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: 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: 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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Thumbnail: After seven years of blog posts about the need for Riverside Drive to contribute to a livable Memphis, the street is opening up again today for five days a week so it seems a good time to revisit past blog posts about how it could contribute to a livable Memphis.
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Thumbnail: Another volatile county commissioners’ meeting resulted from suggestions that the sheriff’s budget should be reduced. The budget is significantly larger than the mayor’s budget and accounts for 45% of the general fund. The sheriff needs to step forward to lead the process to reimagine better law enforcement.
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Thumbnail: Despite declining crime rates, cities across the U.S. have given more and more of their budgets to policing. In Memphis, 40% of the entire city budget is spent on MPD and its budgets have increased at a pace larger than the city budget overall.
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Thumbnail: The proposed 2021 City of Memphis budget is about $15 million less than the actual spending in 2019 and $30 million below the forecast spending in the 2020 budget. The majority of the decrease is in grants and subsidies while MPD’s proposed budget for 2021 is more than $9 million more than the adopted budget for 2020.
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Thumbnail: Making the most of the wake-up call from protests following George Floyd’s murder and developing a plan for Memphis that is about action, not more talk, to attack racism, lack of opportunity, and inequality in an authentically Memphis way.
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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 →
