The “former OPD employee” as identified in the CA did not come up with 50,000 people in the area. That information came from someone inside City government taking a rather uninformed guess without research. 2010 Census figures state that there were 17,643 residents and 6,159 occupied housing units at the time of the Census.

Beautiful article SM as usual.

SCM has been a place to discuss so many of the issues that this community- the entire metropolitan area and the surrounding region – faces, yet it all falls by the wayside and seems rather moot when those who represent us prove themselves to be incapable of understanding the most basic premises of how cities function in the 21st century. It does not require a ranking from Forbes, a Brookings report or a local media expose to realize that the one impediment to this area ever becoming a vibrant and healthy region is the constant immature, uninformed and inane squabbling that local leaders (and their municipalities by default) appear to be dead set on continuing.

And getting such sage advice from a ‘former planning director’ that there are 50,000 residents ripe

Spelling, grammatical, and mechanical errors aside (and it is quite difficult for me to put them aside), your argument is disingenuous. Yes, teachers were pissed when their e-mail addresses were included in the naughty e-mail from Hamer. To call it unprofessional is an understatement. The tone of the e-mail was caustic, the timing impossible, and the euphemism bald. It wasn’t going to work.

To be sure, there are some teachers who don’t care about getting better; I work with some. The majority, though, care deeply about student success and not only for the benefit of TVAAS scores, and they do this in a climate of fear and low morale that is the direct result of shaky leadership. TVAAS scores don’t plumb the hearts and deeds of the teachers in this system, bro. It’s easy to miss what we do. Look at the fights not had. Look at the tears not cried. Look at the kids not killed. Look at…wait, this is impossible. You can’t see these things! Trying to quantify a teacher’s impact into a few percentage points does the teacher and her work a great disservice. As a teacher yourself, I hope you understand this.

Teachers whose students chronically underperform know it. TVAAS data is good in that it lets us address a certain deficiencies; the lack of transmission of content knowledge and test-taking skills to demonstrate that knowledge. To flatly label as ineffective teachers whose scores are low, though, without taking into account the whole corpus of work they do is a cold stab in the back (especially when it comes from a teacher IN AN UNTESTED SUBJECT).

So think about the human element, soldier, when you consider teachers’ backlash to the naughty teacher e-mail. We all want to improve as professionals, but we also want to be treated like professionals.

The truth is that if the judges were to strictly follow the annexation laws, then annexation by any burg would be hard and rare … and that is how it should be. I do believe that those being annexed should be given a vote … and if the annexation laws were strictly followed, they would be.

I also agree that Memphis should un-annex some areas. It’s too strung out and too big. Maintenance costs are a killer. It needs to improve itself to attract more folks to live in the empty houses and lots inside the city limits.

As for annexation, as I wrote under the other article, Memphis should aggressively explore the option of ending sprawl development once and for all, protect the greenbelt and create a preserve. Efforts are underway for this process to happen, Memphis politicians should jump on board. Preemptively annex the Grey’s Creek area and promptly restrict all development by creating a preserve. Shelby County will thank Memphis in the long-run for that, because they as yet haven’t figured out that they can’t pay for their current infrastructure maintenance obligations and in 25 years they’re going to be absolutely broke.

Meanwhile, Memphis doesn’t need a reserve area unless it is to be set aside permanently as green preserve. Period. We don’t need to keep our options open on this., our density is so low and unsustainable it will take a hundred years to correct the cost equation for our entire already-annexed land area. By that time, many of these processes will be ancient history – and, hopefully, there will be a consolidated government. So, before Nashville can strip us of the land and hand it over to Shelby County so terrible decisions for the region can be made, give the land over to the feds for National Wilderness Preservation or national parkland, ensuring it can never be developed. Use eminent domain to place easements on all tracts restricting development to extremely low density – one single-family residence per square mile. So what if we’ve already invested money in infrastructure there. That is a bad investment anyway. We don’t need to continue spending money to lose more money.

There is serious conversation in City Hall about the down side of annexation and even the possibility of de-annexation. But because of their arrogance, these legislators may kill this important conversation.

Even if there are no plans in our lifetimes to annex this land, it’s still in Memphis’ interest to keep all its options open for the future, because we’ve seen the negative impact of landlocked cities like ours as well. The bigger issue is that mid-sized cities, particularly in the Midwest (we include ourselves in that group), are finding that none of the options are working well in reviving the growth of the core city or stimulating its economy.

That said, we still think Memphis needs to fight to keep all its tools in the toolkit.

Building and improving within the sprawling land mass we already have will make Memphis stronger.

After learning of two proposed bills to limit Memphis’ ability to grow and authority to annex its reserve areas, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, Jr. and Memphis City Council Chair Bill Morrison issued a joint statement:

“On the evening when Governor Bill Haslam prepares to give his State of the State, we find ourselves deeply troubled by several state proposals that would stifle Memphis’ ability to grow.

Based on the 1998 growth plan agreement, which cemented the growth areas of all the municipalities in Shelby County and was approved by the state legislature, the City of Memphis has already begun investing resources in this east Shelby County area, including an $80 million sewer project and other basic services such as fire protection.

These proposals, put forth without even a courtesy call to local government, single out the City of Memphis at a time when other municipalities have recently used the same 1998 agreement – without argument or interference – to annex their reserve areas. It’s a move that smacks of racism, classism, and schoolyard bullying.

Last year, we saw these same legislators try to leapfrog over the will of our citizens to surrender the charter of Memphis City Schools and to establish a unified Shelby County school system.

This is a continued all-out assault on Memphis and its right to govern itself. We are calling upon all of our local leaders – whether they be leaders in politics, business, or the philanthropic arena – and the residents of Memphis to let their state representatives know that this will not stand.

If need be, we will meet this challenge in court.”