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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Toby Sells’ post, “Zoo Grant to Renovate Herpatarium” …

This is good to hear. Long past time for the zoo to do something about that exhibit. Now if they could only get a grant to update the aquarium.

Jeff

Yes, the aquarium is very sad. The exhibit at a tropical fish store is better. Maybe they should just outsource it to a tropical fish store. I bet they’d do it for free.

DatGuy

How about a grant for parking, so the zoo can stop destroying our historical greensward?

Susan Williams

About the Flyer cover story, “The Lipscomb Affair” …

In 2005, my sisters and I got together with friends to form the group Save Libertyland. Mayor Herenton had just closed down the park out of the blue. In early 2006, Save Libertyland began meeting with city officials, mainly Robert Lipscomb. I dubbed him “Man of Many Hats” for his various high-profile, high-paying administrative positions.

For years, until we moved away, my sisters and I got strung along by Lipscomb. He played everyone in Save Libertyland with his “charrettes” and charades. We began calling for a HUD audit of Lipscomb’s offices. Memphis’ current breaking scandal and Lipscomb’s suspension (with pay?!) has shocked former members of Save Libertyland. The mounting allegations against him bring back a flood of sad memories from our long fight to save teenage summer jobs, recreation, tourism, and most importantly, family togetherness. We knew he was a liar with power over people’s lives and livelihoods; we did not know to what extent.

Denise Parkinson

On Bianca Phillips’ post about Troy Goode …

Many questions remain unanswered about the cause of death in the Troy Goode case. It seems to me that the Southaven district attorney’s office, mayor’s office, and police department are not doing anything to get to the bottom of this death. If it turns out that Troy Goode died as a result of police misconduct, this could be a criminal matter. I hope with all of my heart that they continue to look for facts in this matter and do not rest until justice is served for Troy Goode and the family he left behind.

Things the media tell us that are facts: Troy Goode was bitten by police dogs. He was thrown to the ground by police and hog-tied. He was strapped facedown on a gurney while still hog-tied and put into an ambulance. Troy’s family was not able to see him in the ambulance or the hospital. He died while in police custody. He was never arrested or read his rights. 

Troy left behind a wife and baby, as well as his parents, siblings, and many friends. Please help in any way you can to make sure Troy gets justice. 

Dan Tupis

About Eileen Townsend’s story, “With This Ring” …

I care about professional wrestling just a little bit more than I care about Donald Trump, which is to say, not much. But I found myself reading Eileen Townsend’s article about it simply because it’s so beautifully written. As with John McPhee, it’s the prose that dazzles, and the subject becomes secondary.

Corey Mesler

About Jackson Baker’s Politics column, “Close, But No Cigars” …

Terry Roland seems to have settled down to a mostly respectable politician the past couple of years. I honestly don’t know whether he’s angling for Mark Luttrell’s job. I’ve not given him much consideration or respect because of his behavior and rants of past years, but the new Terry Roland is making me consider changing my opinion of him.

Midtown Mark

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Running For Election? Show Yourself.

We write this just after having witnessed the four major Memphis mayoral candidates in a debate at a Rotary Club luncheon at the University Club. By general consensus, not excluding partisans of each of the four, all of them

— Mayor A C Wharton, Councilmen Harold Collins and Jim Strickland, and Memphis Police Association president Mike Williams — fielded questions smoothly and well, and, to go way out on a limb here, each of them offered convincing evidence of being able to serve as mayor if elected.

Since we at the Flyer were co-hosts of sorts for the debate, we take an understandable pride in that fact — not in having caused it, mind you, but in having the honor to be there to observe the results.

What was responsible for the remarkably uniform display of knowledge, insight, and improvisatory skill — all attributes which are surely prerequisites for serving as chief executive of the nation’s 22nd largest city — was the experience, day-in and day-out, of having to think about the subject of governing, talk about the subject of governing, and interact with citizens who had their own ideas about being governed — often contrary ones, but just as often complementary to those which this or that candidate has in mind to propose.

The process has a certain resemblance to the premises of a Socratic dialogue — the kind of interchange which, if all goes well, results in a synthesis of views and a leap forward of sorts for the res publica. But to get to the launching pad for such progress requires, above all, being there — making oneself available to the public that, once in power, one will have the duty to represent.

Why are we making such a big deal of a simple truism? Because there is a countervailing theory these days of how democratic government works, and it has bought its way into the catbird seat. It is all well and good to be able to raise prodigious sums of money, as a few local candidates have done in the present election cycle. It is another thing altogether to hide behind one’s moneybags, as it were, deigning never to match wits with an opponent or even to submit to fair-minded, unscripted exchanges with the public at large, but letting slick mail-outs and canned TV ads tell the tale — or make the sale, as it were. A tale which — without the reality-testing that genuine public colloquy provides — could as easily be based on fiction as upon fact.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Suburbs of Nothing

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett

We are indebted to a wise and friendly visitor, Mayor Mick Cornett of Oklahoma City, for the phrase that heads this editorial. The mayor, who has been elected four times to lead his up-and-coming city, was the third in the series of other cities’ chief executives who have been invited to Memphis to share their urban wisdom with us Memphians under the rubric of our sister publication Memphis Magazine’s annual “A Summons to Memphis” series. He follows Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans (2013) and Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville, who spoke last year. 

The phrase “suburb of nothing” is one of those conceptual terms, instantly understood once you’ve heard it, that you end up wishing you’d said yourself. Before he spoke to a large audience at the official “Summons” luncheon at The Peabody, the mayor had first broken bread at breakfast with a small group of Memphis/Mid-South leaders at Harbortown’s River Inn, and when he served up the phrase to his hosts, it resonated immediately.

Cornett used the term, in a sense that was simultaneously descriptive and cautionary, to denote those developed and nominally independent areas adjacent to a core metropolis that either choose to disaffiliate from the mother city or are alienated from it by some aspect of the city perceived by them to be undesirable. Or both. Those of us who live with this condition on a daily basis on one side of the dividing line or another and who still smart from the wounds of a protracted city/county school-merger controversy instantly recognized ourselves in the phrase. As Cornett went on to dilate on the matter, he made the obvious point that such a de facto divorce between city and suburb is in the long run ruinous to both, for it is the city, and only the city, that can provide both a psychic and a physical infrastructure to nourish its suburbs and make of them something other than peripheral zip codes. We are in this together, or should be, and the city, by virtue of its size and clout, has the major responsibility to make it so.

Ask someone in a suburb where downtown is, Cornett suggested. “If they point to the smaller buildings nearby, you’re in trouble. If they point to the taller buildings off in the distance a bit, you’re okay.” It is a syllogism of sorts: If the core city is a living, breathing, culturally attractive place, then to that degree its suburbs will be drawn into its orbit.

Cornett is recognized as a national leader (most recently the only mayor named to a list of 50 movers and shakers by Politico Magazine) because he was instrumental in converting his own city, an automobile-centric place “with the most unfriendly walkability imaginable” (a kind of overgrown suburb itself, in other words), into a walkable, lively, urban environment.

That was one of the lessons for us that the Oklahoma City mayor brought with him, and that is precisely why we summoned him.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

On the cover story “The Lipscomb Affair” …

Please stop referring to Robert Lipscomb as a “city planner” or “planner.” Nothing could be further from the truth. He devised his projects and proceeded to implement them without a bit of input from other city agencies or the public. He implemented them WITHOUT a plan visible to any of us, but I suppose envisioned by him in his own mind. He caused various divisions like police, fire, parks and public works to change their long term plans to comply with his projects. The problem with Memphis right now is that it is “planning deprived.” Robert was king of his own kingdom. His real name should be Robert “Moses” Lipscomb and that is not meant in the biblical sense. Please refer to Robert Caro’s The Power Broker. Robert Moses was the original power broker and brought NYC to its knees through his control of the park commission, turnpike authority, and housing authority, among other posts. Their lives are parallel.

IMPlanner

On Susan Wilson’s Last Word “One Man’s Trash” …

I had to delete my profile from Nextdoor. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I decided it’s better to be “uninformed” than to start to hate my neighbors.

nobody

On the Fly on the Wall post “U of M Plans John Calipari Celebration and Other Weird Stuff” …

Very well done! Except for that completely INSANE, IDIOTIC stuff about UM honoring Calapari. That’s too stupid even for a wild-azz parody.

ALJ2

On Susan Ellis’ Letter from the Editor “Finding Promise in Turmoil” …

Regarding your Letter from the Editor in the latest issue of “Memphis Feces Flinger”:

Would it be true social activism for someone to use Power Box’s list to create a list of alternate, white-owned businesses and distribute that list to people who support falsely accused law enforcement officers?

No, it would not. It would be racist, divisive, and stupid.

Whatever. At least she is trying to do something positive with Power Box.

I hope the businesses on the list do well. That would create something positive from something disgraceful, pathetic, and hope-crushing.

Memphis rules!

Warren

On Frank Murtaugh’s cover story “Encore?” …

Frank Murtaugh’s story calling last season “the Tigers’ finest in school history” is inaccurate, to say the least. The 1963 team finished 14th in the country — not 25th, as last year’s team did. The ’63 team beat No. 11 Mississippi State, tied No. 3 Ole Miss, had five shutouts, and their coach (Murphy) was National Coach of the Year. Their running back (Cassinelli), led the nation in rushing and won the national scoring title. Harry Schuh and Chuck Brooks were All-Americans. The Mississippi State game was considered “the toughest game the Tigers ever played.” The Tigers’ quarterback (Vollmer) came back to the game to lead the final drive to victory from the hospital after being knocked down some concrete stadium stairs. The Ole Miss game was the first in which Ole Miss did not win. Last year’s team lost badly to a lower-ranked Rebel team. The undefeated ’63 team turned down an invite to the Sun Bowl expecting a Gator Bowl invite. If the ’63 team had played 13 games as last year’s team did, they most likely would have finished 12-0-1 — not 10-3. I don’t know how much research you did, Mr. Murtaugh, but your declaration on last year’s team is blatantly wrong.

Bob Joralemon

On God and Taxes …

Wait. Don’t move. Don’t talk. God is talking to me. God is telling me not to pay income taxes. God says they are evil and illegal. I figure that bit in the bible about “give Caesar what is Caesar’s” is a moot point. Caesar’s been dead a long time. God’s will is most important, and God does not like income taxes. Who am I to question God?

Dagmar Bergan

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Robert Lipscomb’s Influence and Playing the Gamble

In this week’s cover story, we, like the rest of the Memphis media, have begun to scratch the surface (and, for once, that oft-used cliché seems to be the right metaphor) of an ongoing problem in city government.

Yes, we mean the Lipscomb affair, for sure — a saga, rivaling anything in Sophocles or Shakespeare, of a sudden and dramatic fall from the heights of power to the depths of apparent ruin and disgrace. And one, moreover, that leaves a slew of unanswered questions in its wake: How was one man allowed, through two successive city administrations, to accumulate so much power and influence that, to all intent and purpose, he was unbossed at City Hall, able not only to chart his own course but, it would seem, to decide the direction of city government itself in matters of development?

It was Lipscomb single-handedly who came up with the Bass Pro solution to the riddle of an empty but debt-consuming Pyramid. He committed the city to sticking with that strategy in the face of other suggestions, some of which might have had merits of their own, and through year after year of what seemed never-ending delays. As of now, it appears that Lipscomb was right, that his gamble paid off. (Ask us again in 10 years.)

Other projects, like the apparently abandoned Heritage Trail TIF (Tax Increment Financing) proposal of a few years back, would have put enormous swaths of the city in potential hock to pay for what seemed, finally, disproportionately modest developments within a limited geographical area. The purpose, to pay homage to the city’s civil rights legacy while upgrading a depressed area, was fine, but the whole thing seemed out of scale, and it would have involved the disingenuous premise of having the entirety of downtown — which, all things considered, has been enjoying a boom — classified technically as a slum.

That project, like Bass Pro, might have paid off, too, but it ultimately seemed too much a gamble — one in which the ante seemed out of scale with the potential payoff.

The jury is still out (another cliché that somehow seems wholly appropriate) on another Lipscomb leftover, an ongoing Fairgrounds TDZ (Tourism Development Zone) proposal, which the administration of Mayor A C Wharton evidently still hopes to win state approval for, though there have been abundant objections to it from citizens’ groups and preservationists.

Don’t misunderstand. Lipscomb had a certain genius for dreaming up these projects, all of which aimed artfully at snagging state or federal monies (or both) that our cash-poor city would have trouble coming up with otherwise. Maybe Memphis needed — and needs — to take a few risks.

But it now seems clear that some obvious cautions are in order, as well. When we mentioned scratching the surface of a problem, we didn’t mean the Lipscomb affair alone. We meant that civic tendency, so much in evidence that a state comptroller was forced to upbraid us for it not along ago, to live entirely at risk, without sufficient oversight, like a giddy Mr. Micawber with a habit for playing the lottery.

We can still dream; we just need to have enough wakefulness about us to know what’s going on in reality.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

On Frank Murtaugh’s Tiger Blue post “The Tigers’ Five Biggest Wins at the Liberty Bowl” …

That 1996 W over the Vols is without a doubt the most incredible, satisfying game I’ve ever attended. Memories of that day will keep me warm and fuzzy the rest of my life. After the game, the 18,000 UT fans left in total silence without saying a word. You talk about surreal. …

Midtown Mark

Memphis hasn’t had a kickoff return for a touchdown since the Tennessee game in 1996. I’ve read multiple sources online indicating that could be the longest such drought for any DI football program ever, or at least going back to DI’s creation as we know it in 1950.

AlonsoWDC

On Toby Sells’ post “Sammons: Lipscomb Allegations ‘Sickening,’ City to Offer Free Counseling” …

So Sammons is convicting on words only? I smell a rat here, and you all are falling for it. Shame on you all!

Earnestine Taylor

That was a pretty strong statement by Jack, wasn’t it? Apparently, what he heard he believes sounds a bit odd … but he knows more than I.

Scott

On the editorial “The Lipscomb Bombshell” …

For the second time in two days (the other being Jackson Baker’s blog on the matter yesterday) the Flyer, which is held out a progressive voice in this community, has felt the need to mention Mr. Lipscomb’s sexual orientation as though it has anything to do with the crimes he is accused of. Would the Flyer have noted his orientation if Lipscomb had been accused of abusing under age girls? How exactly has he “benefited” from people not caring if he is gay? Are you implying that people should have suspected something like this was going on because he is gay? It sure seems like it. I am in no way supporting Mr. Lipscomb, but I expect better from the Flyer.

Evil

On Les Smith’s “A View from Afar” …

I have found Les Smith’s column both enlightening and refreshing. That is why when I read his last column “A View From Afar,” I felt compelled to clarify a point made regarding the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission statistics. The Crime Commission uses the year 2006 as a basis of our reporting for a strategic reason. In 2005 our community came together to create a plan of action to reduce crime. The plan, Operation: Safe Community (OSC), is a strategic initiative to reduce crime in Memphis and Shelby County, spearheaded by the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission. The underlying philosophy of this plan was best stated by John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address: “United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do — for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.”

The crime-reduction initiative, chaired by Attorney General Amy Weirich now has 26 strategies, 45 accountable partners, and more than 100 public and private agencies engaged in its implementation. The goal is to make Memphis-Shelby County one of the safest communities of its size in the nation — a truly powerful challenge.

Yes, we have a long way to go, but we are making progress and holding ourselves accountable, as Mr. Smith recommended in his article. Each month, we compare where we are in the crime rate now to where we were when we started on this endeavor. So far, the news in good but not great. As of the last reporting period, violent crime rate is down 19 percent, and property crime is down 35 percent.

But as Mr. Smith stated, those statistics are of little comfort to a victim of crime, so let me put those statistics in real terms. There were over 1,600 fewer victims of violent crime in the first seven months of 2015 than there were in the first seven months of the year our plan began, 2006, including 24 fewer murder victims. President Kennedy’s words are as true today as they were in 1960, and we’re out to prove it.

Rick Masson

Interim Executive Director

Memphis Shelby Crime Commission

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

On Toby Sells’ cover story “The Urban Child Investment”

But … bu … it’s all for the childruns! Must be good!

ALJ2

ALJ2,

If they threw in puppy adoptions, they might have something there. They could charge billable hours per paw.

crackoamerican

About Jackson Baker’s Politics Blog post “GOP Luminaries Play the Trump Card at Local Banquet” …

[Trump’s] the best thing that ever happened to the Democrats. The vast majority of moderate Republicans know he’s a nut, and they won’t be voting for nut. Gonna hand the election to Hillary.

Chester Jones

Norris says “the people” want straight talk. No they don’t. Trump tells this cohort of the GOP-base what they want to hear: They want to know it’s not their “fault;” it’s the fault of the Other. They want their fears and biases confirmed, and that’s what Trump does to a fault. So, no. They most assuredly don’t want actual “straight talk.”

Packrat

About Frank Murtaugh’s From My Seat post “Memphis Redbirds 2015: Memorable Season or Not?” …

I agree with Frank that it’s questionable at best that the changes made to [AutoZone Park] have improved the park. I certainly don’t think taking away the playground is an improvement. Not only was it the one free thing for small children to enjoy, but it was definitely one of my son’s favorite aspects of going to games. … I also agree that while the new bluffs put fans closer to the game, I fear it’s only a matter of time before a toddler or small child gets beaned by a line-drive foul ball. Fans were farther away from the action on the old bluff, but nobody seemed to mind, and the travel time was long enough for balls headed out there that parents were able to get their kids out of the way. And, lastly, one change that, to me, is definitely not an improvement: the moving of the ticket takers all the way up to the entrance to the stadium versus where they had always been before at the plaza entrance. While seemingly a minor change, at more than one game I went to this year, myself or someone I was with was hit up for money by guys IN THE PLAZA! Being solicited on the sidewalk outside of the stadium is one thing, but this is the kind of experience that might make surburbanites swear off ever coming to a Redbirds game again.

tsunamiroja

About Chris Davis’ Fly on the Wall story “Clean Sweep” …

In the article “Clean Sweep” featured in “The Fly on the Wall,” a woman sweeping the steps of Idlewild Presbyterian Church was highlighted, along with the fact that she was wearing no clothes. “Nobody has satisfactorily explained what she was doing with the milk crate or the bag of Kingsford charcoal pictured below.”

I will explain it quite simply: mental illness, alcoholism, homelessness. And she has a name. Her name is Marilyn.

At Idlewild, we have loved her, fed her, counseled with her, tried to refer her for some help, cautioned her, and have even had to use “tough love” at times. For we dare to believe that beneath all that brokeness is a beloved child of God.

It was disheartening, even shameful at times, to hear the ridicule and the laughter that this evoked, for it is not funny. The homeless and the mentally ill are the lepers of our day, and they are ignored at best, scapegoated, and abused by a narcissistic culture at worst.

Jesus was as clear as day toward the end of his life when he told a parable about what was truly important. “When did we see you hungry … or naked?” Today I hear him asking: “When did we see you mentally ill and homeless? As you did it unto the least of these, our brothers and sisters, you did it to me.”

For we are all broken in one way or the other. Some are able, with our privilege, to hide it better than others.

Stephen R. Montgomery

Pastor, Idlewild Presbyterian Church

Categories
Editorial Opinion

The Lipscomb Bombshell

Though Mayor A C Wharton insists that a whole matrix of development projects midwifed by the now former city Housing & Community Development Director Robert Lipscomb will go forward without “missing a beat,” the likelihood is that several of them, notably the controversial proposed Fairgrounds TDZ, could be in serious jeopardy.

And that may be just the beginning of the complications resulting from the surprise announcement by Wharton on Monday that Lipscomb had been relieved of his city duties. The mayor’s action came as a result of accusations by a Seattle man of as yet undisclosed sexual offenses committed against him by Lipscomb years ago, at a time when the accuser was a minor.

Technically, that was a suspension. Lipscomb has subsequently resigned from his city position, effective immediately, however, and termination of his parallel job as executive director of the Memphis Housing Authority seemed inevitable.

What gave the accusations unusual weight was the fact that Wharton had acted after dispatching a sizeable blue-ribbon delegation, headed by Police Director Toney Armstrong, to investigate the Seattle complaint.

Although rumors about Lipscomb’s sexual orientation had been rife in City Hall circles for years, the de facto city planning czar had benefited from today’s relaxed social climate about such matters and had hardly been so much as inconvenienced. Nor had his unmatched power to influence members of the Memphis City Council, stemming from his ability to swing city, state, and federal funding toward this or that district project.

All that is now presumably over with, as is Lipscomb’s concurrent clout in Nashville, where the state Building Commission has yet to rule on the Fairgrounds project, already under attack at home by advocates of preserving the Mid-South Coliseum and by others concerned about the project’s expense.

Ironically, given the astonishing rapidity of Lipscomb’s fall, no criminal action has yet been taken against Lipscomb, in Seattle or elsewhere; much less has he been found guilty of misdeeds, illegal or otherwise. Lipscomb has called the accusations against him false, though he acknowledges having sent the Seattle man “blackmail” money over the years.

Ominously for Lipscomb, however, a follow-up statement by Mayor Wharton referred to the receipt by his office of additional accusations of “inappropriate sexual advances” on Lipscomb’s part by “numerous individuals” — a reminder of the echo effect seen in the case of multiplying rape accusations against entertainer Bill Cosby.

Just as Lipscomb has yet to be judged, it is much too early to appraise the mayor’s precipitate action in relieving Lipscomb. Clearly, Wharton had to be mindful of the impact of a brewing scandal on his current reelection effort. But at this point only he, Armstrong, and a few others are in full possession of the facts of the Lipscomb case, and the mayor’s actions have to be taken at face value.

Difficult as it is to suspend judgment in the matters at hand, we the public have no reasonable alternative. It is not too early, however, to see that, wholly independent of what may or may not happen in the current election, an existing component of the order of things at City Hall has been shattered beyond recall.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Viva The Donald

The Republican Party, the pundit class, the news-watching public of the United States — nay, the wide, wide world — all these have to be wondering right now just how long Donald Trump, the deal-making Manhattan billionaire and reality-show celebrity, can do the bumblebee trick of staying airborne in the presidential race without visible means of either navigation or flotation.

Come to think of it, The Donald actually somewhat resembles a bumblebee in his general contours and coloration, not to mention the nuisance factor he presents to the over-fastidious.

Some might say that the real question is not how long Trump might stay in that rarefied air but how he got there in the first place. Let us suggest that both questions have the same answer. It is Trump’s unparalleled self-confidence — or, as some might put it, his unmitigated gall.

Unmitigated: That’s an interesting word, and a key one in coming to an understanding of the Trump phenomenon. It is beginning to be obvious that nothing Donald Trump is, does, or says is mitigated in the slightest, or ever has been.

Does what he say on any political subject under the sun make sense — from Mexican “rapists” to the unheroic nature of legendary American P.O.W.’s to the hormonal influence on female TV anchors who ask him pesky questions? Of course not. Are the opinions he expresses today from the stump — on subjects ranging from abortion to government subsidies to intervention in foreign countries — the same as he used to express back when he considered himself a Democrat? (Look it up, folks. That part of his life is fairly recent.) Once again, of course not.

But that’s part of the Trump magic. Not only has he been able to adjust to the overcooked atmosphere of today’s Republicanism, one gathers he could just as well proclaim himself a socialist or a vegetarian candidate and make it seem perfectly acceptable to his rabid admirers.

Interestingly, Trump’s crowds are as delighted to see him come off the top of his head with the non-sequiturs that happen to occur to him on the stump as are, on the Democratic side, the throngs that are now coming out to see and hear Bernie Sanders, a legitimate and coherent bona fide socialist, who knows exactly what he thinks and why.

That Trump’s extraordinary confidence is based only in himself, while Sanders’ is based on his belief in his politics is beside the point. Neither man is premeditating or calculating anything. They are just being who they are, sans focus groups, pollsters, consultants, Venn diagrams, fund-raising mavens, or what-have-you.

We like watching The Donald for the same reason as everybody else, evidently. He’s high-handed, vain, pompous, etc., etc., just as he was when, for the most arbitrary of reasons, he would decide which sycophantic celebrity to “fire” on his TV show. But, he is unfiltered. A rare thing, indeed, in this era of bought-and-packaged pols.

Do we want him to win? Oh no, we’re not crazy, but we enjoy seeing him rattle the cages. And we have faith: There’s got to be a high side to all this. Maybe the national GOP will have to rebuild from scratch. Now that would be the ticket!

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Jackson Baker’s post, “Council Votes Final Passage of Ordinance to Remove Forrest Statue” …

If the state somehow managed to keep the statue from moving, what would stop the city from building something that encircles the entire statue, blocking the view of it from all sides, some sort of architectural monument built over the existing one? That would be a fun thumb in the eye, if state law somehow kept the city from being able to relocate the statue.

GroveReb84

How about some kind of large art installation celebrating gay rights surrounding the old Wizard of the Saddle? Maybe with lots of leather …

Packrat

Watkins Overton was a noted segregationist during his time as Memphis mayor. No way we should have our “crown jewel park” named after him. May I suggest “Zoo Overflow Parking Park” as an adequate replacement name.

Midtown Mark

About Bianca Phillips’ post, “WMC’s Dave Brown to Retire” …

I will miss his calm approach to something everywhere else played to maximize anxiety. I hope his successors stand their ground to continue that approach.

Brunetto Latini

Good luck to Dave in his retirement. He will be sadly missed. He is a legend in Memphis. And Ron Childers will do an excellent job serving in Dave’s position. Many thanks to both of you.

Alina K. Kaiser

About Bianca Phillips’ story on the Steven Askew case, “Switching Stories” …

My question is: Why didn’t the cops run his plates and see what they could find out about the person in the car? I know from personal experience that a good-sized police department in Texas would not pull over anyone unless they could run wants and warrants on his car first. (I was the consultant called in to fix the wants and warrants problem.) That’s because they wanted to know if it was a person with no record, a dangerous criminal, if the car was stolen, etc., before they approached the vehicle. Had they done that, they could have determined he had no criminal record as well as a pistol permit, and maybe not banged on his window while he was minding his own business and sleeping in his car in a bad part of town.

He was found dead with a cigar in his hand, not a gun, and the last time I read about this, the gun was on the seat next to him, not in his lap. The cop who didn’t request that Askew’s gun to be checked to see if it had been fired, even after hearing the inconsistent statements from the cops, should not be investigating anything. The cops’ explanation has never passed the smell test, and still doesn’t. Maybe some day someone will write a book or make a movie about the Steven Askew case and get the attention it deserves.

GWCarver

About Alexandra Pusateri’s story, “Bus vs. Trolley” …

As chairman/founder of Citizens For Better Service, I have been a leading voice for bus riders for more than 22 years. While I do not dispute the argument of the Memphis Bus Rider Union on the subject of “buses vs. trolleys,” the trolley service is so inextricably tied to downtown Memphis that MATA has no other choice but to spend money on replacing trolleys. Without the trolley service, downtown Memphis will continue to suffer a financial crisis in which workers are laid off and businesses lose customers and will be forced to relocate or close.

MATA needs to streamline the current administration, cut administrative costs, and stay out of projects that have nothing to do with public transportation. MATA needs to listen to the concerns of bus riders, who are having a hard time understanding why MATA is investing millions of dollars in Central Station while they are riding on hot, overcrowded buses that take up to two hours to get to their destination.

Sadly, more funding for public transportation is not a top priority for the city or a major issue in this election season.

Johnnie Mosley

Correction:

In the Aug. 13th issue “Bus vs. Trolley” story, we printed that the trolleys cost $1.8 million. They cost $1.1 million. We regret the error.