Tag: Memphis Zoo

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Steve Steffens’ Viewpoint “Tear Down the Shelby County Democratic Party and Start Over” …

The current party is a bunch of jackals fighting over the scraps left over after the Republicans have torn the state apart. They have no desire to do their own hunting.

Jeff

About Kevin Lipe’s Beyond the Arc post, “Dave Joerger out as Grizzlies Head Coach” …

While I was initially shocked by this decision, after reading all the “behind the scenes” stuff, I agree with it. I’ve always thought coaching changes set back franchises, but obviously we had a coach who wanted no part of our team. He’d been here nearly 10 years. Thanks, Dave. It’s time to move on.

Midtown Mark

The shedding of tears was also a shot at front office, “Oh, woe is me, it was so hard, all the injuries, they traded Jeff Green, they traded Courtney, then had a carousel of D leaguers… and, oh yeah, they picked Jordan Adams instead of Rodney Hood ….”

It was a shot at front office, and I’m not saying he was totally wrong on everything, but that’s what it was.

His remarks the next day were actually in line with all his prior behavior, including the tear fest. He was thankful for his players, but had disdain for front office since his sponsor Jason Levien left.

Juce

About Frank Murtaugh’s From My Seat post, “Preferred Playoffs: Hockey” …

I am a hockey fan, not the best place to live for that. The Predators are having a good run. I am a Leafs fan. So that is the same as saying, ‘Hey, I am delusional,’ but I grew up in Ontario, so that is my excuse. The playoffs in the NHL are called hockey’s second season for a reason. Often all bets are off. Guys who bag it during the season suddenly come alive. Sometimes the big guns go silent. Always love watching.

Paula Langley

On J.D. Reager’s Local Beat column, “A New Booker in Town” …

Here’s hoping that he’s successful at broadening the mix of performers to appeal to a wider audience. And to appeal to folks truly interested in hearing good live music, not just in drinking and socializing with a live band as merely a backdrop. Much needed at Lafayette’s. (Special request: Please bring back Castro Coleman, aka Mr. Sipp, the Mississippi Blues Child!)

Strait Shooter

On the letter about “Madam President” in Last Week’s “What They Said” …

We elected a black man as president because people said that this country is more than ready for a black man to lead us.

They are and were right, but should we have ONLY one candidate of that sex or color represented?

Surely there are more qualified women to run for office than someone who is under federal investigation for mishandling of classified material and who has let an embassy be sacked and the ambassador murdered and dragged through the streets.

Besides,we have already had a woman president. When Calvin Coolidge had his stroke, his vice president did not want to assume the duties, so Mrs. Coolidge sat in the president’s place and made decisions for the country.

towboatman

Towboatman,

Pssst … it was Wilson, not Coolidge who had the stroke. And if Mrs. Coolidge took over after Mrs. Wilson poisoned the president, well, we got ourselves an HBO series!

CL Mullins

About Joshua Cannon’s News Blog post “Ghost River Requests $66,455 for Tap Room, Renovations”

I love Boscos and Ghost River. Corporate (and a lot of other) welfare, not so much.

ALJS

About zoo parking …

The parking problem will not go away with the Band-Aid proposed last week. Memphis artist Roy Tamboli’s suggestion to see the parking quandary as an opportunity to innovate and enhance the park landscape has been the only solution with a flicker of ingenuity. Surely we have enough great architects and civic-minded business leaders to turn this dilemma into a show-stopping solution. Don’t leave it to the clumsily thuggish zoo PR team or the big-business-indebted zoo board and City Council. Find a Tamboli-like solution that will enhance and resonate for decades.

P.Hall

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News The Fly-By

The Week That Was: Overton Park, Greensward, Michael Rimmer

Here’s a rundown of some of this week’s top stories:

• Shuttle buses, bicycles, pedestrians, and a new traffic pattern calmed the bluster of what Overton Park officials said was a “perfect storm” for the park, a weather-perfect Saturday packed with events that attracted thousands.

Latino Memphis celebrated Brazil with food, music, and a 5K run. Memphis College of Art students took exams and celebrated with an Art in the Park event. Beignets, chicory coffee, and more were served at Cafe Du Memphis, an annual fundraiser to benefit homeless families. The Memphis Zoo’s new Zambezi River Hippo Camp drew thousands.

Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) officials worried that the events would jam the park, but they had a plan. One-way streets and off-site shuttles were launched in a traffic experiment.

“We were happy to see full buses and lots of cyclists and pedestrians, and the one-way configuration and closure of Old Forest Lane resulted in fewer cars having to turn around in traffic after being unable to find spaces,” the OPC said.

• OPC said earlier in the week that costs for the mediation process were at $37,000 since January, noting that “those costs will only increase.”

OPC and Memphis Zoo officials entered into mediation talks in January at the urging of Mayor Jim Strickland. The content of those talks are private, but Strickland announced last month that the zoo and OPC had agreed to a plan that would yield 325 new parking spaces without building a parking structure.

OPC’s mediation costs are on top of the $75,000 it spent conducting its transportation and parking study earlier this year. Together, these costs have unexpectedly surged OPC’s budget up by 14 percent.

• On Saturday, Michael Rimmer was convicted again of the 1997 death of his former girlfriend, Ricci Lynn Ellsworth, in a case previously overturned because of allegations that lawyers in the Shelby County District Attorney General’s (SCDAG) office hid evidence from Rimmer’s defense team.

District Attorney General Amy Weirich recused her office from the case. Special prosecutors from Nashville were brought in to handle the state’s case against Rimmer.

Ellsworth disappeared from her job at the Memphis Inn in February 1997. Her body was never found, but there were blood spatters and signs of a struggle at her motel office. Rimmer and Ellsworth had dated, but he was later convicted for raping her.

After he was released and Ellsworth went missing, Rimmer was arrested in Indiana driving a stolen car with Ellsworth’s blood in the back seat. However, during the investigation, SCDAG veteran prosecutor Thomas Henderson failed to give eyewitness identifications of other suspects to Rimmer’s attorneys.

This broke Brady laws that govern criminal court cases, and Rimmer’s conviction was overturned because of it. The Tennessee Supreme Court investigated the action.

The court ordered a public censure of Henderson. Weirich pulled Henderson from the Rimmer trial but did not order any further punishment for him.

Rimmer was sentenced to death by the jury Saturday. It was the third time he had received the death penalty in the case.

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News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1419

Peeing There

Sometimes it only takes the omission of a single letter to completely change the meaning of a news report. On its Sunday evening broadcast, WMC-TV identified 38-year-old window flasher Kasey Collins as a “Peeing Tom.”

According to the Memphis Police Department’s Facebook page, Kasey was accused of standing outside his victims’ windows, “while exposing himself and fonding [sic] himself.” There was no mention of urination.

Neverending Elvis

What really killed Elvis? Barbra Streisand, apparently. Or not being cast opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born, at any rate. In a New York Daily News article promoting the film Elvis & Nixon, the King’s friend and confidant Jerry Schilling is quoted as saying, “I think that would have made a difference, but I think the major problem was creative disappointment. … He wanted to do A Star Is Born. Barbra Streisand offered it to him.” And then he died.

Great Apes

WREG reports that the Memphis Zoo has named its new baby orangutan “after naming contest,” which seems like an odd thing to do. Contesta, maybe? Or N.C., perhaps? All this time your Pesky Fly thought they’d named it Rowan, because, like most orangutans, it has red hair.

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Toby Sells’ post “Greensward Protest Caused ‘Almost Irreparable Harm'” …

A recent statement from the Memphis Zoo to the Flyer regarding last weekend’s protest on the Greensward was filled with false insinuations, half-truths, and outright lies, and I cannot let it be disseminated to the general public without responding. 

Here is a portion of the zoo’s version of what transpired last Saturday: “Many families parked blocks and blocks away because they were directed by protesters acting as zoo volunteers, only to arrive to see plenty of paved parking available but blocked by protesters. Still others were unable to visit the zoo at all.” 

Wrong on all points. 

I am a proud member of the Free Parking Brigade. I was at the corner of Galloway and McLean with my friends last Saturday, and at no point did we impersonate zoo employees. What we did was work our tails off from10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., directing cars to available parking on city streets. Most of them were from out of town, had no idea what all the fuss was about and, when told, were horrified that the zoo would park vehicles on the grass.

We must have directed over 1,000 zoo visitors to free parking, and a Memphis police officer helped them cross the busy street safely while a zoo employee stood there and took a video of us working. We probably brought in an extra $10,000 for the very zoo that seems to despise us. 

Though they did stand their ground on the Greensward, it is not true that protesters blocked any zoo patrons from using paved parking. 

The Memphis Zoo is held in such low regard at this point simply because they continue to be arrogant and obstinate, and issue false information through the media to support their claim to the Greensward.

It’s way past time to act like a responsible adult, Chuck Brady, and join thousands of other Memphians who love their park and seek to become part of the solution to this controversial issue, and not part of the problem.

Gordon Alexander

Two solutions for the zoo: It should build its own parking with the support and help of the community for funding and planning, as any other responsible community partner would. Or they can choose the path they are on: spin, pivot, and lie to avoid the inevitable. The protests will continue, and eventually people will stop coming, thus also resolving the parking problem.

I’m good with either one.

Fitz Dearmore

Wouldn’t it be hilarious if this whole zoo parking debacle turned out to be part of the conspiracy perpetrated by the old money, East Memphis land speculators and developers to diminish the livability of Memphis proper in order to continue to fuel their ill-conceived (yet so far perfectly executed) concept of “growth”? Or, more correctly, what has been spoon-fed to us as growth but in truth has resulted in nothing more than personal gain at public expense. 

You hear the argument in the news even now; it’s the underlying truth behind “de-annexation” and “tax base.” This phenomenon, this conspiracy, is precisely what has given us the precariously imbalanced city we all know and love, with so much economic power focused out East, while the vast majority of the city (geographically speaking) is an economic wasteland.

Either way, you can rest assured that the real forces behind this situation have little or nothing to do with the big bad zoo bullying a bunch of peaceniks. Ask yourself why so many politicians, people supposedly elected by you and me, are inexplicably siding with the zoo. Or why they seem not only deaf to reasonable compromise, but adamantly opposed to it? I’m not quite ready to watch it all go to hell just yet. I believe I shall take a stand.

Aaron James

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News The Fly-By

Steve Cohen Talks About the Greensward Parking Battle

Greensward politics is local for Ninth District Congressman Steve Cohen. He can see the Overton Park greenspace from his house. His walks usually take him around Rainbow Lake and the Old Forest. But he also loves the zoo. He sat on the Memphis Zoo board for nearly two decades, helping to raise $5.5 million for projects there.

His beloved park has become a protest zone with citizens inflamed about parking on the Greensward. Cohen helped forge a compromise between the zoo and protesters there a few weeks ago. The protest there last weekend was met with a show of force by police, which Cohen said was “way too much.”

He’s now trying to find federal money to assist in problem. He’s also encouraging all parties inflamed by the situation to “chill” and let the mediation process work. If it doesn’t work, “then olly olly oxen free,” Cohen says.

Here are some snippets of an interview with Cohen about the Greensward parking situation. Look for the full interview online at memphisflyer.com later this week. — Toby Sells

Steve Cohen

Flyer: You live over there, so this really is a local issue for you, right?

Steve Cohen: Well, it’s been an issue for that reason and also because I was on the board of the zoo from 1989 to about 2006. So, I got about 17 years with the zoo. … I’ve got an investment in the zoo, which I think is marvelous, and I’ve got a real knowledge of and commitment to the park. By living there, I see [parking problems] there all the time.

You mentioned some solutions in a Commercial Appeal op-ed way back in 1989. Would they still work?

I think they would all work. I think you can have trams to Snowden School, which is still available on weekends and during the summer months, which is the main time they’re needed. Trinity Church, their pastor is great, and he offered their church [parking lot]… on Saturdays and days during the week. I also think the [zoo] parking lot could be redesigned.

Have you weighed in with those involved in the current parking situation?

I have talked to some folks and will continue to talk to some people and encourage there to be a successful resolution. I do think that [FedEx Corp. executive] Richard Smith is an essential party because he’s a young guy with a great future in this city, and he’s really smart and creative.

What do you think of the protesters?

I think the protesters are great. They’re bringing attention to [the issue]. They’re letting the zoo and the community know how much the park and green spaces mean to our city. [The protestors] need to remain restrained. They’ve been great with police.

The zoo needs to be a little restrained, too. I understand the zoo getting upset about the situation. But everybody needs to chill and realize that it’s probably going to work out and put our faith in the mediation. If the mediation doesn’t work, olly olly oxen free.

What did you think of the show of police force last Saturday?

[The horses] seemed to be a bit of an intimidation on Saturday. The helicopter was way, way too much. They had the cavalry, and the Air Force, and then they had some artillery. ISIS would have left. But I have to give the protesters credit. They stayed calm and kept to their original purpose of having fun, and playing Frisbee, and doing yoga. ISIS would have probably run away.

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News News Blog

Lawsuit Alleges Memphis City Council Illegally Gave Zoo Control of Greensward

CREDIT: Toby Sells

Toby Sells

A photo of last Saturday’s Greensward protest, during which the Memphis Zoo erected a fence to keep protesters away from the area where they planned to park cars.

A lawsuit filed in Chancery Court on Tuesday makes the claim that the Memphis City Council and council attorney Allan Wade violated the state’s Open Meetings Act while developing a resolution and gaining votes for handing over Overton Park Greensward control to the Memphis Zoo on March 1st.

The lawsuit was filed by Susan Lacy and Stephen Humbert, two private citizens. It states that “on for before March 1, 2016, the members of the City Council directly and/or through City Council [Attorney] Allan Wade with input from [the Memphis Zoological Society] held discussions and deliberations outside of public view and without public notice on the Greensward controversy and developed a plan and resolution for action to be taken on the Greensward controversy by the Memphis City Council.”

It criticizes the council for only posting the resolution regarding Greensward control on its website a few hours before the vote and says the council did not have “emergency or exigent circumstances” that would have required the council to “act with such haste.”

Councilman Martavius Jones, the lone “no” vote, stated that, prior to the council meeting, Wade had called him to ask if he would co-sponsor the resolution. He agreed, in principle, but he didn’t see a draft of the resolution until the public meeting.

The lawsuit makes the claim that council members met outside the public’s view via telephone to privately discuss the resolution.

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News The Fly-By

Greensward: Protests, Parking Brigade, Spotify

CREDIT: Courtesy Get Off Our Lawn

Energy surrounding the Overton Park Greensward parking issue flashed in a peaceful (yet police-involved) protest last Saturday, but that energy grew largely on Facebook, which has become a major tool for grassroots efforts around the issue.

Planned originally as a “Greensward Play Date,” Saturday’s event eventually brought hundreds to throng around the dirt path the Memphis Zoo uses to park cars on the Greensward. But the play date turned into a formal protest as people began to lie down on the dirt path, refusing to let cars pass.

The Memphis Police Department sent officers to monitor the event. It ended as protestors, with the help of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, forged a compromise with the zoo to allow parking on only the top third of the Greensward.

Courtesy Get Off Our Lawn

A play date event on the Greensward last weekend turned into a protest.

• A few hundred yards from the Greensward, another protest — in which some people dressed as large, orange parking cones — was underway.

The Free Parking Brigade formed earlier this month after the Memphis City Council voted to give the zoo control of much of the Greensward. On peak zoo days, the brigade’s members encourage zoo visitors to park on city streets or, as was the case Saturday, in the empty parking lot of Snowden School.

Laura Lanier, one of the group’s founders, said some friends and “Facebook folks” formed the group to channel their anger and frustration over the council vote into something positive. The intention is to inform zoo-goers and to express those frustrations.

“It is to show the zoo and the council that we know exactly what they’re doing and that we’re watching,” Lanier said. “But we also are trying to point out that there is a viable alternative.”

• WREG lead anchor Richard Ransom took to Facebook Saturday, saying the “anti-parking folks are a bunch of well-to-do Midtowners with too much time on their hands.”

Ransom posted again later saying “I’m done with the zoo debate!” This came after his earlier Facebook post was barraged with negative replies that he said included “name-calling, profanity, and threats.”

“Richard’s comments were uncalled for and his statements are not a reflection of our collective beliefs at WREG,” according to Jessica Bellucci, a spokesman for WREG owner Tribune Media. “Station management has addressed this internally with Richard.”

• Park supporters packed the Hi-Tone last Sunday for “Greensward Aid,” a benefit concert for the Overton Park Conservancy legal fund and Get Off Our Lawn.

• One Greensward supporter created a Spotify playlist called “Save the Overton Park Greensward.” It includes “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell (which includes the line “pave paradise and put up a parking lot”), “No Parking on the Dance Floor” by Midnight Star, The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out,” “Green, Green Grass of Home” by Elvis Presley, and others.

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Frank Murtaugh’s post, “Memphis Tigers Post Mortem” …

Josh Pastner is my guy. He’s 38, a great recruiter, has gotten us to the tourney three times, and is destined to make a great run because he’s a great coach.

How stupid will Memphis look if he leaves and gets that run for another school? I’m a true fan of Memphis, but unfortunately our fans will turn their backs on you the minute things aren’t going the way they imagined it.

We’ve got to go through it to get to it. If we bring another coach in, we lose the recruits coming in, and to recruit a decent team will take a couple years or more. No one said it was easy, but for the sake of Memphis, Tiger fans need to be patient and loyal. Go Tigers, go!

Stevo37

Pastner may be a nice guy, but that isn’t the only requirement for being a head coach. We all knew when he took the job that he was coming in green. Heck, he started off badly by saying in his first interview with the Commercial Appeal that if his team tried on defense, he’d let them run on offense. That might be fine in high school, but it’s a recipe for disaster in college.

Being a mediocre coach would have been okay if he had made efforts to get better. That should have included bringing in an experienced bench coach who could help him learn the ropes. That he never did was his failing. It’s also the responsibility of the AD to recognize that. His teams look lost on defense. Trying hard isn’t enough, and too often, he didn’t hold his players accountable on the court. When your power forward runs down and attempts a three-pointer when the clock has barely started, why does he stay on the floor? The fact is, Pastner had the talent to be in the sweet 16 or better almost every year.

The city of Memphis has great talent. Any good coach should be able to keep the best talent home, not chase them away. Pastner needs to GO, GO, GO!

DatGuy

Dedric Lawson has done his year of indentured servitude, and there’s not much promise of improving his position next year, while there’ll be plenty of opportunity to suffer an injury. He should take as much money as he can get. Whoever gave Pastner that contract should foot the bill to buy him out of it.

Jeff

If you’re Pastner, you’d be crazy to take another job. Where else are you going to get that level of salary guaranteed for the next four years? If he walks away, he leaves $10.6 million on the table. If I’m him, I’m staying until they either fire me (and pay me), or until the contract runs out. I might leave if I’m down to the last year in my contract. In that case, I could pass up $2.6 million in the final year, if I got a nice $1.5 million gig with a fresh start.

GroveReb84

About Toby Sells’ story, “Q & A with Tina Sullivan” … 

It seems to me that there’s a parking solution that would be acceptable to the Memphis Zoo and the Overton Park Conservancy: Couldn’t overflow parkers be directed to the nearby Center City Shopping Center? All it would take is a shuttle, charging a nominal fee, to ferry zoo-goers from the shopping center to the zoo’s front gate. The Greensward could be preserved (as it should be; the zoo has taken over too much of the park), and the zoo would have parking for busy days.

Cheryl M. Dare

About President Obama and the Supreme Court …

The cover of the November 14th Time magazine had Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s face on it. The caption read “Change.” That’s because Mitch and other Republican leaders promised to cooperate and work with Democrats for the good of the country. For the last two years, Republican politicians have done the exact opposite, obstructing President Obama at every turn.

McConnell said he was going to “teach the GOP a new word: ‘Yes.'” The “Party of No” had no intention of honoring this promise. 

Now McConnell is leading the Republican charge to keep Obama from his constitutional duty to select a new Supreme Court justice. As Donald Trump might tweet: “Losers!”

Brad Levin

Categories
News The Fly-By

What’s Next for the Overton Park Greensward

CREDIT: Annabel Conrad

Annabel Conrad

Evergreen resident Brantley Ellzey directs zoo patrons away from the Greensward and into on-street parking spaces in his neighborhood last Saturday.

The week following the Memphis City Council’s decision to give control of most of the Overton Park Greensward to the Memphis Zoo was heavy on backlash but light on much else to change the game.

The move was widely criticized but not just from those booing and jeering in the city council chambers last Tuesday. Hundreds took to social media, mostly registering disgust with the move. Some were angling for a legal maneuver that could possibly reverse it.

Newspaper editors and columnists — professionals of thought and opinion prose — formalized their complaints against the move.

Memphis Business Journal editor Greg Akers called the move “appalling.” Memphis magazine managing editor Frank Murtaugh laid out parking suggestions and reminded the zoo that it “is the park’s guest, not the other way around.” David Waters, a columnist for The Commercial Appeal, said the “wayward” city council failed to mention many things to the public in its passage of the resolution and “seemed to be in a big hurry.”

As the dust settled around the issue, not much changed. The beautiful weekend weather brought scores of visitors to the zoo and, thus, scores of cars parked on the Greensward. There were, however, independent volunteers who stationed themselves around the zoo with homemade signs pointing zoo visitors to free parking in the neighborhoods just outside of Overton Park.

Chuck Brady, zoo president and CEO, said visitors should not expect big changes on the Greensward. He’s said the zoo will not use “grasscrete” (concrete that allows grass to grow through) to shore up the field but will continue to use those blaze orange cones to section off overflow parking.

“The short answer is nothing will change,” Brady said. “As we always have, the zoo will use a portion of it as a last resort for overflow parking on our busiest days, or only about 65 days per year.”

Meanwhile, the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) has been finalizing a draft of the recommendations from its weeks-long parking and traffic study. OPC executive director Tina Sullivan said she will share the final draft with park partners first and roll it out to the public in mid-March.

Also, Sullivan said her group was gearing up for the first round of mediation with the Memphis Zoo leaders, slated to start Tuesday.

“We will never turn down an opportunity to try to come to the table and come up with solutions together,” Sullivan said. “As long as that avenue is open to us we’re going to pursue it vigorously.”

Brady has said he will drop the zoo’s lawsuit against the city and OPC if OPC will also drop its suit. Both claims were still pending in Shelby County Chancery Court as of press time.

Many of those protesting the move at city hall last Tuesday felt the city council moved too quickly, that the public did not have an opportunity to be heard on the matter. Many wondered if the move was legal. It was, according to the city charter.

Cut-off for new legislation is the Thursday morning before a following Tuesday meeting. Council members can bring a piece of new legislation at Tuesday meetings if it is in writing, as was the Greensward resolution. But there’s a catch to that.

“Only items involving extreme emergencies may be added to the agenda after the Thursday, 10:00 a.m. deadline,” reads the city charter.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Toby Sells’ reporting on the Memphis Zoo/Greensward controvery …

Since it appears that certain members of the city council and Memphis Zoo administration are seeking to manipulate the Greensward situation into a racial/class issue, I am curious: How many members of the city council and zoo board are members of country clubs?

Not everyone can pay tens of thousands of dollars annually to enjoy protected, well-maintained, greenspace within the city limits. I would wager that at least half of the zoo board, if not more, are members of country clubs. And I would bet that Reid Hedgepeth, Philip Spinosa, Kemp Conrad, and Worth Morgan are also country club members, many of which to this day do not allow non-white members — or parking on their golf courses. Such irony.

Mary Ost

Memphis is very fortunate to have a world-class zoo in a gorgeous historic park in the center of our city. Their embellishment and preservation are the result of immense commitment and decades of hard work.

While I personally oppose continued development in Overton Park, there may be a parking solution that also increases park space. If park and zoo users decide that resolving the parking problem includes a garage, then why not aim for an ambitious innovative project, also world-class, that everyone could support? Why not make a spectacular parking structure that is a fusion of creature habitat and increased park space? The zoo experience could actually begin when one enters the garage, and the structure itself could become a vehicle for a new, permanent exhibit as well as a natural addition to the park.

A solution that vertically increases natural park space and provides car storage could be designed to connect the park and the zoo together instead of having them separated. Why not create something that’s so innovative, inviting, and beautiful that people come from all over to experience it, along with the park and the zoo? We could transform a contentious conflict into a fantastic, positive experience that brings us together and demonstrates what a wonderful, creative place Memphis is.

Roy Tamboli

I cannot believe that the city council would even consider giving land that belongs to and is used by the citizens of Memphis to the Memphis Zoo. I have always loved and supported the zoo, but since the zoo has displayed a total lack of respect toward nature and toward me, as a citizen, I do not feel the same way.

Overton Park is public land. I am an owner and financial supporter of public land, so, I am being disrespected by the zoo’s and the city council’s refusal to get off my lawn! The citizens of Memphis fought to keep the interstate from going through the park, and now we’ve been thrown into another battle against an organization that, up until now, I have always considered to be a great asset to Memphis.

Overton Park is also a great asset to Memphis, and the zoo and city council need to acknowledge and respect that. A parking garage needs to be built so that the zoo will have parking and our public land will still be ours. Funds can be found for a garage. A corporation in town would be willing to put their name on it. Just think how warm and fuzzy people would feel about the corporation that was smart enough to build it.

It’s time the city council started listening to the people who put them in office. We want the zoo to get off our lawn, get out of our Old Forest, and stay away from Rainbow Lake!

Linley Schmidt

About The Donald …

We the people are fed up with the lies and deceit of the greedy politicians who think more of themselves than the people they represent. They are a group of self-righteous individuals who capitalize on every opportunity to benefit themselves. Our voice is being heard, loud and clear. Politicians, you will mistreat us no more!  

We will elect a person who is not a politician and cannot be bought, one who is on a mission to take this country back and restore the greatness that it once had. We will elect Donald J. Trump! And so it shall be!

George Devine