It’s hard to remember all the times committees have set out and failed to analyze/reform/rationalize our local PILOT program but there is greater hope this time because a committee of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners is showing its seriousness at getting to greater accountability than previous hearings. That’s because it’s the Core City, Neighborhoods, and Housing Committee headed by Henri E. Brooks and Britney Thornton, respectively chair and vice-chair.  From all appearances, they are intent on cutting through the cheerleading by the usual suspects and evaluating PILOTs for thei ..read more

Former Memphian Bill Day is two-time winner of the RFK Journalism Award in Cartooning. His cartoons are syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons ..read more

Data Points: Transportation Costs 1%- Location Efficient Neighborhoods – compact places close to jobs and services with variety of transportation choices $13,496 – Annual Transportation Costs Per Household 1.7 – Autos Per Household 16,567 miles – Travel miles yearly 2% – Public Transit Ridership 6.43 tons – Annual Greenhouse Gas per Household 48% – Percentage of Income Spent on Housing + Transportation                 24% – Percentage of Income Spent on Housing           &nbs ..read more

It was April 5, 1968, and less than 24 hours had passed since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. Memphis ministers, led by Temple Israel Rabbi James Wax, had worked behind the scenes to open up lines of communications between the sanitation workers union and Memphis Mayor Henry Loeb who remained recalcitrant in his anti-labor stance. The ministers began April 5 with a meeting to pray for Memphis and for people of good will to call for a union agreement to be reached.  To that date, the ministers had resisted the call to march on City Hall, but th ..read more

Former Memphian Bill Day is two-time winner of the RFK Journalism Award in Cartooning. His cartoons are syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons ..read more

Part 1 of this post was published Monday and can be read here:  *** Mass Hypnosis Truth be told, The Pyramid could not compete with the quality of the Coliseum’s construction materials  – and certainly not its acoustics – and in retrospect, it’s unbelievable that our gullible community  could be convinced by backers in the business community that a “first class, state of the art” arena could be built for $39 million (although the final cost after scope changes was approximately $62 million).   Nor were the new arena’s comfort and sight lines as good as the Coliseum.  ..read more

There has never been an arena built in Memphis with the same quality, better acoustics, TLC, and comfort as the Mid-South Coliseum. It was the culmination of a dream that began in the late 1950s for a new, all-purpose, “blue chip” public arena, and when the doors were thrown open in 1964, the building produced a burst of civic pride (building on the momentum created by the opening of the Roy Harrover-designed Memphis International Airport a year earlier) not seen again until the opening of AutoZone Park and FedExForum roughly four decades later. Anyone who bought a ticket for an event in the C ..read more

Former Memphian Bill Day is two-time winner of the RFK Journalism Award in Cartooning. His cartoons are syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons ..read more

It’s often hard to translate policy into practice. That’s especially true when it comes to making downtown Memphis walkable and pedestrian-friendly rather than the present car-centric place with too much space gobbled up by parking spaces and with streets that only carry half of their capacities. City planners are doing a lot but they can only do so much.  They need support of boards like the Land Use Control Board, EDGE, and Board of Equalization, and governing bodies like Memphis City Council.  Most of all, they need the support of a public that understands and embraces urbanism. I ..read more

By Bill Day Former Memphian Bill Day is two-time winner of the RFK Journalism Award in Cartooning. His cartoons are syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons ..read more