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News The Fly-By

City Clear-Cut Trees Near Bass Pro Without Permit

CREDIT: Naomi Van Tol

Less than 10 days remain in a cease-and-desist order issued by the Corps of Engineers that halted the clearing of trees and underbrush from the east banks of the Wolf River Harbor.

The clearing, initiated by Mayor A C Wharton’s administration, began in December, when more than 1,000 yards of trees and underbrush were razed from the riverbank — with much of the clearing occurring on the bank below the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid.

Shortly after, the Corps issued a cease-and-desist order to the city because they were operating without proper environmental permits.

Naomi Van Tol

An area clear-cut by the city without a permit.

“To me, it’s not a silly, minor issue. They need to do some serious mitigation for this,” said local environmental activist Naomi Van Tol, who noted the irony of a massive clearing she calls “unnecessary” occurring directly below a retail giant that touts conservancy as a core principle of their mission.

Van Tol and other environmentalists have several concerns about the clearing, but the potential destabilization of the riverbank stands out.

“Many of those trees are over a hundred years old. The trees, the underbrush … that’s what was holding the bank together,” said Van Tol, who witnessed large amounts of dirt being removed from the bank and dumped in the harbor.

Should any portion of the harbor collapse and create the need for corrective action, the cost will likely be shouldered by taxpayers, Van Tol said.

Gregg Williams, chief of the regulatory branch of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, signed off on the public notice of the cease-and-desist, but he would not speculate on potential damage.

“We’re not for or against the project. We’ll look at the comments. We’ll look at the assessment, and then we’ll make a decision once we have all of the information we’ll need,” Williams said.

Jack Sammons, the former chief administrative officer for the city, initially authorized the clearing as part of the Bass Pro public-private partnership to redevelop the Pyramid and the surrounding area. The clearing of the trees was to provide unobstructed views for patrons of Bass Pro and to make way for a floating boat dock for Bass Pro’s planned fishing tournaments.

Van Tol is quick to point out that an unobstructed view was already available from the observation deck, and the floodwalls surrounding the Pyramid already restrict view into the harbor and river.

“There was absolutely no point in the clearing. None,” Van Tol said.

When contacted, Bass Pro would only say that they had nothing to do with the decision to cut down trees.

“We were unaware that any trees were ordered cut down around our facility. This was conducted by the City of Memphis. This was not our decision,” Bass Pro spokesperson Jack Wlezien said.

An after-the-fact permit for continued work could be issued by the Corps, but according to Mayor Jim Strickland’s Chief Communications Officer Ursula Madden, no further clearing work is being planned at this time.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Mark Woodall’s Viewpoint column, “By Any Name” …

I groaned reading Mark Woodall’s article “By Any Name” where he tries to disassociate Islam from terrorism. This sentence in particular seemed to sum up his thinking: “I’m just going to assume if you are a terrorist, you are a radical, but calling all Muslims terrorists does a great disservice to the six million American-born Muslims in this country, and to millions of peaceful people who worship Islam.”

First of all, nobody but nobody is calling all Muslims terrorists, and second, Islam is the religion of Muslims. They no more worship Islam than Christians worship Christianity.

Almost every day we are told that Islamist terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. That is nonsense, and deep down everyone knows it. This is not just a question of semantics. It is a question of the best way to deal with a problem.

If someone gets sick, how can you treat it if you won’t identify the cause? There are, in fact, different kinds of terrorists, and acting as if Basque separatist terrorists and Irish Republican Army terrorists and radical Islamic terrorists are all the same blinds you to possible motives and inhibits your ability to do an intervention or hopefully prevent an act of terrorism to begin with.

We need to quit denying the obvious: Not all Muslims are terrorists and not all terrorists are Muslims, but in those terrorists that are in fact Muslim, religious motivations do play a role, and we ignore that at our peril.

Bill Runyan

Donald Trump is guilty of fomenting hate against Muslims. If attacks on innocent Muslim men, women, and children in America begin, then he should be held accountable. Innocent Muslims are no more to blame for terrorist acts committed by ISIS and al-Qaeda than Christians are for terrorist acts committed by the KKK or Timothy McVeigh. 

We are a nation of immigrants, but past immigrants, including the Italians, the Irish, and others were not welcomed and even hated in America. It is hard to imagine, though, how much poorer our nation and our culture would be without the contributions made by the people who have come here from countries around the world. 

There is every reason to believe that our Muslim friends and citizens will continue to make many contributions that will enrich American society and culture and make the United States an even greater country.

Philip Williams

About Jackson Baker’s post, “Strickland Gathering No Moss on Governmental or Money Fronts” …

I would still like to know how Strickland plans to stop police officers from leaving. Over 400 officers have retired or resigned in the last three years due to Strickland and the Memphis City Council’s decisions to reduce pay, eliminate retiree healthcare, kick spouses off the healthcare plan, and transform the pension system. Simply put: It makes no sense to work in the sencond-most dangerous city in the U.S. for what officers now receive in pay/benefits.

In order to get back to a force of 2,400 officers, the city would have to hire/train/graduate at least 100 officers per year for the next 4 years AND have no officers retire or resign in that time frame. It’s not going to happen. If the whispers are true that Strickland has his sights set on switching employees to a high-deductible healthcare plan this summer, you can bet at least 400 more officers will flee the department in the next few years.

Firefox

About Jackson Baker’s post, “MHA Head [Maura] Sullivan Headed to Chattanooga” …

Congrats, Maura Sullivan! I’m sure once she got a chance to see what tangled web of corruption Robert Lipscomb left MHA in, she wanted out. Public housing can work with the right director. It is underserving a city of this size.

Truth Hurts

TH: And you came to this conclusion by way of UFO? I may have my issues with Lipscomb, but surely you know what he has worked to change. Section 8 is a federal government program that local governments participate in. That program makes more sense than concentrating poor people in one section of a city. Certainly, we remember the result of that before Lipscomb worked to change it.

1Memphomaniac

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Memphis Inequality: A Vicious Cycle

It is axiomatic that, after one week of a new year, most people will have long since forsaken their chief resolutions and gone back to spooning up that extra bit of sugar for their coffee or blowing off that planned get-in-shape regimen as being too much to worry with.

We can only hope that, with a new Memphis city government freshly sworn in, its members will be the exception and will hold steadfast to all the resolves they made in our name (or at least to get our vote) during the recent election. We certainly have a right to hope that our new mayor, former Councilman Jim Strickland, takes proper care of the litany of issues that he intoned so often during the mayoral race — public safety, blight, and accountability. But, after hearing him speak at the Cannon Center on New Year’s Day upon his inauguration, we are even more hopeful regarding his fidelity to a new set of ideas he announced apropos the social welfare of his city-ful of constituents.

As was noted in the “Politics” column this week, one sentence of Strickland’s was especially striking. It bears repeating here: “We are a city rife with inequality; it is our moral obligation, as children of God, to lift up the poorest among us.”

Not only did Strickland not speak so succinctly of what may be our most pressing problem during the campaign; neither did any of his opponents. “Inequality.” That is certainly the elephant in our room — and in our streets and workplaces. The new mayor reminded us that, on election night, he had promised to employ “new eyes to solve old problems.”

The social and economic inequality of which he spoke on Inauguration Day is certainly the oldest of these problems — and the most difficult to resolve. Yet all of the other problems facing the city and its mayor are inextricably tied to that one.

As Strickland also said: “We have debt that must be paid, a pension that must be funded, and a tax base moving away.” Clearly, the persistence of a large underclass of impoverished citizens excacerbates all of those conditions.

And there was this statement in the inauguration speech, an echo of similar ones made over and over during the campaign year, not only by Strickland, but by a variety of council candidates (for some of them the solitary plank in their public platforms): “We will focus on the goal of retaining and recruiting quality police officers and firefighters, knowing public safety is at the forefront of rebuilding our city.”

That’s all very well, but the several hundred police officers who left the city’s service in recent years made it as clear as could be that the slashing of their benefits was their single most pressing reason for dissatisfaction. They haven’t gone home to collect unemployment; in significant numbers they have found kinder niches in other departments elsewhere.

Inequality means a reduced tax base, which means a shrunken budget — which means a harder task to recruit first responders and more incentives for an uneasy middle class to decamp. And that, of course, means further reduction in the tax base.

It’s what you call a vicious cycle, but we’re glad that Mayor Strickland has taken note of it, and we wish him all the best in tackling these issues over the next four years.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Frank Murtaugh’s Sports column and Richard Alley’s Books column …

I really enjoyed the “Heroes Return” story by Frank Murtaugh and “Good Friends” by Richard J. Alley. Great writing that struck a chord with me this holiday season. Thanks for all the great articles, all year long. Happy holidays.

Elizabeth M

About Ted Rall’s Viewpoint column, “Bern Unit” …

Ted Rall’s hilarious screed about socialism and American ignorance was almost as entertaining as it was uninformative. Rall is appalled by “political ignoramuses” and wonders whether we “idiots” are “qualified to vote at all.” He’s upset that even Democrats are too stupid to understand the socialist “tradition of Western European electoral politics,” much less the Republican right, which is plagued by “colossal dumbness.”

It must be sorely difficult to be so doggone educated, intelligent, and right when so many people are uneducated and just plain stupid. Perhaps Bernie Sanders should belittle Americans for their ignorance of “basic political and economic terms.” That’ll win over a bunch of swing voters!

It seems pretty obvious that Rall isn’t interested in democracy, socialism, or even communism at all. What he wants is a type of fascist totalitarianism in which he and a few other “well educated elites” get to tell everyone what to do, how to act, and, most importantly, what’s “good for them.”

You can always count on a leftist to reveal his or her true intentions when it comes to governance and public policy. To paraphrase Madge the manicurist: What’s that smell? You’re sitting in it, Mr. Rall!

Greg McIntyre

About Kevin Lipe’s post, “Grizzlies 112, Wizards 96: Five Thoughts” …

I love the Grizzlies, but I really think age has caught up with us. We aren’t the defensive team we once were, and Allen looks disgruntled. I think Z-Bo can be really effective off the bench, playing 25 minutes a night, but the question is how long will he settle for coming off the bench. Gasol has had his moments, but the consistency has not been there, and Conley has not been as good this year.

We have to beat a quality opponent with their full lineup intact, and we don’t look like we can do that.

Ray

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor, “Wondering Where the Lions Are” …

The charter school industry is not unlike the for-profit prison system, which requires a steady influx of money, er, prisoners, and so laws are written to keep the prisons full. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the same gangs don’t run both operations.

Jeff

About the GOP debate …

The men and the woman vying for the GOP presidential nomination want us to believe that America under President Obama is the ultimate wimp nation; that when it comes to the Islamic State, we’re busy zoning out on Netflix and letting ISIS run rampant. The way Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and their minions put it, you’d think the Obama administration is doing nothing.

Turns out, the United States is dumping tens of thousands of bombs on Islamic State strongholds, so much so, the U.S. has been running out of bombs. Since the air war kicked off last year, we’ve unloaded more bombs on ISIS than we have in Afghanistan any time during the past five years. In fact, when it comes to ISIS, we’ve averaged more than 2,000 air raids a month since the military mission began. We’re spending some $10 million every day bombing the Islamic State. So far we’ve spent more than $4 billion!

And it’s gotten us nowhere. Just like increased military action and Ted Cruz’s “carpet bombing” will get us nowhere. So, when you hear the Republican warmongers and know-nothings pop off, be happy President Obama is living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and taking care of business.

Arthur Lewis

Categories
News The Fly-By

Best of “What They Said”

CREDIT: Illustrations by Greg Cravens

The comment section on most newspaper websites often brings out the worst in people. But sometimes, it brings out the funniest. We like to think (most of) our readers are just a little bit smarter (and a lot bit funnier) than the average daily paper commenter. So each week, we have cartoonist Greg Cravens illustrate a comment or reader letter. We’ve chosen our favorite Cravens illustrations of 2015 and the comments that go along with them.

Illustrations by Greg Cravens

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor on the Civil War (and civil rights), in which he said that the fight over Confederate symbols was more about preserving the racist ideals of the 1960s than remembering Civil War history: ”Man, it’s great to see someone grab a machete and hack through the thick brush of douchebaggery. Splendid!”  — DaveC

About Tim Sampson’s column, “Thanks, Mayor Wharton,” in which Sampson thanked Wharton after he lost the mayoral election:

“Time and history will record his name, not only as a footnote as mayor, but as a kind-hearted man who loved his adopted city more than some of us who were born at John Gaston Hospital. Take your rest, Mr. Mayor. You are mighty deserving.” — DeeCee

About “The Dark Side,” our cover story on fall beers. One reader ruminated on what staffers might have said after we’d had a few too many porters and IPAs:

“The Flyer staff at the end of the day’s tasting:

‘I think I can see the air.’ — CM

‘Who knew the asphalt was so soft? I mean, I’m lying here and it is sooooo sofffftttt.’ — AP

‘I’M KING OF THE WORLD!!!’ — CS

‘I could take down Ronda Rousey. She ain’t nothing!’ — BP

‘F**kin’ lightweights.’ — BV

— Charlie Eppes

On Bianca Phillips’ post, “Citizens Make Demands of Memphis Zoo in Petition.” One of those demands was an end to zoo patrons parking on the Overton Park Greensward:

“The Greensward is for ass-parking only.”

— Scott Banbury

About the Flyer‘s cover story, “Spring Brews.” A letter-writer chose our spring beer guide as a time to bring up the Fair BEER Act, which would cut taxes for small brewers:

“The Fair BEER Act will help small craft breweries survive and grow and will make it easier for future entrepreneurs to pursue their craft-beer dreams. If you love local beer, then it is time to support your local breweries and encourage Tennessee’s delegation to cosponsor and support the Fair BEER Act.” — Brandon Chase Goldsmith

About Bianca Phillips’ cover story, “Transgender in Memphis.” One particularly bigoted comment from Screamer15 said something about transgender people being a sin and abomination and then asked God to have mercy on their souls:

“Screamer15 seems to think he knows more about God’s plan than God does. But that’s okay. Someone who must rely on religious nonsense to hide their fear, hatred, and bigotry is obviously not someone who has any sort of ability for rational thought.”

— GoProtege

About Jackson Baker’s post, “Haslam’s Medicaid Expansion Bill ‘Hanging by a Thread,'” in which Senator Brian Kelsey spoke out against Insure Tennessee:

“Kelsey is a fool, a traitor, and a moron! The trifecta, as it were.”

— Tennessee Waltzer

About Randy Haspel’s column, “Give ‘Em Hill,” about the GOP’s failed attempts to bring Hillary Clinton down in the Benghazi committee hearings, which were led by Representative Trey Gowdy:

“Oh look, Hillary won a Kewpie doll. Oh wait, that’s Trey Gowdy. Make it a Kreepie doll.” — Jeff

About Bianca Phillips’ “Hotties” story. Every year, commenter Smitty Patterson laments not making the cut:

“Man, I tried every trendy thing I could think of to make this year’s Hotties list. Liposuction. A personal trainer. L.L. Bean duck boots. I hung around the Ashley Madison website. Leased a Prius. Reactivated my old StarTAC.

No call from the Flyer. And when I was tipped about the “Puppy Love” theme, I immediately had my beloved Puckered Spaniel groomed.

But, no. Maybe next year. In the meantime I’ve had cosmetic surgery to display a permanent look of shock and disbelief on my face. Maybe that’ll make the Flyer feel guilty about the snub.” — Smitty Patterson

Categories
Editorial Opinion

The End of 2015 … and a Beginning

So this is the end — not of our life in these times, of course, though there have been a few times when we’ve had to wonder. It’s the end of 2015, which at times has seemed a portent of the end of, well, everything we thought we knew.

It has been almost six months, for example, since Donald Trump entered the presidential race and began throwing the rhetorical bombs that learned pundits kept assuring us would quickly disqualify him as a serious candidate (Mexicans as rapists; John McCain as a captive coward; women as horse-faced opponents or menstruating idiots; the disabled as fodder for mocking; Muslims as universally treacherous and therefore subject to a ban from entering the United States).

The “hits” keep happening, and Trump has grown stronger, not weaker, and, going into the year of decision for the 2016 presidential race, he remains at the top of the political ladder, at least among Republican candidates.

But no, this is not the end. Not yet. Although …

The rat-a-tat of lethal weaponry in Paris, in Colorado, in South Carolina, in California, and God knows where else keeps interrupting the inspiring rhythms of “The Little Drummer Boy” and other holiday favorites. But even with this menace, with rapturists and jihadists and independent crazies desiring the end of things and people not disposed to echo their beliefs with all their hearts and minds, this is still not the end.

Like it or not, the life of this planet, and, we suspect, of all creation, would seem to take the form of a loop, of an endlessly repeated cycle, and not of a strictly linear narrative with a discrete beginning, middle, and end. Everything from archaeology to DNA research to the black holes of Einstein’s relativistic universe suggests as much.

So all of us writing in this issue of the Flyer are engaged with simultaneously looking back and looking forward, in recognition of this principle of an eternal cycle that doubles back on itself and returns to some place eerily like one that we, or our forbearers, have been before. And, armed or alerted with this sense of the familiar, we proceed ahead into the next turning of the eternal gyre.

That notion of the gyre is something we of the Western world owe to William Butler Yeats, whose poem, “The Second Coming,” gave us lines to remember through all the cycles, all the turnings of fate that seem to foreshadow an end but merely invite a new beginning: These are times, as Yeats wrote a century ago, when “the best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

A hundred years later, and it’s still true. It will always be still true. And we will survive and scramble to find our place in a brand new cycle, which itself will seem to be leading to an end but will just be continuing the same old adventure in a new cycle. Or a new issue. Or …

Oh, what the heck. Happy New Year! Let’s just start everything all over again.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Highlights and Lowlights of 2015

January

• Redevelopment plans for the Tennessee Brewery building were unveiled. Developer Billy Orgel plans to convert the historic building into apartments, build an adjacent six-story residential structure called the Wash House, and build a four-story parking garage across Tennessee Street.

• Wanda Wilson, the flamboyant and much-loved long time proprietor of Midtown’s P&H Cafe, died. Wilson was beloved by generations of Memphis’ artists, actors, journalists, students, and eccentrics of every stripe.

February

• Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) President Paul Morris announced that he would step down in the summer. Morris has gone on to work with his family business at Jack Morris Auto Glass. In September, Terence Patterson was selected to replace Morris. Patterson was treasurer of the DMC’s Center City Development Corporation.

Zeke Logan

• WXMX 98.1 radio personality Zeke Logan, co-host of the Drake & Zeke show, died. Logan, whose real name was David Millar, was diagnosed with cancer several months earlier.

March

• Mayor A C Wharton announced his intention to hire Jack Sammons, former Memphis-Shelby Airport Authority board chair/former city councilman/president of Ampro Industries, Inc. hair products company, as the city chief administrative officer. Sammons replaced George Little, who was moved to the position of special assistant for minority and women’s affairs and safety.

April

• Long time Memphis City Councilman Shea Flinn resigned his post after accepting a new job as senior vice president of the Greater Memphis Chamber’s Chairman’s Circle. Attorney Alan Crone was appointed to Flinn’s seat, but in January, newly elected Philip Spinosa Jr. will take the seat.

• Goldcrest 51 beer enthusiast Kenn Flemmons of Little Rock recreated the classic Memphis beer. He offered the first taste at the Revival beer garden in the Tennessee Brewery. Select bars across the city continue to sell Goldcrest 51 on draft.

• Bass Pro Shops opened its long-awaited super store in the long-vacant Pyramid. The sporting goods store features a bowling alley, a swamp with live alligators, a restaurant and hotel, and elevator rides to the top of the Pyramid.

May

• Blues legend B.B. King died in his sleep at age 89. He had been struggling with diabetes and was in hospice care.

• The Tennessee Department of Transportation announced that they planned to close the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge (the “Old Bridge”) for up to nine months in 2017 during a proposed, three-year construction project on the I-55 interchange at E.H. Crump. In July, TDOT decided to pause the project and further study its economic impact.

• Noura Jackson, who was sentenced to 20 years and nine months for second-degree murder in her mother’s 2005 stabbing death, accepted an Alford plea and will be released from prison in spring 2017. Her conviction was overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court last year, which cited then-Assistant District Attorney Amy Weirich with suppression of evidence in the case and illegal statements in her closing argument against Jackson.

June

• Ballet Memphis unveiled plans to raze the old, crumbling French Quarter Inn in Overton Square and erect a new studio space.

• Local same-sex couples lined up to marry after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality. Memphians Chris and Bradley Brower were the first Shelby County couple to marry.

July

• Nineteen-year-old Darrius Stewart, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Memphis Police officer Connor Schilling during a traffic stop. In November, Weirich recommended Schilling be indicted for the shooting, but a grand jury failed to indict. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation file on the case was released in December, and it shows discrepancies between Schilling’s story and the stories of multiple witnesses.

Darrius Stewart

• A macaque monkey named Zimm escaped her enclosure at the Memphis Zoo, sending Zoo officials on a wild, um, monkey chase through the Zoo’s culvert system. Someone quickly launched a @Zimm901 Twitter account. Zimm was located a few days later.

• Widespread Panic fan Troy Goode died after being hog-tied by Southaven Police. Goode had taken LSD and was acting erractically when police attempted to subdue him. An attorney for Goode’s family ordered an independent autopsy, which concluded that Goode died from complications related to being hog-tied. The Mississippi state autopsy report claimed Goode died of an LSD overdose.

August

• Memphis Police officer Sean Bolton was shot and killed by Tremaine Wilbourn after Bolton stopped to check on an illegally parked car that Wilbourn was a passenger in. Wilbourn ran but turned himself in a few days after the shooting. In December, Wilbourn was indicted on federal carjacking charges and felony possession of a firearm. He also faces state charges for murder.

• After white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine church members at a historically black church in Charleston, North Carolina, in June, Memphis joined other cities and states in calling for the removal of Confederate symbols. The city council approved an ordinance allowing the city to remove the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue in Health Sciences Park, and they also approved a resolution to move the remains of Forrest and his wife, which are buried at the park.

• Longtime Action News 5 chief meteorologist Dave Brown retired after a 53-year career in radio and TV.

Robert Lipscomb

• Robert Lipscomb, the director of Housing and Community Development, was relieved of duties following an anonymous complaint that he had sexual relations with a minor. After news broke, other accusers alleged similar relations with Lipscomb. Lipscomb was also suspended from his role as director of the Memphis Housing Authority.

September

• Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong announced that officers will begin wearing body cameras. By year-end, he said they should have 2,000 cameras deployed.

• Trader Joe’s finally confirmed they were opening a store in Germantown in 2016.

October

• Memphis City Councilman Jim Strickland defeats incumbent Wharton in the mayoral race. Strickland will begin his new job as city leader in January.

• Armstrong, who has served as police director since 2011, announced that he’ll retire once Strickland finds a replacement.

• Police officer Terence Oldridge was shot and killed outside his home, apparently after a dispute with neighbor Lorenzo Clark. Clark was indicted for being a felon in possession of guns.

November

• The Urban Land Institute suggested a portion of the Mid-South Coliseum should be saved and used for concerts, but they also suggested the Fairgrounds needed a youth sports facility. The issue of what to do with the Coliseum had been a point of contention all year between preservationists and the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development, which had been pushing to raze the arena, acquire TDZ status for the land, and build a youth sports facility.

• The Economic Development Growth Engine approved an extension of IKEA’s PILOT agreement, and the Swedish retailer officially announced that it would open its Germantown Parkway store in the fall of 2016.

December

• Eugene Cashman, president of the nonprofit Urban Child Institue (UCI), announced his retirement plans in December. A Flyer story in August reported that critics say UCI sits on a huge investment fund but gives little of it to the community and also noted that Cashman has for a long time made a top-of-the-line salary.

• Strickland announced his transition team, which includes new Memphis Fire Director Gina Sweat, Chief of Staff Lisa Geater, Chief Operating Officer Doug McGowen, and former reporters Ursala Madden and Kyle Veazey on his communications team, among others.

Categories
News News Feature

New Year’s Guide: The Countdown

CREDIT: Daniel Raustadt | Dreamstime.com

Alchemy

New Year’s Eve celebration, 9:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m., with the Grizzlies’ DJ Cozmo. Includes drink specials and no cover.

940 Cooper • 726-4444

alchemymemphis.com

Bardog Tavern

Never a cover charge. Why should anyone have to pay a cover to celebrate NYE? Gather with your friends in the most streamer-filled room downtown to kiss the last 12 months goodbye and ring in the new year. The hosts are in tuxedos, but you can come as you are. Champagne specials, noise-makers, hats, and all the goodies you’ve come to expect are right here, each year. You might even find someone to make out with at midnight … just sayin’.

73 Monroe • 275-8752 • bardog.com

Beale Street

Beale Street will be covered with live music, and there will be fireworks. The party in the street will start at 6 p.m. Free.

Beale • 526-0117• bealestreet.com

Daniel Raustadt | Dreamstime.com

Boscos

There’s no cover for the celebration at Boscos, which will be kicking off at 8 p.m. with Joyce Cobb performing. There will be a champagne toast and party favors at midnight. For those who prefer a prix-fixe dinner option, the four-course meal is $65 per person.

2120 Madison • 432-2222 • boscosbeer.com

Celtic Crossing

The Irish pub is throwing a dinner party alongside its Champagne Supernova NYE bash, complete with a four-course meal and music from DJ Taz. Party favors will be available, as well as a champagne toast with the midnight countdown. Appetizers will be available all evening. $10 cover. $50 per person for prix-fixe dinner.

903 S. Cooper • 274-5151 • celticcrossingmemphis.com

Felicia Suzanne’s

A dinner party for those who want to celebrate with a four-course meal. There’s a little something for everyone on top of the delicious food, live music from Sun Trio, party favors, and treats to take home. Reservations are required and can be made on OpenTable or by calling. $100 per person.

80 Monroe, Suite L-1 • 523-0877 • feliciasuzanne.com

Flying Saucer in Cordova

The beer garden out East will be having a Roaring Twenties-themed party to ring in the new year, offering rare beer tappings and a champagne toast at midnight. The party starts at 8 p.m., with a $5 cover for the bar’s UFO members or $10 for non-members. Dress in ’20s garb.

1400 N. Germantown • 755-5530 • beerknurd.com

The Hard Rock Cafe

You can enjoy the famous midnight Guitar Drop outside of the Hard Rock Cafe on New Year’s Eve, but inside, there’s a party kicking off. General admission, $25, gets you entry and access to the live entertainment (the Bar-Kays!) and drink specials happening all night. A VIP pass, which costs either $150 per guest or $250 per couple, gets even more: complimentary champagne, three free drinks, and reserved seating. Reservations can be made online.

126 Beale • 529-0007 • hardrock.com

Lafayette’s Musical New Year’s Eve

The music room will be featuring live music all night with Davis Coen at 6:30 p.m., and American Fiction starting at 10:30 p.m. General admission ($35) gets you a champagne toast and party favors. Packages are also available for a four-course dinner, starting at $75 per person. Tickets can be purchases online.

2119 Madison • 207-5097 • lafayettes.com

Local

In Midtown: music from DJ Superdave and a complimentary champagne toast and a midnight brunch buffet. Downtown: live music, complimentary champagne toast, and a midnight brunch buffet.

2126 Madison • 725-1845

95 S. Main • 473-9573 • localgastropub.com

The New Daisy

The New Daisy’s going to be rocking into the new year with the headlining band 12th Planet. Other musical acts include Epic, JJ Wilson, and Scotty B. Visitors will have a complimentary bar from 9 to 10 p.m. The party’s not ending until the sun comes up. Tickets start at $15.

330 Beale • 525-8981 • newdaisy.com

Overton Square

The party starts early at Overton Square, kicking off at 2 p.m. Madison around the Square will be closed from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. to make room for the celebrations. There will be entertainment outside as well as inside the various establishments in the Square. A countdown to midnight will lead to a “special surprise” to welcome in 2016.

Madison and S. Cooper • 761-3333 • overtonsquare.com

Paula & Raiford’s Disco

Ring in the new year with disco and champagne. Raiford’s well-known signature of great music, leather couches, handprints on the wall, fog machines, disco balls, and lights are all here. General admission is $30 and gets you access to a full bar and dancing. Party starts at 9 p.m. and carries on until 3 a.m. Come and put your boogie shoes on.

14 S. 2nd • 521-2494 • paularaifords.com

The Peabody

One of the biggest and best parties in Memphis. This year’s high-energy party will be held throughout the Grand Lobby and in the Mezzanine. In addition, there will be performances by Almost Famous, Hollywood, and DJ Mark Anderson in the Continental Ballroom, and the Rene Koopman Duo will perform sophisticated classics in the Corner Bar. The Stella Artois VIP Lounge ($125) includes: access to party and VIP lounge, hors d’oeuvres, champagne, and Stella Artois, and valet parking. Party guests must be 21 and over.

149 Union • 529-4000 • peabodymemphis.com

Purple Diamond

Celebrating the new year in the newest and hottest club in Memphis! Located on Macon in the same shopping center as Bass Pro and Electric Cowboy.

6102 Macon • 266-1492

RockHouse Live

Simply the biggest and best party in town. RockHouse Live brings you an evening of Twin Soul to rock in the new year like never before! Free champagne and party favors, and great rock-and-roll. Just $10 per person. Get your tickets now to reserve a table (minimum four tickets). Otherwise, it’s first-come, first-served.

5709 Raleigh Lagrange • 386-7222 • rockhouselive.com

Southland Park Gaming and Racing

Southland’s annual Big Top Bash includes live music, food specials, and carnival rides.

1550 N. Ingram, West Memphis • 800-467-6182

southlandpark.com

Sports Junction

The party starts at 9 p.m. There will be beer and margarita specials and live music with John Williams and the A440 Band. Valet parking available.

1911 Poplar • 244-7904 • sportsjunctionmemphis.com

Terrace Grill

A special New Year’s Eve menu will be served from 5 to 10 p.m. Call for reservations.

50 Harbor Town Square • 260-3366

terracememphis.com

Tin Roof

Featuring live music by Joe the Show and a champagne toast at midnight. VIP booths available. For more information, contact michael@tinroofbars.com or breanna@tinroofbars.com.

315 Beale • 527-9911 • tinroofmemphis.com

Tug’s

A special New Year’s Eve menu will be served from 5 to 10 p.m. Call for reservations.

51 Harbor Town Square • 260-3344 • tugsmemphis.com

Young Avenue Deli

A performance by Hiway Hi-fi and a free champagne toast at midnight. $3 Ghost River Golden drafts and lots of Ghost River giveaway swag!

2119 Young • 278-0034 • youngavenuedeli.com

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor, “Have Yourselves an Angry Little Christmas” …

George Bailey saved the town of Bedford Falls by being born in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. I have faith that many voters born in America will save this country from the loose cannon that is Donald Trump.

Every year, since I was 10, I have watched It’s a Wonderful Life during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I love the main characters, played by Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, but this year, the mean-spirited, greedy character, Henry Potter (the grouchy man in the wheelchair), jumped out in my mind as comparable to Trump.

As the story goes, a second-class angel working to become a first-class angel with wings reveals to George Bailey that the town Bedford Falls would have become Pottersville (named after Potter) if George had not been born. Pottersville was full of ruined lives and self-indulgent people. Just think, if by some freak of serendipity Donald Trump did become the President of the United States, his over-inflated ego might entertain the idea of changing the name of the USA to the U.S. of Trump’s World. Casinos and racism would rule the day. 

Alfred Waddell

About Bianca Phillips’ cover story on Evan Hurst, “The Snarkiest Man in Memphis” …

I love this man! I first met him when he was a kid selling Cutco knives. He dropped into my Midtown business (cold call) and ended up selling me a thing or two to add to my Cutco collection.

I love his brain and his writing. It’s refreshing to read something on point and funny at the same time. He keeps me laughing! Great article. And congrats, Evan!

Theresa Andreuccetti

About Jackson Baker’s Politics column …

As much as I respect Jackson Baker, I think he has missed the story in Richard Holden’s resignation from the Shelby County Election Commission. I take personal umbrage at the statement, “There often seemed to be a good deal of overreach by Holden’s critics, and no doubt partisan motives played a role in his tribulations, as did a general need to find a scapegoat for problems and circumstances beyond the province of a single individual.”

I am a Democratic partisan, but the problems I have been involved with with the SCEC are basic voter rights issues regardless of party affiliation. Nor has there been overreach. Baker is correct in that these errors are probably beyond a single individual.

But that begs the point. That means the other individuals responsible for the abysmal performance of the SCEC are still in place. The media has not reported on the serious questions arising out of the October 18th election. We now have the Democratic commissioners saying they do not trust the results put out by the SCEC. This gives the lie to the contention that all is well because both parties watch each other. The Democratic Party representatives have said they are excluded from the process and that basically the results represent the unopposed actions of the three Republicans.

In the meantime, the SCEC investigates nothing. They have yet to explain the 2012 debacle nor the 2015 mishap. Most seriously, they have failed to address the repeated failures of their systems to detect errors before machines go out live to the voters. This failure literally means that no member of the SCEC can guarantee that we have used legitimate ballots in the last several elections.

This is not an overreach. It is the federal standard of care for election administration. We also do not run mock elections prior to the election to test the vote. Nor do they run parallel testing during elections. And they do no post-election audits. In short, we have almost no safeguards that protect the integrity of the ballot or the results. And that does not even get into the fraud involved with certifying these election machines by the state.

I intend to stay around and observe the current gang that couldn’t shoot straight — the Republican members of the SCEC.

Joseph Weinberg

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Memphis Schools: ASD or iZone?

The educational reforms proposed and overseen by the Haslam administration statewide have been both well-intentioned and internally flawed. There is no question that too many public schools in Tennessee qualified for

the adjective “failing” in 2011 when Governor Bill Haslam, then newly inaugurated, appointed new state education officials dedicated to pursuing new policies.

Those policies were heavily reliant on standardized testing of student performance, teacher effectiveness, and institutional outcomes, and have met with significant resistance from several sectors of the population that, to say the least, had not previously operated in tandem.

Classroom teachers saw their influence over the educational process reduced by the General Assembly’s simultaneous abolition of collective bargaining, and many of them objected also to the intensified testing regimens mandated by the state, complaining, among other things, that training students for the tests took up time and energy that could be more usefully applied to exploratory teaching methods, that the tests, by concentrating on relatively rote outcomes in specific areas (English and math, normally) shortcut the aims of public education, and that the tests did not measure real learning.

The standardization of the tests, especially under the rubric of Common Core, also earned the distrust of parts of the state’s population who imagined that sinister national forces might be attempting to brainwash young Tennesseans. The two kinds of resistance coalesced into a group of unlikely political bedfellows that forced the state to rethink its commitment to Common Core and to develop a more Tennessee-specific standard.

Another phase of Tennessee’s new educational policy — the creation of a state-run Achievement School District empowered to take over under-performing schools from the jurisdiction of local school districts — has also met with resistance. This has particularly been the case here in Memphis, which had 69 local schools on the ASD’s “priority” list of institutions that tested in the lower five percent of effectiveness. Of those 69 schools, 31 are among the 33 that have been taken over by ASD, and ASD officials announced last week that another four — Caldwell-Guthrie Elementary, Kirby and Raleigh-Egypt middle schools and Hillcrest High — are due for takeover in the academic year 2015-16 and conversion to charter schools.

State policy permits other options, including leaving the schools under the jurisdiction of Shelby County Schools’ iZone (Innovation Zone) program. At a press conference last week, state Representative Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis) brandished a recent Vanderbilt University study showing that iZone schools have achieved better results than have schools administered as charters or more directly by ASD. He promised to introduce legislation in the forthcoming session of the General Assembly to limit or abolish ASD’s prerogatives. 

Such legislation will probably have little chance of passing, but Parkinson’s threat should not be regarded as idle. Sentiment against ASD’s procedures continues to build among proponents of locally controlled education, who note that SCS and iZone, unlike ASD, are responsive to an elected school board. Given the results of the Vanderbilt study, it becomes harder and harder to justify authoritarian state policies that override the long-established democratic basis of public education.