Tag: City Council

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News News Feature

Ford Completes Testimony; Case to Jury Tuesday

A subdued Edmund Ford left the witness stand Monday afternoon after prosecutors replayed their payoff tapes and drove home their contention that the payments were bribes for Ford’s influence over the Memphis City Council.

By testifying, Ford got to tell jurors his interpretation of the $8,900 in payments he took from lobbyist Joe Cooper in his own words. But he left himself open to a methodical cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Laurenzi that could have a devastating effect on jurors.

Jurors heard Ford, on tape, utter such memorable lines as “You know I can carry seven votes, can’t I?” and “We got all the votes” and “I’ll drum up seven or I’ll make somebody walk out” and “Really, I didn’t have too much of a problem” at the very moment he was taking wads of $100 bills from Cooper and sliding them inside his coat pocket.

Ford and his attorney Michael Scholl continued to put Cooper “on trial” as Ford called him a liar who “ran off at the mouth” and had as many as three personalities. But the government and Cooper have readily acknowledged his 1977 federal conviction and his more recent conviction on money-laundering charges.

As one payoff tape was played, Ford explained that he was “very busy” that day and things were “going in one ear and out the other.”

Laurenzi replied, “Why didn’t you give it back?” as the tape was stopped so jurors could see the money on the screen in the courtroom.

Ford said he kept it to pay down a loan on the funeral home from developer Jackie Welch.

“It was for your benefit, right?” Laurenzi countered.

The day ended with Scholl calling eight character witnesses for Ford. With the jury out of the courtroom, Scholl told U.S. District Judge Samuel H. Mays he will use an entrapment defense.

That defense did not work in Tennessee Waltz cases and is considered something of a long shot.

Mays told jurors they can expect to begin deliberations Tuesday afternoon.

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Politics Politics Feature

Cooper Sentencing Postponed Again, Until May 1st

CREDIT: jb

Sentencing for Joe Cooper, who pleaded guilty almost a year ago to federal charges of money laundering, has been rescheduled for May 1st. This follows a previous postponement of Cooper’s sentencing, which had been scheduled for last summer.

Former county squire Cooper is expected to be a key government witness in pending bribery and extortion cases involving outgoing city councilman Edmund Ford Sr., who, along with former councilman Rickey Peete, was targeted in a sting in which Cooper, who was cooperating with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office, wore a wire. (Peete pleaded guilty and received a sentence of four years and three months.)

Ford and Peete were indicted in November. Cooper had been arrested earlier in the year on a tip from drug dealer Korreco Green, who was in federal custody at the time. Green, who had been purchasing a car from Cooper at Bud David Cadillac, decided to work with the FBI and tipped agents to the elaborate and irregular means by which Cooper, who had a previous felony conviction, had arranged financing for Green’s automobile purchase.

Ironically, Green’s arrest had come after he missed several payments and Cooper had sworn out a warrant for his arrest as a car thief.

–Jackson Baker

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Opinion Viewpoint

Rethinking Power

On January 1st, nine rookies (including me) and four veterans will be sworn in as Memphis City Council members. It is the largest number of first-termers since the original council in 1968.

Since the November election, the nine of us have been undergoing an extensive educational process on the substance of city government and the procedure of the council. Fulfilling our campaign promises will be more difficult than making them. How well we do depends on our relationships with other council members and the administration and the merits of our positions.

The most interesting area of my education has been the opportunity to review the city charter. Among the things we have learned: The 1966 Home Rule Amendment (HRA) changed much of the 1930s-era charter, but many of the articles of the older charter are still in effect because the newer charter did not revoke them.

Enter Stephen Wirls, a Rhodes College professor who has studied the charters exhaustively and led our review of them. Wirls disputed the widespread public understanding that the charters provide for a “strong mayor” form of government. On the contrary, he opined that, in some ways, the HRA gives more power to the council than the U.S. Constitution gives to Congress.

The HRA provides that the mayor “shall be responsible to the council for the administration of all units of the city government under his jurisdiction and for carrying out policies adopted by the council.” The council “shall have full power [my italics], as now provided, to pass, for the government of the city, any ordinance not in conflict with the Constitution or laws of the United States, or the State of Tennessee, within the specific limitations set forth herein below.”

Further, the council has approval power of the appointment and removal of division directors, the president of MLGW, and members of all boards and commissions. The council has the right “to approve and adopt all budgets.”

Of special interest: “[T]he council shall be vested with all other powers of the city not specifically vested in some other officer or officers of the city.” This catch-all provision appears to give the council a great deal of unexpected authority. (One problem: No one on hand for the orientation could identify any “powers of the city not specifically vested” in some other office.)

Just think of the implications of the first proviso quoted above: “The mayor shall be responsible for carrying out policies adopted by the council.” On the face of things, it would appear that the council could adopt “policies,” and the mayor would have to follow them.

Ay, but there’s a rub. “The council shall not, however, exercise executive or administrative powers nor interfere in the operation of the administrative divisions.” On one hand, the HRA gives the City Council the power to set “policies,” but on the other hand, the charter prohibits intrusion into “executive or administrative powers.”

The HRA also gives the mayor the power to contract and prohibits council members from “suggesting or promoting the making of particular … contracts with any specific organization.”

It is not hard to imagine a council’s definition of a “policy” interfering with a mayor’s definition of an “administrative power.” At the orientation, we discussed a scenario whereby the council might pass an ordinance mandating that every public school have a police officer assigned to it full-time. Wirls said he thought that the council had such power but warned that a mayor could dispute it as an intrusion on administrative decision-making.

Many issues may fit into this gray area, and both sides would appear to have a good faith basis for their respective positions. As one of our facilitators suggested, conflict is not so bad if it involves a serious and respectful disagreement as to public policy.

However, such conflict, and the resulting court battle, should be avoided if possible, with the council and the administration working together. The mayor and each member of his administration with whom I have met has expressed the desire to work with the new council.

At this early stage, I do not have an opinion as to the correct interpretation of the charter, but I am optimistic that we can avoid the conflict and come together for the betterment of our city.

Jim Strickland, a lawyer and former Democratic chairman, will represent the city’s 5th District.

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News The Fly-By

With Baited Breath

“Bass Pro has had enough time,” said Commissioner Joyce Avery. “Either they make their decision or let’s go with something else.”

“Something else” could be the Ericson Group’s proposal for a $250 million indoor amusement park. The plan includes a “Disney-esque” theme park, a shopping mall at the foot of The Pyramid, improvements to Mud Island, and a 300- to 400-room hotel. Under the proposal, which would rival the Graceland expansion, Ericson would buy the property, pay off The Pyramid’s existing debt, and do so without public tax dollars.

“I’d like to see it judged on its own merits,” said Memphian Greg Ericson, “but I think it’s a superior project to what’s out there.”

In its ongoing flirtation with Memphis, Bass Pro has signed three letters of intent with city and county government, the latest of which expires January 31st. This week, the commission asked Mayor A C Wharton not to sign any additional letters of intent with Bass Pro.

“We’ve been told repeatedly that a deal was just around the corner with Bass Pro,” said Commissioner Steve Mulroy. “I think an amusement park is a better use for the public than a glorified bait shop.”

Though the letters of intent were both non-exclusive and non-binding, some commissioners felt the conversation with Ericson was a bit premature or that they were somehow cheating on Bass Pro. But after three years, it’s hard to imagine when the right time for this conversation might be.

Ericson not only went through the initial Pyramid re-use committee process several years ago; the committee recommended his proposal in its final report.

After a meeting with Willie Herenton, in which the mayor suggested Ericson buy the land, he included that in his proposal. The last time Ericson met with the County Commission, they wanted to know if he could actually get financing for an indoor theme park, even though he didn’t have a letter of intent. When he came back last week, he had a team of moneymen with him.

“We don’t need three-and-a-half years to go through the letter of intent phase,” Ericson said. “If we started today, we could have everything funded and signed one month from today.”

The administration said it would study Ericson’s financing and present a report to the commission before the end of January.

On the face of its proposal, I’m not for or against Bass Pro. But I get the sense that the company is just — if you’ll excuse the paraphrase — not that into us. And when you compare that to the boy next door who has been persistently pursuing The Pyramid, it’s all the more apparent.

Besides Ericson’s financial proposal, which greatly outscopes Bass Pro, and all the pretty pictures of roller coasters, a few things turned my head.

Outside of the initial $250 million investment, the Ericson group would spend $5 million a year on marketing the amusement park to the 85 million people within a day’s drive of Memphis. That’s New Orleans, Atlanta, Dallas, and even Chicago.

By comparison, there are already Bass Pro stores in Atlanta, Dallas, and Chicago and one planned for Denham Springs, Louisiana, outside of Baton Rouge. Heck, there’s already a Bass Pro located here.

As part of the retail-space component in its plan, Ericson could also easily incorporate Bass Pro. “The beauty of our proposal is that there is plenty of room for both of us,” Ericson said.

I think the community at large has been more than patient and fair to Bass Pro. At the commission’s committee meeting, there was some discussion about whether the county would need to issue a request for proposals (RFP). Ultimately, it was decided it would not, but not before Ericson reminded commissioners his company already did that.

“We already went through an RFP process,” Ericson said. “Bass Pro never did.”

Just having another suitor for The Pyramid is good news. In July, Memphis chief financial officer Robert Lipscomb said the city didn’t have any leverage because no one else was interested. If this gets a proposal out of Bass Pro — and it’s the best proposal for The Pyramid — then I say, Cheers, here’s to a long and happy life together.

Perhaps Mulroy put it best: “We have another option,” he said. “It would be foolish of us if we didn’t consider it.”

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Politics Politics Feature

Talking Turkey

Newly elected members of the Memphis City Council, fresh from a recent get-acquainted luncheon with Mayor Willie Herenton, followed by an informational session with MLGW officials, continued their orientation with an all-day retreat Monday at the Lichterman Nature Center.

There, among other things, they heard from several council veterans as to what to expect. Typical of the good advice they got was the retiring Dedrick Brittenum‘s counsel that they never meet with constituents petitioning their support for a measure without having a council staffer on hand.

Barbara Swearengen Ware, a returning member, pointedly told the novices that the key to their success would be “relationships, relationships, relationships” — a reminder of the snags encountered in the not-so-distant past by one or two famously go-it-alone members.

Council vet Myron Lowery had a similar message, warning the council newbies not to get involved in “stupid stuff” that feeds the media without yielding positive results. “Three members of the council always had a rebuttal,” he said, without naming names. He cited the evolution in style of one departing colleague. When he was brand-new, Brent Taylor would comment on “everything in sight,” Lowery said, but Taylor finally progressed to the point that he “just voted.”

A surprisingly animated and light-hearted presentation came from the outgoing Henry Hooper, who had often seemed stiff and uncomfortable in his losing reelection race this fall. The visibly relaxed Hooper got a laugh Monday when he expressed satisfaction that he would no longer “have to worry about Janis Fullilove,” his victorious opponent, who smiled amiably as Hooper ventured, “If I run for something else, maybe try to go across the street [County Commission?], she’s not going to quit and run against me.”

E.C. Jones tossed off some one-liners, too — as well as one ultra-serious point: “Remember. You work with the mayor. You don’t work for the mayor.”

The logical follow-up to that was delivered in the form of an address by Stephen Wirls, a professor at Rhodes College. His message? The council has more power, potentially, vis-à-vis the mayor than anyone had previously realized. Hmmmmm.

• Richard Florida, whose Rise of the Creative Class is one of the basic texts of urban planning these days, was the featured speaker at last week’s Chairman’s Luncheon of the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce at The Peabody, and his appearance was not without irony.

A superb salesman and, some would say, a gifted theorist as well, consultant Florida advocates diversity and tolerance as essential tools for civic progress, and, as he told his overflow blue-chip audience in The Peabody’s Grand Ballroom, a distinct no-no is for a city’s leadership to address a dissident part of its population with the attitude, “If you don’t like it, you can get out.”

Er … Someone forgot to remind Florida that one of his hosts, Mayor Herenton (whom the speaker, who tailors his remarks to his locale, made sure to praise lavishly), is locally famous for occasionally expressing just such sentiments toward critics of his administration.

• Time, as they say, heals wounds. A case in point is the enhanced status among local Republicans of Shelby County commissioner George Flinn, who hosted this year’s annual Christmas gathering of the Shelby County Republican Women Monday at his expansive East Memphis residence.

Flinn presided over the affair with avuncular grace, and, by way of concluding some welcoming remarks, struck a note that clearly resonated with the sizable throng. “And notice that I didn’t say ‘Happy Holidays,’ I said ‘Merry Christmas,'” offered Flinn, who is fluent these days in the lingo and nuances of his party-mates, most of whom no doubt deplore the erosion of the season’s once-traditional greeting.

Five years ago, Flinn, a well-known radiologist and broadcast magnate, had just conducted his maiden political effort, a run for county mayor which involved both a bruising primary win over the popular Larry Scroggs and a difficult general election race in which he was swamped by the even more popular A C Wharton.

Some ill feeling lingered from both efforts, most of it stemming from the combative campaign tactics urged upon Flinn by some out-of-state consultants.

Flinn would have been an unlikely host for a holiday season GOP event back then, but the increasingly sure-of-himself commissioner is now regarded as one of his party’s least contentious presences and a likely candidate for another try at the mayoralty in 2010.

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News The Fly-By

In the Dog House

In two years, the Memphis animal shelter will be just as convenient — and probably more so — than Wolfchase Galleria.

Plans for the new Memphis Animal Services facility, to be located at Appling and I-240, were unveiled at a City Council committee meeting last week. The current shelter, located on Tchulahoma Road near the Memphis airport, has long been criticized for being isolated and inaccessible.

“Increased visibility and a larger site will hopefully lead to more adoptions,” said city architect Mel Scheuerman. “We’ll be right there by the interstate, near the Bellevue Baptist complex.”

The 40-year-old shelter on Tchulahoma is 15,000 square feet, but the new $11.1 million shelter will be more than double that size and have 30 percent more dog kennels. Scheuerman estimates it will be complete in about two years. The new shelter is expected to meet the city’s animal-control needs for the next 40 years.

In addition to more space for dogs, the design incorporates a larger feline adoption area. Outside the shelter, dog runs will allow the public to get acquainted with adoptable dogs. Sound-proof walls will separate rows of cages to prevent multiple dogs from barking at the same time, and a “real life” display near the public entrance will simulate an actual living room with a couch and play area for dogs.

“It’s a warm, fuzzy room that, when people come in the door, they see a nice, clean shelter. And they see a very adoptable dog,” Scheuerman said.

The new facility will also contain multiple ventilation systems to help prevent the spread of airborne illnesses, such as distemper.

“That’s one reason the cost of animal shelters across the country is so much higher than building a library or community center. You’re basically building a mini-hospital,” Scheuerman said.

Artist rendering of the new 32,000-square-foot shelter, which will be located off Appling Road.

The new shelter will have space for exotic animals, such as birds, ferrets, and snakes. A barn and pasture behind the facility will house large animals.

“If a truck overturns and six cows get out, we’ll have somewhere to put them,” said Keenon McCloy, director of public services and neighborhoods.

The area where animal-control officers unload captured animals will be covered to prevent dogs from escaping.

“There is no cover over the area where officers unload animals now, and dogs can escape,” McCloy said.

In recent months, Change Our Shelter, a grassroots group of animal advocates, has been speaking out about the high rate of euthanasia at Memphis Animal Services. In 2006, 81 percent of the animals taken in by the city were euthanized.

Though Change Our Shelter member Sylvia Cox is pleased with the new design, she thinks it is a smokescreen for current problems.

“Keenon McCloy is announcing plans for a new shelter, which is still years away from being a reality, to try and deflect attention away from the current, acute shelter problems that need to be addressed now,” Cox said.

As a long-term solution, McCloy hopes that the addition of a low-cost spay and neuter program at the future facility will address the euthanasia problem. Currently, the shelter does not provide this service to the public.

“We need the expansion, and we need the additional level of service,” McCloy said. “It’s going to be a much healthier, more sanitary, friendlier environment. Hopefully, that will attract new adopters and encourage folks to come in for vaccinations and spay and neuter services.”

The City Council approved the proposed design, and construction firms will soon begin bidding on the project.

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Book Features Books

Brent Taylor Donates Papers to Library for “Future Generations”

Outgoing City Council member Brent Taylor will donate documents he’s accumulated while serving on the council over the past 12 years to the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library.

Taylor retires from the council at the end of his term on January 1st. Elected at 27 years old in 1995, Taylor was the youngest member ever elected to the Memphis City Council.

Taylor’s papers will be stored on the library’s fourth floor, along with document collections from Mayor E.H. Crump, school board member Maxine Smith, and state representative A.W. Willis.

“It is my hope that future generations of library visitors will view my documents and benefit from inspecting the body of work that I contributed to and compiled while serving on the legislative body,” said Taylor.

Dang. We were kind of hoping for a Brent Taylor Presidential Library kind of thing. Oh well.

In other news, retiring councilman Edmund Ford announced that he is leaving his extensive watch and automobile collection to the federal government.

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Politics Politics Feature

The Thin Gray Line

Though the grins were plentiful as Mayor Willie Herenton and members of his council-to-be in 2008 got together for lunch at the Rendezvous last Wednesday, the smiles may have tightened up a little when His Honor climaxed the get-acquainted event with a speech that warned of a “gray line” and of “certain areas where either branch decided to get into the other branch’s domain.”

A shot across the bow it seemed, a recap of sorts of the mayor’s troubles with past councils — most recently on council staff appointments — on matters where, as Herenton indicated, the legislative and executive branches of city government may have had conflicting ambitions.

But that was as contentious as things got Wednesday as former councilman and Rendezvous owner John Vergos, along with another former council member, the Rev. James Netters, co-hosted the luncheon in which nine newly elected members came together for the first time with the four holdover council members.

Oh, Joe Brown made special mention of “divisiveness,” and Netters referred to even worse times of the past, like the late 1960s, when he and other members of the city’s first elected council had to deal with “riots, violence, and murder” in the context of a prolonged sanitation strike and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.

But mostly talk was of the upbeat sort, beginning with Vergos’ mention of a Rhodes College brochure touting Memphis’ virtues and continuing with mutual pledges all around of cooperation in the new year.

Afterward, the mayor, who announced he would not hold the annual New Year’s Day prayer breakfast on which, customarily in recent years, he would issue policy thunderbolts, gave reporters a list of objectives which included such familiar (but unachieved) standbys as metro government and bringing the city school system into municipal government as such.

Herenton also pledged to resolve financial and jurisdictional disputes in the operation of the Beale Street tourist quarter. He deferred to the council on the matter of whether it should pass its own version of a County Commission ordinance on topless clubs, but it is taken for granted he wants a more lenient ordinance than the county version, which bans beer sales in such establishments and requires pasties on dancers.

Ironically enough, a wall of the basement room in which council members, staffers, and the mayor met contained a rendering of a reclining nude, sans pasties.

The entire complement of the 2008 council membership was on hand, with the exception of new member Reid Hedgepeth. Mayoral and council aides also attended.

Continuing in its get-ready mode, members of the council will be holding an all-day retreat next week.

• Local Republican chairman Bill Giannini became the first candidate to throw his hat in the ring for the 2006 county election by filing last week for the office of Shelby County assessor. Other potential GOP primary candidates are John Bogan, Betty Boyette, and Randy Lawson. Cheyenne Johnson intends to run as a Democrat, as might Jimmy White.

• One of the bona fide movers and shakers in the local political world (and the civic and financial worlds) is Bank of Bartlett president Harold Byrd, who reports that he expects to make a “full recovery” from a recent operation for colon cancer.

Byrd, a former state legislator and candidate for Congress and county mayor, has legions of friends from all points on the political spectrum and has been well-wished by most of them of late.

Just now, Byrd is trying to organize a charter flight for the University of Memphis Tigers’ appearance at the New Orleans Bowl on December 21st. Given that the basketball Tigers are playing a big game against Georgetown at the FedExForum on the 22nd, that’s no cinch, but, as Byrd points out, taking the flight, which goes and returns on the same day, is a surefire way of taking in both events.

• From a Standing Start, former Republican governor Winfield Dunn‘s political memoir, drew a good crowd for a recent book-signing at Bookstar on Poplar.

Among other things, the book contains some amusing anecdotes at the expense of Dunn’s vanquished Democratic foe in 1970, John Jay Hooker.

But there is an aura of good will in the book, as there was at the signing. When someone mentioned the Hooker reference to Harry Wellford, who managed Dunn’s 1970 efforts, the former judge nodded and said, “But they’re good friends now,” then smiled and added: “And that’s as it should be.”

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News The Fly-By

Give It Some Gas

Alternative fuels are widely available at pumping stations across East Tennessee and in part of Arkansas, but not in Memphis.

The Riverside, a gas station on Riverside Drive, has been selling biodiesel, a fuel made from oils and fats, for almost a year. But no local gas stations offer ethanol, an alternative fuel made from corn. City Council member Dedrick Brittenum’s constituents aren’t happy about it.

“They want to know why they have to drive [so far] to get biofuel,” Brittenum said.

On December 18th, the City Council is expected to vote on an ordinance encouraging local retailers to offer ethanol and biodiesel by 2009 and 2010, respectively. It also requires city vehicles to begin using biofuels, when available, by 2009.

But the original ordinance considered by the council would have done more than just encourage retailers to sell alternative fuels.

Brittenum proposed an ordinance that would have required fuel retailers to sell standard diesel with a minimum mixture of 5 percent biodiesel by January 1, 2010, and a minimum mixture of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline by January 1, 2009.

The ordinance passed in its initial two readings before the City Council, but when officials from the Tennessee Petroleum Council, the Tennessee Oil Marketers Association, and the Valero Energy Corporation found out about the ordinance, they wanted a few changes.

“We are not opposed to biofuels, and we have no problem with Memphis making strides in alternative fuels, but we do have a problem with a mandate,” said Mike Williams, executive director of the Tennessee Petroleum Council. “It looks like this ordinance [was] telling our members what to sell and telling customers what to buy.”

At a meeting last week with Brittenum, oil industry representatives echoed those concerns.

“Our concern is availability and cost of product,” said Emily LeRoy, associate director of the Tennessee Oil Marketers Association, a trade organization for petroleum marketers. “The commodities market determines the price of alternative fuels.”

LeRoy said many distributors already sell biofuel blends. But she said mandating biofuel use would cripple businesses when the commodities market drives up the price of corn.

“We don’t want a situation where our hands are tied and we’re unable to be competitive in the marketplace,” Williams added.

Currently, Williams said ethanol must be shipped to the area from factories in East Tennessee. Several ethanol plants are planned for West Tennessee and North Mississippi, and ethanol will be available in Memphis once those plants begin producing fuel. Memphis is already home to two biodiesel producers: Memphis Biofuels and Milagro Biofuels.

After input from the industry, Brittenum edited the ordinance so that the sale of biofuel would be voluntary. The council will establish a committee of citizens, biofuel industry representatives, and petroleum industry officials to oversee its implementation.

Though the final ordinance was diluted, biofuels advocate Andrew Couch of the West Tennessee Clean Cities Coalition said he wasn’t upset with the changes.

“I don’t really want a mandate either. I don’t want to force anything on anybody even if it is a good idea,” Couch said. “While this ordinance won’t necessarily do a whole lot by itself, it sets up a framework that we can work out of.”

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News The Fly-By

Sex and Real Estate

CREDIT: AGG | dreamstime.com

Urban Land Institute trend-watcher Chuck DiRocco says everything comes down to real estate.

“If an adjustable-rate mortgage resets from $600 a month to $900 a month, that’s $300 in disposable income that people are not spending elsewhere,” DiRocco said. “It’s going to affect commercial real estate down the line.”

As one of the authors of the land institute’s Emerging Trends in Real Estate, DiRocco was in Memphis last week to present the study’s findings and to discuss which markets are the “ones to watch.”

And, frankly, Memphis wasn’t one of them.

In terms of commercial and multi-family development potential, the study ranked Memphis 38th out of 45 metropolitan areas. Topping the list were Seattle, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston.

“The top markets to watch fall on the coast,” DiRocco said. “It all comes down to global pathways.”

That and what the study calls “24-hour cities.”

“For years, Emerging Trends has extolled the handful of America’s 24-hour cities — multifaceted markets with desirable, walkable residential neighborhoods near commercial cores: New York [City], Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago. These markets — along with Southern California’s suburban agglomeration and more recently Seattle — have gained further status as the preeminent U.S. global gateways,” read the report.

With the economy on a downswing, investors want to be safe, not sorry. But DiRocco noted that logistics experts are beginning to look inland for global gateways. And that is where local panelists think Memphis could succeed.

“Though we’re not a port city,” said local panelist Jim Mercer of CB Richard Ellis, “I think we’re probably the next best thing.”

With FedEx’s hub and the busiest cargo airport in the nation, Memphis is uniquely situated to become what experts call an “aerotropolis,” a city built around a bustling airport and aviation-intensive businesses.

But, as DiRocco says, everything depends on real estate.

Which might explain why, later that same day at a public hearing, representatives from airport area businesses and the Memphis medical community spoke against the city’s proposed sexually oriented business ordinance.

The area around the airport includes an unlikely combination of Smith & Nephew, Medtronic, Elvis Presley Enterprises, FedEx, and various adult businesses.

If enacted, the city ordinance would replace a new county ordinance that outlaws topless dancing and prohibits alcohol in the clubs. The city ordinance would allow beer sales and topless dancing.

If the City Council decides to do nothing, the county ordinance will go into effect countywide January 1st.

“We would prefer to adopt stricter guidelines,” said Bill Griffin, a senior vice president with Smith & Nephew. “We want to make the area around the airport a nice place to do business.”

John Lawrence, head of the Airport Area Development Corporation, said member businesses were concerned about the secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses, such as crime and falling property values.

“Today, it’s an area where industry is bringing in prospect after prospect. They’re bringing in doctors, researchers. Do we value these businesses?” Lawrence asked.

It seems strippers are standing (or dancing) in the way of Memphis’ potential in the global economy. But that’s not quite fair. As a representative for the sexually oriented businesses, attorney Edward Bearman pointed out that nothing in the new ordinance makes sexually oriented businesses safer or reduces crime.

“The reason the clubs are located near the airport is because that’s where the zoning will allow them,” he said. “They have money invested in this town, just the same as other businesses.”

I’m not going to get into whether clubs should close at 3 a.m. or midnight or whether they should allow beer sales or brown-bagging, nude dancing or semi-nude dancing.

But if the city’s goal is to encourage global pathways through Memphis, then the airport area is a precious commodity. Elvis Presley Enterprises, for instance, has a $250 million plan to transform the area around Graceland much like Disney did in Anaheim, California.

If the city doesn’t enact an ordinance, the county ordinance might regulate the strip clubs right out of business. I’m not sure that’s right, but lap dances and back rooms don’t seem to fit with a global commercial hub and an international tourist destination.

Adult businesses may offer something to see, but they won’t make Memphis a market to watch.