Merger Of Our Two School Districts Deserves A Place On The Agenda

It’s been almost an exact year since Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton convened a group of civic leaders to hear his presentation – the most thorough, documented and intelligent one given in this community - on a possible future for our dual school system as a single, merged one.

It was his attempt to set in motion a process that would consider the consolidation of the city and county schools systems, and the logic of his argument, based on the data that he presented, should have made it a priority for public debate.

However, the substance of his presentation got no media coverage, because reporters were instead captivated by the no-shows of the petulant chairs of the two school systems, Wanda Halbert and David Pickler. Rather than setting the stage for a much-needed civic conversation about educational policy, the media instead sacrificed policy debate in pursuit of personality conflict.

It was a lesson in how much any proposal by Mayor Herenton polarizes the community, and by the first of September, he had bowed out of the process to look into the relative merits or demerits of consolidation.

In truth, the mayor’s proposal hardly reflected strict consolidation as we know it. Rather, it was a pragmatic merger of operational services, while setting up five districts with approximately 41 schools each and 32,000 students.

It was anything but a bomb-throwing performance by Mayor Herenton. After all, a similar structure had been proposed almost 20 years earlier by former Shelby County Mayor Bill Morris, who saw it as a way to eliminate the onerous county debt which was back then beginning to climb as a result of ADA (Average Daily Attendance) requirements for funding.

By the time Herenton waved the white flag and abandoned yet another of his campaigns for consolidation, City Hall staff said that the committee had already been hijacked by interests largely sympathetic to the concerns of the Shelby County Board of Education.

With a recent article by Ruma Banerji Kumar in The Commercial Appeal, those same City Hall observers had only one comment: “We told you so.” According to the newspaper report, six scenarios for the future center on creating special school districts, the fulfillment of the county school system’s long-held dream to fight its eventual irrelevance. As more and more of the unincorporated area is annexed and Memphis City Schools assumes responsibility for education there, the district is predicted to have about 25 percent fewer student in 15 years.

The news coverage made no mention by the committee of any study of the merger of the two school systems, which has taken place in every other major metropolitan area (including Jackson), but not in Memphis. Apparently, the political specter of Mayor Herenton hung too heavily over a proposal for merging the systems, and his visage always produces a highly-charged political atmosphere that dooms any hope for consensus. This time, however, his idea deserved a better fate.

The merger of the two school districts is the cleanest organizationally, it’s the most transparent and it’s the most easily understood. And county school officials’ rhetoric to the contrary, it does not bring about the end of Western civilization as we know it.

That said, we’re not even arguing that it should be the final recommendation. We’re just suggesting that it deserves serious consideration, and that if county school influence can force a discussion about special school districts on city school officials, surely the county school officials should at least have to consider merger of the two systems.

After all, in the past decade, the two systems have cost the community $9 billion dollars. Keep in mind that 72 percent of all the families in this community do not have children in either district, and it’s easy to conclude that it’s the majority interest in cutting costs and increasing efficiency that is too often ignored in favor of the parochial political interests of one system or another.

After all, a review of operating expenses for the four largest counties in Tennessee plus Jackson/Madison County show that it is our school districts that have recorded the largest increases in their budgets – 91.2 percent for county schools and 94 percent for Memphis City Schools.

Meanwhile, budgets for the consolidation district of Jackson/Madison County increased 50.2 percent, Chattanooga/Hamilton County 60.8 percent; Knoxville/Knox County 64.9 percent; and Nashville/Davidson County 73.5 percent.

Equally telling is the fact that suburban Tennessee schools in Brentwood, Oak Ridge, Franklin and Nashville made it on the list of 1,000 top schools in the U.S. There’s not one Shelby County School despite the frequent chest-thumping about the excellent education offered there. It’s supreme irony that once again the only local school on the list is White Station, yes, part of the Memphis City Schools.

It makes at least a prima facie case to look closer at Mayor Herenton’s proposal for a merged system with multiple districts. Recommendations about converting Shelby County Schools into a special district is a minefield, and for it to be approved, it will demand that the needs of Memphis City Schools are not only addressed, but that there’s serious money behind it to make it worth the city schools’ support.

In the end, there was a time about 15 years ago when freezing the school boundaries might have been a policy initiative that could have influenced flight out of Shelby County, but in light of annexations in that same period of time, it’s almost academic now, excuse the pun.

The thrust of Memphis’ growth remains eastward, and the annexation reserve agreements have in effect already frozen school district boundaries. These agreements were the product of the “tiny town” controversy and passage of the Chapter 1001 planning process, which moved 150 square miles of Memphis’ annexation area to the smaller municipalities.

In this way, the size of the county school district – even with no special district – has already been increased by 150 square miles. With a special school district, only the area between eastern Cordova to Fisherville and the Fayette county line would be affected, unless you are the solitary planner who predicts a boomtime for north Shelby County.

Special school districts feel on some days like one of those political battles that have been made essentially moot by changing times, but that remains on the agendas of the politicians who can’t grasp the fact that times have passed them by.

Impressively, the Five-Year Facilities Master Plan issued by Memphis City Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson has poked a gaping hole in the popular myth that her system doesn’t need capital funding and it has enriched itself from the unfairness of the ADA funding requirements.

In truth, as Superintendent Johnson has meticulously shown, the capital needs of her district are substantial and should be the driving force in any discussions about school funding. The smaller county district has driven the agenda for the past 20 years, and it’s time to get our priorities in the right order.

Back to the prospects for a special district, as Memphis City School Commissioner Wanda Halbert was quoted in The Commercial Appeal article: “I feel like Memphis City Schools comes second. That’s starting to weigh on me.”

The task force looking into the crystal ball for the future of our school districts would be wise to fight their temptation to be dismissive of her opinion. It represents the very serious reality that stands between them and creation of a special district.

Emerging Trends On Tax Reform Deserve Our Attention

Portland, Oregon, is one of our favorite cities. More importantly, it’s one of America’s most progressive, most innovative ones.

That’s been proven in its leadership for smart growth, for regional planning and financing, for cultural development and for investments in the workforce needed by the knowledge economy.

But if those weren’t enough reasons to admire the city, it’s now won us over again with its version of tax waivers.

Unlike our PILOT program, which waives taxes for businesses regardless of whether incentives are even needed, Portland city government and Multnomah County government will waive property taxes for new homeowners who buy houses in the urban core.

To get the tax breaks, homeowners must meet federal income guidelines (a family of four cannot earn more than $67,000); the house cannot be valued at more than $258,000, and the homeowner must live in it.

In return, taxes for the homes are waived for 10 years. Only the tax on the land is paid.

The program is touted as a major incentive for redevelopment in Portland. In the past 15 months, more than 125 homeowners have received tax abatements under the program created by the Oregon Legislature.

An official for the Portland Development Commission says that the program is responsible for creating stable neighborhoods where empty lots and vacant homes used to be the norm. Best of all, the tax abatements have been a lure that has attracted homebuilders back into the inner city.

If Tennessee law can allow property taxes to be given away for new jobs and new businesses, surely it can allow for investments to be made that could help stabilize our tax base and to rebuild declining city neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, all the way across country from Portland, Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell is calling for property tax relief for homeowners. He says that the mounting property tax bills need attention right now, because property owners have been waiting for someone to help them for 30 years.

To publicize the seriousness of the issue, he has taken to regularly visiting the homes of senior citizens as a way to put pressure on the legislature to take up the issue.

These are the kinds of developments that are showing up more and more in jurisdictions across the country. It would make sense that they surface here sooner better than later.

Memphis and Shelby County are in crisis financially and so are many of the taxpayers footing the public budgets. Perhaps, we can learn something if we pay attention to the emerging trends on property taxes and the innovative means being taken in other parts of the country to address this issue.

As we’ve said often, we need to reinvent the tax structure for Memphis and Shelby County. It’s not just malfunctioning. It’s unfair, regressive and totally broken.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said: “Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.” But surely, he never contemplated that the tax structure would become this uncivilized – waiving $60 million in property taxes yearly to businesses in the PILOT program while taxing those on the lower rungs of the income ladder at rates higher than those earning six times more income.

How Hardheaded Business Metrics Can Help The Hard-Core Homeless

From Fortune:

ROUGHLY 200,000 Americans will sleep rough tonight; many have done so for years. The fact that this is happening in the richest country in history is a travesty. But you know that. You've heard it again and again. You're not heartless, but you're tired of being guilt-tripped.

Yet there is a new way of thinking about homelessness whose language will sound familiar to FORTUNE readers. It uses terms like performance-based contracting, consumer-centric solutions, and ROI. Applying business logic to this intractable area of social policy is more than semantics. It is a revolution that both the public and private sectors are beginning to buy into.

Social scientists in the 1990s began to document the fact that the hard-core homeless are not like you and me; they are not even typical of homeless people. They are a distinct market segment. On any given night, perhaps two million Americans are homeless, but only about 10% are chronically so (on the streets for a year or more). The chronically homeless are overwhelmingly male, and almost all have some impairment--mental illness, disease, disability, drug or alcohol abuse.

The second crucial datum is that life on the streets is not cheap. That guy you've been passing in the box under the scaffolding costs the city of New York at least $40,000 a year in jail time, shelter costs, emergency room visits, and hospital stays. In Dallas, researchers put the figure at $50,000; in San Diego, as much as $150,000.

The new paradigm is that by focusing on the chronic homeless, cities can get people off the streets and spend no more and maybe less than they do by letting them stay there. "Cost-benefit analysis is a friend to the homeless," says Philip Mangano, a former music impresario who heads the federal government's Interagency Council on Homelessness. His goal is to end hard-core homelessness in ten years. So far, 200 mayors--Mangano likes to call them "CEOs of cities"--have drawn up plans to do just that.

That's where business metrics come in. The first step is to establish a baseline of just how big the market is. This is typically done by a street count--going out at night and seeing how many people are sleeping rough. Atlanta figures it has as many as 2,000 chronically homeless; Detroit, 1,200; New York, 4,400. Accountability comes by setting benchmarks for improvement and rewarding those who meet the numbers.

Next there are the consumers--the homeless themselves. The market research is done the usual way: asking what they want. The typical response is emphatic. They don't want a 12-step program or a bed in a shelter. What they want is a room of their own.

Putting it all together has resulted in a strategic plan, Housing First. That is, get people into a room or apartment, by either renting in the private sector or building permanent supported housing, and then bring social services to the tenant. The rationale is brilliantly simple: If you give people what they want (not what you think they should want), they might just accept it.

It seems to work. Pathways to Housing, a nonprofit, has placed some 400 chronically homeless, mentally ill New Yorkers in rentals and reports a success rate of 88% (defined as not returning to the streets for five years), at a cost of about $22,000 a year per person. ValueOptions, a managed-care provider, reports a 92% success rate with a similar population in Phoenix, also using private housing. Having a real address boosts medical compliance, reducing costs down the line, which matters to ValueOptions, a for-profit company. Using the same strategy, San Francisco has seen a 40% drop in street homelessness, and companies like PG&E, Gap, Charles Schwab, and J.P. Morgan Chase are supporting the city's ten-year plan.

So are these 200 cities really going to end chronic homelessness? As with any business plan, a lot has to go right. But while applying the metrics of business to homelessness may sound icily clinical, ultimately this is the language of hope.

Business Improvement Districts Can Be The Spark For Cleaner, Safer And More Attractive City

Following up our last post about TIF, how about another alphabet approach that could be a positive addition to Memphis’ tools for the future? It’s a BID.

To recap, we’re suggesting that our economic and community development experts move beyond the dependency on the tax freezes of the PILOT program, and rather than being mired in the present policy, we’d like them to think about what the perfect system of business incentives would look like and present them to the community as the goals for our public policies.

A couple of days ago, we wrote about tax increment financing (TIF), which has been a powerful tool for transformation in cities like Nashville and Chicago. Another tool producing equally impressive results is the business improvement district (BID).

A BID is created by public law, but it is privately operated, supplementing public services to make a specific geographic district cleaner, safer and more attractive by services funded by taxes that district businesses assess against itself.

Some highly successful examples of BIDs are the Cleveland Theater District Development Corporation, Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward Association, Central Atlanta Progress, Downtown D.C., Renaissance Group in Cedar Rapids and Alliance for Downtown New York. Each uniquely addresses specific needs of their respective geographic areas.

One of the most important development in governance in the past couple of decades, the model BID programs across the U.S. mount crime prevention programs, such as security patrols, police mini-stations and community service representatives. They aren’t police officers, but they are highly trained to help in making arrests, helping victims and testifying in court.

To make their districts cleaner, they have programs to remove graffiti, to install and maintain landscaping and to clean public spaces. They also brand the district, mounting marketing campaigns, streetscape improvements, signage, banners and flags and organizing festivals.

The reasons these districts work is that they are not in response to a public mandate from government, accompanied by new taxes to pay for the added services. In BIDs, the impetus comes from businesses, who get together to tax themselves to raise money to improve their areas of the city. Once the BID is formed, the tax assessment is mandatory, but unlike other taxes, city government returns the revenues to the BID for its use in the district.

The reason that BIDs work so well is that they are the antithesis of government. They operate without bureaucracy, without volumes of Civil Service rules, without red tape, and their workforce is hired on performance, not government mandates.

As budgets have gotten tight and financial crises become common, local governments have responded by cutting services that improve the public realm – landscaping, walking patrols, sanitation, etc. That’s why these are the focus of BIDs, because they, in effect, harken back to a simpler time when the cleanliness and quality of the public space was a major public priority.

BIDs represent a breakthrough in creative thinking at the local level. As one study concluded, “as entrepreneurial enterprises, BIDs are expected to channel private-sector energy toward the solution of public problems,” and the New York Times has hailed them as “one of the engines of New York City’s renaissance.”

Yes, it’s infuriating that even with the cumulative high tax rates of Memphis and Shelby County, we can’t guarantee safety and cleanliness in our commercial districts. But rather than howl against the wind, BIDs are a way that business districts can take control of their own destinies.

The most obvious testimony to their effectiveness is that 20 years ago, there were only a handful of them, but today, there are hundreds in the 42 states and the District of Columbia where they are allowed. It’s time that we give them a serious look in Memphis.

As we’ve said previously, Memphis and Shelby County need to break their over reliance on tax freezes, and as a community, we need to plant the seeds for an innovation culture.

A BID could be a step in the right direction, but we need our economic development experts to help us out. We need them to apply their expertise and experience to a broader mission – to consider all the options that are available to communities these days and tell us what we need as a city to compete, to innovate and to succeed.

Tax Increment Financing Could Be A Valuable Tool In A Balanced System Of Business Incentives

It’s time to resurrect tax increment financing (TIF) as a possible incentive for economic growth in Memphis and Shelby County and as an alternative to our overreliance on tax freezes.

The TIF is the favored business incentive in Nashville, and it is a major reason that our capital city issued only five tax freezes in a 10-year period, while we were handing out 415 of them.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, the TIF is credited with the city's economic turnaround of recent years. On the city's list of available financial incentives, TIFs are first, and the city has used them heavily to its advantage. Chicago has tailored strategies around tax increment financing to create TIFWorks, which allows businesses in the TIF district to get up to 75 percent of workforce development costs; Small Business Improvement Fund, which uses TIF revenues to fund improvements to small business properties; and the Laboratory Facilities Fund Program, which uses the TIF to attract lab space and technology companies.

The TIF listed in a report -- six-pages, single-spaced -- that inventories business incentives offered by city and state governments. It’s an impressive list of tools that Chicago has at its disposal.

The list of incentives in Illinois speaks volumes about our well-documented lack of similar incentives in Tennessee and is part of the reason -- beyond tradition, a sense of unworthiness and pressures from the development industry -- that our economic development experts say they have to use tax freezes to make up for the lack of incentives at the state level.

Rather than make a last-ditch effort to keep the PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-tax) program from changing, economic development officials would be wise to turn their attention to telling us what a well-rounded arsenal of incentives would look like. We all know that we have to offer some kinds of incentive, and we want something to support. That's something that our experts can deliver in the form of changes that we can get behind.

Absent a broader context, protectors of the status quo run the risk of the PILOT program in a political environment that will slowly strangle the program to death. Already, there are widespread complaints on the campaign trail, by candidates and supporters, about the $60 million in taxes that are waived each year in tax freezes.

Make no mistake about it, adverse public opinion is like water dripping on a stone. It may look at times like it’s having no effect, eventually, it will erode away the rock. Even in the face of the considerable influence of the real estate industry, it is an inevitable conclusion if no changes are made to the PILOT program.

In truth, the TIF never got a fair hearing in Memphis. A few years ago, Robert Lipscomb, as part of his community development master plan, proposed a number of TIF districts, and the Center City Commission had one of its own in the works. Mr. Lipscomb got one of his requests approved – the much-lauded Uptown project – but the others got a deaf ear. The Center City Commission’s proposal couldn’t even get off the ground.

The reluctance by the Memphis City Council and Shelby County Board of Commissioners to embrace TIFs was directly related to concern about PILOTs. In the legislators’ minds, if tax increment financing was approved without reining in the existing PILOT program, they wondered if local government would be undermining its tax base to the point of no return.

In Nashville and Chicago, where they have witnessed a renaissance in economic growth, there’s been almost no mention of tax freezes. Instead, it’s about the TIF, which allows government to borrow money and build the public infrastructure that a business prospect needs, such as roads and utilities. Government then pays off the debt by taxing the higher values of the development. In other words, business gets the benefits, but not by shifting the tax burden to existing taxpayers.

Nashville has used tax increment financing for a number of projects, including the BellSouth Tower, and late last year, TIF came into play in the negotiations for a new baseball stadium and for the $200 million, 55-story Signature Tower, a residential skyscraper at Fifth Avenue and Church Street. For the skyscraper, $12 million in TIF bonds will be guaranteed by future property taxes from the developer of the building.

In this way, the TIF is sometimes seen as cash up-front to a developer, and there are some complaints in Nashville that it’s handouts to wealthy developers and being used in parts of downtown that aren’t really blighted (a condition in the law creating the TIF).

As Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell contends, the TIF loan doesn’t cost taxpayers anything because it involves property tax revenues paid by the new developments themselves. These days, here, we not only waive taxes for the new business, but then government accepts responsibilities for infrastructure improvements, like roads, interchanges, new exit ramps, etc. Essentially, it amounts to a double hit for local property taxpayers.

TIF is now authorized in 47 states, and although it’s regulated by the state, it’s controlled by the city to help redevelop areas that are deemed “blighted.” When an area is redeveloped, it creates new property taxes. From these taxes, the original property taxes (based on the unimproved values) is paid to the city and county, and the balance (the tax increment) goes into a special fund to subsidize some portion of the redevelopment.

Usually, TIF pays for streets, sewers, parking facilities, land acquisition, planning expenses, job training, demolition and clean-up costs. The annual TIF payments are used to pay the debt service on special bonds. It is this flexibility that makes it so attractive to cities across the U.S. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley says it’s the “only game in town.”

Tax increment financing is not perfect. No business incentive is, but it’s time to look beyond PILOTs to a time when we have a more balanced, diverse mix of business incentives in Memphis and Shelby County. Tax increment financing didn’t get anywhere last time it was discussed by local legislative bodies, but perhaps, with some much-needed controls put in place on the PILOT program, it’s time to revisit it.

In leading this review and in creating a new system of incentives, our economic development experts demonstrate their concern to the taxpayers who are footing the bill for all these incentives in the first place.

Neighborhoods Rank High In Census Bureau Survey Of Memphis

Memphis loves its neighborhoods.

All prevailing political conjecture to the contrary, there is no argument that the thread that runs through the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey of the Memphis MSA is our overwhelmingly favorable opinions of our neighborhoods.

The American Housing Survey is an almost yearly survey of housing and household characteristics. It’s hard to imagine what you would want to know about housing in Memphis region that’s not included in the 356-page report. There’s voluminous information on total occupied housing units – owner-occupied or renter-occupied, or black-occupied or Hispanic-occupied, number of rooms, building conditions, air conditioning, and more and more.

Residents were asked more than 800 questions, ranging from whether they find their neighbors bothersome to their opinions on public schools. A different group of cities is picked each time for the survey, and Memphis last hit the list in 1996.

Although favorable attitudes toward neighborhoods have dropped somewhat, it’s worth noting that 24 percent of us rate our neighborhoods as a “perfect 10.”

Included in the survey with a dozen other cities, Memphis’ perfect 10 rating is near the average of 27 percent for all cities, but was more than Seattle (20%) and Denver (19%). Meanwhile, 26 percent of Atlantans gave their neighborhoods perfect 10’s and St. Louis had a 28 percent rating.

In fact, 62 percent of the occupants of area housing rate their neighborhoods (on a scale of 1 to 10) as eight or better. Only three percent rate their neighborhood on the worst end of the scale -- one, two or three.

Some other factors that interested us targeted crime, schools, safety and bothersome neighborhood conditions. About three-fourths said there was no street or traffic noises in their neighborhoods, and about 60 percent of those who did report noise said it didn’t bother them.

As for crime, 28 percent said crime was present in their neighborhoods, but only 17 percent said the condition was “bothersome” and only half that number said they were bothered so much they wanted to move. Police protection was ranked unsatisfactory by only nine percent.

On the list of problem conditions, problem people finished at the top, but still at only about five percent. Litter or housing deterioration had 3 percent and poor city and county services received 1.2 percent.

Of the total 430,800 units, the occupants of 123,400 units had children between the ages of five and 15, or about 29 percent.

Thirty-two percent had children between birth and 13 years old, and of the number with children, about 11 percent said their public elementary school was unsatisfactory, but only five percent said they were so problematic that they want to move.

These are extremely positive ratings, but it’s worth noting that when compared to eight years ago, those who rated their neighborhoods as 8, 9 or a perfect 10 back then accounted for 68 percent, as compared to this year’s 62 percent, a drop of about 10 percent.

But then again, however, those who ranked their neighborhoods on the “worst” end of the scale had also dropped – from five to three per cent.

Success At Addressing Panhandling Problem Will Take MPD's Help

Ok, we admit that downtown panhandling is a hot button issue for us, so we were doing our best to support the latest anti-panhandling campaign rolled out by Memphis Police Department, Center City Commission and others.

Our patience was short-lived. Last week, leaving Calvary Episcopal Church’s Lenten Preaching Services, uplifted after hearing Temple Israel’s Senior Rabbi Micah Greenstein, we were approached by a panhandler who seemed to spring from behind the church door as we were leaving.

“Can you give me some money to help me out?” he implored, and patiently, we mentally pulled up the information on the Center City Commission website about panhandling and told the scruffy, fragrant fellow that Calvary Episcopal had programs that could help him.

“No, I don’t want to go there, because they won’t help me,” he answered with an obvious lie. We continued to tell him about Calvary’s programs and about Union Missing, but he persisted. We walked two blocks with him in tow, and as if someone had hit his “repeat” button, over and over, he asked for money.

But, we were resolute, and we refused, and finally we escaped by climbing into the car. It was no deterrent, because he stood in front so we couldn’t pull out, tapping on the rear view window as he continued to ask for money.

Finally, we escaped, promising ourselves to keep things in perspective while wondering aloud where the police are when these every day occurrences in downtown Memphis take place.

Three days later, I pull into the Exxon gas station at Poplar Avenue and Danny Thomas Boulevard against my better judgment. I quit going there years ago, because of the ever-present panhandling, but my car’s on empty and I have no choice.

I’m barely out of my car when accosted by a burly man in a bulky coat. “I need some money for dinner,” he says, extending his hand.

“I’d be glad to buy you dinner inside,” I answer. “What can I get you?”

“I need some money,” he intones, as if I never made the offer.

“I heard you, and I’ll gladly buy you dinner if you tell me what you want,” I responded. This time, his hand pokes me in the side, as he says yet again, “I need some money for something to eat.”

Finally, after three more stanzas of this song, his frustration grew so much that he stomps off, uttering some comment that seemed to involve my mother and me and an Oedipal urge that I can promise you does not exist. Finally, my gas tank full, I go inside to pay, where a uniformed policeman is chatting up the clerk.

All in all, it reenforces the feeling that the entire anti-panhandling campaign is a “blame the victim” program destined for failure because of MPD’s lack of interest. Panhandlers have plied their trade with such impunity that they feel invincible. They’ll even hassle tourists with policemen in sight.

The price of such indifference is steep. It produces a downtown made inhospitable to residents, workers and tourists who can never escape from the incessant threat of panhandling. And soon, it will get worse as the numbers swell, the regular summer resident moves into Barboro Alley where he’ll live in a sealed up window of the Butcher Shop, others will party under the windows of downtown lofts and the smell of urination will blend with the smells of the barbecue festival.

We’re trying to be philosophical this year, but it’s just so hard. This problem just seems to go on year after year, anti-panhandling campaign after anti-panhandling campaign.

Even the new program’s marketing seems conflicted. On one hand, the Center City Commission’s website rightly points out that most panhandlers are not homeless. “In fact, the vast majority of panhandlers are NOT homeless, and the vast majority of homeless do NOT panhandle,” the CCC says. “Generally speaking, panhandlers are strangers that approach you on the street to hustle you for money, which will most likely be used to buy drugs or alcohol.”

And yet, the posters taped in downtown windows implore us to “say yes to charities that help the homeless and the needy.” We agree that we will indeed say yes, but that seems to still leave us to deal with the panhandlers.

The FAQs on the Center City Commission website clarifies the behavior that is illegal. It is when profanity or abusive language is used to ask for money or in response to a refusal for money; it is illegal when done in a group of two or more people; it is illegal when it is perceived as a threat; it is illegal when done in a way that is intimidating or obstructs walkers or cars; it is illegal to assault someone or touch them while begging; and it is illegal to use false or misleading solicitations.

That’s helpful information, and we’ll keep it in mind as we begin the Summer games with Memphis’ regular panhandler population. We just hope someone shares this information with MPD and that it does something to send the message that this year is going to be different.

To repeat, this is not about the homeless. Less than five percent of homeless beg, according to research. While we launch another program, the Nashville police chief continues to make the battle against panhandling a priority for his force.

Cincinnati conducts a quarterly census, passes laws against panhandling and removes camp sites. Other cities actively addressing this public nuisance include Little Rock, Atlanta, Austin, Orlando, Los Angeles, Washington, Miami Beach and Las Vegas. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin led passage of a city ordinance that bans panhandling within the tourist triangle of her city, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic site.

The key to those cities’ success has been the buy-in by police departments which enforce the law. In truth, it’s a problem that we ought to be able to solve. The hard-core panhandlers downtown probably number about 100 people on the worst day. It just seems like more.

As for us, we’ll do whatever we can to help the homeless, but we would settle to get the panhandlers off the street.

Potential Harrah's PILOT Points Out The Need To Reform The Program...Now

Frequently, a government agency does something that just makes you shake your head and wonder, “Do they really think we’re that stupid?”

That’s a regular reaction when it comes to the actions of the Memphis and Shelby County Industrial Development Board. And it looks like we’re about to have it one more time.

This time it’s provoked by the IDB’s expected gift Wednesday to Harrah’s Entertainment – an eight-year waiver from paying property taxes on its new 285,000 square foot building for its Central Division Office.

As usual, it’s a real estate deal masquerading as economic development strategy. We’re supposed to be excited enough to believe that it’s worth eight years of waived taxes to get Harrah’s to move into the long-vacant Concord EFS building in Goodlett Farms.

“It’s one of the best Class A office buildings in the city,” John Lamberson, a vice president of CB Richard Ellis told The Commercial Appeal’s Amos Maki. “There’s really nothing else like it in the region.” “It’s truly an amazing facility,” echoed Wyatt Aiken of Commercial Advisors LLC.

Now would someone remind us why we need to waive eight years of taxes to make this office building attractive enough for Harrah’s to move into it?

It makes even less sense when you do the numbers.

The eight years of taxes that the IDB is expected to give away to Harrah’s amounts to $2.6 million. In other words, we’re supposed to believe that somehow Harrah’s remaining in Memphis and occupying this “amazing facility” rests on whether we, as a community, “invest” $325,000 a year in this enterprise.

By the way, $325,000 is what Harrah’s takes in as revenue every 24 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

It’s pretty hard to imagine a situation where this petty cash fund even factors into the massive casino company’s decision to move to new headquarters and hire 65 new employees in Memphis.

And yet, it’s probable that the Industrial Development Board has already brought out the rubber stamp.

Unfortunately, the well-reasoned recommended changes for the PILOT (Payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) program are still just that – recommendations. While Memphis and Shelby County engages one of their favorite stalling tactics – the appointment of an advisory committee – the approval of tax freezes continue.

One particular common sense recommendation by the consultants who evaluated the existing PILOT program comes to mind in Harrah’s case. It’s the that calls for abandoning the current matrix approach – which could award a five-year freeze to a chimpanzee that managed to scratch something in the right box – and replacing it with a “but for” test to determine the true economic need of a project.

In other words, the “but for” test, as explained by the consultants, means that private investment is not reasonably anticipated without public investment.

The current PILOT program doesn’t take into consideration whether the tax waiver is absolutely necessary to put Memphis and Shelby county on par with other locations or to make a Memphis project economically feasible. Because there is no emphasis on this, it’s impossible to tell if companies like Harrah’s would located elsewhere if the PILOT were not awarded.

In Harrah’s case, it’s hard to imagine that it is prepared to pay the huge moving costs associated with uprooting its Central Division office from Memphis and moving it somewhere else. It’s even harder to imagine that $325,000 in tax waivers is a deal killer.

It’s past time to quit studying the consultants’ recommendations on reforming the PILOT program and implement the changes. As we’ve mentioned before, the authority for granting these freezes actually rests with Memphis City Council and Shelby County Board of Commissioners, not the mayors, so it seems timely for the legislative bodies to regain control of this issue and pass the recommendations.

As city and county governments prepare to roll out their proposed budgets for the coming fiscal year, prepare yourself to hear the normal rhetoric about cutting government to the bone, about reducing the workforce and about increasing productivity. There will be the usual talk about the lack of adequate tax revenues to fund some services and cuts will be announced in others.

And all of this will take place while $60 million in taxes is being waived yearly by the IDB and Center City Commission Revenue Finance Corporation. It’s impossible to argue with the reasoning of the 97-page consultants report that sets out the much-needed changes to the processes that give away city and county taxes.

Throwing a $325,000 rock in Harrah’s $7.1 billion pond doesn’t even make a ripple. But $325,000 can make the difference between life and death for some public services.

Can’t somebody simply suggest to Harrah’s that they take this opportunity to make Memphis business history by withdrawing its application for a tax freeze?

Now that’s something that really deserves a headline in The Commercial Appeal. And in all the sections.

A Timely Earth Day Sermon By Rabbi Micah Greenstein

Temple Israel Senior Rabbi Micah Greenstein spoke at Calvary Episcopal Church's Lenten Luncheons last week on Earth Day. You can hear it at: http://www.calvaryjc.org/homiliesLent/20060321.html

Here's an abridged text version:


Whereas fundamentalists and evangelicals do a great job of saving souls and protecting the unborn, the preoccupation of mainline churches is saving lives and protecting the already born right here in Memphis – not just people saved on missions, but the invisible people - the poor and hungry of all creeds and religions.

The future of this city, and every American city, does not depend on the vertical direction of the Cross. The future of this city depends on the horizontal direction of the Cross. This means reaching out as the first century Jew named Jesus would do by putting one's faith into action for the betterment of all God's children. If the larger churches in Memphis and Shelby County were to support MIFA, the Church Health Center, the Memphis Food Bank, and other sacred community causes proportionate to the way this church and its partner churches do, there is no doubt we could solve most of the hunger, homelessness, ill health, misery and despair which plague too many in our city

The new encounter between Judaism and Christianity we are witnessing in Memphis is beautifully expressed in Rabbi Irving Greenberg's recent book entitled "For The Sake of Heaven and Earth." Some of us in Memphis, and hopefully more to follow, have moved beyond tolerance and pluralism to partnership.

Religious partnership, as Greenberg expresses it, means “my truth and my faith system alone will not fulfill God's dreams. The world needs the contribution that other faith traditions make to realize its wholeness.” This makes sense to me. The thought of twelve million Jews carrying six billion people on its shoulders, or two billion Christians carrying four billion other people on it shoulders, that thought alone should give each of us a spiritual hernia! We need each other.

It was exactly 35 years ago on this very day, March 21, 1971, when the United Nations celebrated what Job reminds us in today’s scriptural reading – that we have a shared responsibility to protect the planet. Earth Day was born on this very day, March 21. Important laws would be passed by Congress, including the Clean Air Act to protect drinking water, wild lands, and the ocean. The EPA was created within three years of the first Earth Day, yet few seem to care anymore about this specific date in time, or about the environment in general, except God and Job.

We live in an age of apathy, where it’s hard to get Americans excited about anything. We live in an age where more Americans watched the last Superbowl than voted in the Presidential election. Nearly 12 million more Americans watched the Super Bowl than voted in the 2004 election.

How can we rouse our neighbors, regardless of their political or religious affilation, to the issue this March 21 date calls us to address? And why should we awaken ourselves to issues like global warming and the air we breathe? Why? Because there is a tipping point beyond which the damage to the earth's atmosphere and climate will be irreversible. We may already be at that point, and nobody seems to care.

It wasn't always that way. In a major address given by Dr. Steven Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute, he asks you to guess which prominent politician made the following statement: "There is an absolute necessity of waging all-out war against the debauching of the environment. The bulldozer mentality of the past is a luxury we can no longer afford. Our roads must be planned to prevent the destruction of scenic resources and to avoid needlessly upsetting the ecological balance." Sounds like an Al Gore or Ralph Nader quote, doesn’t it? Ronald Reagan uttered these words!

And guess which political magazine printed the following in its editorial: "If corporations do not stop polluting, we must find ways to compel them to do so...important people must be interfered with before notice will be taken of disagreeable facts. Instead of demonstrating on Fifth Avenue on behalf of baby seals, the saviors of the environment would get far better results picketing the country clubs of Nassau, Fairfield, and Morris counties." Sounds like Mother Jones magazine, but it was the conservative National Review which published this blistering statement on the state of the environment.

As Dr. Hayward notes, in the 1970, the environment was the consensus domestic policy issue around which it was believed the nation could move forward in a bipartisan fashion. What was once a bipartisan consensus issue is now among the most highly polarized domestic policy issues in our nation.

"The growing possibility of destroying ourselves and the world with our own neglect and excess is tragic and very real," Rev. Billy Graham said 23 years ago. And at the other end of the religious spectrum, Rabbi Alexander Schindler adds, “It's clear that the earth we inherit is in danger: the skies and the seas, the forests and the rivers, the soil and the air, are all in peril.”

I don't blame corporations or developers for the fragile state of the environment. I blame each of us. Corporations will always attempt to maximize profits within the parameters of the law. That’s their business. The ethic of business is private gain. The ethic of government is public safety and the greater good. The ethic of the religious world is moral accountability for our actions as stewards of God’s world.

It is time for the religious community, for people of all faiths, ages, political affiliations, and backgrounds, to weigh in by asking every elected official, every future candidate and public decision maker, “What are you willing to do to take care of the environment before the situation gets any worse?” "Just ask the animals," Job proclaims, “and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?”

Perhaps the most immoral aspect of our destruction of the environment and endangered species is that it’s our hand, not God’s hand, that has done this. We know that we are choosing to kill off species and melt the glaciers. For the first time in history, we know that extinction and deterioration of the environment is happening not as a matter of natural evolution, but as a matter of our own conscious will.

When God instructed Adam and Eve to till and to tend the earth (Gen. 2:15), the original Hebrew verbs, "la’avod” and “lishmor" suggest a higher calling. La’avod means to serve, to obey; it connotes sacred service. Lishmor means to guard. A shomer is a guardian, usually of someone else's property, in this case, God's. We are called to be God's partners in tending, guarding, and preserving this precious planet of ours.

Just as Adam was put in charge of the garden and told to take care of it, so have we been put in charge of this garden and told to take care of it. The Rabbis of the Midrash teach that God actually took Adam for a walk around the Garden of Eden and said to him: "Take good care of this place, for if you spoil it, there will be no one to repair it after you." Perhaps that is precisely what God is saying to us now, not about the Garden of Eden, but about the planet on which we live.

“One generation passes, and another comes,” Ecclesiastes 1:4 reads, “but the earth remains forever.” Because of our individual and communal disregard of the environment, and because the subject of the environment has become a political rather than a transcendent issue, we have made the earth's supposed permanence in the Bible a very big question mark.

For better or worse, the state of the world and the environment is now completely in our hands, not God’s hands. And today - March 21 - is the date when we are supposed to remind each other of our divine duty to protect the planet. May we not forsake the sacred mission of preserving God’s world.

Putting Political Ambition First

Something seems to happen the moment that many legislators sit down in the chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly. They forget they represent every one in their districts, not just their narrow political bases.

There was a time when such partisanship was reserved for the nation’s capital, but apparently, Potomac Fever is spreading downstream, and more and more, statesmanship in Nashville falls prey to political self-interest and ambition. These days, the number of legislators who are unwilling to sow divisiveness in order to harvest more votes can be counted on one hand.

Most ironic of all is that often those who espouse a distaste for big government are the very ones engaged in expanding the reach of government into the most private and personal decisions. It’s easy for them to see clearly the sins of others when they use government as the instrument for their political ideology, but when it comes time to show they are different, what do they do?

They introduce a bill that would tinker with Tennessee’s Constitution to remove a woman’s right to include abortion among her private health options. In their haste to garner support of their radical Christian base, they are willing to undermine the individual right to privacy guaranteed in the Tennessee Constitution and upheld by the state Supreme Court.

It wasn’t too many years ago that many of these same political interests campaigned against the equal rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution on the grounds that it was too sacred to be used for narrow political interests. That was then. This is now.

It points to one of the most infuriating elements of today’s highly charged partisan environment. Politicians who state firm, unshakeable, unequivocal opinions when they are opposing the other party simply ignore everything they’ve said when it comes time for them to pursue their own interests. Political amnesia is one of the incurable diseases of our time, but obviously, the outbreak in Nashville won’t see a cure any time soon. The pandering seems to have just begun.

The true believers have even suggested that the right to an abortion should be denied for women who are raped, are victims of incest or if their lives are in jeopardy. Apparently, women are only containers; it’s the contents that have value.

We may be witnessing the birth of “Big Brother” on Capitol Hill. In addition to telling women what they should do with their bodies, legislators are also refusing to give Memphis and Shelby County Governments the right to make decisions about the kind of community in which we live. Already, the legislature has killed a bill to give local government the ability to ban smoking in restaurants that employ people younger than 18 years of age, and they seem intent on bottling up county government’s bill asking for more control over its own taxes.

As for the proposed constitutional amendment, it is demagoguery at its core. Radical Christians are now using these kinds of referenda (on issues from the alleged gay agenda to abortion) as the means to enflame their base and get them out to vote. Just coincidentally, the referenda are scheduled for the same elections of governors or Congressmen.

That’s why many of these referenda across the U.S. aren’t so much aimed at accomplishing something as in giving their base a red meat diet of wedge issues, so they will get out and vote. It’s a ploy that sacrifices comity and compromise in order to elect those who share their extreme views. It may make for clever political maneuvering, but it also makes for a state whose voters are divided and antagonistic.

In the end, even if Tennesseans approve a Constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, it’s probably a Pyrrhic victory. First, it’s likely to be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Second, even if it’s not, the amendment would only keep the poor and middle class from having abortions. Other people know where to go to get abortions, so only those who cannot afford to travel elsewhere will be bound by the law.

Memphis Regional Planned Parenthood says it best in its petitions opposing the bill. The amendment would “undermine Tennesseans’ right to privacy, particularly as it relates to a woman’s right to make the most personal decisions of her health care without government interference. This amendment…would usher in an era where the consultation of doctors with their patients is replaced with an edict from the General Assembly. We believe that it is a founding principle of our state that individuals should be protected from government intrusion into their private affairs. The majority of Tennesseans also oppose the actions of politicians who tamper with the Tennessee Constitution in the belief that its integrity is of secondary importance to their own political ambitions.”

Amen.

If you’d like to circulate a petition opposing the amendment, give Planned Parenthood a call.

Diversity In Memphis Is About Seeing The World And Ourselves In More Than Black And White

A few months ago, Leadership Memphis concentrated on a provocative question, “What Makes a Great City?” and it heard from a highly informative panel of five local leaders, from a noted national urban observer, and from Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, named as one of Time’s five best mayors in the U.S.

Opinions were personal, impassioned and always illuminating. The question was answered with examples of great cities, lists of cities’ unique assets and the fundamental essence of greatness. One of the threads that held all of the answers together was this – the richness found in ethnic diversity.

Whether panelists were talking about Indian neighborhoods in New York or Japanese neighborhoods in San Francisco or African-American neighborhoods in Atlanta, there was a consensus that the variety of ethnic experiences that can be engaged in a city is one of its most potent forces for greatness.

It is just common sense these days that multi-cultural diversity is a competitive advantage in a world economy characterized by its mind-boggling diversity. Whether calling the Dell computer help desk and talking to a technician in India, calling customer service for a New York City company and talking to someone in England, or eating in the FedEx World Headquarters cafeteria which harkens to the United Nations food court, it is increasingly clear that diversity is a fact of life in today’s marketplace.

It is equally clear that sometimes, Memphis actually runs from the diversity that has the potential to be a distinctive strength. Rather than tell the world that we are a minority majority city, our economic development strategies skirt away from our African-American majority.

We continue to do so at our peril, because instead, we need to embrace our diversity and tell the world that if they want to compete in a diverse world economy, there is no better place from which to do it than Memphis, because we were diverse before diverse was cool.

And while diversity in Memphis is normally defined in terms of white and black, it’s time to expand the circle.

That’s because in the Memphis region, the number of different languages being spoken is 55. Let’s say it again. When families gather in their own homes tonight, there are 55 different languages being spoken in the Memphis metro.

Who would have imagined?

The first 10 are relatively easy – English, Spanish, French, German, Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Tagalong and Italian.

Then, things get more interesting. The second 10 are Russian, Hindi, Gujarathi, Japanese, Mon-Khmer, Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu and Laotian.

And that’s not even half way through the list. To get there, add Telugu, Kru, Tamil, Portugese, Bengali, Cushite, Polish and Amharic.

They are followed by Mandarin, Thai, Dutch, Yiddish, Indian, Kannada, African, Hungarian, Kurdish, Serbocroatian, Cantonese and Fulani.

That brings the number to 40. By now the number of people speaking each language is only in the double digits, but still they come – Swahili, Formosan, Malayalam, Turkish, French Creole, Swedish, Marathi, Panjabi, Gullah and Norwegian.

The final five are Slovak, Croatian, Ukrainian, Patoil and Irish Gaelic.

No, Memphis is not Los Angeles, which has the highest number of languages – 137, but it’s a long way from the homogenized black and white image of Memphis that many of us carry around.

In other words, it is not accurate to continue to describe our diversity in terms of Caucasians and African-Americans. In doing so, we exclude 62,000 people of various ethnic backgrounds who deserve the chance to be part of the civic conversation and decision-making. In embracing all of these ethnic cultures and traditions, we enrich our city and contribute in a direct way to a more expansive world view that serves our city well as it addresses its problems and its opportunities.

“Many languages, one Memphis” is a theme that all of us should adopt, and as a panelist suggested today, Memphis needs to celebrate Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo, and other ethnic occasions as citywide celebrations, because in doing so, we make our city more vibrant, more appealing, and yes, more fascinating.

In doing this, we also tear down the walls that separate us from ourselves. If the Hispanic community reports that it feels disenfranchised and it is our second most spoken language in Memphis, just imagine the feelings of disengagement felt by the Cambodian community.

But we need more than celebrations. We need also to connect these ethnic groups to the American Dream. One way to start is for the City of Memphis to change the language of its minority purchasing program which now says that the only group that is considered as a minority group are people with roots in Africa. It was a way to address the lack of business opportunities in the African-American community, a noble goal, but in writing the rules in this way, it fuels an “us versus them” mentality that only hurts Memphis’ future.

In defining minorities in an Africa-centric way, city government even eliminated any black Memphians from Caribbean countries, much less disregarded the needs of the array of ethnic groups that now call Memphis home.

If Memphis wants to send the message that it is ethnically and racially diverse, the first sign of a truly diverse Memphis would be to define minorities as broadly as possible to give all minority communities equal access to entrepreneurial opportunities.

Where Are All The Children?

From CEOs for Cities blog at www.ceosforcities.org:

This week's Sunday papers from around the country told a sad story about African-American children in America.

The Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times examined two shootings in Englewood on Chicago's South Side. Siretha White was shot dead at a party for her 11th birthday, only nine days after 14-year-old Starkesia Reed was shot and killed standing at her window.

Miami-Dade County police, motivated by school officials who are strictly enforcing a zero-tolerance policy, arrested 2,284 students during the past school year. But only 12 percent of those arrests were for serious crimes involving weapons or drugs. The majority of the arrests - about 70 percent -- were for disorderly conduct and a host of misdemeanor offenses, graffiti marketings and disturbing the peace. According to the Miami Herald, 54 percent of students arrested were black, although black students make up 28 percent of the district's enrollment. Police and judges lobbied school leaders for alternatives to arresting students who approved civil citations wich is more aligned with the philosophy of community policing.

One young man who would likely now be hanging on the street corner if he had faced a zero tolerance policy is Shawne Williams, the star freshman for the University of Memphis number one seed basketball team. Commercial Appeal sports columnist Geoff Calkins told the story of Shawne and his older brother Ramone who grew up on the mean streets of inner city Memphis. Ramone was killed a year ago, victim of a shooting in a place he shouldn't have been. Shawne beat the odds and ended up in college.

Williams told Calkins, "I liked standing on the street corner. That, to me, was fun. I wanted to be something to a bunch of nobodies, because then I thought I'd be somebody. I wanted to be King of the 'Hood."

He spent so much time on the corner, he flunked out of high school. But because of his talent, he had a second chance to complete high school and enter college. Now, he says, "College is fun."

As Williams explained, "Most kids, they don't understand. I didn't understand. If you grow up that way, you think it's fate. If I could tell them anything, it's that your dream doesn't become a reality until the end."

How do we give children a better chance at life?

It's not easy, but here are some promising programs:

CeaseFire http://www.ceasefirechicago.org/
After School Matters http://www.afterschoolmatters.org
Jumpstart http://www.jstart.org
Citizen Schools http://www.citizenschools.org

If Detroit Can Do It...

The meltdown of the finances of Detroit city government is becoming a stimulus for new regional thinking by adjacent counties concerned about the shut-down or cutbacks of city servcies that are of course regional assets.

Surely, if Detroit can begin to talk across county lines, we can do it. First and foremost, though, it requires some one to show enough leadership to call every one together to start the conversation.


From The Oakland Press

FARMINGTON HILLS - County commissioners from three counties plus the Detroit City Council say they can put aside their differences and work together. But they also acknowledge there are some issues that Detroit and Oakland, Wayne and Macomb Counties may never agree on.

The Summit at Oakland County-operated Glen Oaks Golf Course on Monday drew more than just county commissioners and the city council. More than 200 people attended the four-hour meeting, including state lawmakers and social agency representatives.

They stayed clear of issues that have generated heated remarks across county and city boundaries, such the Detroit Zoo closing.

"We'd like to stay focused on issues where we have common ground," said Oakland County Commission Chairman Bill Bullard, R-Highland Township.

Those issues included mental health in jails, infrastructure and transportation.

Mass transit, chiefly how to coordinate SMART, the suburban bus system, and the Detroit bus system, matters to Wayne County Commission Chairwoman Jewel Ware, Detroit. "Transportation is the biggie," Ware said. "We have to have it for people to get back and forth to work."

Macomb County Commission Chairwoman Nancy White, D-Clinton Township, said she's concerned with jail overcrowding and the number of mentally ill people who are jailed rather than treated. She estimated that number at 50 percent.

"Jail diversion is very big," White said. "If we can solve that, we can solve the jail overcrowding."

House Speaker Craig DeRoche, R-Novi, urged counties to cooperate with each other to help handle the "peaks and valleys" of crowded jails.

"We have to use the assets we have and get a better return on investment," DeRoche said.

But even the issues on the agenda may not prove easy to agree on when the costs of solving them are considered, and no solutions were immediate from Monday's summit.

Paul Tait, executive director of SEMCOG, rattled off the amounts of money needed for basic infrastructure over the next 26 years -- roads, $20.7 billion; bridges, $4.6 billion; school buildings, $8.1 billion; mass transit, $8.1 billion; water, $9 billion; and sewers, $14 billion-$26 billion.

Even so, summit participants said the dialogue is a start and that it beats fighting with each other.

"If there are 100 issues and we agree on one, then let's work on the one," said Oakland County Commissioner Chuck Moss, RBirmingham. "This is something we should have got going a long time ago.

"When we're talking, we're not shooting at each other. Let's get past the stuff we can agree on and maybe stop assuming the worst of everybody. That's no small victory."

Bullard said the multicounty committees that developed the first three issues will continue to meet. He predicted options for road funding would be developed and that road funding will be a major issue before state lawmakers after the November election.

"We need more money for roads," Bullard said. "I believe that will be a front-burner issue for the Legislature next year."

Who Says Memphis Has No Creative Class?

Who knew that Christopher Reyes’ fascinating livefrommemphis.com website was just the beginning? In the coming week, there are two Reyes-conceived projects that offer us a fresh look at our city.

If you haven’t visited the Live From Memphis website in awhile, you’ll barely recognize it. It now has added film and art in pursuit of its slogan, “Support Local Artists.”

As the home page says: “We support and promote local musicians, filmmakers, artists and industry professionals who are the lifeblood of the Memphis creative scene. It is our goal to connect creatives, grow opportunity and gain exposure for our creative culture. Memphis is amazing!”

Most of all, the site is convincing proof that Memphis does have a “creative class,” the highly coveted young professionals fueling the knowledge economy. If the city is to succeed in the global economy, it must attract and retain 25-34 year-olds who are the most mobile, most entrepreneurial and most highly-educated demographic in history.

Faced with the retirement of the Baby Boomers and today’s lower birth rate, the competition for these workers is hot and getting hotter. A recent study by CEOs for Cities pointed out that the cities that have booming economies – cities such as Charlotte, Atlanta, Austin and Portland – have attracted five times more of these workers than the national average.

But we digress. Often, in assessing our failure to be a magnet for these young professionals, we see nothing but obstacles, but Live From Memphis reminds us that we do in fact have a core of creativity that we can build upon.

We were thinking this as we explored the website this week. It’s full of little known artists, great local bands, talented technicians and unheralded organizations. But as we mentioned, besides the normal fare of the “World According to Christopher (and his colleague Sara Fleming),” there are two other coming attractions of his that will be launched in the next week.

First on the agenda is Saturday’s Li’l Film Fest, which will take place at 2 p.m. at the MeDiA Co-Op, 1000 S. Cooper at First Congregational Church, always a hub of energy and tolerance, two qualities especially sought by young professionals.

The film festival is free, and you can get more information at www.livefrommemphis.com/filmfest. What we liked best is that it’s not just another film festival. It’s quirky and fun.

Here’s the deal. For the festival, Live From Memphis sets a theme, and local filmmakers are challenged to make a film that is five minutes or less on that theme. The theme this year: the film must include the implosion of the old Baptist Memorial Hospital in its plot.

This is the first Li’l Film Fest, and it will feature 13 short films made by Memphis filmmakers Brian Churchill, Ken Armstrong, Jon W. Sparks, Lin Workman, Geoffrey Brent Shrewsbury, Tommy Marqueerius, Rod Pitts, David Thompson, Edward Valibus Phillips, Sarah Fleming, Nike Ross, Elizabeth Harris, and Christopher Reyes himself.

The goal of the film fest, according to its creator, is to “encourage and inspire Memphis filmmakers while engaging a local audience to strengthen our artistic community.”

If that wasn’t enough to keep us entertained, on Wednesday of next week, Reyes’ films entitled My Memphis will premiere at Malco’s Paradiso at 5:30 p.m. The films are an outgrowth of the Memphis Talent Magnet Report (in the interest of complete disclosure, a project undertaken by this firm and a forerunner to the follow-up national conference, Memphis Manifesto Summit). The Talent Magnet Report concluded that current marketing of Memphis reinforced an image among young people that it was frozen in time, a city of Elvis, riverboats and a languid, slow-moving culture.

This is Reyes’ answer to the challenge of portraying the “real” Memphis – an engaging, fresh look at Memphis from the viewpoints of 25-34 year-olds. The three films – An Introduction to Memphis, An Insiders’ Guide to Memphis and Why Memphis? – paint a portrait of Memphis as a vibrant, culturally rich and ethnically diverse city. It’s full of surprising, interesting insights.

The premiere of the films is sponsored by Memphis Regional Chamber (which has wisely set the development of a talent strategy as a major priority of its new president/CEO John Moore), by the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau (which is charged with the marketing of the city to the tourism and convention industry(, and the Memphis and Shelby County Film Commission (which encourages the growth of the local film industry).

Special guest for the premiere is Craig Brewer, writer and director of Hustle and Flow and currently wrapping up Black Snake Moan. He and about 20 other Memphians are featured in the films, and the soundtrack is music by current Memphis bands. Concurrently with the premiere, a website www.mymemphis.tv will be launched, and it will feature the 20 people telling their personal stories about Memphis.

All in all, the two events make for an exciting seven days in Memphis, and make for new and exciting ways to tell the story of our city and sell it to the young workers who will ultimately define its future.

Political Animals: Let's Make Matters Worse

Does this feel familiar?

From Otis White's Urban Journal at governing.com:

Must every issue in Detroit degenerate into name-calling and race-baiting? Apparently, yes. Take the seemingly easy issue of the Detroit Zoo. The city can no longer afford its $5 million a year subsidy for the zoo, but not to worry. A non-profit organization offered to take it over. All the city council had to do was OK the deal. But first, of course, the region had to take its usual walk down Vitriol Lane.

Background: Detroit is broke. Actually, it’s worse than broke; it’s facing a budget gap of at least $100 million. Given this, it can hardly afford such expensive but acclaimed luxuries as a city-supported zoo or its annual subsidy to the Detroit Institute of Arts. But, fortunately, the zoo has friends, a group called the Detroit Zoological Society, which offered to take responsibility for the zoo. The state said it would help out with a $4 million gift to ease the transition from city to non-profit management. Simple deal: Sign the papers and we’ll take this financial worry off your hands. Ah, but nothing is simple in Motown.

First, council members voted down the deal because they felt Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick wasn’t attentive enough to their needs. “The administration keeps wanting council to vote on something they’ve not had time to review,” a council aide complained to the Detroit News. “It disrespects the city council. If they don’t understand that, they’re stuck in one of the steepest learning curves in the history of mankind.”

Well, OK. Every city has prima donna city council members. But then, for some reason, the county executive of suburban Oakland County, L. Brooks Patterson, felt a need to weigh in, declaring that the entire Detroit city council ought to be in a zoo. Barbara-Rose Collins, one of the council members, shot back that white people don’t own black people anymore. Then Patterson sneered that he’d rather own an old Buick than Collins. Yikes!

Eventually, some semblance of reason was restored, and the council approved the transfer by a 6-3 vote. (Two of the three dissenters said they voted no because they felt the mayor still wasn’t prompt enough with information.)

All this would be funny if not for the dire straits Detroit and the region is in. Beyond the city’s staggering budget problems is a divided and economically ailing region. If ever there were a time for leaders to rise to the occasion, this is it. Alas, fate didn’t give Detroit leaders capable of rising. Instead, cruelly, it delivered L. Brooks Patterson and Barbara-Rose Collins.

Privatization Isn't Just About Money

Let’s just go ahead and say this and get it out of the way: government doesn’t owe anyone a job.

That’s why most taxpayers aren’t moved when some elected officials attack a change in operations merely on the grounds that it would cut the size of the workforce or lay off public workers. This outcry is especially loud when the proposed change is privatization.

It’s unfortunate that in politics, every one is expected to have a hard and fast opinion on privatizing public services. You must be unalterably for it, or conversely, you must be unilaterally against it.

The problem is that most of us ordinary taxpayers aren’t particularly interested in these political lines in the sand. And many of us aren’t solely interested in making government cheaper, but we are interested in anything that improves government – its efficiency, its services, its responsiveness and its quality.

If the road to that destination includes privatization, then so be it. That said, we favor the kind of process advocated by former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, who became a legend because of his ability to work with unions while privatizing an array of city services in that city.

In his case, he didn’t just recruit companies to manage public services. Rather, he also encouraged public workers to shed their inferior self-image and to submit their own bids against private contractors. They won some, and they lost some, but most importantly, the process forced a change in the bureaucratic “it’s not my job” attitude.

For example, when Goldsmith decided to sign a contract for new management of the garage mechanics, he invited the mechanics already working for Indianapolis city government to submit a bid of its own. They did, and their proposal called for the thinning of the ranks of management by 75 percent and for profit sharing. They won the contract, and unsurprisingly, their productivity climbed.

While national rhetoric about privatization has cooled from a few years ago, the impact can still be seen everywhere. There is not a single government service somewhere that is not being outsourced to the private sector – from corrections to public works, from firefighting to computer services, and from building and grounds to child support enforcement, from human resources to financial management. One government even allowed employees to restructure their department into an employee-owned company, cutting costs by 30 percent.

Recently, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who realized a $1.8 billion windfall on the lease of the Chicago Skyway, announced that he’s now weighing the possibility of leasing another of the city’s assets: Midway Airport.
We look for increased pressures for more outsourcing of public services as Baby Boomer employees retire en masse in the future, and Goldsmith will undoubtedly be the High Priest when the movement comes.

When he served as mayor, Goldsmith emphasized competition as much as he did privatization. In fact, he said once that private monopolies aren’t any more efficient than the public ones, and for that reason, there has to be competition. Challenged to compete for their jobs, city workers invented sleeker systems, increased productivity and found ways to cut costs dramatically.

In many cases, it was the city workers who figured out the best way to deliver high quality and low cost at the same time. As Goldsmith wrote in his book, “The Twenty-First Century City: Resurrecting Urban America:” “The problem is that (public workers) have been trapped in a system that punishes initiative, ignores efficiency and rewards big spenders.

Recently, the new mayor of San Diego, faced with the meltdown of his government in the face of a $1.4 pension liability, has turned to Goldsmith’s philosophy to modernize city services and “fix” a broken city government.

In the end, this is the greatest benefit of privatization. It is an electric shock to entrenched bureaucracies and recalcitrant cultures, and it is this culture that is most often the ultimate enemy to reform, reinvention and innovation.
It’s the challenge presented every day to Memphis City Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson’s reform programs. Like bureaucrats everywhere, school workers assume that they can wait her out. After all, the average tenure of an urban district superintendent is only two and a half years.

Evidence of this is seen in her new disciplinary program. Announced as a major priority by her, the number of disciplinary actions actually went down, because principals and others didn’t want to fill out the paperwork and didn’t agree with her approach to the problem.

In these situations, the jolt that comes from outsourcing a service, like human resources of Memphis City Schools, for example, can not only transform that office, but the effect reverberates through the entire organization and alters the culture that chokes every initiative to death.

That’s why the evaluation of the privatization proposals submitted to Shelby County Government for the operations of the jail and prison were only half complete. Like many governments, the Shelby County Government officials primarily weighed the financial ramifications of the proposals, and made their final decisions based on savings of money.

However, the real value of outsourcing is that it can be a catalyst to innovation and culture change, and in our book, you can’t put a price tag on those two objectives. They’re priceless.

As we’ve said before, we are neither fervent advocates for privatization or unyielding opponents. We just believe that anything that can shake up the cultural lethargy found in government is worth considering.

In the end, maybe the best outsourcing idea of all is the one pursued by Sandy Springs, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb with a population of about 90,000 people - Sandy Springs decided to privatize almost its entire government.

Sandy Springs’ advantage is that it has a blank slate. It only became a city within the last year, and there are no existing unions to fight, no political power bases to convince and no entrenched special interests to oppose it. Instead, it can place itself on the cutting edge of public outsourcing through its $30 million a year contract with CH2M Hill to manage almost all of its city services.

The biggest head start that CH2M Hill has is that with a new government, there are no rigid job descriptions that are the backbone of bureaucratic thinking, no layers of unnecessary middle management and lack of authority that block innovation, and no arbitrary pay systems and work rules that impede productivity.

Here’s the sad truth: if government didn’t exist the way it does today, it would never occur to anyone to invent it. It’s an Industrial Age model trying to succeed in the Information Age.

In the end, its outmoded structure and its lack of emphasis on new thinking, risk-taking and experimentation with new models of governance don’t just inhibit the success of local government. In very real ways, it inhibits the success of our city itself.

Jail And Prison Privatization Issue May Still Have Life

Corrections Corporation of America and The GEO Group – private companies that manage correction facilities – don’t agree on much, but they do agree on this: privatizing the Shelby County Corrections Center and the Shelby County Jail fell prey to political considerations.

Meanwhile, supporters of Shelby County Commissioner Bruce Thompson – who has announced that he will not seek re-election – complain that as a result of Sheriff Mark Luttrell and Mayor A C Wharton bringing a whiplash halt to the consideration of privatization, Commissioner Thompson was left alone way out on a high political limb.

Commissioner Thompson’s friends point to the sense of betrayal felt by him as a major reason that he is abandoning public life, and whether you agreed with his position in favor of privatization or not, it’s hard to disagree with his position that all information on the proposals should be made public and that a full airing of them is needed.

With only six months remaining in office and no election looming, Commissioner Thompson, who’ll be missed in county government, can focus on his quest to find out why the political winds suddenly shifted and why the report opposing privatization felt mandated from above.

All in all, the issue of privatizing the county correctional facilities has all the trappings of a political Gothic novel for which county government is legend. And yet, lost in the politics of the issue is the need for someone to weigh the pluses and minuses of privatization in a nonpolitical, objective way.

We say this despite having no real opinion on the proposals by CCA and GEO; however, we do have the opinion that all information about the proposals should be made public so that the citizens who foot the bills for these costly facilities can read it themselves and make their own decisions.

There’s no question that privatization is not always the answer to increasing efficiencies and cutting budgets. There’s a reason some services are public, and when turned over the private sector, the results can sometimes be politically unpalatable to the citizens paying for them.

A case in point is Shelby County’s outsourcing of the management of its nursing homes in 1996. At that time, the now-defunct, but then politically connected, Diversified Health Services got a contract to manage county nursing homes, and promptly fired 130 employees. After all, they had little choice. The company’s contract called for the company to be paid a fee based on a percentage of savings, and since more than 60 percent of county budgets are for personnel, that’s the first priority.

It may have made good business sense, but it made for awful health care.

Within months, state inspectors cited the nursing homes for poor quality of care and eventually, there were a number of lawsuits filed for the neglect of patients and by the family of a patient who wandered away from the nursing home unnoticed and was found dead on the side of the road.

Unfortunately, the motivation for the outsourcing was political, rather than for improving operations. Faced with reducing costs or not getting paid, the only real option was to make changes that affected the level of care.

Consistent with the politics that inspired the contract, there was considerable manipulation of the facts. To obtain their approval, commissioners were told that the privatization would save county government $400,000 a year. In fact, records at the end of the first year showed that instead of a savings, the contract had actually cost $1 million. No one ever returned to the board of commissioners to report these facts and the contract remained in place until the care of the nursing home residents became so bad that county government was left with no choice but to sever ties.

Because of this negative brush with privatization, proponents of privatization had some high hurdles to clear if they were to implement it for the jail and prison. The issue became such a political hot potato that as elections approached, Commissioner Thompson seemed to be the only person left standing on the issue, asking for complete disclosure of all proposals and for an independent evaluation of them.

That followed the announcement by Mayor Wharton and Sheriff Luttrell that “based on a review of the information received in the best and final offers,” they were rejecting both proposals for privatization.

Mayor Wharton said neither offered substantial savings in the operation of the prison – the facility under his control. Meanwhile, Sheriff Luttrell said that improvements had already been made to the jail – the facility under his control – and that the true costs of operations were unclear, because both proposals called for construction of a new jail.

Following the announcement, both companies weighed in with separate complaints about the evaluation process. CCA, which operates 63 facilities nationwide with 16,000 employees, said the report by the mayor and the sheriff was filled with inconsistencies and misinterpretations of their proposals.

In an obvious slap at the county, the company wrote that it would “take this (financial) matter up with the State of Tennessee who better understands the issues and has more to gain than Shelby County.” Also, the firm called for an independent evaluation.

A few days later, GEO mailed its own letter, saying that the “process…is in need of careful reconsideration.” Its suggestion was for the sheriff to pick one firm and to proceed with further conversations to determine if an agreement could be reached. It mentioned the value of public workshops.

Despite the companies’ protestations, it’s unlikely that county officials are going to reopen this controversial issue so close to their election, particularly in light of the highly effective grassroots opposition run by the officers at the corrections center and jail (complete with yard signs and phone banks).

Conventional wisdom suggested that CCA, with roots running deeply into Tennessee political soil, had the upper hand in the competition, but it never seemed to address the underground campaign against it, a campaign that cited the fact that one of the worst prison riots in the U.S. was at a CCA-operated Colorado prison. In an extensive assessment of the riot, Colorado corrections officials criticized CCA for failing to adequately train its staff, for failing to prepare an emergency response team and for failing to follow “fundamental security measures.”

In addition, CCA managed an Eastern Kentucky prison that was the scene of a major prisoner riot in 2004 amid allegations of abuse, mistreatment and a reduction of visits from families. A contributing factor in the riot was the fact that the prison was admitting inmates from Vermont, because that state paid a higher “pre diem” than Kentucky.

In his last six months in office, the privatization issue may not be reopened, but here’s guessing that Commissioner Thompson can keep in on the front pages.

Wolf River Conservancy Needs Our Help

The following message is from the Wolf River Conservancy:

We recently learned that there's no Congressional funding for the
$12.5 million Corps Wolf River Restoration Project. Please take five
minutes, now, to call or e-mail our representatives. The Corps's Wolf
River Restoration Project needs only a final Congressional add of
$1.5 million to complete this final phase that will reinforce the
Collierville/Arlington Rd. Bridge. The Bridge will fail ($2 million
replacement costs) if the head cutting reaches the bridge. Failure to
complete the project threatens contamination of our aquifers and the
Mid South's most essential natural river system.

Please call or copy and paste the e-mail addresses to these U.S.
House of Representatives' chiefs of staff now!

We will focus on our U.S. Senators at a later date.

* This vital $12.5 million project only needs a final $1.5 million
for completion. Without this final phase we risk losing the
Collierville - Arlington Bridge/ Hwy 205 Bridge - while also wasting
the funds already spent.

*The project has benefited from the incredible local cooperation of
Shelby County, Collierville and the Wolf River Conservancy to provide
the 35 % ($4.4 million) local cost share. Contamination of our water
supply is at risk, as well our most essential natural river system!

* The final $1.5 million that will finish the project is bare bones -
w/o funding for recreational trails or boat ramps.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn
steve.brophy@mail.house.gov
509 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4207
Fax: (202) 225-3004
Local Office Phone: (901) 382-5811

Rep. Harold Ford Jr.
robert.sepucha@mail.house.gov
325 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4209
Local Office Phone: (901) 544-413

Rep. John Tanner
doug.thompson@mail.house.gov
1226 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4208
Fax: (202) 225-1765
Local Office Phone: (731) 885-7070

The Best Way To Expand Music Industry? Invest In Musicians And The Value Of Home-grown Creativity

Cities are doing a number of things these days to highlight and exploit their music heritages. There’s a theme developing in much of it, and it offers a seminal lesson for the Memphis public sector that talks proudly about our music and the foundation charged with reinvigorating the industry.

The advice: invest in our creative people and our core music businesses and organizations.

Memphis and New Orleans have always had much in common, most notably our strangely parallel demographics, similar cultural anchors and civic structure that swings to dysfunction on regular occasions. That’s why it has always been instructive to look at trends in the Big Easy to foresee the future of Memphis.

With this in mind, the conclusions of a cultural committee headed by Wynton Marsalis seem especially helpful to Memphis right now. Looking at what their city post-Katrina must do to recapture its distinctive culture, Marsalis said: “What gives you the will to survive? That will has to do with your soul and your spirit. That’s what culture is.”

In its 42-page report, the committee issued recommendations for restoring the city’s culture with special attention to the raw material of its rich music history – musicians.

It’s good advice, because as cities look to their music future, too many try gimmicks, logos and slogans, the sexy big project or the celebrity-driven project. In the end, however, it all comes back to talent, indigenous talent that relates in an authentic way to its place of origin. Programs that don’t invest in this core indigenous creativity run the risk of feeling artificial and superficial, lacking the authenticity that seems to lies at the root of major music heritages.

As the New Orleans report eloquently put it: “We need to begin…by investing in our creative people and our core cultural organizations and associations, aiding those who are still here…”

In support of its musicians, the committee proposed that government build new facilities like a National Jazz Center, expand the arts district, create a linear cultural park connecting cultural sites, offer loans and grants to develop and market music, create an Internet clearinghouse and launch a three-year international marketing campaign.

Since Hurricane Katrina, the number of musicians in New Orleans has dropped from more than 2,000 to fewer than 250. Many of them have made Austin their city of choice, and the self-proclaimed “Live Music Capital of the World” is setting up special programs in hopes of enticing them to stay there. Austin wouldn’t seem a natural lure for most New Orleans musicians, because of the Texas capital's largely white music scene.

Among the relocated musicians in Austin are most of the Neville family (although Aaron Neville moved to Nashville after a brief stop in Memphis), the Hot Eight Brass Band, the Iguanas, the Caesar Brothers Funk Box, the Radiators and Big Chief Kevin Goodman.

Among the Austin programs for Katrina-weary musicians are the Instruments of Healing program, which replaces instruments for New Orleans musicians; there have been a series of benefits to raise money for them; and the Austin airport (listen, up Memphis International), which already has live musical performances five days a week at three venues, has added a 10th performance on Thursday afternoons for the New Orleans musicians.

Speaking of a music-savvy city, here’s a key indicator. The Austin International Airport has a unique staff position: music coordinator.

While Memphis Music fans have been unable to convince airport officials to add our city’s music in a visible (or highly aural) way, some other cities are proving that they value their locally produced songs.

In Seattle, Mayor Greg Nickels announced that the city was turning off the Muzak and turning on local bands. From now on, when someone calling city government is put on hold, they will hear the songs of homegrown bands – from piano compositions, rock and roll, grunge to Latin music. In addition, city government’s website will offer more information about the local bands, give Web links for CD sales and offer podcasting subscriptions.

Closer to home, Atlanta showed courage late last year in its campaign to brand the city with a new theme song. The choice: “The ATL,” a rap song produced by one of the city’s hottest producers. The selection touched off controversy with a local newspaper columnist condemning the song (sound familiar?), and it pointed out the challenge for cities whose current music scene has a thriving rap community but which feel uncomfortable embracing the music genre.

Finally, on the Country Music Capital front, Nashville released a new study that set the total economic impact of its music industry at a staggering $6.4 billion. According to the study, the economic impact of Nashville is more than the State of Georgia, Seattle, Austin and Memphis added together - $3.1 billion.

The study says the economic impact of music is $990 million for Georgia; $1.3 billion for Seattle; $616 million for Austin and $238 million for Memphis.

Nashville is home to more than 80 music publishers, more than 180 studios, 27 entertainment publications and some 5,000 working union musicians. The breadth of the Nashville music economy paints a picture of the distance that Memphis would have to travel to get into the same league as the capital city on today’s terms. It also speaks to the wisdom of Memphis carving out a different niche, one that recognizes the transformation under way in the industry and sets out a plan for Memphis to become a major outpost in the music world to come - digital, personal and ever-present.

When you look at the Nashville study through the lens of coming change, in some ways, the optimist here (maybe perhaps delusional) could argue that Nashville may be at greater risk than Memphis. Nashville is the Sears of the music industry. It is so invested in its present infrastructure and its current way of doing business that it may find it impossible to shift gears, allowing a more entrepreneurial city like Memphis to become the Wal-Mart that reinvents the music industry.

More Insight Into The Living Wage

Our recent commentary urging Memphis City Council to pass a living wage resolution produced some lively responses, so to get the best perspective of the issue, we went to the best expert on the subject, David Ciscel, the highly regarded professor of economics at University of Memphis.

In response to the questions of several readers, he wrote:

The issue of the living wage will always be contentious. It starts with the assumption that the market is doing a poor job at the low end of the labor market.

The idea of a living wage or a regional minimum wage is to level the playing field for all businesses that hire these types of employees. If one retail store or one restaurant has to pay more, then the others in the area are put at a relative advantage. Thus, a higher wage for everyone allows each person who works for living to live a decent life without subsidies and without harming local business.

Higher wages do several things for the community:

1. They improve human dignity -- making sure everyone who works earns enough to live independently. Families or individuals with high wages invest in themselves and in their families. That way, the future allows them to find better jobs.

2. They increase the spendable income in the area. There is modest evidence that higher minimum wages actually increase sales and employment in retail trade and restaurants because local employees have more money. In Memphis, we have a lot of poor people. They don't spend much. That leaves us all worse off. Higher wages help turn that around.

3. Higher wages force business innovations. High wages lead to innovations -- often techniques that reduce labor needs. Low wage economies tend to be technologically backward.

You can't solve all the problems in the world with a living wage or a higher minimum wage. But, in fact, the richer parts of our country have much higher wages. And they have better jobs. And they have healthier retail economies.

Where is the chicken and where in the egg in this chain of economic wealth? I'm not sure. But I do know that higher paid individuals spend more in whatever economy they live in.

Though I am an educator, I don't think that the only criterion for pay should be number of degrees. Hard work and long hours should pay off. When it doesn't, the market is not working properly.

Clearly, by creating the PILOT program for business investment in the community, the leadership of the community is clearly stating that the market will not, by itself, bring new jobs to Memphis. Similarly, we need to jump start higher incomes for individuals in our economy with a living wage.

Finally, a living wage needs to enacted for the whole region. But politically, you have to start somewhere.

"Start With A Website"

A regular reader reminds us that rather than focus on glitzy projects, the Memphis Music Foundation should "start with a website."

It's good advice, because the new music organization shut down the Memphis and Shelby County Music Commission website three years ago, and while it wasn't perfection, at least there was something telling the Memphis story in a prideful way.

It certainly was better than what surfers have been reading since 2003, because the lack of a website belies the explanation being given these days:

"Music is Memphis' most important cultural and economic asset. The Memphis Music Commission works to make sure that the local music community has the resources, tools, and voice it needs to succeed in the changing music industry.

"We are redeveloping our web site to provide new services."