Residents of a North Memphis community are coming together to ensure that their voices are being heard and that they are considered in decision making processes.
The Hollywood Community Association was recently formed with the intention to “promote the reconstruction of our neighborhoods and bring communities together that are generally overlooked, especially North Memphis.”
Pamela “P” Moses is managing executive director of Rise Up America, a historical neighborhood preservation organization geared towards “protecting and disseminating information to redlined communities.” Moses said that they founded the Hollywood Community Association in hopes of stopping gentrification in their neighborhood.
“A lot of things are happening, such as removing grocery stores, and a lack of businesses,” said Moses. “Most of the people in the community have been here 30-years plus, but many of the elderly people are either dying or getting to the point where they can’t keep up their houses, so we’re trying to build community to help with everyday projects such as clean up, cutting the grass — basically seeing what our community needs and providing those things and resources and information.”
The association started as an initiative from Rise Up North Memphis, which, according to its website, is a” grassroots collaborative initiative to take back the control and decision making processes from the hands of our government.” As the initiative and campaign got bigger, Moses began to see that there was a pattern of “taking predominantly, Black, historical neighborhoods where people own the property and have had businesses and they basically disinvest in them. It’s not just Memphis, it’s all over,” said Moses, adding that communities such as those in North Memphis tend to be overlooked because “gatekeepers have a plan” for their community.
The main concerns from residents were blight and crime, said Moses. The Blight Authority of Memphis calls blight “the physical conditions of vacant or derelict structures and vacant lots that have been abandoned, neglected,” or unmaintained and are causing harm to the surrounding properties and the owners and occupants of those properties.
Moses also said that other concerns were food deserts. An article in the University of Memphis’ Cecil C Humphreys School of Law by Ryan Jones says that food deserts are “communities that have poor access to healthy and affordable foods. … They are usually concentrated in low-income and historically marginalized areas throughout the country, with issues of longtime systemic racism, racial residential segregation, poor access to transportation and economic inequality woven into the history of these barren food landscapes.”
“In Hollywood there is not one grocery store,” said Moses. “You can get a beer, but you can’t get a banana. You can get a blunt, but you can’t get an orange.”
Residents have also voiced complaints about dilapidated and vacant housing. According to Moses, residents want to fix up these homes, however they struggle to find banks to lend them money to do so.
Literacy also came up as a problem among residents. According to Literacy Mid-South, “14 percent of Shelby County residents are not prose literate.”
“The majority of the people in my community are functionally illiterate,” said Moses. “How does a functioning illiterate community fill out an application to get businesses in their community? They can’t.”
Moses said that they have a strategic proposal and plan that they would like for the city to implement for redevelopment. “Our goal is to acquire properties that are either blighted and abandoned,” said Moses. “We are going to create a business redevelopment strip, which will also be a BID (business improvement district,) where existing businesses and old businesses will pay for the clean-ups daily and weekly so the place doesn’t look so bad.”
Moses also said that they are also working on a community mural to showcase the history of Hollywood and Memphis. She also said they hope to enable historical landmarks and preserve certain areas to help promote a thriving community.
