Advice Sought

Real life buddy and blogger Conservative Zone Mark is losing some of the wind in his blogging sails. Head on over and read this post and, if you have any advice to offer, please do so.

Anniversary Par-tay

A certain newspaper blogger is celebrating his two-year anniversary his favorite way -- spinning records:

That's right; it's been two whole years since I took over The Memphis Scene blog from the former Bonnie Brantley and built it into a digital powerhouse, a daily must-read for literally dozens (OK, maybe tens) of Memphians all over the galaxy.

In honor of this momentous occasion, I will do what I do every Thursday: drink beer and play weird music really loud at
dish. Your presence is highly encouraged. Stop by especially if you're going to the Asobi Seksu show across the skreet at the Smeli Deli.

Come on out, say hello, have some drinks, maybe shake your booty a little bit. J-HARMONIC and I got your backs on the serious tunage (we play everything from 70s jazz-funk to 80s no-wave to 00s broken beat). $5 gets you an ice cold bucket of six pony Miller Hi-Lifes, and there's never a cover charge. For a nominal fee, I'll be happy to autograph print-outs of your all-time favorite Memphis Scene posts.

Be there or be square!

Seriously, Mark is a really nice guy. I've met him at blogger bashes and around town. He should be on a Las Savell sign!

Quote of the Day

When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword. Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet.

Bonus Quote for the Day

Do not be greedy for population, or the common people will run from you. Do not build huge castles and moats, or the common people will tire of you. When taxes are unfair, the poor grow poorer day by day. When punishments and awards are arbitrary and discriminatory, the rich grow richer day by day. When regulations and prohibitions are not observed in practice, then the state crumbles.

If officials and functionaries lack ability, they lose the proper measure of leniency and sternness. They may even struggle with the common people for their own profit and advantage. Because of this, craft and deceit arise, which make people treacherous and unpredictable.

Now then, when the ruled are unpredictable, the rulers are suspicious and when the rulers are suspicious, the ruled increase in confusion. Once the ruled are confused, the officials weary of their tasks. When officials weary of their tasks, then awards are not adequate for motivation, and punishments are not adequate for deterrence. It is easy to cause a stir, hard to bring calm. This state of affairs is due to failure to find the right people for office.

The most essential thing in the art of government is to screen personnel.

From The Master of the Hidden Storehouse, a classic of Chinese literature read and studied by Chinese leaders for 2000 years, as translated by Thomas Cleary. (Source of the previous quote.)

What's old is new again, huh?

Ethics Reform Already Dead

The "sweeping" "new" ethics "reform" legislation signed by Governor Phil Bredesen isn't even two months old and already he's break ing ethics law!

Summer, Followed by Spring

The previous week's weather was humid and warm. Mostly humid. It was worst of all on Saturday when being outside felt like a Memphis summer: sticky, unpleasant to do anything in. Like a big ol' hug by your fat, sweaty aunt who's a little bit too friendly.

And then there's today: slightly chill but beautifully sunny and breezy. A perfect early spring day. Just gorgeous, in spite of last night's horrifying weather elsewhere.

I just can't decide which is the harbinger of this coming summer: the weekend or today. I'm hoping it's today.

Nashville is Talking... About Memphis!

Last week, Half-Bakered got added to the News Aggregator feed over at Nashville Is Talking, a blog that's part of the WRKN/2 news experiment.

WKRN/2 is the Nashville news station that's gone with the new "VJ" revolution: one reporter, no cameraman; the reporter is given a high-quality video camera, a laptop and the necessary software. They are one-man bands, meaning any station can now field more reporters for the same money!

You can read Jamey Tucker's for more on that side of the experiment. Jamey, many of you may recall, was an anchor for WREG/3 in Memphis for many years. He's also from my hometown, Huntsville, Alabama. Jamey takes you behind the scenes.

WKRN/2 also encourages its staff to operate their own blogs, even to the News Director! (Shades of the late, lamented Peg Phillip's blog.) The station has a stable of blogs from all over the newsroom, serving different purposes and needs. It's a very forward-looking operation over there, and one that's being watched closely by newsrooms all over the state, including Memphis.

But Nashville is Talking is the real difference. Brittney Gilbert works out of the newsroom, but she's otherwise given free rein to blog as she wishes. She spends the day scouring Tennessee (although mostly Nashville) blogs and newsites for interesting or important stuff to link to. She takes a national issue, then looks to see what Tennesseans are saying about it.

There's no getting around Brittney's liberal politics and sympathies. They are right there. She's slightly defensive about it, but not apologetic. Nor does she feel the need to "balance" what she writes or posts to. Her blog is what it is; take it or leave it. That's a refreshing attitude and I welcome it. But to give her proper due, she does make an effort to be even handed in presenting stories and views.

And WKRN/2 has just started another blog: VolunteerVoters.com, run by political conservative A.C. Kleinheider. It aims to become a "one stop shop" for news of the upcoming 2006 elections here in Tennessee. He's got his work cut out for him, but seems to relish the task ahead.

I stand in awe of what WKRN is attempting here. It's an impressive rethinking of what it means to be a "news source" in the digital age. It's a huge gamble that, if it succeeds, may destroy the business model its profits are built on. I've been watching them and hoping they do find the route to the future.

Is anyone here in Memphis television even attempting something like this? Or are they all so locked into the traditional ratings and prestige races that they can't look up to see the wall they are racing towards? Are they waiting for some sign of which direction to move before committing themselves? Are they just afraid?

Anyway, I'm honored that NiT thinks Half-Bakered is worth sharing with their readers. They're providing a noticeable bump in site traffic, which I welcome. They, along with the new Memphis Flyer site redesign are showing up regularly in my referrer logs nowadays.

So, thanks Brittney. I just hope y'all can handle all this greasy Memphis funk.

What the Hell Is This?

Here's something emblematic of one of some of the problems assailing the "refocused" Commercial Appeal under Editor Chris Peck. Read this thing and answer this question for me:

Is it an ad or is it a story?

Digging Through to Find the Story

A story on gangs in today's Commercial Appeal embodies some of what I dislike in the "new" daily newspaper, so let's take a look at it.

It divides into thirds rather neatly. The first third is filler, lots of heart-tugging stuff about a father and his son, now dead because of gangs. Feels good, less filling.

The middle section is an info-dump. Lots of facts about gang names and numbers (4000 - 5000 juvenile members!). But what's missing, as usual, is context and trend. Are the numbers of students in gangs growing? We're told that gang incidents are on the rise. How much, how bad, how long? Absent a sense of meaning, the numbers don't help much.

According to the Memphis City Schools, they have roughly 120,000 students. According to the story, there's roughly 5,000 gang members. That's less than 4%! And this is a problem, why?

The story has no discussion of what's being done. Nor is there any mention of a connection, if there is one as many suspect, between the new "no physical discipline" rules and the increase in school violence.

Then the last part of the story is a brief look at one father-figure / mentor, who was also the preacher at the slain student's (mentioned at the start of the story) funeral. I'm sure the wirter is quite pleased with herself for looping the story back around as she did. His presence is an allusion to one needed component of reducing this problem: a strong male in young men's lives. The story points out that this man has gone down the same road as many of the kids, but lived to regret his actions, and has now changed his ways.

That's all well and good, but he could have been a separate story, fleshed out, instead of taking space from some needed context. That's what I'd want to read from the daily: hard information, not soft feel-goodery.

A Thought on Flag Waving

With the recent protests against immigration controls by illegal (and occasionally legal) immigrants, there's been a lot of flag waving, by illegals waving the Mexican flag.

So, when Americans wave American flags why is it suddenly offensive speech?

But more importantly, where are the folks who immediately jump up and get excited defending the rights of folks to burn the flag? Why are they not now also defending the right of free speech in waving a flag?

Can someone explain the silence and the difference, especially someone who has supported the ACLU (conspicuously silent so far) previously?

Many Words, Little Said

A Saturday Commercial Appeal editorial seems to me to be a lot of words in search of a point, and rather pointedly dancing around what they want to say.

It tackles a weeks-old story they did where the Memphis City Schools are asking for more than a million dollars to add to the millions already being spent on the Blue Ribbon program to end school violence without corporal punishment.

Even the CA is forced to admit:

Keeping order at the school was one of the frustrations described in an interview by White Station High School principal Wanda Winnette, retiring after nine years at the helm of the district's premier college preparatory school.

"Any high school principal will tell you this has been our roughest year with fights, discipline and gang activity," she said.

Dr. Carol Johnson, the superintendent, blames first-year implementation problems for this. The CA rather hilariously goes for several paragraphs using the old tried'n'true poverty and single-parent households as targets of blame.

They also write:

Teachers and school administrators are being asked in many cases to assume roles traditionally played by parents because in many cases single parents are either too stressed for the time or lack the authority to set the limits that children need.

It is little wonder that the school board's decision to ban corporal punishment in 2004 has produced skepticism and doubt about new school discipline methods. Educators are taking on tasks that many of the parents and grandparents of the current crop of schoolchildren never would have imagined.

Please. Kids acting up, rejecting schools and society, joining gangs, experimenting with adult substances, listening to dismaying music, none of this is new. Remember Blackboard Jungle and High School Confidential, and hundreds of other B-movies from the Fifties?

We knew then what we know today. But can you imagine the uproar if the schools tried to teach that kids having kids was shameful? That kids who do objectionable behaviors must be shunned, shamed, and set aside? That parents of bad kids are bad parents?

Oh yeaaaaahhhh.... That would be a nuclear bomb for sure.

If people want to be selfish, be bad parents, dump their kids and problems on others, why do we let them?

Come to think of it, in a city overwhelmingly black, with a school system nearly all black, why do we do bussing? Why not return to neighborhood schools?

There are a lot of clear but hard choices that need to be made, carried through and implemented. No one wants to do that, either for cowardly political reasons or misguided ideological ones.

From the final years of the Herenton administration of the school system, through the train wreck of the House years, to the muddle of the Watson years, we have lost uncountable thousands of children who are becoming lost adults with little hope. Dr. Johnson is a PC administrator who is following the example of previous administrators in misleading the public and keeping eyes out of things that bear scrutiny.

For one thing, watch how the No Child Left Behind numbers get reported this year. It will be like last: no context with previous years; no hard data; lots of bland "doing better" / "needing help" meaningless ratings.

Memphis is probably two generations away from solving the problems we have right now. We must wait for the teenagers and recent school departees of today to age and pass away. We need to start now making serious and hard choices to fix things.

But I don't hold my breath. Part of the problem is the people charged with fixing it -- school teachers and administrators -- and charged with reporting honestly and independently on those people -- reporters.

They Have a Sense of Humor, I See

Sunday's Commercial Appeal had an article on the County Commission races that had a funny in it!

Thanks to the Tennessee Supreme Court, most of the faces of those elected this year to the 13-member Shelby County Commission are guaranteed to be new ones.

Harharhar. My bet is that most of those faces will be people well known from previous positions, not truly "new" faces.

Some may not be publicly recognisable faces (but then, how many of you would know Cleo Kirk or Tom Moss if you passed them on the street?) but they will be well known -- and therefore well-vetted -- in Democratic or Republican circles. Too many gravy trains in risk of being stopped to let just anyone get into office.

There's also this rather silly observation:

Political observers, however, point out that the commission will give up vast institutional knowledge and political experience with the exit of its three most senior members.

Ummm... that's why there are staffs! You know, the bureacracy that never seems to go away. They will carry forward the institutional knowledge, unless the new faces are smart enough to counter the expected "That's not how we do things around here" with a sharp "This is how we do things from now on."

Change may be painful but it good and necessary. I really don't believe a community benefits when someone holds onto a local office like the County Commission for twenty or thirty years. I suspect the person who benefits most is the office holder.

And what does this tell you:

Five incumbents on the commission have already effectively won re-election. They drew no opposition at the filing deadline in February.

It tells me that we have two political parties more interested in their own selves than in serving their communities. Surprises happen all the time. What if one of those incumbents suddenly had a personal reason for dropping out? Or was caught red-handed in criminal malfeasance? Where is the person there from the other party ready to catch the dropped ball?

Where is the outreach? Where are the people trying to explore ideas that appeal to the other voters? Testing out the waters, so to speak; conducting experiments to see where the other party is weak and exploitable?

Feh, I say. Democrats and Republicans, at least in their West Tennessee incarnations, are far more concerned with self-protection and self-benefit than with party service for the long run.

Compare & Contrast: Newspaper Editorial Division

Up in Missouri, a high school is embroiled in controversy over flags in schools. Not Mexican or American national flags, but student group banners, from the "Diversity Club" and the "Traditional Values Club." The local paper
weighs in Solomonically with interesting results.

First, let me ask you. If you see a banner on a car, or a flag, or a t-shirt, or in a window, that has a rainbow on it (not accompanied by unicorns or Care Bears or hearts or Irish leprechans) what do you first associate it with? Gay rights, of course.

Here's how the Livingston Press & Argus editors describe the controversy:

The flap can be traced to a diversity flag placed in the high school by the student Diversity Club. Because it has a rainbow design — and because it appeared in response to a state ballot issue that was seen by some as anti-homosexual — the flag is seen by some adults in the community as an endorsement of homosexuality.

"Seen by some" is newspaper-weasel speak "small group of complainer and nuts." The editors want you to think that what is a chain of causality is merely a sequence of events. No reaction on the part of some students to perceived mistreatment by others.

Notice the flag was "placed," a value-neutral term. Notice that no one acted, it was all "because." Just happened, no actors. Must be magic!

Now let's compare descriptions of clubs. First, the Diversity Club:

...[C]lub and school officials insist the rainbow represents diversity in all its glory and is not some sort of subversive attempt to promote a gay agenda.

Notice the conflation of the club and the school. Note that the writers don't scare quote the "subversive attempt" but reduce it to reasonableness within a sentence constructed to make the Diversity Club the defenders against attacks. The status quo ante to the reactionary TVC.

Now, the Traditional Values Club:

...[A] small student group — which says it promotes traditional values — earned club status, which means it will be able to hang its flag in the hall.

The new flag carries a lowercase red "T," which both stands for "traditional" and is a not-so-subtle reference to the Christian cross. Some people, especially about 40 teachers, are upset because they see this as a violation of the separation of church and state.

Notice that it was the "student Diversity Club," implying outgrowth from the student body, natural and organic, and further implying size and approval from the "student body." No mention of the size of the DC. The TVC, however, is pointedly described as "small," to the point the editors feel compelled to note it has four members. It is made a discrete (as in separated from the student body) unit, unrelated and of itself.

The DC has "club and school officials insist" on their belief, which is never quite stated directly but happily described for them by the paper as "diversity in all its glory," while the TVC has its mission reduced to "which it says promotes traditional values...." The DC position is natural and obvious, the TVC position must be "said," "promoted."

The editorial twice describes the DC banner as "seen by some," a marginalising tool for critics. The TVC banner is called by the editors "a not-so-subtle reference to the Christian cross." Criticism of the DC banner must be made by "some" while the criticism of the TVC banner is handled by the editors and their omniscient, all-encompassing POV.

If the Traditional Values Club meets the same criteria as the Diversity Club — securing a faculty adviser, for instance, and not barring students from membership — then it has the same rights.

Note that the editors are happy to handicap the TVC by employing an "if [the club] meets the same criteria, then..." construction as though there is doubt here. The DC is solid and is the point of comparison from which the TVC is made questionable, even though the editorial earlier made clear that it is an accredited school club! Clever writing meant to cast differing weights to the participants. You might not even be aware of it, unless you paid careful attention.

Nope, no bias or sympathies hidden here! The Pharisees of the Press & Argus don't even know those Roman governors, much less want to appease and kowtow to them. Nope, not at all!

Now let's put some separated paragraphs together in reverse order and see how they read in light of the above:

Protesting the traditional values flag merely re-inforces the belief by some that the educational community picks and chooses the rights it defends....

The issues facing the Howell Public Schools district are great. State funding is too low, the budget isn't balanced, and there will likely be increased graduation demands.

So, of course, much of the media attention is focused on what flags can hang on the halls of the high school.

It's got to be frustrating for school officials who would likely rather spend their time on topics such as, say, curriculum improvement.

An interesting point is now made, isn't it? Maybe the public sees an underlying mode of thought it finds abhorrent in teachers and administrators and school board members that it feels should be addressed first, by which other problems may find their solutions follow? Maybe those teachers and administrators aren't operating as their public wishes?

And lastly, there's this:

Teachers making a stink about the flag are giving the club — which only has about four members — a weight greater than it perhaps deserves.

Ahhhh, yes. The truth is outed, to borrow a term. If the teachers had just kept quiet, the TVC would have faded away under the pressure of the teacher / administrator-backed DC. The "diversity agenda" would have continued, unbothered and unnoticed by the larger community. All would be well again.

And for all their high-minded talk of "teachable moments" and First Amendment rights of expression that, I suspect, was the editors' real concern here.

Your State Government at Work

I'll let the Tennessean tell it:

Until three weeks ago, the state's emergency management agency employed a prison inmate to oversee its purchasing and for a time did not restrict his access to a storage area where guns were kept, The Tennessean has learned.

The inmate, Daniel D. Erickson, is serving eight years for trying to hire a hit man to help him kill his wife. His wife alleged in divorce papers that the 2001 murder plot was aimed at fraudulently collecting a $225,000 life insurance policy after he got into financial trouble.... Erickson was disbarred as a lawyer as a result of his crime.

Oh, but that's not all:

TEMA officials provided Erickson with a state cell phone and a state vehicle so he could go to the post office and act as a courier between the agency's two Nashville offices. He had an annual state salary of $26,000.

Erickson's employment with TEMA abruptly ended three weeks ago when an anonymous tip led state Correction Department officials to investigate his use of the cell phone and vehicle.

State Correction Commissioner George Little said the investigation found that the Correction Department had never granted Erickson permission to use the TEMA-issued cell phone.

Correction had granted him permission to use the state vehicle, but the investigation found he was driving places he had not been authorized to go.

So how did he get this job? Who did he know and who supported him?

State personnel records list his address as a home on East Thompson Lane in Nashville that is the residence of another TEMA employee, Bill Cooper. Cooper was responsible for hiring Erickson and is listed as his supervisor on a Department of Correction work-release form.

Erickson ranked fourth on the employment register among the handful of people who interviewed for the job, officials said. New state workers can be picked from among the top five candidates, state Personnel Department spokeswoman Lola Potter said.

There are no blanket rules about hiring felons in state government, Potter said. Each state department has its own specific rules on who may or may not be hired, she said.

TEMA never did a background check on Erickson because he wasn't in a job that required a security clearance or any sort of access to sensitive information from the federal level, Bassham said. Erickson disclosed his felony conviction on his job application, state records show.

TEMA is part of the state Military Department, headed by state National Guard chief Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett Jr. His son, Tre' Hargett, is a state representative from Bartlett, the Memphis suburb where Erickson had a law practice at the time he hatched the murder plot.

Tre' Hargett said he knew Erickson's name but was not familiar with him. "I don't think he was real active in the community," he said Friday.

Yeah, prison has that effect on social activities.

It's a bit of of a hobby with me to trace all the interconnections of poltical offices and family/friends of office holders. We see the connection between Hargetts here, but what about Bill Cooper. I know Cooper is a fairly common name, but could he be any relation to State Senator "Railroad" Jerry Cooper or US Congressman Jim Cooper? I'm curious.

Separated at Birth?

Were Cynthia McKinney, US Representative from Georgia, and Buckwheat, comedy performer, separated at birth? I present, you decide.





I promise you, that photo of McKinney was taken directly, without any alteration, from the Yahoo News site.

Sauce For the Gander

I blogged recently about the seeming editorial vendetta by the Commercial Appeal, and Bartholomew Sullivan especially, against the Tennessee Republican Party through the person of neo-nazi James Hart. You can read those posts here, here and here. The Republicans are attempting to oust Hart from their primary ballot. There was no question to me that these stories were written so as to maximise the smear and draw significant attention to it.

Now we have a case from the other, Democratic, side by which to judge equality of treatment. I first heard about efforts by Democrats to oust two candidates from their own primaries from Jackson Baker at the Flyer.

As reported by blogger polar donkey (http://polardonkey.blogspot.com), who was iron-butted enough to stand the vigil, the Shelby County Democratic Party’s steering committee met in executive session for almost five hours Thursday night at the IBEW union hall and finally decided by a 5-3 vote to ask the Election Commission to decertify two candidates — J.W.Gibson and Johnny Hatcher – currently on the party’s May 2 primary ballot....

Both Gibson and Hatcher were designated for decertification because of prior Republican Party activities. Gibson’s departure from the Democratic ballot would leave only Derrick Harris as a party candidate, assuming that incumbent commissioner Walter Bailey, term-limited out by action of the state Supreme Court Wednesday, does not succeed in a possible federal court appeal. Several candidates would remain in the Democratic primary field for the seat Hatcher has been seeking.

I had missed this from the Appeal and it turns out most of this was reported this week, when the impetus for the story was Walter Bailey and his campaign to keep his County Commission seat.

Using the CA search function turned up three stories that I could find on this. Two (here and here) are actually about Bailey or his putative successor, long-time Democratic activist and State of Tennessee General Assembly pension beneficiary Sidney Chism. The part on the decerts is buried deep.

Try these excerpts:

In the race for Bailey's District 2, Position 1 seat, two candidates remain: business owner J.W. Gibson and Lifeblood manager Darrick Harris.

Some local Democrats are trying to remove Gibson from the Democratic primary ballot, citing his affiliation with the Republican Party.

That started at the seventeenth paragraph in the story. Or this one, which starts in the third-to-last paragraph:

The state ruling on changing the ballot would also impede an effort to get two Democratic commission candidates off the primary ballot.

Complaints have been lodged against candidates Gibson and Johnny Hatcher, citing their affiliation with the Republican Party. Hatcher is running for District 3, Position 1.

It's just a sideshow, a way to say they did report it if they are ever called on their inequity.

Only the first story focuses on the ballot removal, but because Walter Bailey is the hook.

Read all the stories and see what you think. The Republican ones are designed to make it clear that Hart is a nutjob hater and that the Republicans have been snuggling him to their breast, lo, these many years. The luridness and detail are intentionally hyped up. The Republicans are painted as harborers of evil who have to be prodded to do good.

But in a similar Democratic case, the decertifications are largely incidental to the stories. The focus is not on the party, but on something else. Details are short, langauge is plain, and little is repeated from story to story beyond the most basic elements. It's all business as usual.

Is this evidence of double standards in handling political stories? I think so. What do you think?

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Try this passage, also from the inimitable Jackson Baker, written before the Democratic Party action:

J.W. Gibson fundraiser at the Hunt-Phelan Home on Beale. A well-connected local businessman, Gibson, a Democrat, African American, and candidate for the county commission, boasted a diverse and influential sponsor list that included the likes of Beth Gallagher, Ron Belz, Harold Byrd, the Rev. James Netters, Robert Spence, and former Shelby County mayor Bill Morris. He is also being actively promoted by former Commercial Appeal columnist Susan Adler Thorp, currently doing TV commentary and working in business and public relations

Gibson's position is iffy by definition, a true gamble. He could be running in a three-man primary field against Derrick Harris and longtime incumbent Walter Bailey, or, if the state Supreme Court, which held hearings on the matter last week, upholds a 1994 countywide referendum in favor of term limits, against Harris alone.

It makes a difference how the cards fall, in that influential veteran Bailey, one of three plaintiffs in the current suit, would be heavily favored if he stays in. In case he does, both Gibson and Thorp came armed with an argument against his incumbency. Bailey has had a long and distinguished career, both said, but now it's time for fresh blood. "What can he do now that he hasn't accomplished in the 30 years he's had to do it?" asked Thorp rhetorically.

UPDATE: Gibson is suddenly under challenge by a number of Democrats (and, more importantly, by official Democratic Party organs)for having voted in Republican primaries since 1994 and for actually having served as an officer of the local GOP steering committee last year!

The party's Primary Board (which includes opponent Harris) was scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon to consider expunging Gibson from the primary ballot. Such a move would need to be ratified by either the county party or the state party, and the local party's steering committee was reportedly scheduled for an imminent emergency meeting.

Anyone want to enlighten me on the sudden interest in Gibson? Was it just an ill-timed move by Bailey that got steamrollered and rendered irrelevant by his Supreme Court loss? Or is Gibson a stealth Republican, even despite Baker's comments above and Gibson's fundraisers?

If you are a CA reader, you are, of course, out of luck here.

It's Jumped the Shark, OK?

Just saw WPTY/24's Dee Griffith and then co-anchor Cameron Harper use the phrase "It's hard out here for a pimp." on the 5PM news. Can we please retire any and all versions of the Three-6-Mafia song title now? It's not at all witty any more.

Hyperlocal Blogging

It's been a while since I blogged on the neighborhood. Let's catch up.

We were surprised when, a couple of months ago, the corner at Avalon and Monroe sprouted a sign from the Office of Planning and Development saying that the large grassy plot on a small hill about head level was going to be rezoned. We had all though the whole corner belonged to the woman who owned the large house there, but apparently not.

I called the OPD and learned it was not as we feared -- a residential plot being zoned commercial for a bar or something -- but the opposite! The lot had been unused commercial for nearly twenty years and was now being zoned for a single-family dwelling.

We were happy to hear that. The east end of the block is now all single family homes, except the apartments right behind Sekisui. Two new family homes were built on the small empty lot we had been using as a pocket park and that sparked some rehabbing of other homes around it. The eastern half of our block of Monroe looks really nice nowadays.

(Although: You never see any of the new families outside. Never. Fear of the other half of the block is very strong.)

The western half is all run-down apartments and multiple-family housing. Slum landlords rule there. The woman who runs the three-story, glass front Glenmanor Apartments tries to keep things up and keep out the problems, but does so sporadically. The duplex next door seems to have been abandoned; it had been fired on and had a drunk driver crash through their fence and into the side of the building right in the main bedroom. Another building was bought recently by some speculators who put some money into rehab and then promptly filled the building back up. They are staying, but are shocked by the rest of their neighbors.

There are six buildings (my complex has three; the others are free-standing) owned by a company that simply doesn't care. Buildings are allowed to run down; repairs are rare. Tenants, when they get them, are usually gone shortly after moving in. The drug dealers, lieutenants, hookers and drug users chase them off.

Take my complex. There are three buildings, but two are nearly empty. Windows not boarded up are broken out. The remaining apartments have all been vandalised after being broken into. Trash over every description blows along. (Every description.) Drug traffic constantly parades in and out of Bo's apartment. The other lone tenant, a middle-aged black woman, is never seen unless driving in or out of the complex. It's a bombed-out, deserted, dark and scary place. Right behind my apartment.

The third building is mine, up front on the street. We presently have five tenants out of eight apartments. One of the apartmetns was recently rebuilt from the studs out because of an accidental fire that consumed it. But the guy who moved in turned out to be a friend of Bo's and within a couple of months he had a fully-fledged drug operation going there. By the time he got thrown out the apartment was trashed. You'd never know it was brand new.

It was pretty frightening for some. It was frustrating for me, having to deal with hostile glares from strangers standing out on the front walk. I live here, asshole, I kept thinking as some shiftless crackhead scanned me. It was a constant battle to replace lightbulbs either broken or stolen to keep it dark. The landlord has yet to fix two damaged fixtures we've reported. We've had to put up with petty thievery, the druggies preying on each other, the hustlers, the toughs and the crazies, arguments at every hour of the day, you name it. Nothing happens, despite calls to the landlord and police.

And remember: this was the place that made the local news in 2004 when the District Attorney, sheriffs and every news station in town descended on us to show how tough the DA and cops were on crime. They didn't arrest anyone because there was no one home; they'd been warned in advance. Now it's like nothing happened back then.

That guy in front finally got evicted after he stopped paying rent. Not Bo the main dealer, for some reason. I watched a major raid involving 12 officers several months back on his apartment; one of many police visits. They found drugs and a gun; Bo's a felon so guns are a violation for him. They also found two trashbags full of stolen merchandise. Bo was taken downtown, but was back the very next morning.

Their associate across the street (who used to live over here and was somehow able to get a new lease over there despite the landlord knowing who she was) is also still operating, and just rented a second apartment to spread out her crew. Traffic over there is even worse. Tenants have moved out as soon as three days after moving in. I'm told they are putting together a petition to give the landlord: either she goes or they all go.

It's no wonder the landlord can't get folks to move in. I even watched one day as someone in a red sports car pulled up and stole all the "Now renting" sign frames from the front yards. He was gone before I could get his license number. It seems emblematic of our block.

So, enough digression. When we learned about the new house on the corner, it was good news. If it spurs our landlord to either sell or fix up, that's good. And just yesterday they laid out the wood frame for the concrete slab foundation. Soon come, as they say. It's well back from the corner itself which should be attractive. Nice view from up there, too.

Down on the corner of Belvedere and Monroe, the new strip mall is finally finishing up. They promised to be open by October, but it was March before the first business opened. Now, they have five businesses (Baskin-Robbins, Cingular, Bensinger's Cleaning, High Point Coffee, BA Framer and Pei Wei) in various stages of opening.

It's a nice looking mall, I have to admit. Loeb Properties spent more than the minimum, putting in brick finish, finial-like knobs on the columns, terracotta medallions, and more. Not sure how I feel about an ice-cream store at the end of the street, though....

It's also interesting that several of the businesses are simply relocating from another spot on Union. (BA Framers from the Kimbrough Tower and Bensinger's from the small mall at Union and McLean.) Is the new mall's prestige worth the increased rent? Location and access don't seem to be that much better at all.

Does anyone know about Pei Wei? It says "Asian diner" on the sign, which to me screams overpriced, but the thought of another cheap Asian eatery next door (along with Dragon China buffet, of course, and Pho Hoa Binh) has me salivating. Still, it's in a brand new, upscale strip mall (harhar) which I doubt means "affordable." Hope survives....

The Wendy's on Union, after months of inactivity following the kitchen fire, is rebuilding and looks only a few weeks from re-opening. It's the same frame, but with a new double-window drivethrough, a moved side door and a new paint job. I can't wait for it to come back, but only if they replace the sullen and indifferent staff there.

The huge rug store next door to Wendy's is going out of business. What's going to happen to all that retail space in that rundown building is anyone's guess.

So there you go! Drug traffic is still an ongoing problem, though it's slightly better than before. New residential building might spark more rehabbing. New economic development all around.

Such is life on my block of Monroe in Midtown.

SATURDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Thanks to Jeremy in comments for pointing me to Pei Wei's corporate website, where you can also view a generic menu for the chain. Looks yummy, if not very cheap.

Business Dress Advice

Via Fishkite comes an examination of the inadequacies of men's business dress:

Finally, the tie. Everybody loves the tie — a built-in choke hazard and your primary vulnerability. Your entire outfit is dark, plain, boring… but then you’ve got one little strip of bright fabric that might as well be a neon bullseye for the sniper across the street. The tie is the most useless, pointless, ridiculous looking waste of time on the planet. Also known as a noose or a leash, you must know that having a strip of loose material hanging from your neck simply isn’t a good idea. There is no limit to the variety of machines that it could get caught in and cause you to get sucked in and ground into a bloody pulp.

Oh, did I mention the satire? Yes, lots of that.

What to Expect

Remember my post last week on the Living Wage campaign? I mentioned Professor David Ciscel, whose white paper on Memphis and the living wage kicked off the whole movement for Memphis. Professor Ciscel provided some additional support, via the Smart City blog (see post), on why Memphis should adopt the living wage.

One of his three points was:

3. Higher wages force business innovations.

Which seems an obvious non-sequitur to me, but then I don't have a PhD. Paying higher wages will force businesses to develop techonological ways of doing business that require less labor and, therefore, fewer workers.

So now comes a story from Philadelphia that proves my point. Philly Plumbers Upset by Waterless Urinals!

From the story:

This city's hoped-for bragging rights as home of America's tallest environmentally friendly building could go down the toilet.
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In a city where organized labor is a force to be reckoned with, the plumbers union has been raising a stink about a developer's plans to install 116 waterless, no-flush urinals in what will be Philadelphia's biggest skyscraper.

Developer Liberty Property Trust says the urinals would save 1.6 million gallons of water a year at the 57-story Comcast Center, expected to open next year.

But the union put out the word it doesn't like the idea of waterless urinals — fewer pipes mean less work.

The city's licensing department, whose approval is needed for waterless urinals, has not yet rendered a decision.

The mayor's office has stepped in to try to save the urinals, which use a cartridge at the base to trap odors and sediment as waste passes through.

It is telling the plumbers that the city's building boom will provide plenty of work for them and that even waterless urinal systems need some plumbing connections, said Stephanie Naidoff, city commerce director.

So there you go and now you know.