Tag: A C Wharton

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Politics Politics Feature

‘One Memphis’ Redux

The original “One Memphis” logo on a vintage souvenir umbrella from an A C Wharton mayoral campaign. (Photo: Jackson Baker)

Talk about déjà vu!

When Memphis Mayor Paul Young — still, some 50-odd days into his new administration, working on organizational matters — brought forth his latest innovation, involving the slogan “One Memphis” to denote a series of community meetings to come, echoes were generated in the minds and memories of numerous Memphians.

After all, it was only 15 years ago that A C Wharton used the identical phrase “One Memphis” as a campaign slogan in the 2009 special election that first landed Wharton in the mayor’s office to succeed the retiring Willie Herenton.

“There is absolutely nothing we cannot overcome if we work toward that goal as One Memphis,” Wharton would intone in his speeches, reinforcing the idea in an ad campaign that would sign off with the initials “A C” (familiar to his audiences then and later as the preferred shorthand for his uniquely accessible persona), followed by the words “One Memphis.”

It was Wharton’s way of distinguishing himself from the more volatile and divisive 16-year tenure of his predecessor.

No doubt Paul Young means something similarly comforting, coupling the two-word slogan with the phrase “Empowering Voices/Building Bridges” in a published logo announcing his forthcoming “One Memphis Tour,” which was to have its inaugural session at Whitehaven High School this week.

Another new venture by Young was embodied in his recent announcement of his intent to appoint someone to a newly created office, that of public safety director, which would have hierarchical dibs over that of police chief.

Overall, the idea was greeted with a positive public reaction, particularly in those circles where there is a desire to locate the duties of law enforcement within a larger, more holistic context of social reform.

That would seem to be Young’s purpose, though this is one of those cases where the devil (the angel, rather?) will be in the details.

Young, who has experienced some difficulty in getting off the mark, might have fared even better, reception-wise, had he been able to make the announcement of the new office in January, when his cabinet was first being assembled, and better still if he could have had the appointment in hand of some credibly credentialed appointee.

That might well have obviated the awkwardness and still unresolved discord which arose from his reappointment of C.J. Davis as police chief (as of now an interim position). Her continuation in office as a clear subordinate would have raised fewer hackles, if any at all, with the city council and with the general public.

Better late than never, even if the sequence seems a bit backwards.

• Gale Jones Carson, a longtime presence in the community as spokesperson for MLGW, was named last week as interim CEO of the local chapter of Urban League.

Carson’s successor as MLGW’S vice president of corporate communications, Ursula Madden Lund, meanwhile is having to wait for a reluctant city council to approve her $200,000 salary. The matter is up for discussion again next week.

• A proposed measure to provide lifetime healthcare benefits to veterans of at least two city council terms took an abrupt nosedive last week, being rejected on third reading virtually unanimously by the new city council after the previous council had approved it without a dissenting vote.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Scenes from the Week

Veteran pol David Upton (right) spins a scenario to Dean Baxter (left) and Mayor Jim Strickland Thursday night at the mayor's tent at the Barbecue Festival at the Fairgrounds. (Photo by Jackson Baker)

From Tuesday on, last week was a record hottie for the time of year, but politicians still had occasion to gather. Here are three such events. The picture of the three mayors, unfortunately blurry in resolution, still depicts a highlight moment at the James Lee House in Victorian Village, one in which, reportedly, there was palpable tension between the mayors on far left and far right.

Judicial candidates Carlyn Addison and Danny Kail, and Circuit Court clerk candidate Sohelia Kail were among the candidates at Sunday’s annual picnic of the Germantown Democratic Club. (Jackson Baker)
Judge Loyce Lambert at a Wednesday night fundraiser in her honor, surrounded by mayors. From left: former Mayor Willie Herenton, current Mayor Jim Strickland, Lambert, former Mayor A C Wharton. (Photo from Mayor Jim Strickland)
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Little Tea Shop Documentary Premieres July 10th on WKNO

CREDIT: Courtesy of Last Bite Films.

Courtesy of Last Bite Films.

Suhair Lauck at her post behind the Little Tea Shop cash register. From the documentary ‘The Little Tea Shop.’



The Little Tea Shop is closed for now because of the pandemic, but, thanks to Molly Wexler and crew, fans can visit the iconic Downtown restaurant on film.

The Little Tea Shop, Wexler’s documentary on the restaurant owned by Suhair Lauck, will air at 7:30 p.m. July 10th, 3:30 p.m. July 11th, and noon on July 12th on WKNO-TV. “This is the first time anyone will be able to see it,” says Wexler, founder of Last Bite Films. “Technically, this is the premiere. This is the half-hour version. The short version is 16 minutes long. The one we submitted to film festivals.”

The half-hour — actually 25 minutes  — version is “more of the people who dined at the restaurant,” she says. It “really tells the history of the restaurant, and it goes in deep with the customers. They’re friends. They’re more than customers. They’re the lifeblood of the restaurant. Of course, we go in and get to know Suhair, too, and why Suhair was able to continue the legacy of The Little Tea Shop and really embrace it and make it grow.”

As for the patrons in the documentary, Wexler says, viewers will “see a lot of Memphis favorites like Henry Turley and Charlie Newman. And Pat Mitchell Worley, Mayor A C Wharton.”

Courtesy of Last Bite Films.

Former Mayor A C Wharton at the Litttle Tea Shop. From the documentary ‘The Little Tea Shop.’

Then there are people like Matt Dellinger, author of Interstate 69, a book about the history of the highway. “He’s a really engaging guy from Brooklyn who we interviewed because we wanted someone who wasn’t from Memphis.”

Dellinger’s story with Lauck is “incredible,” Wexler says. “About 10 years ago he was down in Memphis doing research for a book he was writing and he stumbled into The Little Tea Shop. He wasn’t feeling well. And the way Suhair and some of the other people took care of him, he made life-long bonds with people from here. Because of The Little Tea Shop.”

Asked how the documentary came into being, Wexler says, “I actually got the idea when I saw Suhair out one night and it got me thinking about the Tea Shop and how I went there with my dad when I was a kid. He was a lawyer and working Downtown. I couldn’t believe the restaurant was not just still open, but thriving. I thought, ‘That’s kind of unique. I’m curious to learn more.’”

The Little Tea Shop was founded in 1918 by Lillie E. Parham and Emily A. Carpenter as a place for their friends to eat lunch when they were Downtown. Vernon Bell bought the restaurant in the 1940s. Lauck’s husband, the late James Lauck Sr., bought it in 1982.

Lauck, who was born in Bethany, Palestine, moved to Memphis in 1967 after marrying her first husband, who lived in Memphis. She later married James Lauck, who owned The Little Tea Shop, and began her career at the restaurant.

Courtesy of Last Bite Films.

Suhair Lauck in the LIttle Tea Shop kitchen. From the documentary ‘The Little Tea Shop.’

After she got the idea for the documentary, Wexler began visiting the restaurant, but not telling Lauck what she was up to in case she didn’t pursue the project. “Before I ever was even going to film it, I was doing a bunch of research. Just talking to people who ate at the restaurant to find out if there was enough material there to make the documentary.”

 She got together with Newman, John Malmo, and Ken Neill at the restaurant. “Matt was in town. And his relationship with all those people and Suhair was so interesting we arranged to film another day when he was back in town to get him on camera. He adds a lot to the story, I think.”

That “shows how special” The Little Tea Shop is, Wexler says. Someone like Dellinger from Brooklyn “can come in and make these amazing connections. It feels like home here.”

That’s “the root of the story,” she says. “Why is the 102-year-old restaurant so important to so many people as a connector? I think it’s the fact that it feels so comfortable. You feel so welcome.”

A lot of it “has to do with the food. But it has a lot to do with Suhair. The environment she created. I mean, there are many places you can go in Memphis and have a fine meal. You may have great conversations with people you lunch with and that’s the end of the experience. At the Tea Shop, you have a great conversation and so much more. You might meet someone that changes your life. You nourish your body, you nourish your relationships, you nourish your soul.”

And, she says, “You might have a conversation that changes Memphis.”

Courtesy of Last Bite Films.

Familiar fare at the Little Tea Shop. From the documentary ‘The Little Tea Shop.’

Wexler is executive producer and co-director of the documentary. Joseph Carr is producer and Matteo Servente is co-director. “Without Joseph and Matteo, the movie wouldn’t have been made because they brought years of expertise and they were very patient with me.”

As for the documentary-making experience, Wexler says, “I learned that I love making films. I hope I get to do this again. And I love getting  to know people and getting their stories. When you give people this platform to share, you learn about the best of people.”

Wexler says she “probably met 50 new friends. We connected through The Little Tea Shop. There are so many neat things about people that are inspirational. There are a lot of exciting and interesting people living in Memphis whom I had the honor to meet.”

They whittled the documentary down to make the 16-minute version for film festivals, she says. “The half-hour version is more Memphis-centric. The shorter version is more universal. I’ve submitted it to about 25 film festivals.”

After the documentary premieres on WKNO, the station is “going to offer it up for other PBS stations in Tennessee and maybe the region to show it if they want to. Ideally, we’d love to get distribution for it. There are a few networks that could be a good fit.

“If it wasn’t for the pandemic, then WKNO would have had a big watch party and everything, but you can’t do that. What I’m hoping is that since people can’t go to the restaurant and everybody is missing that sense of community and all that great food, maybe this will bring them a little bit of happiness and remind them. It might make them a tad bit sad, but, hopefully, it will also make them happy. It will make them remember the good times there and, in kind, make them want to go back. They’ll feel that sense of missing that restaurant a little bit more.”

For her next project, Wexler says, “Joseph and Matteo are tossing around a few ideas, but the pandemic kind of makes it challenging. It’s a good time to brainstorm. We have one idea we’re excited about, but it’s a little challenging to move forward now.”

The new project, Wexler says, would be “very different, but still Memphis-centric.”

Courtesy of Last Bite Films.

Suhair Lauck. From the documentary ‘The Little Tea Shop.’

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News News Blog

‘Pork Report’ Takes Aim at FedEx, Wiseacre, Wharton, Bluff City Law

CREDIT: Beacon Center of Tennessee

Beacon Center of Tennessee

The Bacon Center, a Nashville-based, free-market think tank lambasted several Memphis and Shelby County projects in the group’s annual Pork Report.

The 2019 report is the 14th from Beacon seeks to expose ”government waste, fraud, and abuse.”

”While the Pork Report is a fun and creative outlet for our team to expose the top 25 most ridiculous instances of government spending in the past year, it is also a call to action to the state and local governments to cut the waste from their budgets,” reads the report. “After all, it is state and local taxpayers who are funding all of the ’pork’ found in this year’s report.”

Below are the top examples of Memphis-area “pork” Beacon cited this year:

FedExcellent at Taking Tax Dollars

LRK/FedEx Logistics

“The Memphis-Shelby County Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) board, the entity formed to bring business into the city, instead continues to redistribute the tax dollars of hard-working Memphians to enormous corporations.

In one of its worst moves ever (which is really saying something if you have seen its other handouts), EDGE is giving FedEx $2 million to move its company’s headquarters from one part of Memphis to another. This is in addition to the $10 million from the state and $1 million from the Center City Development Board.

So in total, FedEx got $14 million of taxpayer money to move a few miles. The point of economic development is supposedly to bring new companies to the area, not give hard-earned tax dollars to huge corporations to move down the street.”

Bluff City Naw
Jake Giles Netter/NBC

Going straight — Caitlin McGee (left) and Jimmy Smits play father-daughter attorney duo at the Strait Law Firm.

What do you think about forking over $4.25 million of your hard-earned money to Hollywood?

We’re not bluffing. After spending more than $50 million on the canceled “Nashville” TV show, the government continues to pump money into the TV business. This year’s feature is “Bluff City Law,” a new NBC series based in Memphis.

Study after study shows that film and TV incentives have a horrendous return on investment, bringing in as little as seven cents for every dollar spent. This is a fairytale for Hollywood elites, as the overwhelming majority of tax dollars spent on these incentives wind up in their pockets, not local workers’.

At least temporarily, because most of these shows don’t last very long. “Bluff City Law” only filmed 10 episodes before pumping the brakes this fall.

Memphis Tax Dollars are Leaving the Building

In another example of a company holding a city hostage and leaving taxpayers all shook up, the Memphis City Council authorized $75 million in incentives for Graceland, Elvis’ historic mansion.

This came on the heels of veiled threats by the management company to actually move Graceland brick by brick from Memphis. The council’s only stipulation was that Graceland couldn’t build an auditorium or theater to compete with the city’s other taxpayer-funded arena, FedExForum. Apparently, they have to draw the line on giving away taxpayer money somewhere!

This isn’t even the first time that Graceland has pocketed taxpayer money. It received $21 million back in 2015. When will Memphis taxpayers realize their leaders ain’t no friend of theirs and call for fiscal restraint?


The Next Round is on Memphis Taxpayers

Wiseacre Brewing Co.

Wiseacre’s soon-to-be Downtown location rises from the ground along B.B. King.

Lots of guys love to brew their own beer. It’s like a science experiment at home that you can drink!

While it’s not a very labor-intensive hobby, it sure can get expensive. Between equipment and ingredients, it can add up quick. Too bad most didn’t think to get a $1.7 million property tax subsidy like Wiseacre Brewing Co. did from Memphis.

Sure, most of us don’t brew professionally, but here’s the problem: many others in Memphis do. Do a quick search and you’ll find a handful of microbreweries that now have to pay higher property taxes to subsidize their competition.

Everybody loves the guy who brings free beer to the party. Too bad Memphis taxpayers will have to pay even more money to try the beer they already paid for.

Enemies in High Places

Garth Brooks sang about his appreciation for friends in low places, yet Memphis resident Kareema McCloud probably never thought about having enemies in high places.

But that is exactly what happened when her neighbor, former mayor of both Memphis and Shelby County, A.C. Wharton, found out she was legally renting out rooms in her home through Airbnb.

Interactions caught on McCloud’s security camera showed Wharton and a barrage of government officials from at least six agencies showing up at her home day after day to hassle her. This included a three-day police stakeout at McCloud’s home on the unfounded claim that she was not running an Airbnb, but a brothel.

While a Memphis spokesman stated that anyone can call and complain about a neighbor, it is hard to dismiss that Wharton’s political connections brought about more scrutiny — and more wasted tax dollars — than the average citizen’s complaint. Let’s hope this political, taxpayer-funded bullying has been put to bed.

State Pork DepART- ment

Tennessee Arts Commission

Another year, another multi-million- dollar check written for the Tennessee Arts Commission. This year brought over $6.5 million in tax dollars for the Arts Commission to increase participation in all areas of the arts, including music.

However, with Memphis and Nashville as two of the main cities where everyone from aspiring musicians to incredibly successful artists move to, it begs the question as to why state government continues to fund music awareness through the Arts Commission.

If you speak to anyone from Tennessee, chances are they personally know a musician. Speak to someone from the Tennessee Arts Commission, you’ll probably hear about their large budget. Even in a state with amazing artistic talent, wasted tax dollars will always be a sour note.

How Much Does It Cost to Start a Podcast?
 Shelby County Commission

At the Beacon Center, we are pretty familiar with what it takes to get a podcast started.

Do you know what it doesn’t take? Over $100,000. Apparently Shelby County didn’t get that memo. County officials approved a $109,800 contract to produce a podcast where they talk about county commission meetings. But commission meetings themselves are already streamed live online, so why the need for more?

It’s hard to imagine people wanting to hear play-by-play coverage enough to justify that expense. Hey Shelby County, if you’re looking for a great podcast to fund, check out Beacon’s “Decaf” podcast. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right?

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News News Feature

A Documentary on Little Tea Shop Is in the Works

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

While eating at another restaurant, Molly Wexler got the idea to make a documentary on an iconic Downtown lunch spot.

“It was exactly one year ago at the grand opening of the Global Café, and I saw Suhair,” says Wexler, referring to Suhair Lauck, Little Tea Shop owner.

Wexler told her husband, “It’s amazing that the Little Tea Shop is still around, and it hasn’t changed.”

Little Tea Shop has long been the “business person’s go-to place,” Wexler says. She told her husband, “Imagine the conversations they had there. If only the walls could talk. I’ll bet some of the biggest ideas that have changed the trajectory of Memphis happened at the Little Tea Shop. That would be a great short documentary.”

Michael Donahue

Everybody loves Suhair Lauck and Little Tea Shop.

Now, Wexler is making Little Tea Shop’s walls talk through the film she’s making about the restaurant at 69 Monroe.

“I [researched] to see if it was worth moving forward with this idea. People got so excited. People love the restaurant. They love Suhair.”

Little Tea Shop “was founded by two women in 1918, which was unheard of,” says Wexler. Lillie E. Parham and Emily A. Carpenter “wanted a place for their friends to have lunch whenever they were shopping Downtown.”

They served tea sandwiches and “had a little shoebox at the front where they made change — a low-key operation. And, for a long time, that’s what it was,” Wexler says. “What I had trouble figuring out was when it became the business person’s place to go.”

She believes it was when Vernon Bell bought the restaurant in the 1940s. It was close to Cotton Row and the Memphis Cotton Exchange. Its popular Lacey Special — baked chicken, corn sticks, and rice— was named after cotton broker C. A. Lacey.

Customers included politicians, bankers, lawyers.

“I tried to talk to well-respected Memphians to find out if they remember some significant conversations,” says Wexler. “I got some great stories on film.”

Fred Davis, who is black, and Jed Dreifuss, who is Jewish, told Wexler about a breakfast group they formed there after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. “[They] said it was such a scary time in Memphis, of course, but they wanted to do something about this to try to bring blacks and whites together.”

Why Little Tea Shop? “Blacks and whites had been eating there,” she says. “It was sort of a naturally integrated place. Both black and white people felt comfortable being there.”

Former Mayor A C Wharton told Wexler everyone “was on the same playing field. Everyone had respect for each other,” and it “felt like people hung up whatever it was that made them different from other people at the door — like the coat rack. You hung up your biases and came in and you were all the same.”

Since it began, women played an important role in the operation of Little Tea Shop. Betty Cunningham was manager when Bell owned it. Bell eventually sold the restaurant to his daughter, Sara Bell Stewart, who now owns Mortimer’s restaurant. Lauck bought the Little Tea Shop in 1982. “There’s a huge female component to the operation and staff of that restaurant,” Wexler says.

Lauck is the “third aspect” of the story, she adds. “Here you have a Palestinian immigrant who is the quintessential Southern hostess. She’s amazing.”

Wexler has raised $12,000 of the $20,000 she needs to complete the film through Fractured Atlas.

The documentary speaks to everybody. “A lot of people who are from other places will see this film and say, ‘I remember the restaurant like that in my town.’

“To me, it speaks to all the good in the world,” Wexler says. “Everybody is kind, happy, and they have some cornbread. We’d better say corn sticks.”

Find The Little Tea Shop Film on Facebook for more info and a link to the fund-raiser.

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.

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News News Blog

Extension of Wolf River Greenway Breaks Ground

The Wolf River Greenway, which currently encompasses around 2.6 miles of trail near Germantown, will eventually extend all the way to Harbor Town. And on Friday morning, officials broke ground on one of the segments that extends the bicycle/pedestrian trail westward.

The groundbreaking took place at Kennedy Park in Raleigh, which is located along the path of the Wolf River. The greenway will closely follow the path of the river with bridges and outlook areas overlooking the water.

Chuck Flink with Alta Planning+Design, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based design firm working on the greenway project, said seven phases of the greenway extension are in design now — including the segment that runs through Kennedy Park — and those will begin construction in 2016. Another eight phases will go into the design phase in the next 30 days.

The $40 million expansion of the Wolf River Greenway should be completed by 2019. The majority of the funding for the project comes from the private sector.

Once complete, the Wolf River Greenway is expected to add 1,126,000 more bicycle trips in the county per year and 4,650,000 more walking trips, according to the Wolf River Conservancy. 

“We get carried away on the built environment and our repaving projects, but we often forget about our natural environment,” said Mayor A C Wharton at Friday’s groundbreaking.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Mayors’ Group Focuses On Economic Impact of Mississippi River

Mayors from cities along the Mississippi River have always known it to be mighty, but they didn’t know just how strong it was until last week.

Yes, the river pumps millions of gallons of water past its cities every day, but the mayors found that it also pumps billions of dollars into them each year. The group had those dollars counted, and the figure was “significantly higher than anticipated.”

The river generates $405 billion in revenues each year and supports 1.3 million jobs, according to new numbers released last week by the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative (MRCTI). That’s a group of 68 mayors from towns and cities in 10 states along the Mississippi River. The group is co-chaired by Memphis Mayor A C Wharton. 

“The Mississippi is much mightier than even we realized,” said Roy Buol, MRCTI co-chair and mayor of Dubuque, Iowa. “We must now move forward strategically and purposefully to protect this national resource and economic force.”

 Counting the dollars and jobs will help the group of mayors in their efforts to bring national attention back to the Mississippi River, which the group calls “America’s most critical natural asset.” They’ll use the information as ammunition to lobby for the river. 

“If there’s a group of people in the world that get things done, it’s mayors,” said John Dickert, mayor of Racine, Wisconsin. “With almost 200 cities representing over 20 million people, we are a force that will be recognized in state capitals and in Washington, D.C., as advocates for this tremendous resource.” 

 Businesses and governments depend on the river for tourism, agriculture, and manufacturing, the top three industries for jobs along the Mississippi. More than 20 million citizens depend on the river as a source of drinking water, according to the MRCTI, withdrawing about 633 million gallons of water per day.  

All of these, the mayors said, depend on clean water. So, water quality is one of the group’s major areas of focus. The MRCTI will work with states to implement clean water goals and work with agriculture groups to incentivize sustainable farming practices. 

The Mississippi River Valley is the largest food-producing zone on the planet, according to St. Paul, Minnesota, Mayor Christopher Coleman. The valley will likely be tapped to produce even more food, he said, as the United States Department of Agriculture predicts farmers will need to produce more food in the next 35 years than they have in the last 10,000 years. 

But the “great unknown” in that request, Coleman said, is climate change. Over the last few years, he said, the change is responsible for historic flood events, a massive drought in 2012, Hurricane Katrina, and Hurricane Issac.   

He compared the Mississippi to other food-producing river valleys like the Amazon, Danube, and the Rhine. But if climate change impedes global food production, “the gap will likely fall on the Mississippi River.”

A delegation from the MRCTI will travel to Paris in December to attend the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and, so far, Wharton is slated to go. The group will discuss sustainable agriculture practices with those in the other food-producing river valleys. 

“A dramatic increase in agricultural output in our river valley using unsustainable practices could devastate our region and the natural assets we depend upon,” Coleman said.

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City Receives $3.7 Million for Lead Hazard Reduction

The city of Memphis will soon launch a three-year program to reduce lead hazards in 240 housing units built before 1978, thanks to a $3,714,272 federal grant from the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The grant, which was announced on Tuesday afternoon, will also fund “healthy homes” assessments in 65 units. The city’s office of Housing and Community Development (HCD) will train 65 low-income residents to be lead hazard workers and 15 to be lead hazard supervisors. Those trainings will be facilitated by the Renaissance Business Center, and anyone interested should contact 526-9300. 

Congressman Steve Cohen helped secure the HUD grant funding for the city.

“I appreciate Congressman Cohen’s assistance in getting these funds channeled to our city to help rid homes of dangerous lead-based paints that are a known health hazard,” said Mayor A C Wharton. “We are grateful that HUD recognizes the need in our community, and we look forward to working with the Shelby County Health Department, Memphis Housing Authority, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and local non-profits in administering these grant funds to help protect the help of our low-income families.”

Homes built before 1978 were commonly painted with lead-based paints, which have since been banned. Lead is a toxic metal that can cause permanent damage to the brain and other vital organs, especially in children under age six.

Anyone with a home built before 1978 can call the HCD Lead-Safe Program at 576-7325 or 576-7335 for a free lead-based paint inspection. The Lead Hazard Reduction program will serve all of Shelby County, but a higher priority will be placed on units where children with elevated blood lead levels live. Second priority will be given to units the following zip codes: 38103, 38104, 38105, 38108, 38112, 38116, 38117, 38118, 38119, 38126, 38128, and 38141.

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The Robert Lipscomb Affair

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Robert Lipscomb has been called the most powerful man in Memphis. Power player. Power broker. Dealmaker. Deal breaker. Planning czar. Point man. Puppet master. Shadow operator. Rapist. Motherfucker.

He earned the first set of names from the powerful friends and opponents he made in a nearly 20-year career in two roles, the director of the Memphis division of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and as director of the Memphis Housing Authority (MHA). With those jobs, he directed the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars of government funding to the biggest and highest-profile projects in Memphis. This is how he — an unelected official, a behind-the-scenes operative known largely only to those in government and business — became so powerful.

The last two names in the first paragraph are from a man whose accusations have burned that power to the ground. The man, now 26 and living in Washington State, told Memphis Police Department (MPD) investigators that Lipscomb raped him. The accuser said that Lipscomb lured him into his SUV and then forced him to perform oral sex on him.

This was in 2003, according to a police report, while the accuser said he was a homeless teenager walking the streets of Memphis. The accuser said Lipscomb made him perform oral sex on him more than a dozen times after that, giving him money and promises of a better life to keep him quiet. Since the accuser’s first allegations surfaced two weeks ago, more accusers have called Memphis City Hall with similar stories about Lipscomb, city officials said. Nine by the end of last week, according to their count, though no further details have been forthcoming, either from City Hall or the MPD.

Indeed, they have gone seriously mum on what is presumably an ongoing investigation.

At this point, the allegations are just that, and Lipscomb hasn’t been charged or arrested for anything. But the stories about him have packed a powerful punch. Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, called the allegations “disturbing.” Jack Sammons, the city’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), called them “sickening.” MHA Chairman Ian Randolph called them “horrendous.” Lipscomb quit his job at HCD. He was suspended with pay from the MHA. Investigations have been launched into the criminal aspects of the case, of course, but financial investigators are also shining their lights on the books of every agency Lipscomb directed.

Meanwhile, the ousted Lipscomb maintains his innocence. Although he quit talking to the press under orders of his attorney, Ricky Wilkins, he was telling reporters who showed up at his front door two weeks ago that the allegations are false.

From certain points of view, it hardly matters; the damage is done.

It’s likely that, since the allegations surfaced, anyone who ever had contact with Lipscomb has completely reassessed the man who seemed to have all the puzzle pieces and knew how they fit together. Even as the allegations against Lipscomb remain to be investigated and very probably adjudicated, a new and unflattering light has begun to shine upon Lipscomb.

To many in the public, he is now like a comic-book villain walking half in the bright light of polite society and half in a private darkness with the demons that may lie there. And for all these years, if the accusations against him are true, he would have been carrying a disturbingly divided self around, one with unfettered access both to the city’s most innocent as well as to its most powerful — and with only a thin veil separating his competent and somewhat wonky public personality from an alleged private self that was both violent and profane.

Jackson Baker

Lipscomb overseeing slide presentation of Fairgrounds TDZ project for County Commission earlier this year; with him are architect Tom Marshall and Convention & Visitors Bureau head Kevin Kane

The Rundown

Nearly two weeks have passed since the original allegation surfaced about Lipscomb. Here’s what we know so far. First, the publicly known chronology:

Sunday, Aug. 30 — A late-night memo was sent to the press noting that a man had accused Lipscomb of rape and that Lipscomb had been relieved of duty at HCD.

Monday, Aug. 31 — Lipscomb resigns as HCD director. More Lipscomb accusers reportedly call City Hall. The MPD searches Lipscomb’s house and takes computers, folders, and a camcorder as evidence.

Tuesday, Sept. 1 — Wharton taps HCD Deputy Director Debbie Singleton to run that agency in the interim. He recommends Maura Black Sullivan, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer, to temporarily lead MHA. Even more Lipscomb accusers are said to come forward.

Wednesday, Sept. 2 — MHA suspends Lipscomb with pay, appoints Sullivan as temporary director. Sammons tells the press that Wharton’s office is going quiet on the investigation to let the MPD do its job.

Thursday, Sept. 3 — Lipscomb’s initial accuser talks with several media, including the Flyer, adding a detail here or subtracting one there, but always insisting that Lipscomb promised him a job and a house in return for sexual favors, with the relationship souring, as the accuser put it to the Flyer, after he realized “the motherfucker” was “pulling my leg.”

Tuesday, Sept. 8 — Still no charges filed against Lipscomb.

Toby Sells

Jack Sammons during last week’s MHA meeting

Conversations with Wharton and Sammons, among others, have subsequently filled out these bare-boned details somewhat. The first warning signal had come into City Hall on Thursday, August 20th, with an explicit phone call to the mayor’s office from the Seattle man, who, as was later learned, was a Memphis native with a fairly lengthy police record locally.

Wharton was out campaigning, and the first to learn about the call was CAO Sammons, who had just returned from official business in Nashville. The most riveting aspect of the call, that which convinced Sammons — and later Wharton and Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong — that the matter had to be taken seriously was the caller’s insistence that he had Western Union receipts of blackmail payments from Lipscomb.

The caller had also spoken of a police complaint he had filed against Lipscomb in 2010, one that was virtually identical to his renewed complaint in 2015. The 2010 complaint was dismissed — on the basis, police records showed, that the complainant, who was homeless at the time, could not be located.

The similarity of the two accounts, five years apart, was a convincing fact to Sammons, who explained further that the complainant chose to repeat his charges again as a form of release recommended by a therapist in Seattle.

Acquainted with the basic facts upon his return to his office, Wharton called in Director Armstrong, on Friday, August 21st, and the two of them contacted the Seattle man, who repeated his tale and also forwarded photostats of the Western Union receipts.

Jackson Baker

Mayor Wharton faces a press scrum about Lipscomb matter

As the mayor would explain to the Flyer, he deferred to the judgment of his seasoned police director, who decided the matter was serious enough to merit a personal visit to Seattle to meet with the accuser. Armstrong would arrange for such a visit, by himself and a group of investigators, for the middle of the next week.

Between that weekend and the Armstrong party’s return from Seattle on Sunday, August 30th, there were meetings about various pending projects in City Hall involving Lipscomb, Wharton, and Sammons. They were conducted in a business-as-usual manner, with nothing said to Lipscomb about the caller from Seattle.

But on Sunday, Armstrong and his assisting officers were back in town, and they met with Wharton and Sammons at City Hall with a full briefing on what had been two full days of investigation in Seattle. The convened group then learned that the accuser from Seattle had contacted Fox-13 news with his accusations, and a reporter from that station had called, wanting details.

That fact sped up an itinerary that otherwise might have taken days or even weeks to develop. Lipscomb was called and asked to come to the mayor’s office for a meeting, which, he apparently presumed, had to do with some hitch in one of his ongoing projects.

When he arrived, however, he found out otherwise, and arrangements were made in the tense atmosphere of that meeting for him to begin the process of separating himself from city service.

The Upshot

Heading into its third week, the Lipscomb affair has seemingly settled into an incubation mode, with dormant legal and political implications that could either simmer quietly or explode into an ever-expanding crisis.

On the legal front, the deposed planning czar’s attorney, Wilkins, an able veteran who is as familiar both with Lipscomb and with the way city government operates as anybody around, was keeping his cards — such as have been dealt — close to his chest, with the full expectation that more surprises might be yet to come.

Wilkins has made it clear, though, that he felt his client’s rights had been put in jeopardy and that he will have much to say about several aspects of what has so far transpired at some point in the future.

Meanwhile, the implications of the affair for city business and the mayoral race that was just entering its stretch drive are still being assessed.

Politically, it is too early to tell. Wharton was receiving credit in some quarters for acting quickly and decisively in dealing with the problem, once it came up. Others were prepared to fault the mayor for not seeing the situation develop under his nose or for even looking the other way from potential trouble.

Further development in the Lipscomb saga could determine which view would prevail, at a time when polls show the mayor with only a slight lead over his closest opponent, Memphis City Councilman Jim Strickland.

On the governmental front, it has long been a fact of life in City Hall that Lipscomb was calling the shots on city planning ventures, which included numerous neighborhood developments, the just-completed Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid attraction, and a $200 million pending TDZ (Tourism Development Zone) project involving the Fairgrounds.

John Branston

Lipscomb’s projects include the Pyramid,

John Branston

Heritage Trail,

Bianca Phillips

and Foote Homes.

Under two mayors, former city chief executive Willie Herenton and now Wharton, Lipscomb has been influential to the point that a common jest was to suggest that Herenton and Wharton had worked for Lipscomb rather than the other way around.

It was no joke, however, that under both his titles, Lipscomb had extraordinary power and bargaining ability, which left most members of the city council, even some who were privately critical of him, unable to say no to Lipscomb when pressed for a vote. Among other things, he had the ability to route developmental funding into their districts, or not, as he saw fit.

The Projects

No matter what was going on in his personal life, Lipscomb’s professional life as the director of the HCD and as the director of the MHA made him the point man on a number of massive city projects.

What will become of those projects — ranging from Foote Homes to the Fairgrounds redevelopment — remains to be seen, but the new MHA interim director, Sullivan, said she will be working with the new HCD interim director, Singleton, to evaluate each one in the coming months.

“Ms. Singleton and I have years of a good working relationship already and will work in concert to ensure the progress of the projects, but more importantly, the success of the city’s residents,” Sullivan said. “These projects are all multi-faceted and involve various divisions of city government. We are both currently evaluating the businesses, and the forward progress of each of these projects is a part of that evaluation.”

Here’s a rundown of a few of the projects Lipscomb’s departure leaves unfinished:

Foote Homes: Through the Memphis Heritage Trail project, Lipscomb had a vision to raze the city’s public housing projects and replace them with multi-income housing. And he saw through the eradication of five of the city’s six housing projects (and the displacement of their residents via housing vouchers) between 2001, when LeMoyne Gardens were razed and redeveloped as College Park, to 2014 when Cleaborn Homes were torn down and rebuilt as Cleaborn Pointe at Heritage Landing.

But the last housing project left in the city — Foote Homes — remains as MHA awaits a decision on the federal department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhoods grant. Winners of the grant are expected to be announced this month.

Kenneth Reardon, the former University of Memphis urban planning professor who led the Vance Avenue Collaborative (the group opposing the demolition of Foote Homes), believes Lipscomb’s sudden departure could put that grant at risk.

“What does Robert’s departure mean? He has been viewed as one of the most effective public housing directors in the country. So his departure, as the major planner/architect/public manager/guy who put the financing together, at this late stage, could have a serious negative effect on the city’s ability to get this [grant]. It’s hard to really know,” said Reardon, who recently moved to Boston to take a job as director of the graduate program for urban planning and development at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

At least Reardon is hoping the city doesn’t get the grant to tear down Foote Homes, which he believes is a colossally bad idea.

“We still think the city’s approach to Foote Homes is ill-conceived and certainly not the most creative and transformative proposal they could put forward, given that the number of low-income people needing deeply subsidized housing and the proportion of those who need to be downtown for employment and medical, educational reasons,” Reardon said. “Foote Homes remains a vital asset.”

Jordan Danelz, Mike McCarthy, and Marvin Stockwell of the Coliseum Coalition

The Fairgrounds: With Singleton named as the new interim director at HCD, Marvin Stockwell, the spokesman for the Coliseum Coalition, said the organization is prepared to continue talks with the city. Lipscomb was a proponent for the redevelopment of the Fairgrounds, possibly as a multi-purpose youth sports complex, and he was planning to go to the state after the October 8th election to push for TDZ status for the Fairgrounds, a move that was opposed by many. The Coliseum Coalition aims to save the long-vacant Mid-South Coliseum.

“We at the Coliseum Coalition stand ready to work with anyone and everyone to reopen and reuse the Mid-South Coliseum,” Stockwell said. “I think part of the reason that public opinion has continued to move in the direction of reopening the Coliseum is because we’ve been able to have a respectful dialogue with the city. We had that type of back-and-forth with Lipscomb, and we have every confidence that will carry forward. We’re going to pick up where we left off.”

Whitehaven: Whitehaven’s revitalization is dependent upon the area in its entirety, rather than only focusing on Southbrook Mall, which was a point of contention within the administration — and Lipscomb, who was secretly recorded earlier this year saying that some city leaders were “throwing darts” at a proposal to revamp the aging mall. Mayor A C Wharton will be heading a committee to enact the Whitehaven plan.

The Pinch District: Lipscomb’s involvement in the Pinch District development — the pressure on which has been mounting since far before Bass Pro Shops’ opening earlier this year — were first focused on making sure the hunting and fishing mega-store got up and running smoothly. During the rezoning of the Pinch District in 2013, Lipscomb was quoted as saying that the Pinch was “second priority” to Bass Pro Shops. With that complete, there’s been talk of a new hotel coming into the area. Tanja Mitchell, community development coordinator for Uptown Memphis, is hopeful that Lipscomb’s departure won’t affect the area’s redevelopment.

Toby Sells

a marquee board at the Memphis Housing Authority

“We’re happy to work with any agency to get the Pinch redeveloped, because that’s something that needs to happen. The Pinch needs to come to life again,” Mitchell said.

All these, and a pending $30 million federal development grant, are potentially hostages to fortune in the uncertain atmosphere of the moment, but Wharton and other city officials have expressed optimism that all can still proceed as before.