Memphis Myths

he call-in shows and letters-to-the-editor pages are full of it. This is a "battle for independence," and "the survival of Memphis" is at stake. Everybody seems to know a lot about suburban incorporation and annexation. The problem is that some of what they know isn't true.

Here are five common misperceptions about suburbs and the annexation/incorporation issue.

* Suburban residents are white separatists fleeing Memphis.

There are lots of reasons why people populate suburbs. They are hard to quantify. Likewise, the public comments of self-styled incorporation leaders may or may not reflect the views of the general suburban population.

But the racial demographics of suburbs is no mystery, and in some suburbs it is decidedly mixed between whites and blacks and other minorities.

The Shelby County Schools annual racial survey which came out this week is a useful and reliable way to track suburban racial characteristics. Overall, the county system has 47,552 students and is 22 percent black, 74.5 percent white, 1.5 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent Asian. For the last five years, black enrollment has been going up about 1 percent a year, while the percentage of white enrollment declines 1 percent a year.

Schools in the Hickory Hill and Southwind area are the most racially balanced. Kirby High School, which was majority white in 1994, is now 63 percent black. Feeder schools Kirby Middle, Crump Elementary, and Ross Elementary are also majority black.

Are there all-white neighborhoods in the would-be incorporated towns of east Shelby County? Yes, just as there are within the city of Memphis. But 35 out of 46 county schools have at least 10 percent minority enrollment. Neither system is racially balanced, but there are more one-race schools in the city than in the county.

* Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout hasn't taken a position on annexation and incorporation.

The proper question is whether Rout's position has changed. On April 30, 1996, Rout agreed to support annexation in an agreement called the Balanced Growth Policy for Memphis and Shelby County.

It reads in part, "Memphis and Shelby County can accomplish the objectives outlined above for maintaining and growing the tax base within Memphis using the following general tactics: Annex areas in the fringe of the city limits based upon state statutes and an orderly plan of growth beyond the current city limits."

In exchange for this pledge, the city agreed to extend the Gray's Creek sewer which is so vital to suburban development in the Berryhill area east of Cordova. Understandably, Mayor Willie Herenton feels the incorporation law guts the agreement. He did not mention Rout by name at a press conference last week in which he criticized what he sees as a lack of leadership from the county on this issue. But he left little doubt that Rout was who he was talking about.

According to Berryhill developer Waymon "Jackie" Welch, Rout's role in working out the fateful agreement was crucial. In fact, to hear Welch tell it, the Gray's Creek area and the new city-county Cordova High School that opened this fall might as well be called Routville.

"He singlehandedly figured out a way to see to it they could get sewers," Welch told Memphis magazine last year. "If that is the only thing Rout does while he's in office, then that would be a huge accomplishment. He gets 100 percent of the credit for making that school happen. If the school wasn't here, the sewer wouldn't be coming."

* If this fight gets into the Shelby County Commission, the incorporation forces will be in good shape because the Memphis City Council's constituency is the city and the commission's constituency is the county outside the city.

Ten of 13 commissioners represent districts that are entirely or majority city residents. Only the three commissioners from District Four represent "the county" -- that is, parts of Shelby County entirely outside the city limits. Districts 1, 2, 3, and 5 are made up of city folks, for the most part.

The confusion is understandable. There are city and county mayors. And the city and county school systems are separate and do not overlap.

The commission sometimes splits 7-6 along white-black lines, but in a city-county showdown, the numbers would clearly favor the city of Memphis. If the incorporation leaders look to the full county commission for relief, they could be disappointed.

* As a political force, white Republican voters in the suburbs balance out black Democratic votes in the city.

Republican dominance in the eastern suburbs of Shelby County can't touch Democratic dominance in the inner city of Memphis. In fact, there may not be a more powerful voting block in the country than the Memphis black vote for Democratic candidates as demonstrated by the 1996 presidential election.

Here were some of the precinct returns: Double Tree School: Clinton 942, Dole 3; Manor Lake School: Clinton 1,066, Dole 3; Bellevue Junior High: Clinton 331, Dole 0.

Republican-dominated precincts in the suburbs didn't show such disproportion. At St. Luke Lutheran Church in Cordova, Dole polled 1,365 votes, but Clinton had 427. Bartlett Library went for Dole 961 to 311.

Vice President Al Gore spent election night in Memphis. No wonder. Memphis delivered his home state for him, avoiding a potential embarrassment. And the inner city delivered Memphis.

All those inner-city votes is what will keep Shelby County Democrats from giving Rout a free pass in the 1998 election and what would make a Rout-Herenton race for county mayor interesting.

* The new incorporation bill is a "city killer" and "the survival of Memphis" is at stake.

Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't, but there is no panic in the financial community. Memphis has the same AA bond rating it has had for years.

"The law would not result in an immediate weakening of credit quality," said a Standard & Poor's report on Memphis last month. "It, however, creates greater challenges for city management."

One reason business leaders are not in a panic is that Tennessee is among several states running a surplus, thanks to the strong economy. That keeps sales-tax revenues coming. Another is that Memphis is more than four times the land size of St. Louis (S&P bond rating A-), with which it is often compared. A third factor is that the city of Memphis owns Memphis Light, Gas & Water, an asset worth close to a billion dollars. In a pinch, the city could sell that or take it public.