Comment Archives: Stories: Last 7 Days
Re: “Council Members Clash over Fullilove's Claim of Norris Meeting”
OTP-OTP-
Here is a great example of why you should step away from the computer, take a deep breath and consider pulling the stick out of your @ss. I did not try and “make” the density information I provided anything. I was responding to an assertion that stated Memphis was one of the “most sparsely populated cities in America” by showing that it did not qualify for that title. Do not begin to lecture me about NYC, population densities or market driven development. Even at my young age, I have far greater experience with said topics than you have garnered over the course of your long life.
Re: “Council Members Clash over Fullilove's Claim of Norris Meeting”
Oldtimer,
The city is now hedging 20 million of the employee healthcare fund and banking on Obamacare to pay off the debt? They better hope half the retirees DIE suddenly like the planners of Obamacare do.
They must all be Democrats to be so stupid for a plan like that.
By the way, most people mow so they don't have to look so hard in the weeds for what is missing. Leave it to the city council to drop that civil service to the community as well.
But at least they thought up new names for 3 city parks that already had names.
LOL Your hard earned tax dollars at work.
Re: “Council Members Clash over Fullilove's Claim of Norris Meeting”
Broadhead
You are being snarky and elitist. Justice and equity is supposed to be blind. Why do you think the blindfold is on the statue?
That is the same injustice in the judicial system that was and still is in the rights of minorities.
That is why I still fight the fight to make this a more perfect union.
Yes, it is about money, but that equates to the inequality afforded the different races. White and money goes together with being white. Because your fore fathers enslaved and deprived a people of a chance to accumulate money and then kept it up with Jim Crow Laws and outright prejudice, as a people, you ended up with most of the money. So the poor black citizens that you used and still don't give a fair chance to make their money, those blacks must go to jail while you, the whites can pay lawyers to stay out of jail.
Hey, don't get angry with us, we just want a piece of the pie too!
Re: “New NSA Slogans”
They say there's nothing funny about the NSA spying scandal, you may have proved them right.
Re: “Deflections: Monta Ellis, A Coaching Theory, Finals Ratings”
@Jimmy
It's possible that the front office has already agreed in principle to hire Joerger, and Joerger is playing a big part in the second interviews to fill out his staff and ideally make a splash type announcement of head coach and lead staff.
Just my own crackpot theory.
On Ellis, the only way I'd want him is if he would take the 6th man role and a significant pay cut. The comparisons to Gay are valid, and I always said that the way Gay would've been a good fit for this team is for him to come off the bench as a 6th man. Granted, the Grizz were paying him a max salary, and it's hard to pay someone a max salary as a 6th man. However, both he and Ellis would fit this team more in a 6th man role where being a volume scorer is not a bad thing.
Re: “Council Members Clash over Fullilove's Claim of Norris Meeting”
Barf
What you say about population density is true. The thing that is wrong is the fact that you try to make it to be a bad situation.
What makes real estate so valuable? You would probably say the value of the home. Wrong! the value, real value of the home depreciates over time. all man-made things wear out and deteriorate over time, a home is no exception. the one thing that stays constant is the value of the land. You have got 500,000 homes, in Germantown, sitting on land that is worth over 10 million dollars.
Let us take New York City, for instance. New York has a very high density, same as Tokyo. Why? Well it is the available land to build on. New York has the Atlantic Ocean to the east, The river and the Connecticut and county lines boxing it in. So in order to get the amount of people that is needed and that desired to live there, they had to build up and not out. Japan is an island, with natural limitations also, so they, too had to build up rather than out. Are you beginning to get the picture. Even Nashville, being on the Cumberland Plateau has physical limitations. The hills, some would call them small mountains, make very little desirable land available to build on. Streets are expensive to build as it is easier to build a road around low mountains than to drill through all of them. Shelby County/Memphis is in the ideal location. Natural boundary, the Mississippi river and thousands of square miles, mostly level and inexpensive to build on, so, consequently it is much cheaper to build out. So, actually what you are being negative about is one of the best features a city can have. That is actually what maintains the wealth of the real estate owned. Most people that visit Memphis from the congested east coast corridor or the rust belt marvel in that everyone has a real yard.
Cities, states and regions contract as opportunities diminish and go elsewhere. When jobs are being lost, a city, over time will right itself, population wise and will shrink to fit the available economic conditions. The location and the natural resources of an area helps to mitigate this shrinkage. Memphis is a prime example. During and right after the yellow fever epidemic, the city hit rock bottom, financially and population wise. This made land and business prices dirt cheap. So, cheap that outside investors poured in because the prices were too good to be passed by and city went on an unbelievable growth spurt. The same thing will happen to Detroit and is happening as we speak. Real Estate prices have hit below rock bottom. Houses can actually be bought for a dollar or a few hundred or thousand dollars. This is just too good for investors to pass up.
Barf, unlike you or others, I don't try to be uber intelligent, but, at least the things I post, I try to find out a little something about it. Me thinks you and others should do the same.
Re: “Council Members Clash over Fullilove's Claim of Norris Meeting”
Bubbah
I don't think I can agree with you on that. When King Willie was mayor he tried to sale MLGW with his son in Atlanta brokering the deal. His cut would have been in the millions. Nepotism is a wonderful thing. And there are still people that think it would be a good deal. MLGW is the only 'cash cow' Memphis has. It is worth a billion plus. But our utilities would go up dramatically if it was sold to a private entity. Also if they ever put one of the 'smart' meters on your home your bill will go up unless your house burns down from it. I have friends all over the nation and they are really surprised at what I pay in utilities. The surprise is THEY pay 2 and 3 times more than I do. Could you possibly post a link to back up the claim of everyone that uses MLGW pays three times as much? I don't hear people from Desoto County saying their utilities are 1/3 of what we pay.
Re: “Council Members Clash over Fullilove's Claim of Norris Meeting”
This is a distraction from city business. With schools and other budgets not being met by tens of millions every damn year, I’d say whether she used a psychic or not, if it ain’t happened yet, it probably will.
SELL THAT DOG RIPOFF OF A UTILITY COMPANY THAT IS STRANGLING YOUR CITIZENS!
Everyone else in the country pays 1/3 what you do for utilities.
Re: “Council Members Clash over Fullilove's Claim of Norris Meeting”
The healthcare fund for retirees, well, the city already has a plan for that. That is not money that is owed until the bills come due. but the solution for the retiree healthfund is, yes, Obamacare. starting next year, under 65 retirees will be funneled into one of the health exchanges, much cheaper, and when those retirees get 65, midicare, with the city paring the cost of Medicaid plus at much, much, cheaper cost.
Tenneesee basically has done the same thing when it comes to future liability of its pension funds, etc. They show it in good shape by only maintaining a small percentage of the future payments and extrapolating unreal gained interest to show the rest. It is a trick that most of the states and municipalities, whether majority black or white, do.
If you would google, hidden cost of employee retirement and healthcare plans, you will get the real lowdown. Most states and municipal governments hide these future outlays from the public and present an untrue picture to their citizens.
The Tennessee Constitution is one of the few states that have a strict requirement on balancing the budget, however the general legislation is vague and has a few outs in it, such as, using continuing budgeting in lieu of a new annual budget until September of the fiscal year, with the only stipulation that the state and or municipal government cannot pass a continuing resolution if any account is out of balance. That legislation also allows for the transfer from one account to another, as long as it does not put the account in the red.
Before you people go off on a rant, you need to do a little homework to see what is actually down in the weeds.
Re: “The City Budget Explained in Ten Points, Sort Of”
Memphis is not the only city having heated budget debates. The tax base went down all over the country because home appraisals are down.
It's just that more people are paying attention here. There's no media hanging around City Council meetings in Howenwald.
I just recently read that the City Council of my hometown (pop. 150k) passed their budget at 3am after much "heated and personal debate." The details were spared because in a town that size, the local newspaper reporters still have to play nice with the local big-wigs.
Re: “Council Members Clash over Fullilove's Claim of Norris Meeting”
@ me
Oops, almost one year and an "it" should have been an "is", there are probably others, such is life.
Re: “Baseball in the Dark”
1) The Natural
2) A League of Their Own
3) Eight Men Out
4) For the Love of the Game
5) Major League
Re: “Council Members Clash over Fullilove's Claim of Norris Meeting”
@ OTP
First let me say, it took all of the Memphis leaders, over time, to get us in this mess. Each has their own "pet" projects, none of which seem to be concerned with the fiscal status of our city, except for the one month before a budget deadline. A pox on all of them.
Did you get away with saying, everyone else is doing it to your parents when you were a child? I am sure you have heard two wrongs don't make a right. The 20 million was just an example of how easily and nonchalantly, these servants of the public trust have put our city in such dire straits. The problem is our unfunded liabilities it isn't just kicking the can down the road it is placing landmines there.
Written by the County Trustee almost two years ago this excerpt and article may help you get a real grasp, the numbers haven't gotten any better since:
"The most shocking of these is the city of Memphis, where the unfunded pension liability has crept up to $531 million at last official count. That's combined with $1.34 billion in unfunded liability for Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB), or anticipated health care expenses for retired employees.
What does that $1.87 billion debt mean for the current 652,000 residents of Memphis? Plenty. That's nearly $29,000 of debt burden per resident."
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/…
So, yeah, there is plenty wrong with borrowing money from that fund. Of course, the budget it for one year, your "solution" seems to be the same as their's. Out of sight out of mind except for one month a year. the City's debt isn't only for a year and that is what could destroy us. We need more than the piddly band-aids we're getting.
Re: “RIP Slim Whitman, Country Singer, Slayer of Martians”
Me too. His late night commercials kept this teenage insomniac company many a night in the 80's. That's "Indian Love Call" in Mars Attacks, though, and Slim all the way.
Re: “Coming Out”
OMG! Broadhead,
I LOVE YOU, and I don't care who knows it!
Re: “Burger Boon”
Well OTP I have 2 thoughts. 1. Age adversely affects taste bud function, and 2. modern ground meat is much higher "quality" (less fat and filler.)
Re: “RIP Slim Whitman, Country Singer, Slayer of Martians”
Sorry to hear about Slim. The "Cowboy Cattle Call" was by Eddie Arnold...
Re: “Council Members Clash over Fullilove's Claim of Norris Meeting”
@ Oldtimer,
Studies also show that people that can afford good lawyers don’t go to jail as often as those that can’t.
Those same studies also suggests that if you can’t afford a good lawyer, you should not break any laws where you might need one.
Re: “Deflections: Monta Ellis, A Coaching Theory, Finals Ratings”
Interesting analysis. Appears that Ellis' stats and liabilities would not make him the missing outside 3 pt threat the Grizzlies need. Regarding coaching, your theories are interesting. However, unless Joerger is in on it, it usually doesn't work when management makes decisions on assistant coaches over the head coach's head. I don't know much about Gentry, but what has he accomplished that Hollins hasn't? Would seem to me that the best solutions would be either (1) hiring Karl based on his undeniable expertise and pedigree, or (2) promoting Joerger based on his knowledge of this roster, the system, and management. Can't think of what Gentry brings to the table other than experience and perhaps a more willing collaborative approach with management which Hollins apparently didn't possess or show to them effectively.
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Re: “Lipman, Mulroy, Stratton Considered for Federal Bench”
GroveReb84
Hopefully one of the ladies will get the position instead of Mulroy. He is a total waste of time. He is one of the CC8 and does what he can for the suburbs. Unfortunately what he does is not in our best interest.
Also did you receive the letter from Germantown Government concerning the funding and voting for our MSDs? It talks about the schools will be funded through the 1/2 cent sales tax here. And there will be NO RAISING of property taxes for the schools. I guess that should make all the very intelligent people, ie Ritz and Mulroy, and a host of others saying we will not be able to afford it being full of S#$T. But they are so smart. How can that be? Anyway, early voting is 6 July - 11 July at the church 26 June - 11 July at 157 Poplar and the official voting is 16 July from 7am -7pm. Have you seen all the yellow signs coming back?