Thumbnail: Memphis can be a leader in a movement that downsizes or removes waterfront streets to improve quality of life. Downtown Commission’s Master Plan calls for a reevaluation and a possible road diet for Riverside Drive.
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Thumbnail: I recently posted a New York Daily News’ column by David Eichenthal, prominent consultant on city finances and justice with the PFM Group. He was also lead consultant to City of Memphis’ Five Year Strategic Fiscal and Management Plan. He says police and corrections have become sacred cows, with elected officials calling for more police as a show of their commitment to crime reduction, when it is time to reexamine and revamp hiring practices to require standards of professionalism, no tolerance policies toward abuse, and common sense policies limiting the use of force.
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Thumbnail: For the first time since the municipalites formed their own districts, Shelby County Schools District will receive a larger share of county and local sales tax funding than last year. The school districts in the municipalities will get less.
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Thumbnail: Police killings of Americans are up, and African Americans are victims at a rate more than twice as high as its percentage of population. The number of police killed by Americans is down.
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Thumbnail: Covid-19 is rebounding with a venageance in the Sun Belt, and Memphis is one of the hot...
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Thumbnail: Racism can rear its head in the most mundane of situations for African Americans. Even a Memphis family in Destin is not immune from racist encounters. My memories of the Jim Crow South indicate how deeply engrained racism is in our culture.
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Thumbnail: The search committee is recommending to city officials that The Metal Museum becomes the next tenant of Rust Hall in Overton Park now that the Memphis College of Art has closed down. Armed with a promise to create a national museum and a pledge of $12 million from an out-of-town donor, the Metal Museum becomes the perfect occupant for the architecturally significant building.
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Thumbnail: University of Memphis’ Professor Emeritus in Economics David Ciscel follows up his previous blog post about Covid-19’s impact on our economy. The May jobs and employment numbers show that idea by leadership that it would all fade in May is discredited. The next two months will be even more important.
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Thumbnail: It’s incredulous that we are still working to shake off the vestiges of the Confederacy and incredulous even more that some fanatically hold up traitors who fought to destroy the United States so they could own human beings as property. Southern states not only lost the war but by clinging to racist myths of the Confederacy, they also sacrificed the future. In light of the continuing discussions about Confederate statues and the Confederacy itself, I’m posting this column written for MLK50.com on July 27, 2017.
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Thumbnail: Prominent consultant on city finances and justice David Eichenthal’s New York Daily News op-ed is especially relevant to Memphis. He says police and corrections have become sacred cows, with elected officials calling for more police as a show of their commitment to crime reduction. He cites that Memphis spends 38% of its budget on police and now’s the time to consider other options to fight crime.
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Thumbnail: After 48 years of police directors chosen from within the Memphis Police Department culture, Memphis has the opportunity to bring in new perspectives and new ideas with a new hire who is prepared to answer the key question: Does Memphis need more police or better police?
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by Bill Day. Memphian Bill Day is two-time winner of the RFK Journalism Award in Cartooning. His cartoons are syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons. Cartoons Archive →
