Tag: Jim Strickland

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Politics Politics Feature

Meanwhile, Back at the GOP …

Brown Dudley (Photo: Courtesy Brown Dudley)

Surprise! Republicans, who have generally ended up mounting a pro forma opposition to long-term 9th District Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen (if anything at all), may have a serious contender this year — Brown Dudley, who is associated with Independent Bank and was the entrepreneur behind resale establishment Plato’s Closet.

According to his recently filed financial disclosure, first-time candidate Dudley raised $385,968 in the first quarter of the year and has $292,771.69 on hand. That’s real money at this point. He has two opponents on the GOP primary ballot in August — Charlotte Bergmann, a perennial candidate, and Leo AwGoWhat, a performance artist of sorts, also a perennial. Neither should give Dudley a tussle.

Even with redistricting, which modified the northern or rural/suburban part of the district, the 9th is still heavily Democratic in its demographics, though, and Cohen will not be financially handicapped in the race. He reports first-quarter receipts of $297,528.50 and cash on hand totaling $1,372,863.23. His opponent in the Democratic primary is M. Latroy Alexandria-Williams, another perennial.

Dudley, by the way, professes open-mindedness on the subjects of LGBTQ rights and climate change.

• Another potential surprise confrontation on the August ballot is for the District 31 state Senate seat (Germantown, East Memphis) being vacated by Republican Brian Kelsey. Democrat Ruby Powell-Dennis is unopposed on the Democratic ballot. The surprise is that Brent Taylor, who has had virtually wall-to-wall support from the GOP establishment (as well as from Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a nominal Democrat), may be opposed in the Republican primary by a candidate with financial resources close to Taylor’s on-hand total of $442,566.62.

Brandon Toney (Photo: Courtesy Kristina Garner)

The operative term here is “may.” Taylor’s would-be primary opponent, Brandon Toney, will find out this week if the state GOP executive committee permits him to be on the primary ballot.

On his financial disclosure, Toney, a nurse practitioner, lists cash on hand of $404,964.86 — a competitive sum, though almost all of it is money loaned by Toney to himself.

Toney’s problem is that he was one of a handful of potential Republican primary candidates statewide whose bona fides were denied by the state party last week. The ostensible reason, according to Shelby GOP chair Cary Vaughn, who professes neutrality in the matter, is that Toney has failed a requirement that Republican primary candidates must have voted in any one of the last four GOP primaries.

Toney and his local campaign manager, Kristina Garner, are crying foul and calling his exclusion a put-up job on Taylor’s behalf. They maintain that Toney has done solid grunt work for past Republican candidates, including former President Donald Trump, and was not able to vote in recent primaries because he was doing around-the-clock work combatting the Covid-19 pandemic at Mid-South Pulmonary Specialists.

Toney has appealed his original denial and has submitted additional evidence of his party credentials to the state GOP executive committee, which will meet and weigh the matter before week’s end. If he should be certified to run, he would become something relatively rare — a Republican candidate opposed to private-school vouchers (though his three children attend private schools) and in favor of accepting federal Medicaid support. “I’m not a ‘moderate.’ I’m just determined to be sensible,” he says.

• The aforementioned Republican chair Vaughn says that former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, who will be the keynote speaker at this weekend’s annual GOP Lincoln Day banquet at the Agricenter, is not meant to be a symbol of the Republican Party but as someone who can aid local GOP fundraising efforts. Meadows is under fire these days for his alleged ties to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Cracks in the Binary Box

Democrat Dwayne Thompson (left) and Republican John Gillespie talk over the current legislative session. (Photo by Jackson Baker).


If there is a single leitmotif that defines the coming disharmony of a local election in these parts, it is the struggle between members of the two parties — Republican and Democratic — for dominance. The 2022 election in Shelby County is skewed in this way, with all the structural advantages adhering to the Dems. Actually, there is a fairly accurate division of influence — with the demographics of the city (i.e., Memphis) favoring Democratic candidates and those of the suburbs tilting unmistakably and dependably toward Republicans.

Yet beyond the party leaderships there is here and there a breach in this binary circumstance. Take the 13 members of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners — apportioned 8 to 5, as of now, in favor of Democrats, with the 2022 election likely to make that division 9 to 4 in favor of the Democrats — on the strength of reapportionment that’s fetched up another seat, the new District 5 seat in Cordova, expected to go the Democrats’ way.

Up until now, the Republicans have for several sessions been holding their own by the simple device of finding two dependable Democrats who could be coaxed onto their side when need be. Democrats Edmund Ford and Eddie Jones (the most recent two such) have reasonably often opted to make common cause with the Republicans, so long as the right trades were made on other points elsewhere.

Within the 2021-2022 session the Democrats did some bargaining of their own, attracting East Memphis Republican Brandon Morrison, already prone to look for non-partisan solutions, to their side on some key votes — both procedural: she would become vice chair instead of the minority Republicans’ choice of Amber Mills in northern Shelby (District 1), and policy-wise: (she would display an open mind on key votes favored by the Democrats (e.g., county funding of MATA), Morrison even agreed to serve as vice chair of a committee to re-examine the virtues of Metro consolidation, that bane of the suburbanite.

That makes the current contest in District 4 (East Memphis, Germantown) between Morrison and political newcomer Jordan Carpenter simply a matter of arithmetic. Morrison’s current GOP colleagues — Mills, Mick Wright, David Bradford, and the term-limited Mark Billingsley — are backing Carpenter to restore as much of an unbroken Republican orthodoxy as possible. Even a bloc of 4 in what is likely to be a new Commission favoring Democrats by a 9-4 margin,  is, in their minds, worth something.

It remains to be seen if party loyalty or the principle of bi-partisanship will prevail. The Democrats, with their probable 9-vote supermajority, can indulge a certain equanimity on the matter.

* * *

The recent brouhaha over the endorsement of Republican state Senate candidate Brent Taylor, in District 31,  by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a nominal Democrat, indicates another way in which the binary party system is being breached. In their primary Democrats had been grooming Ruby Powell-Dennis, an educator and civil figure, to seek the seat, which up to now has been  held by the indicted and now withdrawn GOP incumbent Brian Kelsey.

The fact is, Memphis mayors, whose own elections are non-partisan, have frequently crossed the party line to espouse candidates of another party. Willie Herenton, a Democrat, did it twice on behalf of the statewide candidacies of Republicans Don Sundquist and Lamar Alexander.

Strickland was in the large crowd that gathered on Taylor’s behalf for a fundraiser last Thursday at the East Memphis home of Craig and Cathy Weiss. Spotting the Mayor, who was a full head taller than most of the attendees, Taylor quoted Strickland as having said the endorsement of Taylor was for the sake of “better outcomes for Memphis.” Addressing the Mayor, he jested, “I would ask you to say a few words but I think you’ve probably said enough. If you say any more, they may try to impeach you.”

That got an animated chuckle from the crowd. Then Taylor proceeded: “I know you took a lot of heat for it. But I love Memphis and I think you know I love Memphis, and that’s one reason he endorsed me.”

Taylor continued: “There’s a second thing. I just came back to Nashville on Monday and Tuesday where I met with Senate leadership and about half of the Senate. They are very excited about having me joining the Senate, primarily because they don’t understand Big Shelby. They don’t understand Memphis and its politics. And they’re excited to have me up there…. I will tell you that [the  Mayor’s endorsement] meant more among those senators than the endorsement of [U.S. Senators] Hagerty and Blackburn because they knew they needed somebody to help them understand Memphis and Shelby County.” 

Binary politics is under threat elsewhere in local politics. Shelby County’s Republicans caved in to the reality that they could not find a GOP candidate to beat Sheriff Floyd Bonner, the Democratic nominee; so they have in effect endorsed Bonner’s campaign as well. It was no accident that the huge crowds that gathered the weekend before last at the Sheriff’s campaign headquarters opening included as many Republicans as Democrats.

And conversations between the two parties — like one between Democratic state Representative Dwayne Thompson and Republican John Gillespie, both representing “purplish” adjoining districts — abounded as well.

It will take some time before the twain truly meet, but it has to be a good sign that they are talking.

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Marsha Makes a Splash, ESPN Comes to Town, and Mayo Strickland Lives

Posted to YouTube by C-SPAN

Memphis on the internet.

Marsha, Marsha

Tennessee’s senior Senator Marsha Blackburn rolled through just about every political and Tennessee subreddit last week, thanks to her performance during the U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Blackburn asked Brown Jackson to define “woman,” hinted her “personal hidden agenda” was to incorporate critical race theory into the legal system, and said white privilege was made up. Marsha, Marsha.

Ja V. Elvis

Posted to YouTube by ESPN

ESPN came to Memphis last week. NBA Countdown host Stephen A. Smith hoped Ja Morant’s face would start to replace Elvis’ on Memphis billboards. “Elvis is dead,” he said. “He’s not coming back.”

Memphis Mayo

A MEMernet classic resurfaced last week as many pointed out that Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s Wikipedia page still has the fake mayonnaise content after years. The “personal life” section says Strickland is “an avid mayonnaise enthusiast” with an “extensive collection“ of 69 varieties of the condiment. It says while some have criticized Strickland’s mayonnaise spending, many in the city “adoringly refer to the mayor as ‘Mayo Strickland.’”

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News News Blog News Feature

New Deal Saves Greensward, Adds Parkland, Forest Land, and Zoo Parking Spaces

Credit: Overton Park Conservancy

The Overton Park Greensward is kept whole in a new plan that will permanently end parking there, add 17 acres of forested parkland, add 300 parking spaces for the Memphis Zoo, and, perhaps, finally solve a decades-old problem. 

Leaders with the city of Memphis, Memphis Zoo, and Overton Park Conservancy (OPC), announced the new plan Tuesday afternoon. In it, properties will be reshuffled and repurposed to fit the needs of all involved. 

For decades, the zoo has used the 12-acre Greensward for overflow parking. The issue simmered until 2014 when Citizens to Protect Overton Park (CPOP) organized the “Get Off Our Lawn” campaign that brought the issue into focus and to the fore. By 2016, OPC and the zoo joined in mediation to find a solution. 

That solution aimed to reconfigure the zoo’s main parking lot to add 415 spaces, a number mandated by the Memphis City Council. This plan was paused to explore the cost of a new modular garage that would have been built on the surface lot on Prentiss Place. 

In 2021, projections put the cost of the garage at $5 million, above the $3 million both the zoo and OPC had committed to the original plan to reconfigure the main parking lot. In October, the groups announced they’d scratched the plan for the garage and would revert to the plan to pave the lot and take 2.4 acres of the Greensward. As construction was slated to get underway, this plan was halted late last year to explore other options.  

The new plan will:

• convert the zoo’s current maintenance facility (on the north side of the zoo on North Parkway) to zoo member parking

• add 300 new parking spaces for the zoo

• renovate and re-stripe the zoo’s current main lot (without expanding it) 

• vacate the city’s general services maintenance lot (about 12 acres on East Parkway) 

• add zoo maintenance facilities to that space on about six acres

• the remaining six acres will be converted to park space for visitors

 • this space will have a new access point to the Old Forest trails

•  establish a new walking trail around the north side of the Greensward, marking the separation from the field and zoo parking 

• return 17 acres of forest land to the Overton Park

• this land was held by the zoo for future expansion, particularly an exhibit called the “Chickasaw Bluffs”

• return a few acres of land close to Rainbow Lake from the zoo to the park 

• the zoo will give OPC $400,000

“This is a solution that we think works for everyone,” said Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. “It adds significant new park space for Memphians, about 20 to 25 acres. 

“It preserves 17 acres of old forest and provides the zoo with the parking it needs as the top attraction in Memphis. It provides the zoo a quality maintenance area for its operations. It also provides both the conservancy and the zoo the opportunity to avoid spending for what has become an almost $2.5 million expansion of the existing lot.”

Some were shocked and disappointed when the garage idea was retired. However, Doug McGowan, the city’s Chief Operating Officer, said the project was more an exploration than a dedicated plan. When asked if this new plan was guaranteed to stick, McGowen said, “I guess it’s about as guaranteed as you’re going to get.” 

“You have all three organizations coming together saying this really brings us closer together in alignment, and that it forges the same vision of the park in the future,” McGowan said. “And the mayor and the council are behind it.”   

Strickland said work on the project will begin as early as this fall, when some fences begin to come down. The city won’t leave the general services area until summer of next year, however. This means the zoo can’t move its maintenance operations and Greensward parking will continue at least through this year and probably longer.  

When asked how the agreement came about, Tina Sullivan, executive director of the OPC said the groups simply continued to work on it. 

“Our organizations have come together to create a plan that sees them as parts of a united whole,” Sullivan said. “The zoo and the conservancy share a common focus on conservation. Today reflects a convergence toward our shared mission and our community partnership.”

Zoo president and CEO Jim Dean called the agreement “transformational” for the zoo. 

“The city’s General Services facilities will vastly improve our infrastructure at the zoo,” Dean said. “When completed, this project will not only solve our short-term parking requirements and help traffic flow. It will also provide a solution for our long-term parking needs.” 

Once the work is finished and the last car leaves the Greensward, Sullivan invited “all of you to a picnic and a very competitive game of volleyball on that space.”  

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Harold Ford Sr. is Back on the Case

Strickland, Milton, and Ford at Memphian Hotel fundraiser.

Time was, when the presence of Harold Ford Sr. was inescapable during an election year. That was during the 20-plus years when Ford, serving as Congressman from Memphis’ 9th District and as the city’s acknowledged political broker-in-chief, would put out a slate of recommended candidates, and woe be to those who weren’t on it, at least in the core precincts of Memphis

Ford was ultimately succeeded in office by his son, and Harold Ford Jr., who focused more on his national ambitions, didn’t pay the same heed to local political matters. The concept of the “Ford Ballot” increasingly became a non-factor at election time.

The senior Ford retired to Florida and used his influence on Memphis and Shelby County elections on a more or less ad hoc basis through the years. This remained the case even when Ford, who always found time to come back to Memphis on as as-needed basis, opened a plush, new, hypermodern funeral home on Sycamore Grove.

Well, the 2022 election season beckons, and Harold Ford Sr. has given indication that, in one form or another, he’ll be heard from in something like the old way. 

When Memphis Democrats gathered for a pre-election forum at the Great Hall of Germantown on Wednesday night, and Memphis Councilman JB Smiley took his turn at the dais, Smiley spent much of his time talking about a lengthy conversation he had just had with Ford, and dilated at length on the political advice offered by the latter.

Ford is doing more than offering his advice. He turned up Thursday night for  a rooftop fund-raiser and announcement event at the Memphian Hotel at Overton Square for County Commissioner Reginald Milton’s intended campaign for Juvenile Court Clerk.

Ford was there as a principal endorser and sponsor of Milton, and he was joined in that role by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, giving Milton’s kickoff a bit of extra adrenaline. (The Ford-Strickland duo was also a feature of the brief local Bloomberg-for-President campaign in 2020.)

In previous campaigns, Milton, who is term-limited and cannot run for reelection to the commission, has had premium sponsorships and no doubt will earn more before the campaign is over, but, being bracketed by Strickland and Ford was surely not a bad way to begin. 

And that event, coupled with Smiley’s earlier remarks, gave fair notice that Harold Ford Sr. might not be finished with lending his political influence and advice for the coming season. Stay tuned.

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Politics Politics Feature

Turner’s Interest in ’23 Memphis Mayor’s Race Highlights Weekend Announcements

State Rep. London Lamar (right) chats with her mother (left), Mayor Jim Strickland, and state Sen. Sara Kyle (Photo: Jackson Baker)

Things are moving fast now. Though it is only midyear of 2021, a year ahead of time on the calendar, election 2022 is beginning to take form as candidates start to declare their availability and to shape their campaigns. In one notable case, in fact, that of Memphis mayor, which won’t be voted on until 2023, a major candidate has already made his intentions known.

That candidate would be Van Turner, a lawyer of consequence, a county commissioner and former Shelby County Commission chair, head of the NAACP, and president of Memphis Greenspace, the nonprofit, ad hoc organization that now administers several Downtown parks after coming into being to purge them of their Confederate identities and memorabilia.

Turner had been talked up as a possible future mayor of both Shelby County, which will cast a vote for mayor next year, and Memphis, which will do so a year later. At a well-attended fundraiser in his honor on Saturday at the Cordova home of activist Lexie Carter, Turner made his choice known.

He declared that he is forming an exploratory committee to run for mayor of Memphis in 2023, when current Mayor Jim Strickland is term-limited out. And he is likely to inherit a good deal of the Strickland support group, since the Memphis mayor has made no secret of his regard for Turner.

Turner’s declaration solves two problems. Simultaneously he puts other possible contenders for city mayor on notice that he will be in that race as a likely favorite in 2023, and he dissociates himself from the idea of running for Shelby County in 2022 under any imaginable circumstance. Turner had already made it clear he would not oppose the current county mayor, fellow Democrat Lee Harris, who has yet to make his own decisions about his political future.

Melvin Burgess speaks at fundraiser (Photo: Jackson Baker)

• Turner’s was not the only candidacy that got launched over the weekend. Two incumbents running for re-election in 2022 had their coming-out parties — state Representative London Lamar and Shelby County Assessor Melvin Burgess.

Lamar had her initial announcement for a re-election race in House District 91 on Friday at the Allworld Project Management building on B.B. King Street Downtown. She did so with introductory support remarks from both Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and respected activist and businessman Calvin Anderson.

Lamar spoke frankly about her evolution from freshman status into a role of responsibility and outreach in the delegation at large.

Also making an impact at a Sunday event at his home in the Evergreen district was Burgess, who proudly cited his honor as Tennessee Assessor of the Year and his success in persuading the Shelby County Commission to conduct property appraisals on an every-other-year basis.

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Hat Flap at Memphian Hotel, Pass the Phone, and a Target Fire

A roundup of Memphis on the World Wide Web.

Memphian Hat Flap

Nextdoor user Lisa Boling called out what she believes is a double standard at The Memphian Hotel over the weekend.

She claims her daughter and her boyfriend were asked to remove their full-brim hats before they could enter the hotel’s rooftop for drinks. They declined and left.

They came back later, took their hats off, entered the rooftop area, and found “older white men” wearing baseball caps. For this, Boling said the hat rule depends “on who you are” and wondered if “this fits into our artsy eclectic personality of our neighborhood.”

Posted to Nextdoor by Lisa Boling

Pass the Phone

“I pass the phone to someone who asks the nurse, ‘Are you ready for the gun show?’” That was Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo in a new public service announcement advocating for COVID-19 vaccines.

The YouTube video is styled after the popular “Pass the Phone Challenge” that permeated TikTok and Instagram recently. The #PassthePhone901 post features Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, Register of Deeds Shelandra Ford, Shelby County Commissioner Van Turner, and more.

Target fire

A weekend fire at the Collierville Target had some members of the Memphis subreddit perplexed. One heard someone set the chip aisle ablaze. Another heard multiple fires were set on purpose. Someone heard it was just an electrical fire.

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Team Waste, TVA and Loki, and a House Fire

A roundup of Memphis on the World Wide Web.

New Team

Posted to twitter by the city of Memphis

The city of Memphis tweeted footage of Team Waste crews on the streets here Monday morning. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland fired Waste Pro on Sunday after residents complained the company frequently missed collections.

Which TVA?

Posted to Twitter by the Tennessee Valley Authority

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) did a double take last week when it saw its famous initials in the new trailer for the Loki television series. “If we spot him, we’ll reach out to the Time Variance Authority (aka other TVA),” tweeted the TVA.

Holy Smoke

Posted to Twitter by Memphis Fire Fighters

Memphis Fire Fighters posted this photo by Bill Adelman to Twitter showing a crew working a house fire on Hernando Street last week.

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News News Blog

Ground Broken on $60M Tom Lee Park Project

CREDIT: Mississippi River Parks Partnership

Mississippi River Parks Partnership

An aerial view of the Cutbank Bluff design, illustrating the improved entrance at VancePark, an accessible pathway down the bluff, and stone scrambles that provide informal seating alongthe way.

Local leaders broke ground Wednesday for a reimagined, $60-million Tom Lee Park.

Construction on the first phase of the redesign is slated to begin next year, according to the MRPP. That phase will create Cutbank Bluff on the park’s west side.

The beginning of construction comes three years after the completion of the Memphis Riverfront Concept by Studio Gang, a Chicago-based architecture and urban design firm. the design team now includes Scape, a New-York-City-based landscape architecture and urban design studio.

Studio Gang was hired in 2016 by the Riverfront Development Corp. (RDC). Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland organized the Riverfront Task Force in 2017 to reimagine the city’s entire riverfront. The RDC was replaced as the riverfront’s steward in 2018 by the Mississippi River Parks Partnership (MRPP).
Mississippi River Parks Partnership

View of the Cutbank Bluff looking across Riverside Drive from the Civic Plaza in Tom LeePark.

“In 2017, I challenged my Riverfront Task Force to deliver a world-class riverfront in record time,” said Strickland. “This groundbreaking marks a major milestone toward that goal. Now, we can all begin to look forward to the day when we cut the ribbon to open the nation’s best riverfront park right here in Memphis.”

Funds for the $60-million project have come from the city, county, and state funds, and a number of corporations, foundations, and individual donors.

“At the end of an unusually challenging year, it’s thrilling to be able to celebrate groundbreaking on Memphis’ next civic jewel,” said Tyree Daniels, MRPP board chair. “All the meetings, planning, mediation and fundraising have led us to this moment. Almost a hundred years in the making, Tom Lee Park will serve Memphians for generations to come. Its transformation starts now.”
Mississippi River Parks Partnership

Entry path to Vance Park Plaza.

Parts of the Riverfront Concept have already come to life, including the five-mile River Line trail and the transformation of two former Confederate parks into River Garden and Fourth Bluff Park.

“This is an important step toward the revitalization of the Mississippi Riverfront as a vibrant place for all Memphians,” said Studio Gang founding principal Jeanne Gang. “Our design for Tom Lee Park responds to the observations, ideas, and knowledge shared by Memphians since we began working to envision a new riverfront with them in 2016. The new park will celebrate the diversity and enthusiasm of these voices by creating flexible and resilient spaces for community life to flourish along the water’s edge.”

Kate Orff, founding principal of Scape, called the groundbreaking a “major benchmark for public space in Memphis.”

“It’s fitting that the first area of Tom Lee Park to break ground is a gateway to Downtown — the new design aims to improve connectivity and equitable access across the park for all Memphians, celebrating the environmental and cultural history of the Mississippi riverfront,” Orff said.

Here is how Studio Gang and Scape describe what’s ahead for Tom Lee Park:

Tom Lee Park’s landscape and features are inspired by the dynamic rhythm and patterns of the Mississippi River. Guided by the inspiration of Tom Lee, Memphis’ very worthy wero for whom the park is named, the park will be a place that welcomes all and where community thrives 365 days a year beside the river.

The new park features four zones of activity separated by generous, flexible lawn spaces. Together, the park features combine to create a dynamic and engaging experience with breathtaking river views at every turn, from north to south.
Mississippi River Parks Partnership

View along the Bluff Walk in Vance Park plaza, including the relocated ‘Whirl’ sculpture.

The Civic Gateway features the Cutbank Bluff, a radically redefined park entrance and access point from Vance Ave. and the first ADA-accessible route up and down the bluff. The new access leads to the Gateway Plaza hosting a major water feature and natural stone seating nestled beside a shaded community tree grove.

The central Active Core will buzz with activity as the home to the park’s signature all-ages play space and outdoor exercise equipment at River Fit. The one-of-a-kind 20,000-square-foot Civic Canopy will host music, sports, events, and more with the unrivaled backdrop of the river. A river deck and two river lawns will play host to the free nightly show of spectacular Mississippi River sunsets while pavilions and shaded seating provide options for food and restrooms.
Mississippi River Parks Partnership

View from the base of Cutbank Bluff, including informal stone ‘scramble’ seating.

Designed as the quieter, more-serene, and peaceful part of the park, the Community Batture will feature topographic changes that unlock new river views, sloping lawns for family enjoyment, meditative paths, a Peace Walk, and a River Overlook that will accommodate smaller outdoor gatherings. Community Tables and Hammock Groves provide places to relax, unwind, and gather in small groups.

The Habitat Terraces, at the southern-most end of the park offer an intimate and immersive experience with nature, featuring educational spaces, sound and sensory gardens, and plenty of native plants and wildlife.

Throughout, Tom Lee Park prioritizes resiliency, survivability, and sustainability with native plantings grown from seeds collected as part of the first-ever Massive Seed Project.

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Politics Politics Feature

Wish Lists

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

As expected, the Biden-Harris ticket was an easy winner in Democratic-dominated Shelby County last week; also unsurprising was the overwhelming support enjoyed by the Trump-Pence Republican ticket in Tennessee at large.

To the extent that there was any kind of suspense factor, it was in a pair of local races. Even as Democrats nationally made serious inroads on previously Republican suburban areas, the contests for House District 83 and House District 96, both on the suburban fringe, were unusually tight. Republican state Representative Mark White was able to hold off a stout challenge by Democrat Jerri Green, by a margin of 17,682 to 15,063, and the GOP’s John Gillespie had an even closer margin over Democratic candidate Gabby Salinas, 14,697 to 14,212.

Jackson Baker

House Speaker Cameron Sexton

Gillespie, who won the open seat vacated by former Representative Jim Coley, was one of two new members of the Shelby County delegation. The other was Democrat Torrey Harris, who easily won over longtime incumbent John DeBerry, forced to run this year as an independent, in House District 90.

Both Gillespie and Harris were on hand on Monday and Tuesday for the Shelby County legislative delegation’s annual legislative retreat, this year conducted virtually as a Zoom meeting.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a first-day speaker, said he wants CLERB, the city’s independent civilian review board, to have subpoena powers of its own so that it need not go through the city council in probing accusations of police misconduct. The mayor also wants Memphis to have equity with Nashville in state funding received for mental health services. “We have many more mental health patients than Nashville, but Nashville gets more,” he said Monday.

The annual retreat, at which spokespersons for major local interests state their wish lists for the coming legislative session in Nashville, is normally held in January, just before the session begins, but got a bit of a jump-start this year.

Among the other desiderata on Monday, the first day of the two-day virtual session:

Patrice J. Robinson, chair of the Memphis City Council, asked the legislators to pass a bill banning payday lenders. She also wanted to see the decriminalization of medical marijuana and a continuation of the COVID-era expedient of allowing sales-to-go of alcoholic beverages from storefronts.

Robinson endorsed as well a bill that state Senator Brian Kelsey (R-District 31) said he would introduce increasing the local portion of the state sales tax — this as a means of recouping some of the financial loss to cities from the pending elimination of the state Hall income tax on dividends and investments.

Memphis Police Department director Michael Rallings focused on the gun problem, maintaining that increased prevalence of firearms was the main reason for a rise in certain categories of crime. “Thank goodness permitless carry was not passed,” Rallings said, musing on the last legislative session. Rallings also noted for the lawmakers that he considers Memphis to be “490 to 700 officers down” from an optimum roster number.

The headliner on day two, Tuesday, was state Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton, Republican of Crossville, who promised the legislators that the General Assembly’s calendar would be flexed with the uncertainties of COVID-19 in mind so that, as one example, they would have a little “extra time for filing their bills.”

Asked about his attitude toward marijuana legislation, Sexton said he would feel more comfortable with efforts to legalize medical marijuana if the federal government removed its status as a Schedule 1 drug. Sexton said he was in favor of local jurisdictions making decisions about such issues as school openings and guns on school property. He also said, apropos the dormant Memphis megasite, “We’ve gone too far to pull back.”

During his appearance before the legislators, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris noted his concern about skeptical statements made by Governor Bill Lee and state Attorney General Herbert Slatery regarding the results of the presidential election won by President-elect Joe Biden. That was one of the few times during the two-day session that partisanship as such became a subject of discussion.