Tag: North Memphis

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Klondike Smokey City Neighborhoods Experience A ‘Renaissance’ While Also Maintaining Historic Legacy

(Credit Christina Crutchfield via Instagram)

Two of the oldest African-American communities in North Memphis are continuing to improve quality of life for their residents and promote small businesses while preserving their historic legacy.

The Klondike Smokey City Community Development Corporation (KSCCDC) has a number of initiatives set in place to “improve the economic health of the North Memphis communities through community, workforce, and family development initiatives.” These resources include family preservation, affordable housing, recycling programs, and a small business program.

KSCCDC’s small business program seeks to boost prospects for small business owners through access to financial assistance and capital, along with the promotion of other skills including contracting and procurement, marketing, operations, business development, and exporting industry-specific training. 

According to the organization, they are able to help and connect businesses with these resources through the Community Navigator Pilot Program, which is an American Rescue Plan initiative and also sponsored by BLDG Memphis and the Small Business Administration.

“This particular grant was to provide support for small businesses in neighborhoods that were underinvested and underserved,” explained Markuitta Washington, community navigator for BLDG Memphis. “We selected seven of our member CDCs to support with executing this grant program.”

Randall Garrett serves on the board of directors for BLDG Memphis, representing KSCCDC, and explained that there is a “renaissance” in Klondike Smokey City when it comes to small businesses. 

The two cities were recently the setting of BLDG’s Memphis’ MEMfix, which Washington explained was a culmination project as a part of the Community Navigator Pilot Program. This specific iteration of MEMFix celebrated  “the area’s rich history with a Northside Hall of Fame and museum exhibits,” among other things. As a part of the event, small business owners were able to serve as vendors.

Garrett also explained that residents are excited about the Northside Square project. The project will be similar to Crosstown Concourse, with affordable housing, a community college, and more. According to Roshun Austin, president of The Works, the sponsor and ownership entity, the project will be ready in late Spring of 2025.

“As a collaborative organization, we have control of over 400 properties in the Klondike area where we’re doing affordable housing and possibly some more development in the area. It’s also all community-led organizations that’s in control of the property and planning” said Garrett. “So this MEMfix was the perfect event to showcase these things in these historic neighborhoods.”

The Klondike Smokey City MEMFix event not only served as an opportunity for the community to showcase the entrepreneurial boom in the city, but also its historic contributions.

“People do not know that Klondike is actually the first African-American community in the city of Memphis. People think it’s Orange Mound, but it’s actually Klondike. Orange Mound was first, but it was outside of the city of Memphis. Inside the city of Memphis, it was Klondike. This neighborhood is so very historic,” said Garrett.

In order for residents to “feel good” about their community, they must know who has made the community what it is, explained Eziza Ogbeiwi-Risher, environmental coordinator of KSCCDC, whether these names are publicly renowned or neighborhood heroes. This was showcased in a neighborhood museum built specifically for the MEMFix.

“I know that everybody has somebody in their family, or some event in their family that they’re very proud of,” said Ogbeiwi-Risher. “The museum is an opportunity for everyone to showcase that. Now you have an opportunity to let everyone know ‘hey, we helped build this community, and we want to continue to build it.’”

(Credit: Christina Crutchfield via Instagram)

Preservation is an important component of these two communities, and is amplified thanks to aid from not only community partners, but those who have lived in these communities for extended periods of time. Having people like Ogbeiwi-Risher and KSCCDC executive director Quincey Morris helps for newer developments and projects to come to fruition, while also preserving the historic legacy.

“When you have people who are from the community, in charge of developing the community, then you’re going to have a product that is going to preserve the legacy and history of the community,” said Garrett.

Garrett brought up the fact that new houses are expected to go up in the community soon. However, the first set of designs from the commissioned architects had been rejected because they did not fit in with the current designs of Klondike. He said this is why it is essential to have community natives at the table when it comes to these decisions.

“Anything that’s done in this neighborhood has to fit this neighborhood, has to fit the plan” said Garrett. “When you have people from the community and of the community, running the development and running the programs and running the design of everything, then that’s how you preserve the history and legacy of it.”

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Grocery Project Targets Food Desert In North Memphis

Photo Credit: North Memphis Grocery Project via Facebook

A project to bring a grocery and resource center to residents in North Memphis is underway.

Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas presented the North Memphis Grocery Project as a way to address the food desert in North Memphis. She says the store is to be built on Chelsea Avenue at Tunica Street.

An article in the University of Memphis’ Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law publication ML — Memphis Law Magazine by Ryan Jones defined food deserts as “communities that have poor access to healthy and affordable foods. … They are usually concentrated in low-income and historically marginalized areas throughout the country, with issues of longtime systemic racism, racial residential segregation, poor access to transportation and economic inequality woven into the history of these barren food landscapes.”

On Thursday, Easter-Thomas presented the project to residents at a community meeting at Springdale Baptist Church. “A grocery store is something that you all have said that we needed,” she said to the gathering. “I would love for all of us to have access to be able to get something of quality and affordability in our own backyard.”

Easter-Thomas, who is a resident of the community, told the Memphis Flyer that it was public knowledge that there was a need to address the food desert in the community. She said that in her position as councilwoman, she wanted to advocate and get funding started for this project.

Cornelius Sanders, executive director of Promise Development Corporation, explained to residents that the Memphis City Council passed a resolution from American Rescue Plan funds in October 2021 to get the project started. They then entered a purchase agreement for 1993 Chelsea in April of 2022. The project owns 12 acres of land as of May 2023.

Easter-Thomas heavily emphasized the duality of the project as a place for groceries and resources, differentiating it as a resource center and not a retail center. 

“The whole aspect is bringing much needed resources together with the collaboration of public and private and government and philanthropic dollars to ensure that those resources are there,” she said. She explained that these resources will encompass aspects of dental, pharmacy, medical and financial. Easter-Thomas said that groceries will be the only retail component there.

She said that this is intentional, because there are a lot of land-owning Black entrepreneurs in the area, and they want to support them, encourage them, and “allow them space to expand.”

“I don’t want to compete with them or make it hard for them to continue to thrive and progress in North Memphis,” she said. “It’s intentionally not including any retail so that those Black businesses can thrive with the upcoming of everything else in the project.”

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North Memphis Residents Come Together To Create Hollywood Community Association

Hollywood Neighborhood Association via Facebook

Residents of a North Memphis community are coming together to ensure that their voices are being heard and that they are considered in decision making processes.

The Hollywood Community Association was recently formed with the intention to “promote the reconstruction of our neighborhoods and bring communities together that are generally overlooked, especially North Memphis.”

Pamela “P” Moses is managing executive director of Rise Up America,  a historical neighborhood preservation organization geared towards “protecting and disseminating information to redlined communities.” Moses said that they founded the Hollywood Community Association in hopes of stopping gentrification in their neighborhood.

“A lot of things are happening, such as removing grocery stores, and a lack of businesses,” said Moses. “Most of the people in the community have been here 30-years plus, but many of the elderly people are either dying or getting to the point where they can’t keep up their houses, so we’re trying to build community to help with everyday projects such as clean up, cutting the grass — basically seeing what our community needs and providing those things and resources and information.”

The association started as an initiative from Rise Up North Memphis, which, according to its website, is ​​a” grassroots collaborative initiative to take back the control and decision making processes from the hands of our government.” As the initiative and campaign got bigger, Moses began to see that there was a pattern of “taking predominantly, Black, historical neighborhoods where people own the property and have had businesses and they basically disinvest in them. It’s not just Memphis, it’s all over,” said Moses, adding that communities such as those in  North Memphis tend to be overlooked because “gatekeepers have a plan” for their community.

The main concerns from residents were blight and crime, said Moses. The Blight Authority of Memphis calls blight “the physical conditions of vacant or derelict structures and vacant lots that have been abandoned, neglected,” or unmaintained and are causing harm to the surrounding properties and the owners and occupants of those properties.

Moses also said that other concerns were food deserts. An article in the University of Memphis’ Cecil C Humphreys School of Law by Ryan Jones says that food deserts are “communities that have poor access to healthy and affordable foods. … They are usually concentrated in low-income and historically marginalized areas throughout the country, with issues of longtime systemic racism, racial residential segregation, poor access to transportation and economic inequality woven into the history of these barren food landscapes.”

“In Hollywood there is not one grocery store,” said Moses.  “You can get a beer, but you can’t get a banana. You can get a blunt, but you can’t get an orange.”

Residents have also voiced complaints about dilapidated and vacant housing. According to Moses, residents want to fix up these homes, however they struggle to find banks to lend them money to do so.

Literacy also came up as a problem among residents. According to Literacy Mid-South, “14 percent of Shelby County residents are not prose literate.”

“The majority of the people in my community are functionally illiterate,” said Moses. “How does a functioning illiterate community fill out an application to get businesses in their community? They can’t.”

Moses said that they have a strategic proposal and plan that they would like for the city to implement for redevelopment. “Our goal is to acquire properties that are either blighted and abandoned,” said Moses. “We are going to create a business redevelopment strip, which will also be a BID (business improvement district,) where existing businesses and old businesses will pay for the clean-ups daily and weekly so the place doesn’t look so bad.”

Moses also said that they are also working on a community mural to showcase the history of Hollywood and Memphis. She also said they hope to enable historical landmarks and preserve certain areas to help promote a thriving community.

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Amazon Plans Two Mid-South Facilities

An Amazon fulfillment center, photo courtesy Amazon.

Amazon is upping its presence in the Mid-South with two new facilities: a delivery station in North Memphis and a fulfillment center in Byhalia, Mississippi.

The company expects to employ hundreds at each facility and will pay a starting wage of $15 per hour plus benefits.

The delivery station on Hawkins Mill Road is expected to launch next year. It is part of Amazon’s last-mile delivery efforts to speed up deliveries for customers in the region. Packages are transported to delivery stations from fulfillment and sorting centers, and then loaded into vehicles for delivery to customers.

Amazon has more than 250 delivery stations in the U.S., four of which are in Tennessee.

“Amazon has confidence in our city and our workforce,” said Ted Townsend, chief economic development officer for the Greater Memphis Chamber. “With the addition of hundreds of new jobs at their North Memphis facility, Amazon will now employ over 5,000 Memphians. Working together to bring those jobs to Memphis include our partners at the State of Tennessee, City of Memphis, Shelby County, MLGW, TVA, EDGE and Workforce Midsouth.”

The company says it has invested more than $8.9 billion across the state, including infrastructure and compensation, which has contributed an additional $8.7 billion to the Tennessee economy and has helped create more than 12,700 indirect jobs on top of Amazon’s direct hires.

The Byhalia fulfillment center, expected to open later this year, will use new technologies to pick, pack, and ship larger customer items such as mattresses, kayaks, grills, and exercise equipment.

Amazon says it has created more than 2,000 full- and part-time jobs in Mississippi since 2010. The company says it has invested more than $120 million across the state, including infrastructure and compensation. These investments have contributed an additional $100 million to the state’s economy and have helped create more than 1,000 indirect jobs above Amazon’s direct hires.

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MEMernet: Domestic Violence, Rhodes Scholar, and Freddy Krueger

Domestic Violence

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation tweeted Monday that domestic violence rises during the holidays, but those holidays “might surprise you,” and posted this sobering infographic.

Posted to Twitter by the Tennessee
Bureau of Investigation

Rhodes?

Rhodes College got brief time in the national spotlight last week. President Donald Trump’s press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said prospective Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was a “Rhodes scholar.”

She was not. The Twitterati straightened it out. Bloomberg reporter Josh Wingrove’s tweet on it was retweeted more than 48,000 times.

“‘She also is a Rhodes scholar,’ Trump’s @PressSec says of Amy Coney Barrett, who did not receive a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, but instead received her B.A. from Rhodes College in Tennessee.”

McEnany acknowledged the flub saying, “My bad.”

Lot going on here

Posted to YouTube by Kingpin Skinny Pimp

Memphis rapper Kingpin Skinny Pimp posted a brief YouTube video from a Hollywood sidewalk this week.

In it, Freddy Krueger — in a perfect Southern accent and with a flourish of his famous knives — proclaims “North Memphis, baby!”

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Looking for a Leader

For the more than 30 years I lived and reported in Memphis, it always pained me that thousands of people live out their lives in anguished anonymity. Many of these folks have accepted their sad lot in life based on their faith. I’ve always had a hard time comprehending that.

On my final day of work as a television reporter last week, I led a visiting PBS documentary team to a few of the most desolate and blighted areas of the inner city, so they could get a feel for the desperation that continues to plague many of the 28 percent of Memphians living below the poverty line.

In North Memphis, we found an elderly woman overseeing the care of her pre-school grandchildren, ages 2 and 3, by herself. She told me her home was the only house on the block that hadn’t been boarded up and abandoned. She pointed to her left and told me that two drug addicts had burned down the house next door. She believed those who had been living in the empty house on her right had been responsible for poisoning the dog that had served as her family’s only protection against the neighborhood’s rampant crime. Her house was now being “guarded” by a small Pekinese a family member had given her.

When I asked her about safety concerns, she said whatever happened to them would “be the Lord’s will.” I thanked her for telling me her story and quickly turned to walk away so she wouldn’t see the tears welling in my eyes.

It was with that memory still searing my brain that I read a newspaper article last weekend about the hundreds of thousands of dollars being raised by candidates running for Memphis mayor in October’s citywide election. The more I read, the angrier I got. I know money is often described as “the mother’s milk of politics,” but it has worsened in recent years due to increased money coming from sources outside the city looking to influence local politics.

What really irritates me is the amount of money being spent to gain a mayoral office that doesn’t pay as much as the candidates will spend to get it. It’s just another disheartening example of the power of special-interest groups to put the blinders on those who seek elected office — men and women who otherwise might use the mantle of that office to strive for transformative change.

The success of fund-raising efforts should never serve as the main barometer for how voters cast their ballots. If you take your right to vote seriously, go online and find out exactly where the candidates’ money is coming from. In Memphis, though I haven’t looked yet, I’d be willing to gamble the names of the donors are quite familiar — as well as the motivations behind their financial support.

I’m now retired, officially, and for the first time in decades I will not be here to report on election night. But I will exercise my right to vote through absentee ballot. My choice for mayor will not be made based on fund-raising amounts. Having been to nearly every nook and cranny of this city, I will vote for the candidate who takes his case to the streets, who walks the walk and doesn’t just spout the rhetoric of change. I want to vote for a leader who doesn’t emerge from a limo surrounded by a photo-op entourage when he or she visits Orange Mound, South and North Memphis, and Frayser. I want a leader who does more listening than talking when it comes to learning about the needs in those imperiled communities. I want a leader who will take that information and use it to devise a comprehensive, no-nonsense plan to attack poverty, blight, and unemployment.

And I want an elected City Council not mired in personal agendas or racially motivated political partisanship. I want a leader who doesn’t use the past as an excuse for not envisioning a progressive future. This city has yet to reach its full potential, but that potential is there.

And when it comes to divine intervention, I still believe the Lord helps those who help themselves.

Les Smith is a former reporter for WHBQ Fox-13.