Chris McCoy, Colin Britton, and Laura Jean Hocking watch the eclipse at the Atlas Obscura’s Ecliptic Festival in Hot Springs, Arkansas. (Photo courtesy Colin Britton)
Did you see it? The April 8th total eclipse of the sun wowed millions of people from Mexico to Maine. Memphis Flyer reporter Toby Sells was there on the Overton Park Greensward as Memphians took in 97 percent totality. Don’t these people have jobs?
Chris McCoy was watching the cloud forecast until the last minute to try to find the clearest skies. He and his companion made an eclipse-day decision to go to the Atlas Obscura’s Ecliptic Festival in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which Flyer music writer Alex Greene hyped in his eclipse cover story. It turned into an experience so magical not even the West Memphis Mergepocalyse could spoil it.
2021 was twice as deadly as 2020 for Covid-19 in Shelby County. In 2020, 903 died of Covid here. In 2021, 1,807 passed from the virus.
A consent decree forced Horn Lake leaders to approve the construction of a new mosque.
Family members wanted $20 million from the city of Memphis; Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW); and the Memphis Police Department (MPD) for the 2020 beating death of a man by an MLGW employee.
New DNA testing was requested in the West Memphis Three case for recently rediscovered evidence once claimed to be lost or burned.
February
An ice storm knocked out power to nearly 140,000 MLGW customers.
The new concourse — in the works since 2014 — opened at Memphis International Airport.
Paving on Peabody Avenue began after the project was approved in 2018.
Protect Our Aquifer teamed up with NASA for aquifer research.
A prosecutor moved to block DNA testing in the West Memphis Three case.
March
A bill before the Tennessee General Assembly would have banned the sale of hemp-derived products, like Delta-8 gummies, in the state. It ultimately provided regulation for the industry.
The project to fix the interchange at Crump Ave. and I-55 resurfaced. Bids on the project, which could cost up to $184.9 million, were returned. Work did not begin in 2022 but when it does, it could close the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge (the Old Bridge) for two weeks.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee temporarily cut sales taxes on groceries.
April
The Mississippi River ranked as one of the most endangered rivers in America in a report from the American Rivers group.
Critics lambasted decisions by Memphis in May and Africa in April to honor Ghana and Malawi, both of which outlaw basic LGBTQ+ rights.
The federal government announced a plan to possibly ban menthol cigarettes.
Lawmakers approved Gov. Lee’s plan to update the state’s 30-year-old education funding plan.
Tom Lee Park (Photo: Memphis River Parks Partnership)
May
Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi prepared for the likely overturn of the Roe v. Wade decision, ending legal abortions in the state.
The Greater Memphis Chamber pressed for a third bridge to be built here over the Mississippi River.
Cooper-Young landlords sued to evict the owners of Heaux House for “specializing in pornographic images.”
The Memphis City Council wanted another review of Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) plan to remove coal ash from the shuttered Allen Fossil Plant.
June
New research showed Memphis-area women earned 83 percent of their male counterparts income in the workplace from 2000-2019.
Gov. Lee ordered schools to double down on existing security measures in the wake of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
MPD arrested four drivers in an operation it called Infiniti War Car Take-Over.
A key piece of the Tom Lee Park renovation project won a $3.7 million federal grant, which was expected to trigger nearly $9 million in additional funds.
Tennessee Republican attorney general fought to keep gender identity discrimination in government food programs.
Jim Dean stepped down as president and CEO of the Memphis Zoo and was replaced by Matt Thompson, then the zoo’s executive director and vice president.
Locals reacted to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
July
Memphian Brett Healey took the stage at Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Eating Contest.
One Beale developers returned to Memphis City Hall for the fourth time asking for financial support of its luxury hotel plans.
The Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) board placed Superintendent Joris Ray on paid leave as they investigated whether he violated district policies with relationships with co-workers and abused his power.
The project to forever eliminate parking on the Overton Park Greensward got $3 million in federal funding.
Tennessee’s attorney general celebrated a win after a federal judge blocked a move that would have allowed trans kids to play sports on a team of their gender.
Tennessee’s top Pornhub search was “interracial” in 2021, according to the site.
August
A panel of Tennessee judges did not give a new trial to Barry Jamal Martin, a Black man convicted in a Pulaski jury room decked out in Confederate portraits, flags, and memorabilia.
Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert caught flak from the Tennessee Comptroller after traveling to Jamaica while her offices were closed to catch up on the controversial backlog of license plate requests from citizens.
MSCS superintendent Joris Ray resigned with a severance package worth about $480,000. Finance chief Toni Williams was named interim superintendent.
Officials said the Memphis tourism sector had made a “full recovery” from the pandemic.
A new bail system unveiled here was touted by advocates to be “one of the fairest in the nation.”
Eliza Fletcher (Photo: Memphis Police Department)
September
Memphis kindergarten teacher Eliza Fletcher was abducted and murdered while on an early-morning run. Cleotha Abston, out of jail early on previous abduction charges, was arrested for the crimes.
MLGW’s board continues to mull the years-long decision to, possibly, find a new power provider.
Ezekiel Kelly, 19, was arrested on charges stemming from an alleged, hours-long shooting rampage across Memphis that ended with four dead and three injured.
A Drag March was planned for the “horrible mishandling” of a drag event at MoSH. Event organizers canceled the show there after a group of Proud Boys arrived armed to protest the event.
October
Workers at four Memphis restaurants, including Earnestine & Hazel’s, sued the owners to recover alleged unpaid minimum wage and overtime.
Shelby County was largely unfazed by an outbreak of monkeypox with only about 70 infected here as of October.
Animal welfare advocates called a University of Memphis research lab “the worst in America” after a site visit revealed it violated numerous federal protocols concerning the care of test animals.
While other states have outlawed the practice, Tennessee allows medical professionals and medical students to — without any kind of permission — stick their fingers and instruments inside a woman’s vagina and rectum while she is under anesthesia.
Joshua Smith, a co-defendant in the election finance case against former state Sen. Brian Kelsey, pleaded guilty in court.
The Environmental Protection Agency told South Memphis residents little could be done to protect them from toxic emissions from the nearby Sterilization Services facility.
West Tennessee farmers struggled to get crops to market because of the record-low level of the Mississippi River.
November
Groups asked state officials for a special investigator to review the “very real failures that led to [Eliza] Fletcher’s tragic murder.”
A group wanted state officials to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park.
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional.
A plan to forever end parking on the Overton Park Greensward was finalized by city leaders, the Memphis Zoo, and the Overton Park Conservancy.
December
The Commercial Appeal dodged layoffs in the latest round of news staff reductions by Gannett.
Federal clean-energy investments will further ingrain Tennessee in the Battery Belt and help develop a Southeast Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (H2Hubs).
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee criticized Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare (MLH) for canceling gender affirmation surgery for a 19-year-old patient.
State and local officials investigated an alleged milk spill into Lick Creek.
MLGW rejected Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) 20-year rolling contract but will continue to be a TVA customer “for the foreseeable future.”
Former state Senator Brian Kelsey’s law license was suspended after he pled guilty to two felonies related to campaign finance laws last month.
Visit the News Blog at memphisflyer.com for fuller versions of these stories and more local news.
City leaders, the Memphis Zoo, and the Overton Park Conservancy made final Monday a parking plan that came after years of protests, battles at Memphis City Hall, and a host of proposals. It’s a plan that will forever end parking on the park’s Greensward.
Credit: Memphis Zoo, city of Memphis, Overton Park Conservancy
The zoo has parked cars on the Greensward for decades (at least since the 1980s) in a handshake agreement with city. Grumbling about the deal and the cars goes back at least as long as the deal has been in place.
Vehicles periodically cut deep, hard, muddy ruts on a northern edge of the Greensward, rendering it useless for recreation. Sometime around early 2014 an ad hoc group blocked-off the greensward with orange traffic cones and sat around their barrier in camp chairs, daring anyone to pass. This was the opening salvo of what would be a nearly nine-year battle between park advocates and the public, the zoo, members of the Memphis City Council, and two mayors.
Flyer columnist Bruce VanWyngarden deftly summed up the next few years in a 2021 column.
”Things started getting really heated in 2014. Park lovers formed groups: Get Off Our Lawn (GOOL) and Citizens to Preserve Overton Park (CPOP). Activists stood on nearby street corners urging zoo patrons to park on nearby streets, rather than despoiling the Greensward. Aerial photographs were taken that showed just how much of the people’s parkland was being taken over by a private entity. The pictures got national attention. Protestors were arrested. Houses all over Midtown bore signs urging Memphis to Save the Greensward.
savethegreensward.org
“Then the zoo cut down some trees. [Activists held a second line for them and planted some new trees in protest.] Some activists threatened to begin spray-painting cars. A zoo sign at the park entrance was defaced. Things were tense.
“And then, in the winter of 2016, newly elected Mayor Jim Strickland managed to get both sides into mediation. After months of costly negotiation, a compromise was struck. The zoo would be allowed to enlarge its lot to 415 spaces, taking some of the Greensward, but with the great majority of the land being preserved. The zoo subsequently announced that it would build a parking garage on nearby Prentiss Place and wouldn’t need to expand its lot. Huzzah! Parking on the Greensward was a thing of the past. Peace reigned in the Kingdom.
“At least it did until last Friday night at 5:06 p.m., when the zoo and city issued a joint press release stating that the Prentiss garage project was being scrapped because it was too expensive and that the zoo would go back to the lot-expansion plan, and, oh, while it was being expanded, the zoo would once again be letting its customers park on the Greensward. Enjoy your weekend. Nothing to see here.”
No work was done, however, and not an inch of the Greensward was taken. Winter weather was rightfully blamed at the time.
Credit: Memphis Zoo
In 2018, Zoo CEO Chuck Brady — seen as a zoo-first hardliner and unrelenting negotiator — resigned. He was replaced in 2019 by Jim Dean, a native Memphian who had served as president of SeaWorld and Busch Gardens.
Credit: Memphis Zoo
Dean was largely seen as a diplomatic compromiser who helped lead the zoo, park, and city through to the new plan that got the final approval Monday. Dean was replaced this year by Matt Thompson, the zoo’s former executive director and vice president (and the Zoo Dude personality on the zoo’s social channels).
Here’s how the zoo, park, and city described the new plan in a rare joint statement after Monday’s signing of the new memorandum of understanding:
“The new plan, which has been approved by both the conservancy and zoo boards of directors, would move the zoo’s current maintenance area to the park’s southeast corner, making use of existing buildings in the northern portion of what is now the city’s general services area.
Credit: Overton Park Conservancy
“The zoo’s existing maintenance area, located along North Parkway, would then be converted into parking. Along with some re-striping of the zoo’s main lot, this reconfiguration would add the 300 spaces the zoo needs without carving out a portion of the Greensward.
“Following the creation of the zoo’s new parking lot, the Greensward will be permanently closed to overflow parking. The conservancy is exploring the creation of a walking path around the perimeter of the Greensward to make the space even more accessible and increase its recreational potential. Overton Park will also look to remediate soil damage and install some landscaping that serves as a visual barrier between the Greensward and the zoo parking lots.
“Both organizations celebrate this historic day as they announce a permanent solution to the zoo’s parking needs that not only preserves the entire Overton Park Greensward, but restores 17 acres of mostly forested parkland that has been inaccessible for decades.”
Cheers rang through the MEMernet last week on news of a new deal for Overton Park, announced last week by officials from the city of Memphis, Memphis Zoo, and Overton Park Conservancy. The deal will save the entire Greensward, end zoo parking on the field, add about 20 to 25 acres of parkland, add about 300 new parking spaces for the zoo, and more.
Tensions over Greensward parking go back to the 1980s but intensified in 2014 when Citizens to Protect Overton Park launched its “Get Off Our Lawn” campaign. The ensuing years had protests with police helicopters, three plans, and a second line for trees that were cut down.
Eye roll
Posted to YouTube by Nick Johnson
Need rage? Go hate-watch Nick Johnson’s YouTube video titled: “Here’s Memphis, Tennessee: The Poorest, Most Dangerous Place in the South.” The travel vlogger drove through South Memphis early one November morning and said, “Memphis is maybe the scariest place you could visit,” and “I wonder if Elvis would be sad about the way [his] hometown looks these days.”
Go, Sam!
Memphian Sam White, known for his viral “You Can Be ABCs” video, sat with Ellen DeGeneres last week to talk about his new “You Can Be ABCs” book.
The Old Forest Trail, half of this year's double-EP release by New Memphis Colorways
With the Memphis Zoo now backpedaling on their ostensible commitment to avoid using the Overton Park Greensward as a parking lot, everything old is new again, and that includes a renewed appreciation of Overton Park by we, the people. How timely, then, to revisit some music inspired by that great green space. In this case, it’s two EPs by Memphis native Paul “Snowflake” Taylor, aka New Memphis Colorways, which were paired together earlier this year as a single LP in glorious vinyl.
One side of Paul Taylor’s double-EP release (Credit: Paul Taylor)
Memphis Flyer readers already know Old Forest Loop, a groovy, rollicking EP of instrumentals, which Andria Lisle profiled on its release in 2018. All riffs, beats, and changing gears, Taylor conceived of it as “homemade and light-hearted, and I see it as kind of a start-over for me. This is music I deliberately made for people to take summertime drives to — they can grill to it or swim to it.”
And yet, it somehow matches the elation Memphians feel at the return of cool weather as well. It’s an active record, an up record, and fits that impulse to get out of the house for some hiking, biking, or more. Having taken it on a test run while cooking out in the backyard, I can attest to the truth of Taylor’s claim that it pairs well with grilling.
Another side of Paul Taylor’s double-EP release (Credit: Paul Taylor)
If that’s one side of fall, the beauty of these twin EPs being brought together is that the older work, 2015’s The Old Forest Trail, perfectly matches autumn’s air of melancholy and reflection. A largely acoustic outing, it is, in Taylor’s words, “An homage to a sacred natural space in the middle of Memphis TN — the Old Forest Arboretum located in Overton Park.” The somewhat more wistful sound also matches what Taylor was going through in the year of its release, and he notes: “Also lovingly dedicated to the memory of my father, Pat Taylor 1949-2015.”
As he told Lisle, “When my dad [Memphis musician Pat Taylor, a veteran of numerous bands including the Breaks and the Village Sound] was sick, I was playing acoustic guitar by his bedside, and when he passed in early 2015, I was spending a lot of time in the Old Forest in Overton Park.” The peace of wild things, as poet Wendell Berry put it, is thus very much present in this set of songs, which sometimes echo Nick Drake’s application of a folk picking style to unexpected chords.
Another aspect of this album that is uniquely Memphis is the label: It’s the first release in many years by the great Peabody Records, founded by the late Sid Selvidge, now kept afloat by his son Steve. As Taylor points out in the notes, Old Forest Loop/The Old Forest Trail is “a joint venture between Peabody Records and The Owl Jackson Jr. Record Company.”
Ultimately, a refreshingly holistic view of Overton Park comes across with this album: a place of rambunctious activity and a place of solace. Delve into both with this multifaceted work by one of this city’s greatest players.
Mary Wilder’s June 15th Viewpoint column describes a great success story. Wilder lauds the million dollars recently raised by the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) and says this money will “end parking on the Greensward forever.” The truth is buried a few paragraphs later: “This will result in the loss of some park land on the northern edge of the Greensward … ” This attempt to reinvent reality is very troubling to me and should be to anyone else who cares about preserving public land.
Wilder uses the words “compromise” and “solution” to justify her opinion that it’s fine to pave one-quarter of the Greensward and give it to the Memphis Zoo. According to the current “compromise” map on the OPC’s website, the northern three acres of the historic Overton Park Greensward would be paved and lost forever. There is no compromise here. This is nothing but a naked land grab by zoo leaders. Amazingly, zoo leaders have conned the public into paying half the cost of destroying our own parkland.
Wilder claims to speak for 19 civic groups known as the Overton Park Alliance. I expect many members of those groups would be shocked to realize they have been used to justify the destruction of one-quarter of the Greensward. How did this happen? Why are these groups so eager to surrender our city’s free open space to benefit corporate interests?
I only claim to speak for myself. I have been involved in more than a few land protection campaigns over the past four decades. In 1986, I was one of the founders of Save Shelby Farms Forest and helped write the legislation that created the Lucius Burch State Natural Area. I was one of the first board members of the Wolf River Conservancy (WRC) and helped establish the Ghost River canoe trail in 1989. In 1997, I became the first executive director of the WRC and helped protect thousands of acres of land along the Wolf including the Ghost River State Natural Area.
In 2008, I helped revive the Citizens to Preserve Overton Park (CPOP) volunteer group that saved Overton Park from being destroyed by Interstate 40 in 1971. I supported the three-year-long CPOP campaign that created the Old Forest State Natural Area with unanimous approval from the Tennessee state legislature in 2010. Those 126 acres remain the only legally protected acres in the 342-acre Overton Park, which is why CPOP began their ongoing “Save the Greensward” campaign in 2014.
All of this is to say that I have witnessed and used a variety of tactics to protect green space for citizens to freely enjoy — including protests, letter-writing campaigns, lobbying for local and state legislation, and outright purchase and donation to state agencies. Before now, I have never seen a group of advocates come to the negotiating table in order to surrender to their aggressor. I have never seen a group of advocates willing to pay a million dollars to partly destroy the resource they ostensibly want to protect.
It is obvious that zoo leaders want as much of Overton Park as they can grab. In 1990, they fenced off more than 20 acres of old growth forest and destroyed four of those acres for the Teton Trek exhibit in 2008. Zoo leaders personally lobbied our city officials and Tennessee legislators to oppose CPOP’s campaign to create the Old Forest State Natural Area. And zoo leaders currently control public access to the northern three acres of the Greensward, due to the failure of OPC and city officials to defend this public land.
Those who favor giving up the Greensward to the zoo without a fight are a symptom of a bigger problem. They are part of a long tradition of political behavior in which cowardly but power-hungry people position themselves as leaders, then bow to threats and intimidation, then sandbag and deflate the efforts of others, then reframe the outcome as a necessary compromise and a success.
I believe the zoo can be driven off the Greensward if enough citizens demand it. Where zoo leaders park cars is their problem to solve — it is not the responsibility of citizens to provide funding or sacrifice parkland for a rich corporation that refuses to plan ahead. Zoo leaders claim to run a “world class” facility that is visited by a million people yearly. You cannot tell me those same people are mentally and financially incapable of devising ways to handle their traffic without paving parkland.
The Greensward fight is not over. Battle lines are now clearly drawn between those who think it’s fine to pave one-quarter of the Greensward and those who want to save it. I will continue to support CPOP and the citizens who remain committed to saving the entire Greensward, in the belief that it is priceless common ground that should be protected for everyone.
When the protests start again, which side of the zoo’s fence will you be on?
Larry J. Smith is a lawyer, environmentalist, and lifelong Memphian.
Trump and Cruz have called for Kasich to pull out. That tells me they see the same possible convention outcome. If Kasich stays in it, he could win it by default.
Jeff
I’ve often wondered if Trump was in this thing as a grand conspiracy to try to help Hillary get elected. He’s certainly helping to fracture the GOP, and if he does manage to pull enough support to get into the general, he’s nearly going to lock it up for Clinton.
GroveReb84
I was hoping for a pro-gun-control, free-college-education type like Ronald Reagan.
CL Mullins
About Jackson Baker’s story, “De-annexation Bill Killed for Session” …
Mark Norris, Brian Kelsey, and Reginald Tate are total embarrassments to Shelby County. It’s ridiculous that suburban leaders representing Shelby County in Nashville are constantly against anything that pertains to the city of Memphis. These yokels don’t realize that we are all in the same boat. Memphis not only has to fight middle and eastern Tennessee legislatures, but also those from Shelby County.
I would never vote for Mark Norris as governor. Memphis would be better off with former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean.
BigTime21
I maintain that we must forge a consolidated city/county government and get beyond all this city/county hostility. We have already consolidated the schools, so let’s consolidate the rest. It would save all of us a lot of money in taxes. Running two separate governments is ridiculous. What can we do to get this on the agenda?
ZenRiddler
About Toby Sells’ post “Council Members Say Sunshine Law Not Violoated” …
Where is the independent study that shows that the Memphis Zoo contributes $90 million to the local economy? Zoo people keep quoting that, but where is that number coming from?
The city budgets over $3 million to the zoo to operate annually; the zoo collects between $650,000 to $1,000,000 in annual parking fees (to park on land owned by the city/taxpayers), and taxpayers subsidize the zoo’s utilities. So it costs the city of Memphis/taxpayers anywhere between $4 million and possibly twice that when you factor in utility subsidization annually.
There are two types of tourists: day tourists who come to the zoo and then take their tired kids home (that’s zero in additional revenue to what they spend at the zoo itself) and then those who come to Memphis and do other tourist things (Graceland, Stax, Sun, Beale Street, barbecue, etc.). The zoo isn’t the only driver of that tourism. So what is the real economic impact, and where is the proof?
On the other hand, the annual property taxes from area codes 38104 and 38112 — those immediately adjacent to the zoo — bring in over $18 million annually to the city. And these are people who live, work, eat, shop, and play in the city every day.
Why is the council chasing tourists when they should be serving the residents?
Mary Ost
I have been a neighbor and regular user of Overton Park since 1982. During that time, every part of the park — the zoo, Shell, museum, Old Forest, trails, rest rooms, playgrounds, and gardens — has been significantly improved thanks to city government, the zoo leadership and donors, the Overton Park Conservancy, volunteers, and activists who each played an important part.
Sam Cooper, the landscaped eastern approach to Overton Park, is a big improvement over blighted Broad Street 20 years ago. And on the west side, the abandoned expressway corridor is now full of new homes and families. Unless you were in Memphis in those days, you can’t imagine how different it was. It’s hard to think of another Memphis success story as satisfying and broad-based as this one.
Now a debate over parking on the grass, which is commonplace at other parks in Memphis and elsewhere, is overshadowing this and dividing Midtowners and Memphians. I’m sorry to see that.
John Branston
Was Berlin Boyd a contestant for Miss South Carolina a few years ago? If not, he does a great imitation.
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.
About Bianca Phillips’ story, “Hispanic Man Sues City Over Beer Laws” …
I’m glad to hear he won. I am so tired of laws that tell your neighbor how to live. If you don’t want to buy a bottle of wine on Sunday, then don’t. I might have a dinner party that night and want to buy a bottle. Get over it.
DatGuy
It’s one of our stupidest laws. On the other hand, opening a church is an awesome way to make money. Your product costs nothing to produce, and it exists in infinite quantity. People pay out the nose for it, then use it all up in anywhere between seven and three days, depending on the denomination. It is extremely addictive and habit-forming, and there is enormous social pressure to use. Not only can they not live without it, they can’t die without it. The best part is, they aren’t aware that they can grow their own, so they keep coming back for more.
Jeff
A Walgreen’s next to a church can sell beer, but small mom-and-pop stores can’t? Oye, WWJD?
CityGirl
I know where I’m going to buy my beer from now on. Way to go, Marco!
Greg
About Mary Norman’s Viewpoint, “A Letter to the City Council” …
At the council meeting in which the Overton Park Greensward was given to the Memphis Zoo, attorney Allan Wade was more concerned with what the zoo thought than what the citizens of the city of Memphis think. When Councilman Worth Morgan amended the resolution to remove zoo control of Rainbow Lake and the playground, Wade piped up and said, “Is the zoo okay with that?”
Mr. Wade, it’s not your job to represent the zoo. If you’re the city council’s attorney, it’s your job to give a legal opinion, not advocate for a private business. All we citizens were asking for was to table this motion for two weeks so the people could read it. Of course, if that had happened, it would have been even more evident that this was nothing but a landgrab.
Blaine’s Nanny
And why did not one representative from the Memphis Zoo speak at the meeting? Because their interests were being “handled” by the city council and the city’s attorney, Allan Wade. Collusion, at its finest. Shame on all of them.
PDP
There’s a television show called Portlandia that pokes fun at the cultural idiosyncrasies of Portland, Oregon. Each show is made up of sketch-comedy episodes with overlapping narratives. I’ve long opined that Memphis needs its own medium for local humor. The recent drama between the OPC/zoo was the cherry on top. Look for the first episodes of Memphia sometime this fall.
Memphis Filmmaker
About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor, “Detention Deficit” …
It’s amazing how the American mind sees open space as a thing that needs to be filled up. There is a Daoist saying that it is only the emptiness of a vessel which makes it useful. That psychological and spiritual resource is actually a requirement for human well-being.
When we leave our little rooms — at home, at school, at work — and walk into a large, green open space, it fills the mind with the sense of possibilities — to the dreams, and the dreamer, within us. Having such a resource isn’t important to the people who voted to use this space as a parking lot, because they have alternatives. Inner-city kids don’t.
It’s important to remember why we need these spaces and to give them the respect and care they deserve. If we care for them, they in turn take care of us. And that’s why this microcosm of our existential fight, between balance and imbalance, strikes so strong a chord in those who understand that.
Thank you for keeping this issue in the public consciousness.
OakTree
Thank you for cutting through the malarkey and putting a spotlight on what is the right and good decision for Midtowners and Memphians regarding our jewel of a park. The chilling thought is that the zoo, with the consent of the council and mayor, is making a landgrab for the whole park. Make no mistake, they will be stopped.
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!
Greg Cravens 
Greg Cravens 
Greg Cravens 
Greg Cravens