Tag: Robert Lipscomb

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Opinion

Pigging Out on Riverfront Projects

empress-uscg.jpg

The city’s pursuit of riverfront projects, spearheaded by Mayor A C Wharton and go-to guy Robert Lipscomb, looks manic, unsynchronized, and a bit desperate.

The latest play pretty in hot pursuit is the Empress of the North, a white-elephant steamboat replica envisioned as a floating hotel. As reported by Amos Maki of The Commercial Appeal, Wharton said “we have submitted a proposal.”

Whoopee. I was reminded of the parental admonition to “clear your plate” before going back to the buffet for more when I was a lad.

Here’s the tally of what’s on our plate already.

Bass Pro Shops. The latest rendering shows a major makeover of the exterior of the Pyramid, with a band of glass to admit natural light. The fate of the observation deck is unknown. The connection to The Pinch, and what will be developed in the Pinch, is unclear. The interstate connection to Front Street is on the drawing board. The interior construction, including the indoor swamp and hotel, is in the very early stages. The project was first proposed seven years ago. Bass Pro has other megastores in the works in Little Rock and New Orleans. I would bet a bass lure the Pyramid opening is delayed.

Beale Street Landing. Low water forced the American Queen to dock at Greenbelt Park this summer. The dock itself was moved to the cobblestones to allow dredging at the landing. The blockish structure at the top of the hill, trust me, is going to open some eyes. The “floating islands” have yet to be constructed. The usefulness of a boat dock for an occasional steamboat visit is questionable. The relative scarcity of parking concerns the current Memphis boat company. The marriage with Memphis in May will be interesting. The price is $42 million, and the concept is nearly 10 years old, and the opening is supposed to be later this year. The cobblestones work has been pushed back so many times I have lost count.

Pinch District. The connection between Bass Pro and St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and the prospective retail anchor for the north end of downtown and the convention center. Forget the colorful handouts and renderings, The Pinch is a small collection of restaurants, condos, blight, and vacant buildings. The convention center and hotel are not part of Phase One of Bass Pro. Nor is funding for it included in the $200 million budget.

Mud Island River Park. Closed half the year. Nice summer concert venue, though.

Tom Lee Park. Too hot in summer. Given to Memphis in May in April and May. Torn up for a few weeks after that. No major structures or big trees because that would cramp Memphis in May activities. Called “the worst riverfront park in the country” by Benny Lendermon of the Riverfront Development Corporation.

Harahan Project. Bike and pedestrian path over the river is slated for 2014 and funding has been secured. Now it needs focus.

Floating hotel. Kitschy. There’s one in Chattanooga. Nice place to have a drink on the Tennessee River. But the boat is old, the ceilings low, and the space cramped. The fact that the Empress of the North has been docked for several years and is in custody of the United States Maritime Administration speaks volumes about its viability. And the subsidies that would be required to sustain it.

Add to this, Lipscomb is also point man for the fairgrounds, Overton Square, Triangle Noir, replacement of public housing, and he has two city jobs.

Focus. Finish. Clear your plate.

Categories
Opinion

The End of Public Housing in Memphis

Robert Lipscomb

  • Robert Lipscomb

Memphis is at the beginning of the end of the housing projects that warehoused tens of thousands of poor people on the fringe of downtown for some 60 years.

In April, the boarded up two-story brick units that once housed more than 2000 residents of Cleaborn Homes will be demolished. That will leave neighboring Foote Homes, which has lower-density but is of the same vintage and design, as the last of the housing projects built in the 1940s.

Cleaborn Homes

  • Cleaborn Homes

Washington D.C. and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have noticed what is happening in Memphis. On Friday, Ed Jennings Jr., HUD’s regional administrator for our part of the world, came to Foote Homes to announce a $250,000 grant to the Vance Avenue Neighborhood, which is just a few blocks southeast of FedEx Forum. The grant will be administered by the Memphis Housing Authority, MIFA, and the University of Memphis.

With its problems of crime, education, and public health, “this ZIP Code (38126) is the most challenging in the community,” said Jennings.

The broader message was to praise the work Memphis has done under the leadership of Housing and Community Development director and MHA executive director Robert Lipscomb and partners to use over $100 million in federal “HOPE VI” funds plus $200 million in private capital to replace housing projects with modern mixed-income communities such as College Park, Legends Park, and Uptown.

“All I can say is Thank God for HOPE VI,” said Lipscomb, noting that MHA was being threatened with a federal takeover 20 years ago. He said it has taken about 12 years to dismantle public housing, which took some 50 years to build, populate, and depopulate. Former residents have been dispersed throughout the city and county. And while crime and the problems of 38126 have followed them, there is general agreement that the city is better off than it was. Mayor A C Wharton and MHA board chairman Ricky Wilkins were among those praising Lipscomb’s leadership.

Lipscomb said when the Cleaborn Homes is demolished he hopes Memphis “will eliminate public housing from our vocabulary.”

Categories
News

Bass Pro/Memphis Pyramid Deal is Shaky

Concerns over the Pyramid’s structural strength in case of seismic activity have the city and Bass Pro officials rethinking the Pinch development deal.
John Branston reports.

Categories
Opinion

Man of Many Hats

Robert Lipscomb has plans.

Plans for Bass Pro Shop and The Pyramid, plans for the Kroc Center and the Mid-South Fairgrounds, plans for the medical center, plans for LeMoyne-Owen College, plans for public housing and police precincts, plans for the old Mall of Memphis, plans for transit systems.

He has them on his desk in neatly bound folders with titles like “Rebuilding Communities One Brick at a Time” and “Functional Consolidation,” and he has them on oversized show-and-tell color renderings stacked 10 deep against the walls. It sometimes seems as if the city and Mayor Herenton must have a giant catch-all file labeled “Lipscomb.”

As if Lipscomb didn’t already have enough to do, one year ago, Herenton admitted that his finance staff wasn’t getting the job done and named Lipscomb chief financial officer for the city. That made Lipscomb the most titled person in local government. He was already head of the Division of Housing and Community Development, executive director of the Memphis Housing Authority, chairman of the board of LeMoyne-Owen College, and the mayor’s representative on committees exploring new uses for The Pyramid and the fairgrounds.

City Council members, not known for being friendly with Mayor Willie Herenton or members of his team, generally praise Lipscomb.

Rickey Peete calls him “the glue that has held the city together through the financial crisis.” Jack Sammons says Lipscomb “has as good a relationship with the council as anyone in the administration. We’ve got confidence in the numbers now.”

Myron Lowery, however, says he’ll wait and see if the city is able to add $20 million to its reserve fund, as Lipscomb predicted last year. “I don’t see anything that has increased our downside,” Lowery says. And Carol Chumney says Lipscomb “has too many responsibilities, wears too many hats, and has no staff. I think eventually that’s going to catch up with him.”

Lipscomb, 57, has worked for Herenton for most of the mayor’s 15 years in office, leaving for two years in 1996 to be chief operating officer of LeMoyne-Owen, his alma mater. He is both insider and outsider. His office is in MHA’s headquarters near Victorian Village, several blocks from City Hall. He is apt to return phone calls at any hour from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., but he is something of a loner. He says, with evident pride, “I never get asked to lunch.” Jeff Sanford, director of the Center City Commission, says he has had breakfast meetings where he ate and Lipscomb watched.

Lipscomb and Herenton have had their differences, but they teamed up with developers for one history-making change: the end of “the projects.” The first public-housing projects, Lauderdale Courts for whites and Dixie Homes for blacks, were built 60 years ago. Hurt Village, LeMoyne Gardens, Lamar Terrace, and others soon followed. By the 1970s they were synonymous with crime, murder, overcrowding, and neglect.

Spurred by loss of residents and a stinging federal audit in 1997, MHA began demolishing them and building $122 million worth of mixed-income communities, including College Park (formerly LeMoyne Gardens), Uptown (Hurt Village), Uptown Square (Lauderdale Courts), University Place (Lamar Terrace), and Dixie Homes. Since 2000, there have been only 18 murders in MHA properties.

“Robert is doing a good job with the resources he has,” says developer Archie Willis. “I often wonder how he gets to all the things he has on his plate.”

The conversion of Lamar Terrace is revealing. For several years MHA tried unsuccessfully to acquire the abandoned Baptist Hospital Rehabilitation Center on Crump Boulevard next to Lamar Terrace in order to condemn it. An elusive nonprofit organization proposing to build a giant homeless shelter tied it up for six years. A few years ago, developer Rusty Hyneman suddenly appeared in the ownership picture seeking, Lipscomb says, more than $1 million for the neglected building. Hyneman is politically connected, and there was some pressure on Lipscomb to deal with him. But Lipscomb said no, and the case went to Circuit Court. Public records show MHA wound up paying $571,000, including $338,000 in back taxes. The owners, with whom Hyneman abruptly denied any association, got $199,353.