Author: Micaela Watts

Justin Fox Burks

February’s pro-immigration march permit was granted under the three day exception. Even though police had a considerably shorter time to organize public protection, many that attended the march said police presence was noticeably stronger than the Women’s March, though the crowd was a third of the size.

Though Memphis City Councilman Worth Morgan said he was certain that today’s brief discussion of the public assembly permit application process will be one of many, it appears, for now, that the application process will remain the same.

During the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee (PSHS) meeting, Memphis Police Department Director Mike Rallings advocated for keeping the permit process as it stands without making any changes.

“We already have a system in place that works,” said Rallings.

The current application requires an advance notice of 14 business days if the event attendance is expected to surpass 25 persons, however there is an exception to the 14 days notice stipulation for events organized within three days of current affairs becoming public knowledge.

In this case, organizers must give written notice to police.

This exception was applied to grant an emergency permit for February’s pro-immigration march, in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel for seven majority Muslim countries.

The vast majority of the 14 business day rule is attributed to assessing the need for police protection and organizing accordingly. Because both MPD and the City of Memphis maintain that the police force is short 500 officers, Rallings repeatedly reinforced the need for collaboration between the public and police, particularly after the committee meeting had ended.

“Public safety is not a role just for police. So if citizens know that something is going on, I expect citizens to take responsibility,” said Rallings, adding that maintaining public safety at large assemblies in the face of a police shortage will only work through citizens collaborating with MPD.

The 14 day rule has drawn ire from local activists who were denied a permit. In at least one case, activists wanting to hold a rally and march in support of the indigenous people of Standing Rock were denied a permit on the basis of inadequate notice.

The protest happened anyway.

Referring to such occasions, Rallings said that if the event remains peaceful, no arrests would be made.

“We’ve taken the position that we try to protect citizen’s first amendment rights,” said Rallings.

The second half of the brief PSHS meeting heard intel from the MPD’s Real Time Crime Center and the Internal Affairs Bureau regarding police-worn body cams, and the reduction in civilian complaints against the police.

With body cams deployed to 99.6 percent of the police force, both internal affairs and the crime center are able to analyze data regarding complaints in a fuller context.

MPD’s Deputy Chief of Police Information Technology, Jim Harvey told the committee that the initial reduction in complaints, 75 percent, was inaccurate and only reflected one precinct.

Complaints against the department as a whole have dropped though, by 39 percent. Referencing studies done elsewhere on body cameras and their correlation with a drop in complaints against police, Harvey said he expects that the number of complaints will continue their decline.

“I think you’re going to see officers being a lot nicer to the public, and the public being a lot nicer to the officers,” said Harvey, who added that the complaints being dropped are largely frivolous in nature.

Conversely, MPD’s chief legal officer Bruce McMullen pointed out that there are incidents where the officer’s behavior was in the wrong, and reviewing footage will work both ways.

“Our job is not to cover up complaints, but protect citizens,” said McMullen.

When the PSHS chairman, Councilman Worth Morgan asked if the recordings helped expedite IAB’s investigation process, McMullen said that, if anything, it adds time to the investigation.

“We’re talking about a lot of videos to review”, said McMullen. “But it’s worth it overall.”

Courtesy of Lauren Crews

This rendering was commissioned by Lauren Crews, owner of the Marine Hospital. Crews said he felt that the rendering provided by ACBL did not provide a complete representation of the silo’s visibility.

French Fort area residents and institutions are raising concern over two proposed silos that they say will pierce the skyline and interrupt one of the most well known vistas of the Mississippi River.

One of the nation’s largest marine transportation companies, American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL), is seeking a zoning variance from Memphis’ Board of Adjustments in order to construct two cement silos that top out at 145 feet in height. The current height allowed for the zone is 60 feet.

The silos would be built adjacent to Chickasaw Heritage Park, where historic ceremonial mounds leftover from the indigenous Chickasaw nation offer an unobstructed view of the Mississippi River.

As the Metal Museum’s executive director, Carissa Hussong, works next to Chickasaw Heritage Park and can speak to the daily use of the park by tourists and Memphians alike. She acknowledges that, if constructed, the silos will interfere with the view from the museum, but not nearly as much as the view from the ceremonial mound.  Courtesy of The Metal Museum

This rendering of the proposed silos shows the altered view from Metal Museum Drive, facing south.

“I’ve seen buses of tourists stop by just to take in the view. People come here every day to eat lunch in the park, or watch the sunset,” said Hussong. “Having those silos built would completely change the feel of the area.”

A Facebook page alerting the public to ACBL’s plans has already drawn comments from area residents who are concerned not only about the obstructed view, but about potential impact the punctured skyline could have on development and home values.

Traci Rector Hamersen commented, “The French fort neighborhood will lose even more value and future development capability with this build. Surely there are spots north or south on the river less than a mile in either direction that they could mount these giant bins.”

Hussong also expressed concern about property values, but noted that as of now, it’s the ambience and character of the area that is most concerning.

“We respect the company’s right to invest in their property, but we think they need to do so with regards to existing regulations,” said Hussong. “This would take away from a Memphis asset that benefits everyone.”

The Memphis Flyer  has reached out to ACBL for comment, and this story will be updated with additional information as it’s made available.

The company’s hearing at the Board of Adjustments is scheduled for April 26, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. at City Hall, 125 N Main St, room 468.

Brandon Dill

The now Memphis-infamous Bridge Protest was thousands strong, and the Memphis Police Department currently has roughly 2,000 officers. In the recent past, city officials have attributed the delay or complete denial of public assembly permits to a need to balance police resources and public safety for all involved.

The next Memphis City Council Public Safety and Homeland Security (PSHS) Committee meeting will feature two conversations pertinent to the recent increase in public demonstrations in Memphis, and the national conversation on police accountability.

The chairman of the PSHS committee, Worth Morgan, said that recent protests have pushed the application process for marches, parades, and protests to the forefront, and discussion around the process is needed at this point. The city currently requires 14 business days notice before issuing a public assembly permit.

“I wanted to have a conversation that asks, ‘Is 14 business days the best we can do?’ And that’s a conversation that has to involve the police and a better understanding of the logistics and the overtime pay involved, said Morgan.

The permit conversation is two-pronged, and the second part will center around the city’s exception to their public assembly ordinance that stipulates emergency permits can be granted if the event taking place is prompted by “Spontaneous events occasioned by news or affairs coming into public knowledge within three days of such public assembly”.

This exception was used to grant a permit for the pro-immigration march prompted by President Donald Trump’s so-called “Muslim Ban” on February 1 of this year. Initially though, organizers behind the rally were denied a permit under the 14-day stipulation.

The city also denied a permit last month to activists wanting to assemble to raise awareness of the ongoing conflict at Standing Rock.

According to the executive director for the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, Bradley Watkins, the current process in place potentially reinforces apathy to current affairs.

“The only thing that the permit office accomplishes by dragging their feat on permits is that it teaches people not to bother,” noted Watkins.

Watkins maintains that it’s not the place of the permit office to decided whether or not people can protest. Rather, notifying the city is a courtesy and a way to facilitate communication between activists and police.

“The Police and the city can have communication with these activists, which can help things run smoothly…or not and have problems,” said Watkins.

Both Memphis Police Director Mike Rallings and the department’s chief legal officer, Bruce McMullen, are expected to participate in the permit discussion.

On Morgan’s part, the councilman has stated that he is “more than open” to amending the existing ordinance if the discussion identifies better practices.

The discussion around the use of body cameras on city police will examine recent data gathered by MPD’s Real Time Crime Center that shows a significant drop — roughly 75% — in civilian complaints since the implementation of body cameras.

Morgan says the conversation is a chance for the city’s Internal Affairs Bureau to add context around the drop in complaints.

“Off the top of their head, everyone can probably think of two reasons why that might be the case. One is the officers are behaving better, and two is that the citizens are behaving better as well,” said Morgan, who added that he recognizes that most people will have a bias towards which of the two reasons has contributed more to the drop in complaints.

Though the rollout of the body cameras was halted in 2016, Rallings has said that the majority of officers are now equipped with the recording technology.

As with the conversation around public assembly protests, Morgan again is hopeful that gleaning context from the discussion will provide helpful insight.

“I think it will be an interesting conversation,” Morgan said. “This is a chance to have a broad look at how body cameras have affected these investigations.”

The PSHS Committee will meet on Tuesday at 9:45 a.m. in City Hall.

Justin Fox Burks

National Civil Rights Museum

Federal legislation that would establish a nationally linked system of historic sites considered imperative to the Civil Rights Movement has been introduced in the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander cosponsored legislation that, if passed, will establish the African American Civil 
Rights Network and connect more than 50 sites in 20 states and in D.C., providing technical and preservation assistance to the landmarks.

“This network will ensure the Civil Rights Movement remains at the front of our history and will help our children grow up learning about this pivotal movement,” said Alexander.

In Memphis, two buildings that hosted Martin Luther King Jr in his final hours — the Lorraine Motel and the Mason Temple, Church of God in Christ — are included in the list of proposed sites. 

Absent from the list of proposed sites is the recently reopened but only slightly renovated Clayborn Temple, which served as a major hub for the Memphis Sanitation Worker’s Strike of 1968, the same strike that brought King to Memphis, where he was assassinated 49 years ago.

Courtesy of The Memphis Zoo

The hippopotamus family at the Memphis zoo just got a little bit larger — in every sense of the word — with the birth of a 76-pound female calf to “Binti”, one of the zoo’s female Nile hippos.

The calf, who has yet to be named, will make her debut at the zoo on Friday, April 7, at 8:00 a.m. in the $22.4 million exhibit, Zambezi River Hippo Camp.

Both mother and daughter are said to be bright and alert and in excellent health.

A curator with the zoo, Farshid Mehrdadfar, said that Binti is extremely protective of the newborn calf, and in turn, the newborn calf tends to stay as close to her mother as possible.

“The little lady follows her around everywhere,” said Mehrdadfar, who added that the newborn is often found asleep on Binti’s nose or back.

The day before the calf is expected to debut, the zoo will kick off a naming contest and is encouraging members of the public to cast their votes for one of five names nominated names entered for consideration by the zoo staff.

The winning name will be announced on Friday, April 14, via the zoo’s social media page. For those interested in voting, the ballot can be found here.

Here’s Your Memphis ‘Aaaww’ For the Day

Micaela Watts

Sr. Maureen Griner and Tracy Burgess of the Dorothy Day House hold a photo of one of three former Church Health properties they will buy and renovate for the families they serve. The mantle behind them showcases families who came in homeless, and left with employment and housing.

Church Health and St. John’s Methodist Church have combined efforts to ensure that the area west of the intersection at Peabody and Bellevue will remain dedicated to social services, following the departure of Church Health as the health organization moves to its new location in Crosstown Concourse.

For years, Church Health leased their buildings from St.John’s for a substantially low cost. Ahead of the anticipated move, St. John’s and Church Health made a decision.

Rather than yielding their midtown properties to the market, the church has instead opted to lease their buildings to two social service organizations, the Dorothy Day House (DDH) and Alliance Healthcare Services.

Church Health’s director of communications, Marvin Stockwell, said the decision to make their properties easily attainable to the two organizations was calculated and intentional.

“We’ve had an internal working committee for three to four years, and we want to leave this corner dedicated to the common good,” said Stockwell. “We didn’t want to just leave it to market forces.”

The committee Stockwell refers to was comprised of St. John’s, Church Health, and Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare, and representatives from each organizations spent a year determining the best uses of the property by researching Memphis’ greatest needs. Their research produced three focuses to address; food security, women and children, and behavioral health.

St. John’s already runs a food service ministry, but behavioral health and services for homeless women and children still remained.

“Obviously helping the homeless is a huge need in Memphis. And, behavioral health especially needs to be addressed,” said Stockwell, who noted that he believes that behavioral health as a public need is just now starting to come to the forefronts of people’s minds. 

As a not-for-profit behavioral health treatment center, Alliance is one of the few such facilities in Shelby County to accept TennCare, therefor one of the few options for low-income individuals seeking help for substance abuse or mental illness, or both.

Alliance will move into Church Health’s clinical space fairly soon, according to Stockwell.

DDH, an independently funded organization that helps transition homeless families back into society, will slowly acquire and remodel three Church Health properties, one house at a time as funding allows.

Their current facility has the capacity to help three smaller families simultaneously. In the ten years that DDH has been operating out of a large residential house in Midtown, 45 families have graduated to permanent housing and jobs. If DDH expands by three houses, ten more years could see hundreds of families transition to stability.

The house’s executive director, Sr. Maureen Grinter, said that since the organization is solely funded by individual donors and no federal or state funding, it’s not yet known how long acquiring and renovating the buildings will take.

Stockwell said that St. John’s will hold the buildings for them until DDH is able to raise the funds to buy them.

When thinking about the opportunity and timing of the DDH expansion, Griner references the house’s namesake, who was a social activist and journalist that opened up similar institutions in her lifetime.

“Dorothy Day said, ‘If you put out a pot of coffee, and a pot of soup on the stove, God will take care of the rest.”

The next Crime Prevention and Intervention Task Force meeting will be held on April 5, in City Hall at 4:00 p.m., in room 501.

The meeting, which will be hosted by Memphis City Councilwoman Jamita E. Swearengen, will feature the American Psychiatric Association’s president-elect and local professor of psychiatry, Altha Stewart.

Stewart is expected to address the task force about the lasting effects of trauma in communities regularly exposed to violent crimes.

The task force was assembled to create preventative measures against violent crime, which disproportionately plagues low-income neighborhoods already suffering from poverty and a lack of employment access.

In past meetings, representatives from Shelby County Schools, Memphis Police Department, and local clergy have shown up to collaborate on crime prevention efforts.

Starting Sunday, April 2, the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) will introduce three new fixed bus routes and implement several timing and frequency changes to existing routes.

The new routes to Shelby Farms, IKEA Way, and Memphis International Airport and the multiple existing route tweaks account for an estimated $500,000 worth of service additions.

In the case of the new routes, MATA received a boost from the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ), a federal program that aides local public transit entities in implementing projects that aim to reduce traffic congestion and increase air quality.

According to MATA’s planning and scheduling director, John Lancaster, CMAQ funding can only be allocated to new bus routes. With this stipulation and the recent boost in employment opportunities along the I-40 corridor in East Memphis, Lancaster feels that IKEA Way 44 makes sense.

“The 44 completes the network to an area that has seen a lot of job growth,” said Lancaster, who pointed out that in addition to IKEA, the route also serves as a conduit to densely populated apartment complexes in East Memphis and multiple call centers located on Appling Farms.

Though job growth along I-40 has been significant, the bulk of the CMAQ assistance will go to the new Airport Shuttle 64, which will link the American Way Transit Center, Memphis International Airport, and by extension the FedEx Super Hub.

The 64 was included in MATA’s 2012 Short Range Transit Plan, and like the IKEA Way Route, Lancaster points again to job access.

“That’s the big picture of all the CMAQ routes,” said Lancaster. “The emphasis is connecting jobs and employment to people.”

The Shelby Farms route, 47, stands out as the exception in the CMAQ routes in terms of job access, but Lancaster said the route was in the works for quite some time, as the massive urban park contacted MATA a few years ago to request service with the hope that it would alleviate traffic congestion and the associated air pollution.

“Because of the park’s emphasis on environment and sustainability, they see that as a way to alleviate congestion,” said Lancaster.

The 47 will only run on weekends, when the park sees its highest number of visitors.

April 2 will also see changes to some existing routes, including modified trip times on the Crosstown 42 that will ideally improve arrival and departure times.

The full summary of service changes can be found here.

To promote the new routes, MATA is partnering with Neosoulville to showcase spoken word poetry at the William Hudson Transit Center in Downtown, Memphis.

The poetry slams are free to attend and will take place every afternoon from 2-5:00 p.m. from March 29-31. The Chinese Connection Dub Industry will pair their music with spoken word.

Posted By Spool Post on Flickr

Would you want your ducts blown out with a leaf blower?

The Better Business Bureau of the Mid-South (BBB) has released a consumer alert warning potential consumers about dozens of business complaints from multiple specialty cleaning companies that are all linked to one owner, James E. Jones of Memphis.

After conducting an investigation, the BBB learned that Jones has done or is currently doing business under a variety of names, including Service Medics, Sounds Like Service, The Mold Guys, 1stChoice Home Services, and TruClean Home Services.

In total, Jones’ enterprises have racked up 130 complaints in six years from 11 states that allege false advertising, missed appointments, difficulty in reaching to resolve a complaint, and poor service.

One customer notified the BBB that one of Jones’ businesses showed up to clean her air ducts with a shop vacuum and a leaf blower.

Thirteen complaints tied to Jones’ businesses have remained unresolved, and scores more were resolved unsatisfactorily, causing the agency to issue “F” ratings across the board for all of Jones’ enterprises.

The consumer safety agency also warns that one such business, Service Medics, has falsely used the BBB’s “Accredited Business Seal” without the agency’s approval. In fact, non of Jones’ businesses are accredited by the BBB.

As a preventative measure, the BBB is urging customers to do their homework ahead of enlisting services, and to exercise particular caution with services advertised on social media.

For businesses that are accredited through the agency, you can quickly conduct research through the BBB’s website.