News Blog

Leaders in the art community, Memphis City Council staff, and city officials have been working, somewhat quietly, to streamline the rules and processes around public art here.

The city council voted in March to place a 120-day moratorium on art projects going up on public right-of-ways, and then re-approved that measure again last month.

The moratorium exempts projects funded by the city’s Percent-for-Art program, as well as certain ongoing projects by the Downtown Memphis Commission and the Memphis Medical District Collaborative.

It was first put in place after the council publicly criticized one organization’s murals. The council deemed a handful of murals sanctioned by the nonprofit Paint Memphis as offensive and, in some cases, “satanic.” Some of the less popular murals featured Elvis Presley with a snake coming from his orifices, a cow skull, a dancing skeleton, and a zombie.

After months of heated debate with Paint Memphis and a vote to remove six murals, the council approved the moratorium. The hold was originally implemented to establish a “road map” or legislation that regulates art in public spaces done by outside entities, chairman Berlin Boyd said at the time.

Though the council has not been very vocal about their ongoing efforts and quickly reinstated the moratorium at a meeting last month without any discussion, since then, Boyd said the body and others have been working to improve legislation.

Included in the effort, Lauren Kennedy, executive director of the UrbanArt Commission (UAC), has been working with council staff, as well as Nick Oyler, manager of the city’s Bikeway and Pedestrian Program to improve the process of handling public requests for public art.

“The council isn't trying to stop public art,” Kennedy said. “The goal is to sit back and assess the guidelines for public art on city-owned property. There are good intentions here and this will be useful down the road.”

The Bikeway and Pedestrian Program, which manages the city’s artistic crosswalk/intersection program, is one of many the city divisions that often gets public art requests. Kennedy said the program has strong guidelines in place for handling those requests.

The process, in part, consists of an entity requesting to install an artistic crosswalk/intersection, submitting a design for review, and fulfilling a number of requirements to ensure public safety and proper maintenance associated with the project, Oyler said.

The idea is to develop those guidelines to be applied across different city divisions, Kennedy said.

The new guidelines will lay out the how the city should respond to public art requests, as well as ensure there are opportunities for design review processes to “make sure some of the things that happened in the past don’t come up again,” Kennedy said.

“We want to find a solution to address concerns of the council and administration, but also trying to make sure that the process put in place is friendly enough for people to navigate and doesn’t create too many barriers,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said the goal is to have the guidelines completed before the current moratorium ends in March 2019.

LeMoyne-Owen College received a $250,000 donation from the Shelby County Commission at the school’s President’s Gala, which was held Nov. 10 at Memphis Cook Convention Center.

County Commissioners Mickell Lowery and Willie Brooks made the presentation to president Andrea Lewis Miller and board of trustees chair J. W. GIbson.

The money will be used for various things, including scholarships.

“Absolutely wonderful,” Miller says. “It will do a lot of good.”

The scholarships will be used for need and merit based students, she says.

The President’s Gala, which drew about 700, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the merger of LeMoyne College with Owen College.

The joint venture between the Memphis and Shelby County Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) and the Chamber would work to establish a data-driven, accountable approach to recruiting and attracting business from outside of the the region. The new body would be governed by a board with representatives from the city, county, Chamber, and EDGE.

The board will set goals, give quarterly reports on the progress of those goals, and be evaluated on success annually. Reid Dulberger, CEO of EDGE said the new joint venture will accelerate growth and “create a more dynamic and sustainable community” by coupling new research capabilities and targeted economic development opportunities with public goals and accountability.

The changes are an effort of Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, as well as Richard Smith, Chamber chairman and president of Fedex Trade Network; Beverly Robertson, interim Chamber president and CEO; Al Bright Jr., EDGE board chairman; and Dulberger.

Strickland said the joint venture is in line with his priority of making data-driven decisions and holding institutions accountable.

“We’ve worked closely to build consensus with government and business partners around this new joint venture, which is in line with my priorities of making data-driven decisions and holding institutions accountable,” Strickland said. “This is a new day in the economic development structure in Memphis, and we’re all coming together to accelerate our job growth.”

Though there are currently about 14,000 more people working in Memphis than three years ago, Strickland said that the main challenge to economic development is the workforce. These proposed changes, he said, are just part of the solution to increasing development, citing other obstacles to economic growth like crime.

“We have momentum in Memphis, and we’re at a time in our history that calls for accelerating that growth,” Strickland said. “These improvements are only part of the equation to increase economic development — working hand-in-hand with our work to reduce crime, reduce poverty, and invest in our neighborhoods — but they are meaningful.

“We must address our No. 1 economic development challenge, which is workforce. And we must make sure that existing businesses, where most of our job growth has taken place recently, are just as equipped to accelerate, too.”

Bright of EDGE said the joint venture will allow for more resources to go toward job recruitment and retention here, as well as help create a new focus for the board, allowing its approach to be more targeted.

“This formal partnership will allow us to put more resources behind recruitment and retention of jobs,” Smith said. “It will focus us on being more targeted in our approach, more responsive to existing employers looking to expand here, and will ensure seamless support across the entire business development ecosystem.

“Furthermore, it creates greater alignment between both public and private sectors and will allow for strategic oversight and goal setting based upon community priorities, with the built in accountability for driving outcomes that will ultimately create more jobs for Memphians.”

The joint venture is just one of the changes government and business leaders are looking to implement to the local economic development ecosystem. Other parts of the proposal look to increase connectivity, improve the workforce, and assist existing local businesses.

Additionally, Strickland is proposing a new EDGE position — a vice president of workforce development, who will work to connect local employers with training and educational avenues.

A new membership-based shared art work space is now open in Crosstown Concourse.

The Crosstown Arts’ Shared Art Making Facility, located on the ground floor of the building, is like a gym for artists, officials with Crosstown Arts said Wednesday. The idea is to offer art-making equipment and software to the public that they may not have the financial resources to purchase or space to house.

Kasey Price, a tech at the facility, said the space is for anyone with a passion for art.

• Crosstown Arts
• Work in the woodshop

“Shared Art Making is a place for people to work on creative projects and for those who need access to professional equipment,” Price said. “It’s really for anyone who has passion and focus about their art, whether it’s composing a beat or laser-etching a coffee mug.”

The shared work space has equipment for digital arts, music production, woodworking, printmaking, photography, and other art forms. The digital lab houses seven iMac stations, all with the full Adobe software suite, large-format printers, a laser cutter, vinyl cutter, and industrial sewing machine. The wood shop includes a CNC router for precision cutting, power tools, work tables, and common hand tools.

There’s also a sound lab with private work spaces and equipment for music recording, as well as editing bays and equipment for video work. A silkscreen studio provides tools to create and screen-print images for projects like, T-shirts and graphic posters.

• Crosstown Arts
• Artist working in the space's sound lab

“We’ve seen artists use the equipment in a lot of fun ways — a rabbit house, laser-etching images into a banana peel, a vinyl chicken woman, and drawer partitions,” Jamie Harmon, Shared Art Making manager, said.

Memberships are $80 per month, if paid on a month-to-month basis, and $75 per month with an annual membership. Members can be artists of any skill level, but must be 18 years or older.

The facility will also allow members to host classes for the public in their area of expertise.

Memphis voters said no to all three Memphis City Council-related referendums on Tuesday's ballot.

The controversial questions asked voters to extend term limits for the mayor and city council members, to repeal instant runoff voting (a system 71 percent of voters approved in 2008), and to eliminate runoff voting in single council districts.

About 60 percent of voters said no to elected officials serving three consecutive four-year terms in office. There were 101,607 no votes and 67,220 yes votes.

• Shelby County Election Commission

• Shelby County Election Commission

Voters also said no to repealing instant runoff voting, with 62,316 votes in favor of the repeal and 104,431 — or 63 percent — against it.

• Shelby County Election Commission

• Shelby County Election Commission

Finally, 54 percent of voters, or 91,183 voted against eliminating runoff elections in single council districts, while 77,243 voters voted for the elimination.

• Shelby County Election Commission

• Shelby County Election Commission

This comes after the city council voted late last month to fund a public education campaign related to the three ballot questions. Council Chairman Berlin Boyd said Tuesday that the Carter Malone group was contracted to implement the campaign, and that he was unaware of how the campaign was actually carried out.

The group Save Instant Run-off Memphis said in a Tuesday-night Tweet that the "landslide victories" show that voters understand and support IRV.

"Local leaders should unequivocally end obstruction of democracy and work to implement these voter led initiatives without hesitation," the group said on Twitter. "Memphis has spoke loud and clear."

Memphians reaffirmed their support for IRV and term limits. These landslide victories demonstrate, again, that Memphians understand and support IRV.

— saveirvmemphis (@saveirvmemphis) November 7, 2018

Memphis Police Department (MPD) director Michael Rallings said Tuesday there is a “false narrative” regarding the actions of officers.

“This narrative is problematic and can have negative consequences and jeopardize public safety,” Rallings said. “Given our environment and the national climate, I thought it was of utmost importance to present you the facts regarding incidents in Memphis.”

Rallings said in the past the media has reported that 95 percent of Tennessee’s officer-involved shootings take place in Shelby County, but based on information that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations (TBI) has provided that is “not even close to being correct.”

There have been 43 officer-involved shootings investigated by TBI statewide; three of those shootings or 6.9 percent involved MPD officers, Rallings said. MPD officers hardly use any type of force, he said. 

“We rarely have an incident where officers use deadly force,” Rallings said. “In all actuality, officers only responded to resistance 1.2 percent of the time in 2017. That’s a very sharp contrast to the 200 homicides recorded in 2017.”

Rallings also said that in 2017, excessive force reports from citizens were down.

In the past seven years, there have been 11 officer-involved shootings in the county. Three were fatal. Since 2011, Rallings said there has been a 73 percent decrease in officer-involved shootings.

Ralling’s comments came during a Memphis City Council committee discussion on the TBI investigating all officer-involved shootings — both fatal and non-fatal.

Rallings said he worries that if TBI does this for Memphis, it will have to implement the same policy for the entire state, which based on his conversations with TBI, without having more staff, the Bureau would not be able to do.

The council will vote on a resolution supporting the involvement of TBI in all officer shootings at its meeting in two weeks.

The Shelby County Board of Commission already approved a similar resolution 7-4 at its meeting last week.

This comes after the TBI stepped in to investigate the officer-involved shooting of Martavious Banks in September. Banks was was shot by three officers who did not have their body cameras turned on at the time of the shooting.

Edmund Ford Jr., who was recently elected as a Shelby County Commissioner and is currently serving his last two weeks on the Memphis City Council, was named the Memphis Public Libraries’ new financial literacy coordinator Monday.

Dan Springer, the city's deputy director of media affairs said Ford's role is a newly-created position at the library. The salary is $78,000 per annum. 

A statement from the city on Ford’s new position reads:

“We are pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Edmund Ford, Jr. as our new Financial Literacy Coordinator. Our libraries have long been a central hub of learning, and this position will offer Memphians another important avenue towards financial freedom and stability.

Financial Literacy is one of the cornerstones to help lift citizens out of poverty. Dr. Ford will focus his work with the most impoverished and highest needs citizens primarily in the North and South Memphis areas. As Budget Chair on City Council, Dr. Ford demonstrated his passion for knowledge and strong financial background. Now, he will be able to share that with the greater community.”

Springer said the position is net-neutral, budget-wise, as "there was already a vacancy at the library."

Ford, who is also employed as a teacher for Shelby County Schools, was elected to the county commission in August, and has yet to resign from the city council.

A Memphis man was arrested at the Wolfchase Galleria on Saturday for videotaping an incident between Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers and two young black men, which was sparked by the mall's no hoodie policy.

The 59-year-old African American man, Kevin McKenzie who is a former reporter for The Commercial Appeal, documented his arrest and the incidents leading up to it in a Facebook post.

"I witnessed a mall-to-prison pipeline in action and I will not support it," McKenzie wrote.

The incident began when McKenzie noticed a mall security guard following a group of young black men through the mall, according to his Facebook post. The men were then escorted off the premises for violating the mall’s no hoodie policy. However, they soon returned.

When they returned, McKenzie, who recorded the exchange, said they were met with MPD officers and were told they would be arrested for criminal trespassing if they did not leave.

“For reasons I didn’t hear, one young man in what appeared to be a nylon blue and white jacket with a hood that was not on his head was handcuffed by a Memphis officer and led away as my video rolled,” McKenzie wrote. “That’s when a black sheriff’s deputy approached me and told me I also was breaking the mall’s rules.”

McKenzie was asked to put his phone away and stop recording, and then told he would be arrested if he didn’t leave the mall.

“Before I could respond, he twisted my arms behind me and placed me in handcuffs and marched me down the escalator to a back office at the mall,” McKenzie said.”

McKenzie, who was ultimately issued a misdemeanor citation, told the officers that the mall’s policy is discriminatory. However, the officers argued that that policy is set by the group that owns the mall, the Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group.

A statement from Wolfchase said the policy is to promote a safe environment and that Saturday’s incident was handled by MPD, to which all questions should be directed.

Officials with MPD did not immediately respond to the Flyer’s inquiry about the incident.

Will Tom Lee Park's redesign impact Memphis In May?

In its monthly newsletter, Memphis in May International Festival announced Studio Gang, the Chicago team creating a plan to redesign the Riverfront, met with MIM executives to discuss the Tom Lee Park design.

MIM has been working with Studio Gang and Memphis River Parks Partnership to, according to the newsletter, “ensure the redesigned park will protect Beale Street Music Festival patron capacity and full complement of World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest team spaces — not to mention their accompanying economic impact — and preserve the future viability of the festival and its events in Tom Lee Park.”

The final park redesign plan is scheduled for release in December. The initial plan for Tom Lee Park is slated to have landscape and hardscape improvements, including pocket parks with grassy knolls, trees and hills.

The question is — after all this is set in place — how will 225 barbecue teams fit in the park for the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest? And how will more than 27,000 people fit into Tom Lee Park for the Beale Street Music Festival?

The festival would go as planned in 2019, but after that, construction begins. Memphis in May events would have to move beginning in 2020. Where would these events go? The barbecue contest was held in 2011 in Tiger Lane. But that’s a long way from the Mississippi River and downtown hotels. Shelby Farms is a possible site, but, again, that’s a long way from downtown Memphis and its restaurants and hotels. And the traffic problem is another question. Getting thousands of people out of Farm Road and Mullins Station Road?

In its annual report, Memphis in May said it brought in $133.7 million last year in economic impact. And three and a half million tax dollars. Reduced space or a new location is, obviously, going to lower both these amounts.

“For the Beale Street Merchants Association, all Beale Street and all downtown, Memphis in May and the month of May for the festival are clearly the biggest things that happen to us all year long,” says Joellyn Sullivan, vice-president of the Beale Street Merchants Association and owner of Silky O’Sullivan’s on Beale Street. “The hotel occupancy is significant and the economic impact has been very well documented.

“And, to be clear, I am not familiar with the plans for Tom Lee Park. I have no idea. What I read in a newsletter from Memphis in May was the first notice. I saw a little bit about what was going on, but I haven’t seen plans,” says Sullivan

Things are slated to stay the same in 2019 when Memphis will be the honored Memphis in May country, but the next year? “Not only construction, but the ultimate design could decrease capacity for those events and it’s very concerning. We had a little bit of a test with the flood that moved the barbecue (festival) to Tiger Lane. And that definitely had an impact on downtown economics.”

A “key part” of Memphis in May’s mission is “to promote Memphis and, secondarily, Downtown," says Sullivan. "So, it’s a showcase we all have. And our riverfront. To think that venue might not be there for that mutual promotion, that is concerning. Tom Lee Park is what it is. It’s a great, open park that is very welcoming. It’s got sidewalks and benches and it’s already got a play area. It’s an established port that now handles riverboat traffic. People don’t give that riverboat traffic credit. We can tell Downtown when those boats are coming in and out. You can definitely feel the economic impact.”

And, Sullivan says, “Our riverfront has been improving anway. The RiverArtsFest was down here this past weekend. And now we’ve got dueling bridges in terms of bridge lights.

“To be able to have a big, open space downtown that can be a venue for the music fest and barbecue is amazingly special. To have those world class events on the Mississippi River at the foot of Beale where Downtown as a whole can be impacted and showcased is a wonderful, wonderful- thing.”

And if Memphis in May has to move somewhere else like Shelby Farms? “That is devastating. And it’s also probably festival busting. This is not a festival that belongs anywhere but on the Mississippi River. And the whole purpose of Memphis in May, its history, everything about it, is Memphis.”