Tag: Memphis Politics

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Politics Politics Feature

The Watchdog

Tom Jones (Photo: Courtesy Tom Jones)

The name “Tom Jones” is well known to students of literature (as that of a picaresque hero in a pathfinding 18th-century novel by Henry Fielding) and to popular music fans (as that of a formidably talented 20th century cabaret singer). It is also familiar locally to followers of politics and journalism.

This latter Tom Jones is an author, a veteran of local government, and a highly respected watchdog of media and politics in Shelby County and, for that matter, in Tennessee at large. Jones is the proprietor of “All News is Local,” a well-read Facebook page that keeps tabs (and score) on the aforementioned subjects.

In an age in which journalism is demonstrably diminishing, quantity-wise, Jones makes it his business to evaluate such quality as remains. He posts daily reminders — and sometimes whole essays — regarding which subjects and which writers are worth attending to.

Jones’ range is impressive, but, by and large, he is looking for, and recommending, cases of serious and detailed journalism about important subjects — as well as noting examples that fall short of the mark.

To be honest, he hasn’t had a whole lot to say about me personally of late. His last reference was, in fact, to a boo-boo of mine earlier this year when I carelessly quoted some lines of a playground jingle that, in one erstwhile version, has an overtly racist line. My quote was based on a sanitized version that involved “catch[ing] a tiger by the toe.” But still, shame on me.

My daughter Julia Baker, who toils for the Daily Memphian and whose coverage of criminal justice matters often gets noted by Jones, reminded me of a Jones post, not too long ago, that referred to me as an “encyclopedia.” That’s good, I guess. What I best remember is a “To Whom It May Concern” letter he issued in 1991, during the first full year of this column, in which Tom cited my coverage of the then ongoing mayoral election of that year as exemplary.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that’s kept me going these 30-odd years since. That letter was long since framed and attached to my home office wall.

Tom has worked in harness with such other local lights as Carol Coletta (with Smart City) and Susan Thorp. In his government years he served as a right arm for three consecutive Shelby County mayors — Bill Morris, Jim Rout, and AC Wharton.

Check out “All News is Local.” You won’t regret it.

• Van Turner, the former Shelby County commissioner and local NAACP head who is one of several declared candidates in the 2023 Memphis mayor’s race, has several declared supporters among other well-known political figures, but one of them, the recently elected District Attorney Steve Mulroy, has become something of a doppelganger, appearing as a co-occupant of automobiles bearing his name along with Turner’s in formal parades in Orange Mound and Whitehaven.

“I don’t know if I have bootstraps, but I want it known that I do support Van wholeheartedly, and to the extent that it helps him, so much the better,” avers the reform-minded Mulroy, who may be getting some useful long-term community support himself from onlookers, who greet him, he says, with shouts of “Hey, Mr. DA!”

• The Flyer has not been able to confirm an interest in running for mayor on the part of J.W. Gibson, but the well-known businessman and former county commissioner is known to have discussed the race with friends and confidantes.

There is a general feeling among pol-watchers that the field of candidates, which so far includes Turner, Sheriff Floyd Bonner, Downtown Memphis Commission President/CEO Paul Young, school board chair Michelle McKissack, state House minority leader Karen Camper, and former TV Judge Joe Brown, isn’t done yet.

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Politics Politics Feature

Down to the Wire

Tuning it Up: GOP state Senate candidate Brent Taylor at campaign kickoff last week with country singer John Rich (Photo: Jackson Baker)

As the August 4th countywide election cycle winds down, the marquee race is still, as before, that for district attorney general between Republican incumbent Amy Weirich and Democratic challenger Steve Mulroy. The race remains the focus of attention in local politics. It has also engendered significant statewide and national attention.

A quiet moment in a turbulent campaign (Photo: Jackson Baker)

The Tennessee Journal, a weekly which is the preeminent statewide source for political news across Tennessee, featured the race in its lead story for the July 15th issue. Editor Erik Schelzig recaps some of the significant charges and other back-and-forths of the contest, highlighting the two candidates’ major differences regarding the state’s new “truth-in-sentencing” law, which eliminates parole in several major violent-crime categories.

Weirich, who boasts her years-long efforts on behalf of passing the law, points with pride. Mulroy sees it as a case of vastly increasing state incarceration expenses while blunting possible rehabilitation efforts.

In the several recent debates between the two candidates, the challenger notes that his skepticism puts him on the same page regarding “truth-in-sentencing” as opponents like the American Conservative Union and GOP Governor Bill Lee, who declined to sign the bill, letting it become law without his signature. Weirich seizes upon Mulroy’s mentions of that fact as an opportunity to advertise her purported independent-mindedness, noting that she also disagrees with Lee (and the Republican supermajority) on such issues as open-carry gun legislation. “I don’t care what the American Conservative Union says,” she adds.

All that being said (and it’s consistent with her would-be crossover slogan, “Our DA”), the race as a whole is between Weirich’s right-of-center hard line and Mulroy’s highly reform-conscious point of view. Mulroy wants cash-bail reform and systematic post-conviction reviews, the latter including DNA testing. Weirich is open to modifications in those areas but not to major changes.

The two have battled over the matter of alleged racial disparity issues in the DA’s office, with Mulroy charging, among other things, that Weirich has an 85-percent white staff of attorneys prosecuting a defendant population that is 95 percent Black. Weirich says she’s trying to alter the ratio but cites the difficulty of competing with better-paying private law firms in efforts to acquire African-American legal talent.

Both contenders have seemingly forsworn the Marquis of Queensberry rules regarding the etiquette of competition. With no real evidence to base her claim on, Weirich’s ads consistently try to saddle Mulroy with the onus of being a “Defund the Police” enthusiast. He answers that he would like to see more police hired, and at higher salaries, and given “better training.” His ads portray Weirich as being a Trumpian (a stretch) and the “worst” district attorney in Tennessee, one saddled with several citations for misconduct from state overseeing bodies and with an ever-rising violent-crime rate during her 11-year tenure that is the worst in the nation.

The two candidates took turns in verbally pummeling each other in a series of almost daily formal debates the week before last. The venues were the Rotary Club of Memphis, the Memphis Kiwanis Club, and an Orange Mound citizens’ association. Neither gave any quarter, each attacking the other along lines indicated above.

Much of the aforementioned Tennessee Journal article is dedicated to the two candidates’ fundraising and campaign spending. In the second quarterly disclosure of the year (April through June), Weirich reported raising $130,400 and spending $240,400 — much of it on the Memphis consulting firm of Sutton Reid, where her blistering TV and radio ads are prepared. She began the quarter with nearly half a million dollars on hand and ended it with $361,00 remaining.

Mulroy raised $279,000 in the period, a sum which included a loan from him to his own campaign of $15,000. He spent $194,000 and had a remainder on hand of $159,000.

As noted by the Journal, Weirich has gotten almost all her funding from within Tennessee, all but $1,600. Mulroy, who has the avowed support of such celebrities as singer John Legend and author John Grisham, is also boosted by several national groups with a professed interest in criminal-justice reform. Some 35 percent of his funding has come from out of state.

One key venue for Mulroy is New York, where he has traveled twice recently, attending public occasions in tandem with such supporters as criminologist Barry Scheck, mega-lawyer Ben Crump, and entertainer Charlamagne Tha God. Mulroy’s travels and his funding sources are reportedly the target of a new Weirich TV spot which begins this week. It should be noted that the vast majority of Mulroy’s trips out of town during the campaign — all unpublicized until now — have been to Pensacola, where he drives down regularly to look in on his elderly mother.

With early voting about to expire and a week to go before the judgment day of August 4th, polling information is being held close to the vest by both principals, though Mulroy publicized an early one showing him with a 12-point lead.

A fact that looms large to all observers and to both participants and their parties: The position of district attorney general, is, as of now, the only major countywide position held by a Republican. Early voting statistics gave evidence of serious turnout efforts by both parties.

• There are other key races, to be sure. The race for county mayor, between Democratic incumbent Lee Harris and Republican challenger Worth Morgan has been something of a back-burner affair, with neither candidate turning on the jets full-blast in the manner of the DA race. Harris basically is resting on what he sees as a high productive record, and Morgan, though he challenges that, saying the county “deserves better,” has not featured many specifics beyond Morgan’s ill-based claim that Harris has — wait for it — defunded the police (strictly speaking, the Sheriff’s Department).

A recent TV ad shows Morgan in interview mode, chatting about his life and outlook and looking and sounding likable. Given Harris’ edge in incumbency and party base, that is probably not enough for now, but it does bolster Morgan’s name and image for later on.

In the race for Juvenile Court judge, Dan Michael’s incumbency works for him, while his opponent, city Judge Tarik Sugarmon, has a well-known local name and an active Democratic party base working on his behalf. Michael is heavily backed by the GOP in what is technically a nonpartisan race.

Few surprises are expected elsewhere on the ballot, though Democratic County Clerk Wanda Halbert, who has fumbled the issuance of new automobile plates, may get a scare (or worse) from Republican opponent Jeff Jacobs.

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Politics Beat Blog

Objection on Commission Forces Monday Vote on Pipeline-Area Sale

An attempt by the administration of Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris to withdraw the the sale of two tax-defaulted properties from a committee agenda having been foiled by a commissioner’s protest on Wednesday, the Shelby County Commission is set for an up-or-down vote on the item at its public meeting on Monday. 

The import of the vote is that the two properties, both now technically owned by the county, lie squarely within the South Memphis area targeted for construction of the proposed Byhalia Connection oil pipeline.

Volatility is expected from both opponents and proponents of the pipeline at Monday’s meeting.

A moratorium on a sale of the two properties was imposed by the Commission in October at the request of Commissioner Reginald Milton, who now chairs the Commission’s Delinquent Tax committee, the only Commission committee whose votes by state law are not open to all members of Commission as a committee of the whole.

The committee’s four members are Milton, Amber Mills, Willie Brooks, and Mick Wright. Milton and Brooks are Democrats, and Mills and Wright are Republicans. On Wednesday, only Milton and Mills were present, and Mills — on behalf, she said, of fellow Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr., whose district overlaps with the area of the two properties in question —  objected to withdrawing the item from the agenda.

The votes of Milton and Mills regarding her objection canceled each other out, resulting in a resolution to sell the two properties moving, without a recommendation for or against, onto the Commission’s Monday agenda for a vote by the full Commission body.

As of now, the sale price of the properties is expected to be $11,363.00, the amount of the unpaid tax liability. 

A companion item on Monday’s agenda, also to be voted on by the full Commission, would eliminate the moratorium on sale of the properties.

Such a sale, presumably to Valero Energy Corporation and Plains All American Pipeline, who intend to build the Byhalia Connection pipeline, is sure to be stoutly resisted by pipeline opponents, who see the proposed structure as detrimental to low-income Blacks in the affected area and as an environmental hazard to the underlying Memphis sand aquifer, source of the Memphis area’s drinking water.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Myra Stiles, Longtime Democratic Activist, Gets a Surprise

CREDIT: APG/JB

APG/JB

SURPRISE FOR MYRA STILES — The longtime activist  in local Democratic affairs went to Sunday’s meeting of the Democratic Women of Shelby County at the Southwind home of state Senator Reginald Tate and Lashun Pollard Tate, expecting it to be, as advertised, a reception for members of the new Memphis city government.

Well, that it was. But it also turned out to be an event honoring Stiles herself, who has just retired as treasurer of the Democratic Women of Shelby County, a duty she had performed for decades,  and had presided over 25 consecutive DWSC Christmas parties. 

In Panel One, DWSC president Virgie Banks brandishes proclamations in the unsuspecting Stiles’ honor from both Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell. In Panel Two, Strickland reads his proclamation aloud, to great glee and appreciation from the honoree. (The large crowd present enjoyed it, too.)

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Politics Politics Feature

The Beat Goes On

As the Election Commission’s April 17th date for making candidate petitions available approaches, the 2015 city election season becomes ever more clearly a case of the old making way for the new. Within the past few weeks, such core pillars of the city council as Chairman Myron Lowery and Councilmen Shea Flinn and Harold Collins have announced they will not be candidates for reelection. Flinn’s future plans remain unknown, although they are rumored to involve some sort of relationship with the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce. Another key councilman, Jim Strickland, announced back in January that he would not run for reelection and would opt instead for a mayoral race, which is now fully underway. Collins’ announcement of non-council candidacy was widely regarded as confirmation of his long-indicated plans to join the widening cast of characters in the contest for mayor. So far the dramatis personae in that race are Strickland, county commission Chairman Justin Ford, Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams, and former University of Memphis basketballer Detrick Golden.

Meanwhile, the incumbent, Mayor A C Wharton, kept himself front and center over the Easter weekend with a “coffee and chat” on Saturday morning at the Midtown IHOP on Union Avenue, followed by a number of appearances at events held in conjunction with the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 assassination.

After the IHOP event, sponsored by Shelby County Commissioners Melvin Burgess Jr. and Reginald Milton, Wharton was asked if the proliferation of opponents in the mayoral field would help or hinder his chances of reelection. “You can’t worry about that,” he answered. “I just have to keep my attention on what I’m doing.”

The mayor shed some light on a bit of verbal zig-zagging he had indulged in earlier this year on the prospect of the city’s gaining a Cheesecake Factory, confirmed last week as coming to Wolfchase Galleria. On the occasion of his State of the City address in January, Wharton had alerted his listeners to the likelihood of the popular restaurant franchise coming to Memphis.

But shortly thereafter, at a well-attended address at Lafayette’s Music Hall, the mayor made an effort to pass off his earlier forecast as having been merely a thinking-out-loud recollection of his daughter’s telling him she’d like to see such a happy event come to pass.

Now that the Cheesecake Factory was definitely on track, had the mayor’s rhetorical fluctuations been something of a screen for the to-and-fro of negotiations, he was asked on Saturday. “You’re very discerning,” was his answer, accompanied by a self-effacing chuckle.

Council Chairman Lowery had long ago dropped hints that he might not be a candidate, and that his son Mickell Lowery, a sales representative at FedEx, might be on the ballot instead as a successor for the Position 3 seat in Super-District 8.

Councilman Lowery had served consecutively since his first election in 1992, with a brief intermission during his three-month service as interim mayor in 2009, following the retirement of longtime Mayor Willie Herenton. And, like the practiced politician that he is, he contrived to get the maximum amount of public notice for his departure and his son’s prospective advent.

First came a press conference in Lowery’s City Hall office last week in which the chairman gave his own bon voyage to the attendant media, expressed gratitude for having been able to serve for so long, and predicted that there would be a spirited race to succeed him, no doubt including many candidates. Wife Mary was on hand for the occasion, and so, conspicuously, were son Mickell Lowery, his wife Chanisa, and young Milan Lowery, the councilman’s granddaughter. Asked his own intentions after the press conference, the younger Lowery indicated only that he would have “something to say” soon. When, he was asked. “It won’t be too long,” was the reply.

Indeed it wasn’t. Mickell announced his own candidacy for the seat on Monday, from the steps of LeMoyne-Owen College, his alma mater, as well as his dad’s. The choice of venue, said the aspiring councilman, was symbolic in that the school represented “advancement in our community,” a quality he saw as consistent with his campaign theme, “New Leadership for a Better Memphis.” 

Candidate Lowery added that he wanted “to make sure that the priorities of City Hall match the priorities of the community.” He named crime reduction as one of his priorities, and may have intended to cite some more. 

But just then a chip off his block — his toddler daughter Milan, who nestled in granddad’s arms — made a bit of a noise, and Daddy Mickell demonstrated his quickness on the uptake with what seemed a relevant segue: “I intend to be talking with students as early as elementary school,” he said.

Asked about his advantages in what might still become a competitive and well-populated race, Mickell stressed what he said were years of “hard work” for the community as a neighborhood football coach and “on various boards.” By way of further emphasizing his community work, he added, “That’s why I didn’t try to run 10 years ago, simply off my last name.”

Even so, his beaming father was on hand again on this second announcement occasion, as well as Mickell’s wife and child and a decent-looking collection of friends and family.

• As had been widely predicted, Flinn’s long-expected announcement of non-candidacy for his Position 2, Super-District 9 seat, opened up the possibility that candidates already announced for Strickland’s District 5 seat might effect a shift of venue into the at-large race.

It may or not signal a trend, but one of the previous District 5 hopefuls has already made the passage over. That would be Joe Cooper, the ever-persistent pol who may ultimately eclipse all existing records for the maximum number of candidacies launched during a lifetime.

In the truest sense, Cooper’s campaign strategies have been out-of-the-box, and so have many of his proposals, such as his advocacy, during a race for county commissioner some years back, that the resident bison at Shelby Farms be moved out to make room for possible development on the rim of the park property. That idea backfired, drawing the wrath of every environmentalist within geographical reach.

Cooper’s latest proposal is equally idiosyncratic. This week, he floated the idea of turning the Coliseum building and its parking lot over to the proprietors of the Wiseacre brewery for the creation of a “tourist attraction” that would simultaneously allow visitors to observe the beer-making process and alternately to spend time with a museum featuring the grunt-and-groaners who once rassled at the Coliseum.

Oh, and the two airplanes owned by the late Elvis Presley and now scheduled for eviction by the new gods of Graceland could find a resting place in the parking lot.

Another frequent political candidate, former County Commissioner George Flinn, has thrown his name in the hat as a would-be successor to state Republican Chairman Chris DeVaney of Chattanooga, who made a surprise announcement recently that he would be departing the position to head up a hometown nonprofit.

Flinn said he would seek, as chairman, to promote unity among the state’s Republicans and to promote “inclusiveness” in party membership.

His most recent electoral run was as the GOP’s 2014 candidate for the state Senate seat vacated by now Chancellor Jim Kyle and won ultimately by Kyle’s wife Sara Kyle, the Democratic nominee.

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Cover Feature News

2015: The Year Ahead in Memphis

Business

Bass Pro Shops: Last year, right here in this very same spot in this very same issue, we said you’d be doing your 2014 Christmas shopping in the Pyramid. 

It was the truth at the time, at least based on the information we had. But things change, and when it comes to Bass Pro, Memphians know schedules do, too. Now the new open date is May 2015.     

So, why the date change? Bass Pro officials said they wanted to open the entire establishment — the store, the restaurants, the hotel, the bowling alley, and the Ducks Unlimited Waterfowling Heritage Center — all at the same time. Here’s how Bass Pro founder and CEO Johnny Morris explained it in November:

“This started off as kind of a bait and tackle shop. It’s evolved to be considerably more than that. I just say from everybody in the company and all involved … we’re very proud of the progress that we’re making and the grand plans that have been developed. It’s an undertaking that’s become probably larger than any of us probably envisioned at the outset. Partly, that’s because as time’s gone on we’ve become more and more excited about the potential of this facility here in Memphis.”

Main to Main: Improvements will continue along Main Street in 2015, leaving the Harahan Bridge as the only piece of unfinished work for the (take a deep breath) Main Street to Main Street Intermodal Connector project. 

Sidewalks, gutters, and streets will all be fixed next year along the stretch of Main Street from Henry Avenue in Uptown to Carolina Avenue in South Main. The drainage system (including those unsightly boards) along the Main Street Mall will be fixed and new trees will be planted, too. 

Crews have been at work this year on South Main south of Talbot Avenue fixing what were nearly impassable sidewalks and repaving Main Street.

Work will also continue on converting one section of the Harahan Bridge into a bike and pedestrian pathway called Big River Crossing. But that work won’t be complete until 2016.   

Memphis International Airport: Memphis International Airport (MEM) is going to feel smaller in 2015. That’s because it will be smaller, a lot smaller. Concourses A and C will be closed. By late 2015, all gates, restaurants, bars, and retailers will be consolidated into Concourse B. (It’s the one right in the middle of the ticketing area.)

This is all a part of the airport’s $114 million modernization project. The plan underscores the need for the airport to get with the times. That is, the times after Delta Air Lines de-hubbed the airport, removing dozens of flights. Back in the Delta days, airport officials said MEM needed its 85 gates. Now, it needs about 25 (but will keep 45 total for future expansion).

Demolition is underway on parts of Concourse A and is expected to be complete by early 2015. Demolition on parts of Concourse C will begin after that, in late summer 2015. 

Guest House at Graceland: Will the new Whitehaven hotel be the hottest place Memphians will brag that they’ve never visited? 

We’ll find out in late 2015, when the Guest House at Graceland opens its doors. Fueled with government financing, work is slated to begin on the 450-room hotel in early 2015. The project will cost somewhere between $121 million and $132 million. 

It is slated to be built on the same side of the street as Elvis Presley’s mansion but farther north, on the corner of Elvis Presley Boulevard and Old Hickory Road. The Guest House will have two restaurants, meeting and event spaces, a pool, unique VIP suites designed by Priscilla Presley, a free airport shuttle, room service, and a 500-seat theater for live performances.  

AutoZone Park: Remember when we bought a baseball park this year? 

Even if you don’t, we totally did. It was AutoZone Park, and it cost us $24 million. The St. Louis Cardinals bought the Memphis Redbirds, and they promised to keep the ‘Birds here for another 17 years, and the Cardinals are going to run the park, too. No? Still, no. Well, the deal went down in early January 2014 and a lot has happened since then.

The city is in the baseball park business. One of things the city promised it would do was to spruce the place up. In fact, $4.5 million of that total $24 million price tag was to go to improvements on the park. 

The Cardinals have promised $15 million in stadium improvements to reach Major League Baseball standards (and those improvements will become assets of the city). These improvements include LED boards on the right field and left field walls, new grass berms, a new club on the suite level, ribbon boards (like those that run around the inside of FedEx Forum) down the right field and left field lines, a new bar in left field, and improved picnic areas.

Chisca Hotel: Something like a caterpillar in a cocoon, the Chisca has been wrapped in a layer of scaffolding for much of the past year. Once its $24 million redevelopment is complete later in 2015, owners say it will emerge like a butterfly: a 100-year-old, retro-modern apartment building with space for a few shops and a healthy, fast casual restaurant called LYFE Kitchen. 

The building will have about 160 units, a mix of one-bedroom loft units, two-bedroom loft units, and some two-story townhomes. Rent prices will range from $750 to $2,100. Leasing will likely begin early next year with late-2015 move-in dates.

Orpheum Theatre: The curtain will rise on the Orpheum’s Performing Arts & Leadership Centre in 2015. 

The three-story complex is under construction on the piece of property adjacent to the theater’s south side. The 50,000 square-foot building is estimated to cost $10.7 million. It will include a black box theater, a rehearsal hall, a commercial kitchen, dressing rooms, and classrooms for pre-show and post-show workshops. It will also feature office spaces and meeting areas.

Blues Hall of Fame: A brand new home for the Blues Hall of Fame is slated to open in mid-2015. The 12,000 square-foot site is located at 421 S. Main across from the National Civil Rights Museum. It will house the hall, of course, and the offices of the Blues Foundation.

Curators have been at work this year reviewing items for exhibits from performers including B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Howlin’ Wolf. Blues Foundation CEO Jay Sieleman said in October that he would step down from his role with the group sometime in 2015.  

Old Dominick Distillery: Spirits will flow from this brand new Memphis distillery next year (if all goes according to plan). Longtime beverage distributor and wholesaler D. Canale and Co. is behind Old Dominick, and the distillery will produce bottles of booze, of course, but will also feature a tasting room slated for a fall 2015 opening. 

Old Dominick will be located downtown at 301 S. Front Street, right across the street from Gus’s Fried Chicken.   

Toof Building: Residents will be able to move into the long-blighted Toof Building on Madison in 2015. The five-story building is perhaps best known for the huge and colorful mural painted in 2008 that can be see at Memphis Redbirds games. The building is in the midst of a $5 million upgrade to transform the old print shop into 60 apartments and retail space. 

The Edge: No, it’s not the U2 guitarist that needs the help of the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC), it’s The Edge neighborhood. DMC President Paul Morris said his group has had a laser focus on South Main for the past three years. With that neighborhood thriving, Morris said they’ll divert their focus now to The Edge, which runs (basically) from Sun Studios to AutoZone Park and from Union to Madison.

The Horizon and One Beale: The recession halted work on two planned high-rise apartment buildings. But now they’re back.

The Horizon has been an empty hull since the recession sapped its financing in 2009. Mississippi-based Dawn Properties bought the 16-story, 155-unit apartment building in October for more than $13 million. Work will continue next year to get it open and leased. 

Dirt never moved on the One Beale project, which was planned to sit below the bluff at the corner of Beale Street and Riverside Drive. But the Carlisle Group (the same group behind the Chisca Hotel development) is making moves to get it off the ground. 

IKEA: Giant Swedish home-goods retailer IKEA will break ground (and Nashville’s heart) on its massive new store next year at the corner of Germantown Parkway and I-40. The store is slated to open in 2016.

Also: Look for these other projects to get going or to open next year: the Hole In the Wall restaurant behind Ernestine & Hazel’s (where chef Kelly English will reside as “director of taste”); the Agave Maria Mexican restaurant at Main and Union; Aldo’s Pizza Pies Cooper-Young location; the Truck Stop restaurant/food truck hybrid; the Butchery at Bounty on Broad; big renovations at the Memphis VA Medical Center; new buildings at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; a new emergency department at Methodist University Hospital; a new research building at UT Health Sciences Center; South Junction Apartments; and construction work on the Tennessee Brewery building. And work will continue on the Union Avenue Kroger, and scads of new apartments will open on South Main. — Toby Sells

Music

Big Legal Mess is completely out of control in the best way. I don’t know what they got into down in Water Valley, Mississippi, but it’s working. They started the year off with Leo Bud Welch’s Sabougla Voices. Welch is not the force that R.L. Burnside or Junior Kimbrough were. Maybe that’s only because he was discovered so late in life. But his Hill Country jump gospel is completely captivating. We’re lucky to have the record. Then they dropped the Designer Records collection of pay-to-play gospel soul cut by Style Wooten in the 1970s. The sounds here are exactly what was great about the classic era of soul music. The acts were working bands who had one shot to make a record. They sang their hearts out. In an era of off-puttingly over-produced music, this collection was like an oasis in the desert. See Local Beat (p. 29) for what we think of Alvin Youngblood Hart’s 7-inch.

So, when rumors started to circulate that Big Legal Mess might be linked to a group, including Fat Possum Records and Audiographic Masterworks, that will start pressing vinyl records in Memphis, we freaking fainted. You can have the sugarplums; pressing records in Memphis is what keeps me up at night.

This year was impossibly hard on Ardent Studios, with the recent deaths of John Hampton and founder John Fry. We will closely watch what happens there. But over in Crosstown, Toby Vest of High/Low Recording and Pete Matthews, long associated with Ardent and his own PM Music, joined forces this year. With Fry, Ardent had technical excellence and an appetite for creative risk in one person. Fry, as we have said, is irreplacable. But the yin and yang between Vest and Matthews has a similar dynamic. Maybe it’s unfair to compare them to Fry. Maybe they deserve it. Keep an eye on this pair. They offer more than a glimmer of hope after a cruel season.

As for artists, there are too many to mention. But our favorites are the ones who keep honing their craft. It’s like making money with compound interest: not glamourous but very effective. Memphis artists play so frequently that you become numb to seeing their names. But what happens is a slow-burn process in which smart talent and regular audiences conspire to improve music and performance. See Local Beat (p. 29) for our take on Amy LaVere, a perfect example of this process.

Marcella René Simien had a banner year, and we are excited to see what she does next. Valerie June, about whom we all wondered if she’d ever get to the next level, sure as heck did get to the next level. Her voice is finally in its place. Can’t wait to see where she’s headed next. Watch out for other folks in this course of study: The Memphis Dawls, James & the Ultrasounds, and others we may not yet know about.

We lost Newby’s, and folks are fretting (these people are always fretting) about the Hi-Tone, but rest assured that Memphis will have its live music. Lafayette’s reached out to an under-served segment of the local audience. GPAC is having a heyday. Bar DKDC ripened into a perfect place to hear live music. The Bucc and Murphy’s, our golden cockroaches, seem impervious to the goings on around them, as they should. You’ll never do without live music in Memphis. We look forward to more. — Joe Boone

Politics

Between the forthcoming session of the Tennessee General Assembly, early, and the Memphis city election, later on, the political year 2015 promises to be chock-full. 

What the legislature will have to tangle with, right off the bat, is Governor Bill Haslam’s just-announced “Insure Tennessee” plan, designed to allow the state to receive substantial benefits — estimated to be between $1 and $2 billion annually — for Medicaid expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA). The plan is Haslam’s way of tapping into the ACA without seeming to be embracing the act, known more familiarly to the Republican super-majority that controls the legislature as Obamacare and almost universally scorned by GOP legislators. 

The plan, presented as a home-grown alternative to the ACA, offers two tracks to poverty-level recipients — vouchers for use with private insurors or participation in TennCare along with modest co-pays and premiums. Though a waiver from the federal government has apparently been assured in advance, the plan must also be endorsed by a majority of the members of both the state House of Representatives and the state Senate.  

The plan has the public support of the state’s congressional delegation and organized business groups, as well as of the state’s hospitals, many of which are desperately in need of the ACA funds. Even the arch-conservative Lieutenant Governor/Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey has expressed open-mindedness to it. But there still could be opposition from Tea Party legislators and other influential Republicans. State Senator Brian Kelsey of Germantown is a likely opponent, and Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris has indicated his ambivalence.

Haslam has called a special session to deal with the matter on the eve of the regular legislative session, and consideration of the plan could take up most of January.

Once that matter is disposed of, the legislature has other thorny issues to deal with, among them the still unsettled one of educational standards  (the previously rejected “Common Core” having earned the same ill repute as Obamacare), the possible abolition of the Hall Income Tax on interest and dividends (stoutly resisted by the newly determined Haslam), and a variety of bills designed to impose new curbs on abortion, as permitted by the recently passed Amendment 1 to the state constitution.

By the time the General Assembly quits its run in April, the Memphis city election should be heating up. The Election Commission will start issuing petitions for municipal races on April 17th, with a filing deadline set for July 17th. Primary attention, of course, will be paid to the mayor’s race, in which incumbent Mayor A C Wharton, given a boost by a string of positive-looking year-end actions, will be facing off against a set of opponents whose identities are still largely unknown. Among the possible challengers are Councilman Jim Strickland, Councilman Harold Collins, former School Board maverick and New Olivet Baptist pastor Kenneth Whalum Jr., and former County Commissioner James Harvey. Numerous others have floated trial balloons, including Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams, County Commissioner Steve Basar, former councilmember Carol Chumney, and, most recently, County Commission Chairman Justin Ford.

Ford, though, is likely to be fully occupied attempting to consolidate his authority as chairman against persistent challenges from the venerable Walter Bailey and other Democrats concerned about fellow Democrat Ford’s working alliance with the Commission’s Republicans. That should keep things interesting.

— Jackson Baker

LGBT Rights

Nationally, 2014 was a landmark year for marriage equality. Same-sex couples have the freedom to marry in 36 states, and in four other states, including Arkansas and Mississippi, judges have ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, but those rulings are stayed as the cases proceed to appellate courts.

But 2014 wasn’t Tennessee’s year. At this time last year, a lawsuit had been filed seeking recognition for three Tennessee same-sex couples who had legally wed in other states. The hope was that the case would get taken up by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. It seemed like a shoo-in since every other federal appeals court had ruled in favor of overturning same-sex marriage bans.

But the Sixth Circuit’s three-judge panel ruled in favor of marriage bans in Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan. While, on its face, that seems like a blow to the marriage equality movement, it might turn out to be a good thing.

The Sixth Circuit’s split from the other appeals courts means the issue could now be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court. At their January conferences, Supreme Court justices are expected to discuss whether or not they will take up the Sixth Circuit case. If they do, a ruling could come down by June 2015.

“If the Supreme Court takes up the case and we get a positive ruling, that will help settle things for everybody,” said Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP).

On a local level in 2015, TEP will again push the Shelby County Commission to pass more specific wording for its non-discrimination ordinance protecting county employees. The current ordinance has vague language that protects employees based on “non-merit factors.” But the commission voted down adding “sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression” to the ordinance this year.

On a state level, Sanders said they’re watching out for a possible comeback of what they labeled last year the “Turn the Gays Away” bill, which would have allowed persons or religious organizations (both for- and non-profit) to deny services or goods in conjunction with a civil union, domestic partnership, or gay marriage. That state bill was introduced in 2014, but it was later dropped.

“I think with the coming decision on marriage, legislators are going to look for ways to opt out people who don’t want to deal with married, same-sex couples,” Sanders said.

Both TEP and the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC) will be pushing for a comeback of what they call the “Dignity for All Students Act,” an anti-bullying bill that would include sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, etc. in a list of things children could not be bullied for in public schools. That bill was sent to study last March. It does have bipartisan support, just not enough. Sanders expects it will be back.

TTPC is pushing for the General Assembly to pass legislation in 2015 that would allow transgender people to change their gender on their birth certificates. “Tennessee is the only state with a law that bans gender changes on a birth certificate,” said Marisa Richmond, secretary and lobbyist for the TTPC.

TTPC is also pushing a statewide non-discrimination act that would protect LGBT people in areas of employment, housing, financing, and public accommodations, and they’re seeking the addition of “gender identity and expression” to the state hate crimes law. Currently, with regard to LGBT matters, Tennessee only includes “sexual orientation” in its hate crimes law. — Bianca Phillips

Film

Assuming Hollywood survives the North Korean cyberwar, there are a lot of films to look forward to in 2015.

In January, there are a bunch of good end-of-the-year Oscar hopefuls going into wide release that will hit Memphis theaters. Chief among them is Paul Thomas Anderson’s Thomas Pynchon adaptation, Inherent Vice, starring Joaquin Phoenix. Selma, the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic Civil Rights march, starring David Oyelowo and Oprah Winfrey, is also gathering good buzz.

February starts with a new sci-fi epic from the Wachowskis, Jupiter Ascending, starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, which was delayed from last summer, meaning either it could be a dud or they were really working on the special effects. Perhaps both. The Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation will be hitting theaters shortly afterwards, which is the definition of “highly anticipated,” but there is little hope of it rising above its source material.

The summer blockbuster season looks fairly promising, kicking off with the next big Marvel superhero fest, Joss Whedon’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron, which has the same great cast, plus James Spader as the artificially intelligent robot villain. Australian director George Miller returns to the post-apocalyptic turf he pioneered with Mad Max: Fury Road, which is looking incredible right now in previews, starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.

Brad Bird, the director of The Incredibles, whom I will always follow eagerly, teams up with George Clooney and Hugh Laurie in Tomorrowland. The Jurassic World trailer, starring Starlord himself Chris Pratt, ginned up some excitement earlier this month. Pixar’s internal monolog movie Inside Out looks to be a return to form for the animation powerhouse, but the troubled Ant-Man production could prove to be a Marvel misstep. Later in the summer, 20th Century Fox will try again to make a decent movie out of Fantastic Four starring Miles Teller as Reed Richards.

On a more human scale, Amy Schumer will be stepping into the leading role for the first time with Judd Apatow’s comedy Trainwreck, and the summer closes out with Straight Outta Compton, the NWA story that has both Ice Cube and Dr. Dre as producers.

The holidays will see the closing chapter in The Hunger Games four-part trilogy, which, judging by Mockingjay — Part 1, could be the strongest film of the franchise. Quentin Tarantino will have a new postmodern Western The Hateful Eight ready by the end of the year with Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Kurt Russell.

But by far the most anticipated movie of the decade so far is the first non-George Lucas Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. Set 30 years after Return of the Jedi, Director J. J. Abrams and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan will bring back Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford for one last galavant around the galaxy. Will The Force be with them? Here’s hoping.

— Chris McCoy

Crime and Public Safety

Homicides are up, residential and business burglaries are down, and the amount of forcible rapes in Memphis is neck and neck with last year.

Nevertheless, serious crime in Memphis as a whole has declined slightly. And the Memphis Police Department (MPD) anticipates this trend will continue on into the New Year.

In 2014, through December 15th, there were 45,914 part one crimes committed in the Bluff City, according to MPD data. Part one crimes include offenses like murder, forcible rape, aggravated assault, burglary, robbery, automobile theft, and larceny.

Over the same period in 2013, there were 46,533 crimes committed — a 1.3 percent decrease.

However, if you look at the number of part one crimes committed in the city in 2006, through December 15th, it’s evident that crime has experienced a significant drop.

In 2006, the year Memphis’ metropolitan area was ranked as having the second-highest rate of violent crimes in the U.S., there were 65,783 part one crimes. Since then, the number of serious crimes committed in Memphis has decreased more than 30 percent.

But crime still remains an issue in Memphis. According to MPD data, this year, through December 15th, the number of homicides, automobile thefts, and robberies of individuals and businesses has increased. But burglaries of both residences and businesses, and larceny and aggravated assault as a whole have slightly declined.

And, in comparison to recent years, the number of police-involved shootings also declined in 2014. From January 1st to December 15th, there were nine police-involved shootings in Memphis, none of which were fatal.

In 2013, over the same time frame, there were 14, seven of which were fatal. And in 2012, there were also 14 shootings involving MPD officers, in which six were fatal.

The MPD’s efforts to combat crime were impacted in July, when more than 500 Memphis police officers called in sick to protest the Memphis City Council’s vote to cut health-care benefits of current and retired city employees. At press time, there was no data to show the impact, if any, the absence had on local crime stats.

Looking forward into 2015, the MPD says it’s determined to continue lowering crime through community interaction and policing, as well as by utilizing various crime reduction initiatives such as the Community Outreach Program and Blue Crush.

“We will continue to be enthusiastic and committed to fighting crime utilizing all of our resources and technology,” said MPD Sergeant Alyssa Macon-Moore. “We want to build an even stronger relationship with citizens of this great city.”

— Louis Goggans

Theater

When Playhouse on the Square opened its new facility at the corner of Cooper and Union in 2010, Overton Square was in serious decline. By the time the Hattiloo Theatre opened its new, custom-designed space on Cooper and Monroe in 2014, the entertainment district was in the midst of a full-fledged renaissance. Next year promises even more growth for the local performing arts community, which will see the opening of new facilities and new plays.

In March, The Orpheum broke ground on its new 39,000-square-foot, $14.5-million Centre for Performing Arts and Education, which is being built over the parking lot on the south side of the theater. When it opens, the new space will include classrooms, an additional performance hall, and rehearsal space.

Orpheum president and CEO Pat Halloran has also announced that he will end his 30-year run and retire at the end of 2015.

Memphis audiences will be treated to more original work in 2015. In 2013, Playhouse on the Square began an ambitious push to find new playwrights and produce their work. That endeavor starts paying dividends in the new year when We Live Here, the winner of the first NewWorks@TheWorks new play competition, opens at TheatreWorks on January 2nd. The Hattiloo is also currently rehearsing fresh material. Hoodoo Love, a new play by celebrated Memphis playwright Katori Hall, whose previous works include Hurt Village, and The Mountaintop opens January 15th. — Chris Davis

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

POLITICS: In the Spotlight

CREDIT: jb

There come times when you wonder why everyone isn’t a
political junkie. Last year’s nail-biting U.S. Senate race between winner Bob
Corker and (narrow) loser Harold Ford Jr. – climaxing with the now
famous Battle of Wilson Air, when the GOP’s Corker deftly out dueled Democrat
Ford at the latter’s ambush of a Corker press conference — was one such time.

Another, believe it or not, is this year’s Memphis mayoral
race, which — despite the opting out of one potential lead actor, Shelby
County Mayor A C Wharton, and the refusal of another, incumbent Memphis
mayor Willie Herenton, to play ensemble – has had its dramatic, as well
as its comedic, moments.

Much of the entertainment value has come, as expected, from
the scramble involving the three major contenders to Herenton – city
councilwoman Carol Chumney, former MLGW head Herman Morris, and
former Shelby County Commissioner John Willingham. We’ll get to that core
drama in a moment.

But besides this main plot, which some have called by the
shorthand initials A.B.H. (for “Anybody-but-Herenton”), there’s running
mini-drama involving the several supporting players in the 14-member mayoral
field. We can call that one A.G.H. – for “Ain’t Gonna Happen.”

For, if there is real doubt as to whether Willingham, whom
the polls have shown to be hovering in the low single digits, is delusional in
his hopes of winning, it’s a dead-level cinch that these others are. None of
them even blip the radar screen.

Which is not to say that they haven’t made their
contribution to the dialogue. Nor that they haven’t made for compelling theater
on those rare occasions when they’ve been admitted to a forum involving the Big
Three (as for the Big Unit himself, the incumbent mayor, fahgitaboutit!, he’s
made it clear he’s not about to show in tandem with the others).

Consider this piece of wisdom from Laura Davis Aaron,
delivered at the League of Women Voters’ omnium gatherum affair at the
Main Library on Poplar on Sunday:

Knowing what she was about to unleash, Aaron first issued
this full-disclosure caveat to the attending audience (fairly numerous, all
things considered): “I want you close your eyes for a minute. I wanted to be a
lawyer once, but they ran out of the courtroom.” Non sequitur or not, we got the
drift of that. Then came the moment she was preparing us for:

“God gave me a plan and a vison: “Dr. Aaron, you must put
senior citizens in The Pyramid!'” (Pause.) “And I said: ‘To do what?'”

Once again the voice of the Almighty: “‘Take what they’ve
got in their homes to the Pyramid. and you’re gonna have them run a flea
market in that Pyramid!'”

And that, mind you, was only the first of two instances of
divine intervention at Sunday’s forum. Aaron was followed minutes later by
fellow candidate Dewayne A. Jones, who proclaimed more modestly, “God
makes the leader. I am your David,” and promised at some point to bring
forth his own “vision of empowerment.” He may even have had it ready on Sunday,
but wisely decided to hold it in reserve after Aaron’s bombshell.

There were contributions of a more secular sort from the
candidate chorus on Sunday. Roosevelt Jamison, in particular, proved
himself something of a phrasemaker. At one point, the youthful-appearing
Jamison, a Desert Storm vet, said disarmingly to the crowd, “I know I don’t
look old, but I am old.”

And he certainly got his fellow also-rans on his side when
he complained that “the media isn’t playing with a full deck” – meaning that he
and the other unsung names on the mayoral ballot weren’t getting their proper
share of attention.

The line from Jamison that got the whole audience going,
though, was this zinger, in response to the issue of gang activity and what to
do about it: “”We need to stop the gangs on top!” — a clear reference to
the rascals in charge of the governmental and business status quo.

Jamison was not done. He went on to insist, “Our government
has corrupted us in our city,” designating as particular problems “welfare” and
“babies having babies.” He got murmurs of approval from the conservatives in the
audience when he said, “We need mens [sic] to stand up to be mens. Stop leaving
everything to our women!”

Then there was Randy Cagle, who embraced past
traditions as well, calling, among other things, for a return to corporal
punishment in the schools. As he pointed out, “I got busted a lot of times at
school, but I’m not dead.”

Businessman Cagle, who has made every forum so far to which
all mayoral candidates have been invited, obviously relished the attention.
Often Cagle was gently corralled by a hint from LWV moderator Danielle
Schonbaum that he was about to exceed his allotted time limit.

On one such occasion, he said the obvious: “I could go on
forever. I love it.”

As candid and direct as that remark of Cagle’s was in its
own right, it had the ancillary virtue of prompting a rare understatement from
the famously voluble Willingham. “I’m like Cagle,” said the former commissioner.
“I can talk to you for three hours.”

Three hours was not quite what Willingham and fellow
top-tier candidates Morris and Chumney enjoyed during Monday night’s prime-time
broadcast forum on News Channel 3, WREG-TV, but the three of them managed a
compelling hour.

Observers’ opinions differed afterward as to who came out
ahead in a format that culminated with direct exchanges between the candidates
themselves.

But there were several discoveries to be had by the
viewers, who learned, among other things, that Chumney has been endorsed by the
AFL-CIO (she mentioned the fact four, maybe five times) and that Willingham, who
would seem to be about as white as white can be (ditto for his supporters),
considers himself the exponent, first and foremost, of “my base in the black
community,” which he helpfully enumerated as being in the vicinity of 13,000
voters.

Cynics may dispute it all they want, but the former
commissioner made it clear several times in his opening statement and thereafter
that he thinks of himself as the candidate of black Memphians. Willingham also
made the claim that his commission race of 2002, which resulted in an upset
victory over then incumbent Morris Fair, had been but a trial run for the
two mayoral races he’s run since (three, counting one for county mayor last
year).

He had run back then, Willingham confided, “to get my name
out.”

Whatever.

More to the point, he certainly got his name out Monday
night, sparring with the other two candidates (and occasionally, lightly, with
moderators Claudia Barr and Richard Ransom) and discoursing on
several of his pet schemes, two of which – converting the Fairgrounds into a
mini-Olympic village for international competitions and reserving desk jobs in
the Memphis Police Department for returning vets of the Iraq war – were
distinctly original.

In WREG’s own post-debate viewer poll, Willingham was, in
fact, running a strong second to Chumney.

As for the councilwoman, she had boasted on air – as she
has every right to – that such scientific polls as have been taken all position
her at the lead of the mayoral pack or tied for it. That was the basis for her
no-thank-you answer to commentator Norm Brewer‘s first question, asking
all the candidates if they shouldn’t back out, making room for a single
consensus contender to take on Herenton, who remains a not-quite-prohibitive
favorite.

(No one else volunteered for self-sacrifice, either.)

Though occasionally lapsing into some repetitive-sounding
spin, Chumney certainly managed to seize her share of the spotlight and to get
out large chunks of her crime plan (also available on her Web site) and other
proposals.

Morris, too, had his moments, staking out his claim to be a
racial uniter and unflappably fending off his opponents’ attacks on his record
at MLGW (Chumney on the alleged V.I.P. list he’d kept while head of the utility
and Willingham on what he – but not Morris, still a true believer – saw as the
folly of investing in Memphis Networx).

With some logic, Morris could claim afterwards that the
others’ persistent questioning of him meant that they must have regarded him as
“the frontrunner.” He wishes.

The bottom line is that all three candidates handled
themselves well and did themselves no damage, as each continued to vie for the
right to be regarded as the main contender to Herenton.

To Be Continued, you may be sure.