Friday, February 3, 2012
If I Were King of Memphis ...
Posted by Bruce VanWyngarden on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 4:18 PM
I understand that Memphis is rushing to annex the Gray's Creek area as a knee-jerk response to a knee-jerk or two in the General Assembly. I don't think the city has the desire or resources to follow through at this juncture, though their hand may be forced. This is all so tiresome and pointless.
If I were King of Memphis, I would do the following:
A. Quit chasing those who have moved out and want to live in suburbia. They like their neighborhoods, their chain restaurants, their traffic, their malls, and their schools. Good for them. Live and let live. We're a River Town, not a farm community.
B. Market what we are: a vibrant, interesting place to live. I like my neighborhood, its charms, its cultural amenities, the river, the museums, the Orpheum, the fantastic theater scene, the ballet, the symphony, the Grizzlies and Tigers and Redbirds, our universities and colleges, the funky downtown, the vast array of cool restaurants and bars and clubs, the wonderful cultural, racial, sexual diversity my kids experience in their public and parochial schools. Memphis is younger, more diverse, and has a brighter future than people think. The 'burbs are aging and creating their demographic islands. Let 'em.
C. We should shut the hell up about race. It's like abortion, it just pisses people off. Quit playing to or responding to the angry Memphis-haters. Let 'em stew. Most of 'em couldn't find Overton Park if you plopped 'em down in Overton Square. They don't live here. They don't matter.
D. Focus like a laser on making our now-county schools as good as they can be. Recognize that poverty makes that job Herculean, but give talented, bright kids of all income levels a chance to succeed and an option to attend a school that suits their needs. Get rid of both the former schools systems' deadwood. Keep only the best and most innovative.
E. We're the center of this local universe, a magnet for the area's creativity and culture and the people who enjoy urban living. However many there are of us, let's work with that and build together. When the most creative and bright suburban kids grow up, they won't want to hang around Bartlett and Collierville. They don't want to live on a creek near Fayette County. They'll move into the city. Trust me on this. Don't let anybody tell you Memphis doesn't have a bright future. It does.
Comments (32)
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Amen. All this us-against-them with the burbs is exhausting. Of course, the only time that I'm actually aware of it is when I read the comments posted on the CA and, increasingly, here. When I go out in my neighborhood, nobody's bitching about the burbs. We are just enjoying our neighborhood.
Thanks for using the Mud Island photo. I haven't been there in ages. I had forgotten how cool it is.
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I don't know what the future holds for Memphis. I sure hope you're right. If you can believe the article in the CA some months ago, the best and brightest aren't hanging around Collierville or Memphis. Unfortunately new college grads are moving away. But based on what you've promised when you take charge I believe, as you do, they will move back. If past history is any indication of the quality of future leadership...well that makes it hard to be optimistic.
So I say, BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN for KING!!! Hell, make that EMPEROR!
PS I'll come back and work in your campaign or coup or whatever you are planning.
Amen, BV. Lots of negativity around these parts lately. That was an inspirational shot in the arm. Now I'm not moving to Gary, Indiana anymore.
I hate to say it, but the haters are right, although not for the reasons they think (they themselves are the biggest reason). I'll frankly be glad to get away (hopefully) from the negative vibe of this place. Been here too long as it is.
But you are correct, smart young college grads don't look at Memphis and think "ooh, ain't Collierville great!" They look at cities, real cities, like Austin, Portland, Atlanta, Nashville, etc.
Hey, Detroit is a real city.
Memphis is a funky, lowdown, mean-assed rivertown. And you should go with your strengths. It's a hell of a lot of fun if you share any of these traits, as so many of us do.
Packrat, did you ever live in Memphis itself, or only Germantown? I love you man, but I'd put a lot more stock in your view if you'd spent any real time in the '103 or '104. Tonight is a good example. Wanted takeout pizza from Bosco's while having a beer at the bar. Couldn't get in the door, it was so packed. Went to Cooper-Young to try the new pizza joint. Couldn't find a place to park within four blocks of the place. The streets were full of life, sidewalk tables, etc. Ended up at Little Italy on Union, a little slice of Brooklyn with the best calzones and stuffed pizza within 300 miles. It was also packed with families and young urbans. This city is vibrant and full good stuff if you know where to look -- or live.
If I were king, I'd have all the mothereffers drawn and quartered by Germantown horses.
Memphis is unlike anywhere else. I've traveled around the world and there is just something about here that gets under your skin and keeps pulling you back. Memphis is gritty, it's real, it's in your face, it's crooked politicians, and tough streets; but it's also places like the Dixon, the Zoo, MIM, Cooper-Young, and Raiford's. The fabric of our community is full of rich characters, devastating heartbreak, eternal hope, and constant pessimism. It's this dichotomy and the wearing of our scars for all to see that makes me hate this place at times, love it at others, but always beyond a shadow of a doubt and without hesitation makes me proud to be born and raised here.
Front page of the Flyer:
Under the rule of Generalissimo Bruce Van Wyngarden and his military junta, taxes are down, crime is down, and there has been a huge influx of families moving to Memphis from Germantown and Collierville.
Bruce, I grew up in Memphis proper and lived in 38117 for 12 years as an adult. I'm in midtown a lot and that's where I go for fun. (God, germantown sucks for restaurants and nightlife). Germantown was about how much house I could get for the money and my kids being able to walk to elementary school. I feel ya, Memphis will always be my hometown, but it's over for me.
Each time I cross the bridge into Memphis after a business trip to my hometown of Dallas, I feel a huge sense of relief. The D/FW Metroplex is so vast, with strip malls and bank buildings seemingly sprouting up overnight, replete with a bit of jadedness from the citizens.
A city like Dallas' accomplishments are many, but in my mind, the accomplishments of Memphis, though more modest, are infinitely more meaningful.
All hail, King Bruce!
I think you're right. Memphians need to quit trying to make a vocal minority of suburbanites like us and just focus on making the city better. I think it's making strides with the Greenline, bike lanes and Wharton's economic development efforts.
The city is becoming a better place to live for families with children also. I know Peabody Elementary in Cooper-Young has placed an emphasis on attracting neighborhood kids and it's worked. More and more neighbors are walking their children to Peabody. It's like friggin' Mayberry in Midtown.
I wonder how Memphis would fare in an environment where, instead of Germantown, Collierville, Bartlett et al, Shelby County, outside of Memphis, was all in beans, cotton and cattle? Maybe fifty or sixty family owned farms or perhaps just a few corporate farmers. Would present day Memphis survive then? Keep in mind that the tax structure in Tennessee taxes farm land at a much lower rate. It just might be that Memphis needs the suburbs at least as much as they need Memphis. Considering the financial shape Memphis is in as described by Mayor Wharton in his state of the city address, maybe more.
Drift, that pretty much describes Memphis up to the early 70s. Bartlett, Germantown, and Collierville were there, but a good deal smaller. If the developers had not been given free reign we may not have as divisive a situation as we do currently.
I was really talking about something more agricultural than the 70's. But I guess my point is that if what the mayor said in his state of the city address i.e that for the first time in modern history city property appraisals are going down, and at the same time some big bond payments are coming due, if that was accurate, Memphis is going to need all the friends they can get. That includes a Republican controlled state legislature, and the Shelby County suburbs. Mr. Van Wyngarden sort of alluded to that in this article, and I agree with him. Unless you absolutely have to, there is no point in pissing people off. Making the suburbs mad, just for the hell of it, is not helpful to Memphis.
Agreed, with the caveat that not pissing people off just for the hell of it bit should apply equally to both sides.
Drift, laying down to the suburbs and Nashville when they are actively trying to damage Memphis isn't helpful either. Doesn't matter, this region is so divided that nothing will work here. The rest of the state has to be laughing, especially those in government, at how much political capital gets wasted by our Shelby delegation with infighting, while the other cities more or less work together to move their communities forward.
It IS important to have healthy suburbs for Memphis, but once the golden goose here finally gives up and moves its HQ away, those burbs will be ghost towns. And it is going to happen. But then you'll have the prosperous outer region of Marshall, Panola and haywood Counties and good old king Cotton to fall back on. Good luck with that.
Packrat,
I suppose the folks in Germantown and Nashville could be sitting around planing how they can damage Memphis, but more likely they are sitting around planing how they can protect themselves from Memphis. I'm sure that as far as Memphis is concerned the folks in the suburbs would just as soon live and let live. If the folks in Memphis are going to get their feeling hurt because they think the folks in the suburbs don't seem to like them, then Memphis is in for a long hard slog.
Memphis elected officials, with a few exceptions, haven't figured out that there old friends in Nashville got voted out of office. There is a new political reality that probably won't change, at least for a few years. They are doing their constituents a disservice not learning to deal with it.
Rape? Don't you think that just a tad dramatic? The Republicans lived with the reality that they had little clout in the legislature for as long as I can remember. At least for now the shoe is on the other foot. That's not rape, that's just politics. As Mr. Van Wyngarden suggests, it time to quit crying racism, and I would add to that rape, and try to solve some serious internal problems in Memphis. Maybe this oft repeated little prayer would help Memphis politicians.
"Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE." (emphasis added)
Just a little hyperbole, but really, it goes back to what I said earlier. Shelby County's delegation wastes more political capital infighting than anyone else by far, and it shows in the lack of progress here. And frankly, why is Memphis being treated differently than any other city in Tennessee's history? Doesn't matter, this entire metro region has stagnated and regressed. You can't keep young people here, my God, just look at the number of college students we send off that never return, and we're not replacing them with an influx of college grads from other areas. There is no hope for this place. It's done. Fedex is going to close it out within 10 years, my advice is to get out now. Those 6000 sf houses in Eads will be unsaleable. Collierville is going to return to being a trade center for rural Marshall County. Good luck.
Pack presents a strong case. Highly visible and continuous infighting by the local delegation in Nashville gives little reason for the rest of the state to invest in its southwest corner. Memphis may be many wonderful things, but vibrant is not one of them. Then again I suppose vibrant is a relative term. Yes- more vibrant than Jackson (TN), Dyersburg and Jonesboro. Less vibrant than Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Dallas and perhaps New Orleans. Like moths to a flame, those who can will continue to migrate to the heat radiating from nearby, more vibrant cities. The only thing that seems to be approaching a “demographic island” is the relatively urban- I use the term loosely- collection of neighborhoods that define Midtown and maybe Downtown on its best day.
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