Business Groups Engineer Headlines While Research Ignored

We were a little surprised this week to see a poster in the window of the UrbanArt Commission for the advocacy film, "Two Million Minutes," a film that purports to demonstrate how far behind American students are when compared to their peers in India and China.

The general premise of the film is that the students in those nations more wisely invest their two million minutes in school than U.S. kids and then portentously projects the fall of American Civilization on the basis of an alleged erosion of our students' performance in math and science. The film often feels more like it was a conclusion in search of an argument rather than a project in search of the facts.

Most of all, it feeds into the well-orchestrated hysteria by some business organizations that "the United States is in danger of losing its competitive edge in science and technology." We haven't seen this much angst since our nation cast the Soviet Union as a superpower to justify sending trillions of dollars to the well-connected defense industry. Only later did we learn that we had been victims of our own government's propaganda.

How About Art?

So, why were we surprised to see the poster in the UAC's window?

Because we think that based on other research, we could make the argument that if those two million minutes included a much greater emphasis on art and music, they would produce better results in our students' lives and careers.

This all began in earnest four years ago when 15 prominent business groups – including U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Defense Industrial Council - whipped up paranoia, perhaps with a dash of xenophobia, by warning direly that a lack of expert engineers and scientists pose a grave threat to U.S. competitiveness. Actually, we'd place more of the blame on some inane economic policies of the current administration, but we suspect that most of the businessmen had already sent in their campaign contributions. As a result, it should be no surprise that these business groups are looking to the Bush Administration for incentives and tax breaks to create what one of them called more "raw material" for them.

The Drum Beat

Today, the same groups issued an updated report that beat the drum again for the crisis in American education and points out that we are being left in the dust by Indian engineers. We immediately thought of a news item that showed that more than $2 billion is being spent in India on college entrance exam coaching and the call by the Indian Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry for deregulation of higher education. "If quality institutions are provided, a large number of students will stay back (home) and contribute to the nation," the business group there said.

Oh, well, we don't want to be too harsh on businessmen - whatever their nationality - for worrying about their profit margins, but we're frankly fatigued from the constant whipping that American education takes in the process. For decades, business leadership in the U.S. has decried a failed education system, and while we are proponents for our own preferred reforms, we think that we need to keep our balance. It's not as if in the decades since "A Nation At Risk," American ingenuity and global economic dominance have vanished.

Also, we think that a single strategy on a single front – more emphasis on science and math – is simplistic and denies the realities of the knowledge economy, not to mention the components of a fulfilling life. Only someone at the top of the business food chain could suggest that the answer to our economic future is for American students to be more obsessive-compulsive about school and should feel ashamed for their participation in the extra-curricular activities that give their lives pleasure and camaraderie.

Chicken Little

We're not saying that it's not a good goal to have more people with degrees in science, math and engineering (and art and music for that matter), but we are saying that we need to discuss it without suggesting that the sky is falling. After all, in our opinion, the facts tell a different story.

About the same time as the business report said that China and India were producing more engineers, Duke University conducted a study to evaluate the persistent repeating of these dire statistics as evidence of declining American prowess in the world. Its conclusions were simple enough: they are misleading at best and inaccurate at worst.

First of all, when considered in terms of population, the U.S. is producing about 750 engineering graduates for every one million people; in China, it's 500; and in Indian, it's 200.

The Proverbial Apples And Oranges

In addition, when China and India report graduates in engineering, they don't limit them to people with four-year degrees, and they include computer technology specialists and technicians. In fact, only about half of these countries' annual engineering graduates are capable of competing in an environment known for its outsourcing. To compound the flimsiness of the statistics, there is even evidence that China includes motor mechanics in its number. If you look at the kinds of jobs filled by engineers in India and China – low-paid engineering jobs at that – they are those that can be filled by transactional engineers, according to the study. In the area of high-level engineering, the field that is dominated by U.S. engineers, and there's no reason to predict that it will not remain that way.

In addition, researchers at Georgetown University and The Urban Institute issued a research report last October, "Into the Eye of the Storm: Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality and Workforce Demand.

Here's the interesting part: "Of the challenges discussed, few are thought to be as serious as the purported decline in the supply of high quality students from the beginning to the end of the S&E pipeline – a decline brought about by declining emphasis on math and science education, coupled with a supposed declining interest among domestic students in S&E careers. However, our review of the data fails to find support for these presumptions. Rather, the available data indicate increases in the absolute numbers of secondary school graduates and increases in their math and science performance levels. Domestic and international trends suggest that U.S. schools show steady improvement in math and science (and) the U.S. is not at any particular disadvantage compared with most nations, and the supply of S&E-qualified graduates is large and ranks among the best internationally."

Needed: Bigger Megaphone

In fact, the report concluded that the American educational system produces more qualified graduates than there is demand for them. Each year, there are three times as many science and engineering four-year college graduates as job openings. "It is difficult to conclude that the major economic 'threats' to the United States are related to the performance levels of U.S. students as compared to students in other countries" and "our major economic competitors, particularly emerging nation behemoths, are not among top test scoring nations."

In fact, if film producers would bother to scratch the surface, it turns out that Singapore is trying to emulate U.S. innovation and creativity and deemphasize strict math and science test performance.

Unfortunately, the news media headlines the reports by well-financed business interests and buries statistics that tell a different story. In the end, it's a case of who can afford to biggest megaphone, and researchers don't have the marketing machine that the business sector can mobilize to pass legislation or get out its story. As a result, these statistics continue to be widely used by people with their own special interest in creating the impression of a crisis in need of their own specialized cure, whether it is more federal money for educating for the kinds of workers they want or more tax breaks for their corporations.

Driving Shelby County Toward A Greener Future

Shelby County Mayor AC Wharton this week unveiled his Sustainable Shelby agenda, replete with 52 top-rated priorities and detailed recommendations in seven key areas.

Doug Farr, green architect and author of Sustainable Urbanism, urged the 350 people attending the announcement at Memphis Botanic Garden to resist traditional silos in implementing the agenda and moving ahead. His 40-minute presentation highlighted the things that are important to a sustainable city – effective public transit, transit-oriented development, walkable and bikable neighborhoods, high performance buildings and high performance infrastructure.

While Memphis is usually behind the curve on these kinds of initiatives, this is one time when we seem to have the chance to be at the front of a movement forming behind Mr. Farr’s principles and philosophy. Already, our local ULI chapter is following up with him to set up a workshop in a couple of months to build momentum behind the Sustainable Shelby process.

Priorities

As part of the Sustainable Shelby process (with which we helped), the 52 top-rated priorities will get immediate attention. In the next 90 days, plans of implementation will be developed for each of them, and to emphasize the point, Mayor Wharton said 90 days four different times.

Recently back from a study tour of Germany with the Brookings Institution, he said that if Germany can retool its economy, remake its cities and reinvent its transportation networks, surely Shelby County can do the same. A similar point was made by Mr. Farr, who said that Memphis should shed its normal lack of self-confidence to take up the call to become a leader of sustainable urbanism.

The comprehensive recommendations were developed in only four months by seven committees - transportation and traffic, public buildings and public policies, neighborhood rebirth, public incentives, environment and natural resources, building codes, and land use and development – and the ratings for the top 52 were the product of voting by the members of the committee members and voting on behalf of the public using a public opinion poll by Steve Ethridge.

$2 Billion Penalty For Waiting Too Long

There’s a recommendation from every committee in the top 15, but concern about land use and development policies is clearly evident. Three of the top five recommendations were related to that area, and based on the Shelby County debt of about $2 billion, it’s hard to argue about the need for different land use and development patterns.

While Mayor Wharton’s attention on smart growth was spurred by the threat of bankruptcy if county government’s debt remains unchecked, he seems able now to show just as much passion about reducing daily commuting mileage (Portland economist Joe Cortright pointed out at the kick-off of the process that if we could reduce our daily driving mileage by 1.6 miles a day, it would result in $280 million in savings), the need to develop quality public transit that gets people out of their cars, “complete streets” and walkable neighborhoods.

While Mayor Wharton only has a couple more years in office as county mayor, he pledges to make Sustainable Shelby a priority, and in light of his expected race as frontrunner in the next Memphis mayor’s race, there is the chance for the agenda to be transplanted in city government as well.

Finally

Regardless, this smart growth agenda is an idea whose time has come. We’ve proven how badly we can degrade our quality of life with unbridled sprawl, with developers calling the shots, with traffic engineers given the power to shape our city’s character and with an inequitable tax structure subsidizing the unsustainable lifestyle choices of residents in far-flung reaches of Shelby County.

In that regard, it was encouraging to us that the #1 recommendation dealt with the public realm. We would never have predicted it, but there it was – “Create/reinvest in a great public realm that includes parks, schools, streets, plazas that are appropriately scaled – one size does not fit all.” Coupled with it in our mind is the #2 recommendation, which said: “Create/reinvest in great neighborhoods – not merely subdivisions – that are “complete,” walkable, and provide a sense of neighborhood.”

If we could only get those two right, we’d be happy, but if the other 50 are also backed up with plans to implement them, this could indeed be the seminal event that its organizers envisioned.

Getting The Conversation Right

As we have regularly written, too often, in Shelby County, we’re not having the right conversation about the important issues. Instead, we are rehashing the past, we are fighting old battles and we are driven by personality conflicts while our city and county drift aimlessly at a time when it needs all cylinders working together to compete in this complex economy.

Finally, it feels like we are having the right conversation about the right issues and the right strategies.

But, now for the fun part -- making sure, as Mayor Wharton said, that Sustainable Shelby doesn’t merely become another report that we dust off occasionally to congratulate ourselves on our collective wisdom.

The proof of his and like-minded organizations’ seriousness will become clear in the coming weeks, because recommendations without implementation are nothing but wishful thinking. It seems that we actually have the chance for new thinking on some old issues that are fundamental to the kind of city that we want and can create.

School Funding Train Wreck Could Force State Help

Perhaps, the journey to better public education in Memphis and Shelby County begins with a good, old-fashioned act of civil disobedience.

After all, it is in the instances of such acts that state government has overriding responsibility for restoring order. Maybe we could make the same principle apply to public education.

It’s because of the state’s legal responsibilities that the Tennessee Department of Education’s threats about funding cuts to Memphis City Schools are at their essence ludicrous. After all, it’s not city or county government that is charged with the Constitutional responsibility to provide public education. It is the State of Tennessee.

The Tennessee Attorney General has said it clearly: “The State has a constitutional duty to provide for a system of free public education for all K-12 school children.”

Kamakazi State Actions

To punctuate the meaning of that sentence, in a deposition given to Memphis City Council’s lawyer, Tennessee Commissioner of Education Tim Webb acknowledged that if the state withheld its funds, it would still have the legal responsibility for making sure Memphis students are educated. If it did not, it would break federal as well as state law.

So, here’s what the state is doing when its educational bureaucrats threaten to withhold $423 million in state funding from Memphis City Schools: It would shut down Memphis City Schools, but in turn, it would be forced to pick up the pieces and provide the public education for our students that the law requires.

As we’ve written before, that’s why state threats are essentially saber-rattling of the silliest kind, coming primarily as a political tit for tat in the wake of City Council’s $70 million cut in funding for Memphis City Schools.

The More The Merrier

Now entering the fray on the other side of Civic Center Plaza is the Shelby County Board of Commissioners, which is holding up approval of the budget for Shelby County Schools because of sizable raises for its top officials, including an indefensible 32 percent raise for Superintendent Bobby Webb.

In protecting his salary hike, Mr. Webb said that the board of commissioners does not have the legal authority to tell the school district how to spend its money.

He is right in that of course. But it presupposes that the board of commissioners gives him any money to spend in the first place. County district officials – like their brethren in the city district – churn out numbers showing that such administrative costs account for a minuscule amount of its budget, and like city officials, they simply miss the point. It’s not about percentages; it’s symbolic, and often, in the political environment, symbolism outranks reality.

Déjà Vu

The county commissioners have been told by the county attorney that if they don’t approve the budget by October 1, the district runs the risk of losing $171 million in state funds. “Shelby County Schools will likely be unable to operate due to lack of funding,” the attorney opined.

So what would happen? The county district would be shut down, and once again, it would be state government that would bear responsibility to provide education for the students of Shelby County.

In addition to his strong questions about the tone-deaf pay raises, Commissioner Mike Ritz – who is sponsoring a resolution that defers budget approval of the county schools’ budget – has also questioned whether state government is shortchanging our local schools under the state BEP program.

Swift – Jonathan, That Is

Here’s our modest proposal: both legislative bodies should refuse to blink and force state government to take over both school districts in hopes that they will be forced to consider the wisdom of consolidating them in the interest of equity, economy and efficiency.

It may be the only way that we ever get anything approaching the depth of attention that the Tennessee Department of Education has given to Nashville schools in recent months. It may also be the way we join the other major metropolitan counties of Tennessee in consolidating their schools into a single district.

In his revealing deposition, Commissioner Webb said that if “an approved budget is not submitted, we will begin in short order to put together a task force or a working group of people involving all stakeholders…to begin to put together an emergency response plan so that the students in the City of Memphis are not left without a free and appropriate public education.” It would seem obvious that exactly the same approach would apply if the Shelby County Board of Commissioners refuses to approve a budget for Shelby County Schools.

Finally, State Leadership

Perhaps, in the face of such crisis, it could be state government that becomes the vehicle for the kind of unified school district that is needed in Shelby County in the first place. Vested with broad authority, perhaps state government could even implement the 20-year-old plan for setting up four districts of about 40,000 students each but with an central organizational umbrella that handles non-academic functions like purchasing, human resources, finance, equal opportunity and planning and accountability.

When it reduced school funding, City Council members acted in keeping with their responsibility for setting the tax rate and setting the budgets for city services. The cut in school funding was the first – and courageous – step toward a more equitable tax structure for Memphis taxpayers, who now pay twice for public education and several other services whose final responsibility rests with Shelby County Government. It is in the interest of every parent in Memphis for the fiscal playing field to be leveled to close the tax burden disparity that exists between Memphians and non-Memphians.

Meanwhile, Shelby County Board of Commissioners did the same - acting in keeping with its responsibility for setting the tax rate and setting the budgets for county services.

Better Oversight

For too long, both city and county school districts have behaved as if they have carte blanche, and greater oversight and accountability by City Council and the Board of Commissioners are not only welcome, but overdue and justified.

In addition, we’re well past the time for the Bredesen Administration to become a full partner and progressive force for reform and change in our public education system. Because most Nashville-centric politicians see Memphis as some third-world place, we rarely get the kinds of full partnerships that other cities, especially Nashville, get from state government. In the past, the Department of Education has treated the notion of a state takeover of our school district as anathema. It’s shown no such reticence in Nashville where the full weight of the Department of Education has come to bear on that city’s district, which was put on the state’s “high priority” list a year ago.

Perhaps, it’s just time to create a crisis. After all, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

Bill Moyers: Media As Co-Conspirator In Democracy's Decline

Bill Moyers is always a favorite of ours – someone who’s managed to keep his idealism and his focus in the midst of political environments seeking to stamp them out.

His recent column, “Is the Fourth Estate the Fifth Column,” published by In These Times displayed his normally prescient insights into a pressing issue of our times – how corporate media collude with democracy’s decline.

It’s must reading…here.

Seeing Memphis Through A Distinctive Lens

Amie Vanderford, a reader and blog friend, is one of our favorite photographers of the Memphis that we know and love. She manages to capture it in all of its funky and eclectic charm.
If you aren’t familiar with her work, you should be. Check out her engaging portfolios on her website.

Also, her talents are being recognized by Southern Spaces, based out of Emory University. It has recently published a photo essay of hers featuring hand-painted business signs in Memphis. She has a special eye for these distinctively Memphis icons, and you can see that work here.

This Week On Smart City: Foster Care And Fostering Great Cities

Smart City talks this week to Gaylynn Burroughs. She's a Staff attorney at the Family Defense Practice at the Bronx Defenders in New York City. She's written an article for the spring issue of Ms. Magazine that describes a disturbing trend in the foster care system.

In addition, Smart City will speak with Eddie Friel. Eddie Friel was the Chief Executive of the Greater Glasgow Tourism Board. We'll find out how he transformed the reputation of Glasgow, Scotland, from a grimy industrial town into one of Europe's most fashionable cities.

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.

Memphis Is MIA In AeA Study Of Cybercities

Memphis' success in the knowledge economy depends largely on the presence of young, highly mobile, highly educated workers.

We don't have them now, and the bad news for us is that for cities, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. That's because the ones with these workers attract more of them and ones with these workers attract the jobs that need them.

The truth is that we can't afford to get any poorer, or we will be permanently relegated to the bottom rungs of major U.S. metros.

Third-tier

After all, the harsh reality is that it's not the new superintendent who is third-tier. It's our city that is now lodged in that unenviable position. The harsher truth is that in many cities, it is City Hall leadership that is the fulcrum for the dramatic change that turns the city around, and that seems highly unlikely here.

As we have pointed out before, our city finds itself too often at the bottom of the key indicators for future economic growth. (Actually, in light of some major indicators, it may even be more accurate to say fourth tier but we just can't bring ourselves to say that). Too much of our economy is anchored in low-wage, low-skill jobs, and we have been remiss in attacking the roots of this problem and in creating the kind of workforce that attracts the jobs and industries that we need to strengthen our foothold in the new economy.

In truth, it may be too optimistic to consider it a foothold.

First, You Have To Get On The List

Recently, we were anxious to read a study of the nation's top 60 cybercities by AeA and Nasdaq. We were interested in how we stacked up and in assessing what we needed to work on.

Memphis didn't even get on the list.

While civic leaders in Milwaukee were wringing their collective hands over their ranking of 34^th, we were getting yet another warning shot that our economic strategies need to be recalibrated – and fast – if we are to even hit the radar with the kinds of workers that we need.

Just The Facts

The report showed that 51 of the 60 cities added high-tech jobs in 2006, with Seattle leading the nation. It added 7,800 net jobs, and here's the really provocative factoid – the average high-tech employee there earns $129,300 a year, by far the highest in the nation. By comparison, Austin workers averaged $100,536. The average pay for high-tech workers in the U.S. was $77,067.

And if we need a wake-up call about how far we are behind in a race in which we must compete, just consider these employment levels: San Jose (252,900 high-tech workers); Boston (234,800); Chicago (180,400), Washington, D.C. (177,700) and Dallas (176,600). The highest employment growth rate – a category that we could lead if we showed much success at all – are Colorado Springs (77%); San Francisco (65%), Houston (64%), Denver (63%) and Sacramento (57%).

The cybercities report analyzes the nation's largest metropolitan areas, focusing on high-tech employment, wages, establishments, payroll, employment concentration and wage differential. Some cities of interest on the list were Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Huntsville (AL), Indianapolis, Kansas City, Nashville, Omaha, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, St. Louis, San Antonio, and Virginia Beach-Norfolk.

Getting The Right Focus

The news release said it well: "These are the types of jobs every city wants. But how to attract and retain them is the key question all mayors, city council officials, and local business leaders grapple with. All of these cybercities compete not only with each other for such critical factors of innovation as talent and capital – they compete with technology centers across the globe. City leaders need to ensure the quality of local K-12 education, particularly in math and science, to prepare children for these high-paying careers. They need to support vibrant research universities from which so many start-up companies are formed. They need to invest in modern infrastructure, including reliable broadband networks that are as critical to economic development today as the electrical grid was a hundred years ago. And lastly, cities must create a business-friendly environment that attracts venture capital and cutting edge companies."

AeA is a trade association, so it can be forgiven this top-down approach, but based on our work helping cities attract 25-34 year-old college-educated workers, cities also need to be magnets for the talent that the companies chase. There's no argument that jobs follow people, and it's equally clear that these talented workers are congregating in cities where they can find more people like them. They say they are looking to live and work in cities that are clean, green, safe and where they can live the life they want to live.

Memphis has some major ground to catch up in all of those categories, and if we want to attract these young, talented workers, it's not about expensive marketing or extensive branding. First, it's about getting the basics right, and second, it's about getting the buzz right in the key demographic we're seeking. Top-down communications will have little traction, because this generation is the most skeptical in history. They've heard it all before, and they don't believe most of it. They do, however, believe what their peers tell them about cities, and more times than not, they decide where to move based on this kind of postcard information.

People With Options

And, they do want to live in cities where they have other options if they are laid off or decide to change jobs. That said, they are the most mobile in history, and there's the general attitude – unlike previous generations – that they aren't taking a job that's going to last a lifetime anyway. If it doesn't work out or if they don't like the city where they moved, there's always plenty more.

The challenge for Memphis is to get on the list of cities that they are willing to give a try.

Right now, we're not, and if that doesn't change, our relative position on the bottom rungs of key economic indicators will only worsen

Losing Another One

All of this struck home again this week as we were reminded of how far we have to go as we watched Austin Lord, the talented young son of a good friend, get ready to leave Memphis in search of employment. (He's not lost his sense of humor, however. He tells us that he's willing to apply for one of those ghostly jobs mentioned on The Pyramid's still functioning website highlighted in yesterday's post) We enjoy his website, particularly the his daily Toasteds (find at the banner of the website). He seems to be exactly the kind of person we need to be attracting and retaining, but he leaves in search of thicker job markets.

We've said before that the real test for Memphis' progress is when we will invest the futures of our children in it. It begins by our city getting the basics right, but in addition, it begins by getting our economic growth priorities right in a knowledge economy that will take no pity on cities that procrastinate.

The Pyramid Ghost Site Triggers Memories

It's been a long time since we've knocked around in one of those big, spooky, abandoned buildings that captivated us as kids.

Today, we visited its virtual version – The Pyramid.

It exudes the same uncared for attitude and the same feeling of those old buildings from our youth - the ones that felt like someone just slammed the door and walked away.

The digital version of The Pyramid has much the same feeling. Everyone just filed out of the building, turned off the lights but forgot to pull the plug on the website.

Tripping

It just keeps telling the world about "one of the world's most uniquely designed structures on earth." We're not sure why its design is so unique, since pyramids have been standing in the Egyptian desert for millennia, but no matter. In the virtual ghost town that is the pyramid-shaped building on our riverfront, we're told about the "luxury suites," the seating capacity, the Pyramid Gallery of Stars, the posh backstage accommodations and a state-of-the-art scoreboard.

Of course, we had been lulled into believing that these actually were cutting edge and state-of-the-art until FedEx Forum was built. Suddenly, we understood what a first-class arena really looked like.

But you'd never know that on-line. The Pyramid website even lists a phone number (don't waste your time dialing it) and an email address for information. We obliged by sending an email, but we're still waiting for a reply. Perhaps, somewhere, in the bowels of the abandoned arena, there's a computer voice reverberating, "You've got mail."

There's even information about tours, and a map to get you there. All of this conjures up images of vacationers driving from the heartland to see the world's largest pyramid and like the Griswold family at Walley World, they pull into the empty parking lot and closed building.

Doom And Gloom

In case you're keeping score, The Pyramid will have been closed four years this September, so perhaps soon, someone will turn off the website.

It's an ignoble end that's perhaps to close to poetic justice for a building that never lived up to its hyperbole. Then again, perhaps, this is the only ending that really makes sense.

From its beginning, The Pyramid was the Tomb of Doom, but not just for opponents facing the Tigers on the basketball court.

In addition to the rigger who fell to his death in the building, the other ghosts are from the big plans that all met their deaths.

The Hard Rock Café on the south side of The Pyramid never got past the wishing stage, and the space eventually became a place to store extra chairs and equipment.

The Memphis Music Experience on the north side had several deadly incarnations, some boasting of holograms and The Beatles' famous Cavern Club.

The music attraction was to be adjacent to the inclinators (which were actually purchased) inching up and down the northwest spine of the building to the apex, where visitors could enjoy exciting exhibits about Memphis music legends, or listen to the 24-hour ham radio playing Memphis music, or eat at the restaurant. It pretty much depended on which day you asked about it.

Not A Ghost Of A Chance

Rakapolis, a gaudy mix of music and Egyptology (as well as deadly mix of Mud Island and The Pyramid) made too little sense, and regrettably cost Mud Island a truly fine, $1 million children's playground that was bulldozed and pushed over the side of the river bank.

The Dick Clark Hall of Fame was dangled as an option, and despite the world's oldest teenager's feigned excitement, it was all about money and died a pauper.

The Wonders: The Memphis International Cultural Series bit the dust after moving from the Memphis Convention Center to the lessened visibility of the north side of The Pyramid and died after 18 years of high-profile exhibits. (Its old website, www.wonders.org, is strange in its own way.)

Island Earth offered digital attractions and environmental ethos, it had the money and for reasons as unknown today as they were then, Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton pulled the plug on what would have been ahead of the times.

Saddest of all, The Pyramid holds the ghosts of big promises for The Pinch District. In the end, the promise of a 365 days a year attraction did nothing to revitalize the district, mainly because it obliterated the buildings it was intended to revitalize. The quick buck was in parking lots, which remain today as a sad commentary on misplaced priorities.

Problem After Problem

As we've said before, from the beginning, The Pyramid was the physical embodiment of Memphis' feelings of unworthiness. We didn't deserve a first-class arena; we had to chase one promised to us for $39 million ("complete with the balloons at the opening"). Even when the price tag rose to a little more than $60 million, it was still an ill-conceived and poorly designed and built project.

The dismal acoustics essentially blacked out the building for 12-18 months while they were fixed. The joke at the time was that at The Pyramid, it was always happy hour, because every concert was a two-to-one bargain. After all, you could hear every note twice – once when it was played, and a couple of seconds later when you heard it again.

Then there was the design flaw with the seating. In an age of increasing technology, The Pyramid's floor seating was essentially the kind of pull-out seating used for old fairgrounds arenas. There was the luxury suite problem – how to sell them as exclusive when they were on the main floor with the concession stands and all the visitors that were wandering in.

There were the too narrow seats that resulted from the increase of the capacity by 2,500 to get the deciding vote on the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. You couldn't wedge in more seats without reducing the seat width to something about as uncomfortable as Orpheum Theater seating.

There were the upper decks with the death-defying angle of the stairs, and if you thought you were getting a great deal with your tickets on the first two rows, you had to look through or around metal safety bars. On opening night, a pregnant woman fell in the upper deck, losing her baby and convincing officials that they really could splurge and put in safety lighting to show where the steps were.

The List Goes One

There was the inadequate sound and lighting systems, which resulted in a few seasons of muddied announcements and less-than-dramatic University of Memphis basketball team introductions. It wasn't practical to turn out the lights in the same way they were done at the Mid-South Coliseum and like they are done now at FedEx Forum, because it took too long for them to recycle back up.

The building had no special entrance for handicapped visitors, because they were expected to find a way to climb the steep, inclined ramps to the doors on the north and south sides. When a manager of The Pyramid could not maneuver a wheelchair to the top of the ramp, the door on the south side was cut into the side of The Pyramid so people in wheelchairs could go down, not up.

And the list goes on and on.

We're not sure what this all means for the now inevitable use of the building as a Bass Pro Shops megastore. Maybe the store sells enough rabbit feet to avoid the curse of the building, or maybe in the end, this big idea is destined to join all the others.

The Test

Time will tell.

In the meantime, we can find solace in the fact that the name of our pointy-headed arena has found its way into the annals of arena history.

Today, new arenas conduct The Pyramid test. That's when in preparation for the grand opening, all the toilets are flushed at the same time to make sure they don't overflow, something that did indeed happen on opening night at our new arena on November 9, 1991. With The Judds on stage, the lift station refused to handle all the waste water going out of The Pyramid as thousands of beer-drinking, county-and-western fans relieved themselves. Instead of going down, the water and whatever was in it went up and out, slowly moving out onto the main floor of the new arena.

It's hard now not to see it for what it was - an omen.

 

Answers To What You Would Do If You Were In Charge

Inspired by the Memphis Flyer's cover story of a few weeks ago, we asked you the same question:

What would you do if you were in charge of Memphis?

Thanks to those of you who took the time to comment.

Here’s a few of your answers:

Santo said...

Start a campaign called “Live Where You Live,” encouraging Memphians who might otherwise run away from the problems of the city (by relocating to the suburbs) to stay and stand to face those challenges in their neighborhoods. Our neighborhoods are not disposable. Ideally this would warrant government action and policy changes, but to be realistic, I’m thinking of something that is free of bureaucratic or political affiliation - a simple and clean grassroots effort. For those of us raising families, a commitment to this city involves risk and legitimate concern. Might some of us be more willing to take that risk if we knew we were not alone in doing so? Would you send your kid to the neighborhood school if you knew I would? What if you knew there was a whole group of Live Where You Livers who would too.

Exile On South Main Street said...

1. Merge the City and County Governments, schools, and police forces.
In no particular order...

2. Reopen precincts and co-act units in neighborhoods throughout the city. Combine them with code enforcement offices, so that residents have a "one stop shop" for their public safety and code enforcement needs (could also be great places for free tax help, voter registration, etc.).

3. Visit Nashville with a contingent of several hundred high performing charter school students to testify and force a change in charter school law. Make these schools the dynamic, functional neighborhood institutions that they can and should be.

4. Make our city's contemporary arts and music scene a priority. Try to find a way to work with our local non-profit community development industry to create mini-neighborhoods of affordable housing for working artists and musicians. As much as I love South Main, it represents a missed opportunity to me because so few artists can afford to live in our vaunted "arts district." Maybe we engage artists/musicians in renovating existing housing stock throughout the city in exchange for free or discounted rent?

5. Create a good-natured competition among our local advertising/marketing agencies to see who can develop the best rebranding campaign for Memphis--one that is targeted TOWARD MEMPHIANS. What is great about our city? How do we communicate that to people who already live here? How do we make our own citizens our own best ambassadors? Although the CVB would have you believe otherwise, Memphis is more than fatty foods and old musicians. Who can do the best job of proving that?

6. Invest in free municipal, city-wide, wireless internet access.

7. Require PILOT businesses to commit their employees to a certain number of volunteer hours in public schools (caveat: I stole this idea from my wife because I think it's genius.)

Zippy the giver said...

As a person who has been in the real music biz, I find the opportunities for me to make money here disappointing and the political atmosphere that affects it equally so. If I had moved here only for my job, I would have moved away a long time ago. I can't think of one good musician I know that has moved here that hasn't voiced the same opinion, unsolicited. That Music Commission has had long enough to produce some fruit on the vine and I see none. I haven't given up though; it's not an option. There are good people here; it just takes so long to find them.

Anonymous said...

1. Consolidate city and county governments.

2. Remove any disincentives to live in Memphis (financial/educational/safety).Make it cheaper to live in Memphis than in the suburbs.

3. Attempt to revitalize what were once solid middle class neighborhoods (Whitehaven, Oakhaven, Parkway Village, Raleigh, etc.), shifting attention from high profile areas (downtown, etc.). This will "spread the love" where it is needed most.

4. Create zero tolerance policies (like was done in NYC) for graffiti, code violations, etc.

5. Clean the asbestos from East High School and make it the best school, public or private, in the metro area. Attract all of the high achieving students that have left MCS to return.

6. Help the homeless find shelter, intensifying campaign against soliciting.

7. Turn Pyramid into aquarium, better than Atlanta's or Chattanooga's.

8. Create greenbelt/bike trail along rail line, as proposed. Complete the deal. Police with bike patrols and cameras to ensure safety.

9. Develop light rail along train route from Collierville to Downtown.

10. Remove the stain of self enrichment and duplicity that has dominated politics in our fair city for many, many years.

anti-socialist said...

1. Build ginoromous skate park to appeal to the creative class.

2. Nip sprawl in the bud. Nip it!

3. Stop I-269 in its tracks.

fieldguidetomemphis:

First, we need to undertake a comprehensive review of the Raquel Pinderhughes study on Green Collar Jobs in Oakland/Berkeley. It would be a great way to quantify the local industries and give Memphis something else great to talk about, akin to Sustainable Shelby. I've already taken more than a cursory look at the study and we have a tremendous opportunity here.

Green Collar Jobs is a great strategy for a community whose assets include a huge workforce that is undereducated and underemployed and underpaid. Rita Harris had a great op-ed in the CA earlier this week about this very thing.

I really believe that once we get people to work in jobs that pay a living wage, with benefits and a career ladder, that are not exploitative of the workforce or the environment, so many other social problems will right themselves.

The other thing we should do is convert Overton Square into a park with grass. That huge parking lot is such an eyesore, and it's driving away businesses. I use the Memphis Crime Mapper all the time and that parking lot attracts theft. Wouldn't it be great if it were a Park-n-Bark, a fenced-in area where people with dogs could come frolic? With trees for shade and water fountains? Something more attractive to look out on from the patio at Sidestreet rather than concrete. A place to stroll after seeing a play at Playhouse on the Square...

Here's what should go in Overton Square (the empty building at the corner of Madison & Cooper): a yoga studio, a bakery, an art gallery, a coffee shop... I can picture it. Can you?

What would someone have to do to promote such an idea?

Harvey said...

1. Hire a full time KIPP Academy Coordinator to facilitate Memphis as the city selected for expansion of multiple KIPP Academies in the City.

2. If I am mayor, then I would hire Willie Herenton and Nick Clark as my two top advisors and not let them leave the room until they figure out how to work with each other.

3. Commission a feasibility study to figure out if it makes sense to create a light railway transportation system that connects Frayser, Downtown, Raleigh, East Memphis, Airways and Midtown.

4. Buy the Sears Building at Watkins and North Parkway. Have a study done on the building (under 40K) to figure out its potential uses. If it makes sense to use the building as a college, offer Crichton College tax breaks to occupy the building and offer it to them to own if they pay 30 years of rent at $140,000 per year.

7. Hire 5 sub superintendents at $150,000 per year. These superintendents would be over a geographical "sub school district" and would report to the superintendent. Have the superintendent mentor these "sub superintendents" with an eye toward: 1) Having one of them be the next Memphis superintendent and 2) Memphis becoming a factory for future superintendents in other districts.

Anonymous 3:46 said...

I would focus on making Memphis an alternative energy manufacturing hub. Our proximity to the river and train frieght, plus cheap, clean water, relatively inexpensive electricity, and a large workforce could be major competive advantages. I would try to get solar, wind, and hydro manufacturing plants to locate in the Firestone area (after just about the entire area is leveled). I'd also create a mass transit rail line using the pre-existing, unused line that runs from second street to the Bungalow-Crump area. The city could work it's way east redeveloping these neighborhoods. A nice thing about these neighborhoods are their close proximity to the Wolf river. You combine mass transit, new urbanism, and short walk to a large nature area. The city has already rebuilt Manassas high school and is building a new High school in Bungalow-Crump, so some educational infrastructure is in place. With Peak oil coming, energy manufacturing will be an increasing sector of the economy, plus it will be cheaper to live in the city than out is suburbs. Memphis has a narrow window to prepare for the changes coming.

Anonymous said...

I would focus on making Memphis an alternative energy manufacturing hub. Our proximity to the river and train freight, plus cheap, clean water, relatively inexpensive electricity, and a large workforce could be major competitive advantages. I would try to get solar, wind, and hydro manufacturing plants to locate in the Firestone area (after just about the entire area is leveled). I'd also create a mass transit rail line using the pre-existing, unused line that runs from Second Street to the Bungalow-Crump area. The city could work its way east redeveloping these neighborhoods. A nice thing about these neighborhoods are their close proximity to the Wolf River. You combine mass transit, new urbanism, and short walk to a large nature area. The city has already rebuilt Manassas High School and is building a new high school in Bungalow-Crump, so some educational infrastructure is in place. With peak oil coming, energy manufacturing will be an increasing sector of the economy, plus it will be cheaper to live in the city than out is suburbs. Memphis has a narrow window to prepare for the changes coming.

Anonymous said...

Having 385 as a toll road is smart. Tax the exurbs for their real use ... quick and easy commuter conduit for the rich around the city to the airport.

Overton Square does not need to be a park. We have Overton Park three blocks away. The square needs to be a dense mid-rise conglomeration of new office space, living space and retail for Midtown (the true example of New Urbanism in Memphis as always). Midtown needs an injection of smart new digs for creative offices and living.

I love the idea of the Sears tower as a museum. How about a subsidized open space for art collectives, non-profit headquarters and housing for those artists and volunteers/activists? To get an office there or space, you have to commit to the development of the Watkins/Cleveland corridor from Orange Mound to Frayser. The Sears Tower goes from being a towering ornament of decay to a towering ornament of progressive action. The word "action" would be the operative word there.

How about a University of Memphis bus line (instead of a 4 million dollar railroad pedestrian overpass) that covers the surrounding neighborhoods and cuts down on the lame 2-mile commutes of some students. Makes the apartments along Southern even more enticing and opens up more areas for students to rent in the Sherwood Forest neighborhoods that have been sliding for 10 years now. Oh, have the buses run every 10 minutes instead of 45 minutes too!

Get rid of those warehouses on Broad and open up the north side of that street to some cheap retail and housing developments.

Get a damn grocery store in Uptown!

Put bars and restaurants all over Mud Island and let the River Museum move over somewhere in downtown and let the Island be what it can be ... a great entertainment district that will eventually be the site of casinos when the state of Tennesseee pulls its head out of it's a$$.

Anonymous said...

I'm Anonymous 3:46. I read about how well Charlotte, NC, is doing redeveloping areas of their city along their rail lines. Memphis has a vast amount of space in North Memphis. The populations in these areas, especially in New Chicago have dropped by close to 2/3's over the past 25 years. You already have the sewer lines and infrastructure in place.

Here is the problem the city faces, energy prices will continue to rise. (There may be short term fluctuations because severe recessions may drop demand.) If we attract alternative energy manufacturing, we will be ahead of much of the rest of the country as the switch from fossil fuels occurs. But, and this is a big but, we have to do it quickly because as energy prices goes up, there will be less and less money available to invest in infrastructure changes. Does anyone think Memphis will be in a better financial condition in 2013 than it is today? It won't and by that time, we will be competing with other cities for those renewable energy manufacturing plants. We have advantages (water, transport, labor force, cheap electricity) if we invest in attracting manufacturing companies now it will create positive momentum to bring even more companies in as the trends picks up speed.

As for gentrification, I don't have a very negative opinion about Hope VI projects and section 8. Some modifications can be done to better track people and coordinate supportive services. Some gentrification will happen like in Uptown, but here is the most you can offer lower income people in Hyde park and Douglas-Bungalow: access to economic opportunity by providing fast public transportation and close proximity decent jobs.

We reached the zenith of globalization a couple years ago. Shipping costs and rising wages in China, have started to shift manufacturing again. In a decade or less you are going to see relocalization of production and the suburbs will die. (They already are starting to now.) We have to move quickly on this. Forget convention centers and shit like that, tourism isn't going to be what it used to be either because of fuel costs, look at the future and prepare.

Aaron said...

3:46: You're on the money again! I love the way you cut to the chase and focus on what the positive actions that must be taken.

I think Memphis is strongly poised to move back into the manufacturing sector of materials involved with generating alternative power. However, what must change is the mission of the company. A new business sector with the same corporate philosophy of being the biggest, the best and returning the most the shareholder is not going to change our economic condition - it will merely continue to put money in a select group of pockets.

What we also need are new companies that exist to serve their local communities. What does this look like? Companies should be partnering with government organization to work towards empowering their employees with property ownership and have ongoing educational classes that teach employees how to downsize their consumption habits and be leaders in their own communities.

Humans are faced with learning to once again be better stewards of the earth and we are seeing this with the alternate energy sector growing. But will we learn to be better stewards of our fellow humans during this energy evolution. Will our souls continue to co-evolve with our technologies? (MLK touched on this).

Zippy the giver said...

Aaron, you're turning it into a "hope" for the future instead of a future. We have a huge population of ex-convicts here right now, that can't get a job. Lots of ex-cons re-entering -- new industry needing to be born -- retraining program to teach success and value needed that pays a living wage -- city in need of major budget trimming -- Utility in need of total restructuring -- It all equals a surplus in tax revenues and a possible removal of taxes.

When you aren't generating convicts due to a more enlightened society that gets paid enough, you don't need a big jail or a lot of stuff that makes that happen, when you retrain the ex-cons you have they don't go back to jail and they don't make more aspiring inmates because they have found real value not being one or doing that. You would have to get the new working school systems to happen at the same time too because they could destroy all the good work if left the way they are.

I bet 50% or more of Memphis is ex-cons, I'm lowering the numbers from my personal experience of Memphis. We are making more exponentially every day. We don't do an "effective" job of retraining them at all for many different reasons including badly designed, or undesigned, programs and lack of trainers.
That said, we could train those getting out in the manufacture of the very energy products that ANON 3:46 spoke of. We have plenty of wind, year round, in Memphis. Wind power generation is going to be useful here, hydro-electric could be useful, geo-thermal is the big one.

Energy smart (on a different paradigm than the current definition of the moniker) product manufacturing could be done here and we could teach Vo-Tech classes on modification of existing HVAC units to include hot water assist, (currently used in Canada), There is also a solar hot water assist that can be coupled to a very large tank, using the HVAC cold return to assist built in food refrigerators, different roofing techniques and products to lower heat transfer to buildings, train them to be valuable contributions to society that can get paid doing it and I bet you have a 3 way winner.

manufacture

Anonymous said...

3:46 here again.

Aaron in reference to: A new business sector with the same corporate philosophy of being the biggest, the best and returning the most the shareholder is not going to change our economic condition- it's will merely continue to put money in a select group of pockets." I would suggest you look at the Mondragon Cooperative in the Basque region of Spain. Started in 1956 by a priest and it now has 150 companies ranging from financial to manufacturing. One word to describe the Mondragon is "amazing."

Zippy the giver said...

If I ran Memphis, these are the things I would do:

UTILITIES: I would sell MLGW and I would take the profits and put some Vertical and Horizontal Axis Wind, Solar, and Solar Heat Powered Sterling motor Generators and distribute them around the city for free electric for city service. I would absolutely power all city functions from this system, each city building having its own plus generating power into the system, and cut the tax burden to near nothing. It's time the City actually benefits the citizens. If you run it right there will be no need for handouts to those in need. MLGW's billing practices are highly suspect and the lack of accountability and accurate record keeping should be looked into by the federal government. I had it proven to me by a meter reader and two supervisors that meters were read correctly by their people and MLGW consistently over billed "as guestimated." I was informed that they do this to large targeted areas. I thought my bill was high, so, I asked my neighbors because I just could not fathom the "conspiracy." The neighbors confirmed their bills were also way too high. So, the meter reader wrote a letter stating that he had read the meter and that the bill was a lie. I took that to customer service and they immediately called his supervisor and threatened his job. Something is very wrong there.

ENERGY PRODUCTS: Homes need to be retrofitted with AC units with hot water heater assist (the hot coil wraps around the hot water tank). We don't need to be selling any AC units not designed that way. We could put solar hot water cells on the roofs for heating and hot water. This technology is fully developed and sold regularly. We can build them here. Solar lights in the house can be gathered with a roof reflector system and brought into the house via fiber optics then distributed inside and assisted by bulbs. This technology is fully developed right now and already has distributors. The patent is open. We can build systems here. We can manufacture and deploy passive heating panels made from old metal security doors that heat to 120 degrees and run them off sunny south walls. This technology exists and is commercially available now. We can manufacture them here. Begin purchasing 100% electric vehicles for city services.

PENSIONS: I would put all pension plans to 401K-style plans that require no further money from the citizens once vested. That way you can open as many as you're willing to invest in till you retire costing the citizens nothing. Take that excuse away for raising taxes.

SCHOOLS: I would consolidate the schools and the tax base to one base. I would abolish the School Board and City Council since they have proven to be impotent at creating success and very wasteful with pensions and state funds and unaccountable to oversight. They have created parochial infighting, racism in the Boardroom, and destroyed entire districts. That is unacceptable and it must end. I would begin keeping stats on educational excellence per school, per grade, per class, and get rid of those who can not deliver results, but, I would take the individual students for a second assessment after they prove to be trouble to put them through mandatory additional training. I would take two full weeks of school and put all students and teachers through a self actualization course that would have them work cooperatively to generate excellence on purpose in grades and citizenship from the ages of 8 on up in every school in every neighborhood. Two weeks to successfully generate excellence is cheap! With the money saved on board members salaries and pensions and utilities it would be no problem. I would start year round schools, all of them. Let both parents work one job. I would integrate a public service school into the curriculum complete with projects to affect neighborhoods.
Every School would get a playground, a generator system, a community garden, a track and field (where possible) and after school coaches for sports and academics free to all. Make all school system records public other than students personal identification records and get a 100% transparent reporting and budgeting system.

RE CRIME: Chief of Police would be an applied for job regardless of who is in power, no more appointees. That is not meant as a slant against the current chief, he just should not ever be beholding to a political entity. Real-time cameras would be deployed on a statistical basis throughout high crime areas to help identify offenders and facilitate arrests. I would change the laws for sexual offenders, they get life. Murderers are easier to rehabilitate and not one instance of a successful rapist or child molester has ever been garnered.
Gangs and offenders with guns would be treated as domestic terrorists since that's what they are. I would make it mandatory that we hire enough prosecutors for the case load required. Three years is a long time for an offender to be out on the streets committing more crimes while awaiting trial.
Bail amounts would rise considerably. Judicial Oversight would become mandatory to stop corruption on the bench. I would make sure we have enough judges also, a new jail would be necessary too, outside the city center. It would have a retraining center and a farm. It would have the required wind and solar generators. Rehabilitatable inmates would be required to take a retraining course, learn to farm, and take on multiple projects that would require an ability to succeed in life in a legal way. They would be assessed to determine if there was an educational deficit that could be addressed also and that would be made available after retraining. Blue Crush would stay in operation and we would hire the appropriate amount of officers for our city. No more making an economy out of doing nothing about crime.

JUVENILE OFFENDERS: Any juvenile offender and their parent would have to attend retraining classes and complete them and a community project successfully in the neighborhood the offense took place to be released.
Inmates would be responsible for making wind generators and farming during their retraining course. Oversight: There would be mandatory oversight for all departments of MPD to ensure they are doing the job in an unbiased way and that the job is getting done.

Pretending not to have seen a crime being committed and refusal to testify gets you one year and suspension of your voting privileges in addition to any contempt of court jailtime, not reporting a crime when you were definitely a witness gets 1 year and suspension of voting privileges.

Reinstate the loitering law.
Electronic police reports on every call. Helps pinpoint statistical based deployment of resources including cameras.

Copies of police reports should be free to the victims of crime.

1. A law that states that if 3 to 5 unrelated neighbors complain that a
tenant, or, a landlord in the case of multiple tenants in multiple
dwellings, or, pernicious thugs at the same rental address under any
landlord's administration including community associations and Memphis
Housing Authority, the tenant will be ejected immediately demanded to
vacate the premises and neighborhood by at least 4 miles within 24 hours
of notice to vacate and if the landlord puts another thug in that
address his property will be seized, emptied, and sold to (neighborhood
block club has right of first refusal) a screened buyer or torn down or
rehabbed for non rental occupation.

A law that states that anyone caught using minors, children to mule
drugs around a neighborhood to hide it from police gets a mandatory 5
year sentence with no parole for first offense and add 1 year per year
the minors are under the age of 18.

A law that states that you can not put a building with rents below
market value enough to promote undesirable tenants, destroying the
neighborhood and harming the established rental market pricing for that
area. One problem is that some landlords are asking $300-$400 below the
average rental price.

A law that states that if you are a convicted felon you can not hold
any public office in Tennessee and if you are under indictment or
investigation or pending any trial, you can not vote on any issue and
must take a leave from any public service position.

A law that states that if you are a gang member you can not hold ANY
public service job including and especially POLICE OFFICER.

A law that states that if you threaten a person with death and a
racial or religious epithet is uttered in the threat you will be
prosecuted and do jail time of at least 2 years no parole.

DHS: Background checks and disqualifications from housing applicants for criminal records indicating drugs, rape, child molestation or endangerment, domestic violence or assault, aggravated assault, stalking, DUI, open warrants, prostitution, any recalcitrant criminal behavior, or any type of felony.

201 POPLAR: Make all defendants wait in a waiting room nowhere near plaintiffs or state's witnesses or victims.

ELECTIONS: I would fire the current election commission and hire a group of people who can get a handle on election fraud to take over, higher requirements for poll workers, i.e. no criminal records. Anyone found tampering with or benefiting tampering with an election is disqualified and barred from voting forever. Death and incarceration records must be immediately electronically reported and linked with election records, no more long "fudge period".

THE MED: Once it is fitted for required city generators, it would probably become viable and be able to expand its capabilities. I would also demand that stats be kept accurately so that ineffective staff gets retrained or let go.

TRANSPORTATION: I would have a light-rail line that used the freeway system and branched into neighborhoods shadowed by electric city buses that would all meet at designated pool parking lots with bike racks recharging stations for electric vehicles.

ENTERTAINMENT: The current policy of booking one venue only downtown would be abolished. The Pyramid would become a booked venue or be sold. The road structure would be changed downtown to facilitate the timely entry and exit to multiple working entertainment venues downtown to the freeway system without clogging downtown streets.

FILM AND MUSIC INDUSTRY: I would abolish the Music Commission since it has destroyed many opportunities rather than enhance them and merge it with the Film Commission. Tax incentives and other such incentives would have a regular role in enticing moviemakers to film in Memphis and recording artists to record here. I would also stop them from providing free services in a free market and destroying people's livelihood with "bad ideas" akin to communism.

One of the biggest things it all filters through is, "If Memphis is so right about all the things it does the way it does it, why are we in last place trying to convince ourselves we aren't?"
We need to think of solutions not based on anything currently happening as a solution in Memphis right now. We also need to address the core issues of our disfunction as a city down to the personal level. There was once a "human potential exploration" movement and it looks like it passed Memphis by a long time ago without setting foot here.
We should put that in too.

County Schools Flunks Political Lessons

We suspect that the Shelby County Board of Commissioners isn't seriously going to hold up the county budget to get the attention of Shelby County Schools, but it was past time for the county legislators to send the message that the times have changed and the county board better change with them.

Although we are sometimes disturbed by some action of Memphis City Schools leaders, we need to keep it in perspective: At least they're better than their county counterparts.

There are no students in the county classrooms who are slower learners than its own school board. It would seem obvious to anyone with common sense that business as usual ended with the election of a majority Democratic board of commissioners, but then again, Shelby County Schools' officials have always had an unshakable sense of their own importance.

For years, they have largely ignored county officials, thinking confidently that there was nothing that they could do to cut school funding. At the same time, the county district officials have courted and romanced the mayors of the small towns even though their governments put no property tax money into their schools.

Warehousing Students

But Memphis City Council has proven that no one should take their funders for granted. While county mayors have grumbled for 25 years about the seeming arrogance of county school officials, they were powerless to do anything about it, because they shared a power base with school board members. County schools were good for votes, even as new schools fueled sprawl, broke the county bank and were sprang more from developer influence than the influence of good planning.

But this isn't your parent's board of commissioners, and there is already a simmering antipathy toward county school leaders, particularly toward board members who demonstrate political protocol skills and diplomacy that would make Jesse Helms proud.

The poster child for the district's style of management is the Southwind High School, the hulking warehouse for 2,000 students - predominately African-American and many of them moved out of Germantown schools – that has all the charm of a new state prison.

The $36 million bunker is built on land for which Shelby County Schools paid significantly too much (about 50 percent more than comparable land in the same general area), it's built at the wrong location, and it's the wrong size, Of course, in a way, there's no denying that Memphis City Schools is a co-conspirator in this bad decision, because former Superintendent Carol Johnson approved the school, despite her concern about the location, about the price being paid for the land and about the size (she preferred a school of about 800 students). She held a veto over the project because the high school will eventually become part of the city district, and the agreement on funding required city and county agreement.

Big Box Education

It was a missed opportunity for another reason. Simply put, Memphis City Schools builds better schools, both in their construction quality and in their design. More to the point, there does seem to be an ethos in the city district that schools really should be hubs for their neighborhoods and icons for their people. That's why city schools actually have entry lobbies and public art, because design does really matter.

Here's the thing about the new county schools. They are the educational equivalent of big box retail, and like the big boxes themselves, these schools have done nothing so much as feed sprawl and fuel our car-dependent society. For 30 years, Shelby County Schools has regularly built schools far from the center of communities, fueling sprawl, traffic and pollution.

And while Shelby County Government seemed willing to move heaven and earth to pay for these mega-schools, it was content to let urban schools deteriorate into places unfit for their use as centers of learning.

Nationally, between 1995 and 2004, about $253 billion was spent on public school construction and renovation, but the bulk of the funding went for new schools. And make no mistake about it, were it not for the much-maligned ADA (Average Daily Attendance) requirements of state law, that would surely have been the case here. Some public officials regularly wring their hands about the growing county debt, an increase caused by the ADA requirement that for every $1 given to county schools for construction, $3 must be given to city schools. Left unsaid is the fact that the needs of city schools were every bit as important and critical as new county schools.

You Get What You Pay For

The director of town planning for the New Urbanist architecture firm, Duany Plater-Zyberg & Co. could have been talking about Shelby County when he said: "Most school systems are building in new growth areas. They're remote and overcrowded, and kids can't walk to them. The mentality is about quantity versus quality."

We've expressed our concern in the past about political realities that force Memphis board members to focus on specific constituencies rather than on the overall vision of the district and to deliver the political spoils to the people who elect them. However, city concerns pale in comparison to the political overtones of everything at Shelby County Schools. It's an exaggerated, politically-charged environment, where the lines between administrators and the board aren't blurred. They've been obliterated.

Often, Shelby County Superintendent Bobby Webb seems more like a rubber stamp than the big-time superintendent that the board envisioned when it jacked up his salary $56,000. Unbelievably, at the same time that the County Board of Commissioners was stressing budgetary restraint and scaled-back budgets. Under the plan, Mr. Webb's salary would skyrocket from $175,284 5 to $231,750.

We can almost hear county school board leaders saying: "We're better than Memphis City Schools, and they're bringing this guy from Miami who'll make $260,000. Good old Bobby deserves to make that much. He's doing a great job. We've got most of those black kids out of Germantown. We've never given up on our Bible studies. We can do random drug testing on our athletes. We've kept out any outside innovation."

Real Comparables

We might actually support a fat raise for Supt. Webb if Shelby County Schools can quit basing its success on how much better its academic performance is than Memphis City Schools. All this chest-thumbing conjures up memories of a former Germantown mayor who told a Leadership Memphis class years ago that if the principal of Germantown were moved to Northside High School, that city school's academic performance would be the same as the suburban school.

It's hard to even know how to begin in a conversation with someone this delusional, but for us, the best test of the county district's effectiveness is to compare its performance with districts whose students have similar socio-economic profiles. We believe that it would show that on its best day, Shelby County Schools does an average job.

Superintendent Webb defended sizable raises proposed for him, his staff and principals by saying that the county district runs the risk of losing them. We don't think he released any study or HR report showing that this is the case, but like many things connected with Shelby County Schools, we are expected to take it on faith (as long as it's Christian faith).

The district also pointed out that it's a big-time district, one of the 100 largest school districts in the U.S. (although the U.S. Department of Education's National Center of Education Statistics doesn't seem to agree).

Bank Walking

But no matter. All of this isn't about any serious comparison of salaries. It's all about what a friend once called political bank walking. As she explained it, that's when the boys swimming at the creek all have to take off their suits and strut naked up and down the bank. It's all for show and for bragging rights, and bank walking seems like it's at the root of the decision about county district salaries.

These days, Shelby County Schools officials are just as intent as ever on getting special school district status, but they appear perplexed about how to do it now that the unreleased report by University of Memphis shows that there's nothing in it for Memphis City Schools. We bet county officials could kick themselves for asking to be part of the city district's study about the impact of the special school district.

It never made any sense for a variety of reasons – economics, racial politics, one man-one vote, taxation without representation, and more. Suffice it to say, now that the report has definitively discredited any justification for a special school district for Shelby County Schools, we need to put that issue to bed once and for all.

Getting Into The Real World

Meanwhile, on the subject of schools, the folks in DeSoto County are beginning to come to grips with the costs of uncontrolled growth built on the lure of low taxes. There, voters approved a $60 million bond issue for school construction, and they've got to know it's only the beginning. Already, consultants have set the eventual price tag at $165 million, and taxpayers in DeSoto County are still paying for $115 million in bonds for previous school construction.

That bedroom Mississippi county has long overpromised the joys of suburban living, and building on its dominant Reagan style politics, there seems to be the notion that you can have everything and never have to pay for it.

This won't be pretty.

 

KIPP Vote Tarnishes Luster On Cash Era Beginning

Some days, it seems like “Every Child, Every Day, College Bound” isn’t the most appropriate operating motto for Memphis City Schools.

Instead, Pogo’s immortal words might seem more apt: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

That seemed especially true last Monday when members of the Board of Commissioners were euphoric about ushering in a new era with a new superintendent, they still managed to engage in another example of old thinking.

In a vote that was unanimous in its political extortion, the Board of Commissioners jacked up the lease on the KIPP DIAMOND Academy from $50,000 a year to just under $300,000 a year. The circular logic, pandering rhetoric and political opportunism as symbolized by the educational malpractice of Dr. Jeff Warren at that meeting were nothing short of stupefying.

They Are You

After all, it’s just astonishing to us that a school that is in fact part of Memphis City Schools should have to pay rent at all.

According to the customer service office of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, that district does not charge rent to its charters, requiring them to pay direct operating expenses. Meanwhile, new Nashville Mayor Karl Dean has called for more charter schools in his city, and former superintendent Pedro Garcia has been strongly criticized for not doing more to support them.

KIPP came to Memphis in 2003 under a contract with the Memphis City School System. Since opening its doors at the Cypress Middle School building north of Rhodes college, KIPP has received a great deal of attention, being heralded for its longer school days, Saturday and Summer schools, and its stated mission of sending kids (almost all low-income) to competitive high schools and four-year colleges.

And by most accounts, the school is delivering on its promise to kids and their families.

Delivering Results

According to results of the Stanford 10, a nationally normed achievement test taken by KIPP DIAMOND Academy students annually, fifth graders entering KIPP in the fall of 2007 were outperforming only 18 percent of students nationally in reading. By the end of the school year, however, KIPP DIAMOND’s fifth graders were outperforming 42 percent of the national norm group in reading.

In mathematics, the scores climbed from the 21st to 49th percentile; in language arts, the scores rose from the 17th to 53rd percentile; in science, the scores jumped from the 17th to 44th percentile; and in social studies, the scores rose from the 19th to 51st percentile. Nationally, more than 80 percent of the students from KIPP schools attend college while fewer than one in five low-income students typically do.

But proving that often in the city district, no good deed goes unpunished, KIPP Academy – like other charters in Memphis City Schools – is treated as an alien virus that must be attacked and destroyed. On their best days, city school officials give charter schools lip service, and on the worst, they treat them like pariahs.

KIPP became a charter school this year and immediately ran into problems with the district. The school, saddled by a financially straining collective bargaining agreement and too much bureaucratic red-tape, decided to convert to a public charter school last December (joining all the other KIPP schools in the country, which are charters).

NRA Envy

Public charter schools have been frequent subjects for much debate over the past 15 years, and frequent objects of broad knee-jerk screeds by academicians who see everything that doesn’t originate within the hallowed halls of public education as the enemy.

Here, though, it all seems to ignore the fact that Memphis charters are in fact part of Memphis City Schools. They are free, publicly-funded schools that are granted more autonomy in exchange for agreements to seek higher academic gains. This autonomy allows charters to hire and fire principals and teachers and implement their own models for student achievement.

So, now, after a productive, long-term partnership with the Memphis school system, KIPP becomes a charter school and finds the unwelcome mat put out for it at the Avery mother ship. In the school board meeting a week ago, Memphis City Schools staffers admitted that the actual cost of KIPP’s facility is $50,000, and yet, the Board – using the specious market value logic of staff – set rent at $280,000. We’ll believe that it’s real market value when the district can demonstrate the demand which is essential to setting that rental amount.

Most ironically of all, Memphis City Schools has punished a school from which it directly benefits. Under No Child Left Behind laws, charter test scores are counted with city schools for accountability, and in this way, schools like KIPP help prop up the ailing public school system’s academic assessments.

Fundamental Fairness

Fair is fair. If the school board wants to treat charters as alien, they should also forego the use of their test results for their own benefit when it improves the academic achievement for the city district under No Child Left Behind’s AYP (Average Yearly Progress) ratings.

While many cities are offering incentives like $1 a year facilities to recruit KIPP as part of their urban education experiments, Memphis seems once again to shun anything that’s not a creation of the district itself.

Sometimes, it seems that district officials — and the teachers union in particular — fear that the autonomy given to charters to hire their own teachers and principals and the accountability built into the schools could infect the established educational order of things even though only 2,700 of the district's 115,000 students attend charter schools.

Their results are even more impressive considering that the charter schools are being shortchanged. State law says students in charter schools will get the same amount of public money spent on them as other students; however, calculations by Memphis City Schools result in payments that are about 25 percent less.

What About The Children

None of us are suggesting that charter schools are the magic answer to all that ails Memphis City Schools, but we are suggesting that our district should encourage experiments on a variety of fronts to find out what works best and what can be transplanted to the district at large.

Sadly, in the debate about jacking up the rent of KIPP Academy, it was all about old school politics. No one talked about the few hundred students whose parents chose the school as their children’s best avenue to the future. We’re unaware of one board or staff member who bothered to ask what the impact the unconscionable hike in rent may have on the education of the kids there - fewer teachers, fewer field trips, or fewer hours.

And that was the most telling lesson of all.

This Week On Smart City: Cleveland's District of Design and Memphis' Shelby Farms Park

This week on Smart City are people who have big plans for transforming their cities. Ned Hill is the Vice President of Economic Development at Cleveland State. He's combining the Cleveland area's history, talent and expertise to create the District of Design. This district would take a concentrated area of downtown Cleveland and transform it into the industrial design capital of the U.S.

We'll also speak with James Corner and Laura Adams from Shelby Farms Park. Shelby Farms is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. Located in Memphis Tenn., the park is more than five times larger than Central Park in New York City. James Corner is the winner of the park's design competition. Laura Adams is the Deputy Director of the Shelby Farms Coservancy, a not-for-profit organiztion that was established to plan the future of the park.

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.

Finding The Fair Tax Burden For Memphians

In a blog from three years ago, we wrote: "Although the city mayor has now taken himself out of the picture, the committee he convened has turned its attention to school funding. If it really wants to accomplish something, it shouldn't look at school funding in isolation. It should start…with the emphasis on equalizing the unfair tax burden that Memphians pay for public services."

This is especially graphic when it comes to joint city-county agencies and construction projects. On the many projects in which Memphis and Shelby County split the costs, Memphians do much more than pay its half. After all, Memphis taxpayers pay all of the city government's portion, and then turn around and pay about 65 percent of the county's portion. This means that overall, on these joint projects, Memphians pay 83 percent of the total.

Put another way, older sections of Memphis are now being asked to subsidize their own decline.

Lately, in light of Memphis City Council's "better late than never" cut in funding to Memphis City Schools as the first step in equalizing the tax burden of Memphians and justifying the responsibilities of each local government, we were asked what should be done if Council members want to address this tax issue in the most logical way possible.

Wanted: Answers

Our answer is that we would conduct a study on the cost of sprawl that includes the following:

-- the proportion of the county tax base, for the past 20 years, that is within Memphis city limits and within the city's annexation reserve area.

-- the proportion of the county tax base that is paid by Memphis taxpayers from all residential, commercial and industrial sources.

-- the amount of county tax dollars that was spent over the past 20 years on capital projects supporting suburban development in the area outside of Memphis, including money spent on roads, schools, drainage, paving, traffic signals, parks, landfills, etc.

-- the proportion of the operating budget and capital budget of Shelby County spent in the past 20 years on the expansion of the sheriff's department to serve the suburbs, ambulance service to some towns and unincorporated Shelby County, fire services, etc.

-- the proportion of the operating budget and special services such as elections, Agricultural Extension, Soil Conservation Service, Shelby County police, office buildings, information technology, etc., that is paid by Memphis taxpayers.

-- the total of 50-50 city-county funded projects for the past 20 years, such as The Pyramid, AutoZone Park, FedEx Forum, Memphis Cook Convention Center, Memphis/Shelby County Health Department, etc., and determine the actual overall percentage paid by Memphis taxpayers.

-- examine revenues and expenditures of joint city-county agencies administered by Shelby County, such as Construction Codes Enforcement, to determine how much of the revenues are generated within Memphis and how much of the revenue is actually spent on city needs, how much was spent on general government expenses of Shelby County, and how much was spent on inspection/enforcement outside the city limits.

Paying For Your Own Decline

In setting this broader context, we should come face-to-face with the disparity of Memphians' tax burden and why smart growth will never succeed as long as city taxpayers are expected to subsidize their own neighborhoods' abandonment.

That's why the overriding fiscal policy problem in our community is not school funding, but equalizing the tax burden between Memphians and non-Memphians. Achieving that goal not only produces fair funding for schools, but true tax equity in Memphis and Shelby County for the first time.

Memphis is unique in its place as one of only a few metropolitan areas – underline metropolitan – that has such a complex web of economic, social, and physical conditions associated with concentrations of poverty and its attendant problems. Addressing these and other issues is complicated by the lack of a coherent philosophy of public funding.

Determining Equity

What is needed is a fiscal equity study that becomes the blueprint for a taxing philosophy that is sound, equitable, and logical. In Shelby County, population movement has resulted in shifting revenue and expenditure patterns, and because of this, the questions that need definitive answers are:

1) Who pays?

2) Who benefits?

3) What is the most equitable philosophy of funding public services?

The overwhelming majority of citizens in Shelby County pays taxes to a municipality, and every one pays taxes to county government. It is the disparity between county services paid for and county services received that create inequities for Memphis taxpayers.

At the heart of the problem is the lack of coherency in county tax policies. Shelby County's rationale for service delivery is – and has been for 30 years since its restructure – schizophrenic and confusing to the people who pay its bills. For example, county government delivers some services countywide, such as public health and criminal justice. For some cities, it provides fire protection and law enforcement. In others, it provides ambulance service. Outside of Memphis, Shelby County Government pays the total cost of education, and the towns pay nothing. Outside of Memphis, it has entered into partnerships with cities to help fund major road projects.

Answering The Right Questions

In other words, the current system lacks consistency and rationality. As a result, what is at issue is the fiscal equity achieved by the type, the quantity, and the location of county services. To determine what is fiscally equitable, an analysis is needed to answer two questions:

1) Are municipal and non-municipal taxpayers receiving their fair shares of existing county and municipal services?

2) What levels of service delivery to incorporated and unincorporated areas should Shelby County assume in order to best serve its citizens?

To get at these answers, a fiscal equity study should determine the fiscal power of the county and its cities, determine the fiscal capacity of the county and its cities, determine the fiscal demands of the county and its cities, determine the relationship between capacity and demands, determine the precise source of revenues and expenditures, determine the organization and content of ongoing policy analyses which find the most equitable and cost effective way to control funding of public projects and services, prepare case studies of comparable urban/suburban areas, and examine the relationships between county and municipal governments.

History-making

At the end of this process, for the first time in history, there could be a rational framework for what is municipal and what is regional (county). In turn, what is considered regional should be moved to the county tax base. Everything else should be left for individual cities to fund.

A fiscal equity program would likely shift many services that are now considered Memphis services to the regional tax base (Shelby County's), and in this way, a major goal for this community would be accomplished -- to lower the city's tax rate to be comparable to the other municipalities of Shelby County. That is only fair, because at this time, Memphians pay a premium – if not a disincentive - to live in their city.

Leveling The Playing Field

The quality of the public infrastructure influences personal decisions on where to live, how far to commute and where to shop. Residents are now tempted by their own government to abandon older neighborhoods in favor of new ones, producing a decline in the quality of the infrastructure for older areas and incalculable social costs -- the decline in a sense of community, the inequality caused by the flight of wealth, the inefficient use of land, and the redundancy in public investments.

In 2001, the so-called "tiny town" controversy gave our community its best chance to address the tax inequities implicit in the current tax system. Being negotiated at that time was a proposal to move libraries, museums, economic development agencies, most joint agencies and more to the county's tax base. Regrettably, the political pressure eased up, and the agreement was never consummated.

Conceptually, it was designed to lower the tax rate of Memphis to a level in the same ballpark as Germantown and Collierville. But it was not to be, and the unfair tax burden for Memphians remains.

That's why, in the end, ideas from consolidation to single source funding for schools may or may not be a good choices for Memphis' future, but the real priority is to inject some common sense into a tax structure that is, in a word, nonsensical.