We love this post by one of favorite bloggers, At Home She Feels Like a Tourist:
A little more than four years ago, your humble blogger arrived in Memphis, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, from that leftist utopia on the west coast, the magnificent Bay Area. (OK, let’s be honest – I’ve never been particularly bright-eyed or bushy-tailed. More like – glowering and misanthropic.) I had no idea if I would stay in Memphis for very long. I returned frequently to SF during my first year, always with a sense of returning to normalcy.
Except in the past few years, I stopped feeling the need to return to SF. And Memphis stopped feeling so odd and alien to me. I no longer imagine the streets teeming with missing pedestrians, nor do I do a double-take at every Southern accent, nor do I even notice the landscape of endless churches dotting the city. It has been ages since I hopped in my car with my camera and drove to Summer Avenue or Thomas Street or Orange Mound to photodocument the many neighborhoods in Memphis which receive short shrift thanks to the over-the-top midtown boosterism. This city on the bluff, with all its charm and all its tragedy, has pretty much claimed me. I’m not a tourist here anymore.
Read the rest here.
I thought you would appreciate that!
You do know what we like, Steve. Thanks so much.
Stockholm syndrome always sounds nice at the onset. It really does, that’s how you get it. Vvvvveeeerrrryyyy Sloooowwwwllllyyyyy.
See a shrink.
I read the blogs, “true grit”, total ignorance of the history as to why the neighborhood is what it is.
Those guys are form out of town, so, They’re kinda not in the know about the history here, and they’re not likely to hear the truth from anyone here, Southern charm, there’s a term for it, “nasty-nice”, it’s all pervasive.
May not be tourists anymore but you’re still very very very “green”.
Don’t look at Memphis with rose colored glasses, that’s dangerous here.
SF and NYC had drug crime as the big stat, Memphis has VIOLENT CRIME as it’s big stat, big difference in the ethics surrounding the support structure creating that condition.
—————–
Staying in a city where leadership consistently abuses the citizenry through it’s daily practices, thinking you can fix it, and developing a relationship with it’s dysfunctional character, is Stockholm Syndrome.
———–
It’s an abuser, you can’t fix it but everyone is welcome to die trying.
Thanks goodness the new mayor and his staff have the power to TCB.
That will be the new moniker for Memphis.