Memphis is a mythic city.
There are of course the mythic musicians and entrepreneurs who created our greatest exports to the world – from B.B. to Elvis to Chilton and from Kemmons Wilson to Pitt Hyde to Fred Smith.
And yet, there are mythologies of a different kind. They limit Memphis’ options for progress, trap us in the same old conversations, and create conventional wisdom treated as facts.
The most intriguing promise of a new Memphis mayor: the chance to think anew about old problems and to begin by blowing up old myths.
Mythologies
There’s the myth that we talk too much about race. Actually, we don’t; it’s just that we talk about the wrong things. The verbal blasts out of the Herenton City Hall were a lot about race, but never about discussions concerning the consequences of Memphis’ economic segregation, the worst among the top 50 metros, or about breaking the inextricable link between race and poverty.
There’s the myth that new suburban highways create new economic growth. More to the point, they fueled the greatest relocation in history of people to outside Memphis, cannibalizing existing businesses, driving up county government’s debt to bankruptcy level, and forcing Memphians to pay the lion’s share of infrastructure they didn’t need.
There’s the myth our African-American majority is an economic drag. Because distinctiveness is the basis for competitive advantage, Memphis needs to be a hub of black talent. If that isn’t at the top of our economic development agenda, we’re not really in the economic development business.
There’s the myth that the 103,000 students in Memphis City Schools are problems. Instead, our anomalous bulge in students is a strategic opportunity. As the U.S. workforce contracts and cities fight for fewer workers, we already have ours. But we’ve got to train them for jobs of the new economy.
Acting On Myths Instead Of Facts
There’s the myth that all Memphis neighborhoods are in chaos and in deep despair. And yet, for every neighborhood in crisis, there is a place like Prospect Park – proud, well-kept, and attractive. While we deal with the neighborhoods swamped by problems, we need also to shore up the islands of great neighborhoods.
There’s the myth that success in economic development is measured by the number of tax freezes we hand out. Rather, they reflect the need to create a more competitive city, because prosperous cities aren’t selling themselves on cheapness, but quality.
There’s the myth that downtown is booming. Despite the frequent use of the word, renaissance, to describe downtown, we still tend to define success by comparing Memphis against itself rather than against other cities. Our downtown still misses the vibrancy and activity that are so evident in other cities’ downtowns that have been reborn in the past 20 years. That’s why ideas like Memphis Art Park and the skate park on Mud Island are so important.
There’s the myth that annexation is always good. Memphis is now larger in area than New York City and eventually, it will be bigger than Los Angeles. Already, annexations have driven up the costs of public services and contributed to a deterioration of services in the pre-annexation area. The city government analysis needs to measure the impact of more land on the existing city and not assume that the neighborhoods and tax revenues will not decline.
Getting It Right
There’s the myth that consolidating city and county governments is bad for the county’s smaller cities. A large government lies in the future for them – either a new one or a Memphis government that expands by almost 50 percent and surrounds them without them having a voice in it. It all makes the town mayor’s mantra all the more ironic: “We hate Memphis City Hall and don’t trust Memphis politicians. Memphis is full of problems. So we want to leave everything just like it is.”
There’s the myth that Memphis and Shelby County Governments are wasteful while the smaller towns are efficient and economical. Actually, both city and county governments spend less on services per citizen than Collierville, Bartlett, and Germantown – and from 32 to 48 percent less.
There’s the myth that all we need to do is to tell our story better. More importantly, we need to create a city that gives us a different story to tell.
That’s why the most dangerous myth of all is the hoariest of all: there’s nothing we can do to change things. Meanwhile, in the 20 years that we’ve wrung our hands and complained, China has turned its whole economy around.
That’s why it’s time for our elected officials – and for the rest of us – to take a “no excuses” approach to our own city’s future. Memphis is a mythic place, but to become great, it means that we have to blow up some of the most stubborn myths of all.
Sound like you been reading the CA comment section. LOL. I don’t understand the “we vs. them” mindset. People seem to forget that Memphis is also located in Shelby County. Right now the whole Shelby County is a divided house. It reminds me of the movie Star Wars Episode 1 of how the Jedi tried to tell the Jar Jar Binks people that they and the Naboo are linked to each other even though both nations have a “we vs. them” mindset. Though knowing their link, the Jar Jar Binks people believe that Naboo’s problems wouldn’t effect them. The Binks people also believe that they were some how safe from problems because their cities are located underwater. To make a long story short both the Naboo and Binks people were conquered.
hey! thats it!!! the queen of the aquatic rasta speaking half of the planet MUST have a distant relative on the Memphis City Council!
Thanks for pointing that out!
There are local myths that need to not only be shattered but ground back into the sand from which they came (stop asking me what school I graduated from if you are referring to high school because I am going to continue naming the university I attended!). However, these myths are what have come to define at least a significant minority of the individuals that reside in this community and region. Without the ethnic bias, the ignorance regarding quality of neighborhoods and the bias associated with it, the mentality that specific education institutions are restricted to yielding students of limited capability, many in this city would simply lose their place in their perseption of the universe. It would be like removing their personal GPS systems. So many here, at least those that seem to receive a great deal of attention, seem defined by who others are or are not- or is that a myth as well? I question if the barrier based on ethnicity- both real and perceived- were removed tomorrow, are there individuals who would be unable to define themselves in such a new city? Is shattering these myths any easier than asking a person to change who they are?
Would love to you talk in more detail some of your points:
- “There’s the myth that new suburban highways create new economic growth.” Why isn’t it?
- “More to the point, they fueled the greatest relocation in history of people to outside Memphis, cannibalizing existing businesses, driving up county government’s debt to bankruptcy level, and forcing Memphians to pay the lion’s share of infrastructure they didn’t need.” The roads didn’t do that, people moving out to better school districts left and with them their tax dollars followed. Roads facilitated the move, but they are not the fuel. Schools were the fuel. I would agree that by people moving it creates costs that could have been supported by existing infrastructure.
- “myth that success in economic development is measured by the number of tax freezes we hand out” I have never heard this myth…
- “There’s the myth that all Memphis neighborhoods are in chaos and in deep despair.” Never heard of this one. There are a lot of great neighborhoods in Memphis.
- “There’s the myth that annexation is always good.” I guess it depends on your perspective, the folks that were annexed did not believe this myth, nor does anyone else in the county.
- “There’s the myth that the 103,000 students in Memphis City Schools are problems.” Kids are opportunities, unfortunately people associate kids with stupid decisions to not audit student enrollment or not pay your bills.
- “There’s the myth that consolidating city and county governments is bad for the county’s smaller cities.” Until some hard numbers are given then it is a myth to assume government will be more efficient the larger it gets.
- “There’s the myth that Memphis and Shelby County Governments are wasteful while the smaller towns are efficient and economical” Most governments are wasteful.
A survey by Yacoubian Research this week confirmed the uphill battle of consolidating Memphis and Shelby County governments and schools on Nov. 2.
72 percent of those outside of Memphis who participated in the survey said they would vote against consolidation.
This is the wages of Memphis leadership running over and cheating the people for decades. The people don’t trust anyone, not each other, not you.
Heck, they don’t believe their vote counts here.
Businessman had it right, your peeps are so divided and blind that anyone can take full advantage, like low wage job providers, and you’ll be too distracted to see it coming. Willie used to depend on that.
You will have to remove EVERY instance of “doing the same thing and expecting a different result” to actually get the different result or it’s still insanity.
I agree with urbanut; anyone asking “where did you go to school” and meaning what HIGH SCHOOL HERE did you go to should be broken upon the wheel. And I went to high school here, but it is such a f%^$!ng provincial question….I mean, is this Tupelo writ large? …maybe it is, lol.
So Brian, why are you picking just on Memphis? Even with all of the bad leadership you mention, Memphis still provides services and is the only municipality in Shelby county that funds schools. Without the latter, our tax rate could be close to the burbs.
Bad county leadership has cost us dearly, probably more than City leaders. Former County Mayor Jim Rout (and his predecessors) allowed uncontrolled development whcih required massive infrastructure but was too politically weak to ask fo rtax money to fund it all. therefore, we ran up the biggest debt in history.
yeah. the burbs sure do look nice with all them new schools and parks and fire stations and attention to design standards for commercial development and restrictions on multi family locations and sign restrictions and functional city governments, and and and…
perception is 90% of the battle. pole dancing, drunkards, with close developer ties and moronic sound bite mentalities
do not make me wish to vote for them to run my little corner of paradise as part of the Greater Memphis gummint they are proposing…
anon is dead on correct. If anything, the county under Rout’s leadership was worse than the city of Memphis. Took on staggering debt in order to make Jackie Welch rich and did nada to fix it for the citizens and taxpayers of Shelby County.
During his last year in office Mayor Rout must have had an awakening, epiphany or something. He called all of the big Shelby County developers into his conference room one day and proceeded to attack them for “getting rich from tax payers’ dollars”. He even berated a long time friend from school days. He made it clear that the days of debt producing sprawl and the free ride for developers were over. Bobby Lanier, Rout’s loyal assistant with a pipeline to developers, must have been horrified because the room was full of some big contributors to Rout’s campaigns.
Later that year Rout said he would not run for a third term. This was either due to backlash from his tirade against the developers or more likely, he made the attack on the developers knowing he didn’t want to continue as mayor with the massive debt he helped create; and the developers seemed like good scapegoats to clear his conscience.
At any rate Bobby Lanier shifted his special talents to A C Wharton who in becoming the County Mayor championed “Sustainable Shelby” but did nothing to curb sprawl.
Also because of Rout’s “developer summit”, urban planning suffered resulting in Wharton’s unilateral appointment of a well connected lawyer unqualified as a planner to the County’s top planning position and then as City Mayor he reappointed this lawyer to the City’s top planning position even though the position is a joint appointment between the City and County. This led to many young highly qualified planners jumping ship to find professional fulfillment.
We may never know the full impact of Rout’s rant since the “great recession” decimated both developers and planners; but over the next several years we must keep a sharp eye on the pace, location, and density of development permits and on the creation of growth plans to manage land development that creates both fiscal and neighborhood sustainability. We could see the same fatal flaws in growth policy once the “housng market” returns.
Packrat–
Regarding your comment about asking where someone went to high school, that is common in many older, insular cities. I have heard people in St. Louis ask that question and in New Orleans it is asked constantly.
To be specific, in New Orleans folks want to know where your grandfather went to high school. I lived there for 27 years.
It is hardly a small town thing, for good or bad.
All those county people are gone, all those city people are being routed out. We are focusing on Memphis, but, when we consolidate, and we will, we’ll have to deal with the aftermath of both debt creators and all that bad “gummint”.
Yeah, the inner city neighborhoods sometimes look nice too, but, they are just as full of racist hate as the outer ‘burbs, maybe even more-so, just of a different color, this is the wages of self-imposed economic segregation unbridled.
Saying “we should be a hub for black talent”?
What era do you live in, the fifties? We should be a hub for ALL talent, not race based standards. That’s fighting fire with fire, while “the professionals” use WATER.
Guess why?
IT WORKS!
Now, figure out how much damage Mr. Lanier’s work caused in a dollar figure and start suing the clowns!