A new FBI report says Memphis is the most dangerous city in the country. Need proof? Crime has gotten so bad that the Shelby County Clerk’s office in Parkway Village, located at Perkins and Knight-Arnold, is being forced to move to a better neighborhood. Of course, when the police precincts start moving to better areas, that’s when it’s time to worry.
Greg Cravens
A shoplifter is spotted in a local department store. The security guard gives chase, but the suspect gets in his car and drives away — only to crash into the curb. So the shoplifter hops out and jumps into the closest vehicle he can find, which just happens to be the car of the security guard, who has gotten out to investigate the crash. The shoplifter speeds off — with lights flashing and the security company’s name emblazoned on the side of the car. The police later find the car abandoned, the bad guy gone.
A computer glitch affects the regional air-traffic control facility that directs planes flying above Memphis and portions of Arkansas and Mississippi. Memphis International Airport shuts down, causing delays around the country, and for several hours, hard-working air-traffic controllers are forced to use alternate means of communication — including their personal cell phones — to direct traffic.
The whole saga begs the question: Isn’t there some sort of back-up system?
Kaywin Feldman, the director of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, is resigning in December to become director of the Minneapolis Institute for Art. So this leaves three openings here that we’ll be watching until they are filled: her replacement at Brooks, her husband’s replacement as professor of architecture at the University of Memphis, and whoever becomes the new owner of the couple’s super-cool, ultra-modern house across from Overton Park.
