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Patriotism “John Green, well-known Collierville Realtor, pulled out a miniature 1941 Chevrolet from a shoebox at the end of the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting Monday and addressed the board. “He told them he was born in 1941, the year of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. ‘And if you didn’t get a Chevrolet that year, you didn’t get it for a few years … If houses and cars quit selling, we’re in trouble. It’s just unAmerican not to have a Chevy dealer in this town.’” – from an item titled “All Towns Need Chevys, Says Green,” from the Collierville Herald, detailing one man’s plea for a car dealership. The design of a new Chevy dealership has been a matter of some civic dispute out in C’ville.
Are You Experienced? Last Wednesday, the Mid-South Coliseum Board had dinner with Governor Don Sundquist and chatted about the future of what, according to a press release, Coliseum managing director Beth Wade prefers to call an “experienced facility” rather than an “old building.” It is so experienced, in fact, that the board and the governor reportedly mulled over a page of “fun facts” about the Coliseum. Among the list of such facts was this list of “major sports teams that have made their home at the Coliseum.” How many can you remember? Memphis State University Memphis Wings Memphis South Stars Memphis Pros Memphis Tams Memphis Sounds Memphis Rogues Memphis Americans Memphis Storms Memphis Rockers Memphis Hotshots Memphis RiverKings |
City Loses Housing Grant
City housing officials were rejected for a $5 million grant from the federal government to help rebuild Greenlaw, an old, dilapidated neighborhood that lies to the north of downtown. Federal officials told city applicants that their application was not detailed enough and that local banks did not offer enough concrete financial help.
Local housing officials had hoped to use the grant to begin introducing mixed-income housing into the poverty-stricken Greenlaw. The neighborhood is a tempting site for redevelopment because of its numerous empty lots. The city’s Division of Housing and Community Development (HCD) applied for the grant last September, along with about 60 other applicants.
Overall, HCD’s application wasn’t very competitive. HCD Director Debra Brown says federal grant reviewers placed HCD somewhere between “23rd and 27th.” HCD was given strong marks for having a good marketing plan and taking a tight-knit, community-oriented approach.
However, Brown says the proposal was considered weak in three areas. One, the agency did not provide specific floor plans and other details about the types of houses that would be built in Greenlaw. Two, HCD did not include plans to relocate the residents of Hurt Village, a 450-unit housing project slated for demolition. The larger families in Hurt Village would have been affected the most, given the city’s housing shortages.
Three, local banks did not pledge to contribute any money, promising
in letters to federal housing officials to “support” HCD’s efforts,
but not saying how. 
– Phil Campbell
Taking Memphis To Iowa
Sun Studio and the Grifters are bringing a taste of the Mississippi to schoolchildren in Iowa. Their efforts are all part of The Mississippi River Experience, an interactive CD-ROM program that will allow kids to travel up and down the river, make stops at various cities along its route, and explore their cultural traditions.
The CD package is a project of the Iowa Public Broadcasting System.
“Music is a big part of our culture,” says Mark Ingler, multimedia
producer of Iowa public television, “and since Memphis and Sun
Studios [are] credited with the birth of rock-and-roll, we thought
it would be a great place to start.”
The Grifters
The series of discs will cover everything from archaeological sites to population growth and musical legends. For example, if a child has to write a report on population growth in Memphis over the last 15 years, he’d simply pop in the corresponding disc and find the information he needs. A copy of these discs will go to every public school in Iowa.
Mark Bell, general manager of Sun Studios and head of the project’s music component, hopes it will encourage kids in Iowa who may be less familiar with rock-and-roll greats such as Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to gain insight into these artists’ works. He describes the blend of music and computers as “the sugar that makes the medicine” since it allows kids to have fun as they learn.
The musical CD will feature three songs that were recorded by
the Grifters at Sun last week: “That’s All Right Mama,” “Blue
Suede Shoes,” and “Cry,” an original piece by guitarist/vocalist
Scott Taylor. According to Bell, a release date for the CD hasn’t
been set yet. – Trela Anderson
Wanted: One Liberal Pastor
More than two years after its last pastor left, Prescott Memorial Baptist Church’s search for a new preacher may be nearing an end.
Tom Walsh, church historian and member of the search committee, says he hopes to find a new preacher in three to six months. Although the church received more than 60 applications, Walsh says the committee is “picky” about finding someone who shares their views on openness to “all people,” including those of differing races, cultures, sexualities – even denominations. For the past year, Dr. Paul Brown, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, has worked as interim pastor at Prescott, and the youth minister is a Methodist.
Prescott Baptist has had a history of independence. In 1987, the church was kicked out of the Shelby Baptist Association for ordaining a female pastor, the Reverend Nancy Sehested. In 1994, the church withdrew from the Southern Baptist Convention. Sehested resigned in 1995 to become a writer in residence at an interfaith retreat center in North Carolina. Today, Prescott is affiliated with American Baptist Churches, U.S.A.
“We feel that we are more authentically Baptist,” says Walsh.
Among the major points where he claims Prescott differs from the
SBC, however, are the “Baptist traditions” of church/state separation
and the right of individual members to study and interpret the
Bible. – Dominic Jesse
City Runs Ads To Push Recycling
As the recent furor over resurrecting twice-weekly garbage pickup proved, many Memphians still don’t know how to properly dispose of their trash. Last week, the city launched a long-delayed public-education campaign that will attempt to reach all 160,000 households in the curbside recycling program.
According to recycling coordinator Andy Ashford, the city will spend about $300,000 of its own funds and is hoping for at least $200,000 in in-kind services and donations. “We’ll be soliciting sponsorships from those [companies] who generate certain items, such as milk containers,” he says.
By late June, ads should be running in newspapers and on radio, television, and billboards. The city has formed media partnerships with The Commercial Appeal, outdoor-advertising firm Eller Media Company, and Time Warner Communications (the latter’s PSAs will air only on cable TV, which means that many low-income households won’t see them). City recycling trucks will sport the new logo and slogan, “Recycle Memphis – It All Revolves Around You.”
There are also plans to develop educational materials for distribution in schools. “The kids will carry the stuff home, and they have a tremendous amount of influence on their parents,” says Ashford.
The goal, he adds, is to get Memphians to “understand what that recycling bin is for. We hope people will get the message.”
Meanwhile, on May 14th, the Tennessee Department of Transportation
unveiled its own campaign to increase awareness of the state’s
tarp law. Last year, Tennessee spent $3 million cleaning up roadside
litter, most of which escaped from the open beds of trucks. With
bumper stickers, brochures, and banners at landfill sites, TDOT
is reminding truckers (including pickup drivers) that loads must
be covered. – Debbie Gilbert