The following is an excerpt from our December issue. Subscribe now.

by: Chuck Bates

Living in the same community we all have one issue in common that determines our future success or demise as a locality. We all want our community to survive economically. Whether someone is living in the most toney neighborhood or just in “the hood” we all have to make a living and in order to do that we have to attract capital to our community in the forms of new families and new businesses. Let’s face it everybody must feed, house and clothe themselves’ and that requires capital. But what does it take to retain that capital?

Capital looks for two things: 1.) Economic Stability and 2.) Political Stability. One need only look to other regions of the world to see the risk aversion of capital. Why are there no serious skyscraper lined cities in say Republic of Congo? Simply the risk to capital due to both economic and political instability overwhelms the potential reward for investing in the area. It is not due to a lack of natural resources as the nation is mineral rich. The problem lies specifically in the political upheavals and constant warring between factions thus destroying any hope of economic stability. But we don’t have to look to developing areas just look at Lebanon. Lebanon was at one point considered “The Riviera of the Middle East”. It was a business and banking center and today it is in constant turmoil due to political instability to the point new investment in such a place would be almost certain loss to the investor. Yugoslavia is another example of a nation that was on its way to modernization both politically and economically. The Winter Olympics were even held in the country but today it is a shell of a nation nowhere near where it was just two decades ago, all due to political instability and the subsequent flight of capital.
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The following is an excerpt from our December issue. Subscribe now.

By: Michael Roy Hollihan

It began again at the well-attended Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast in October. This was Mayor Herenton’s highest profile appearance after his record-clinching fourth re-election. He had the ears of many of Memphis and Shelby County’s biggest and most powerful business leaders and politicians. Herenton announced a lot of things, but he made sure to note that consolidation of Memphis and Shelby County governments was high on his list of priorities in his coming term.

The mayor’s been lying low ever since but the bugle call to consolidation is echoing around.

This war has been going on for many years now, and consolidation is no closer than it’s ever been. But this time it looks as though the consolidation campaign might actually gain some ground. Three fronts have opened up: education, police and charters. Each may gain a foothold.

From a chance, offhand discussion at Legislative Plaza in Nashville, a proposal has been crystallizing that would freeze the Memphis and Shelby County school districts. By changing State law to re-allow “special school districts” the boundaries for both systems would be set for years to come, regardless of geographical changes in city/county status. Both school systems could end the tricky negotiations and over-long logistical planning that goes into deciding where to build new schools. The County would no longer have to build schools with half an eye to an encroaching, consuming Memphis.
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The following is an excerpt from our December issue. Subscribe now.

By: Jonathan Lindberg

In 1950, a young preacher named Billy Graham made his first trip to the White House to meet with President Harry Truman. Graham was already a rising star, having gained much notierity during his long-running and highly-successful Los Angeles Crusade the previous year. Now the young preacher was turning his attention to Washington. Graham had written Truman several times seeking an audience with the President.

After meeting with Truman for almost an hour, Graham and his team stopped on the White House lawn for a picture with the press, four men bowed in prayer. When the image of the young flashy preacher appeared in the newspapers the next day, Truman was furious. He figured Graham had used his visit to the White House to gain media attention. It was the last time Graham would ever visit with Truman while in office.

Though the incident ended his relationship with Truman, it also marked the beginning of the unmatched and at times limitless access Graham has enjoyed with every president since. No preacher has spent more time with more presidents than Graham. Long before the Religious Right or the Moral Majority came along, Graham became and remains the single most influential religious figure in American history.

But as Graham learned with Truman, high access comes with high costs.
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The following is an excerpt from our November issue. Subscribe now.

By: Joe Saino

November is a very significant month for me as it was three years ago in November 2004 when I started on my journey of enforcing the Tennessee open records laws on a reluctant group of local government institutions and quasi government bodies. I started with the City of Memphis by requesting from Sara Hall the information about how much had Allan Wade and his law firm been paid by the City and by the City Council during the years 2003 and 2004.

Sara acknowledged my open records request promptly and then never responded further until I filed suit in Chancery Court in February of 2005. Only then did I get the information.

Allan Wade has the best of both worlds. He is a part time employee of the City Council as their part time attorney and received at that time a salary of $58,000 per year plus of course the roll-up cost that all city employees receive. Also he is on the City pension system and has health insurance with the City paying 70% of the cost. His salary then was increased from $58,000 to $80,000 per year and in addition to that, he was paid $250,913.75 for legal fees in 2004 and had received $165,446.93 in 2005 up to March of that year.
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The following is an excerpt from our November issue. Subscribe now.

By: Michael Roy Hollihan

Something very important happened at the Commercial Appeal in October, a revelation of huge importance for readers and for Memphis. So important, in fact, that there was very nearly a revolt in the newsroom.

But if you didn’t read a couple of websites here in Memphis, you’d have never known about it. In fact, you may still not know about it.

On October 16th, the Smart City Memphis blog published a scathing post revealing that the daily had a deal with FedEx whereby a series of upcoming articles, to be called “Memphis and the World,” would be “sponsored” by FedEx. This wasn’t just selling advertising, and it wasn’t a themed special section where advertisers would be recruited around lighter, feature stories. This was front page, hard journalism that would carry a “sponsored by FedEx” notice above every story. Think of “advertorials.” Those text-heavy advertisements that are made to look like a part of the paper, where you have to search for the “advertisement” label to be sure are another similar tactic.

The writer, Trevor Aaronson, had no idea of the sponsorship deal when he left town to research his stories. It was only after his return that he learned of the sponsorship. After a heated meeting with Commercial Appeal Editor in Chief Chris Peck, he refused to write anything under that arrangement. Shortly thereafter, the deal fell apart and now the series may be in limbo.

The newsroom was in turmoil as word of the deal and Aaronson’s treatment got around. Reporters and editors were angry that a fundamental rule of journalism had been breached. A petition of protest was put together and circulated around 495 Union Avenue, gaining over 70 signatures within days, from every department of the newspaper.
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The following is an excerpt from our November issue. Subscribe now.

By: Richard Thompson

An hour had passed. The Mike Fleming Radio Program starts promptly at 4 p.m. on Newsradio 600WREC, and its conservative host was prepping himself and his audience with breathless monologue in anticipation of the late arrival of Mike Fleming’s prized and elusive guest, “King Willie,” a respectful (or discourteous?) moniker for Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton.

It’s a Thursday, one week after Herenton, 67, won his fifth consecutive term in office as historically, as easily and as contentiously as Fleming had predicted all along much to the chagrin of his listeners—mostly male, older, conservative and likely white who depend upon the 65-year-old, veteran journalist to be one of Herenton’s chief critics.

Fleming is like his core audience, he is their voice—arguably their conscience, having nagged them with the inevitable about the city’s first, and only, African American mayor. Herenton’s challengers had no chance, Fleming argued more than once. Whatever. It didn’t matter now with Herenton en-route to 2560 Thousand Oak Drive, where Clear Channel Radio Memphis houses WREC and its six other radio stations.

In Memphis, WREC is the dominant news/talk station; though its lineup boasts nationally syndicated talking heads like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, Mike Fleming clearly mans the station’s top locally-produced program, airing from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and one of the longest running in the city.
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The following is an excerpt from our October issue. Subscribe now.

By: J. Ward Moorehouse

These days, the changes along the I-240 Poplar Loop are a study in constant change. Driving down Poplar one week might yield an open dirt field with slow moving machinery. The following week, that same piece of land is a bank with an Opening Soon sign blowing in the wind.

This past spring, Belz Enterprises was finally able to convert the prize piece of land just west of the I-240 Loop, luring a restaurant, a bank, and even a Starbucks onto an odd shaped tight fit piece of land. They even found room for an electronic billboard which has remained consistently occupied.

Now the attention of developers has shifted from the west side of the Loop to the east.

Gone are the Ridgeway Trace Apartments, once a fixture along the I-240 Loop. Sprawling buildings that looked more suited for the 1970s. Almost overnight, Ridgeway Trace was gutted and bulldozed, making way for construction this fall on a brand new commercial development.

The Ridgeway Trace Shopping Center, a series of free standing and joined commercial buildings, will begin to rise just west of the dark glassed and slightly curved Crescent Building over the next year. The plan is to take an area long known for high dollar business and add a high profile commercial element. It is a marriage long overdue.

The commercial complex, already leasing, aims for completion by fall of next year, or as retailers call it, the precipice of the Christmas Season.

Ridgeway Trace already has two anchor stores on board – Target and Best Buy. They also have a growing list of secondary stores, or Junior Anchors – Barnes & Noble, the Cheesecake Factory, Smoothie King, and Maggiano’s, an Italian restaurant. The aim is to not only cater to the steady daytime traffic, but to also create an elevated flow of nighttime traffic with retailers and restaurants open late into the night.

Filling the commercial space seems to be gravy, with new tenants already being added monthly. Poplar, along the I-240 Loop, generates over 60,000 vehicles per day. Over 70,000 people live within a three-mile radius of the land where the Ridgeway Trace Shopping Center is being built.

As development along the Loop continues to grow, traffic becomes a major obstacle to achieving success. With 1,700 parking spaces and an estimated five to ten thousand extra vehicles thrown out onto Poplar Avenue every day, one has to hope that the problems that have plagued the Walnut Grove exit just one mile north (read: congestion and gridlock) are unable to find root in the Poplar Loop.

The following is an excerpt from our October issue. Subscribe now.

by: Chuck Bates

Most of us have held the belief that the US Dollar is exempt from any real problems in the marketplace. After all, the Dollar currently maintains the title of the reserve currency for the central banks of the World right? Unfortunately this very belief is likely what will prohibit the majority in the US from protecting themselves from the difficult times for the dollar that seem to be on the horizon. However you do not have to be a victim as there are some very simple yet practical steps you can take to protect your hard-earned assets from the forthcoming economic storms.

The US Dollar has been the currency of currencies but this was not simply by chance nor due to wartime victories. The dollar was promoted to this esteemed category simply due to the fact that he who holds the gold makes the rules. You see in 1944 there was a conference in Bretton Woods, NH where the economic minds of the day decided that since gold was indeed the reserve currency choice of the ages and there seemed to be constant instability when it came to paper currencies then there was need for a currency that was backed by such a standard as gold and redeemable in said yellow metal upon demand. Thus the US made the largest conscription of gold to the deal and foreign governments could use the US Dollar as their reserve currency knowing they could redeem these paper IOU’s for real money at anytime.
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The following is an excerpt from our October issue. Subscribe now.

By: Jonathan Lindberg

In July 1940, the Democratic Convention in Chicago nominated Franklin Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term. The United States was facing great peril, split over the prospect of war with both Germany and Japan and still shaking the dust of the depression from its shoes. Roosevelt, ambitious to be sure, had kept his third term aspirations close to his heart, much like he would do over his fourth term. But with the nomination secure, Roosevelt turned his attention to the vice presidency, an office which was still voted upon by the delegates. Roosevelt indicated his choice was Henry A. Wallace, then Secretary of Agriculture. The convention was less than pleased. From the White House, Roosevelt followed the proceedings with unusual interest. What is clear is that at some point before the vote, Roosevelt drafted a letter declining the nomination for president, to be delivered to the delegates if Wallace was not the nominee. Like so many fights Roosevelt initiated, this battle had little to do with the vice presidency, an office still held in low regard. The battle was over Roosevelt himself, who had learned to amass power better than any president up to his time. The battle was won. Wallace was nominated. Roosevelt was elected. And four years later Wallace, no longer necessary, was replaced on the ticket by Senator Harry Truman.

Such is the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a man who from an early age, learned how to use his name and influence to get what he wanted.

Roosevelt grew up in New York City among the gilded age, when wealth and power was held firm among the ruling elite, and the middle class was only a concept being fashioned on paper. The fact that Franklin was the nephew of President Theodore Roosevelt only strengthened his hand, helping to guide his career well into the 1920s. It was only after serving as President for three consecutive terms, along with the death of his influential and dominant mother Sara that Roosevelt managed to emerge from the tall shadows of his family and become their patron saint.
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The following is an excerpt from our October issue. Subscribe now.

By: Senator Mark Norris

As Senate Majority Leader, it was recently my privilege to introduce the Governor in Memphis for a speech to the National Federation of Independent Business. During his remarks, he identified me as “his harshest critic anywhere in the State of Tennessee.” At the same time, he acknowledged that we work well together.

The Governor’s remark heralds a recent, and historical, turn of events. For the first time in nearly 140 years, the General Assembly is no longer controlled exclusively by one political party. The Senate is numerically Republican, and the Speaker of the Senate is a Republican. The House of Representatives is just the opposite.

For the first time since taking office in 2002, the Governor, a Democrat who had grown accustomed to having his way when both Senate and House were dominated by his party, found it necessary to accede to the will of the legislature on a number of important issues. This is what our founding fathers intended. It arises out of the separation of powers prescribed by our Constitution. There are three separate, but equal, branches of government which should work in concert with, not domination over, one another.

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