Month: August 2007

Categories
News The Fly-By

Death Row Dogs

In the Memphis Animal Services observation hallway, a tick-infested white pit bull is curled into a tight ball at the back of its cage. As a shelter worker approaches, it lifts its bony head, wags its tail, and runs to the front of the cage, as if hoping for salvation. Its ribs protrude from its skinny body, and mottled scars, likely the result of illegal dogfighting, mark its hindquarters.

Thirty-six pit bulls sit in metal cages along the hallway, the area where vicious dogs are held. The public is not allowed in this part of the shelter. In fact, because the dogs are considered dangerous, shelter volunteers aren’t allowed to walk them. Instead, the dogs eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate in their metal cages, which are sprayed down two or three times a day. Many will spend their last days here, eventually put down by a shelter staffer.

On Monday, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick entered a guilty plea on federal dogfighting charges after police uncovered evidence of the activity on his rural Virginia property. The case has drawn national attention to the issue of dogfighting. Memphis police spokesperson Monique Martin says the illegal sport is a growing problem in Memphis.

“We’re having more people call in and notify police that they have reason to believe dogfighting is occurring at a particular address,” Martin says.

Though not all were involved in dogfighting, the number of pit bulls picked up by animal control officers rose by 22 percent from 2005 to 2006.

Last month, four people were charged after Memphis police busted a dogfight in a South Memphis backyard. Animal control officers took six dogs. Several of the dogs were already injured, and a couple of dog owners were preparing pit bulls to fight in a bloodstained area of the yard.

“The setups here in the city are generally in backyards. They’re not professional-type rings,” Martin says. “Anyplace they choose to fight is well hidden, maybe behind a tall fence. That makes it hard for us to find.”

Confiscated dogs are taken to Memphis Animal Services where they are held in the observation hallway while their owner’s case goes through the court system. If the owner is convicted, the dogs are euthanized.

“We don’t adopt out a pit bull unless it’s a puppy,” says Tony Butler, operations manager for Memphis Animal Services. “A lot of these dogs can’t be rehabilitated. … They’re underweight and covered in scars that breed various infections.”

Donna Velez runs Hearts of Gold Pit Bull Rescue. Though she believes many of the dogs could be rehabilitated, she agrees that there is little chance of finding someone willing to adopt them.

“I don’t see that the shelter has any choice. There aren’t enough good homes that will take in a dog like this,” says Velez. “Even if [the shelter] had a professional temperament tester come in and pick out the very best ones that are wagging their tails, what would we do with them? Where would they go?”

Last week, the City Council passed a “vicious dog ordinance” that sends animal abusers to face stiffer penalties in Judge Larry Potter’s Environmental Court.

The ordinance also requires owners of vicious dogs to spay or neuter their animals. Though dogfighters are often charged under a state ordinance that specifically deals with dogfighting and cockfighting, the city ordinance gives authorities more teeth to convict people who do not properly care for vicious dogs.

“A lot of these dogs that are dangerous and vicious are used for breeding purposes in dogfighting. Now the ordinance says, if your dog is declared dangerous, it has to be spayed or neutered,” says Butler. “You can no longer reproduce these dogs for monetary profit.”

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Play With Fire

Charlayne Woodard’s name isn’t exactly a household word. Fans of the New York stage may remember Woodard, an actress and singer, from her acclaimed debut in Dreamgirls or her work in Suzan Lori-Parks’ groundbreaking drama In the Blood. But Woodard is also an accomplished playwright, and Pretty Fire, the autobiographical one-woman show she penned and first performed in 1992, has received numerous awards.

Pretty Fire, which can be seen at the Hattiloo Theatre through September 9th, is less a play and more a collection of short stories intended to be read aloud. With earthy humor and unflinching honesty, it tells the story of a talented, loving, and tightly knit African-American family whose (mostly) happy lives in the urban north are informed by the bucolic landscapes and brutal realities of the Jim Crow South.

Pretty Fire is directed by Teresa Morrow, the Arts for Social Change director for Heifer International. It features gently powerful performances by Hattiloo regulars Charlie Giggers and Tara Hickey and a star turn by Michaelyn Oby, whose beautifully resonant voice is almost too big for the tiny playhouse.

“Pretty Fire,” at The hattiloo theatre, 656 Marshall. Tickets: $15 for adults; $12 for students and seniors. Through September 9th. For more information, call 502-3486.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Mayoral Shuffling

Memphis mayoral candidates continued to campaign, as is their wont, over the weekend:

Incumbent mayor Willie Herenton, who is eschewing formal debates with his opponents, spoke briefly to a rally at a Frayser mall Saturday but mainly spent his time there autographing campaign T-shirts and demonstrating his prowess at the “Cupid Shuffle” as a sound system blared out some music.

Opponent Carol Chumney held a well-attended opening at her Poplar Avenue headquarters on Sunday, once again chiding Herenton for being willing to spar with Joe Frazier while ducking debate, but she seemed to broaden her attack to include rival Herman Morris as well as Herenton: “My opponents love to walk you through their humble beginnings, but their actions both in political office and as executives demonstrate that they have long forgotten where they came from.”

Morris held at least one major fund-raiser over the weekend, while John Willingham presided over a headquarters open house that spread over Sunday and Monday.

Present at Mt. Olive C.M.E. Church for an all-candidates forum Sunday were Chumney, Morris, and Willingham, but not Herenton. A wide representation of other mayoral candidates also attended, including Laura Davis Aaron — who cited as two reasons for running the fact that “Mayor Herenton reads my mail” and that she needs a job — and Dewayne A. Jones Sr., who shouted so loudly as to temporarily short out his microphone.

• With Congress in recess, 9th District congressman Steve Cohen is much in evidence locally. Among other things, Cohen presided (along with Tennessee senator Lamar Alexander) over a ceremony formally changing the name of the Federal Building to the Clifford Davis/Odell Horton Federal Building, in honor of the late U.S. district judge Odell Horton.

Cohen also proposed to President Bush that he appoint former deputy attorney general James Comey to succeed the disgraced and now resigned Alberto Gonzales as U.S. attorney general. (Comey, along with the bedridden John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, had resisted as unconstitutional a Bush wiretapping plan aggressively pushed by Gonzales, then White House counsel.)

Cohen addressed a Chamber of Commerce-sponsored banquet as the first of its Frontline Politics speakers this year and took part in a panel on crime sponsored by the Public Issues Forum. The congressman’s remarks at the Frontline dinner at the Ridgeway Center Hilton struck a new note, in that Cohen, a longtime critic of the Iraq war, acknowledged for the first time that residual U.S. troops might need to remain in the war-torn country for some time to come.

Cohen also scheduled a meeting, tentatively set for Tuesday of this week, with members of the Memphis Black Ministerial Association, one of whose leaders, the Rev. LaSimba Gray, has led an assault on Cohen’s support for a congressional Hate Crimes Bill.

There are several anomalies associated with the ministers’ protest — among them, that Cohen’s predecessor, former congressman Harold Ford Jr., had consistently supported such legislation without drawing criticism from the association.

Pointing out further inconsistencies this week was an association member, the Rev. Ralph White, who originally expressed solidarity with the protest but later satisfied himself it was based on misconceptions. Said White: “I’ve read the bill, and I’m satisfied that it does not restrain a minister from expressing opposition to homosexual conduct or anything else that might be offensive to his conscience or Christian doctrine. The language of the bill specifically guarantees such freedom of speech.”

Turning the attack back on its maker, White said, “What LaSimba Gray has to answer to is whether he is consciously trying to aid the congressional campaign of Nikki Tinker. Nobody seems to be wondering what her attitude toward the Hate Crimes Bill is.”

Actually, many people have so wondered, but a Washington, D.C., spokesman for the elusive Tinker, a 2006 Cohen opponent who has already filed to run a reprise of last year’s congressional race, has publicly said she will, at least temporarily, distance herself from discussion of such issues — as she did at an equivalent period of last year’s race. White, who also sought the 9th District seat last year, is holding open his options for another run of his own.

• Senator Alexander, just back from an extended fact-finding trip to Iraq in tandem with Tennessee Senate colleague Bob Corker, seems, like Cohen, to have moderated his stand on Iraq somewhat. Alexander continues to push for a bipartisan resolution, co-authorized with Colorado Democrat Ken Salazar, based on the findings of the Iraq Study Group and calling for an end to U.S. combat operations.

But the senator indicated in Memphis last week that he had been impressed by progress made by the ongoing U.S. troop “surge” in Anbar Province and other points and, pending a scheduled report to Congress next month by General David Petraeus, was keeping an open mind on continued troop commitments in Iraq.

• A casualty of County Commission voting Monday was Susan Adler Thorp, a former Commercial Appeal columnist and consultant who had been serving as public relations adviser to Juvenile Court judge Curtis Person but whose position ended up being unfunded. Somewhat later, a commission majority would authorize equivalent sums for a new “outreach” position, yet to be filled.

• The 2007 recipient of the Tigrett Award, funded by FedEx founder Fred Smith in honor of the late John Tigrett, will be former U.S. senator Howard Baker, it was announced last week. The award will be presented by the West Tennessee Healthcare Foundation at a gala later this year.

• Next week: a systematic look at this year’s City Council races.

Him Again

Richard Fields was back on the attack, battling his foes by means of publicly circulated letters.

To be sure, one of the epistles was written not by Fields but by Lambert McDaniel, an imprisoned ex-club owner, to Gwen Smith, the point person in Mayor Willie Herenton‘s accusations concerning a lurid blackmail plot against him orchestrated by lawyer Fields and other alleged “snakes.” In the letter, McDaniel, who was incarcerated on a drug charge, refers to Smith by pet names and advises her to stay in touch with “the Mexicans” — presumably drug connections.
What relevance the letter has to Herenton’s charges against Fields — who, according to the mayor, urged Smith to seduce and entrap the mayor — is uncertain. Clearly, it does milady’s reputation, already sullied, no good. But, by association, it wouldn’t seem to entitle Fields — or Nick Clark, his acknowledged confederate in the purported topless-club investigation — to any merit badges, either.

Fields is a textbook illustration of the adjective “unabashed,” however. Confirming reports that the lawyer’s own poison pen had been unsheathed for yet another epistolary crusade, Shelby County commissioner Sidney Chism denounced Fields in the commission’s public session Monday, during a debate on whether to assign Head Start children to the non-profit Porter-Leath Children’s Center.

In one of Fields’ widely circulated broadsides, Chism, a child-care provider himself, was taken to task for his initial opposition to the Porter-Leath arrangement and was told, among other things, he should be “ashamed” of himself.

Chism’s response was scornful. Citing a variety of allegations against Fields that have been insistently put forth by blogger Thaddeus Matthews, Chism challenged Fields’ bona fides, saying that, if all that was said about Fields was true, “he shouldn’t be anywhere around children, anyhow.”

Whatever the accuracy of the charges and counter-charges swirling about Fields, there was little doubt about one thing: With an election happening, the odds were better than even that there will be, in some guise or another, a Richard Fields ballot this year, as there was in each of the last two local election cycles. If so, would this be good or bad for Fields’ endorsees? This, too, remains to be seen.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Getting Around

CREDIT: Berlinfoto | dreamstime.com

Rhodes College junior Anthony Siracusa says that traveling by bicycle sometimes takes longer than expected. But not for the reason you might think.

“It’s a social activity,” he says. “You run into people on the street, and they want to talk.”

Even so, Siracusa hopes to get more bicycles on the roads.

Siracusa represented the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) at the Memphis City Council’s park committee meeting last week. Under a joint resolution, the council and the Shelby County Commission want to expand BPAC’s authority and designate it as a permanent standing committee of the area’s long-range transportation planning arm, the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). The MPO is expected to vote on the change during an August 30th meeting.

“This raises the political profile of BPAC,” Siracusa says of the proposal. “This was a committee organized for a specific purpose.”

BPAC was formed in 2003 to advise on a 25-year comprehensive transportation plan. Now, Siracusa hopes the group will be able to work more closely with the city engineer’s office to add bicycle facilities to area roads.

“One thing BPAC was adamant about from the very beginning was writing into MPO policy that every time a street is repaved, a bike lane is added,” he says.

In 2000, the U.S. Department of Transportation said that states receiving federal dollars needed to incorporate bicycle and pedestrian amenities into transportation pro-jects unless “exceptional circumstances exist.” However, only half of all states have complied, according to the national Complete Streets Coalition.

“Here’s the problem,” says local bike and pedestrian advocate Steven Sondheim. “The federal regulations say when you improve a street or make a new street, they recommend putting in bike and pedestrian facilities, unless there is some compelling reason not to. It’s a recommendation. It’s not a law.”

Though Memphis has designated bicycle routes throughout the city, riding on those roads can still be dangerous. (Insert your own joke about Memphis drivers here.)

“In the three years [since the plan was created], nothing has happened,” Sondheim says. “There is not one bike lane in the city of Memphis. There are some in Germantown and Bartlett.”

Though the MPO plan includes recommendations for bicycle lanes, the group has no authority to implement its plans. Humphreys Boulevard is the only current road project that includes bike lanes.

Perhaps Memphis is behind the curve. Across the country, cities are adding bicycle lanes as part of “complete streets” programs. The idea, utilized in Chicago, Charlotte, and Iowa City, is that public streets should accommodate a variety of transportation, including areas for motor vehicles, bicycles, mass transit, and pedestrians.

Some planners have argued that adding extra vehicle lanes has not reduced traffic congestion; it has just invited more drivers onto the road. Supporters of complete streets initiatives say biking and walking reduce congestion and help fight obesity-related diseases.

The American Association of Retired People and various disability groups are also fans of the program. The environmental argument is a no-brainer, especially with higher gas prices and global warming.

“I see a direct link between creating bicycle facilities and reclaiming streets for a healthier way of life,” Siracusa says. “Bicycle facilities typically reflect people-friendly cities. It’s a mark of livable communities where people like being outside. … Not to mention, bikes are fun.”

The history major would like to see a pilot program add bike lanes to a target neighborhood, preferably in Cooper-Young.

“People are already riding bikes there,” he says. “The least we can do is make them safer.”

But if Memphians want bicycle lanes, they are going to have to lobby for them.

“I wish we lived in a place like Chicago where the mayor got on a bicycle and led the way,” Siracusa says. “At the same time, Memphians have to decide: Do we want to see increased bicycle and pedestrian access in our city?”

Sondheim says a group of cyclists will be starting to identify specific roads for bike lanes as early as this fall.

“What we want is [more lanes] in the next year or two,” he says. “We can’t wait until 2030. That’s part of the problem with long-range plans.”

Sometimes, they just leave you spinning your wheels.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Roaring Back?

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

However hot, hazy, and humid, August in Memphis is a time for optimism if you’re a football fan. Before the season’s opening kickoff — this Saturday for the University of Memphis, in the Liberty Bowl against Ole Miss — every team from UCF to UCLA is undefeated. For the 2007 Memphis Tigers, optimism is a welcome tonic.

Having survived a 2-10 trainwreck in 2006, head coach Tommy West turned his staff inside out over the off-season. Six of West’s nine full-time staffers are new to the program, the lone holdovers being offensive coordinator Clay Helton, offensive line coach Rick Mallory, and linebackers coach Kenny Ingram. Add the requisite hope and optimism of a new job to the mix and this year’s squad will take its lead from a staff that has little tolerance for any aftertaste from last season.

“They’re good teachers,” says West of his new assistants. “And that’s what coaching is: teaching. I’m really excited about it.”

West dismisses any thoughts of the risk in such a dramatic turnover in staff. “I keep a good grip on things,” he says. “And I do what I think is necessary to move us forward. The [challenge] has been to get everybody on the same page. We know how to win. That’s what I had to impress on them: You’re not coming into a program that hasn’t won. We’re not here to get on your page. You need to get on our page. We’ve been to more bowl games than all of them. And they’ve done a good job of understanding what we do and how we do it.

“When you’ve had a staff together for four or five years,” he continues, “it’s easier for the head coach. The other coaches know what’s expected. That’s my job, to coach the coaches. It’s their job to coach the players.”

Here’s a look at the season ahead through the eyes of three of the new coaches.

Brent Pry (Defensive Line)

The 37-year-old Pry arrives in Memphis having spent the last five seasons at Louisiana-Lafayette (ULL). During Pry’s time at ULL, the Ragin’ Cajuns won a Sun Belt Conference championship and saw three defensive players selected in the NFL draft. Having played collegiately as a safety at Buffalo, Pry has taken a unique path to overseeing defensive linemen.

“I’ve coached them all,” Pry stresses. “When I went to Virginia Tech as a grad assistant, I coached the line for three years. I coached the secondary at Western Carolina, and I’ve also coached linebackers. We had some great defenses at Virginia Tech, and that was primarily because of our front four. You can take a ball game over from the defensive line. If they can’t block you up front, they can’t do much of anything.”

Pry seems every bit as happy to be in Memphis as West is to add him to the mix. “I wanted to work for Tommy West six years ago,” he explains, “and it didn’t work out, but I’ve always had a great amount of respect for him. Coming from Virginia Tech and knowing Tommy when he was at Clemson, I’ve got a lot of respect for the kind of defensive coach he was. I also had a close relationship with [new defensive coordinator] Rick Kravitz.”

Though new to the Mid-South, Pry has a feel for the lay of the land. And he has a unique perspective — optimism, remember — on the team he inherits. “Coming from the Sun Belt Conference,” Pry reflects, “we played a lot of Conference USA schools, so I had an idea of what was good and what wasn’t in this league, and I was very impressed with the talent on this football team. [Last year’s] record was not indicative of the talent.”

Larry Kuzniewski

Darin Hinshaw

Pry has a different angle — again, coming from the Sun Belt — from fans who continue to insist this is SEC country. “Conference USA has a bigger, better athlete,” Pry notes. “There was speed in the Sun Belt, though not as much. The overall makeup of your roster has much greater potential in this league. In the Sun Belt, maybe the top 10 guys could play in this league. I also think there’s a greater commitment from the administration in this league.”

Considering last year’s Tiger team suffered a nine-game losing streak — one that didn’t include the season-opening loss to Ole Miss — how can Pry carry his rosy outlook with a straight face? “Anytime you make a change at the coordinator position, it’s tough,” he stresses. “You’re going from a very different scheme. Joe Lee Dunn’s scheme was atypical. To change from that scheme was difficult. The kids had to be exposed to new adjustments and things they didn’t have to deal with under the old system.

“We had a head start this spring, really diving into the 4-3 and what Tommy and Rick Kravitz want to do,” Pry says. “I expect to see a lot of improvement. The first thing that comes to mind when I look at a defensive line is mentality. Along with coaching technique with this group, I’ve coached the heck out of them when it comes to mentality. The more maturity I can get out of this group, the more commitment. It’s a tough position to play, especially on first and second down. You’ve got to have a mature bunch. Do they understand the work involved? Do they understand the commitment, the unselfish approach? They have to get the most out of every rep, every practice. It’s an image that they’re forming, to be respected by their teammates and their coaches.”

In identifying a leader among his unit, Pry points to a rookie defensive tackle: “Freddie Barnett, the junior-college transfer, has been a real inspiration. He has tremendous ability and all the intangibles. He’s unselfish, talented, and a very big team player. He’s constantly pushing the rest of the group.”

Greg Terrell — a C-USA All-Freshman selection a year ago — is another player fans should spotlight this fall. “Greg has put on about 30 pounds,” Pry says. “He’s bigger and stronger. He’s growing into the new system, and there’s a lot of competition at the [defensive end] position. Greg’s had to work harder than he ever has before. He’s beginning to understand that you’re not going to get by on ability alone.”

Larry Kuzniewski

Rick Kravitz

Darin Hinshaw (wide receivers)

Led by sophomore Duke Calhoun (42 receptions for 681 yards in ’06), the Tiger receiving corps should be a strength this fall, particularly if senior quarterback Martin Hankins builds on his strong finish last season and tailback Joseph Doss keeps opposing defenses honest against the run. The pass-catchers will be guided by 35-year-old Darin Hinshaw, a record-breaking quarterback at Central Florida during his playing days and most recently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Georgia Southern. Hinshaw also spent five years at Middle Tennessee State, where the Blue Raiders developed into one of the highest-scoring offenses in the Sun Belt.

Ask Hinshaw about his unit and the coach has to take a breath before reeling off the names he expects to make an impact: Calhoun, Carlos Singleton, Earnest Williams, Steven Black (a junior-college transfer), Carlton Robinzine (recovered from a knee injury that cost him the 2006 season). It’s a case of strength in numbers that the Tiger passing game hasn’t always enjoyed.

“Through the course of a season,” Hinshaw explains, “you’re going to use all your receivers, and they’re gonna have to rotate. When you can rotate a starter and backup and not lose anything, that’s huge. Normally, defensive backs don’t rotate at all, so you have a chance to run some deep routes, tire them out, and not lose anything at receiver.

Larry Kuzniewski

Tommy West

“We run sets with three and four receivers,” Hinshaw continues. “We’re going to move them around, to get them in position to get mismatches. When you have one great receiver, the defense will roll coverage to him. But when you have good receivers on both sides, it creates one-on-one matches. We’ve got to make plays.”

Hinshaw loves the leadership Calhoun has shown at the start of his second college season. “Duke’s always the first in line for sprints,” Hinshaw says. “When you have a guy with talent like his wanting to work, it gets everybody focused.”

Whether it’s size, speed, strength, or versatility, Hinshaw feels the Tiger wideouts are equipped to create their share of headaches for the opposition. “We’ve gained a lot of experience at the position,” he notes. “We’re gonna move Duke around a lot, and we’ll have depth with Maurice Jones. Earnest Williams is going to be one of the top inside receivers in the conference. Usually you have one guy, then you have a bunch of average players that you’re trying to get better. I feel like we have weapons that can catch the ball and score. We’ve got strong receivers: Jones broke the school squat record [for receivers] this summer.”

A quarterback’s blood still pulsing through his veins, Hinshaw recognizes the development of Martin Hankins as critical to his unit’s performance in the season ahead. And he likes what he sees thus far. “[Hankins] has really come along from where he was last year,” Hinshaw says. “He’s gotten bigger, stronger, and he’s gotten a lot more confident with the receivers. When a bunch of guys get hurt, you lose that relationship. [Backup quarterback] Will Hudgens is a leader, too. And he’s had a good summer.”

With seven or eight receivers in the mix, Hankins had better become familiar with faces before he starts gazing downfield. And those receivers he ultimately sees had better catch the ball, because a ready-and-able replacement will be on the sideline.

“That’s what’s great about making each other better, the competition,” Hinshaw says. “If you don’t have someone pushing you from behind, you can get stagnant. As a group, we’re working to make each other better and win as a team. Some games you may catch 10 balls, others you may catch three. It depends on what the defense is doing. Everybody’s gotta be ready to perform and to make plays.”

Larry Kuzniewski

Brent Pry

Rick Kravitz
(defensive coordinator)

It’s almost a universal truth among Tiger fans that the 2006 season was all but compromised with the midseason dismissal of defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn. As Pry notes, the adjustments forced upon players — while preparing for the next week’s foe — proved too much for the Tiger defense. With West himself overseeing the scheme transition, important details were lost in translation. The end result: an average of more than 30 points allowed per game.

To the rescue comes Rick Kravitz. Having first filled the role of defensive coordinator in 1986 (at Florida A&M), Kravitz brings a single-minded determination for defensive improvement to the 2007 Tigers. During a decade spent at South Florida, Kravitz coordinated a unit that ranked among the top 20 defenses nationally three times. (Last year — his only season at North Carolina State — the Wolfpack finished 13th in the country against the pass.)

Having been on the opposite sideline, Kravitz welcomes the chance to mold a defense at West’s side. “Knowing Coach West’s defensive background,” Kravitz says, “it was exciting to get the chance to come here and learn some things from him. He’s a fundamentals coach, which I like. He’s a guy who lets you coach. He wants things done his way, which is natural. He’s straightforward.”

Larry Kuzniewski

#22: sophomore wide receiver Duke Calhoun

He won’t go so far as to describe a “Rick Kravitz philosophy to defense,” but the 53-year-old Florida native does believe there is value in change. “I bring — along with the other new coaches — some enthusiasm and excitement. Defensively, we’re developing an attitude. If the ball’s on the one-yard line, you know, we still have a yard to go. We’re being positive, aggressive. If we can improve 2 percent a day, after 20 days we’ve improved 40 percent.”

How is a defense that was so staggered a year ago reshaped into a unit capable of beating Division I-A competition? Kravitz considers the answer elementary. “We have to continue to work on fundamentals and get better at what we do. If we do that, no matter what we run, we’re going to be a better defensive team. Kids have bought into my fundamentals, and that’s how you get better and better.”

Kravitz echoes Pry’s sentiments about Barnett when describing the off-season leaders of his defense. He also says defensive back Dontae Reed — a transfer from Ole Miss — has made a difference. “They encourage each other,” Kravitz notes. “Dontae has gathered players for workouts, taking responsibility and getting things done.”

A new season, a new schedule, and lots of new faces. Why not be optimistic as year seven of the Tommy West era dawns in Memphis?

“With six new coaches,” Pry says, “it forces you to move forward. We weren’t here for [the 2-10 season]. It’s been a breath of fresh air, a renewal.

“This is the most well-disciplined football team I’ve ever been around,” he adds. “And it starts at the top with Coach West. These players — and the coaches — have a tremendous respect for him and how he wants to run this program. The whole group is coming together as a football team.”

The first exam is Saturday against Ole Miss.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Photographic Memory

CREDIT: From Memphis World

Museum curators receive plenty of calls from people willing to sell art. Most don’t result in deals, but a parcel of old photographs that came to the attention of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art last year broke the trend.

“We told the owner to bring them in, and it turned out to be this group of photographs from the Memphis World,” says Marina Pacini, chief curator of the Brooks. “We decided we had to have them.”

The World — a member of the Scott Syndicate of African-American newspapers — published downtown from 1931 to 1973.

The Brooks bought 222 World photographs and plans to host an exhibit of the pictures and the stories behind them. First, however, they have some work to do.

The photographs were sold piecemeal at an estate sale without any identifying information. Pacini and David McCarthy, professor of art history at Rhodes College, seized the problem as an opportunity to create a community project combining the images with their sometimes obscure historical circumstances.

“These connect us with a moment in Memphis history that we all need to know about,” says McCarthy, whose students have joined the excavation for information about the photographs. “We’re hoping we can find people in the photographs and do oral histories with them.”

Most of the pictures in the Brooks collection depict events between 1949 and 1964, such as the 1953 Dairy Council Luncheon and the 1951 opening of the W.C. Handy Theatre — everyday activities excluded from the typical narrative of Memphis history.

McCarthy will lead a seminar this fall with students researching and writing entries on each of the images.

“The photographs go against what you think of as typical for Memphis in that time period,” says Amber James, a Rhodes student who has researched the photograph (shown above) of a Universal Life Insurance transaction as part of a larger project on black-owned businesses in Memphis.

McCarthy, Pacini, and students read through microfilm copies of the World at the Central Library. They have found about 160 of the photos in the Brooks collection in the paper and noted the photo captions and photographer credits as they originally ran.

Pacini and McCarthy also assembled an advisory committee to help identify the photographs and set up a computer kiosk in the Brooks’ lobby that displays each photograph in the collection. People are encouraged to view the kiosk and help identify subjects of the pictures. “We’re trying to find anyone and everyone who can help us with this,” McCarthy says.

They would likewise welcome the appearance of other World photographs. The estate sale where the Brooks collection was acquired sold other lots of World pictures separately. “We don’t know what happened to the rest,” McCarthy says.

The exhibit will be on display at the Brooks in the fall of 2008.

Categories
Living Spaces Real Estate

Spend the weekend visiting open houses.

Look around. The grass is green, the sun is shining, and summer is definitely here. You can see the difference all over the Mid-South. People are outside enjoying themselves and doing all the things that are typical of summer: working in the yard, grilling outdoors, and scanning the real estate section for open houses.

The climate is right for buying a new home too. Interest rates are near historic lows. A 30-year fixed mortgage at around 6 percent is always attractive, but when you combine that with a strong economy, rising home values, and a projected demand for homes in Memphis well into the future, you’ve got a market that puts you in the driver’s seat.

And the driver’s seat is exactly where you belong. From there you can take the family for a nice weekend drive and explore the new developments in our area that are calling your name. Your ideal model home, lot, or condominium is waiting to be discovered.

As with any trip, it’s best to start with directions. You can map out your day by using A Change of Address magazine, found at the Memphis Area Home Builders Association, Schnucks, Kroger, Wal-Mart, Sam’s, and Blockbuster stores around the Mid-South. The magazine is a great way to learn what local builders and developers have to offer. Make a list of the subdivisions or model homes that appeal to you, and work from there. As you are driving, keep your eyes open for additional developments; you may be pleasantly surprised by what you see.

Take the time to tour a few developments so you can compare what each one has to offer. Remember that most developments have restrictions that will impact things such as the size of your home, its placement on your lot, and the materials used on the exterior. While these restrictions are designed to protect the architectural integrity of homes in the subdivision, and thus protect the resale value of the homes, they also can impact your building costs.

You should also keep in mind that condominium living is different from single-family-home living. The benefits of having someone else maintain the exterior of your home are great for those who are getting older or those who simply do not have the time to dedicate to a yard or a garden. Monthly association fees cover these costs and more.

Touring model homes and condominiums is much like visiting a car lot. You get to “kick the tires” by taking the time to evaluate the floor plan, the attention to detail, and the pros and cons of the house or condominium as it relates to the way your family lives. Only when you tour a model is there is a salesperson on hand who can educate you on the home or condominium you are touring. ■

For the latest copy of A Change of Address, visit one of the stores listed above or call the Memphis Area Home Builders Association at 756-4500.

Keith Grant is president of the Memphis Area Home Builders Association.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall

Expert Witness

Last Sunday, Alexander Rogers Coleman was shot by an off-duty police officer after he pulled a knife on his brother at New Life Baptist Church in South Memphis. Michael Conner, the suspect’s brother, told WREG-TV that Coleman “came back with the knife or whatever, and I guess he saw the dude with the gun or whatever and he turned around and that’s when the dude shot him in the back.” Police officials have described the shooting as a “personnel” matter and have promised an internal investigation. Or whatever.

Headline of the Week

Last Tuesday’s Commercial Appeal contained a story titled “Leaders get behind ED plans.” To their credit, our leaders decided to stick with their plans even after it was explained that ED stands for economic development and not erectile dysfunction.

Fly Girl

CA columnist Bart Sullivan recently revealed that Nikki Tinker, the ambitious attorney who hopes to unseat 9th District congressman Steve Cohen, has been courting the Baptist Ministerial Association. She even arranged for Pinnacle Airlines, her employer, to provide a free airplane ride to select members of the ministers’ congregations. “After declaring her candidacy, Pinnacle Airlines flew the group in circles around Memphis on June 23rd,” Sullivan wrote, without ever explaining the point of flying them around in circles. Maybe they were trying to get a little closer to Jesus?

Pinnacle spokesperson R. Phillip Reed added that the “trip” was “not directly or indirectly associated with the Tinker for Congress campaign.” It was simply a chance for Tinker to fly some Baptists around and around in circles.

Sullivan went on to cite Tinker’s D.C. spokesman, Cornell Belcher, who didn’t really say much, but anytime you can attribute a quote to someone named Cornell Belcher, you should.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

What Does Tinker Think?

Next year’s Democratic primary apparently will see a return match of Steve Cohen vs. Nikki Tinker for the right to represent the 9th District (an area which dovetails, more or less, with Memphis) in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The 2008 version of that race will be different in several particulars, to be sure. A plus for Tinker is the fact that she is unlikely to be, as she was last year, one of a dozen or so African-American candidates, most of them reasonably credentialed to serve in Congress, all of them competing for the same presumed voter base. To Cohen’s benefit is the fact that he will be running as the incumbent with a record of achievement — and certainly of effort — that his constituents can judge him on. Give the congressman this: He stays busy, amazingly so for a first-termer. Merely attempting to keep up with what he’s keeping up with and then reporting it puts any media outlet in risk of accusations of partiality. What are we to do? Tell him to take more vacations?

We have generally favored Cohen’s positions — and certainly his style — since we started observing him years ago as a state legislator. But the fact remains that we, like most local observers, were decidedly impressed by several figures in last year’s congressional race and would have been content if any of half a dozen of them had been elected.

Frankly, we never quite put Nikki Tinker in that category, though we certainly understood her appeal to many people — enough of them, along with formidable sources of financial support, to make her runner-up to Cohen in last year’s primary. Our basic problem with Tinker was that she declined, early or late, to stake out positions on the major issues. The sentimental story she kept telling about her grandmother was all well and good, but her prospective constituents deserved to know more about her views on the major issues of war and peace and governmental policy. For better and for worse, we know where Cohen stands on things.

Unhappily, Tinker has shown no more inclination than she did last year to convey her thoughts on the issues. Specifically, when her views about the currently (and, we think, unnecessarily) controversial Hate Crimes Bill (see Politics, p. 14) have been sought, she has not only been uncommunicative, she has been unreachable, leaving it to a spokesperson in far-off Washington to say that she is concentrating on “voters,” not issues. Whatever that means. The implication was that to discuss the things that matter most to her would-be constituents would somehow be a disservice to them.

The fact is, we think the current attack on Cohen’s vote for the Hate Crimes Bill — identical to the positions taken by his predecessor, Harold Ford Jr., and by every member of the Congressional Black Caucus in the current session — is a sham argument orchestrated by ad hoc partisans of Tinker for whom Cohen’s race is the real issue.

For her own credibility, we think it is incumbent that Tinker herself address for the record the Hate Crimes Bill — and other issues of the day, for that matter. That’s how she’ll win our respect.

Categories
Living Spaces Real Estate

See Dick Raise Safety Awareness in Cooper-Young

Meet Dick. The Cooper-Young resident is into karaoke, gardening, and Sunday drives. He listens to Sting and Whitesnake and likes watching Cops. He’s a Virgo, married, has a son (Little Dick), stands 5′ 9″, and takes home from $75,000 to $100,000 a year.

He’s also, when it comes to looking out for his neighbors, clueless. He leaves valuables in his car, he doesn’t pay attention to his surroundings, and he never reports suspicious behavior.

Don’t be a Dick.

That’s the clarion call being put out by the Cooper-Young Community Association (CYCA) in a new safety-awareness campaign being rolled out this week. The “Don’t be a Dick” message is being disseminated through posters around the neighborhood, yard signs, a direct-mail piece with awareness tips to residents, a Web site (safedick.com) and a MySpace page (www.myspace.com/safedick) which features Dick and his family and friends. At the Cooper-Young Festival on September 15th, there will be T-shirts and bumper stickers available touting the idea.

The “Don’t be a Dick” campaign was the brain wave of the ad agency Harvest, located in Cooper-Young. Harvest’s Andrew Holliday created the campaign, and Daniel Brown and Mike Force did the design and illustration work. Of the campaign’s edgy strategy, Holliday says, “It does reflect the neighborhood, but we wanted something that had a little bit of shock value to it … so we draw people in.

“Once you actually read the copy, it’s not offensive at all,” Holliday says. “This is a message that you see people trying to convey all over the place, and a lot of times, it can be boring. We needed a strong headline, and we needed something that was kind of fun to fit the neighborhood.”

Edmund Mackey is the former president and current safety chairperson of the CYCA. “Cooper-Young is probably, after downtown, the most sought after place for tourism and for Memphians to eat and drink,” Mackey says. “We get a lot of traffic from other parts of Memphis. … [We want] patrons of the restaurants, the businesses, and our neighborhood to be vigilant about their own safety.”

Mackey, a Cooper-Young resident for about five years, says, “There was a growing perception that we had a crime problem. We do have things like panhandling, cars getting broken into, sheds getting broken into, but overall crime is down. And those types of things can definitely be prevented or lessened.

Vigilance and safety awareness can prevent many crimes, Mackey says: “The purpose of [Don’t be a Dick] is putting the idea out there to be responsible for your own safety.

Instead of being reactive, we wanted to be proactive and say get the laptop out of the front seat of your car. Get your purse out of the back seat of the car. You can put your car anywhere with a laptop in the front seat, and there are not too many places that people won’t break into it.”

Of the campaign concept Harvest came up with, Mackey says, “I love it. The original tips I came up with weren’t very catchy. They were sort of bland safety tips that I didn’t think would go a long way. What they came up with is definitely racy. But I think it will get people’s attention, get people to talk about it, and get people to be more aware, and that’s the whole goal.” ■ — GA

LivingSpaces@memphisflyer.com

ARRAY(0x223a3228)