You See? I Told You

This week's Memphis Flyer has a bit from Jackson Baker informing us that Memphis' newest City Councillor, Carol Chumney, has been in Nashville feeling out her former colleagues (She served thirteen years in the State House of Representatives. Did you know that?) for support in a run for Memphis City Mayor! See? I told you.

Her place in the District Five slot hasn't been about securing the needs of Midtown, but about positioning Carol for her coming run. We're serving her needs. Good job, all you dipsticks who voted for her. In order to polish her city-wide image and create an image that will suit her for a mayoral run, she's antagonised her peers on the Council, resulting in her having a harder row to hoe in getting money and projects for her District.

Baker also notes in the bit that Carol Coletta is considering a run. I dread that one. She's a downtown-centric person, not a Memphian. She's also part of that Richard Florida "creative class" fad, which is just gentrification and urban renewal with new buzzwords and a gay-friendly patina. I can just see her in office with County Mayor AC "Smart Growth" Wharton. That spells doom for nearly everyone outside the Parkways. In fact, her firm does a whole lot of business with the City and County in just this kind of stuff. Fear her.

Which reminds me: Last Fall, the Commercial Appeal ran a column that extolled life downtown in the South Main area. It was full of excitement at all the usual tourist traps and the same old places, walking the golden streets, breathing the invigorating air, etc. It was, basically, pro-downtown propaganda of the basest sort. It was written by Carol Coletta, whom the paper only identified as a "downtown resident." No mention made of her business ties to the business of downtown promotion; no mention of her personal activism to make the downtown the hub of the City. No, none of that.

Can't confuse the readers....