Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Memphis: A Way Forward?
Posted by John Branston on Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 9:49 AM
I wasn't around then but over the years I have interviewed and gotten to know several people who were. What they seem to agree upon is that the negative perception became a cause for action for something positive. Memphis resolved to do better. It took many years and the results were decidedly mixed, but the general feeling, I was told, was that the rap had some truth to it and so what do we do now, short term and long term?
One answer may be found in two of our biggest companies and corporate citizens: AutoZone and FedEx and their relentless emphasis on customer service. Maybe that should be the not-so-new government motto.
Corny and unoriginal, but easy to remember.
Potentially broad application to every division of government including cops, sanitation, vehicle inspection, car tags, parks, etc.
Much easier to find consensus.
More meaningful than a conversation.
The "broken windows" approach to crime fighting applied to blighted corners, missing basketball goal nets, torn soccer goals, flowers, clipped grass, uniforms, litter, old tires, thank yous, etc.
Lemonade from lemons. Getting the employees you have to give discretionary effort is easier and politically more realistic than making 10 percent cuts across the board.
Jobs program without adding jobs. It's silly to expect our mayors to be job creators. If anything they must be jobs cutters sooner or later. Meanwhile, get the most out of what you have.
It worked for former mayors Henry Loeb and Dick Hackett. They climbed the ladder by taking a hard, services-oriented job and doing it well.
Lots of small victories. See the riverfront parks and Sam Cooper Boulevard from where it ends to Overton Park. Exemplary landscaping and plantings.
AutoZone and FedEx aren't bad role models.
Comments (13)
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It's hard to change a mindset in Memphis, that local government is here to provide jobs, rather than provide taxpayer services. And imo, that is the crux of the problem.
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The thing that drags us down, image-wise, continues to be crime statistics. Every time we're reported to be at or near the top (or bottom) of the list of crime-ridden cities, the powers-that-be protest that we shouldn't be compared to other cities, most of whom report crimes differently (i.e., less) than we do.
Isn't the short-term solution to this repetitive issue fairly simple? It's contained in the old Henny Youngman joke about the guy who complains to his doctor that "every time I do this [gesturing], it hurts," to which the doctor, brilliantly, responds, "then don't do that."
When Mayor Wharton in his open letter to Forbes says that "grassroots activists" help make Memphis a better place, I have to laugh... if you are a grassroots activist in Memphis, watch out that some ambitious politician doesn't steal your group for personal profit! Don't say I didn't warn ya -- because you will not read about it in the mainstream/alternative media.
Oh --- and Vote Steve Mulroy! He Looooooves Memphis Women!
maybe we need to spend less time crying when one of these stupid flips us off and more time focusing on the actual problems that lead to these lists giving us the finger.
oh, and less time obsessing about things that happened in the past and are over and done with.
after all, the only thing we can really change in this world is how we react to what happens around us.
Poor DP,
Memphis may or may not be one of the most miserable cities in this country, but you sure come across as being one of the most miserable people on this board.
Actually U-Nut, today the community garden group I founded signs our operating agreement for the lot donated to us (by the City) adjacent to the Convention Center, and later I am working with a children's charitable group to finish banners for our Solar-Powered parade float for the St. Patrick's Day Parade... Bo Derek is the Grand Marshal so that ought to be fun.
What are you working on today, besides indigestion?
I'm working on a project that will allow my company to hire an additional 16 employees, thank you for asking. The great thing is these employees will be able to earn wages and will pay taxes (and might make donations) to help fund all the non-profits and their employees and expenses in this city. That makes it good news for you as well.
Be sure to warn the children at the parade, less you fall off that high horse of yours.
All Memphians should be aware that the Mayor often appears on our Library Channel on local cable. He has spoken about making customer service the primary focus of city employees. Wharton has also made clear that city employees who aren't dedicated to customer service won't remain on city payrolls for long.
DP, I have no idea what the particulars of your various grievances are, as you've laid them out on this website, with politicians, artists, and men (and that is not an invitation to elaborate on them). However, you might stop to consider for a moment that the vast majority of people paying taxes in Memphis don't have the luxury of embarking on some quixotic quest to save a crumbling and dangerous amusement park ride whose chief value is that a famous musician once liked to ride on it. Frankly, there are much more important things going on in the world, and we need the land.
We all get the fact that you are unhappy with the sale of the Zippin Pippin to Green Bay, but the truth of the matter is that if that hadn't been done, it would have never been reassembled at all. Graceland didn't even want the damned thing. You have alluded several times to your belief that Steve Mulroy has personally profited from the sale, or that he somehow owes his success to his involvement in the effort to do something with that rickety wreck. As someone who helped get the man elected, I can personally speak to the latter: the Fairgrounds issue played almost no role one way or the other in his election. He was running against Joe freaking Cooper for crying out loud.
As to the former, it's about time you put up or shut up. You've been throwing around words like "fraud" and "corruption," but you have yet to make any specific allegation of wrongdoing. If you've got a case to make, let's hear it. Otherwise, quit whining because you didn't get exactly what you wanted. Practically any other grassroots activist in the city would consider the effort to save the Pippin a qualified success, and would be grateful to Mulroy for his help. The Pippin was, in fact, saved from destruction. You got some of what you wanted, and if you hadn't gotten that, you would have had none of what you wanted.
If you want to paint yourself as such an exemplary grassroots activist, you might begin by at least pretending like you are familiar with elementary political concepts like compromise.
You get your "Great Lawn-Swamp" in place of a shady amusement park that, like it or not, had many fans -- as the facebook page "I Rode the Zippin Pippin and Loved It" demonstrates -- while Steve Mulroy gets his ego on and shares the love with other men like himself. Meanwhile, Memphis loses something irreplaceable. While you occupy yourself with important things, the music plays on...
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/p…
You people need to stop fighting Forbes. Forbes has commanded misery and we must obey.
If any have forgotten how to be miserable, I'll happy to arrange a reminder.
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