I have lived in Memphis for over 30 years. Most of that time was spent in the halls of Memphis City Hall and the Vasco Smith Shelby County Administration Building. I am a City Planner by trade and take great pride in the rebirth of our Downtown.
That said, I have witnessed up close and personal all of the iterations of Main Street. Cars, no cars; trolleys, trolleys along with cars; one big fountain that only worked 25% of the time, tiny little fountains that only worked 25% of the time; no trees, lots of trees; uneven bricks and concrete walkways, repaired bricks and concrete. I have witnessed all the free festivals we used to have from Oktoberfest to the Beale Street Music Fest to Memphis in May to the Memphis Music and Heritage Festival; I’ve watched all those festivals save one, thanks to the Center for Southern Folklore, now charging fees too high for many to attend.
I watched and participated in the beginnings of the Center City Commission and the Center City Revenue Finance Corporation, both fine and capable organizations with planning and economic staffs that work hard at rebuilding our Downtown. We are all proud of the rebirth of South Main, Redbirds Park, the FedEx Forum, the additions to the Convention Center (though I still lament the loss of Ellis Auditorium), the investment by the Belz family and Henry Turley among many others in retail and residential development that has made our Downtown the subject of praise. The Methodist LeBonheur Hospital System and St. Jude have shown the integrity and have seen the promise that investing in Downtown and the Medical Center can bring. Once Bioworks survives this wretched recession, we expect huge things from them. I’ve also watched the Center City organizations expand their territory out to the Parkways in order to help other neighborhoods and gateways into downtown.
But, enough is enough with Main Street! When I read last week that our 2 mayors, City Mayor A C Wharton and County Mayor Mark Luttrell, were making a trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Congressman Steve Cohen in order to secure additional funds for yet another redo of Main Street, it was all I could take. Secretary LaHood apparently was concerned about Memphis after reading an article in the New York Times about the declining Black middle class in Memphis.
My best buddy had to listen to me this morning as we took our morning walk through our Midtown neighborhood. But, being a veteran planner and specializing in economic development, she could only nod, agree and add her own unique take on the situation, centered on the loss of her beloved Easy Way on Cleveland (more on that later). We both agreed, redoing Main Street yet again is not going to fill up the Sterick Building.
We are all concerned not only about the decline of the Black middle class, but we are also very concerned about the decline of inner City neighborhood housing, infrastructure and the movement of businesses throughout the area of the traditional City to the suburbs. These businesses pick up and move with abandon. No thought about what they have left behind. We have an abnormally high percentage of vacant single family housing in the neighborhoods that ring downtown Memphis because as the population grows older, they leave the houses vacant and their children and grandchildren, both White and Black middle class citizens have no desire to move into the decaying neighborhoods. The inner City boasts no prominent grocery stores, though wished for by residents, there are no discount retail stores, no doctors, no veterinarians, no full service restaurants of the type that line the roads and highways in other parts of Shelby County.
What we need to do to improve the lives of the Black middle class and the entire middle class of whatever race is to concentrate our efforts, not just on traditional housing programs, but thinking outside the box and directing major transportation efforts on other areas within the Center City Commission’s jurisdiction.
How about channeling some of that money and great thinking into some other “main streets” within Center City’s purview? Like Cleveland from North Parkway to Union. The Sears Building still sits vacant waiting for Andy Cates to work his magic (and I have no doubt that he will once the economy turns around). But, without doing some work on the street that connects that soon to be fantastic mixed use development to Methodist University Hospital, how can we attract our young adults to live there? How can we attract the middle class back to the street to open new businesses? Try putting a multi-modal transportation system between the revitalized Sears Tower and Methodist University Hospital, LeBonheur, UT and St. Jude. It doesn’t have to be a fixed rail system, but it should be a dedicated shuttle that can move employees to the major employers in the area.
Cleveland is adjacent to one of the biggest redevelopment projects in the country – the rebirth of the I-40 Corridor West. Where do you think they shop and spend money? Not on Cleveland that once boasted thriving businesses and was seen as a major road in the first City Plan produced by Harland Bartholomew in 1924? My goodness, even Easy Way has moved out. But if you want a cell phone, Twinkies and chips, cheap jewelry or a can of oil for your car you can find it on Cleveland.
And there are other transportation projects which need attention much more than Main Street. We need to explore multi-modal projects that are pedestrian and bicycle friendly, with trees and street furniture. Here are three more that immediately come to mind.
Let’s spend some of that time and money on Union from the Medical Center to Redbirds Park. A major gateway to the downtown filled with abandoned 1950’s automobile dealerships. The South CBID Plan called for this to be a major entryway. Why did we turn our backs to it? Yeah, we planted some trees, but is that all there is?
And then there is Poplar, including Alabama, from Danny Thomas Boulevard to the new $350 million dollar Methodist Lebonheur Hospital and Legends Park, another wonderful redevelopment of deplorable public housing guided by Robert Lipscomb. Street furniture, trees, soften the concrete jungle.
And what about Crump Boulevard? Major gateway into our downtown from the West. That too was covered in the South CBID Plan. We are improving the intersection with I-55 to help with traffic, but we have got to start working on the road from the river to Danny Thomas. Lots of investment in the South Bluffs area. I think we have an obligation to move further on improving its environs.
Landscape the open parking lots and only allow parking structures that blend with the environment.
It works. It has worked and continues to work in other cities.
Please, Mayors Wharton and Luttrell, don’t just ask for Federal Highway Funds and Transportation Enhancement Funds. Let’s not forget Federal Transit Funds. Urge MATA become a contributing partner that actually follows the plans and programs developed by the various planning and community with development agencies in Memphis. In many cases MATA is the key to implementing strong community plans. And the middle class, young and older needs MATA to support its future.
Oh, and one more thing. Although both of our mayors are enthusiastic and want only the best for Memphis and Shelby County, why do we have to send TWO mayors to Washington, D.C. to seal this deal?
Consolidate now!
Sadly enough, I hardly know of any of the streets you spoke about (suburb guy here). As I read the article I thought, wow this guy/gal really has a good pulse on the city and some good ideas. Then you ended the article with this…
“Consolidate now!”
Just give it up, it distracts from an overall good message.
What about investing money in the outer parts of Memphis also. I get that downtown is what young and educated will want to stay, but the outer parts of Memphis looks a mess.
I completely agree that the state of many of the city’s thoroughfares are in deplorable condition. However, stretches such as South Main have seen little in the way of true investment as far as the actual street goes outside the trolley and that was opened in 1993. The pedestrian realm along South Main ranges from horrible to downright dangerous.
That’s not to say other roads such as Union are not in need of a major face lift. Personally I would like to see Union transformed into our Champs-Elysees, Broadway or Peach Tree Street from East Parkway all the way to the river.
You could say that South Main would be the perfect spot to perfect the local art of righting the wrongs of Memphis streetscapes. Once complete we can use it as the template for other roadways throughout the city.
I agree that you can throw money into what amounts to being “a trash can” (I quote myself) called Main Street Memphis, or any other similar city, but that won’t do it.
I hear you when you talk about the Cleveland to Sears Tower area, I used to live about 4 blocks North, three blocks east, and my business was in the Crosstown Bldg.
Stupid me, I got a real estate agent and looked for a place I could live, walk to my business, or bike, and I moved to North of Jackson.
The “War Zone” as they call it.
I didn’t know that Memphis had such a problem with ignorance. The public schools touted themselves as some of the best in the country.
Hogwash all around.
My business had to close due to crime
People in the area had Multigenerational PTSD. After seeing what the school system, the city, the “judicial/penal/lack of rehab system/Organized crime generation machine/clownsuls and Boards” has done to them over generations, I can easily see why they would be in just such a state and worse.
Until all those wrongs are righted, there will be nothing but decline.
That’s just how it works. For everyone and everything, you reap only what you sew, Memphis has exactly sewn failure. The harvest is in.
Good news is that the state standards for schools expose the truth about MCS failure to educate, betrayal of the public trust, misuse of funds is next, lack of oversight is ongoing.There was a total abdication of all responsibilities of government to generate a mammoth organized crime machine.
So yeah, that area and north needs some out of the box (the box made of nine dots, connect all the dots without breaking the line = outside the box) thinking, which means beyond your current paradigm of reality.
The following is not a “complaint” but a way to get outside the box:
Pretend you flew in from outerspace:
on approach, you saw:
vast areas of blight, empty houses north and south,
a donut hole in the middle surrounded by economically and educationally depressed areas.
Upon landing and investigating, you found:
there was a totally subverted education system where 40% was considered a pass.
(for those who don’t get the ramifications for that, imagine if you utilities only worked 40% of the time, including your water, or the bank only counted 40% of your deposits!)
high violent crime,
and criminals being released from prisons into regular population without any effective rehab.
Upon investigation of that, you found that all efforts at prisoner rehab were to get federal money and not to get results, run by felons and cronies,
You found that all levels of government had a total aversion to keeping accurate statistics in all departments,
The School board and administration also had an aversion to statistical record keeping.
The city council was prone to give deference based on the color of their skin, and instead of finding that petty and weird as it is, they looked for reasons to bolster how right they were to have that hardened position.
Elements in the School administration did the same.
The teacher’s union was indifferent to the lack of use of appropriate standards for education.
Areas were declining very quickly under this strain and collapse was eminent.
There was a mass transit system but there was no control over correcting routes and schedules not adhered to and neighborhoods were laid out to be unfriendly to mass transit.
There was a trolly, but, it was more of a tourist attraction than a utilized leg of mass transit, and it didn’t reach very far at all.
Crucial areas of improvement were funded but many never reached fruition and the money was wasted elsewhere without records to show where.
The election system was plagued with problems so much that people who weren’t actually elected got into office if they had enough money to payoff before the problems were fixed.
What would you do in that case?
How would you plan to improve a city in that case? Improving one area will not last long under those conditions, and the proof is right there in front of your face.
It seems to me, that you would have to civil service improve the employee graft problem and the justice system problem first.
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NO ONE is solving the justice system problem.
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The New Mayor and his teams are solving ALL the rest of the problems despite the justice systems part in the organized crime machine here.
You will actually have a chance very soon, I’d get started now.
Being at the bottom is no good if you can’t acknowledge it, but, if you do acknowledge it, it’s the best place to be, but, only if you sew legitimate proper growth as your seeds. Make sure you plan in maintenance to keep things righted.
So why are all the bidnesses leaving the hood?
Why are there no grocery sto’s? restaurants? doctors? vets?
Target’s? Kmarts?
They tend to base their business model on the ability of the surrounding customer base to actually ‘pay’ for services/goods provided, and quite possibly the rate of random small arms fire likey criss-crossing any site under consideration.
Hence, the ‘burbs win.
But the burbs lose when the creeping crud continues to seep their way, and that’s exactly what’s happening, b/c people think it’s only a city of Memphis problem. And when you have a metro area where the paradigm is couched in terms of the burbs and the city proper being in opposition to each other, instead of united in competition with other metro areas, we all are losers. While we’re busy hating on each other, and arguing about the starting line, other cities are crossing the finish line.
IO, true where the burb’s advantages take the prize especially where big boxes are concerned. However, too many equate a lack of said businesses in these areas to the surrounding residents’ inability to pay for services or the inability for one to operate at a profit.
When any for profit operation is looking to open shop, why would they invest in an area to only make a little when they can essentially invest the same amount somewhere else and make a lot?
One’s business model would need to change in order to support services entering these areas and considering we now live in an era of extremely conservative lending, banks are not going to be too eager to support new business models that focus on long term moderate profitability over short term high profitability.
Pack- I think you might be too generous. I’m not convinced we’ve even decided to compete in the marathon yet.
Indeed, we’re still lying on the couch eating Doritos and watching the P90X infomercial fantasizing about getting into the race….someday.
I promise I will work hard to help find solutions to inner city problems and will spend money on a revitalized Cleveland Street; but I don’t want to be annexed by Memphis yet. Please vote for consolidation on November 2nd or in early voting period so my neighbors and I can vote for annexation when we’re ready not when Memphis is ready. Please read the proposed Charter, Sections 7.201 and 7.202. Annexation by Memphis under consolidation will be put to a referendum vote by those targeted for annexation; and the smaller cities will still have their annexation reserve areas and be able to expand their boundaries just like before consolidation.
IO, the bidnesses are leaving the hood because the police can’t make enough of a dent in that area for a for-profit bidness to conduct lawful business in an atmosphere where they don’t have too much theft.
Bidnesses that don’t rely on retail just don’t ant to accidentally be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
My question, how many FedEx employees have died on their way home from work to be found in a ravine in the last year? Are they overworking their employees? Who wants a job like that? What does that say about Memphis? Don’t you think that’s showing up as an interesting stat to people considering moving here?
I do.
Packrat, I think we are thinking about being ready to begin asking ourselves if we are in a position to make any profit from getting off the couch or not.
Heck, that’s better than yesterday, when we were still trying to find ways to justify being on the couch for the benefits of staying out of eyeshot of anyone asking any questions as to why we are still on the couch and what we may be getting out of it and how we set that up.
IO, what if we had a conversation with people with a vested interest in crime and had the think about their kid’s/sibling’s futures, whether they want them to stay in the crime biz, or, do they want them outside of it and what they would be willing to do/fund, as far as a plan, to get that to actually happen and by when?