We were standing in an anteroom in the Hart Senate Office Building some years back when Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy walked in.
Instantly, there was a surge of energy in the room, and although the room was filled with Republican senators waiting for the start of a hearing in the adjacent committee room, all eyes turned toward him.
He took a quick scan of the room, ignored his colleagues and walked toward us, sticking out his hand: “I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.”
Foote Loose
We said we were from Memphis and were waiting for one of our state’s senators to join us.
“You’re from Memphis?” he said, without allowing enough hesitation for an answer. “Do you know my old friend, Shelby Foote? He’s spent time with us in the summer.”
Then, shifting easily into an uncanny impersonation of the Memphis author’s distinctive drawl and quirky speaking style, he said: “Can you give me a glass of branch water with two fingers of bourbon?”
Imitative
The impersonation brought down the house (or the Senate, as the case may be), because Foote’s highly personalized speaking style had by then become almost as well-known as his remarkable three-volume of the Civil War, thanks to his starring role in Ken Burn’s PBS series.
After a few pleasantries, he was gone, stepping into the meeting room where he was immediately surrounded by admirers and seekers of favors.
We’d never seen him before, and we’ve never seen him since, but we can still hear that Shelby Foote imitation as clearly as the day he delivered it.
God’s Will (Not)
We’ve thought of it often this week as we heard that Senator Kennedy had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Despite uplifting, optimistic statements from his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, his prognosis is grim. And he no doubt knows it.
As television news crews fought to fill the airtime, they almost seemed willing to put on any talking head who was available. One of them, in an attempt to explain the inexplicable, referred to it as “God’s will,” conjuring up memories of pastor cum politician Hubon Sandridge referring to God’s purpose in the aftermath of the horrific murders on Lester Street.
Divine Sadism
Maybe, if nothing else, Senator Kennedy’s disease could inspire a moratorium on the obscene use of God’s name to justify all manner of tragedies. In this vein, there’s no better time to be reminded of the eulogy by Rev. William Sloane Coffin upon the death of his son, Alex:
“Nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of seemingly intelligent people to get it through their heads that God doesn't go around this world with his fingers on triggers, his fists around knives, his hands on steering wheels. God is dead set against all unnatural deaths, and Christ spent an inordinate amount of time delivering people from paralysis, insanity, leprosy, and muteness.
“Which is not to say that there are no nature-caused deaths. I can think of many right here in this parish in the five years I've been here — deaths that are untimely and slow and pain-ridden, which for that reason raise unanswerable questions, and even the specter of a Cosmic Sadist, yes, even an Eternal Vivisector.
“The one thing that should never be said when someone dies is ‘It is the will of God.’ Never do we know enough to say that. My own consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over his sinking car, God's heart was the first of all our hearts to break.”
There’s little question that it broke again this week.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Snapshot Of Memphians Given In Yearly Poll
The 15th incarnation of the Memphis Poll came out a few days ago, and although it always seems to have something for everyone, it just left us worried.
The percentage of the public satisfied with Memphis’ quality of life has dropped to 66%. That’s down 12% since 2005.
The percentage of citizens satisfied with city services is down to 74%. It was 82% in 2003.
Deflation
It’s hard to read the results of the yearly polling begun in 1993 by Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton and not feel largely deflated about the state of the public's opinion about city services. After all, the Memphis Poll is our public sector equivalent of the consumer price index, and it showed that the market is clearly soft.
For critics of the Herenton Administration, the poll is a clear indictment of failed leadership. To supporters, there are enough glimmers of hope to argue – perhaps meekly – that things are getting better.
Although the tone of the report sometimes feels like it’s working hard to say something positive, the poll did show some improvements, notably in the perception of crime and some physical conditions in their neighborhoods.
Positives
Concern about violent crime dropped from 37 to 30% in a year, concern about gangs fell from 39 to 29 %, and the perception that crime is increasing in their neighborhoods dropped from 44 to 40% (although it’s worth remembering that is was only 19% five years ago).
Downtown and midtown had the most positive perceptions of their neighborhoods at 96% and 92% respectively. Northeast Memphis and Southcentral Memphis were most positive about service quality – 82% and 80% respectively. The Southside reported the most positive perception of Memphis’ quality of life – 81%.
The top three service priorities of Memphians are no surprise – police protection (86%), fire protection (79%) and public schools (75%); however, the rest of the list is illuminating. Coming in fourth is disasters/disease planning (72%) and the fifth is solid waste collection (68%).
The Rest
Rounding out the top 10 were communicate with citizen, public libraries, clean public areas, repair streets and environmental quality. These were bunched between 65-68%.
Bringing up the bottom were revitalize neighborhoods (60%), parks and recreation (58%), job training (58%), public learning groups (51%), PILOTs (41%) and build roads (33%). In the last two places with little support were riverfront development (19%) and Liberty Bowl/Pyramid (15%).
Two positive trends are converging in the police department. Along with the reduction in concern about crime is an accompanying increase in citizens’ positive perceptions about police officers’ respectfulness and prevention. Blue Crush in particular is getting good reviews with 72% of the public aware of it and 74% thinking that it’s reduced crime.
Mixed Bag
Positive perceptions of the fire department continue and remain a fixture in the annual polls. Meanwhile, the parks division got high marks with high-profile offerings like Pink Palace, Botanic Garden and the Zoo, all with 96-97%. Large parks came in at 87%, community centers at 76 %, tennis courts at 75% and neighborhood parks got 73%, continuing a troubling slide in the approval rates for the parks nearest to most Memphians.
In 2001, the positive perception of neighborhood parks peaked at 86% and has slightly rebounded from 69% in 2004. Large parks have been more steady than neighborhood parks, making the point that Memphians are not unaware of the lack of maintenance and investment in their local parks. At the bottom of the list were swimming pools with only 41% positive, down from 70% in 2002.
The yearly rankings for riverfront development have been volatile and this poll was no different – 61% said the Riverfront Development Corporation was doing a good job of delivering services, down 10 points from only a year earlier. Only 19% of the public supports the riverfront improvements, and the ranking of Mud Island Park dropped 10 points to 61%. The RDC’s roller coaster ride declined from 71% to 53% in its early years, but climbing back to 71% in 2007 before it fell again this year.
Neighborhoods
On balance, Memphians are optimistic about their neighborhoods, but that’s especially true in downtown and midtown. Northwest Memphis and Frayser were the least optimistic. In particular, neighborhoods are concerned about the responsiveness from city government about problems like vacant lots.
Ratings have declined precipitously to this year when it recorded the lowest ratings ever. For example, when the poll began, only 14% were concerned about litter on neighborhood streets, but that concern has now climbed 44%, closely paralleling cutbacks in these services.
Health Department ratings remained relatively stable. MLG&W receives some of the highest praise in the poll for providing quality drinking water and the courtesy of its field workers; however, citizens give it an exceptionally low ranking for the cost of utilities.
Topping Out
When asked how well city government is doing in communicating with them, 59% said it was being done well, down from 70% in 2004.
One of the most intriguing features of the annual poll is the ranking of services in order of citizens’ approval. Heading up the list with 99 % approval are the respectful attitude of the fire department and the operations of the main library. Branch libraries are at 91% and still make the upper echelon of the ranking.
In fact, in the eyes of the public, here’s the ranking of the best divisions – fire (97%); libraries (94%), public works (80%); parks (78%); executive division (77%); police (77%); MLGW (74%); Health (73%); Housing and Community Development (64%) and Community Enhancement (62%).
Book It
“The public libraries have been consistently rated among the very highest services provided by the City of Memphis,” the report said. “These ratings place the public libraries among the elite of city services.”
Looking at these rankings, we remain absolutely incredulous that Mayor Herenton reached the opinion that he needed to change things at the libraries because of his concerns about declining services.
If only all his divisions were as problematic.
The percentage of the public satisfied with Memphis’ quality of life has dropped to 66%. That’s down 12% since 2005.
The percentage of citizens satisfied with city services is down to 74%. It was 82% in 2003.
Deflation
It’s hard to read the results of the yearly polling begun in 1993 by Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton and not feel largely deflated about the state of the public's opinion about city services. After all, the Memphis Poll is our public sector equivalent of the consumer price index, and it showed that the market is clearly soft.
For critics of the Herenton Administration, the poll is a clear indictment of failed leadership. To supporters, there are enough glimmers of hope to argue – perhaps meekly – that things are getting better.
Although the tone of the report sometimes feels like it’s working hard to say something positive, the poll did show some improvements, notably in the perception of crime and some physical conditions in their neighborhoods.
Positives
Concern about violent crime dropped from 37 to 30% in a year, concern about gangs fell from 39 to 29 %, and the perception that crime is increasing in their neighborhoods dropped from 44 to 40% (although it’s worth remembering that is was only 19% five years ago).
Downtown and midtown had the most positive perceptions of their neighborhoods at 96% and 92% respectively. Northeast Memphis and Southcentral Memphis were most positive about service quality – 82% and 80% respectively. The Southside reported the most positive perception of Memphis’ quality of life – 81%.
The top three service priorities of Memphians are no surprise – police protection (86%), fire protection (79%) and public schools (75%); however, the rest of the list is illuminating. Coming in fourth is disasters/disease planning (72%) and the fifth is solid waste collection (68%).
The Rest
Rounding out the top 10 were communicate with citizen, public libraries, clean public areas, repair streets and environmental quality. These were bunched between 65-68%.
Bringing up the bottom were revitalize neighborhoods (60%), parks and recreation (58%), job training (58%), public learning groups (51%), PILOTs (41%) and build roads (33%). In the last two places with little support were riverfront development (19%) and Liberty Bowl/Pyramid (15%).
Two positive trends are converging in the police department. Along with the reduction in concern about crime is an accompanying increase in citizens’ positive perceptions about police officers’ respectfulness and prevention. Blue Crush in particular is getting good reviews with 72% of the public aware of it and 74% thinking that it’s reduced crime.
Mixed Bag
Positive perceptions of the fire department continue and remain a fixture in the annual polls. Meanwhile, the parks division got high marks with high-profile offerings like Pink Palace, Botanic Garden and the Zoo, all with 96-97%. Large parks came in at 87%, community centers at 76 %, tennis courts at 75% and neighborhood parks got 73%, continuing a troubling slide in the approval rates for the parks nearest to most Memphians.
In 2001, the positive perception of neighborhood parks peaked at 86% and has slightly rebounded from 69% in 2004. Large parks have been more steady than neighborhood parks, making the point that Memphians are not unaware of the lack of maintenance and investment in their local parks. At the bottom of the list were swimming pools with only 41% positive, down from 70% in 2002.
The yearly rankings for riverfront development have been volatile and this poll was no different – 61% said the Riverfront Development Corporation was doing a good job of delivering services, down 10 points from only a year earlier. Only 19% of the public supports the riverfront improvements, and the ranking of Mud Island Park dropped 10 points to 61%. The RDC’s roller coaster ride declined from 71% to 53% in its early years, but climbing back to 71% in 2007 before it fell again this year.
Neighborhoods
On balance, Memphians are optimistic about their neighborhoods, but that’s especially true in downtown and midtown. Northwest Memphis and Frayser were the least optimistic. In particular, neighborhoods are concerned about the responsiveness from city government about problems like vacant lots.
Ratings have declined precipitously to this year when it recorded the lowest ratings ever. For example, when the poll began, only 14% were concerned about litter on neighborhood streets, but that concern has now climbed 44%, closely paralleling cutbacks in these services.
Health Department ratings remained relatively stable. MLG&W receives some of the highest praise in the poll for providing quality drinking water and the courtesy of its field workers; however, citizens give it an exceptionally low ranking for the cost of utilities.
Topping Out
When asked how well city government is doing in communicating with them, 59% said it was being done well, down from 70% in 2004.
One of the most intriguing features of the annual poll is the ranking of services in order of citizens’ approval. Heading up the list with 99 % approval are the respectful attitude of the fire department and the operations of the main library. Branch libraries are at 91% and still make the upper echelon of the ranking.
In fact, in the eyes of the public, here’s the ranking of the best divisions – fire (97%); libraries (94%), public works (80%); parks (78%); executive division (77%); police (77%); MLGW (74%); Health (73%); Housing and Community Development (64%) and Community Enhancement (62%).
Book It
“The public libraries have been consistently rated among the very highest services provided by the City of Memphis,” the report said. “These ratings place the public libraries among the elite of city services.”
Looking at these rankings, we remain absolutely incredulous that Mayor Herenton reached the opinion that he needed to change things at the libraries because of his concerns about declining services.
If only all his divisions were as problematic.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Dancing To The Right Notes At School
Interim Superintendent Dan Ward was right.
It was just hard to hear him over the “don’t confuse me with the facts” approach of Bill O’Reilly. Mr. Ward said on Mr. O’Reilly’s cable network program that the Mitchell High School students who were caught on tape simulating rape as part of a dance should not become the faces of the 113,000 students of Memphis City Schools.
We thought of that Friday night as we watched 20 young people dance at the “open house performance” at Dance Works in the Southwest Tennessee Community College Theater.
Art Works
They danced to the music of Bartok played by the strings of the Germantown Symphony Orchestra; to Mingus played by long-time Memphis talents, keyboardist Tony Thomas and alto saxophonist Gary Topper and to an original jazz composition by Jeremy Shrader played by the composer on trumpet and Gerald Stephens on piano.
It was a 90-minute reminder about the profound impact that arts can have on students, but more precisely, it was a reminder that students are searching for – and responding to - positive and creative ways to express themselves. Friday night, they found expression in pirouettes and tendus.
It was light years from the message conveyed by the Mitchell High School video, and although the Dance Works performance was taped, it’ll never make the evening news. That’s not to say that it shouldn’t be, because the performance offered timely reminders about students on so many levels.
Credit Where Credit’s Due
It also was a lesson that should be reinforced by Memphis City Schools, which, unlike many similar districts, does not give these students class credits for the hours of practice, discipline and commitment that precedes a recital like this one. That is equally true for the young ballerina who will spend her summer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and School in New York, but can’t get high school credits for her success.
It’s an egregious oversight by our city schools. If students can be earning credits during a day that includes a “rape dance” and can be earning credits for bowling, we can only hope that someone at the district will investigate ways in which students like these – and others engaged in artistic pursuits all over Memphis – can be rewarded for their extra effort.
For us, what we watched Friday night wasn’t so much students who had learned to dance as students who had a positive vision for their lives and had taken the steps – sometimes difficult and courageous - to make it happen. If public education can’t find a way to recognize them and encourage them, it is myopic and rule-bound to a degree that it suggests that its culture is incapable of change.
Positive Reinforcement
We know that most of the members of the board of commissioners are strongly supportive of these kinds of after-school artistic programs. We also know that most of them are unaware that other districts give credit to students engaged in similar programs. In the wake of the Mitchell High School controversy, it’s hard to imagine a better time for them to send a message about who better represents Memphis City Schools.
Our friend, George Lord, recently reminded us recently about how important the arts are, and why actions that deemphasize them are short-sighted if we are truly interested and committed to the development of fully-formed young people.
He pointed out that young people who regularly participate in comprehensive, sequential and rigorous arts programs are four times more likely to be recognized for academic performance, three times more likely to be elected to class office, four times more likely to participate in a math or science fair, three times more like to win an award for school attendance and four times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem.
Life Lessons
The arts provide children with different ways to process information and express their knowledge, the ability to think creatively in areas like math and science and the ability to be independent and collaborative.
The arts also teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships, to celebrate multiple perspectives showing students that there are many ways to see and interpret the world, make it clear that the limits of our language do not define the limits of cognition and help children learn to say what cannot be said.
Yes, it’s true that we only saw about 20 students at Dance Works. But it is equally true that we can change the future of this city 20 students at a time.
Real Heroes
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote:
“Like so many unsung people in our city, she worked with the simple nobility that seems to characterize the real heroes of Memphis – the people without titles and without celebrity – who, without regard for recognition or for headlines, day in and day out simply try to make this a better place.”
We were reminded of that kind of simple nobility at Dance Works as well.
For 21 years – 16 of them at Southwest Tennessee Community College – it has been working in the trenches of arts education to provide an accredited ballet program that has a Canadian cultural exchange program. Supported by grants from the Tennessee Arts Commission and ArtsMemphis, it is directed by Karen J. Zissoff who is assisted by Sondra Brooks Whitfield, who also qualify to be called heroes.
It was just hard to hear him over the “don’t confuse me with the facts” approach of Bill O’Reilly. Mr. Ward said on Mr. O’Reilly’s cable network program that the Mitchell High School students who were caught on tape simulating rape as part of a dance should not become the faces of the 113,000 students of Memphis City Schools.
We thought of that Friday night as we watched 20 young people dance at the “open house performance” at Dance Works in the Southwest Tennessee Community College Theater.
Art Works
They danced to the music of Bartok played by the strings of the Germantown Symphony Orchestra; to Mingus played by long-time Memphis talents, keyboardist Tony Thomas and alto saxophonist Gary Topper and to an original jazz composition by Jeremy Shrader played by the composer on trumpet and Gerald Stephens on piano.
It was a 90-minute reminder about the profound impact that arts can have on students, but more precisely, it was a reminder that students are searching for – and responding to - positive and creative ways to express themselves. Friday night, they found expression in pirouettes and tendus.
It was light years from the message conveyed by the Mitchell High School video, and although the Dance Works performance was taped, it’ll never make the evening news. That’s not to say that it shouldn’t be, because the performance offered timely reminders about students on so many levels.
Credit Where Credit’s Due
It also was a lesson that should be reinforced by Memphis City Schools, which, unlike many similar districts, does not give these students class credits for the hours of practice, discipline and commitment that precedes a recital like this one. That is equally true for the young ballerina who will spend her summer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and School in New York, but can’t get high school credits for her success.
It’s an egregious oversight by our city schools. If students can be earning credits during a day that includes a “rape dance” and can be earning credits for bowling, we can only hope that someone at the district will investigate ways in which students like these – and others engaged in artistic pursuits all over Memphis – can be rewarded for their extra effort.
For us, what we watched Friday night wasn’t so much students who had learned to dance as students who had a positive vision for their lives and had taken the steps – sometimes difficult and courageous - to make it happen. If public education can’t find a way to recognize them and encourage them, it is myopic and rule-bound to a degree that it suggests that its culture is incapable of change.
Positive Reinforcement
We know that most of the members of the board of commissioners are strongly supportive of these kinds of after-school artistic programs. We also know that most of them are unaware that other districts give credit to students engaged in similar programs. In the wake of the Mitchell High School controversy, it’s hard to imagine a better time for them to send a message about who better represents Memphis City Schools.
Our friend, George Lord, recently reminded us recently about how important the arts are, and why actions that deemphasize them are short-sighted if we are truly interested and committed to the development of fully-formed young people.
He pointed out that young people who regularly participate in comprehensive, sequential and rigorous arts programs are four times more likely to be recognized for academic performance, three times more likely to be elected to class office, four times more likely to participate in a math or science fair, three times more like to win an award for school attendance and four times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem.
Life Lessons
The arts provide children with different ways to process information and express their knowledge, the ability to think creatively in areas like math and science and the ability to be independent and collaborative.
The arts also teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships, to celebrate multiple perspectives showing students that there are many ways to see and interpret the world, make it clear that the limits of our language do not define the limits of cognition and help children learn to say what cannot be said.
Yes, it’s true that we only saw about 20 students at Dance Works. But it is equally true that we can change the future of this city 20 students at a time.
Real Heroes
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote:
“Like so many unsung people in our city, she worked with the simple nobility that seems to characterize the real heroes of Memphis – the people without titles and without celebrity – who, without regard for recognition or for headlines, day in and day out simply try to make this a better place.”
We were reminded of that kind of simple nobility at Dance Works as well.
For 21 years – 16 of them at Southwest Tennessee Community College – it has been working in the trenches of arts education to provide an accredited ballet program that has a Canadian cultural exchange program. Supported by grants from the Tennessee Arts Commission and ArtsMemphis, it is directed by Karen J. Zissoff who is assisted by Sondra Brooks Whitfield, who also qualify to be called heroes.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Superintendent Search Defies Predictable Script
And then there were three.
Would the last person standing please run Memphis City Schools for us?
If superintendent-wannabe Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton had written a script to move him toward the helm of the district, he couldn’t have done it any better.
All of a sudden, it seems a real possibility.
The Factors
First, there’s the oft-stated opinion that the next superintendent should be an African-American man. There’s only one candidate left who fits that profile – Kriner Cash, chief of accountability and systemwide performance for Miami-Dade Public Schools. The other African-American man in the final five was Buffalo Superintendent James Williams who bowed out after his baggage there became too much for a trip to Memphis for an interview.
Second, the Florida candidate is said to be most interested in the vacant Cincinnati superintendent’s job, but the finalists for the June interviews for that position haven’t been announced yet. The conventional wisdom is that if given a shot at the Ohio job in his hometown, Mr. Cash is likely to bow out of the Memphis hunt.
Third, that would leave only one African-American man with a stated interest in the Memphis City Schools job and the educational credentials that could finally put him at the front ranks of people to run the schools – Mayor Herenton. And, is there any city in the U.S. with a track record for conducting “national searches” and then picking an insider from Memphis?
The Favorite
While he has repeatedly said that he’s not interested in the job, Mayor Herenton’s closest advisers continue to say that if given the chance, he would snap up the chance to have the superintendent’s job book end his terms as mayor. In fact, he reportedly continues to fine tune his strategies for turning around the district.
At this point, however, Mr. Cash seems to be the prohibitive favorite for the Memphis superintendency. Most board members were impressed by his answers to their questions, albeit mostly softball ones, during his recent interview – equal parts assertive, philosophical, inspirational and confident. Of course, the fact that he’s been an understudy to school reformer and 2008 National Superintendent of the Year Rudy Crew also gets him major points (although we wonder what would happen if a Calipari-style proposal was put to Mr. Crew himself).
Mr. Crew – well-connected in political and educational circles across the U.S. and who lost his job as head of New York City Schools for the best of all reasons, opposing private school vouchers – speaks glowingly of Mr. Cash, who has worked for him for three years at the nation’s fourth largest school district.
Casting A Shadow
We predict that the board, in response to concerns about Mayor Herenton’s shadow casting a large shadow over their process, will step up the process as much as possible to find a superintendent as quickly as possible. This may effectively force a decision from Mr. Cash who may be unable to wait until the smoke clears in Cincinnati to weigh his options.
Already, Memphis City Schools’ chief of staff is collecting money to buy Interim Superintendent Dan Ward his good-bye gift, and although she suggested that his last day may be at the end of May, Mr. Ward appears to have a mid-June date in mind. At any rate, all of this puts even more urgency behind a process that was already moving at a quickened pace.
Meanwhile, the Cincinnati superintendent search has the potential for delays as a result of its board’s wise decision to create a 20-member search committee that includes grassroots leaders and organizational representatives. Already, some members are saying that the mid-June deadline for identifying finalists is too ambitious.
Detouring
It seems highly possible that both candidates who have withdrawn – Mr. Williams and Montgomery County (Virginia) Superintendent Tiffany Anderson – were well-aware of Mayor Herenton’s specter over the process, and if they are media savvy at all, they knew of his television interviews about the kind of superintendent needed here as the interviews began.
Mr. Cash seemed especially savvy about such things as a result of his experience in the political cauldron that is the Miami school district. We’ll know just how smart he is if, by the time he returns for his follow-up interview, he has talked directly with Mayor Herenton, because it is well within the realm of possibilities that the mayor would be impressed and endorse him.
As the process takes a detour caused by the candidates’ withdrawals and that creates a sense of discomfort among some board members, it’s worth saluting them for launching a national search in the first place and for sticking with it. In the beginning, there was widespread suspicion that the fix was in and that a majority was determined to drive the process to select their favorite son candidate, academic director Alfred Hall.
Educational Balkans
Apparently, there will be several weeks between the departure of Mr. Ward and the arrival of the new superintendent, and if there are any hopes still harbored for Mr. Hall, they may surface in the appointment of Mr. Hall as the interim interim superintendent.
As the board determines what it wants from the next superintendent, the board will also have the opportunity to determine what it wants from itself. Perhaps, the board – as city and county governments are in the process of doing – will consider much-needed changes that can improve decisions of Memphis City Schools.
Chief among them should be a shift from district-based elections that create a balkanized board preoccupied by patronage issues. While we believe that a mayor-appointed board would be preferable to the present structure, citywide elections would be preferable to the current arrangement.
Getting The Focus Right
Other reforms are equally needed, because as Richard Elmore, education professor at Harvard University, has said, “it would be difficult to invent a more dysfunctional organization for a performance-based accountability system” than today’s public education system.
To that point, elections of members by district distract the board from the overall vision for the district as they address and respond to school loyalties and constituent services from a small part of the city, fragmenting the focus of the board, dividing its effectiveness for overall district policy-setting and injecting them into issues from teacher assignment to principal appointment to school facilities that rest more appropriately with the school administration.
In other words, elections by these districts create political connections that run into the district bureaucracy and often cloud the clear decision-making of the board itself. This is not an indictment of the current board or administration, because it is has existed for years as the nature of the structure itself.
The Right Focus
Of course, there are other board responsibilities even more important – such as a laser-like focus on performance-based, data-driven accountability measured by graduation rates, increased enrollment in college, ability to obtain and keep good jobs and not just merely by test scores.
Most of all, it is the board’s responsibility above all others to make sure that jobs are held by people based on what they know, not who they know. In this regard, in pursuit of greater transparency, the board should insist that the nepotism forms required by district policy are actually being filed.
No one should need reminders that this is a history-altering moment for Memphis City Schools, and by extension, for Memphis. But history doesn’t just happen. It requires leaders who step forward to set in motion new thinking that can define a new destiny. Every decision made in Memphis City Schools – particularly selection of a superintendent – should be made on this basis.
Would the last person standing please run Memphis City Schools for us?
If superintendent-wannabe Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton had written a script to move him toward the helm of the district, he couldn’t have done it any better.
All of a sudden, it seems a real possibility.
The Factors
First, there’s the oft-stated opinion that the next superintendent should be an African-American man. There’s only one candidate left who fits that profile – Kriner Cash, chief of accountability and systemwide performance for Miami-Dade Public Schools. The other African-American man in the final five was Buffalo Superintendent James Williams who bowed out after his baggage there became too much for a trip to Memphis for an interview.
Second, the Florida candidate is said to be most interested in the vacant Cincinnati superintendent’s job, but the finalists for the June interviews for that position haven’t been announced yet. The conventional wisdom is that if given a shot at the Ohio job in his hometown, Mr. Cash is likely to bow out of the Memphis hunt.
Third, that would leave only one African-American man with a stated interest in the Memphis City Schools job and the educational credentials that could finally put him at the front ranks of people to run the schools – Mayor Herenton. And, is there any city in the U.S. with a track record for conducting “national searches” and then picking an insider from Memphis?
The Favorite
While he has repeatedly said that he’s not interested in the job, Mayor Herenton’s closest advisers continue to say that if given the chance, he would snap up the chance to have the superintendent’s job book end his terms as mayor. In fact, he reportedly continues to fine tune his strategies for turning around the district.
At this point, however, Mr. Cash seems to be the prohibitive favorite for the Memphis superintendency. Most board members were impressed by his answers to their questions, albeit mostly softball ones, during his recent interview – equal parts assertive, philosophical, inspirational and confident. Of course, the fact that he’s been an understudy to school reformer and 2008 National Superintendent of the Year Rudy Crew also gets him major points (although we wonder what would happen if a Calipari-style proposal was put to Mr. Crew himself).
Mr. Crew – well-connected in political and educational circles across the U.S. and who lost his job as head of New York City Schools for the best of all reasons, opposing private school vouchers – speaks glowingly of Mr. Cash, who has worked for him for three years at the nation’s fourth largest school district.
Casting A Shadow
We predict that the board, in response to concerns about Mayor Herenton’s shadow casting a large shadow over their process, will step up the process as much as possible to find a superintendent as quickly as possible. This may effectively force a decision from Mr. Cash who may be unable to wait until the smoke clears in Cincinnati to weigh his options.
Already, Memphis City Schools’ chief of staff is collecting money to buy Interim Superintendent Dan Ward his good-bye gift, and although she suggested that his last day may be at the end of May, Mr. Ward appears to have a mid-June date in mind. At any rate, all of this puts even more urgency behind a process that was already moving at a quickened pace.
Meanwhile, the Cincinnati superintendent search has the potential for delays as a result of its board’s wise decision to create a 20-member search committee that includes grassroots leaders and organizational representatives. Already, some members are saying that the mid-June deadline for identifying finalists is too ambitious.
Detouring
It seems highly possible that both candidates who have withdrawn – Mr. Williams and Montgomery County (Virginia) Superintendent Tiffany Anderson – were well-aware of Mayor Herenton’s specter over the process, and if they are media savvy at all, they knew of his television interviews about the kind of superintendent needed here as the interviews began.
Mr. Cash seemed especially savvy about such things as a result of his experience in the political cauldron that is the Miami school district. We’ll know just how smart he is if, by the time he returns for his follow-up interview, he has talked directly with Mayor Herenton, because it is well within the realm of possibilities that the mayor would be impressed and endorse him.
As the process takes a detour caused by the candidates’ withdrawals and that creates a sense of discomfort among some board members, it’s worth saluting them for launching a national search in the first place and for sticking with it. In the beginning, there was widespread suspicion that the fix was in and that a majority was determined to drive the process to select their favorite son candidate, academic director Alfred Hall.
Educational Balkans
Apparently, there will be several weeks between the departure of Mr. Ward and the arrival of the new superintendent, and if there are any hopes still harbored for Mr. Hall, they may surface in the appointment of Mr. Hall as the interim interim superintendent.
As the board determines what it wants from the next superintendent, the board will also have the opportunity to determine what it wants from itself. Perhaps, the board – as city and county governments are in the process of doing – will consider much-needed changes that can improve decisions of Memphis City Schools.
Chief among them should be a shift from district-based elections that create a balkanized board preoccupied by patronage issues. While we believe that a mayor-appointed board would be preferable to the present structure, citywide elections would be preferable to the current arrangement.
Getting The Focus Right
Other reforms are equally needed, because as Richard Elmore, education professor at Harvard University, has said, “it would be difficult to invent a more dysfunctional organization for a performance-based accountability system” than today’s public education system.
To that point, elections of members by district distract the board from the overall vision for the district as they address and respond to school loyalties and constituent services from a small part of the city, fragmenting the focus of the board, dividing its effectiveness for overall district policy-setting and injecting them into issues from teacher assignment to principal appointment to school facilities that rest more appropriately with the school administration.
In other words, elections by these districts create political connections that run into the district bureaucracy and often cloud the clear decision-making of the board itself. This is not an indictment of the current board or administration, because it is has existed for years as the nature of the structure itself.
The Right Focus
Of course, there are other board responsibilities even more important – such as a laser-like focus on performance-based, data-driven accountability measured by graduation rates, increased enrollment in college, ability to obtain and keep good jobs and not just merely by test scores.
Most of all, it is the board’s responsibility above all others to make sure that jobs are held by people based on what they know, not who they know. In this regard, in pursuit of greater transparency, the board should insist that the nepotism forms required by district policy are actually being filed.
No one should need reminders that this is a history-altering moment for Memphis City Schools, and by extension, for Memphis. But history doesn’t just happen. It requires leaders who step forward to set in motion new thinking that can define a new destiny. Every decision made in Memphis City Schools – particularly selection of a superintendent – should be made on this basis.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
This Week On Smart City: Transportation, Capital Punishment and Chattanooga
Why is it that we typically separate planning for highways, transit, and trains in the U.S.? Worse, why do we plan for transportation and land use as if they don’t relate to one another? Those are subjects we’ll explore this week with Shelley Porticia, president and CEO of Reconnecting America. She’s working to integrate transportation systems and the communities they serve.
We’ll also talk with Dr. Scott Phillips about some disturbing disparities he’s found in the way we apply capital punishment to blacks and whites in America.
And Dr. John Schaerer of the Enterprise Center will tell us about a novel system Chattanooga has adopted to keep community organizations working together.
Smart City is a syndicated, weekly hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life: the people, places, ideas and trends that affect us all. Host Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, talks with national and international public policy experts, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others on the pulse of city life for a penetrating discussion on urban issues.
Smart City is broadcast at 6 a.m. Saturday and Sundays on WKNO-FM, but it is also webcast and podcast. For the webcast, times for the broadcast in other cities and to sign up for the podcast, visit our website.
We’ll also talk with Dr. Scott Phillips about some disturbing disparities he’s found in the way we apply capital punishment to blacks and whites in America.
And Dr. John Schaerer of the Enterprise Center will tell us about a novel system Chattanooga has adopted to keep community organizations working together.
Smart City is a syndicated, weekly hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life: the people, places, ideas and trends that affect us all. Host Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, talks with national and international public policy experts, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others on the pulse of city life for a penetrating discussion on urban issues.
Smart City is broadcast at 6 a.m. Saturday and Sundays on WKNO-FM, but it is also webcast and podcast. For the webcast, times for the broadcast in other cities and to sign up for the podcast, visit our website.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Trafficking In The Answers For A Better Downtown
It seems the perfect time to revisit two ideas about downtown streets that deserve new life.
One deals with Fourth Street from Union to Beale and the second is Main Street, which is neither main nor a street.
During the design of FedEx Forum, it was suggested by Looney Ricks Kiss – probably our most nationally known architectural firm and well-known for its place-making – that Fourth Street should be realigned from Union Avenue to Beale Street.
Sense Of Arrival
The firm’s charge was to design a downtown arena that was unsurpassed in the U.S., and as part of that work, the firm recommended that the intersection of Fourth Street be moved about 150 feet east of the current intersection at Union. The concept was for Fourth Street to become an attractive boulevard that would move pleasantly at a southwesterly angle toward Beale Street.
The new Fourth would have given not only FedEx Forum a sense of arrival, but it would have done the same for the east end of Beale Street. While the idea may have been driven by esthetics, there was also the thought that the new alignment could give new prominence to the Fourth and Beale intersection, which has been the death knell for so many business ventures.
Conventional wisdom on Beale Street is that the Fourth Street end of the street is just seen as being too far removed from the activity on the street, and the floundering businesses on that end of the street give weight to that opinion.
Bonus Points
However, the real bonus of the new alignment was that it would eliminate several eyesores - including the dingy hotel and the deteriorating, frequently empty building - across from Autozone Park. There also was the potential for removing the abandoned bus station that stands on the southwest corner of Fourth and Beale today.
Unfortunately, some powerful downtown interests had other ideas, and the idea died. Some opposed the plans because they had plans of their own for the bus station, and others seemed intent on making as much traffic as possible go by Peabody Place. In the end, it was a lost opportunity that would have linked the baseball stadium and the arena in an attractive and resourceful way.
Another reason for the realignment was that Union Avenue was seen as a major connection point for MATA and this would encourage basketball fans taking the bus to their college and pro games. Of course, no one knew then that the Forum allegedly would have its very own multi-modal transfer center.
Modest Proposal
As for Main Street, former design director for the National Endowment for the Arts Jeff Speck said in his recent presentation about 12 modest proposals to improve Memphis design and connectivity that for $50,000, we could put traffic back on our moribund pedestrian mall.
It may sound like too little too late. After all, the mall has already strangled the life out of what Main Street used to be and turned the teeming street into modest pockets of activity in an area begging for vibrancy and animation. Is it only a pipe dream that traffic would inject some renewed economic life into a street whose only retail store between Union and Poplar is the beloved peanut shop?
We didn’t come to share Mr. Speck’s opinion easily, but at this point, it just seems like it’s worth a try. After all, it’s not like he proposed turning Main Street into the autobahn or even turning it back like it used to be. Rather, he recommended two lanes of slow-moving traffic.
Failing To See Failure
Also, as co-author of Suburban Nation and a founding adherent to New Urbanism, it’s not as if he is hostile to walkable, dense downtowns and a high quality public sphere. If there is a monument to faddish planning trends, our Mid-American Mall is the poster child.
While some editorial writers opine that 30 years may not be enough to consider the pedestrian mall a failure, it’s long enough for us. We’d like to think that we’ll actually have the chance to see signs of life on Main Street before we have to use a walker to get up there.
Maybe we are just too old. We remember when Main Street bustled. There’s no question that it would have in time been transformed by the shift in consumer loyalty to suburban malls, but like subsequent trolley construction, mall construction and reconstruction often killed off the very businesses that it was designed to support.
All About Convenience
Shoppers abandoned downtown pedestrian malls across the U.S. as inconvenient and inaccessible, and Memphis was no exception. In our defense, we were not the only city that chased the pedestrian mall as the answer to our downtown’s ability to compete with suburban malls. About 200 cities flirted with malls for a few blocks and some like us consummated the relationship with our entire main downtown shopping district.
While a few pedestrian malls remain and are thriving, they seem to be largely located in college towns. In big cities like ours, the trend is much more to returning some traffic to the malls.
In a study of malls built in the 1960s and 1970s in Santa Monica, Eugene, Oak Park, Sioux Falls, Vicksburg, Baltimore, Ithaca, Memphis, Miami Beach and St. Joseph, it was found that 70 percent of them were successful for a few years but then business declined. By 1989, half of them had either totally or partially opened up their pedestrian malls to traffic and two more were thinking about it.
Real City Center
It’s worth remembering that the trolley system itself was a recognition of the fact that our pedestrian mall just wasn’t working. Of the cities that reopened their malls, all reported gains in business.
We’re not Pollyannish about this. The return of downtown to a real city center with retail stores and boutiques will be slow and arduous, but it seems worth a try to return cars to the street and see what happens.
The most we’d be out, according to Mr. Speck, is $50,000, and we’ll spend a heckuva lot more than studying what our next magic answer will be.
Worth A Try
We don’t have to make a final decision today. We can return traffic to Main Street for six months and just see what happens. Right now, we all have our own opinions, but if we are willing to experiment, we can actually see what will happen.
Here’s the thing. Mr. Speck is just the latest urban expert to recommend the return of cars to Main Street. In fact, a couple of weeks before he spoke here, the Center City Commission’s retail consultants arrived at the same opinion. And there were others before them.
We know that we Memphians don’t handle change well, but we owe it to ourselves to find out if this idea can really work. It’s not as if much is at risk anyway since Main Street is now largely abandoned storefronts punctuated by an occasional restaurant, and on non-baseball nights, the inactive streets cause safety concerns that keep many visitors from walking even a couple of blocks up the mall.
Getting At The Answer
It’s been about a decade since Chicago ripped up the pedestrian mall that was strangling State Street to death. Without cars, the street had a deadened fell like a ghost town, city officials said.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley rode one of the jackhammers in a pavement-breaking ceremony and said the pedestrian mall was so unpopular no one would even take credit for its invention.
That same fact may tell us all we need to know about our own pedestrian mall.
One deals with Fourth Street from Union to Beale and the second is Main Street, which is neither main nor a street.
During the design of FedEx Forum, it was suggested by Looney Ricks Kiss – probably our most nationally known architectural firm and well-known for its place-making – that Fourth Street should be realigned from Union Avenue to Beale Street.
Sense Of Arrival
The firm’s charge was to design a downtown arena that was unsurpassed in the U.S., and as part of that work, the firm recommended that the intersection of Fourth Street be moved about 150 feet east of the current intersection at Union. The concept was for Fourth Street to become an attractive boulevard that would move pleasantly at a southwesterly angle toward Beale Street.
The new Fourth would have given not only FedEx Forum a sense of arrival, but it would have done the same for the east end of Beale Street. While the idea may have been driven by esthetics, there was also the thought that the new alignment could give new prominence to the Fourth and Beale intersection, which has been the death knell for so many business ventures.
Conventional wisdom on Beale Street is that the Fourth Street end of the street is just seen as being too far removed from the activity on the street, and the floundering businesses on that end of the street give weight to that opinion.
Bonus Points
However, the real bonus of the new alignment was that it would eliminate several eyesores - including the dingy hotel and the deteriorating, frequently empty building - across from Autozone Park. There also was the potential for removing the abandoned bus station that stands on the southwest corner of Fourth and Beale today.
Unfortunately, some powerful downtown interests had other ideas, and the idea died. Some opposed the plans because they had plans of their own for the bus station, and others seemed intent on making as much traffic as possible go by Peabody Place. In the end, it was a lost opportunity that would have linked the baseball stadium and the arena in an attractive and resourceful way.
Another reason for the realignment was that Union Avenue was seen as a major connection point for MATA and this would encourage basketball fans taking the bus to their college and pro games. Of course, no one knew then that the Forum allegedly would have its very own multi-modal transfer center.
Modest Proposal
As for Main Street, former design director for the National Endowment for the Arts Jeff Speck said in his recent presentation about 12 modest proposals to improve Memphis design and connectivity that for $50,000, we could put traffic back on our moribund pedestrian mall.
It may sound like too little too late. After all, the mall has already strangled the life out of what Main Street used to be and turned the teeming street into modest pockets of activity in an area begging for vibrancy and animation. Is it only a pipe dream that traffic would inject some renewed economic life into a street whose only retail store between Union and Poplar is the beloved peanut shop?
We didn’t come to share Mr. Speck’s opinion easily, but at this point, it just seems like it’s worth a try. After all, it’s not like he proposed turning Main Street into the autobahn or even turning it back like it used to be. Rather, he recommended two lanes of slow-moving traffic.
Failing To See Failure
Also, as co-author of Suburban Nation and a founding adherent to New Urbanism, it’s not as if he is hostile to walkable, dense downtowns and a high quality public sphere. If there is a monument to faddish planning trends, our Mid-American Mall is the poster child.
While some editorial writers opine that 30 years may not be enough to consider the pedestrian mall a failure, it’s long enough for us. We’d like to think that we’ll actually have the chance to see signs of life on Main Street before we have to use a walker to get up there.
Maybe we are just too old. We remember when Main Street bustled. There’s no question that it would have in time been transformed by the shift in consumer loyalty to suburban malls, but like subsequent trolley construction, mall construction and reconstruction often killed off the very businesses that it was designed to support.
All About Convenience
Shoppers abandoned downtown pedestrian malls across the U.S. as inconvenient and inaccessible, and Memphis was no exception. In our defense, we were not the only city that chased the pedestrian mall as the answer to our downtown’s ability to compete with suburban malls. About 200 cities flirted with malls for a few blocks and some like us consummated the relationship with our entire main downtown shopping district.
While a few pedestrian malls remain and are thriving, they seem to be largely located in college towns. In big cities like ours, the trend is much more to returning some traffic to the malls.
In a study of malls built in the 1960s and 1970s in Santa Monica, Eugene, Oak Park, Sioux Falls, Vicksburg, Baltimore, Ithaca, Memphis, Miami Beach and St. Joseph, it was found that 70 percent of them were successful for a few years but then business declined. By 1989, half of them had either totally or partially opened up their pedestrian malls to traffic and two more were thinking about it.
Real City Center
It’s worth remembering that the trolley system itself was a recognition of the fact that our pedestrian mall just wasn’t working. Of the cities that reopened their malls, all reported gains in business.
We’re not Pollyannish about this. The return of downtown to a real city center with retail stores and boutiques will be slow and arduous, but it seems worth a try to return cars to the street and see what happens.
The most we’d be out, according to Mr. Speck, is $50,000, and we’ll spend a heckuva lot more than studying what our next magic answer will be.
Worth A Try
We don’t have to make a final decision today. We can return traffic to Main Street for six months and just see what happens. Right now, we all have our own opinions, but if we are willing to experiment, we can actually see what will happen.
Here’s the thing. Mr. Speck is just the latest urban expert to recommend the return of cars to Main Street. In fact, a couple of weeks before he spoke here, the Center City Commission’s retail consultants arrived at the same opinion. And there were others before them.
We know that we Memphians don’t handle change well, but we owe it to ourselves to find out if this idea can really work. It’s not as if much is at risk anyway since Main Street is now largely abandoned storefronts punctuated by an occasional restaurant, and on non-baseball nights, the inactive streets cause safety concerns that keep many visitors from walking even a couple of blocks up the mall.
Getting At The Answer
It’s been about a decade since Chicago ripped up the pedestrian mall that was strangling State Street to death. Without cars, the street had a deadened fell like a ghost town, city officials said.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley rode one of the jackhammers in a pavement-breaking ceremony and said the pedestrian mall was so unpopular no one would even take credit for its invention.
That same fact may tell us all we need to know about our own pedestrian mall.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Music Plays On In Lightly Regarded River Town
What do you do with a gritty city lagging in economic growth and with a decades-old music heritage as its main claim to fame?
No, not that one.
We’re talking about Liverpool, England.
If we were in charge of putting together a delegation to visit cities with important lessons for Memphis, that’s a place we’d want to go. And not just because we’re Beatles fans.
Culture Capital
It’s this year’s European Capital of Culture, and for the past five years, it’s been getting ready for the celebration. Smartly, Liverpool is defining culture in the broadest possible terms to embrace traditional arts and high culture, but also sports, street music and the character of its people.
The European Capital of Culture program began 23 years ago when Athens was designated as the first city and there have been three dozen since then. Conceived by the European Union as a way to increase the bonds of community between its countries, it has become the catalyst to major investments in public space, public facilities and public engagement.
That’s where Liverpool comes in. For decades, the waterfront city has been denigrated and derided, often used as the punch line for way too many jokes. Dingy, deteriorating and far out of the mainstream, most observers assumed that its fate was sealed.
No Laughing Now
But there was always something different about Liverpool. Its people – who call themselves Scousers after a popular local stew - like their city because it wasn’t homogenized like so many other cities. They like their city precisely because it was out of touch with the times and seemed to have its own quirky personality and rhythm. They even like their city’s generally grim weather.
That civic attitude is just as much of a fundamental part of the culture being honored as the museums and the Victorian mansions. Maybe even more so.
When Liverpool was selected as the Capital of Culture for 2008 – its 800th anniversary – some commentators laughed it off. But it’s hard to laugh at Liverpool now.
Music To Our Ears
It’s shed any hints of civic lethargy and embarked on an agenda that’s honoring its heritage while building some impressive new assets for the future and billions of dollars of new development – a former airport terminal is now a new Marriott and a former match factory now is now upscale office space. There’s even a fancy new cruise ship terminal that’s a long way from the city’s “ferry across the Mersey” days. Of course, anytime your city can trot out the remaining two Beatles to punctuate the importance of a celebration, it sure doesn’t hurt.
Long disregarded as a tourist attraction, Liverpool is suddenly pulling in visitors by the droves, and with no Disneyfication of the glory days of the Beatles in sight. Most of the places immortalized in Beatles’ song have no neon to mark them or hawkers selling souvenirs. They are merely there, some the worse for the wear after the almost four decades that have passed since the Fab Four sang about Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields.
And yet, the strange, tough cauldron that was Liverpool did more than breed one mammoth rock group. There were also Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer, Badfinger, Elvis Costello, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Merseybeats, Searchers, Billy Fury, Echo and the Bunnymen. They just were overshadowed by the four-man group that changed the course of music.
The Music Plays On
But, in the intervening years from the British Invasion until today, Liverpool has regularly reminded England that it’s a hub for indie rock, and the best news is that the local music scene still thrives.
All in all, it’s an impressive reminder about how a city can build its revitalization and future on heritage and culture. Liverpool is hoping this year to see results like those recorded in Cork, Ireland, the 2005 European City of Culture, which saw dramatic investments in redevelopment, the facelift of commercial districts and an increase in tourism.
To be chosen as the City of Culture, cities must first submit applications to their own governments and the winner is decided by a 13-member panel. The selected city gets 1.5 million Euros and can apply for other grants. That’s one thing we’ve always loved about European countries – they are serious about funding think tanks, policy papers, research and urban design.
Events Calendar
So far, Glasgow seems to have set the standard for these celebrations. It had 3,539 events with performers and artists from two dozen countries, 656 theatrical productions, 3,122 musical performances (including Frank Sinatra and Luciana Pavarotti), 1,091 exhibitions and 157 sporting events. It even hosted the Bolshoi Ballet for its first UK visit in a theater built for it.
Liverpool’s schedule of events may not be that ambitious, but its list of concerts, plays, poetry readings, dance, art exhibits, sports competitions and 50 festivals, offering a menu of events every week. As it continues its activities, Liverpool’s City Council set six objectives:
• To create and present the best local, national and international art and events in all genres
• To build community enthusiasm, creativity and participation
• To maintain, enhance and grow the cultural infrastructure of the city
• To increase the levels of visitors and inward investment of the city
• To reposition Liverpool as a world-class city by 2008
• To provide efficient and effective management of the Liverpool Culture company (the organization set up to organize and deliver the program)
Cultural Cachet
All in all, it’s not too bad for a former tired, unsophisticated river town. It’s also a source of inspiration for Memphis as we consider ways for our culture to become a competitive advantage for the future.
Memphis: American Capital of Culture has a wonderful ring to it. There is an organization that awards that designation in the Americas, but so far, it’s never selected a city in the U.S. or Canada. It’s also never managed to have quite the cachet of the European program after which it’s modeled, but it’s worth exploring.
Regardless, we know one international company in Memphis that invented international commerce that would be the perfect sponsor for such a designation, or for the creation of a more vibrant program to be a catalyst for progress, for showcasing our city and for building on our distinctive character and culture.
No, not that one.
We’re talking about Liverpool, England.
If we were in charge of putting together a delegation to visit cities with important lessons for Memphis, that’s a place we’d want to go. And not just because we’re Beatles fans.
Culture Capital
It’s this year’s European Capital of Culture, and for the past five years, it’s been getting ready for the celebration. Smartly, Liverpool is defining culture in the broadest possible terms to embrace traditional arts and high culture, but also sports, street music and the character of its people.
The European Capital of Culture program began 23 years ago when Athens was designated as the first city and there have been three dozen since then. Conceived by the European Union as a way to increase the bonds of community between its countries, it has become the catalyst to major investments in public space, public facilities and public engagement.
That’s where Liverpool comes in. For decades, the waterfront city has been denigrated and derided, often used as the punch line for way too many jokes. Dingy, deteriorating and far out of the mainstream, most observers assumed that its fate was sealed.
No Laughing Now
But there was always something different about Liverpool. Its people – who call themselves Scousers after a popular local stew - like their city because it wasn’t homogenized like so many other cities. They like their city precisely because it was out of touch with the times and seemed to have its own quirky personality and rhythm. They even like their city’s generally grim weather.
That civic attitude is just as much of a fundamental part of the culture being honored as the museums and the Victorian mansions. Maybe even more so.
When Liverpool was selected as the Capital of Culture for 2008 – its 800th anniversary – some commentators laughed it off. But it’s hard to laugh at Liverpool now.
Music To Our Ears
It’s shed any hints of civic lethargy and embarked on an agenda that’s honoring its heritage while building some impressive new assets for the future and billions of dollars of new development – a former airport terminal is now a new Marriott and a former match factory now is now upscale office space. There’s even a fancy new cruise ship terminal that’s a long way from the city’s “ferry across the Mersey” days. Of course, anytime your city can trot out the remaining two Beatles to punctuate the importance of a celebration, it sure doesn’t hurt.
Long disregarded as a tourist attraction, Liverpool is suddenly pulling in visitors by the droves, and with no Disneyfication of the glory days of the Beatles in sight. Most of the places immortalized in Beatles’ song have no neon to mark them or hawkers selling souvenirs. They are merely there, some the worse for the wear after the almost four decades that have passed since the Fab Four sang about Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields.
And yet, the strange, tough cauldron that was Liverpool did more than breed one mammoth rock group. There were also Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer, Badfinger, Elvis Costello, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Merseybeats, Searchers, Billy Fury, Echo and the Bunnymen. They just were overshadowed by the four-man group that changed the course of music.
The Music Plays On
But, in the intervening years from the British Invasion until today, Liverpool has regularly reminded England that it’s a hub for indie rock, and the best news is that the local music scene still thrives.
All in all, it’s an impressive reminder about how a city can build its revitalization and future on heritage and culture. Liverpool is hoping this year to see results like those recorded in Cork, Ireland, the 2005 European City of Culture, which saw dramatic investments in redevelopment, the facelift of commercial districts and an increase in tourism.
To be chosen as the City of Culture, cities must first submit applications to their own governments and the winner is decided by a 13-member panel. The selected city gets 1.5 million Euros and can apply for other grants. That’s one thing we’ve always loved about European countries – they are serious about funding think tanks, policy papers, research and urban design.
Events Calendar
So far, Glasgow seems to have set the standard for these celebrations. It had 3,539 events with performers and artists from two dozen countries, 656 theatrical productions, 3,122 musical performances (including Frank Sinatra and Luciana Pavarotti), 1,091 exhibitions and 157 sporting events. It even hosted the Bolshoi Ballet for its first UK visit in a theater built for it.
Liverpool’s schedule of events may not be that ambitious, but its list of concerts, plays, poetry readings, dance, art exhibits, sports competitions and 50 festivals, offering a menu of events every week. As it continues its activities, Liverpool’s City Council set six objectives:
• To create and present the best local, national and international art and events in all genres
• To build community enthusiasm, creativity and participation
• To maintain, enhance and grow the cultural infrastructure of the city
• To increase the levels of visitors and inward investment of the city
• To reposition Liverpool as a world-class city by 2008
• To provide efficient and effective management of the Liverpool Culture company (the organization set up to organize and deliver the program)
Cultural Cachet
All in all, it’s not too bad for a former tired, unsophisticated river town. It’s also a source of inspiration for Memphis as we consider ways for our culture to become a competitive advantage for the future.
Memphis: American Capital of Culture has a wonderful ring to it. There is an organization that awards that designation in the Americas, but so far, it’s never selected a city in the U.S. or Canada. It’s also never managed to have quite the cachet of the European program after which it’s modeled, but it’s worth exploring.
Regardless, we know one international company in Memphis that invented international commerce that would be the perfect sponsor for such a designation, or for the creation of a more vibrant program to be a catalyst for progress, for showcasing our city and for building on our distinctive character and culture.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
District Faces Opportunity To Dance To New Tune
Poor Dan Ward.
Surely the suggestion that the interim Memphis City Schools superintendent should appear on Bill O’Reilly’s national cable show was groupthink gone terribly awry.
Surely, nobody in the Memphis City Schools communications office or on its leadership team really thought this was a chance for the district to shine. After all, the subject was the “rape dance” video that was taken at Mitchell High Schools and that’s been so widely played on WREG-TV.
More Than Image Problems
The irony didn’t escape us that a few hours before Mr. Ward’s appearance, Memphis City Council was killing off Memphis Police Department’s appearances on A&E’s “The First 48” because of concerns that the series cast our city in a bad light. It’s always interesting how one city – say, Baltimore – can be the location for some of the most disturbing crime dramas on television, and another one like ours thinks that controlling the image is the same as controlling the problems depicted in them.
City Council Member Wanda Halbert was quoted as saying Memphis isn’t much different from other large cities in the amount of violence here. First, we need someone to send her the data, because she is badly misinformed. That said, we actually think the A&E show painted a positive portrait of MPD and the homicide officers that spend so much of their lives in the underbelly of our city seeking justice for murder victims. Based on the program, our opinion of MPD actually rose.
Unfortunately, Councilwoman Halbert seemed to suggest that it’s all just an image problem. She was quoted in The Commercial Appeal as saying, “Right now, I think Memphis needs to focus on cleaning up the image of our city.”
Actually, we’d be smarter to focus on changing the reality. The image will follow.
Positive Thinking
While we believe that Memphis needs to have a more positive self-image and about what makes it distinctive, we are admittedly troubled by the notion it’s all just a marketing problem that we need to solve. All the bumperstickers and slogans in the world will count for nought unless we accompany it with measurable improvement in some troubling indicators, and that’s why we are encouraged by the city’s high-tech Real Time Crime Center (if city government can walk the thin line between crime prevention and Big Brother).
But back to Mr. Ward. Actually, we feel for him. He’s much too old school, mannerly and measured in his approach to have a chance with cable television’s biggest blowhard, Mr. O’Reilly. Not that anyone trying to explain the outrageous conduct at Mitchell High School would have done any better. In the end, Mr. Ward looked like a man taking a beating for the good of the team.
The Spin
The O’Reilly website summed up his appearance this way:
“Students at a Memphis high school dance simulated various sex acts as teacher ‘chaperones’ stood by and did nothing. Memphis Superintendent of Schools Dan Ward entered the No Spin Zone and gave his reaction: ‘We have 112,000 kids and this activity is certainly not indicative of what they do. But it is a disaster and I'm not making excuses for anyone. We're dealing with it, and we expecting the principal to get the situation to where that never happens again.’ The Factor urged Ward to mete out appropriate punishment to school officials. ‘Teachers and administrators were watching overt displays of sexuality, and it looks like there is no discipline at this school whatsoever. There is something fundamentally wrong in the school.’"
This incident is despicable on so many levels, but we have no real grievance with Mr. Ward’s official statement on it: “To say that we are troubled…would be an understatement. We are shocked and disappointed by the behavior of students shown in the video clip. These images demonstrate a serious issue that educators, parents, and community stakeholders alike must focus on – the need for a more productive partnership between schools and homes to ensure children understand how to act as responsible, mature young adults with a sense of self-respect.”
Losing Ground
The district didn’t do as well with a second official response: “Pop culture, the Internet, and mainstream media greatly influence the activity and behavior of today’s youth. We trust that our partners in education – parents, guardians, and school families will continue to reinforce to children the appropriate way to conduct themselves before, during, and after school hours.”
The good done by Mr. Ward's outrage was eroded in a party line that seemed determined to point the finger at everybody but the principal and administrators of Mitchell High School. However, this was an issue that wasn’t going away, especially at this ratings-conscious time for our TV news teams, so in time, the Mitchell HS principal, John Ware, issued a statement accepting “full responsibility for inappropriate content in one of the acts in a talent show, and understand we should have taken immediate action and ended that performance.”
For now, however, it appears that the district’s communications strategy is to weather the storm and stonewall the media, but we predict that this storm is headed to hurricane status until and unless administrators are held as accountable as the students who were disciplined as a result of the “rape dance.” Mr. Ware has acted professionally in accepting “full responsibility,” and now, he has to accept the discipline that goes with it.
Paying The Piper
We loathe the fact that this places us on the same side of an issue as Mr. O’Reilly, but surely this is one that knows no political differences or partisan positioning. It was simply wrong, and if no action is taken against administrators who saw the “dance,” it is tantamount to sending the message to the 16,000 employees of the district that no one is ever really held accountable for their actions in Memphis City Schools.
We don’t believe that is the intent of Mr. Ward or the Board of Commissioners, but in the end, they have to prove it if this controversy has the chance of ending in an instructive way for the district.
Otherwise, it only validates Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton's contention that the district can only turn itself around with a Joe Clark-style tough guy who is willing to make the tough decisions that are needed right now.
Surely the suggestion that the interim Memphis City Schools superintendent should appear on Bill O’Reilly’s national cable show was groupthink gone terribly awry.
Surely, nobody in the Memphis City Schools communications office or on its leadership team really thought this was a chance for the district to shine. After all, the subject was the “rape dance” video that was taken at Mitchell High Schools and that’s been so widely played on WREG-TV.
More Than Image Problems
The irony didn’t escape us that a few hours before Mr. Ward’s appearance, Memphis City Council was killing off Memphis Police Department’s appearances on A&E’s “The First 48” because of concerns that the series cast our city in a bad light. It’s always interesting how one city – say, Baltimore – can be the location for some of the most disturbing crime dramas on television, and another one like ours thinks that controlling the image is the same as controlling the problems depicted in them.
City Council Member Wanda Halbert was quoted as saying Memphis isn’t much different from other large cities in the amount of violence here. First, we need someone to send her the data, because she is badly misinformed. That said, we actually think the A&E show painted a positive portrait of MPD and the homicide officers that spend so much of their lives in the underbelly of our city seeking justice for murder victims. Based on the program, our opinion of MPD actually rose.
Unfortunately, Councilwoman Halbert seemed to suggest that it’s all just an image problem. She was quoted in The Commercial Appeal as saying, “Right now, I think Memphis needs to focus on cleaning up the image of our city.”
Actually, we’d be smarter to focus on changing the reality. The image will follow.
Positive Thinking
While we believe that Memphis needs to have a more positive self-image and about what makes it distinctive, we are admittedly troubled by the notion it’s all just a marketing problem that we need to solve. All the bumperstickers and slogans in the world will count for nought unless we accompany it with measurable improvement in some troubling indicators, and that’s why we are encouraged by the city’s high-tech Real Time Crime Center (if city government can walk the thin line between crime prevention and Big Brother).
But back to Mr. Ward. Actually, we feel for him. He’s much too old school, mannerly and measured in his approach to have a chance with cable television’s biggest blowhard, Mr. O’Reilly. Not that anyone trying to explain the outrageous conduct at Mitchell High School would have done any better. In the end, Mr. Ward looked like a man taking a beating for the good of the team.
The Spin
The O’Reilly website summed up his appearance this way:
“Students at a Memphis high school dance simulated various sex acts as teacher ‘chaperones’ stood by and did nothing. Memphis Superintendent of Schools Dan Ward entered the No Spin Zone and gave his reaction: ‘We have 112,000 kids and this activity is certainly not indicative of what they do. But it is a disaster and I'm not making excuses for anyone. We're dealing with it, and we expecting the principal to get the situation to where that never happens again.’ The Factor urged Ward to mete out appropriate punishment to school officials. ‘Teachers and administrators were watching overt displays of sexuality, and it looks like there is no discipline at this school whatsoever. There is something fundamentally wrong in the school.’"
This incident is despicable on so many levels, but we have no real grievance with Mr. Ward’s official statement on it: “To say that we are troubled…would be an understatement. We are shocked and disappointed by the behavior of students shown in the video clip. These images demonstrate a serious issue that educators, parents, and community stakeholders alike must focus on – the need for a more productive partnership between schools and homes to ensure children understand how to act as responsible, mature young adults with a sense of self-respect.”
Losing Ground
The district didn’t do as well with a second official response: “Pop culture, the Internet, and mainstream media greatly influence the activity and behavior of today’s youth. We trust that our partners in education – parents, guardians, and school families will continue to reinforce to children the appropriate way to conduct themselves before, during, and after school hours.”
The good done by Mr. Ward's outrage was eroded in a party line that seemed determined to point the finger at everybody but the principal and administrators of Mitchell High School. However, this was an issue that wasn’t going away, especially at this ratings-conscious time for our TV news teams, so in time, the Mitchell HS principal, John Ware, issued a statement accepting “full responsibility for inappropriate content in one of the acts in a talent show, and understand we should have taken immediate action and ended that performance.”
For now, however, it appears that the district’s communications strategy is to weather the storm and stonewall the media, but we predict that this storm is headed to hurricane status until and unless administrators are held as accountable as the students who were disciplined as a result of the “rape dance.” Mr. Ware has acted professionally in accepting “full responsibility,” and now, he has to accept the discipline that goes with it.
Paying The Piper
We loathe the fact that this places us on the same side of an issue as Mr. O’Reilly, but surely this is one that knows no political differences or partisan positioning. It was simply wrong, and if no action is taken against administrators who saw the “dance,” it is tantamount to sending the message to the 16,000 employees of the district that no one is ever really held accountable for their actions in Memphis City Schools.
We don’t believe that is the intent of Mr. Ward or the Board of Commissioners, but in the end, they have to prove it if this controversy has the chance of ending in an instructive way for the district.
Otherwise, it only validates Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton's contention that the district can only turn itself around with a Joe Clark-style tough guy who is willing to make the tough decisions that are needed right now.
Traumatizing The Public Records And Public Meetings Laws
State Rep. Ulysses Jones must have been frightened by sunshine while he was in his crib.
Only a childhood trauma could have given him such an obsession in eroding the transparency and openness of government with his amendments to weaken Tennessee’s open meetings (Sunshine Law) and public records laws.
Every Tennessean should be up in arms. This isn’t about journalists having a harder time to report on the inner workings of government. More to the point, it’s about erecting obstacles to the public’s right to know.
With the state’s urban schools in turmoil, health care in chaos and economic growth flat-lining, we’re pleased that Rep. Jones can keep his eyes on what’s really important – making it as hard as possible to get public information.
It’s not just “public” information because it’s held by a public agency, but because it’s the public that pays for it.
In a state version of Beltway Fever, Rep. Jones seems to forget on a regular basis that he works for us, not the other way around. Hopefully, there will be a time when the public rises up to oppose the cult of secrecy that is taking hold in both our federal and state governments.
In the end, there’s a better course of action for Rep. Jones if he’s discomforted by public records and public meetings requirements – don’t run for office.
Only a childhood trauma could have given him such an obsession in eroding the transparency and openness of government with his amendments to weaken Tennessee’s open meetings (Sunshine Law) and public records laws.
Every Tennessean should be up in arms. This isn’t about journalists having a harder time to report on the inner workings of government. More to the point, it’s about erecting obstacles to the public’s right to know.
With the state’s urban schools in turmoil, health care in chaos and economic growth flat-lining, we’re pleased that Rep. Jones can keep his eyes on what’s really important – making it as hard as possible to get public information.
It’s not just “public” information because it’s held by a public agency, but because it’s the public that pays for it.
In a state version of Beltway Fever, Rep. Jones seems to forget on a regular basis that he works for us, not the other way around. Hopefully, there will be a time when the public rises up to oppose the cult of secrecy that is taking hold in both our federal and state governments.
In the end, there’s a better course of action for Rep. Jones if he’s discomforted by public records and public meetings requirements – don’t run for office.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Beale Street Needs Signs Of The Times
It’s always interesting compare the hyperbole about Beale Street with the reality of Beale Street.
In a recent article in The Commercial Appeal about new security on the street, this statement jumped off the page. It was made by the head of the private company that manages the legendary music street as he talked about how important it is to make sure “we’re doing things the way a world-class entertainment district should.”
Every time we see a Beale Street official use these high-flown phrases, we immediately think about the barricades that block the street to traffic. They look like someone’s first shop class project in high school. If they are world-class, it is in the category of the most amateurish signage in a famous tourism area.
The Beale Street street barricades look like something that was slapped up temporarily and were never replaced. After 26 years, it’s not too much to think that the management company could come up with something that actually speaks to the quality of the experience on the street.
We guess we’ve grown accustomed to the hodgepodge of newspaper vending machines and trashy looking garbage cans that seem to send the message that too little attention is being given to the overall appearance and atmosphere of the street, but these barricades need to go.
City Employment Numbers Just Don't Add Up
In time, we suspect that the controversy over the growing payroll in City Hall will be tempest in a teapot.
A week ago, Memphis City Council members cross-examined Memphis Chief Administrative Officer Keith McGee about a budget document that showed that the number of employees growing from 5,162 in 2006 to a requested payroll of 6,573 in the coming fiscal year.
It makes absolutely no sense, and when the smoke clears, we predict that a miscalculation by a clerk in personnel is responsible for this political dust-up.
For example, we suspect that one number might be employees paid by the general fund, and the second might be total employees – general fund and grant-funded.
After all, the number of employees at City of Memphis has been listed at more than 6,000 for about a decade, and in 2004, researchers at the Memphis Regional Chamber said that city government had 6,680 employees.
It’s impossible for us to imagine that by 2006, the payroll had dropped by about 1,500 employees, much less that the proposed budget would add 1,500 new employees to city government.
This is one time when City Hall’s lack of interest in the media is taking its toll, because this confusion should have been explained and cleared up within hours.
A week ago, Memphis City Council members cross-examined Memphis Chief Administrative Officer Keith McGee about a budget document that showed that the number of employees growing from 5,162 in 2006 to a requested payroll of 6,573 in the coming fiscal year.
It makes absolutely no sense, and when the smoke clears, we predict that a miscalculation by a clerk in personnel is responsible for this political dust-up.
For example, we suspect that one number might be employees paid by the general fund, and the second might be total employees – general fund and grant-funded.
After all, the number of employees at City of Memphis has been listed at more than 6,000 for about a decade, and in 2004, researchers at the Memphis Regional Chamber said that city government had 6,680 employees.
It’s impossible for us to imagine that by 2006, the payroll had dropped by about 1,500 employees, much less that the proposed budget would add 1,500 new employees to city government.
This is one time when City Hall’s lack of interest in the media is taking its toll, because this confusion should have been explained and cleared up within hours.
Putting A Price On The Suburban Commute
The Tennessee Legislature is flirting with the idea of toll roads to fill the gap in road funding.
We cast our vote for Highway 385.
It’s the most expensive gift ever given in this county to developers and to sprawl, and it’s time to make them pay a fair share of the costs associated with it.
The opening of the 54-mile suburban loop (if your version of suburbs includes the southwestern fringe of Fayette County) will be $450 million of fuel that will power sprawl ever eastward. Just as its gravitational pull will extend development, it will also erode the core city and increase the pricetag that the public pays for government services.
The existence of 385 speaks to the curious nature of government and its love affair with asphalt. There’s always a seeming urgency to satisfy the needs of the development industry and to enable the flight of citizens away from areas where public investments are already paid for.
There’s almost a blind obedience to the car. Somewhere along the way, because of the power campaign contributors and road builders wield, an overriding purpose of government morphed into making people mobile at the expense of neighborhood, the urban core and the public pocketbook.
Why was Highway 385 needed? It’s hard to say with precision, because its genesis lay in the Tennessee Department of Transportation where the building industry has long driven the agenda.
For 385, there was the obligatory traffic engineering study which inevitably shows that the growth of development demands this new road looping way out east and then up to Arlington and around to Millington. Of course, the problem is that there is no counter-balancing study of the economic cost on the core city or the neighborhoods that are being hollowed out. There is no fiscal note that tells the cost of abandoning existing infrastructure or the social costs of declining neighborhoods and the problems incubated there.
As for 385, already, the daily traffic count is about 250,000 vehicles. In the future, with much of Highway 385 serving as I-269 - the unjustifiable circumferential interstate for I-69 – that number will only skyrocket. For years, city and county governments advocated strongly for an I-69 route that followed the interstate through the heart of Memphis, but like water dripping on a stone, slowly but surely, development interests had the eastern I-269 route added, primarily as justification for it extending through DeSoto County and certain real estate interests.
This future combination of Highway 385/I-269 can be lethal unless Memphis and Shelby County turn their attention now to preventing more unbridled sprawl. There’s not much time left.
In an article in The Commercial Appeal, an Arlington landowner hailed the coming highway: “As every piece comes together, pretty soon, you will have something with 385 like the loop around Atlanta…Now you go up there (the Atlanta beltway), and there are hotels everywhere and apartments and office complexes by the thousands. It’s just another layer of city out there.”
Of course, that’s the problem. The layer of city out there is not the result of population growth, but population movement, and as we’ve seen, the cost of that to the public sector is financially unsustainable.
Right now, with a $1 toll, the Highway 385 toll road would generate $87 million a year, and in a perfect world, it would be split between state government to pay for alternative transportation, between Shelby County Government which foots most of the bill for sprawl, and Memphis City Government which is left to contend with the problems of neighborhood decline.
We cast our vote for Highway 385.
It’s the most expensive gift ever given in this county to developers and to sprawl, and it’s time to make them pay a fair share of the costs associated with it.
The opening of the 54-mile suburban loop (if your version of suburbs includes the southwestern fringe of Fayette County) will be $450 million of fuel that will power sprawl ever eastward. Just as its gravitational pull will extend development, it will also erode the core city and increase the pricetag that the public pays for government services.
The existence of 385 speaks to the curious nature of government and its love affair with asphalt. There’s always a seeming urgency to satisfy the needs of the development industry and to enable the flight of citizens away from areas where public investments are already paid for.
There’s almost a blind obedience to the car. Somewhere along the way, because of the power campaign contributors and road builders wield, an overriding purpose of government morphed into making people mobile at the expense of neighborhood, the urban core and the public pocketbook.
Why was Highway 385 needed? It’s hard to say with precision, because its genesis lay in the Tennessee Department of Transportation where the building industry has long driven the agenda.
For 385, there was the obligatory traffic engineering study which inevitably shows that the growth of development demands this new road looping way out east and then up to Arlington and around to Millington. Of course, the problem is that there is no counter-balancing study of the economic cost on the core city or the neighborhoods that are being hollowed out. There is no fiscal note that tells the cost of abandoning existing infrastructure or the social costs of declining neighborhoods and the problems incubated there.
As for 385, already, the daily traffic count is about 250,000 vehicles. In the future, with much of Highway 385 serving as I-269 - the unjustifiable circumferential interstate for I-69 – that number will only skyrocket. For years, city and county governments advocated strongly for an I-69 route that followed the interstate through the heart of Memphis, but like water dripping on a stone, slowly but surely, development interests had the eastern I-269 route added, primarily as justification for it extending through DeSoto County and certain real estate interests.
This future combination of Highway 385/I-269 can be lethal unless Memphis and Shelby County turn their attention now to preventing more unbridled sprawl. There’s not much time left.
In an article in The Commercial Appeal, an Arlington landowner hailed the coming highway: “As every piece comes together, pretty soon, you will have something with 385 like the loop around Atlanta…Now you go up there (the Atlanta beltway), and there are hotels everywhere and apartments and office complexes by the thousands. It’s just another layer of city out there.”
Of course, that’s the problem. The layer of city out there is not the result of population growth, but population movement, and as we’ve seen, the cost of that to the public sector is financially unsustainable.
Right now, with a $1 toll, the Highway 385 toll road would generate $87 million a year, and in a perfect world, it would be split between state government to pay for alternative transportation, between Shelby County Government which foots most of the bill for sprawl, and Memphis City Government which is left to contend with the problems of neighborhood decline.
Council Member Offers Winning Funding Idea
Finally, a City Council member suggested the obvious: tenants for Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium should help pay for the $7.6 million in upgrades that they will benefit from.
Savvy Council member Jim Strickland, after listening to labored justifications for a new home locker room, moving the visitor’s locker room, a new room for officials and some ADA improvements, sent an encouraging signal that business as usual is dying a quick death with the new Council.
He suggested that the two organizations who accrue the benefits of the new, improved arena should consider helping pay for them.
Here’s the magic number: $500,000 a year. That’s the amount that’s needed to pay the yearly bond payment for the improvements.
After all, the University of Memphis’ athletic department budget is north of $25 million a year. The Liberty Bowl Festival Association regularly rings up $6 million in revenues, and we’re told that it recorded a $2 million fund balance in 2007, all while paying about $1.7 million a year in “management fees.”
The Liberty Bowl Festival Association reports to the IRS that its purpose is “to promote the social and economic welfare of the Mid-South and its citizens.” We think it could do precisely that if it helped pay for these improvements and took the burden off taxpayers.
Savvy Council member Jim Strickland, after listening to labored justifications for a new home locker room, moving the visitor’s locker room, a new room for officials and some ADA improvements, sent an encouraging signal that business as usual is dying a quick death with the new Council.
He suggested that the two organizations who accrue the benefits of the new, improved arena should consider helping pay for them.
Here’s the magic number: $500,000 a year. That’s the amount that’s needed to pay the yearly bond payment for the improvements.
After all, the University of Memphis’ athletic department budget is north of $25 million a year. The Liberty Bowl Festival Association regularly rings up $6 million in revenues, and we’re told that it recorded a $2 million fund balance in 2007, all while paying about $1.7 million a year in “management fees.”
The Liberty Bowl Festival Association reports to the IRS that its purpose is “to promote the social and economic welfare of the Mid-South and its citizens.” We think it could do precisely that if it helped pay for these improvements and took the burden off taxpayers.
Getting The Comparables Right
Some opponents of the Beale Street Landing project – which is vitally needed to reinvigorate a riverfront ready for embalming – have recently taken to asking how Memphis City Council can justify spending $29 million on the project while considering the closing of libraries and community centers.
It sounds like a no-brainer. After all, $29 million is about 15 times the amount needed to keep those facilities open.
Unfortunately, it’s misleading, because the $29 million for Beale Street Landing is in capital funding and the $2 million needed for libraries and community centers is in general funds.
As a result, while $29 million may be the total cost, the bond payments are about $1.2 million a year.
More to the point, great cities don’t make choices between quality of life and libraries and community centers, because they recognize that to be successful, they have to invest in both.
It sounds like a no-brainer. After all, $29 million is about 15 times the amount needed to keep those facilities open.
Unfortunately, it’s misleading, because the $29 million for Beale Street Landing is in capital funding and the $2 million needed for libraries and community centers is in general funds.
As a result, while $29 million may be the total cost, the bond payments are about $1.2 million a year.
More to the point, great cities don’t make choices between quality of life and libraries and community centers, because they recognize that to be successful, they have to invest in both.
Aiming Higher For Our HBCU
We’d feel better about our public tax money being funneled to a private college – Lemoyne-Owen College - if we were getting some signals that it’s making the kinds of strides that will set it on a new financial and academic foundation.
One such indication would be that Lemoyne-Owen College was included in the significant funding of the United Negro College Fund. A few weeks ago, it provided about $6 million in grants, and regrettably, our HBCU wasn’t on the list.
The regular rescue missions for the college have focused on getting it out of another financial ditch when the primary attention should be focused on considering how to make it part of the so-called “ebony tower,” the select historically black college and universities that make up the African-American ivy league.
But it can be done. Case in point: Clark Atlanta University.
Created 20 years ago through the merger of two historically black colleges, it shook off a reputation for easy admissions and now accepts about half of the students who apply. With a focus on engineering and science and the aggressive pursuit of federal grants, the university has risen from average to being frequently mentioned as one of the best HBCUs.
All of this is to say that it’s not impossible for Lemoyne-Owen College to become one of the nation’s best, but it’s going to take more than infusions of crisis-related funding and volumes of political rhetoric about failed leadership and petty politics. In fact, if anything, this approach to addressing the college’s future does nothing but devalue it, relegating it to nothing more than a political pawn rather than a center of quality education.
One such indication would be that Lemoyne-Owen College was included in the significant funding of the United Negro College Fund. A few weeks ago, it provided about $6 million in grants, and regrettably, our HBCU wasn’t on the list.
The regular rescue missions for the college have focused on getting it out of another financial ditch when the primary attention should be focused on considering how to make it part of the so-called “ebony tower,” the select historically black college and universities that make up the African-American ivy league.
But it can be done. Case in point: Clark Atlanta University.
Created 20 years ago through the merger of two historically black colleges, it shook off a reputation for easy admissions and now accepts about half of the students who apply. With a focus on engineering and science and the aggressive pursuit of federal grants, the university has risen from average to being frequently mentioned as one of the best HBCUs.
All of this is to say that it’s not impossible for Lemoyne-Owen College to become one of the nation’s best, but it’s going to take more than infusions of crisis-related funding and volumes of political rhetoric about failed leadership and petty politics. In fact, if anything, this approach to addressing the college’s future does nothing but devalue it, relegating it to nothing more than a political pawn rather than a center of quality education.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
A Speck Of Hope For Better Design
After working about a year to get former National Endowment for the Arts director of design Jeff Speck to Memphis, we were unfortunately unable to attend his presentation last week.
More unfortunate was the fact that his presentation – replete with specific insights for improving the quality of life in Memphis through better design and architecture - did not get the headlines that it deserved.
Our colleague Carol Coletta originally conceived of Mr. Speck’s three-day intensive tour of Memphis, and we were pleased that a number of prominent local organizations responded to our requests for funding to bring him here. In the end, a prior engagement in Liverpool, England, prevented Ms. Coletta’s attendance, and the rest of us were regrettably unable to make it either.
Design As A Priority
However, more to the point, we are fortunate that a cadre of leading citizens recognized the value of this unique opportunity to obtain important perspectives about our city.
Much too often, here, urban design is seen as some elitist interest with little importance to Memphis. Mr. Speck powerfully reminded us of why this is not so, and that we continue to ignore design issues at our own peril. We see the results of this benign neglect all around us, and Mr. Speck laid out a dozen recommendations to change the face of our city and the course of our history.
As we expected, Mr. Speck was honest and insightful, but most of all, his suggestions were actionable and now become an indispensable and invaluable foundation for the work of the Memphis Regional Design Center.
Getting Started Right
It’s hard to imagine how the fledgling center – much-needed and with great potential – could have a better guide as it sets out on its urgent journey to improve our city.
To learn more about Mr. Speck’s presentation, we recommend a May 4 post by one of our city’s best bloggers, Gates of Memphis, and an article in last week’s Memphis Flyer by one of our best urban observers, Mary Cashiola.
We won’t repeat the content of their reports, but when this presentation was envisioned, it was not so much intended to be a single event as the launching of a movement built on what we need more – recommendations by nationally-recognized authorities.
As a result, the proof of Mr. Speck’s presentation is yet to come, but based on the prominent sponsors who brought him to Memphis, there should be immediate momentum to make sure that recommendations do not merely become a cogent report on some prominent shelves around the city, but become a blueprint for the future of our city.
To follow up his presentation, Mr. Speck will write a report which will elaborate on his recommendations and give more details, but in the end, it’s not just up to the sponsors of the presentation to implement them but all of us who care about the livability of Memphis.
More unfortunate was the fact that his presentation – replete with specific insights for improving the quality of life in Memphis through better design and architecture - did not get the headlines that it deserved.
Our colleague Carol Coletta originally conceived of Mr. Speck’s three-day intensive tour of Memphis, and we were pleased that a number of prominent local organizations responded to our requests for funding to bring him here. In the end, a prior engagement in Liverpool, England, prevented Ms. Coletta’s attendance, and the rest of us were regrettably unable to make it either.
Design As A Priority
However, more to the point, we are fortunate that a cadre of leading citizens recognized the value of this unique opportunity to obtain important perspectives about our city.
Much too often, here, urban design is seen as some elitist interest with little importance to Memphis. Mr. Speck powerfully reminded us of why this is not so, and that we continue to ignore design issues at our own peril. We see the results of this benign neglect all around us, and Mr. Speck laid out a dozen recommendations to change the face of our city and the course of our history.
As we expected, Mr. Speck was honest and insightful, but most of all, his suggestions were actionable and now become an indispensable and invaluable foundation for the work of the Memphis Regional Design Center.
Getting Started Right
It’s hard to imagine how the fledgling center – much-needed and with great potential – could have a better guide as it sets out on its urgent journey to improve our city.
To learn more about Mr. Speck’s presentation, we recommend a May 4 post by one of our city’s best bloggers, Gates of Memphis, and an article in last week’s Memphis Flyer by one of our best urban observers, Mary Cashiola.
We won’t repeat the content of their reports, but when this presentation was envisioned, it was not so much intended to be a single event as the launching of a movement built on what we need more – recommendations by nationally-recognized authorities.
As a result, the proof of Mr. Speck’s presentation is yet to come, but based on the prominent sponsors who brought him to Memphis, there should be immediate momentum to make sure that recommendations do not merely become a cogent report on some prominent shelves around the city, but become a blueprint for the future of our city.
To follow up his presentation, Mr. Speck will write a report which will elaborate on his recommendations and give more details, but in the end, it’s not just up to the sponsors of the presentation to implement them but all of us who care about the livability of Memphis.
Friday, May 09, 2008
This Week On Smart City: Alan Mallach And Donald Johanson
This week on Smart City, the wave of foreclosures hitting many American cities are challenging many communities to wonder, “What’s next?” Can these neighborhoods be revived? And if so, what will it take? Those are questions we’ll ask Alan Mallach whose new report on Managing Neighborhood Change comes just at the time when many communities are needing that help.
And we’ll also talk about a subject that may at first seem far removed from cities, but actually is at their center. Our guest is Dr. Donald Johanson, a paleo-anthropologist whose discovery 30 years ago of Lucy set him on a life-long study of human evolution.
Smart City is a syndicated, weekly hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life: the people, places, ideas and trends that affect us all. Host Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, talks with national and international public policy experts, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others on the pulse of city life for a penetrating discussion on urban issues.
Smart City is broadcast at 6 a.m. Saturday and Sundays on WKNO-FM, but it is also webcast and podcast. For the webcast, times for the broadcast in other cities and to sign up for the podcast, visit our website.
And we’ll also talk about a subject that may at first seem far removed from cities, but actually is at their center. Our guest is Dr. Donald Johanson, a paleo-anthropologist whose discovery 30 years ago of Lucy set him on a life-long study of human evolution.
Smart City is a syndicated, weekly hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life: the people, places, ideas and trends that affect us all. Host Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, talks with national and international public policy experts, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others on the pulse of city life for a penetrating discussion on urban issues.
Smart City is broadcast at 6 a.m. Saturday and Sundays on WKNO-FM, but it is also webcast and podcast. For the webcast, times for the broadcast in other cities and to sign up for the podcast, visit our website.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Fishy Project Wastes Pyramid Potential
We’ve made no secret of our disdain for plans to use The Pyramid for a massive Bass Pro Shop.
In a sentence, it’s an abysmal use of a civic icon and sends a message to every person driving by it about the low expectations and even lower ambitions of our city.
While some City Council members worry about the $600,000 a year in maintenance and utilities that is now spent on the empty arena, we worry more about the negative perceptions from putting a giant Bass Pro Shop as the welcome mat to our city. That cost is incalculable.
Asking The Right Question
As we’ve mentioned before, we seem to have come to this point because city and county officials have worked so hard for so many months to answer the wrong question. The real question is not what can we put inside The Pyramid, but what can we do that sends a positive message about Memphis and its future?
When you ask the wrong question, you inevitably come up with the wrong answer. And that's what Bass Pro Shop feels like to us.
As we posted on February 24, even a novice to the ways of government could tell that Greg Ericson was getting the runaround with his idea for a theme park in the building, and although we can’t be counted as strong supporters for that proposal, we do think that local government has shamed itself with a process that has been characterized by a total lack of objectivity, transparency and accountability.
Buffalo’ing Us
We have frequently chronicled the store’s manipulations in Buffalo with a project strikingly similar to our own and Bass Pro Shop’s proven ability to wring tax money out of local governments under the guise of incentives for jobs.
That’s about to happen here to the tune of about $30 million, and it just seems that if the business proposition for the megastore makes sense, we wouldn’t have to entice the store to do it. There is no justification or logic to putting public money into a retail project.
Meanwhile, the so-called development agreement with Bass Pro Shop is so one-sided that it is a monument to the difficulty that government lawyers have in negotiating tough business deals. Memphis City Councilman Shea Flinn and Shelby County Commissioner Mike Ritz have pointed out these failings in detail.
Driving The Deal
Bass Pro Shop was in the driver’s seat when this whole sad display began three and a half years ago, and nothing has changed. To this point, the retailer has made no serious commitment to the project while local government has thrown more and more into the deal as sweeteners.
Because of its architectural stature, one thing should be true about The Pyramid: it should symbolize our confidence as a people and speak to our ambition as a city.
Can we really say that our city’s ambition is truly captured in a Bass Pro Shop in the signature building on our doorstep?
Flashback
All of this conjures up flashbacks to the Shlenker Era, and what slow learners we must be.
What is the main lesson from those day?
It’s simply this - it wasn’t Mr. Shlenker’s cleverness or his charisma or his guile that conned us into giving him the keys to the Pyramid. Rather, it was our own neediness and feelings of unworthiness, which manifested itself in the deadly notion that we have no right to deserve the best.
Great To Good
Instead, good is always just good enough for Memphis, and we think we’re lucky to get it. Our city fathers profess to have great ambitions for Memphis. This is their chance to prove it. This is their chance to aim high.
Right now, with yet another push by local government for Bass Pro shop, it unfortunately is beginning to feel like the same old Memphis to us.
All in all, Bass Pro Shop in The Pyramid is a dreadful decision, but then again, maybe others are capable of conjuring up pride in a skyline adorned with the 3,000 square foot logo of a leaping bass on all four sides of our signature building.
At that point, it would be a 55-year symbol that we have gullibly swallowed the latest big promise hook, line and sinker.
In a sentence, it’s an abysmal use of a civic icon and sends a message to every person driving by it about the low expectations and even lower ambitions of our city.
While some City Council members worry about the $600,000 a year in maintenance and utilities that is now spent on the empty arena, we worry more about the negative perceptions from putting a giant Bass Pro Shop as the welcome mat to our city. That cost is incalculable.
Asking The Right Question
As we’ve mentioned before, we seem to have come to this point because city and county officials have worked so hard for so many months to answer the wrong question. The real question is not what can we put inside The Pyramid, but what can we do that sends a positive message about Memphis and its future?
When you ask the wrong question, you inevitably come up with the wrong answer. And that's what Bass Pro Shop feels like to us.
As we posted on February 24, even a novice to the ways of government could tell that Greg Ericson was getting the runaround with his idea for a theme park in the building, and although we can’t be counted as strong supporters for that proposal, we do think that local government has shamed itself with a process that has been characterized by a total lack of objectivity, transparency and accountability.
Buffalo’ing Us
We have frequently chronicled the store’s manipulations in Buffalo with a project strikingly similar to our own and Bass Pro Shop’s proven ability to wring tax money out of local governments under the guise of incentives for jobs.
That’s about to happen here to the tune of about $30 million, and it just seems that if the business proposition for the megastore makes sense, we wouldn’t have to entice the store to do it. There is no justification or logic to putting public money into a retail project.
Meanwhile, the so-called development agreement with Bass Pro Shop is so one-sided that it is a monument to the difficulty that government lawyers have in negotiating tough business deals. Memphis City Councilman Shea Flinn and Shelby County Commissioner Mike Ritz have pointed out these failings in detail.
Driving The Deal
Bass Pro Shop was in the driver’s seat when this whole sad display began three and a half years ago, and nothing has changed. To this point, the retailer has made no serious commitment to the project while local government has thrown more and more into the deal as sweeteners.
Because of its architectural stature, one thing should be true about The Pyramid: it should symbolize our confidence as a people and speak to our ambition as a city.
Can we really say that our city’s ambition is truly captured in a Bass Pro Shop in the signature building on our doorstep?
Flashback
All of this conjures up flashbacks to the Shlenker Era, and what slow learners we must be.
What is the main lesson from those day?
It’s simply this - it wasn’t Mr. Shlenker’s cleverness or his charisma or his guile that conned us into giving him the keys to the Pyramid. Rather, it was our own neediness and feelings of unworthiness, which manifested itself in the deadly notion that we have no right to deserve the best.
Great To Good
Instead, good is always just good enough for Memphis, and we think we’re lucky to get it. Our city fathers profess to have great ambitions for Memphis. This is their chance to prove it. This is their chance to aim high.
Right now, with yet another push by local government for Bass Pro shop, it unfortunately is beginning to feel like the same old Memphis to us.
All in all, Bass Pro Shop in The Pyramid is a dreadful decision, but then again, maybe others are capable of conjuring up pride in a skyline adorned with the 3,000 square foot logo of a leaping bass on all four sides of our signature building.
At that point, it would be a 55-year symbol that we have gullibly swallowed the latest big promise hook, line and sinker.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Searching For A National Caliber Superintendent
Perhaps, the tepid pool of candidates for superintendent of Memphis City Schools is a result of the “Herenton Factor.”
Surely, there’s no question that Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton’s highly publicized on-again, off-again pursuit of the superintendent’s job and his assertive agenda for reform at the district couldn’t be considered as helpful in scaring up the best nationally qualified candidates.
The message from Mayor Herenton is unmistakable. Even if he’s not a candidate for superintendent or drafted by the board of commissioners, he intends to be a force in decisions at Memphis City Schools.
Warning Shot
In answer to a question following his presentation about schools at Memphis City Council yesterday, he fired this warning shot: “If you go into a city as new superintendent and don’t have the support of the mayor and city leadership, you are doomed for failure.”
It sounded clear to us that he’s sending the message to the school board that he wants a role in the selection of the next superintendent. That’s not an unreasonable request.
In fact, in Nashville, where the school district is in the midst of its own search for a superintendent, the newly elected mayor has been involved in selecting the search firm and expects to be part of the selection process.
High Stakes
With $93 million in city funding at risk, it would seem pretty logical that city government should be part of the process here as well. Of course, it’s equally obvious to us that some grassroots leaders should also be included, but so far at least, we get the impression from the board that it’s not planning to allow the community to be directly engaged in the most appointment that’s ever made in this city.
While Mayor Herenton recently asked the City Council to refrain from cutting city funding for schools, at least for this year, it seemed obvious that if Memphis City Schools wants the money, it’s going to have to address some priorities from the mayor and City Council.
It’s about time. For decades, city government has been shipping its annual check without holding the district accountable for hitting some measurable goals. In this regard, we expect that some of the agenda items in Mayor Herenton’s presentation yesterday might just find their way into a contract between City of Memphis and Memphis City Schools.
Phase Two
As for the candidates submitted by the search firm, we suggest that the board of commissioners add a second phase to the process.
The search firm says that we now have the list of the five best candidates who applied for the job of superintendent. Now, let’s get a list of the very best candidates in the entire country who didn’t apply.
It’s what we call the Calipari theory – identify the best talent and go get them.
Paying Up
Then again, that’s what the University of Memphis did to lure Coach Cal here in the first place. And if we can afford to pay millions in salary to him to teach and coach about a dozen students, surely we can come up with whatever it costs to bring a superintendent here with national credentials to teach 113,000 students.
We suspect that the business and philanthropic leadership in this city would welcome the chance to raise the money to bring in an impact player for Memphis City Schools. The hole is too deep and the need too great to bring in someone who cannot have that kind of instant influence on the district.
The school board has already said that it’s willing to pay $260,000 for the next superintendent. What level of talent could we get if we were willing to pay twice that amount?
A Small Price To Pay
If we can spend more than $9,000 each year in per pupil expenditures, surely we can pay about $4 a year per pupil to get the kind of superintendent that we really need.
And if we pay that person this level of incentive to come to Memphis, we predict that our district will become more than just a springboard to the next superintendent’s job.
As the board of commissioners proceeds with this process, we hope its members won’t be hypnotized with the data that is regularly cherry picked by the administrative staff and delivered up with great self-satisfaction.
Great City Schools
The latest example was the “Beating The Odds” report by the Council of Great City Schools that lauded Memphis for its improvement on state tests over the past four years, because our district’s rate of increase surpassed the rate of the state.
Of course, unmentioned was the fact that the state tests have been dumbed down to the level that they are essentially irrelevant in determining students’ proficiency. Also, unmentioned was the simple mathematical fact - if your base number is low, any improvement sounds impressive. (After all, if I only make $1 a year and increase it to $2, I’ve increased my salary 100%. It sounds impressive, but left unsaid is I’m still poor.)
But more to the point, the Council of Great City Schools is a membership organization and Memphis City Schools gets what it pays for with these reports.
Valentine’s Day
The organization’s executive director even took the opportunity to send a Valentine to former Memphis City Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson, crediting her reforms with the “terrific gains” by the district in the past five years.
Dr. Johnson just happens to be secretary/treasurer for Council of Great City Schools and a member of the organization’s executive committee.
Surely, there’s no question that Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton’s highly publicized on-again, off-again pursuit of the superintendent’s job and his assertive agenda for reform at the district couldn’t be considered as helpful in scaring up the best nationally qualified candidates.
The message from Mayor Herenton is unmistakable. Even if he’s not a candidate for superintendent or drafted by the board of commissioners, he intends to be a force in decisions at Memphis City Schools.
Warning Shot
In answer to a question following his presentation about schools at Memphis City Council yesterday, he fired this warning shot: “If you go into a city as new superintendent and don’t have the support of the mayor and city leadership, you are doomed for failure.”
It sounded clear to us that he’s sending the message to the school board that he wants a role in the selection of the next superintendent. That’s not an unreasonable request.
In fact, in Nashville, where the school district is in the midst of its own search for a superintendent, the newly elected mayor has been involved in selecting the search firm and expects to be part of the selection process.
High Stakes
With $93 million in city funding at risk, it would seem pretty logical that city government should be part of the process here as well. Of course, it’s equally obvious to us that some grassroots leaders should also be included, but so far at least, we get the impression from the board that it’s not planning to allow the community to be directly engaged in the most appointment that’s ever made in this city.
While Mayor Herenton recently asked the City Council to refrain from cutting city funding for schools, at least for this year, it seemed obvious that if Memphis City Schools wants the money, it’s going to have to address some priorities from the mayor and City Council.
It’s about time. For decades, city government has been shipping its annual check without holding the district accountable for hitting some measurable goals. In this regard, we expect that some of the agenda items in Mayor Herenton’s presentation yesterday might just find their way into a contract between City of Memphis and Memphis City Schools.
Phase Two
As for the candidates submitted by the search firm, we suggest that the board of commissioners add a second phase to the process.
The search firm says that we now have the list of the five best candidates who applied for the job of superintendent. Now, let’s get a list of the very best candidates in the entire country who didn’t apply.
It’s what we call the Calipari theory – identify the best talent and go get them.
Paying Up
Then again, that’s what the University of Memphis did to lure Coach Cal here in the first place. And if we can afford to pay millions in salary to him to teach and coach about a dozen students, surely we can come up with whatever it costs to bring a superintendent here with national credentials to teach 113,000 students.
We suspect that the business and philanthropic leadership in this city would welcome the chance to raise the money to bring in an impact player for Memphis City Schools. The hole is too deep and the need too great to bring in someone who cannot have that kind of instant influence on the district.
The school board has already said that it’s willing to pay $260,000 for the next superintendent. What level of talent could we get if we were willing to pay twice that amount?
A Small Price To Pay
If we can spend more than $9,000 each year in per pupil expenditures, surely we can pay about $4 a year per pupil to get the kind of superintendent that we really need.
And if we pay that person this level of incentive to come to Memphis, we predict that our district will become more than just a springboard to the next superintendent’s job.
As the board of commissioners proceeds with this process, we hope its members won’t be hypnotized with the data that is regularly cherry picked by the administrative staff and delivered up with great self-satisfaction.
Great City Schools
The latest example was the “Beating The Odds” report by the Council of Great City Schools that lauded Memphis for its improvement on state tests over the past four years, because our district’s rate of increase surpassed the rate of the state.
Of course, unmentioned was the fact that the state tests have been dumbed down to the level that they are essentially irrelevant in determining students’ proficiency. Also, unmentioned was the simple mathematical fact - if your base number is low, any improvement sounds impressive. (After all, if I only make $1 a year and increase it to $2, I’ve increased my salary 100%. It sounds impressive, but left unsaid is I’m still poor.)
But more to the point, the Council of Great City Schools is a membership organization and Memphis City Schools gets what it pays for with these reports.
Valentine’s Day
The organization’s executive director even took the opportunity to send a Valentine to former Memphis City Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson, crediting her reforms with the “terrific gains” by the district in the past five years.
Dr. Johnson just happens to be secretary/treasurer for Council of Great City Schools and a member of the organization’s executive committee.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Herenton Holds The Stage For School Reform
Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton proved again that there’s just no substitute for the city’s biggest megaphone.
In his 45-minute presentation to Memphis City Council today about the state of Memphis City Schools, he repeated his claim that he’s not a candidate for superintendent of the district while all the while insinuating that he deserves the chance.
For an hour this afternoon, it was harder to argue with him, and we don’t say this as much for the substance as for the style of the speech. He was deliberate, calm and passionate in his comments, but what caught our attention was the fact that he has the dual threat of his office and of his personality to make Memphians immediately pay attention to the woeful education of 113,000 of its children.
The Basics
His laundry list of strategies seemed to reflect a “back to basics” approach for Memphis City Schools. We are told that already members of the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners are dismissive of his proposed priorities, saying that they are already doing everything he proposed. However, his most searing criticism was directed at the district’s bloated organizational structure, and there’s no question that the board is in denial about this pressing problem.
It is that organizational structure – whose inefficiency has only been compounded by the questionable decisions of Interim Superintendent Dan Ward – that seems unable to set up an accountable operational system and checks and balances expected of every public entity. More to the point, the school district – like most large bureaucracies – seems intent on suffocating innovations in their cribs and on protecting the status quo.
We’ve railed about the clumsy organizational chart previously, so we won’t do it again here, except to say that currently the superintendent has more people reporting directly to him than either city or county mayors. The organizational chart looks like nothing so much as one of those large Asian jellyfishes with its tentacles hanging down in a gangly maze.
Top Heavy
In this regard, one of Mayor Herenton’s proposals appeared to take a page out of the federal government personnel manual for the transition to a new presidency. The mayor suggested that every person in an administrative position should resign and be required to reapply for their jobs, that is, if they still exist from an overhaul of the “top heavy” management.
Back in late March, we predicted that if Mayor Herenton were named superintendent, he would anchor his proposals in the same core beliefs that he espoused as superintendent 16 years ago, and that was largely the case today. The presentation featured cameo roles for decentralized management, deregulated school management, school-based decision-making, student interventions and teacher-focused reform plans. New additions were school safety, crackdowns on children with behavioral problems and a closer working relationship with MPD.
This time around, Mayor Herenton plugged his philosophy in a three-pronged plan of action – improving teaching and learning, making schools more efficient and making schools safe. So far, he’s largely laid out broad themes, promising to issue a full report of strategies in the near future.
Not Every Child
There was something for everybody in his presentation - plenty to agree with but also plenty to disagree with. In that latter category we placed his call for a return to corporal punishment and his criticisms of former Carol Johnson’s “Every child, every day, college bound” mantra.
While we agree that vocational programs are important and deserve emphasis, it’s awfully hard for us to argue that some students should be labeled as college material while others are not. The potential for a school caste system is too great, and based on what we’ve heard from researchers, the average student today needs the same sets of skills and knowledge by their graduation from high school, whether that student is going to college, going into the workforce or going into a vocational program.
As we wrote a couple of weeks ago, until Memphis increases its percentage of college-educated workers, we are doomed to subsist on low-skill, low-wage jobs that will leave us farther and farther behind as the knowledge economy booms. In the end, getting more students college bound is the only way we win the race for economic growth. Put simply, we don’t win with more vocational school graduates.
High Tech
Another interesting footnote to the presentation was Mayor Herenton’s
call for two technology middle schools, patterned after a school in Philadelphia, but what caught our eye was that while city government reports that it’s made no decisions about the future of the Fairgrounds, Mayor Herenton is proposing to build a high tech middle school there.
The mayor called his proposals “the equivalent of shock therapy for a district that is often out of touch with the times and out of reach from the community,” and judging from the looks on the faces of some of the school board commissioners in the audience, he succeeded.
Despite his protestations to the contrary, it was inescapable that he is receptive to a draft movement for him to be the next superintendent. He said repeatedly that he is not a candidate, but in response to a question from a Council member, he said that the district needed a “Lean on Me” kind of leader who was “man” enough for the job.
Old Joe Clark
Summoning up the image of Joe Clark may have produced some head-nodding in the crowd (except for a few women who whispered if he was being sexist), but it’s worth remembering that the former New Jersey may have been lionized in the movie, but he was also autocratic and tyrannical at times.
A few hours after Mayor Herenton’s presentation, the search firm hired by Memphis City Schools released the names of its five candidates for superintendent. Initial speculation seemed to place Buffalo superintendent James Williams in the front runner spot, but we predict that he won’t be there long.
In his tenure in Buffalo, he has been plagued by controversies that range from allegations of covering up sexual abuse to stealing his board members’ mail to violating state law in the suspension of a high school senior. Prior to his Buffalo position, he worked in Dayton, where he provoked similar flare-ups caused by a penchant for secrecy and charges of improper payments to consulting firms.
Buffalo’ed
As recently as a week ago, some members of the Buffalo City Council contended that he is guilty of mismanagement and inefficiency that are taking a costly financial toll on the district.
Clearly, Mayor Herenton has no intention of applying for the Memphis superintendent’s job, but he should be put on the list of candidates by the search firm anyway. Today, he seemed to have earned that opportunity, and anyway, politically, the school board would be smarter to get him inside the tent than to allow him to use his bully pulpit to preach a new gospel for city schools.
It’s been more than a decade and a half since Mayor Herenton was on everyone’s short list of candidates for urban superintendent’s jobs. In fact, if Ed Koch had beaten David Dinkins for mayor in 1989, the mayor would have been sworn in as superintendent of New York City Schools. More well-known was his selection as Atlanta superintendent before the business community coaxed him into staying home.
The Gamble
The ultimate question right now is whether the times have changed so much in 16 years that Mayor Herenton is out of step with the times, or whether, as he immodestly suggests, the fundamentals have not changed and there’s no one more qualified to straighten out Memphis City Schools.
While it would be the natural inclination of elected officials like the school board of commissioners to push back on his candidacy for a variety of reasons, the final test is about much more than educational experience. What Mayor Herenton can bring to the mix is the political clout, influence and voice – not to mention the chits that he can redeem - that can finally make education at Memphis City Schools the dominant issue for the entire city.
We don’t blame the school board for a natural reluctance. Politically, a Herenton superintendency would immediately overshadow them, and there are lingering questions about whether he has the temperament and the demeanor to work as a partner with the board.
These are legitimate questions, but at least for a few hours today, the city mayor seemed to prove that he deserves the chance.
In his 45-minute presentation to Memphis City Council today about the state of Memphis City Schools, he repeated his claim that he’s not a candidate for superintendent of the district while all the while insinuating that he deserves the chance.
For an hour this afternoon, it was harder to argue with him, and we don’t say this as much for the substance as for the style of the speech. He was deliberate, calm and passionate in his comments, but what caught our attention was the fact that he has the dual threat of his office and of his personality to make Memphians immediately pay attention to the woeful education of 113,000 of its children.
The Basics
His laundry list of strategies seemed to reflect a “back to basics” approach for Memphis City Schools. We are told that already members of the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners are dismissive of his proposed priorities, saying that they are already doing everything he proposed. However, his most searing criticism was directed at the district’s bloated organizational structure, and there’s no question that the board is in denial about this pressing problem.
It is that organizational structure – whose inefficiency has only been compounded by the questionable decisions of Interim Superintendent Dan Ward – that seems unable to set up an accountable operational system and checks and balances expected of every public entity. More to the point, the school district – like most large bureaucracies – seems intent on suffocating innovations in their cribs and on protecting the status quo.
We’ve railed about the clumsy organizational chart previously, so we won’t do it again here, except to say that currently the superintendent has more people reporting directly to him than either city or county mayors. The organizational chart looks like nothing so much as one of those large Asian jellyfishes with its tentacles hanging down in a gangly maze.
Top Heavy
In this regard, one of Mayor Herenton’s proposals appeared to take a page out of the federal government personnel manual for the transition to a new presidency. The mayor suggested that every person in an administrative position should resign and be required to reapply for their jobs, that is, if they still exist from an overhaul of the “top heavy” management.
Back in late March, we predicted that if Mayor Herenton were named superintendent, he would anchor his proposals in the same core beliefs that he espoused as superintendent 16 years ago, and that was largely the case today. The presentation featured cameo roles for decentralized management, deregulated school management, school-based decision-making, student interventions and teacher-focused reform plans. New additions were school safety, crackdowns on children with behavioral problems and a closer working relationship with MPD.
This time around, Mayor Herenton plugged his philosophy in a three-pronged plan of action – improving teaching and learning, making schools more efficient and making schools safe. So far, he’s largely laid out broad themes, promising to issue a full report of strategies in the near future.
Not Every Child
There was something for everybody in his presentation - plenty to agree with but also plenty to disagree with. In that latter category we placed his call for a return to corporal punishment and his criticisms of former Carol Johnson’s “Every child, every day, college bound” mantra.
While we agree that vocational programs are important and deserve emphasis, it’s awfully hard for us to argue that some students should be labeled as college material while others are not. The potential for a school caste system is too great, and based on what we’ve heard from researchers, the average student today needs the same sets of skills and knowledge by their graduation from high school, whether that student is going to college, going into the workforce or going into a vocational program.
As we wrote a couple of weeks ago, until Memphis increases its percentage of college-educated workers, we are doomed to subsist on low-skill, low-wage jobs that will leave us farther and farther behind as the knowledge economy booms. In the end, getting more students college bound is the only way we win the race for economic growth. Put simply, we don’t win with more vocational school graduates.
High Tech
Another interesting footnote to the presentation was Mayor Herenton’s
call for two technology middle schools, patterned after a school in Philadelphia, but what caught our eye was that while city government reports that it’s made no decisions about the future of the Fairgrounds, Mayor Herenton is proposing to build a high tech middle school there.
The mayor called his proposals “the equivalent of shock therapy for a district that is often out of touch with the times and out of reach from the community,” and judging from the looks on the faces of some of the school board commissioners in the audience, he succeeded.
Despite his protestations to the contrary, it was inescapable that he is receptive to a draft movement for him to be the next superintendent. He said repeatedly that he is not a candidate, but in response to a question from a Council member, he said that the district needed a “Lean on Me” kind of leader who was “man” enough for the job.
Old Joe Clark
Summoning up the image of Joe Clark may have produced some head-nodding in the crowd (except for a few women who whispered if he was being sexist), but it’s worth remembering that the former New Jersey may have been lionized in the movie, but he was also autocratic and tyrannical at times.
A few hours after Mayor Herenton’s presentation, the search firm hired by Memphis City Schools released the names of its five candidates for superintendent. Initial speculation seemed to place Buffalo superintendent James Williams in the front runner spot, but we predict that he won’t be there long.
In his tenure in Buffalo, he has been plagued by controversies that range from allegations of covering up sexual abuse to stealing his board members’ mail to violating state law in the suspension of a high school senior. Prior to his Buffalo position, he worked in Dayton, where he provoked similar flare-ups caused by a penchant for secrecy and charges of improper payments to consulting firms.
Buffalo’ed
As recently as a week ago, some members of the Buffalo City Council contended that he is guilty of mismanagement and inefficiency that are taking a costly financial toll on the district.
Clearly, Mayor Herenton has no intention of applying for the Memphis superintendent’s job, but he should be put on the list of candidates by the search firm anyway. Today, he seemed to have earned that opportunity, and anyway, politically, the school board would be smarter to get him inside the tent than to allow him to use his bully pulpit to preach a new gospel for city schools.
It’s been more than a decade and a half since Mayor Herenton was on everyone’s short list of candidates for urban superintendent’s jobs. In fact, if Ed Koch had beaten David Dinkins for mayor in 1989, the mayor would have been sworn in as superintendent of New York City Schools. More well-known was his selection as Atlanta superintendent before the business community coaxed him into staying home.
The Gamble
The ultimate question right now is whether the times have changed so much in 16 years that Mayor Herenton is out of step with the times, or whether, as he immodestly suggests, the fundamentals have not changed and there’s no one more qualified to straighten out Memphis City Schools.
While it would be the natural inclination of elected officials like the school board of commissioners to push back on his candidacy for a variety of reasons, the final test is about much more than educational experience. What Mayor Herenton can bring to the mix is the political clout, influence and voice – not to mention the chits that he can redeem - that can finally make education at Memphis City Schools the dominant issue for the entire city.
We don’t blame the school board for a natural reluctance. Politically, a Herenton superintendency would immediately overshadow them, and there are lingering questions about whether he has the temperament and the demeanor to work as a partner with the board.
These are legitimate questions, but at least for a few hours today, the city mayor seemed to prove that he deserves the chance.
Monday, May 05, 2008
The Legacy Of Thomas Boggs
A few months ago, we were asked to name a great Memphian.
We named Thomas Boggs.
Few words are as carelessly used today as the word, great. And yet, there’s no other word to describe Thomas, and his death leaves a gaping hole in the heart of our city.
He stood up for the things that mattered in Memphis and he acted decisively on so many issues that defined our city. He was a leader in the transformation of the Memphis Zoo, he was a leader for the tourism industry, he was a leader in saving Memphis in May when it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, he was a leader in the local restaurant association and inspired its philanthropic philosophy, and he was a leader for political activities aimed at creating a progressive climate for change.
Great To Good
However, there’s another adjective that described Thomas equally well – good – and it was his innate goodness that defined a generosity of spirit that exhibited itself in his boundless friendship to so many people and his contributions to so many charities that no one can recount them all.
Thomas had a good memory, and because of it, he never met a person that he felt competent to judge. He remembered his own struggles, the days when he left University of Memphis, and unclear about his priorities and without direction, he joined the Memphis music scene.
Despite his involvement in one of Memphis’ seminal bands, The Boxtops, he decided that his growing young family needed more than a musician’s life, and so eight years after failing at University of Memphis, he pleaded to get back in. If there was any question about his commitment, he did earn his degree, and he did it while working 50 hours a week loading freight and working weekends at T.G.I. Friday’s.
Grace
He remembered his tough times, and because of it, he saw value in every person, and often went the extra mile to help them fight addiction, hardship and personal difficulties, including hiring them at his restaurants where he could run his own 12-step program for them. If anyone’s life embodied the concept of “there but the grace of God go I,” it was Thomas’.
He felt blessed by his success as a restaurateur, and at the same time, he sometimes seemed incredulous as well. There was a direct, albeit improbable, line from that weekend job at Friday’s to his eventual ownership of Huey’s, and through his uncanny business acumen, he turned a bar on Union Avenue into the template for a chain of popular restaurants throughout Shelby County.
Along the way, there was no detail that was too small for his attention. As he explained it, by paying attention to the details, the big picture gets much clearer. It’s an approach that characterized his approach to his city. It was a rare occasion when Thomas would talk about macro economic issues, because he was much too busy acting on a belief that we can save the world one person at a time.
Sharing
As a result, he felt compelled to share his good fortune with so many others. He was so clear-eyed about the potential for his life to have taken another direction, and because of it, he often acted as a roadblock to others at risk. He could also exercise the kind of tough love that turned so many lives around.
In the life of the city, he was everywhere. It was as hard to find a local charity that was not a beneficiary of his help as it was to find a bad hamburger at Huey’s.
Yet, for a man who based his career on Memphis’ best hamburger, Thomas loved great food. He was never happier than during a classic meal at Paul Bocuse’s restaurant outside Lyon, France, particularly when the legendary chef came to his table for a photograph.
Measure Of A Man
That was Thomas. He was equally comfortable talking to a world-class chef or a homeless guy in a downtown alley in Memphis.
The greatest gift that he could bestow on anyone was his friendship, and once it was given, there was no need to ever question it. In the midst of crisis or tragedy or challenge, there was never a question where he would be - standing with you in the line of fire. He was at his absolute best when things were at their absolute worse.
All that he did in and for his city was inspired by one thing – his family. He proudly described the talented way that his daughters worked for his restaurants, how his exemplary teenage sons exemplified all that was important to him, and how his remarkable wife, Wight, gave his life purpose.
Greatness
Yes, Thomas Boggs’ life was a remarkable Horatio Alger story, but his business success only hinted at the real reasons that it is our opinion that his life was marked by greatness. More to the point, it was his unshakeable humanitarian, compassionate and loving attitude toward his hometown and the people in it.
This has been a difficult week, but one thing is certain to us right now: if there is a Satan in the world, his form is cancer.
We named Thomas Boggs.
Few words are as carelessly used today as the word, great. And yet, there’s no other word to describe Thomas, and his death leaves a gaping hole in the heart of our city.
He stood up for the things that mattered in Memphis and he acted decisively on so many issues that defined our city. He was a leader in the transformation of the Memphis Zoo, he was a leader for the tourism industry, he was a leader in saving Memphis in May when it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, he was a leader in the local restaurant association and inspired its philanthropic philosophy, and he was a leader for political activities aimed at creating a progressive climate for change.
Great To Good
However, there’s another adjective that described Thomas equally well – good – and it was his innate goodness that defined a generosity of spirit that exhibited itself in his boundless friendship to so many people and his contributions to so many charities that no one can recount them all.
Thomas had a good memory, and because of it, he never met a person that he felt competent to judge. He remembered his own struggles, the days when he left University of Memphis, and unclear about his priorities and without direction, he joined the Memphis music scene.
Despite his involvement in one of Memphis’ seminal bands, The Boxtops, he decided that his growing young family needed more than a musician’s life, and so eight years after failing at University of Memphis, he pleaded to get back in. If there was any question about his commitment, he did earn his degree, and he did it while working 50 hours a week loading freight and working weekends at T.G.I. Friday’s.
Grace
He remembered his tough times, and because of it, he saw value in every person, and often went the extra mile to help them fight addiction, hardship and personal difficulties, including hiring them at his restaurants where he could run his own 12-step program for them. If anyone’s life embodied the concept of “there but the grace of God go I,” it was Thomas’.
He felt blessed by his success as a restaurateur, and at the same time, he sometimes seemed incredulous as well. There was a direct, albeit improbable, line from that weekend job at Friday’s to his eventual ownership of Huey’s, and through his uncanny business acumen, he turned a bar on Union Avenue into the template for a chain of popular restaurants throughout Shelby County.
Along the way, there was no detail that was too small for his attention. As he explained it, by paying attention to the details, the big picture gets much clearer. It’s an approach that characterized his approach to his city. It was a rare occasion when Thomas would talk about macro economic issues, because he was much too busy acting on a belief that we can save the world one person at a time.
Sharing
As a result, he felt compelled to share his good fortune with so many others. He was so clear-eyed about the potential for his life to have taken another direction, and because of it, he often acted as a roadblock to others at risk. He could also exercise the kind of tough love that turned so many lives around.
In the life of the city, he was everywhere. It was as hard to find a local charity that was not a beneficiary of his help as it was to find a bad hamburger at Huey’s.
Yet, for a man who based his career on Memphis’ best hamburger, Thomas loved great food. He was never happier than during a classic meal at Paul Bocuse’s restaurant outside Lyon, France, particularly when the legendary chef came to his table for a photograph.
Measure Of A Man
That was Thomas. He was equally comfortable talking to a world-class chef or a homeless guy in a downtown alley in Memphis.
The greatest gift that he could bestow on anyone was his friendship, and once it was given, there was no need to ever question it. In the midst of crisis or tragedy or challenge, there was never a question where he would be - standing with you in the line of fire. He was at his absolute best when things were at their absolute worse.
All that he did in and for his city was inspired by one thing – his family. He proudly described the talented way that his daughters worked for his restaurants, how his exemplary teenage sons exemplified all that was important to him, and how his remarkable wife, Wight, gave his life purpose.
Greatness
Yes, Thomas Boggs’ life was a remarkable Horatio Alger story, but his business success only hinted at the real reasons that it is our opinion that his life was marked by greatness. More to the point, it was his unshakeable humanitarian, compassionate and loving attitude toward his hometown and the people in it.
This has been a difficult week, but one thing is certain to us right now: if there is a Satan in the world, his form is cancer.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Emily Jones Shrader -- 1975-2008
My daughter died Friday.
Those are the hardest four words I have uttered in my whole life.
Emily Jones Shrader was 32 years old and died at 7:40 Friday morning seven weeks after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.
Emily was a remarkable person. She was vivacious, exhuberant and charismatic.
She seemed to make every room that she entered a little brighter and crackling with energy.
She believed earnestly in karma and the cause and effect of putting good out into the world with no expectation in return.
She believed passionately in social causes like feminism, human rights, justice and equality.
She also believed convincingly that all things have a purpose, and in the midst of turmoil or an ordeal, she could always tell us how something positive would come from it.
But most of all, Emily believed in Memphis. She loved this crazy, gritty city with all her heart. She could tolerate almost anything, except someone running down her city or her University of Memphis.
Several years ago, somone asked me why I was so passionate about this city and why it mattered so much to me. I said: “Two reasons – my daughters Emily and Adrienne.”
As so many in their age group left Memphis, they stayed, and there was not a day that passed that I did not know how lucky I was to have them here. But so was the city itself, because like so many of her generation, she was not interested in anyone’s race, sexual orientation or background. She was only interested in working with them to make Memphis better, so that more young people would choose to stay here for their career and that fewer children would grow up in poverty.
Emily also believed in symmetry. Because of it, she would have found meaning in the fact that the same doctor who delivered her into the world 32 years ago watched over her as she made her transition out of it.
Also, her funeral tomorrow takes place on Cinco de Mayo – which is the date of her first date with her husband, Jeremy, and tomorrow would have been their first wedding anniversary.
Emily loved quotations, maxims and sayings, and we keep three in mind as we honor her in our lives.
The magnet on her refrigerator shouted: “Follow your bliss.”
On her MySpace page, Emily highlighted this quote by Emerson:
“This quote sums it up nicely: ‘To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children, to earn the approbation of honest critics; to appreciate beauty; to give of one's self, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived--that is to have succeeded.’”
Finally, the paperweight on her bedroom dresser bore a quotation by Helen Keller. It said: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."
That seems the perfect thought for us today.
Normally, we don’t write about our personal lives on this blog, so I hope you will allow me this one indulgence. It just hard not to mention the loss of someone as special as my daughter, but also, there is a kind of immortality with the Internet, and she deserves it.
Like so many unsung people in our city, she worked with the simple nobility that seems to characterize the real heroes of Memphis – the people without titles and without celebrity – who, without regard for recognition or for headlines, day in and day out simply try to make this a better place.
Tom Jones
Those are the hardest four words I have uttered in my whole life.
Emily Jones Shrader was 32 years old and died at 7:40 Friday morning seven weeks after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.
Emily was a remarkable person. She was vivacious, exhuberant and charismatic.
She seemed to make every room that she entered a little brighter and crackling with energy.
She believed earnestly in karma and the cause and effect of putting good out into the world with no expectation in return.
She believed passionately in social causes like feminism, human rights, justice and equality.
She also believed convincingly that all things have a purpose, and in the midst of turmoil or an ordeal, she could always tell us how something positive would come from it.
But most of all, Emily believed in Memphis. She loved this crazy, gritty city with all her heart. She could tolerate almost anything, except someone running down her city or her University of Memphis.
Several years ago, somone asked me why I was so passionate about this city and why it mattered so much to me. I said: “Two reasons – my daughters Emily and Adrienne.”
As so many in their age group left Memphis, they stayed, and there was not a day that passed that I did not know how lucky I was to have them here. But so was the city itself, because like so many of her generation, she was not interested in anyone’s race, sexual orientation or background. She was only interested in working with them to make Memphis better, so that more young people would choose to stay here for their career and that fewer children would grow up in poverty.
Emily also believed in symmetry. Because of it, she would have found meaning in the fact that the same doctor who delivered her into the world 32 years ago watched over her as she made her transition out of it.
Also, her funeral tomorrow takes place on Cinco de Mayo – which is the date of her first date with her husband, Jeremy, and tomorrow would have been their first wedding anniversary.
Emily loved quotations, maxims and sayings, and we keep three in mind as we honor her in our lives.
The magnet on her refrigerator shouted: “Follow your bliss.”
On her MySpace page, Emily highlighted this quote by Emerson:
“This quote sums it up nicely: ‘To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children, to earn the approbation of honest critics; to appreciate beauty; to give of one's self, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived--that is to have succeeded.’”
Finally, the paperweight on her bedroom dresser bore a quotation by Helen Keller. It said: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."
That seems the perfect thought for us today.
Normally, we don’t write about our personal lives on this blog, so I hope you will allow me this one indulgence. It just hard not to mention the loss of someone as special as my daughter, but also, there is a kind of immortality with the Internet, and she deserves it.
Like so many unsung people in our city, she worked with the simple nobility that seems to characterize the real heroes of Memphis – the people without titles and without celebrity – who, without regard for recognition or for headlines, day in and day out simply try to make this a better place.
Tom Jones
Friday, May 02, 2008
Pyramid Festival Grounds Anyone?
We've never been able to attract much interest to our suggestion that the parking lots around The Pyramid should be covered with sod and become our downtown festival site. But we'd sure like to take the vote in the midst of another downpour at the opening night of Memphis in May's Beale Street Music Festival.
With The Pyramid as a back-up for 20,000 fans to retreat indoors to hear some of the acts, at least something could be salvaged from this yearly baptism and mudfest. Heck, the blues tent could even be set up in the space formerly used by Wonders, and there are probably some other creative ways to get some acts inside besides the headliners on the big stage.
Of more concern to us each year than the rain-soaked music fans is the fact that our primary downtown park will be chewed up yet again, and it will be months before the grass comes back and it's presentable again.
Somehow, the trade-off of our signature riverfront park being unsightly for months so that we can have three days of a music festival just doesn't compute to us any longer.
With The Pyramid as a back-up for 20,000 fans to retreat indoors to hear some of the acts, at least something could be salvaged from this yearly baptism and mudfest. Heck, the blues tent could even be set up in the space formerly used by Wonders, and there are probably some other creative ways to get some acts inside besides the headliners on the big stage.
Of more concern to us each year than the rain-soaked music fans is the fact that our primary downtown park will be chewed up yet again, and it will be months before the grass comes back and it's presentable again.
Somehow, the trade-off of our signature riverfront park being unsightly for months so that we can have three days of a music festival just doesn't compute to us any longer.
This Week On Smart City: CarrotMob And Eight Trends
This week on Smart City, you’ve heard of boycotts to convince people not to buy targeted products or at targeted places. But when is the last time you’ve heard of organizing purchasing to get companies to do the right thing? That’s the approach of CarrotMob. Based in San Francisco, CarrotMob creator Brent Schulkin is challenging companies to behave in environmentally responsible ways and get rewarded with purchases by people who care.
And we’ll talk about eight emerging trends affecting cities with Wakako Takagi and Tisha Johnson.
Smart City is a syndicated, weekly hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life: the people, places, ideas and trends that affect us all. Host Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, talks with national and international public policy experts, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others on the pulse of city life for a penetrating discussion on urban issues.
Smart City is broadcast at 6 a.m. Saturday and Sundays on WKNO-FM, but it is also webcast and podcast. For the webcast, times for the broadcast in other cities and to sign up for the podcast, visit our website.
And we’ll talk about eight emerging trends affecting cities with Wakako Takagi and Tisha Johnson.
Smart City is a syndicated, weekly hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life: the people, places, ideas and trends that affect us all. Host Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, talks with national and international public policy experts, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others on the pulse of city life for a penetrating discussion on urban issues.
Smart City is broadcast at 6 a.m. Saturday and Sundays on WKNO-FM, but it is also webcast and podcast. For the webcast, times for the broadcast in other cities and to sign up for the podcast, visit our website.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Hard Times In City Schools
Just about the time that we begin to think that we’ve been too hard on Memphis City Schools, we get another inside glimpse that scares the hell out of us.
At the end of January, there was the case of the serial child beater given a coaching job at Ridgeway Middle School. Previously removed from his job at Hamilton High School for beating boys for everything from missing free throws to missing class, Ted Anderson was incredibly given a second chance by Interim Superintendent Dan Ward.
Complaining that his removal from Hamilton had been “degrading,” he immediately set out to degrade boys at Ridgeway, and when caught, he offered up this example of racial self-hatred:
“This is the South, man, and young black boys don’t respect nothing but strength…’Sit down before I whip your (butt).’ They respect that…quick, fast and in a hurry, ‘Bend over here, boy, you’ve got three licks.’”
Outing
Now comes the principal of Hollis F. Price Middle College, Daphne Beasley, who appears to have taken it upon herself to become the morality police at her school, including the “outing” of a gay couple. As in the earlier case, it has the ear markings of another school authority figure running roughshod over basic professional standards in pursuit of their own personal ideology.
Using tactics that would have made the Kremlin proud, Ms. Beasley took it upon herself to get a list of “homo and hetero” couples so she could monitor their behavior. Based on “information” from teachers and students, she compiled a list of names of offenders, including an allegedly gay couple.
When the principal left the names of the couple in plain view at her school, effectively outing them, the ACLU complained and sent a letter demanding that Ms. Bealey is disciplined. We think the best response would be for the ACLU to gather gossip and hearsay about her sexual habits just so she knows how it feels.
No Surprise
Meanwhile, we are told that the district’s general counsel has assured board members and administrators that there is “no situation” at the school. It would have surprised us if the general counsel had decided otherwise. After all, that’s the office charged with legally protecting its clients from lawsuits.
To us, assurances from the general counsel’s office in this case are worth about as much as the paper they are printed on. If the board of commissioners wants to really assure the public that this kind of bigotry toward students’ sexual orientation isn’t taking place, they will hire an independent, outside attorney to examine the facts of this case and render an objective decision.
Two Concerns
Meanwhile, two things about this complaint trouble us.
One, it happened at the Middle College which happens to be located on the campus of Lemoyne-Owen College, a college with a religious background. We can’t help but wonder if any of this prejudice stems from the religious subtext of the campus. Also, we think that its location might further blur the line between education and religion that already is too much a part of the culture of Memphis City Schools.
Two, it raises questions about the school reflecting the traditional hostility found in too much of the black community to homosexuals, a fact that leads most gay African-Americans to lead double lives and hide deep in the closet for fear of public condemnation from the pulpit or just old-fashioned shunning.
The Reason Doesn’t Matter
Regardless of the cause, this kind of action by a principal of Memphis City Schools is the perversion, not the sexual behavior of any of her students. To us, all of this represents the ugly underbelly of Memphis prejudice, and sadly it comes at a time when we need to prove that tolerance is part of our nature since it’s becoming a competitive advantage for cities in the global economy.
As a gay friend said to us when we were working on the Memphis Talent Magnet Report, “We are like the canaries in the coal mine. If the city accepts us, it will accept every one, and it is prima facie tolerant.”
About now, we’d like to shove any principals who harbor this brand of moralistic superiority into a coal mine for good. As long as there is bigotry and prejudice in any form in Memphis City Schools, it is by definition a hostile place for education.
Bad Timing
Speaking of our city school district, it just can’t catch a break. In the midst of the debate at Memphis City Council about the elimination of city funding for schools (funding that results in Memphians paying twice for schools), The Commercial Appeal ran an article about the district’s incredible $119 million fund balance – more than either Memphis or Shelby County Government’s.
Public sector financial officials are often the most skilled at double talk of anybody in government, and Pam Antsey, chief financial officer for Memphis City School, when asked why the schools needed such a sizable reserve fund, said: “If you have a catastrophic event, you would have to utilize fund balance to cover it.”
Taken to its logical conclusion, it would seem to mean that city and county finance officials are negligent in being content with much smaller reserve funds.
Mumbo-Jumbo
Ms. Antsey also said that built-in efficiencies have allowed the district to save money. It sure would be nice if these savings were returned to local Memphis taxpayers or if the district would invest the money in incentives for innovative teaching and learning programs aimed at much-needed academic improvement.
We don’t mean to be too harsh on Ms. Antsey, because compared to her counterpart at Shelby County Schools, her explanation was highly articulate. There, Anita Hays, said that district’s burgeoning reserve fund – now at $65 million – just “shows that you are able to spend your money wisely.”
It was an incredible statement, since it would seem that the wisest way to spend the money for education would actually be on students in a classroom.
Taking her comments to their logical conclusion, it would seem to mean that city and county finance officials are not as wise in spending their money as the county school district.
A Few Questions
Actually, more to the point, these large fund reserves indicate that the yearly budget proposals by both districts contain a sizable amount of fat, and that at the time of the budget submission, the school districts’ financial experts know full well that there is money “hidden” in the proposed budgets.
As we read the newspaper report about these reserve funds, we can only hope that reporters – or City Council members - take the time to ask a few follow-up questions:
• What is the rate of growth in both districts’ reserve funds compared to city and county governments?
• Are these funds invested or are they in cash?
• If the funds are invested, as presumably they should be, what is the return on investment?
• If the reserve funds are invested, are the investments any riskier than city and county governments?
At the end of January, there was the case of the serial child beater given a coaching job at Ridgeway Middle School. Previously removed from his job at Hamilton High School for beating boys for everything from missing free throws to missing class, Ted Anderson was incredibly given a second chance by Interim Superintendent Dan Ward.
Complaining that his removal from Hamilton had been “degrading,” he immediately set out to degrade boys at Ridgeway, and when caught, he offered up this example of racial self-hatred:
“This is the South, man, and young black boys don’t respect nothing but strength…’Sit down before I whip your (butt).’ They respect that…quick, fast and in a hurry, ‘Bend over here, boy, you’ve got three licks.’”
Outing
Now comes the principal of Hollis F. Price Middle College, Daphne Beasley, who appears to have taken it upon herself to become the morality police at her school, including the “outing” of a gay couple. As in the earlier case, it has the ear markings of another school authority figure running roughshod over basic professional standards in pursuit of their own personal ideology.
Using tactics that would have made the Kremlin proud, Ms. Beasley took it upon herself to get a list of “homo and hetero” couples so she could monitor their behavior. Based on “information” from teachers and students, she compiled a list of names of offenders, including an allegedly gay couple.
When the principal left the names of the couple in plain view at her school, effectively outing them, the ACLU complained and sent a letter demanding that Ms. Bealey is disciplined. We think the best response would be for the ACLU to gather gossip and hearsay about her sexual habits just so she knows how it feels.
No Surprise
Meanwhile, we are told that the district’s general counsel has assured board members and administrators that there is “no situation” at the school. It would have surprised us if the general counsel had decided otherwise. After all, that’s the office charged with legally protecting its clients from lawsuits.
To us, assurances from the general counsel’s office in this case are worth about as much as the paper they are printed on. If the board of commissioners wants to really assure the public that this kind of bigotry toward students’ sexual orientation isn’t taking place, they will hire an independent, outside attorney to examine the facts of this case and render an objective decision.
Two Concerns
Meanwhile, two things about this complaint trouble us.
One, it happened at the Middle College which happens to be located on the campus of Lemoyne-Owen College, a college with a religious background. We can’t help but wonder if any of this prejudice stems from the religious subtext of the campus. Also, we think that its location might further blur the line between education and religion that already is too much a part of the culture of Memphis City Schools.
Two, it raises questions about the school reflecting the traditional hostility found in too much of the black community to homosexuals, a fact that leads most gay African-Americans to lead double lives and hide deep in the closet for fear of public condemnation from the pulpit or just old-fashioned shunning.
The Reason Doesn’t Matter
Regardless of the cause, this kind of action by a principal of Memphis City Schools is the perversion, not the sexual behavior of any of her students. To us, all of this represents the ugly underbelly of Memphis prejudice, and sadly it comes at a time when we need to prove that tolerance is part of our nature since it’s becoming a competitive advantage for cities in the global economy.
As a gay friend said to us when we were working on the Memphis Talent Magnet Report, “We are like the canaries in the coal mine. If the city accepts us, it will accept every one, and it is prima facie tolerant.”
About now, we’d like to shove any principals who harbor this brand of moralistic superiority into a coal mine for good. As long as there is bigotry and prejudice in any form in Memphis City Schools, it is by definition a hostile place for education.
Bad Timing
Speaking of our city school district, it just can’t catch a break. In the midst of the debate at Memphis City Council about the elimination of city funding for schools (funding that results in Memphians paying twice for schools), The Commercial Appeal ran an article about the district’s incredible $119 million fund balance – more than either Memphis or Shelby County Government’s.
Public sector financial officials are often the most skilled at double talk of anybody in government, and Pam Antsey, chief financial officer for Memphis City School, when asked why the schools needed such a sizable reserve fund, said: “If you have a catastrophic event, you would have to utilize fund balance to cover it.”
Taken to its logical conclusion, it would seem to mean that city and county finance officials are negligent in being content with much smaller reserve funds.
Mumbo-Jumbo
Ms. Antsey also said that built-in efficiencies have allowed the district to save money. It sure would be nice if these savings were returned to local Memphis taxpayers or if the district would invest the money in incentives for innovative teaching and learning programs aimed at much-needed academic improvement.
We don’t mean to be too harsh on Ms. Antsey, because compared to her counterpart at Shelby County Schools, her explanation was highly articulate. There, Anita Hays, said that district’s burgeoning reserve fund – now at $65 million – just “shows that you are able to spend your money wisely.”
It was an incredible statement, since it would seem that the wisest way to spend the money for education would actually be on students in a classroom.
Taking her comments to their logical conclusion, it would seem to mean that city and county finance officials are not as wise in spending their money as the county school district.
A Few Questions
Actually, more to the point, these large fund reserves indicate that the yearly budget proposals by both districts contain a sizable amount of fat, and that at the time of the budget submission, the school districts’ financial experts know full well that there is money “hidden” in the proposed budgets.
As we read the newspaper report about these reserve funds, we can only hope that reporters – or City Council members - take the time to ask a few follow-up questions:
• What is the rate of growth in both districts’ reserve funds compared to city and county governments?
• Are these funds invested or are they in cash?
• If the funds are invested, as presumably they should be, what is the return on investment?
• If the reserve funds are invested, are the investments any riskier than city and county governments?
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