It seems like so many of the people in the consolidation debate have simply defaulted to their kneejerk settings.
That said, the unholy alliance between the suburban town mayors and urban Democratic Party members is surprising in its intensity, not to mention the endless stream of misinformation and lies being spewed out by both sides. It’s a sad commentary on where we are in the life of this community that the only thing these people can finally agree on is that they’ll never agree to work together.
As for the opposition, it is unsurprising. In communities where consolidation has passed, it’s the power brokers and politicians who regularly opposed it. Sadly, the vast majority of elected officials are only motivated by their own political self-interest. Their attention is focused on the next election cycle, and certainly not on the long-term success of the community.
For example, in Louisville, the new government energized public involvement and attracted more than 200 people to run for the new City Council seats. Only a handful of the people elected were incumbents, ushering in a whole new generation of leaders and a panoply of new faces.
Running Hard in the Wrong Direction
It’s as if some politicos would rather have power in a failing government than risk their position to do something to improve the economic trends that are rapidly limiting our options for the future. We won’t run through the data again, because you’ve heard them from us for five years. The scary thing for us is that back then, we were talking about negative trends that were a few years old. Today, the negative trends – historic loss of jobs, income, and young, college-educated workers – have been under way for a decade, and most upsetting of all, they are picking up speed.
Here’s one data point that we haven’t had before that gets to the heart of things: Projections are that the rate of population growth in Nashville region will be nine times the rate in Memphis region in the next 20 years. It means that if nothing changes, we are on the verge of becoming even more of an afterthought in state politics and the tail that wags the dog in the economic life of Tennessee.
What’s almost as untenable as the willingness by some to ignore the elephant in the room – the fact that we are headed in the wrong direction – is the way that some of the intense suburban opposition has used the opposition by the Democratic Party as a way to mask the racism that powers too much of the campaign there. The notion that African-Americans will lose political power ignores demographic trends that show no sign of abating. After all, in the past five years, Shelby County became majority African-American and no extrapolation of the data suggests that this will not continue as Shelby County mirrors the percentage of African-Americans in Memphis now.
Suggestions that black power will be diluted are about as well-reasoned as the town mayors’ hysteria that a new government is going to consolidate schools, bring more of “those people” to the suburbs, and drive suburban taxes up 50%. And those are the least of the fictions being circulated.
MIA: The CA
That’s the thing that’s most disturbing. It’s one thing to have a different point of view. It’s another thing altogether for an elected official to knowingly lie about the facts, and that’s become a common occurrence at the anti-consolidation rallies posing as forums by District 4 Commissioners Curly, Larry, and Moe and the use of public money in the small towns to advance political agendas of mayors.
But none of this is what surprises us most of all. It’s the inadequate coverage by The Commercial Appeal.
No major daily in any other community that’s considered consolidation of its government has been as MIA as ours, and when it does manage to show up, it’s superficial horse race coverage and “he said-she said” reporting. The award for best reporting by a daily newspaper in Memphis is an easy call. It goes to Memphis Daily News, which covered every meeting of the Charter Commission and understood and reported the details and nuances of the charter itself.
It’s next to impossible to imagine that we are a week from the beginning of early voting and The Commercial Appeal has not published a comprehensive report on the pros and cons of the charter or summarized the charter itself. And if it were not for Drake and Zeke on their morning radio show, we would have managed to go through 10 months without anyone in the media talking to someone in Nashville, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Jacksonville, the four communities most commonly used as benchmarks here. Drake and Zeke had an interview with Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson.
Bad to Worse
There’s an absolute lack of context or sense of the big picture in the CA’s reporting, and whether you are for consolidation or against it (it’s no secret which side we fall on), the lack of serious coverage is a disservice to us as citizens and as readers.
We would probably have simply chalked this up to the overall decline in newspaper journalism, except for Marc Perrusquia’s two-year investigation about Ernest Withers’s secret work as a federal informant during the civil rights movement’s heyday. So, we know that bursts of quality journalism are possible, which leads us to conclude that there’s been no editorial commitment to covering consolidation as deeply as it’s been covered in other cities.
We know that the news hole as been shrinking along with the number of reporters, but we hang on to the outdated notion that successful newspapers have to remain committed to its mission: the news. Once upon a time, WREG-TV was located in the basement of the Peabody Hotel, and the joke at the time was that its reporters covered everything in Memphis – as long as it took place in a meeting room of the Peabody. More and more, CA coverage feels like it’s about covering meetings and press conferences.
Some people have predicted that two newspaper cities becoming one newspaper cities will eventually give way to one newspaper cities become zero newspaper cities. Publishers flirting with bankruptcy are everywhere and even venerable flagship newspapers are swimming in red ink. The sad thing isn’t just that Memphis is sometimes mentioned as a city will end up with no newspaper but that its own subscribers so rarely defend the importance of its existence.
We’d Pay Extra for Less
In an article in Strategy+Business, four strategies were suggested for the media company of the future. The first is to “develop deeper relationships with readers around targeted interest areas.” This builds on the strength that comes from the personal relationship that effective newspapers have with their readers.
The second strategy is “to tap into revenues beyond circulation and advertising,” including custom content, consumer insights, premium content, and data-based applications. The third strategy is “to reinvent the content delivery model ,” avoiding formula-driven approaches to cost-cutting, and the fourth strategy is “to innovate with new products and pricing models” for online content.
As for customized content, we’d pay extra if that could mean that we wouldn’t get the comments posted by readers to CA articles. As we’ve said before, we’re hard-pressed to think of anything that would improve race relations more in our city than disconnecting the online vehicle for the most venomous and vile personal and racial attacks in our city.
Not that anonymous: If consolidation fails, we’ll be doing the same thing we’ve been doing for several decades – working to make this a better city. Sadly, we expect most of the opponents to pretend like they have taken a stand against something and will go about their merry way.
Anonymous 2:11:
Here’s the problem with that theory. We’ve done almost everything that’s possible over the past 25 years to cut costs and reduce government here – intergovernmental agreements, interlocal agreements, functional consolidation, revenues sharing, managed growth agreements, etc.
That’s the problem. They’ve done nothing to fundamentally to change the bad business model from which they spring. We’re in the emergency room. It’s no time to keep putting off the surgery while the disease kills the patient.
Mary:
Sorry, but we don’t have any other option. We’ve tried them all and Shelby County (get it: Shelby County, not Memphis) continues to slide into the abyss. The numbers put out by supporters aren’t about Memphis. They are about Shelby County, and it’s county government that’s responsible for driving up taxes and the cost of government.
Listen closely. Nobody is doing Memphis a disservice. We’re actually trying to make sure that money that can be spend on helping real people isn’t going to bureaucracy and duplication. Nobody more than Memphians are hurt by this.
If the only thing we can agree on is that we can’t agree, it’s a pretty sad state of affairs. There’s little reason for Germantown and Collierville et al to think that forming their own county will make any different. The demographic trends are clear and powerful, and if they can’t adjust to them, they need to move to Salt Lake City.
Urbanut–
How will consolidation of two governments alter those facts? Won’t those facts still exist, regardless of the number of governmental units? Do you really think consolidation will solve the region’s social and economic ills?
Does anyone know how Louisville is faring right now with regard to it’s many ills compared to pre-consolidation? I do. Louisville still has a dreadful economy and is still not a go-to place for 25-34 year olds.
Anyway, it doesn’t really matter. Consolidation here is dead. It is not going to pass. And, in my opinion, the name-calling and sky-is-falling attitude of the pro-consolidation folks is a primary reason it won’t pass. Oh, and the fact that the pro-con folks simply cannot articulate exactly where we will see savings and exactly how much those savings will amount to. Anecdotes and vague assurances are pretty, for sure, but without concrete facts, they’re just empty words.
Now back to the work of making Memphis a better place. How much time have we lost?
Anonymous:
Here’s the thing. We can play the “what if” game with you forever. There’s no “what if” game now. We are moving in a clear trajectory to the bottom. So what do you have to lose? Why cling tenaciously on to a system that has delivered precisely what we have now.
As for Louisville, by the way, it just got attention on a number of young talent websites when it was named one of the 10 safest cities in the U.S. And the mayor said it was because they consolidated the government, cut costs 22% and gave him the money to more police on the street.
We haven’t lost any time making Memphis a better place. If you haven’t noticed, the vocabulary of the consolidation movement and the principles are already being adopted and are already driving conversations between city and county. No time has been lost except for people who’d rather engage in rhetorical debates than in analyzing the indicators and how we can change them. That too is a positive by-produce of this consolidation push, because we now know the truth about how serious things are. Until this came along, we didn’t have the data. Now we do, so whatever happens, we better do something dramatic. That’s why we are for consolidation. If it fails, there’s nothing as dramatic and we fear for a city that continues to seek incremental progress.
I’m in agreement on making Memphis a better place. so, how about some input from the burbs on how to make the Memphis metro area better? Other than the usual “Memphis needs to solve its own problems” line…as if the suburbs AREN’T part of Memphis. Memphis’ problems ARE Germantown’s problems…and Collierville’s…and Southaven’s…from the perspective of someone from Nashville, Atlanta, Dallas, etc., we’re ALL Memphis. As long as we all think we’re not part of Memphis, we’ll continue to slide, imo.
Even the Bartlett folks think they are Memphians when they talk about “our new mayor” in letters to the editor.
Gulef, you just want to figure how to beat Henri Brooks for seat on county commission.
Anon-
Those questions have been answered several times and extensively on this site (and others). I will refer you to the archives and yes, consolidation will aid in achieving all the goals mentioned and many more as well.
Once again I will ask- please justify the existence of two governments serving the same community which provide overlapping services. I have made this request several times since the topic first came to the forefront and not one individual has been able to provide an answer.
Dismissing such a proposal, its supporters and the conversations it has fueled is immature at best and would defeat any knowledge and experience gained from the process regardless of the outcome. Hopefully your attitude toward the process proves to be in the minority.
Of course, that is based on the idea that individuals actually realize that the city and region are in economic dire straights based on data and studies and both past and exisitng local government and its structure have played a large role in creating these conditions. I’m not sure how anyone could conclude that this city is socially and economically sound and equipped to compete with neighboring communities in the 21st century.
To be against this charter, one does not need to “justify” the existence of the current system, nor is that opposition a vote of confidence in the current system. One only has to conclude that the new proposed system will not solve any of the problems it is designed to solve and is, therefore, a waste of time and money. This argument, that a vote against the proposal is a vote for the current system and all its problems, is not an intelligent argument.
And because the Louisville mayor allegedly attributed its new safety rating to consolidation, we must conclude that consolidation will help solve the crime and other problems here?
Really?
If you are not justifying the existence of the present structure, we’re not sure what you are doing. We don’t recall any suggestion of how things can miraculously be changed within the current system.
You are in fact voting for the current system, all the semantical flourishes aside.
But, let us get this straight: you’re not interested in demographic information, trend lines, economic data, and testimonials from people who have been involved in similar projects. How do you make a decision about important public issues and about opportunities for fundamental change? Ouija?
Give it up. If it was discovered that the Dead Sea Scrolls said to vote for consolidation, he’d still give some lame excuse or irrelevant question.
Ouija? Please. LSD
It seems to me from reading all the comments pro and con, that the anti-consolidation group, is implicitly positing that to solve Memphis and Shelby county’s problems, the new charter has to solve them all, all at once, in one fell swoop, as if there can be no steps taken or background foundation work that is solid to be done first, because that’s what this new consolidation is.
THAT leads me to believe they are not pro progress in this area.
What really gets me is the denial people, burying their heads in the sand like cowards, desperately hiding from statistics that show we fail as bad as is possible in this country. Cowards, powerless to take one single step to solve your problems and blaming the messenger. Pathetic.
———————————————-
Consolidation WILL pass, and hopefully for you, those of us for it may include you in the better designed Memphis and what grows out of it.
Which wolf did we feed?
We used to feed the bad wolf who killed his own tribe, through condoning crime, drug use, corruption, sprawl and running away from problems, even in the leadership of the city.
The new charter has no food for the bad wolf, only food for the good wolf.
So consolidation will fix crime, drug use, corruption, sprawl and running away from problems. Good luck with that.
Look folks, the democrats are against it, the republicans are against it. The sales job has been absolutely horrendous. Its not going to pass. When it doesn’t, I really do hope that you and your wolfpack will stop complaining and help fix the city and region, no matter what form the government takes.
Anon- have you even read some of the other articles posted on this site? If you had, you would realize that you are entirely off base with your accusations of negativity. No, it seems you are not so interested in the other aspects of civic improvement that have been discussed here including the many positive and promising programs and initiatives that have been created through blood, seat and devotion of personal income as you are in demeaning any support for the consolidation program. Try exploring the archive and the articles posted by contributors. I think you will find it to be full of informative and positive discussions that celebrate all that is right about this city. It is very presumptive of you to think that as we debate this issue, we are not in fact involved in organizations and actual action to improve the quality of life in this city. I cannot speak for anyone else, but it is the drive to see Memphis and its surrounding area prosper that stoke my interest and support for consolidation. Otherwise, I would have no opinion regarding the topic.
Your continued reference to “complaining” simply means you cannot comprehend the negative indicators and trend data that shows the current trajectory of our city. However, to not drive a discussion regarding our flaws and make efforts to pinpoint their root causes invites continued failure in those areas. To espouse the many positive attributes of this region without accounting for its many flaws and how they can be addressed is negligent pure and simple. Offering a continuous critique is one of the best ways to drive excellence.
Well you have no idea what my involvement in anything is so I will ignore that silliness.
The problem is that this proposal is going down. Its clear to everyone with a brain and eyes to see. Whether that’s good or bad, that’s what’s going to happen. This effort has been flawed from the get go. Had there been true citizen involvement in the process from the start, had there been a real push to educate the public about the merits of consolidation – before the commission finished its work – things might have been different. Had there been a real effort to engage opponents, as opposed to vilifying them, minds might have been changed. The charter would likely be quite different had the people had a real say; the voting districts might well be very different for example. But there wasn’t. This was a top down reform effort with no real effort to get it passed and no groundswell from the voters to get it done. A few CEOs holding a preser on a Friday a few weeks from vote time is not good enough to move the needle. Fred Smith’s interview in the Flyer today should have come out months ago. When some group in Germantown wants to have a pro consolidation person at a meeting, whether it was going into the lion’s den or not, someone should have been there will bells on. The message should not have been, in that instance, that its not worth coming out there. There should have been a full court press on this if it was this important and there wasn’t. The message from all this is, it must not be very important. The folks for it just assumed for whatever reason that everyone would just see the wisdom of this and vote for it. That’s not how change gets done.
Anonymous,
If both political parties are against it, given their history of complicity in the downfall of Memphis and their buzzard-like behavior of picking the bones of the victims, I’d say that it’s a clear indication that :
A) It MUST be the right thing for the people, not the parties!
B) Neither of those two POLITICAL BODIES like anyone telling them they can’t act like idiots on or off the job in Memphis, i.e.ethics reform,
C) They haven’t found a way to profit from it,
D) They have a very vested interest in keeping things as they are here, i.e. gerrymandered districts,
E) They are cooperating and profiting off the misery of Memphians,
F) The sales job HAS been completely unfocused, and that NEEDS to be fixed.
Pinnacle and Southwest Airways think we are going to rally, what do they know that we don’t?
Even if the charter is dead, we still have mayor Wharton. Will he be able to find all the waste and duplication and eliminate it?
If he does, we have a chance. If he gets rid of crime hot spots, and somehow gets the ethics reforms in the charter enacted, we have a chance, but, without the unifying guidance that core document, a new charter, to support what all that would be about, we are just making temporary changes, and that’s the problem of NOT adopting the new charter.
The next mayor could be a bigger scumbag than the previous scumbag and you’d have no leg to stand on to get rid of him. The next City counsel could be worse than the previous “City CLOWNSUL”, full of drug heads alcoholics and racists, and there would be nothing you could do about it. The school board could be full of idiots and there’d be nothing you could do about it, heck, they’ve wrecked it so bad people don’t even want to run for school board and city counsel seats, and when it gets to the point of being that bad, there has to be something done.
Neither party has had one single suggestion other than to complain about a calculated solution and blame the victims. Typical. Pathetic.
I don’t think these parochial party leadership represents their parties well at all in that light.
Anonymous:
Let us say it again and louder. Maybe you’ll hear us.
We were working on making this city better for decades and that won’t change. We have our heart and soul and our lives poured into Memphis and that’s why we know that something’s got to change. We work in other cities so we know how Memphis measures up – it doesn’t. You can enjoy the lethargy, the lack of attention to problems, the poor leadership, and the wasted money that got us here or you can change things.
Also, you make a lot of statements as fact, and so many of them are untrue. There was a grassroots call for change. That’s what Mayor Wharton said he heard in the 4-5 months of meetings he held before he decided if he would move ahead with the appointment of a charter commission.
We appreciate the advice on how change gets done. You just don’t know the facts, so it’s easy to second guess. That’s the problem with so much these days. We have too much Monday morning quarterbacking and not enough Saturday afternoon players.
PS: We forgot that in politics, you measure yourself not just by who’s for you but who’s against you. Any group that has Chris Thomas, Terry Roland, Wyatt Bunker, Willie Herenton, Sharon Goldsworthy, Van Turner, and Sidney Chism on it, I am proud to say is the opposition. If you think that they hold the keys to our future, go ahead and lock the door. It’s over.
Its hard to square the argument that there was a true, real grassroots call for change when the gov’t workers unions,black, white, the democrats and the republicans are against this. I love Wharton, but there was never a real grassroots call for change, nor was there a real opportunity for politically unconnected residents to really impact the process. The vote totals in a few weeks will bear that out. Sorry, but the truth hurts. First no cars on Main Street, now this. You guys are going to have to find another thing that will solve all our problems.
I’m no fan of many of those pols you mentioned, but at least they are in the arena. Its easy to criticize from the cheap seats. I’m quite pleased to not be on the side who claims that anyone who disagrees with them for principled reasons is either a racist or an idiot.
How do you know that none of us are actively participating in the political arena? Easy to make ignorant assumptions especially when as you stated earlier you know nothing of anyone here or their daily activities. I prefer to be on the side that chooses to rely on logic and precedent- the same side that has responded to questions asked (you have yet to justify your support of the existing government structure) and is not afraid to take action to address this community’s issues as opposed to simply hoping things work out.
Now what is it exactly that you are doing to advance this community- oh that’s right we have no issues, we are simply being “negative”. Speaking of grass- maybe if I had simply ignored the lengthy dry spells this summer, my yard would have magically stayed healthy despite observations and trend data that were proving otherwise. Instead I recognized the issue and chose to shake up the existing conditions by introducing tap water via a sprinkler several times a week, a decision that was based on precedent seen in my neighbors yards.
Can you a least admit that this city and region are sliding down a negative slope based on economic and social data, or are the Census and the Fed simply being negative as well?
Thanks for shrugging the burden of solving the area’s problems- it seems your true colors are showing.
“Can you a least admit that this city and region are sliding down a negative slope based on economic and social data, or are the Census and the Fed simply being negative as well?”
I don’t know about the other anons, but I can definitely admit that. I can also admit that consolidation will not change that slope.
What some of you folks seem to miss is the fact that form of government is not the source of the social ills, poor schools, racism, and crime that plague Memphis. Consolidation cannot and will not fix those things. In fact, consolidation could speed up the flight of the middle class out of not only the central city, but Shelby County altogether. That would make matters even worse. Yes, consolidation could make matters worse. My personal speculation is that there are people in the suburbs who have already left the City for the Shelby County suburbs and would probably leave the county if the merger goes through.
These anti-consolidation folks just don’t know what the he!! they’re talking about. A simple course in Urban Economics will give a new perspective about what it means to be a city in today’s world. Their thinking is very backwards and old. It is not progressive. In fact, I’d be very surpirsed if they even got out much and visited other cities and see how they work. Today, it is no longer about the city. It is about the entire metropolitian area. That is something that the anti-consolidation folks don’t understand. While they stiffle the growth of Memphis, they also stiffle the growth of the county and its suburban municipalities.
Packrat said it. Do these suburban towns think they just sprank up overnight because of good leadership? NO!!! They grew because of Memphis and the business it brought into the surrounding area. Without Memphis, they would be nothing.
Not- thank you for that. While we may disagree on consolidation, I’m glad that there are at least some supportive of the anti-consolidation viewpoint that realize that both the city and region face serious issues. As they say, admitting we have a problem is the first and often most difficult step in the process. If we, as a community have not come to that conclusion as of yet, then consolidation truly is a wasted initiative as is almost any effort to improve the existing conditions. A combination of that realization with a healthy dose of inspiration (motivated leadership?) will allow us to make the changes necessary to correct this trajectory.
Once again this comes full circle to criticism of the CA’s coverage of this broader issue. Seeing as half of the information presented at SCM, the Flyer and numerous other media sources never makes it to the pages of the CA and what does make it is distributed via a shotgun approach, perhaps it is time for an all inclusive recap. Many have short term memory and I would imagine the general public is not adept at disseminating meaningless journalism based rankings (Forbes) and more useful analysis (the Fed, Census, etc…). Perhaps a summation of sorts to recap the trends of the past 25 years showing the region’s educational attainment, population growth, income trends and employment statistics based on real studies that actually require research as opposed to whatever it is the Forbes does. A true state of the city, county and region. Regardless of the picture it paints, allow everyone to view an image of the region as it is and where it is going in the pursuit of really forcing everyone to the table in order to alter that landscape.
Of course the region faces serious issues; no one has suggested otherwise. The only question is whether consolidation is the answer, wholly or partially, to these problems. I doubt it, but I take very seriously the comments of Fred Smith and other business leaders who deal with other communities, know which ones are competitive and not, and back this effort. For all the devil’s advocate I’ve been playing in this discussion, I am not sure how I will vote to be honest. Need to read that charter again.
But let me say this. All the government consolidation in the world will not make this place competitive and an attractive place to live until the people here become a tad more open minded and accepting of those unlike themselves. When I hear that it is common for well off families to have their kids go to local southern colleges lest they be contaminated with other ideas, and when there is still so much race hatred on both side of the fence, I can’t help but think that it is this mindset, not the form of our government, that is really holding us down. Had I known, for example, how retrograde much of the thinking is here about blacks, gays, etc., I would have seriously considered not coming back.
I’m 100% in agreement with your 2nd paragraph, anon. Unfortunately much of the white conservative mindset here (and a lot of the black conservative religious) believes we just need more Baptist churches and that will solve everything. we don’t need furriners, homos, freethinkers or pinko artist types round here, we’re doin’ jus’ fine.
Anonymous,
Exactly how are the people around here going to become a tad more open minded when all their leadership is constantly stabbing them in the back as leading by example?
It’s truthfully hard to believe we have anything called a “Leadership Academy” when we don’t have any true leadership to draw from, just a bunch of people cleverly disguising their hidden agenda of self serving with clever phrases.
There are no standards of excellence for leadership being adhered to HERE, and WORSE is the fact that every time something that has been done successfully somewhere else must be done here, we have to reinvent the frikkin wheel over it. IT’S STUPID! It just shows just how disingenuous the effort is in the first place.
It wasn’t the consolidation part of the new charter that would have ben a benefit, it was the ethics reform, but, as usual, a lukewarm effort to educate the public (about the ONE ISSUE they could sink their teeth into and pass it) killed it.
Now you still have no matrix document or structure of rules to ensure or guide selection for service and guidance of leadership. SOS.
The pyramid is the perfect symbol for Memphis TN, because we definitely have a very close relationship to denial, it’s our blankie, our pacifier, our hidy-hole.
We dont need reform, and we don’t really care if the city is dying, we just need a new sandpile to bury our heads in, maybe different colored sand, maybe different type of sand, maybe we should be more authentic and import some sand from Egypt, that’ll fix it all.
Ignorance, parochial clanism, spinning a line of believable BS to cover, and talking down all opposition to the status quo, is high art in Memphis.
You’d think we had forever to get it right. The mayor is getting a lot right, you’d better hope that not everyone you need goes short on Memphis.