Previously posted March 8, 2012:
It seems like a good time to swear off the Memphis-Detroit comparisons once and for all.
They are a staple of online comments and the ultimate self-loathing putdowns.
Although Memphis has always had more in common with the gritty cities of the industrial Midwest than booming Sun Belt cities, it would take an awful lot to go wrong for Memphis to become Detroit South.
The new confidence and optimism flow from the feeling that things are moving in the right direction.
Second (Chance) City
While the national television commentary and Grizzlies’ comments regularly cast Memphis as a blue collar, if not hard scrabble, city, the more accurate narrative these days is about a city where one person can make a difference, a city prepared to outwork its competition, and a city of second chances.
It’s easy for a city to develop a negative narrative – one about a city that is failing or floundering – and once the news media define it that way, it’s difficult to change. Just ask Cleveland. Or Pittsburgh.
That’s why it’s timely that Memphis is now changing a narrative that was shifting noticeably in the wrong direction. The change is attracting new interest – from the Brookings Institution, National Endowment for the Arts, and the White House – and sending the message that something is happening in Memphis.
Pivoting to What Matters
It’s hard to remember when Memphis has received as much positive press as it did from the Grizzlies. It’s the best kind of public relations, because what Memphis needs to do isn’t just to tell its story better but to have a different story to tell.
None of this means that Memphians should be Pollyannish about the forces that ultimately will shape the future of the city: intractable poverty, shrinking numbers of middle class families and college-educated young people, sprawl, economic segregation, erratic public schools, and lethargic economic growth.
That’s why the real test of Memphis leadership is the ability to leverage the momentum and new enthusiasm to attack these nagging problems. Detroit does in fact face similar threats. They’re just deeper and wider, and they are unlikely to change, primarily because of a city government that is arguably the most dysfunctional and inefficient in the U.S.
Detroit chewed up time and money chasing the large-scale silver bullet projects that tempt so many cities looking for easy answers, and it did it as its neighborhoods emptied out – 500,000 people left in 30 years.
Motown Blues
There are some signs of hope in Detroit but they rarely come out of City Hall. Instead, they come from artists rebuilding neighborhoods, from eds and meds working together to revitalize their part of the city, and from incentives to bring 15,000 new students to Wayne State University over 15 years.
It’s a tall order considering that just in the past decade, Detroit has lost about 100,000 more people than New Orleans did after Hurricane Katrina – 237,500.
Many of the negative comments comparing Memphis to Detroit clearly spring from the fact that African-Americans are the majority here and control city politics. The Detroit analogy is often invoked in criticisms of Memphis City Hall, but the numbers tell a totally different story.
While Detroit has only about 50,000 people more than Memphis, the budget of its city government is $3.0 billion, roughly five times larger than the Memphis city budget. Detroit’s bonds are below investment grade, and Detroit has twice as many city employees – 13,100 city employees. The nine Detroit City Council members have 88 employees and a budget of $13.4 million, compared to the 25 employees and the $1.6 million budget for Memphis’ 13 Council members.
Home Sweet Home
As a result, it’s unsurprising that the property tax rate in Detroit is three times higher than Memphis, and when all taxes are totaled up, a family of three earning $50,000 in Detroit pays 11.4 percent of its earnings in taxes, compared to 5.9 percent in Memphis.
There are dozens of other factoids that highlight how different Detroit is from Memphis: Its poverty rate is 37 percent higher, house values are 46 percent lower, per capita income is 29 percent lower, and median family income is 20 percent lower. Detroit is in fact a cautionary tale for what can happen when a city isn’t paying attention to what matters.
Hopefully, that’ll be the biggest difference of all for Memphis.
Previously published as the monthly City Journal column in the July, 2011, edition of Memphis magazine.
Smart City – why the repost? Do we need reminding that Memphis is not Detroit. Of course its not. Say what you will but Detroit has a world class Museum, a long history of supporting contemporary art and progressive thought, the airport has dozens of flights to places like Tokyo, Paris, London and Shanghai. The city proper is the subject of dozens of books many of which proclaim it as an undiscovered jewel that artists and hipsters are rapidly reforming. The suburbs feature every conceivable retail option. Most importantly as young educated professions are being pushed out of the urban core of many desirable cities due to increasing prices – Detroit has the vibe that lets them feel they are embarking on a journey that will transform an American city. An important and empowering concept for youth today.
Detroit will survive and thrive in the future.
Yes, we do need reminding that Memphis is not Detroit. It remains the city`s most frequent comparison. For example, both sides of the pension dispute have coupled Memphis and Detroit in their rhetoric. Detroit will in time become a different cities but its structural problems make this a long, hard slog. And the notion that artists and hipsters will save it is only the latest superficial coverage by media.
I am not going to pretend to know all the ins and outs of how a city is run. I do know that pension plans and a huge number of city employees spells bankruptcy. I have seen it in San Diego, where I lived for a number of years before moving back to Memphis. And I read about it all over our country in places like Detroit. But Memphis is smarter and leaner. And at the grass roots level, very creative. One city I visited recently made me think of how Memphis could be. I visited my sister in Oregon and I spent a few days in Eugene. Learned a bit about how downtown Eugene used to be not very long ago. A lot like Memphis. And seeing what it is today – thriving. It’s on a river. Had a downtown that was run down, closed shops, no one living there. Fast forward to today, it has the grittiness of an industrial river town. With incredible food from food trucks to restaurants, micro breweries, nice neighborhood grocery stores in old industrial spaces, unique shopping, tons of history, micro distilleries, art, unique furniture, coffee roasters, loft style living. It’s easy to understand why cities visit Eugene to figure out how they turned their city around. I am sorry. But I am PollyAnna-ish about Memphis. I believe.
In my comment above I made a mistake. The Oregon city I meant to say was Portland, Oregon. Not Eugene. So sorry for the confusion! Portland is the grittier river city with the come-back-from-the-dead downtown. And other cities visit it to see how they turned their city around to be magnet of creative small businesses and unique residences. Portland reminds me of how Memphis could be. Again, sorry for the confusion.
Major differences:
snow.
a pro football team.
Memphis mayor(s) haven’t been indicted lately.
Suz:
Thanks for bringing up Portland, Oregon. We have often said that Memphis could be as successful as Portland and people immediately groan and say that it can never happen. It’s worth remembering, as you have, that Portland was once a down-and-out city that was going nowhere, that had no major university, had a weak mayor form of government, and had no Fortune 500 companies. What made Portland into the city that it is today was a DIY attitude that persists and defines the city in its ambitions and its determination to achieve them.
It’s also worth remembering that the Portland success story did not happen overnight and that the art of city-building can take decades, but the sooner we start, the better.
Thanks again for your comment.
It is worth noting that cities like Portland, Or. (one of America’s epicenters of hipsterdom) has a progressive Democratic party tradition. Memphis does not.
Once again the County Commission shot down a gay anti-discrimination bill recently.
Also, this year the Mayor of Nashville endorsed gay Marriage equality.
Our problems are the same as when Richard Florida tried to spell it out for us many years ago.
Can you imagine AC Wharton publicly endorsing gay marriage? I can’t. And that speaks volumes about the mindset of 2014 Memphis, Tennessee.
The key to Portland’s success is its citizens’ insistence that they have direct voices in decision-making. It has a weak mayor form of government and because of it, the public filled the vacuum with DIY activities, programs, and projects of all kinds. We’re not sure what problems Richard Florida spelled out for us – we worked with him on the two talent-related projects here. We knew what the challenges were before he got here – that’s why we organized the program that he co-hosted – the Memphis Manifesto Summit. It was the brainchild of Carol Coletta, who continues to be a national leader on the issues that make cities successful.
Sadly, we can’t imagine Mayor Wharton publicly endorsing gay marriage, but then again, his political base is totally different than Mayor Dean, and in the end, politicians do what they think is in their political interests.
SCM – Quick note I was referring to Mr. Florida drawing a direct link to growing cities and the acceptance of gay citizens. It was a major component in his early research and one that was often brushed over locally.
As for AC Wharton not endorsing gay marriage or even fighting for a local anti-discrimination bill I believe he does not personally favor either. Across the country elected officials have taken risks by standing with gay and lesbian Americans. Often at odds with their constituents because they believe its the right thing to do.
Every major city in the USA has some anti-discrimination ordinance in place that specifically mentions the words gay and lesbian. The fact we still can’t pass a bill in 2014 speaks to what is holding our region back and the lack of courageous leadership from our so called Democrats in office.
Thanks, Peter. We’ve written many posts over the years about our work with Richard Florida (Memphis was the first city to apply his research and it took place even before his book) and tolerance is without a doubt a competitive advantage, as we’ve posted before, and it’s something we have a problem with here. Gays remain the canaries in the coal mine and if they are accepted, it is prima facie evidence of a tolerant city. There’s nothing as powerful as an anti-discrimination ordinance dealing with sexual orientation to prove that we’ve learned the lessons of tolerance and what makes cities successful. I wish that I held hope that it would take place soon.
http://www.smartcitymemphis.com/2006/11/tolerance-is-a-competitive-advantage/