Why yes, I am in a bad mood... thanks for asking.
So I'm reading this interview with the MATA planning director Tom Fox by Tim over at "I'll meet you at the Station" and I got distracted by a number. Tim apparently solicited questions from his readers (bravo for crowd-sourcing), and put together a really solid list of questions for Mr. Fox.
The general theme of the answers came in the form of "we're working hard but we need more money." This didn't come as any great shock to me; I work for the state. Budgets are tight all around and I get that, but then Mr. Fox actually quoted a dollar figure.
The thing standing in the way of the Cordova/Downtown light rail line is $17 million dollars. Our mayor wants to piss away $175 million dollars of our tax money for a football stadium in a city that already cocked up its bid for a professional football team and has been thoroughly screwed on the other two professional sports venues built here and you mean to tell me that the only thing standing in the way of this desperately needed bit of public transit is a measly $17mil?
And before somebody takes me to task for the "desperately needed" bit because they think people in the 'burbs all suck, I've got to get something off my chest: I'm sick to death of this "us versus them" crap between the inside-the-parkways crowd and everybody else in the MSA. Cordova and Collierville need downtown and downtown needs Cordova and Collierville, no matter how much both sides resent it. If Memphis were doing as well off from the Midtowners' money as they and their never ending stream of press releases would have us believe, then Main Street after dark would look like Vegas and not a pan handlers convention.
That said, do I wish there were less sprawl? Of course I do, but I also wish I had a tree that grew gold bricks... fat lot of good that's doing. We have to work together starting with the Memphis that's here, not the Memphis we wish we had.
In his critique of this notion of the Creative Class that we're supposed to be attracting in droves and that will apparently pave the streets in platinum and make jewels fall from the sky, a good friend of mine brought up the point of what he called "legacy Memphians." His point being that, ok fine, we bring all these super hip people here with all their super hip techno VC and the people who are already here and broke are still here and broke. WTF are we supposed to do for them?
(Speaking of critiques, if you haven't read fearlessvk's skewering of this myth of the Creative Class go do it now... right now... I mean it... I'll wait...)
But taken a step further, sprawl is also a part of "Legacy Memphis." Ignoring it or making fun of it isn't going to make it go away. We still have to be neighbors after we're done snarking about each other on our blogs.
My foul mood this afternoon aside, I'm not saying there aren't good things happening in Memphis because God knows there are lots of them, but they are having to happen in spite of our divided-and-politically-conquered natures. I freely admit to being a newb (I made 5 years here in December), but Steve Cohen's partisan rant aside, the Charles Jordan talk a few weeks ago was the first time since I've lived here that I felt like I was part of a community that was actually interested in doing something.
And by community, I don't mean Central Gardens, I don't mean Raliegh, I don't mean Hickory Hill... I mean Memphis... all of it.
Like it or not we're all in this together.
4 comments:
If you were to read this post aloud and record it, and then have it played on public airwaves, someone might construe it as a reason to vote for you. I've no idea what the election would be for or about, but vote for you I would.
Is there Opera in Memphis? Do you go? I'd like to get into opera I think, or at least see one that Mozart did.
I think light rail (and non-auto based connections, ala greenlines) could unify the parts of the metropolitan area you're talking about. I don't think the 'burbs ringing Memphis are far out. But there's something about getting in your pod to go somewhere that makes it feel separate. The physical presence of the rails could do a lot. But it takes vision. I don't think it's money. They always find the money when they want to do something, e.g., the stadium.
btw, I went insane halfway through Mr. Fox's answers. Nice that he took the time (just like it was nice everybody took the time to ask and assemble the questions) but his answers were a) no new details and b) a lot of "we've got everything under control..., we're aware of..., we'll let you know when new facts become available..., we've got top guys working on it..., we're monitoring the situation..." but not a single frigging answer you couldn't get from a 5 minute Google. He's got a choir that's ready for the holy spirit and he doesn't even preach. It was a brochure put out by a communications department that doesn't even update its website. Sell it baby! The fact that he and his boss can giving knowing but privileged looks about all the great things they and their nationally recognized recognized nationalist are going to do doesn't mean squat.
But maybe I'm being unduly harsh.
Would you recommend blogger/blogspot? I'm wanting to create a blog for my Dad and his wife. If they have to set one up, they'll never do it, but if I were to "hand them the keys" to such a thing, so all they had to do was post updates and photos, I think they'd like it.
Oh, and Happy Easter, I love you, pass my love to Amber, peace.
Ken
I hope that you are not retired?
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