By John Branston
This being American Football Week/Month/Season, let’s throw a flag for “excessive celebration” on newly elected mayor Paul Young for scheduling four days of events and hoorah to mark his coming tenure and his less-than-overwhelming victory.
Wishing the mayor all the best, but the truth compels us to point out that his victory was historic for it underwhelmingness. He got seven percent of the registered voters; two-thirds of the people who did vote voted for someone else; he is young at 43, but former mayor Dick Hackett was younger (34) when elected for the first time; he is not the first Black mayor – that would be Willie Herenton; several losing candidates for mayor in the last half century got far more votes, among them Hackett, Otis Higgs, and J. O. Patterson Jr.,; finally, if there is anything truly historic about this, it is the long tail of former federal judge Jerome Turner who did away with the majority-vote requirement in Memphis mayoral elections, clearing the way for Herenton to win with 49 percent and a fraction.
In his embattled final years as mayor, Herenton liked to call himself “the man in the arena” as sort of a macho way of reminding critical council members and journalists that he was bigger than they were. As he was. His successor, A C Wharton, had the grace and graciousness not to brag.
Young was formerly head of the Downtown Memphis Commission, formerly known as the Center City Commission when downtown was – if not the geographic center of Memphis – at least the business center of the city. It was invented at a time when Belz Enterprises was pretty much the lone downtown developer, three homegrown banks with thousands of employees were downtown, the Little Tea Shop was a cozy hangout for the downtown crowd, interest rates were about nine percent, there was no Harbor Town on Mud Island, no FedEx Forum, St. Jude was threatening to move to St. Louis, and Tom Lee Park was a sliver of what it is now. As a reporter, I had the CCC on my radar at The Commercial Appeal at 495 Union Avenue (now a Big Empty) which had a vested interest in such things. I mainly learned how giving away tax incentives with the confusing name PILOTs could encourage essential and nonessential development and fund the agency that dispensed them. Thank goodness I don’t have to try to explain them any more.
In the last four years, interest rates dropped to an irresistible (for speculative development) two percent, Mud Island became a significant high-end residential community, the banks got taken over or scooted out East, the Tea Shop closed, and St. Jude got locked in thanks to the salesmanship of, among others, former county mayor Bill Morris. The riverfront parks, Beale Street, and the Convention and Visitors Bureau are in capable hands outside the daily grasp of city government. FedEx Forum depends on the skill of Ja Morant and the largesse of Fred Smith and state government. The downtown “Mid-America Mall,” once staffed by uniformed goodwill ambassadors of the CCC, is a bit ghostly. If you can get excited about the possible redevelopment of the vacant-for-decades Sterick Building and 100 North Main, well, to each his own. Enough said. I moved to Memphis a couple of years after Paul Young was born and wish him and Memphis the best, even though I cringed when I saw the weekend events and pay raise under consideration in the news.
Only a twisted mind like mine would remember a field goal kicker for the Detroit Lions named Garo Yepremian who after doing his job once skipped off the field waving his arms in celebration. Teammate Alex Karras, a grump given to stoicism, spitting and swearing when he sacked a quarterback, mocked him for supposedly saying “I keek a touchdown!!” The mayor has keeked a touchdown. Now chill.
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John Branston has been a reporter and columnist in Memphis for 40 years.
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Memphis has several challenges but we are still hopeful. Paul Young represents that hope of a young, vibrant African American Mayor that can lead us to overcome our challenges. Many other cities from Atlanta, Birmingham, and Cleveland have held inaugural parades and events. We can have nice things in Memphis. We can celebrate. It doesn’t always have to be doom and gloom.
Paul Young is a political outsider that defeated well-known candidates that were endorsed by who’s who of politicians and ran one of the best campaigns that the city has witnessed.
He won because the voters want a new future for Memphis. We are celebrating this weekend because of joy and hope we have for the 901 but tomorrow we will get to work for a better Memphis.
Michael, maybe I’d feel the same if he hadn’t just kept most of the Strickland Administration. I thought he was delivering a new generation of leadership. Nope. And the mayors in Atlanta, Birmingham and Cleveland got lots more than 7% of the registered voters votes. If you want a celebration, how about one that has meaning rather than ego. Something like a weekend of volunteers helping poor neighborhoods or a gathering of grassroots leaders to talk about the future or, well, you get the idea.
What a tone-deaf article. This historic win was worthy of being celebrated and I can’t wait to see the improvements the city will experience in due time under the Young administration. Cleary the writer’s choice for mayor was not victorious and the need to find fault in celebration is a biased reaction.
What exactly was historic? That he received the lowest votes in history of the city?
Let’s try taking on several seasoned politicians with established voter bases, including a former mayor and current sheriff in that group, and still winning as a non-politician. That’s just one component. Which is an incredible achievement.
One thing about a hater though, they will always hate. You could just move. It’s time to unite to move the city forward and you rather cause division and discourse. That’s pathetic.
“One thing about a hater though, they will always hate. You could just move”.
This comment- and the fundamental attitude it represents- in response to an opinion that accurately noted the underwhelming nature and results of the most recent mayoral election very much represents so much of the stagnant and insular thinking that has resulted in Memphis facing the tsunami of issues bearing down on it in 2024.
The author, John Branston, needs no defense from me but calling him a hater is kneejerk snark. He has spent most of his professional life as a journalist covering Memphis and the Memphis region. It’s a context that gives his opinion special consideration. Debate with his opinion but we can do without the ad hominem insult. Hopefully, Paul will unite the city but even the staunchest supporters admit that it will not be easy because of his low victory margin and the fact that the majority of Memphis voters are apparently so disenchanted with the choices, they stayed home. I believe that even Paul himself has acknowledged the challenge ahead .