Month: July 2015

Categories
News The Fly-By

MATA Studies New Transit Options for Midtown

From the growing absence of the downtown and Midtown trolleys to the seemingly ever-present complaints about city bus services, getting around in Memphis without a car continues to be a struggle for many.

But the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) hired a consulting firm last year in an effort to improve service, at least for Midtown bus riders. The Midtown Area Connector (MAC) study, which is still underway, is a long-range study to help MATA discover better ways to connect Midtown with other areas of Memphis, either through a new transit service or by expanding on existing ones.

New transit services being considered are “bus rapid transit” or even rail service, which would be designed to reduce travel time, provide real-time travel information, or include dedicated bus lanes on city streets.

Earlier this month, MATA held a meeting with Livable Memphis to update bus riders on the study’s progress. The consultants have identified seven routes, which they narrowed down from 26 routes, that are the most highly trafficked and in need of the most improvement.

In addition to allowing MATA to provide an update on the study, the meeting also gave bus riders an opportunity to comment on the current operations of MATA. Many riders brought up the fact that the routes chosen for the study neglected to reach low-income areas of Memphis. MATA’s use of its funding was also brought into question, in addition to questions about why some bus lines or services had been limited in recent months.

Concerns about whether it was possible to bring new trolley lines into the picture while the old lines are still not operating were also aired. MATA did recently announce that trolley-like buses would begin running downtown in August, but there’s no word on when those will come to Midtown or when the real trolleys will be back. However, MATA officials reassured those attending the meeting that they do plan to get the trolleys going eventually.

“We fully intend to have the trolleys back on Madison at some point. We can’t commit to a time at this moment,” said Tom Fox, deputy general manager of MATA.

Some at the meeting expressed concern about the lack of ability to check on the time of bus arrivals. The MAC study is looking at providing new bus shelters that include a system for real-time bus arrival estimates. But for now, MATA officials are encouraging riders to use TransLoc Rider, their new bus times app for smartphones.

Alison Burton, MATA’s director of marketing and customer relations, said the input from the meeting was important for their MAC study.

“This has been the best [meeting], because the group was so diverse and they had such excellent questions. We [had] note takers, and we’ll take all the information that we received and look at that,” Burton said. “Anything that comes up that we hear repeatedly, the team is going to take that back and include that in their next report.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Prison Reform Task Force Prepares Recommendations

The Governor’s Task Force on Sentencing and Recidivism has been working for a year to make the state’s prison system more effective, and they may be making their first recommendations as soon as next month.

The task force was formed last year with the help of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Vera Institute of Justice out of New York. The task force’s 27 members were appointed by Governor Bill Haslam to reform the prison sentencing structure in Tennessee.

The group is focused on sentencing structure, sentencing classifications and enhancements, programming and treatment, and community supervision.

Among the 27 are seven from the Memphis metro area: John Campbell, criminal court judge; Rep. John DeBerry (D-Memphis); Sen. Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown); Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell; Shelby County Sheriff Bill Oldham; Blair Taylor, president of Memphis Tomorrow; and Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich.

Luttrell, who requested to be considered for the task force, said he believed he could use his previous experience in law enforcement and corrections.

“It’s a comprehensive look at sentencing reform and trying to keep people from returning to prison,” he said.

According to a Vera Institute of Justice report released in June, the prison population is expected to rise by four percent over the next five years, pushing the state’s prison population over maximum capacity.

“It’s not the intent of this task force to increase the [prison] population,” Luttrell said. “If you look at the multitude of recommendations that we’ve been making, we talk about some areas where it doesn’t have sentencing, but then it also talks about a number of areas where we are looking at reducing prison time, more effective ways to deal with behavior, more community-based programs, and establishing commissions and councils that will sustain this initiative going forward.”

At the August 6th meeting of the task force, Luttrell said he hopes they will complete the first draft of recommendations to be sent the governor.

“Certainly, there are instances where we need to enhance sentencing, but there are also areas that we need to ensure that the sentencing accurately reflects the severity of the offense, which would be a reduced sentence in some cases,” Luttrell said.

Kerry Hayes, an adviser to Just City Memphis (a criminal justice reform organization), said the task force may be biased: “The people from Shelby County [on the task force], by-and-large, are fantastic people. On the whole, the entire task force statewide is overwhelmingly oriented around law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges, which means there’s a whole half to the criminal justice system that’s hardly being represented at all, in particular, the public defenders.”

“Any time you have a massive statewide committee like this that is so completely biased in terms of one viewpoint that’s dealing with stuff this sensitive, you run the risk of having recommendations coming out that are tilted, which is what looks like is happening,” Hayes said.

Hayes said there are some task force-recommended reforms that may spell out progress for the criminal justice system, including recommendations to change the threshold for the felony property crime charge to $1,000 from $500. The Vera Institute’s analysis of the task force’s recommendations found causes for concern, including requiring that repeat drug trafficking and aggravated burglary offenders serve 85 percent of their sentences.

“They’re changing some parole policies that we think might increase the population of incarcerated individuals in Tennessee,” Hayes said. “That is really troubling, because that has ripple effects all throughout the rest of the criminal justice system, all the way down to the taxpayer. Suddenly, budgets are increasing, because prisons are increasing in size, and [private prison] companies like [Corrections Corporation of America] are increasing their contracts with governments. The whole criminal justice apparatus becomes more expensive and harder to unwind.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

TDOT Delays I-55 Bridge Project

CREDIT: Brandon Dill

Turns out, we can drive I-55, at least for another year.

Last week the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) hit pause on a plan to build a new interchange for Interstate-55 at E. H. Crump and Riverside. That $60 million plan would have closed the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge for nine months, beginning in 2017.

Opposition to the bridge closure mounted quickly after news of the plan broke in the Flyer in late May. By the beginning of July, TDOT Commissioner John Schroer remained resolute in his decision to implement the plan. When asked if anything would change his mind, Schroer told the Flyer that, “It’s not a case of changing my mind. It’s about making the right decisions, and, in this case, we made the right decisions.”

Brandon Dill

Less than a month later, TDOT announced it would idle the project for one year as it studied the project’s impact on the regional economy and the communities surrounding the proposed construction.

TDOT will take the year to compare two plans. One is the plan on the table, with a three-year construction period and a nine-month closure of the bridge. The other has a six-year construction period and would close only some traffic lanes across the bridge, but there would be no full closure.

“Over the past several weeks, we have heard from residents, business owners, elected officials, and other stakeholders in Memphis and in Arkansas, and we understand there is a significant level of concern over a full closure of the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge,” Schroer said in a news release Friday. “We want to take the opportunity to address those concerns before moving forward with construction.”

The loudest, most formal opposition to the plan came from Arkansas state Senator Keith Ingram of West Memphis. Ingram launched a petition at change.org to fight the bridge closure, saying it would “devastate” local economies and “cripple” emergency services.

Ingram said he and a group of state and local officials had a “good and meaningful” meeting with Schroer two weeks ago. He said delaying the project is a “good first step” in the process to build a new interchange.

“I think sometimes, and I’m not saying it’s the case here, but sometimes in Little Rock, or Nashville, or Jackson, Mississippi, it’s easy to make some of these decisions until you really see first-hand and understand the daily disruption and the regional impact that closing this bridge would have for all of us,” Ingram said.

The Greater Memphis Chamber also opposed closing the bridge, fearing the move could have a multi-billion-dollar negative effect on the regional economy.

“We appreciate TDOT’s leadership on this issue and support their plan to delay the project for a year to complete additional analysis of the impact and to work with Arkansas and regional businesses on any alternatives to a complete closure of the bridge during construction,” said Dexter Muller, the Chamber’s senior advisor.

The plan delay was good news for West Memphian Jim Russell. He’s retired and travels to Memphis for medical visits and to volunteer at the Memphis Botanic Garden.

“I was planning on not going to Memphis at all anymore, except for some doctors’ appointments I couldn’t change,” Russell said. “I was going to cut out the Botanic Gardens completely, but now I won’t have to do that.”

Categories
News News Feature

Adios, Memphis

My first news director gave me this advice on my first day on the job as a television reporter: “The thing you have to remember, Smitty, is to keep it simple for the audience to understand.”

I asked, “How simple does it have to be?”

He rolled back in his chair and said, “Well, look at it like you’re talking to Joe and Josephine Six-Pack, who have come home from work. They don’t want to hear from local people using big words telling them about the news of the day. You leave that to Walter Cronkite. All you have to do is tell them a simple story about what happened in our neck of the woods.”

Forty years later I can tell you: His advice then went in one ear and out the other.

But now, as I’ve come to the end of my broadcast journalism career, I can appreciate the basic wisdom of his cautionary words. Every electronic news organization these days touts being fast and first in reporting the daily headlines. Notice I didn’t include being “accurate” as part of that mantra. Because of the insurgence of social media into the journalistic mix, too much rumor, innuendo, and downright lies are being peddled as truths to the general public. As was once written, “The fault lies not in our stars, but in us.”

So on the way out the door, I have a few words of advice to give to young reporters looking to make a respectable impression in Memphis broadcasting.

It helps to have a dictionary. A computer’s spell-check system can give you the correct letters, but it doesn’t help you learn the true meaning of what you’re trying to convey. Armed with the knowledge of what you’re talking about, it is possible to confidently use words that empower, enlighten, and inform the viewers, perhaps enough so that they’ll go looking for a dictionary. That’s viewer engagement, exactly what you want to achieve. If they learn something from a story they might not have known before, chances are they will listen to you the next time they see you. That’s why it’s imperative that you learn as much about this city as possible. Learn its history. Learn the street names and areas of town. Find out who the movers and shakers are. Incorporate that knowledge into your reports. Do your own legwork, and don’t rely on Twitter or Facebook to do it for you.

Strive for objectivity. It is the crux of journalism. I’ll be the first to tell you, I’ve probably crossed that line more than I’d like to admit. But I did so, because I’ve always had a desire to improve the human condition. When lives are lost for no reason, when governmental decisions are made with no apparent thoughts of the consequences or the people they will affect, when racial and sexual prejudices and injustice go unchecked, then it became my obligation to alert the public to what I knew was happening. I’ve taken the heat for what I reported over the years, but I always tried to be fair. I never burned any bridges, because, in a business where communication is key, I learned those bridges are interconnected among all races, ideologies, faiths, and political persuasions.

I’ve often said that being on television is not a right, it is a privilege. I’ve always been amazed by the number of people who were willing to open up their hearts and trust me to tell their stories. This is the gauntlet I throw down to our local journalists: Tell stories from a human perspective. Every story has an emotion. Find it, feel it, and report it. Every story comes with facts. Dig down to find out what they are before you go on air. The worst mistake you can make is to not be prepared to speak logically and concisely about the story you’re covering. If you have questions before you go out the door, ask veteran reporters what they know.

Our industry has gone far beyond Joe and Josephine Six-Pack, but the basic principles remain the same: Try to report the news first, fast — and most important — accurately.

Les Smith is a former reporter for WHBQ Fox-13.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Mosa’s Banh Mi

This was my first time at Mosa Asian Bistro, and it was quite the memorable visit. They just rolled out a summer sandwich special last week, so I had to try it. It’s called the Banh Mi ($9) and you can get it weekdays during lunch. It’s Mosa’s very own specially marinated pho beef in a Korean BBQ sauce with a fried egg, pickled Asian slaw, cilantro, and a sriracha and aioli sauce all on a toasted Ricki’s Cookie Corner challah bun. The sandwich is served with the chef’s choice of a seasonal summer fruit salad.

On the first bite you get a hint of spiciness right away. There’s a lot of flavors and textures going on, but in a great way. The softness of the bun is so nice, especially when the crunchiness of the pickled Asian slaw kicks in with it. Now let’s talk about the Korean BBQ sauce. I don’t know how it’s made but… give me more of that sauce! It’s pretty much a light BBQ sauce and it was delicious. The pho beef is tender and the pieces are thinly placed on the sandwich. It’s delightful to eat this way. My mouth isn’t overwhelmed with chunks of thick beef. I must admit, I thought this sandwich was going to be heavy. Not at all. It was light, yet very filling. I didn’t taste the fried egg until I was more than halfway through the sandwich and it was a yummy, creamy surprise. I can’t decide what my favorite part of this sandwich is. The beef alone would be great by itself, but I’m so glad that Mosa Asian Bistro came up with this fusion creation!

The fruit salad was pieces of mango and fuzzy white nectarines. It was juicy and extremely fresh. I gobbled it up. Sometimes, the chef will mix it up and give you plums!

There wasn’t one piece of the sandwich left on my plate. I don’t know who was more satisfied… me, who did all the damage… or the owner Mr. Eddie, who personally made my sandwich. We were both smiling ear to ear. 

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

The Story Of Film

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011; dir. Mark Cousins)—Beat the heat this week by staying indoors and soaking up Mark Cousins’ 15-part history of cinematic innovation. Running 15 ½ hours and featuring nearly 1000 clips, Cousins’ massive monument to fair use and great movies from around the world is highly recommended to smart people like you who’ve figured out that the American cinema isn’t the only game in town but have no idea where to begin. Can you dig it? More importantly, can you set aside the free time to dig it?

Cousins is quietly enthusiastic without sounding pretentious or crazy, and his hard-earned, nicely skewed point of view only increases the charm of his soothing, hyperbolic voiceover. He hates The Lord of The Rings, loves Baz Luhrmann (“Not since interviewing Bernardo Bertolucci have I met a director who so understands their own work and, moreover, has a convincing theory of art” he writes in The Story of Film’s accompanying booklet) and says that the one movie you should see if you haven’t already is Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammel’s 1970 freakout Performance, which contains Mick Jagger’s greatest role, one of the earliest music videos, and a point-of-view shot of a bullet travelling through a person’s brain.

Cousins is a curious and generous interviewer as well. Early on, we discover that Norman Lloyd, a.k.a. Colin Quinn’s buddy at the assisted-living facility in Trainwreck, is a human Rosetta stone who can tell first-hand stories about nearly all of the major American filmmakers from the first half of the 20th century. We also get Charles Burnett stammering about the “propaganda” of Hollywood characterization, Terence Davies professing his love for Vermeer, Stanley Donen angrily dismissing the idea of the “camera-stylo”, Youssef Chahine predicting the Arab Spring five years early, and Indian star Amitabh Bachchan (star of Sholay, ran for five years in Mumbai, how could you forget) dismissing his own charisma by insisting that appearing on camera is just a job.

Cousins’ informal numerology is also something to behold. He lists the eight challenges to the romantic cinema of the 1920s and ‘30s; the seven reasons Alfred Hitchcock is “the pre-eminent image-maker of the 20th century”; the six major US film genres emerging in the 1930s; the five kinds of identity crises in European film of the 1970s; the four European directors of the 1950s worth knowing well; the three kinds of films in the New American cinema of the 1960s and ‘70s, and the three key transgressive works of the New Korean Cinema of the ‘00s. Although his own images can’t compete with the ones he’s selected from film history—and really, how could they?—his most affecting footage juxtaposes clips and photos of key locations from old movies with the parking lots, apartment complexes and abandoned buildings they inevitably become.

The Story of Film is an excellent road map and, like the films of Yasujiro Ozu, it’s great to have on in the background if you plan on taking a snooze. If anything, it isn’t long enough.
Grade: A-

Categories
News News Blog

Crosstown Concourse Construction Update

Three light wells have been cut in the center of Crosstown Concourse.

After six months of construction, all of the old windows have been removed from the Crosstown building, and atria (light wells) in the middle of the building have been cut. Drivers may notice now that they can see straight through the building on a clear day. 

Three floor-to-ceiling atria have been cut to allow natural light into the building. And 3,300 new window panes are being installed in more than 1,100 window frames. That’s more frames than the White House and the U.S. Capitol building combined, according to a construction update in the Crosstown Concourse newsletter. 

Window crews are currently performing their duties on hanging construction platforms as positioned as high as 130 feet off the ground. Altogether, there are more than 2,000 feet of linear hanging construction platforms all over the building

Categories
Art Exhibit M

How to Quilt Heartbreak, Numerology & Insomnia

CREDIT: Paula Kovarik

Memphis artist Paula Kovarik quilts about everything from nuclear testing to global warming. Her work channels a dreamlike dread, illustrated by otherworldly signs and symbols. 

Paula Kovarik

‘Round and Round’

Kovarik was recently selected to participate in a show at the Grand Rapids Art Museum during the city’s ArtPrize competition. 

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Check out more of Kovarik’s quilts in her online gallery. 

Paula Kovarik

‘Insomnia: His and Hers’

Paula Kovarik

‘Stream of Consequences’

Categories
Music Music Blog

KATIEE and Man Control at Amurica Studio

New York City musician KATIEE plays Amurica Studio tonight.

KATIEE is the new project of Katie Eastern, formerly of the experimental rock trio Young People. Eastern is releasing her debut 7″, PASSERSBY, via Selfish Agenda on August 7th, and tonight at Amurica she’ll be performing with a full band that includes Jim McHugh on bass, Jeff Tobias on saxophone & synth, and Jason Robira on drums.

PASSERSBY, KATIEE’s debut on Selfish Agenda, recasts the expansive clang and clatter of her musical past. Katie was vocalist, percussionist and songwriter for the Los Angeles-based experimental rock trio Young People, who toured for five years and released records on 5RC, Too Pure and Dim Mak. Kill Rock Stars also released her DVD, Starter Set: New Dance and Music for the Camera, featuring her original music and choreography. Locals >ManControl< open the show, so if experimental music is your thing, get to Amurica by 8 p.m. tonight with $5 in your hand. 

KATIEE and Man Control at Amurica Studio

Categories
Blurb Books

Register Now for Literacy Mid-South’s Literacy Summit in September

The Literacy Summit at Playhouse on the Square on September 9th will be an all-day event for those, working outside the traditional classroom, who want to improve the reading skills of young people in Memphis — and better their chances of success later in life. Organized by Literacy Mid-South and co-sponsored by International Paper and the Bodine School, registration for the summit (at a cost of only $10) is officially open.

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Featured speakers at the summit are Jeff Edmondson, managing director of StriveTogether, which is committed to helping children succeed in school, and David C. Banks, president/CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation and founding principal of the Eagle Academy for Young Men in New York, which now operates six schools throughout the New York area. Banks is also the author of Soar: How Boys Learn, Succeed, and Develop Character (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster).

The summit’s late-morning and afternoon “breakout sessions” will be led by local educators and reading specialists, who will offer a range of educational strategies for better learning, and that means better literacy skills. Topics during the sessions will include phonological awareness, “toxic stress,” vocabulary development, the importance of read-alouds, and reading comprehension.

For the Literacy Summit’s full schedule and a link to the registration form, go here. But for the thinking behind the summit in early September, go to Literacy Mid-South’s executive director, Kevin Dean, who said by email:

“We created the Literacy Summit to address a need in the community. We became concerned that nonprofits and churches, despite having homework-help programs and after-school programs, were not properly trained to teach reading. At Literacy Mid-South, we believe the old adage ‘It takes a village.’ So, ensuring that churches, parents, and social-services organizations are equipped with tools to support what is being learned in the classroom is vitally important. We’re also thrilled that Jeff Edmondson and David C. Banks will be joining us. It’s going to be a great learning opportunity for anyone interested in making a difference in our education system in Memphis.” •