Greg Cravens
About Bianca Phillips story, “Richards House Redux” …
Thank you so much for bringing awareness to Memphis Heritage’s first “receivership” project.
We hope, through this program, that the community and city leaders will understand MHI’s commitment to being part of the solution of blight in our city, especially in our older neighborhoods.
Many of the blighted properties in Memphis still have good bones, are built with higher quality materials than are available today and built to last more than 100 years. Many of these inner city properties are worth reinvesting in and will assist in revitalizing neighborhoods.
We are not saying that all buildings should be saved — far from it. But if we can effectively reuse these properties, get them back on the tax rolls and in some cases teach the building trades, through the redevelopment, then I think we can all win.
June Waddell West
Director, Memphis Heritage
About Mike Working’s Viewpoint,
“Deforming Justice” …
Mike Working’s column on the recent appointments by Governor Haslam to the Task Force on Sentencing and Recidivism is right on point. This assortment of white Republicans is clearly not tasked to develop reasonable guidelines for incarceration, sentencing, and rehabilitation of those “caught” in the criminal justice system. The group identified, so far, fails to include representatives from those who are involved with criminal defendants on a daily basis, namely, public and private criminal defense lawyers and advocacy groups, such as the NAACP, which have a longtime involvement with offenders.
Madeleine C. Taylor, Executive Director
Memphis Branch NAACP
About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor about Tiger football, Lucy, and Charlie Brown …
I love Tiger football. I just hate that my season ticket is between Pigpen and Peppermint Patty.
Jeff
About Louis Goggans’ story, “Bloody Beale Street Incident Leads to Sunday Morning Fee” …
The street will remain open. There will be a fee for its use, just as there are fees to park on the street, ride the bus, or play golf on a city-owned course. Time to try something new. If it does not work, I’m sure there will be a plan C, D, E, and so on. As far as closing off the street for a select few, well, that precedent was set the moment the police began to card individuals at Beale’s access points.
Barf
Really, just go at 11:59 p.m. to avoid the cover charge. This way you’ll have plenty of money left to get drunk and act like a fool. Ain’t we lucky we got ’em, good times?
Midtown Mark
About Bianca Phillips’ story, “Velsicol Seeks Permit for Site Clean-up” …
Not only do the areas near the plant need to be included in the investigation, but also the bed of the Mississippi River, including the Wolf River harbor. The Tennessee Department of Environment has posted these areas as having fish that are unsafe for human consumption. Veliscol’s chlordane — now out of production — attaches to the sediment. The organisms that several fish species eat interact with the sediment, causing the fish to become contaminated. In an area with so much subsistence fishing, this contamination lingers. Additionally, we are starting to make more recreational use of the Mississippi River. There’s a real need to find a way to stop this pollution.
Sue Williams
About Toby Sells’ webpost, “Shelby County Prosecutor Censured by Tennessee Supreme Court” …
Tom Henderson has been around much longer than Amy Weirich, and he has engaged in this unethical behavior for years. The tragedy is that Weirich knows of his questionable behavior and instead of firing him as an example for all other asssistant attorneys general, she has promoted him to teach the way to try cases. By allowing him to remain on the attorney general’s staff, she gives tacit approval to this unethical behavior. We had a chance to replace her in the last election but instead of focusing on her and her staff’s unethical behavior, we reduced the election to name calling: Joe Brown is a “clown.”
Mark D. Francis