Update:  New sign. Same BS. If MLGW cannot be trusted to complete street paving, how can it be trusted on Musk AI project? (Murphree signs have been up almost a month. New signs put in yards Saturday.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By John Branston

MLGW president and CEO Doug McGowen has (rightly,sort of) demanded an apology from the NAACP for “baseless claims” about possible shenanigans in the Big Muskie xAI project in the Boxtown area of Southwest Memphis.

The complaint and counter complaint are several pages long so I guess McGowen beats them on science which is one of his specialties. Heck, even President Trump says Elon Musk is not trustworthy. (Yet MLGW signed a non disclosure agreement with him for Project Colossus.)

McGowen and MLGW should get one dollar in damages because MLGW has made a mess of Midtown streets by tearing them up for water line repairs then failing to get its paving partner to do its job.

To make a long story short, MLGW is replacing water lines made of lead from street to sidewalk, where its responsibility for maintenance ends. This was a big dirty job well done a couple months ago, but it turned streets into rocky, potholed one-way lanes where a safe speed is 15 miles an hour. Two weeks ago, the paving partner, Murphee Paving, put up  yard signs saying paving is coming, like right away, so do not park on the street.

Not true. But why? This is not rocket science. Nor is it the crime of the century.  A city spokeswoman declined to respond. As did Murphree which has been taken over by Rose Paving LLC, a nationwide outfit. I got connected, supposedly, to a “live person” at Rose named “Steve” for an online chat. I was hoping for a long-term relationship, but Steve kept putting me off with AI.

The Murphree signs — which look like something you would cobble together for a yard sale — are still up but nobody is paying attention to them.

Mayors and utility chiefs have prospered by talking a good long game and fixing fixable things like potholes and ditches.  If only.

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To read more John Branston’s posts, go to categories on the right side of this blog’s home page and select his name.   

John Branston has been contributing to Smart City Memphis for four years. Before that he wrote columns, breaking news, and long-form stories for The Commercial Appeal, Memphis Flyer, Memphis magazine, and other print and online publications. He is author of the books Rowdy Memphis (2004) and What Katy Did (2017). He is a journalist and opinion writer.  His stories are based on reporting, interviews and quotes supported by notes or a tape recorder. He has written about people who made Memphis what it is, for better and worse; about sleep issues and depression; about racquet sports; and about travel in the South and West.