks for trying to explain Leah’s view to Zippy.
Zippy: What do YOU like about Memphis? What keeps YOU here?
I love Memphis and I intend to do whatever I can to help keep our city moving in the direction it’s heading. AND, I’m proud of that direction.
We would love for you to add Clean Memphis to your What’s Right Eco-Asset Map.
Our goal is to create neighborhood collaboratives that focus on eradicating litter. We have divided the city into zones and are building cohesive teams of residents, businesses, churches and schools to do just that.
Our website, http://www.cleanmemphis.org, has a copy of our Zones Map. Although primitive at the moment, our web designer is working to make it a clickable map the helps people connect to others in the zone who want to make a difference.
We too love celebrating what is good in Memphis.
OH alright already!
I LOVE BBQ, you can’t take that away from me.
I love the zoo, so what, it’s pretty dang good as zoos go and I know a lot about em.
It’s a fairly clean ghetto, not a lot of trash blowing around but with the new company I’m not so sure it will stay that way.
I think the new mayor is doing great, so far.
The doctors here are first rate! (that has kept me here for years, so, don’t tell me to “get out and see stuff”).
Some of the people here are stellar, generous and full of backbone.
IF I didn’t love this place and ALL it’s people so much maybe too much, including the ones I don’t like, I would not be so upset that things are so screwed up and it’s WHY I get so upset. I want to get in there and tear the as out of the perps and if I get the chance and when I get the chance I will, ruthlessly.
I know what Leah is saying, and I also know that it is premature to put a coat of paint on a piece of metal thats rusty or wet.
Sure there’s plenty to love about Memphis, more important things than a neato food store that I too enjoy often, but, it’s not time to pat ourselves on the back, we haven’t gotten our hans dirty enough long enough to start that yet. We are on the right track with improvements, and it’s true that Forbes backed up their assertions with statistics, ones that matter to people who are one check or less from homeless, the rank and file of Memphis, the bulk of our tax payers.
We don’t need to be saying “we’re not miserable” when it is a proven fact that for most Memphians they are, we need to OWN IT first, honestly own the report, instead of fighting it like an angry child that can’t bear the truth, we need to gather evidence hat it is true first, own it 100% and act on it.
Fighting it will give us zero insight on what t do, gathering evidence will give us direction and a sense of urgency that we have lacked or 40 years.
I know it’s a bitter pill but so what? What are we a bunch of brats? We need to stand up like adults and address the issues. I don’t need a sack of candy canes and chocolate unicorns to keep me motivated to keep my eye on the big picture and act continuously in the face of no agreement what so ever, and if you do then your actions are like swimming in a sidewalk puddle. The water will dry and you’ll be a fool on their belly on a dry sidewalk talking about how good they are at swimming.
You can bet and win every time that, when a national magazine with international respect reports that your city is in deep trouble and a seriously miserable place to live compared to other cities and backs that up with stats, they are doing it IN SERVICE to you. NOT to piss you off. If you are pissed, be pissed at the proper culprit, not me, not Forbes, yourselves and the people who are in position to ruin your city.
As I see it, people have voted in who they believe can and will act in their best interest, he seems to be doing that job, things are on the upswing, why be upset at a report of the results of previous devious administrations?
They are gone.
But there are far too many serious issues and devious people still involved that MUST be routed from our midst before they get their tick teeth back into our backsides.
I love this BLOG, a bit too much premature backslapping, but, mostly concern and intelligence, myself excepted.
How about celebrating the many wonderful things about Memphis by patronizing them often and holding them accountable for positive results in a timely manner, growth, continued excellence?
Anything but a premature backslapping session, and by all means lets all stop rewarding ourselves too much for not enough ACCOMPLISHED, finished jobs, RESULTS over hype and hot air. My normal spiel.
Well, I went off on a tear and I really didn’t want to, but, heck, I love Memphis too. People say don’t get so upset, but, ya know what, It’s time to be very upset, at the right people.
So there’s no question that Zippy or any other respondent to this post loves Memphis. But it’s a bit disingenuous to say we need to tell the truth and then only list the litany of negative truths. Certainly other cities are light years ahead of where we presently are regarding eco-projects and policies, but they had to start somewhere too. Perhaps in comparison to other cities presently we’re lagging, but compared to where we were even five years ago with regard to sustainability issues, there’s a vast difference in the direction of improvement.
In order to prioritize the right things, we need to know what they are.
So on the one hand, Eminem might be right (“I am whatever you say I am”) and the Forbes report and other regularly aggregated reports might be accurate in their consistently negative assessments of Memphis. But I don’t think so. And there’s more than a handful of growing evidence that shows that they are not entirely right.
Besides, shouldn’t we be a little skeptical of unduly critical and unscientific outside reporting of our city? It’s one thing if the report is fact-based, but this was highly selective. Can you really tell how miserable a city is by its professional basketball team’s win-loss record?
Number one, I never said “we need to tell the truth” without a context.
Number to, There are no negative truths, a truth is a truth if it really is one and if it is it is in service to the one it is true about, especially if that entity has trouble admitting or acknowledging it.
We react to the truth with a fight and a protest like a five year old.
Number three, it isn’t that “some” peer cities are light years ahead of US, Memphis TN.
It’s that ALL peer cities are light years ahead of us.
THAT is the travesty of continually trying to make oneself feel better about a bad situation when no appropriate response has been enacted, just predictable knee-jerks. Dammit aren’t we bigger and better than that? When are we going to storm city hall and demand our justice, when are we going to not just be outraged privately but show public outrage? Don’t you see that is what is called for right here, right now?
We can’t just be all depressed that someone told the truth and backed it up with irrefutable stats and start the feelgood kneejerk, it’s time to DO something. That’s like an alcoholic saying “What? Me drinking? NO!!!” and then drinking because of the depression from hearing the truth, instead of putting down the damn bottle. This is a city of battered women syndrome! You know, a battered woman can shoot and kill her attacker and it’s fine, and it should happen sometimes, but, that doesn’t mean that the own-ness for staying isn’t partially on her, it is, but, it can be excused.
THAT EXCUSE will not forward her life, family, or cause one day further. Only taking responsibility will, SAME FOR MEMPHIANS, and the first step is acknowledging the truth as told by someone else outside your physical body with no vested interest in your cause one way or another. You just got that, act like a grown up and act on it. Acting like a brat won’t get you one step closer to a better Memphis. Memphians are battered and addicted to drama, predatory politicians have known this and leverage it to their own gain for decades.
Acknowledging it to the point of not fighting it when you hear it is a LOT of the battle to recovery.
It does not take a genius to know what the right things to do are, you could literally find all of hem on a google search and comparison.
Don’t make it sound like rocket science.
Forbes and the others are not even positing that they are “entirely right”, they backed up what they posted they were right about with stats and the majority of Memphians could add a few to their list to paint it a particularly dark black. Don’t believe it?
Go around all the other blogs and reports on the story and see what almost 100% of the Memphis comment posters have posted. It ain’t looking good. It looks to me like the people have spoken in the majority and THEY AGREE with Forbes.
“Can we be skeptical?”
Of course you can be as skeptical as is appropriate, but, since hey didn’t weigh their whole assessment on the basketball team, which is a factor (even though I love a god game no matter who wins and we do have some great players) it is not appropriate to be skeptical enough to dismiss the report at all. It’s fact base and shallow at that, I could have suggested a plant here to live as most people do in a certain set of large areas of what we call Memphis (not Germantown or Cordova) and I assure you they would be plenty miserable if they didn’t already have battered woman syndrome.
As an adult, it is appropriate to accept it as coaching, accept the correction, take action to correct the problems and move on, not to argue, do nothing to correct the problems and blame the messenger!
If I had an employee that did that I would fire them right there on he spot and suggest psychological counseling, not necessarily in that order.
I’m not against a post of positive things, at all, but, not in response to correction and coaching, and not prematurely. It won’t help solve anything and we need to hardcore concentrate on solving what was reported.
Let Zippy, being the most miserable citizen among us, define for us why we should be as miserable as they.
You think that Forbes was providing “coaching”? There is nothing wrong with espousing the positive aspects of a community regardless of the reason or provocation. You think that anytime anyone brings up something positive, they must be reminded of all that is wrong with this community. Trust me, no one is ignoring all that is wrong with this city, and it would be impossible to with people like you and Forbes around. Have you ever heard of battle fatigue? Well individuals such as yourself wear on the rest of the population and push them toward “negativity fatigue”. Violent crime is reduced by 20%- you remind us it is still horrifically high, a green list of dining establishments is created- you remind us that Atlanta had one 10 years ago and has 4 times as many now, again and again. We know all these things and instead of celebrating the fact there is anyone here that is willing to make these strides, you remind us how far behind we are. Let me ask you this, would you go to a marathon and set yourself up at the 5 mile mark and start reminding all the participants they have 21 miles to go? Unless you are some sort of jerk, I would hope you would cheer them on and maybe offer some water. We know the race, we know how far we have to go, we know where we are in the pack so we don’t need someone such as yourself reminding us we have just begun to make up for lost time.
“Anonymous says:
March 3, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Let Zippy, being the most miserable citizen among us, define for us why we should be as miserable as they.”
I stand corrected, THIS is the best post of the century!
Forbes was definitely providing information and a fully functioning adult would have accepted it as coaching, made correction and moved on with grace, not bitch about it and try to start a fight, oh what a totally Memphis kneejerk, wake up.
Look, it’s like this, you see yourself as participating in this big project to make Memphis better, and maybe you are, but, what you don’t see, and why it’s all still working against you, is a mechanism that you are unaware of even though you are a participant in it. YOU actually keep the invisible mechanism in place by not being able to see it, not knowing that you can’t see it, and being unaware of it’s existence at all. No kidding.
You aren’t alone, you NEED to know that you have been under such horrific government corrupotion and enforcement, oppressive utility billing, police corruption, that you are 100% traumatized and have a BAD case of PTSD, yeah, even you, every Memphian who isn’t at city hall in their faces with a fist is in the same boat. Yeah the one place that at this point would be appropriate to show your anger and maybe start a fight Memphians shy away from.
WHY?
Because you have been under such horrific conditions that you can’t see it anymore, your tolerance for misery has been extremely extended because the misery was burlesqued over decades. It’s no joke, it’s the only explanation for what’s going on in the majority of Memphis and it explains the crime stats too.
It is not uncommon for a battered wife over the years to fight for her brutalizing husband and even deny the brutality. Then they put makeup over the bruises. It isn’t graceful no matter how much they may think it is. It’s just more denial.
Same here.
Could we just lay off the backslapping till something actually bears fruit?
Ya know, if you have a memory, we get a LOT of promises that turn out empty. When a positive result comes in, for real, not “in spite of the brutalization, this flower grew in a crack in the concrete sidewalk” style, but a real result of some change made recently, THEN we can throw a PARTY, and a BIG ONE!
I’m so for that.
Alright, maybe I’ll slowdown on the gardening. But don’t expect silence.
Yeah, I just moved here from one of those celebrated vibrant, cities that has no problem attracting the young professionals (being one of them) everyone seems to be going after these days. I’m hardly crushed or blinded by the current administration. I agree with one of the above post- it appears that no one is blind to the issues as you assert, it seems rather that they know they are in for a long process and need not be reminded by those on the sidelines that theirs is a long road. On a similar note, there is only so much one can do- best to utilize your talents and make an impact in one area and let others employ their talents towards other issues. Instead or preaching from the mountain top about how futile our efforts are in the face of the system, why don’t you make it your responsibility to enact the changes that you think are necessary. the
“Could we just lay off the backslapping till something actually bears fruit?”
Zippy: Come down to Greenlaw community center this Saturday morning at 12 noon, bring your kids, pad-up and I’ll teach your kids to skate board on the N. Memphis youth’s new half pipe.
Anonymous,
I know no one is blind, more like denial, and I NEVER said they were in for a long process, I DON’T BUY THAT. I state the opposite, it does not have to be a long process. It’s not appropriate for all our problems to take forever to get resolution.
I’m saying that your anger is totally Misdirected and that whining about an article that used stats and facts to back it’s assertions, however you may feel about them, is childish at best. Would have done much better to assume responsibility for the problem, acknowledge the truth, and move on, THAT is what GRACE looks like, not complaining and whitewashing.
Wake the heck up.
If you think I’m saying our efforts are futile, you need to learn to comprehend what you read. That is 100% counter to what I’m saying, I’m saying get into action, with a sense of URGENCY and get moving and don’t pay attention to detraction other than to own it’s truth as information to direct efforts. Maybe it’s time we did get mad and march, maybe it’s past the start of that time, but, it’s definitely on the agenda. It NEEDS to be done. Not against the mayor, in support of the mayor, and everyone else working against “the legacy”.
DID YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?
As far as getting into action to get things enacted, you are sooo barking up the wrong tree.
That’s what I do! That’s ALL I do. I’m not saying this to belittle anyone, it’s out of love and experience getting things done. Sometimes you have to punch someone in the face, and if you aren’t prepared to do that when it’s “what’s called for”, not when it’s inappropriate, YOU WILL LOSE, you get punched and the other guy takes your stuff. It’s happened repeatedly here.
Where’s the riverfront money? HELLO!
Aaron, I am already booked for Saturday, but, I’ll try to work fast to get finished early, I want to see that thing. I will try to make it.
Skating is good!
Lookout though, if I have too much fun, there will be backslapping involved and I am extremely heavy handed I’m told. I’ll try to be easy.
I think skating would be an excellent attraction coupled with the other stuff I mentioned, we could one up Little Rock!
I would enjoy that!
“DID YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?”
Thanks for not condescending there. I got what you said and I don’t think anyone was “whitewashing” anything. You think individuals are complaining about the stats, what I see are individuals who have been working hard to make a difference, know they are and are tired of others in the community only pointing out how far they need to go.
DID YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?
One more thing- so you like to be the one to punch people in the face- sometimes individuals already recognize the problem which means you are just some sort of sadist. I’m actually involved in the community in a couple of organizations that I try to help outside my normal 8-5. If someone had your attitude, I doubt anyone would show up to feed the needy, remove the overgrowth from the McLean overpass, or work on the Wolf River Greenway. You have to know when to stop punching and start supporting the individuals that are making it happen. Something tells me you are preaching to the wrong crowd at SCM.
I think it’s just you.
You seem to be the only person who is too willing to misread only one guys post.
I suppose I should taylor my posts to suit YOU.
Fat chance.
Condescending.
Look, you read a lot of garbage into my posts that isn’t there and you take things out of context on purpose, because you have issues.
You are on my ignore list from now on, which is too bad, because I was starting to like you.
Tisk tisk.
Sometimes people DON’T recognize the problem as evidenced by misdirected actions and wasted effort doing what WON’T make a difference in the long run to anyone.
Since you can’t seem to read any of my posts for what they actually have in them versus what you made up in your head, please stop reading them, they obviously cause weird stuff in your head.
Right, you make asinine statements, someone calls you out on them and it’s obviously their own fault. God forbid you perform a personal audit on you r own posts or positions. Maybe you should put a little more thought into what you are willing to post online- someone might actually be reading them. Otherwise, I’ll take a cue from others here and simply keep the discussion to those who are willing to keep the discussion on the up-and up without condescending- without making suggestions about the persons mental capacities and those who cannot only see the issues we face as a community, but recognize the progress that is being made.
Aaron, saw it the other day. Did you do that? If so congratulations, it’s great! It’s just a shame that the closest I have ever gotten to getting on a skate board is vicariously through Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. A fine example of what can be accomplished by motivated citizens.
We may not be at the level of many other cities- but who cares? Let’s make Memphis a great place to live by our own standards. If we took this approach I would be willing to wager that we would be at the top of some of those lists in short order before we even noticed it- not that we would be looking anyway.
“Anonymous says:
March 5, 2010 at 8:58 am
Right, you make asinine statements, someone calls you out on them and it’s obviously their own fault.
………………….
Well, that’s not wht you did, you took comments, misquoted them, out of context, and went on a personal asault.
You are a troll, and you’re still trolling.
……………..
God forbid you perform a personal audit on your own posts or positions. Maybe you should put a little more thought into what you are willing to post online- someone might actually be reading them. Otherwise, I’ll take a cue from others here and simply keep the discussion to those who are willing to keep the discussion on the up-and up without condescending- without making suggestions about the persons mental capacities and those who cannot only see the issues we face as a community, but recognize the progress that is being made.
…………
Then why did you bother to get off topic?
Because you are a troll.
Why did you start a personal attack?
Because you are a troll.
Go away troll.
You speak for no one but yourself.
Zippy, I disagreed with you and did not hold back on making it known. According to your definition you are a troll as well- you continue to make personal assaults and seek out any post I’ve made to make your little troll remarks. Yours is a fragile ego. Now why don’t you end you own hypocrisy here. You are obviously a troll. One that only pulls the card when someone will not give in to your personal slant on events and the world around you.
So here we are and these same statements apply to yourself:
“Then why did you bother to get off topic?
Because you are a troll.
Why did you start a personal attack?
Because you are a troll.
Go away troll.”
Thanks for saving me some typing. By the way, I’m here to stay and can’t be run off by some high horse blow hard such as yourself. If I disagree with something you post in the future I will not hesitate to make it known and will give reasons why. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to respond.
I haven’t personally attacked you, EVER. I waited quite a while to acknowledge your uncalled for over defensiveness and disingenuous character assassination tactics.
You started your rant in your VERY first post with name calling, “ignorant and paranoid”, then, “most miserable citizen”, then, “some kind of jerk”, then, “you are just some sort of sadist”, and, “you make asinine statements”. These are all your statements, namecalling, personal attacks, but, that’s not what adults do when they disagree?
Is it?
What you have done is tactics:
assassinate the character of posters you disagree with by taking any comment out of context. That is a patent political tactic which gives me a clue as to who your “anonymous” self is, and it’s always in response to any call for accountability which is more conspicuous and telling than anything else.
This leads me t think that you may be here to make sure that no one on this blog calls for any accountability by public officials, which is also conspicuous.
You’ve singled me out because I am fairly vocal about calling for accountability, exactly how, and I propose solutions and pathways and people to get them done. You distract threads that have more than one person calling for accountability by pulling the red herring alarm. Another political tactic. They are both very old tactics and have been used to death here. They don’t work.
When they didn’t work, you began to assert that you speak for other people who did not back you up, another discrediting tactic.
Why would anyone want to discredit a call for accountability?
Hmm, something to hide, other than your identity, I would suspect. So, a search for that, first, would yield some interesting results. Maybe you seek supervisory attention?
If you disagree with me, you should state exactly where you disagree. (without pulling the out of context switch again)
I’m listening.
I’m not holding any grudge.
Thanks Urbanut. I have been working with the Greenlaw kids since 2006 so getting that ramp up and running was a dream come true! Come down to Greenlaw when you have a chance even if you don’t skate- it’s pretty inspiring seeing the kids there. We have the ramp public hours posted on this facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?members&gid=160762437394#!/group.php?gid=345759282230
Saturday mornings are best for families with small kids learning how to skate.
With AC in office, hopefully the sky’s the limit for motivated citizens to improved our city!