The Guardian of Memphis

The state pays us attention, somewhat. LOL. If they didn't, we wouldn't have gotten some of the funding to renovate FedEx Forum. I think there are so many mouths to feed in this state, and everyone wants to jockey in position to get what they want. Memphis gets blamed for its leadership (or lack thereof), which is agreeable to a point. It's not all 100% bad. Our new mayor wants to increase property taxes to pay for needed services. Current Tennessee Bureau of Investigation statistics show some areas of crime are down, but still a lot more work to be done. I'm happy that we have at least one major sports team, and also proud that they've been here for going on 20 years.

I agree with these realistic approaches. Maybe it would take another developer to tackle the properties. Don’t have to have 3 huge developments at once - maybe just one high rise at a time. There must be a way to think outside the box rather than settling for low rises. Seems like there should be demand for St. Jude employees, visitors, plus convention center visitors. Intrator waited too long on this. The Pinch is the perfect destination and could hopefully be a second entertainment area for those groups since Beale is far away.

Seems like a lot of waiting could be had. There isn’t a stop further north on Madison, near Front? Maybe it could reverse easily there.

It will be interesting to see how the light rail cars and trolleys intersect at Madison and Main. Hopefully more density will happen near the Cleveland/Madison intersection.

I'm hoping this doesn't put a damper on the dock expansion projects the city proposed.

It's much needed. Going north from FedEx Forum is where all the activity is. South of Beale needs more vibrancy. This excludes South Main.

I hope this was a joke. The Medical District Collaborative Board should block this super fast. Can they do that?

Whatever happened to Morgan Keegan being renovated into apartments?

Medical District development Vic on Union scales down, receives PILOT extension Glad to know this project will go forward and hasn’t been scrapped as we thought. I thought this was an encouraging quote from the article: “When we picked Memphis, we did it because we saw a long-term opportunity to grow as Memphis is growing.” Yeah baby!!

Shoutout to Fred Smith! Flex ya muscles dude! LOL.

It IS unique - this is the type of style that needs to be on Beale anyway. Speaking of the Edge District, what is going on with the Rise at the Ravine, especially where Coleman Taylor used to be?

I would hope they would have a shuttle to take them where they need to go.

MIM BBQ fest is moving to Liberty Park. Thoughts anyone?

Great news indeed! It would've been nice to see MLGW build something new or relocate downtown, but all in all, very excited to see what will happen! I guess Paul Young had to flex his muscles before the election. LOL. The Downtown Master plan is coming to fruition. Glad that old MLGW will be torn down - it never fit anyway. That's a good piece of real estate too. So is the leadership still bad?

The city should throw its name in the hat. Be proactive and aggressive. At least we'd know where we stand. Probably need more population here for added support. AZP doesn't look like it'll be able to expand from the looks of the Brewers stadium, but what do I know. I'd like to see what the new mayor, whoever that is, has planned for this type of stuff.

All good points. Maybe this will be done in reverse, although we need the rooms now. By reverse, I mean that, we'll do the residential/hotel mix first (which is more profitable I think?) for these historic structures, then do the 400-500 room stuff later with a new build. Stuart Harris wants to encourage neighborhood-like development in this area, so hopefully there are plans for the parking lots in front of Sterick plus for 5 & 7 North Third. These need to be high rises, not 1-2 story stuff. Hopefully the market will bear that type of development in the future. Want to see the type of development that happened with the Carlisle hotels on Beale and Front to happen on Third/Madison/Court. I'd like to see a high rise built between Jefferson Plaza and 44 N. Second. My hope is that it'll be a little taller than the Commerce Sq. tower.

Not at all. The media serves a function as to inform. I’m not against that. Per the video I posted from City Nerd, an urban planner, statistics usually don’t tell the full story. As in a previous post, sometimes the statistics are skewed. However, I strongly agree with you, something should be done about crime. It’s the #1 issue. Saw state troopers downtown last week. At least something is being done. More needs to happen though. Again, there should be a balance. There are good things happening as well as bad. This is true in every city (I don’t like to use that argument, LOL). I think the point is, that’s all people hear and see seemingly is the bad. It shouldn’t be that way.

Agreed. A couple of mayoral candidates want to rebrand the city and its message, but my hope is that whoever is in office will bring about this change. I’m not going to trash our leadership, because that’s another thing the world negatively perceives of here. It’s ok to look at the glass half full sometimes. It look leadership to bring 100 N. Main back, plus Sterick. There are people that actually care about the city. Desmond Bane said he loves Memphis. Why can’t others?

That’s right. Click and ear bait. LOL. The Grizz belong in Memphis. Stop fueling the divide between the cities, not pointing the finger at anyone here. Be grateful for what’s going on in Nashville, but not at the expense of Memphis (as it has always been). Besides, Ja doesn’t fit Nashville. Just a joke. LOL. Grit and grind doesn’t either.

I understand the frustration somewhat, but virtually all downtowns have a Holiday Inn Express. Let’s just get rid of the blight and when we’ve done that, look to build something new that would house an upscale venue.

Agreed. As long as it doesn’t take away from the 1st downtown. So many amenities within a walking distance. Whole Foods, Kroger, Houston’s, Paradiso. Makes a lot of sense. Knowing Carlisle, everything will probably be glass. LOL. Good thing is, it will kind of fit, if it was closer to the Hilton on Ridgeway.

Let’s see if Mr. Carlisle can come through with ALL phases of this development. Wonder how tall these structures will be? Hope there won’t be any NIMBYs to halt it either. Buckhead, here we come! Waiting on nothingspectacular……

Stunning. Beautiful. Very proud!!!

There's no concrete proof of this (I hope, LOL), so before we go jumping to conclusions maybe we should leave it alone, as it continues more of the same narrative that people inevitably fall into time and time again while ignoring what the city has done so far. Memphis is no different than any other city in America. Our stuff gets aired out a lot more than other cities. Maybe we've had more than our fair share. There's no telling what has gone down in other cities that we didn't know about. I definitely don't have a skewed view of any other city in America because I know how much people have verbally trashed Memphis over and over. I have a relative that's from New Orleans - he told me about the corruption they endured, but I not dare make comments that are negative, even though it may true. I like New Orleans, warts and all. Aside to downtown Memphis. It was basically a ghost town after 1968 and hit a low in the 80s. Did poor leadership stall its development to bring it back to its renaissance? It was the downtown Memphis commission's goal to refurbish all of the vacant structures, and for the most part, they've been successful.

Heresay. Conjecture. Speculation. Where’s the evidence and proof beyond a reasonable doubt? Some of us grew up watching Perry Mason. LOL.