tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87582378132515562662024-03-14T01:53:45.129-05:00Southern LightsPeople Powered Movements, Southern History, Religion and Politics. Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.comBlogger149125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-57794875108421230082014-07-24T12:20:00.001-05:002014-07-24T12:20:21.775-05:00James Lawson - Training for Nonviolent ResistanceThis is another video produced by Ackerman and York, creators of <i>A Force More Powerful</i>, featuring the Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr. He talks specifically about his work with the Little Rock 9 in 1958. <br /><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Uq1VVzyQII0" width="459"></iframe>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-4451685182394620032014-07-23T13:49:00.001-05:002014-07-23T13:49:31.003-05:00James Lawson Interview - Lunch Counter Sit-Ins in NashvilleI've been working with Dr. Michael Honey on a documentary film about James Lawson this summer, and the research has led me to a number of excellent videos of Lawson talking about nonviolence. <br /><br />
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Check out this video of Lawson reflecting on the power of transformation evident in the students participating in the Nashville sit-ins. <br /><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2C_FGc9c9as" width="459"></iframe>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-68335392890650471132013-07-11T23:32:00.000-05:002013-07-11T23:34:09.074-05:00Declining Black Political Power in the U.S. South? The New York Times <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/the-decline-of-black-power-in-the-south/">reported yesterday</a> that black political power appears to be in decline in the U.S. South. <br />
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While African Americans are serving as congresspeople or senators in southern state legislatures in record numbers, 313 in total according to the Times, the power these elected officials enjoy appears to be waning. <br />
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"<a href="http://www.jointcenter.org/content/david-a-bositis-phd">David A. Bositis</a>, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, in <a href="http://www.jointcenter.org/research/resegregation-in-southern-politics">a 2011 paper</a>, “Resegregation in Southern Politics?”...charts growing Republican strength in the South...before the 1994 election, only one out of 202 black elected officials in Southern legislatures was in the minority party. After the 1994 contest, the number of Southern blacks in the minority party grew to 46 out of 260. In the aftermath of the 2010-11 elections, the proportion of Southern blacks serving in the majority – that is, the party controlling the state legislature — dropped to just 15 out of 313. In less than 20 years, the percentage of black legislators in the South serving in the majority fell from 99.5 percent to 4.8 percent."</blockquote>
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So, in short, new legislation aimed at increasing requirements for voting alongside recently re-drawn congressional districts have led most African American state representatives, most of whom are democrats, to serve in the minority party. In some cases, <a href="http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/nov/06/super-majority-for-gop-assured-in-legislature/">as with Tennessee</a>, supermajorities in the house and senate enable lawmakers in the majority party to suspend rules - which means legislation can be passed through the house and the senate without debate.</div>
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Yet The Atlantic <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/06/can-democrats-win-back-the-deep-south/277123/">reported</a> in late June that the electoral landscape in the South might be changing quickly to favor African Americans, Latinos, and, potentially, the Democratic party. </div>
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"Tupelo got its first Democratic mayor in nearly 30 years, a 37-year-old trial lawyer. Meridian got its first black mayor ever. Ocean Springs' Democratic incumbent won a third term to preside over an all-Republican board of aldermen. Mississippi Democrats <a href="http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130609/NEWS01/306090037/Miss-Dems-revived-by-election-successes?nclick_check=1">proclaimed it 'Blue Tuesday.</a>'<br /><br />'It's been a long time coming,' Percy Bland, the 42-year-old mayor-elect of Meridian, told me. 'We haven't had a Democratic mayor in Meridian since '76. And we won it running away, when people thought it would be very close.'"</blockquote>
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The Times seems to acknowledge both realities - that demographics are shifting in the south, and that the recent strategy among Republican lawmakers has been successful:</div>
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"What stands out, looking at the data, is how effective, in purely political terms, the Republican’s “white” strategy has turned out to be at the state level. Nationally, the party is enmeshed in an <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/03/should-republicans-just-focus-on-white-voters/%20between">often bitter debate</a> between those who argue that future success lies in building margins and turnout rates among whites, making little effort to woo minorities — or in fact actively scorning them; and those, on the other hand, who believe that this strategy can no longer work as the population of minority voters grows." </blockquote>
In the meantime, as legislatures across the south remain hegemonic, the recent <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/175160/sixty-four-arrested-moral-monday-abortion-access-protest-north-carolina#axzz2YnnptOHv">Moral Monday demonstrations</a> in North Carolina may prove to be a tool used more frequently across the U.S. South to influence the direction of public policy. Sixty-four more protestors were arrested in Raleigh-Durham this past Monday.Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-48157494160512877982013-07-08T16:20:00.003-05:002013-07-08T16:31:37.561-05:00Moral Mondays in North Carolina and the Shifting Political Landscape of the U.S. SouthThe political landscape in the Southern United States is changing - and like the geography seen from the window of an airplane, it may look slow, but its careening past us at 500 miles per hour.<br />
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The shift, while complicated, seems to have both a push and a pull. <br />
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And the pull is coming from the changing demographics in the United States. <br />
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For the first time in our nation's history, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that traditionally minority populations have risen to represent nearly half of all children under 5. The Huffington Post <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/minorities-in-america-census_n_3432369.html">reports</a>:<br />
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"Fueled by immigration and high rates of birth, particularly among Hispanics, racial and ethnic minorities are growing more rapidly in numbers than whites. The decline in the U.S. white population has been occurring more quickly than expected, resulting in the first 'natural decrease' for whites – deaths exceeding births – in more than a century, census data show. For now, the non-Hispanic white population continues to increase slightly, but only because of immigration from Europe."</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">NPR has an excellent feature entitled "<a href="http://www.npr.org/series/196613711/texas-2020">Texas 2020</a>" which outlines the rapidly growing Hispanic population in the Lone Star State. </span> "Within a decade," NPR <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/07/03/198345561/texas-looming-hispanic-shift-explained-in-2-charts">reports</a>, <br />
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"Hispanics are projected to eclipse non-Hispanic whites as the largest race or ethnic group in Texas. It's a development that could someday shift the state's — or, given the size of Texas, even the nation's — politics. eclipse non-Hispanic whites as the largest race or ethnic group in Texas. It's a development that could someday shift the state's — or, given the size of Texas, even the nation's — politics." </blockquote>
This graph does a nice job illustrating the projected rate of change over time. <br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This pull is, in large part, the reason we have seen such relatively swift and decisive action on immigration reform in the Senate. But, the bill may not even come up for a vote in the House. </span><br />
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Senator John McCain <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/309283-mccain-house-gop-headed-for-clash-on-immigration">spoke to Fox News</a> last week about the importance of the bill: "I really don’t feel it's appropriate for me to tell [Boehner] exactly how he should handle this. But I think Republicans realize the implications for the future of the Republican Party in America if we don't get this issue behind us.”<span style="font-family: arial, tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;"> </span><br />
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McCain is spot on: the implications for the bill are profound. In the 2012 national election, President Barack Obama <a href="http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/11/07/latino-voters-in-the-2012-election/">won</a> 71% of the Latino vote. </div>
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So that's the pull. What about the push? </div>
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In 2012, the people of Arkansas elected a majority Republican delegation to represent them in the state capitol. That election meant, for the first time since Reconstruction, <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/11/gops-takeover-of-arkansas-legislature-boosts-partys-control-in-the-south-updated.html">every state from the former </a>Confederacy now has a majority Republican legislature.</div>
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The election was especially significant in Arkansas as democrats had controlled the state house since 1874. </div>
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But as the Atlantic <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/06/can-democrats-win-back-the-deep-south/277123/">recently reporte</a>d, just as the Southwest of the United States recently underwent a profound electoral shift, so might the American South. Political operatives from Project New America have launched the <a href="http://projectnewamerica.com/landmark-research/southern-project">Southern Project</a> to monitor the shifting demographics and attitudes towards public policies emerging from state houses. </div>
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The ubiquitous control over Southern politics enjoyed by a single party, whether Republican or Democrat, has, <a href="http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/page/347">historically</a>, always pushed activists to engage. The "Solid South" emerging from the New Deal coalition of the early 20th century began to fray in 1948 amidst the Dixiecrat revolution, and President Richard Nixon completed the transition from a solidly democratic South to a solidly republican south with the successful deployment of his southern strategy in the 1968 presidential election. </div>
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The Southern United States, then, was solidly controlled by each of the major parties during the twentieth century, and during each of these eras of complete control activists sought to change their political landscape - sometimes with nonviolent direct action. </div>
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In North Carolina, that's exactly what's happening. </div>
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Initially organized by the NAACP in late April of 2013, "Moral Monday" protests have been taking place at the Capitol building in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina for close to three months. The number of demonstrators has to more than 2,500 participants from all regions of the state.<br />
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Moral Mondays were borne from a concern that legislators in North Carolina were moving, <a href="http://www.aclu.org/voting-rights">like many states</a>, to restrict voting rights. In recent weeks, the demonstrators have broadened their focus - and also grown their coalition. <br />
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Demonstrators are now asking legislators to address issues ranging from clean water to education policy, and increasingly protestors from the Research Triangle area in Raleigh-Durhams are being joined by citizens from rural Western North Carolina. <br />
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The Carolina Public Press reports more than 90 people were arrested at the capitol building in Raleigh last week, and more than <a href="http://www.carolinapublicpress.org/15957/wnc-voices-build-at-moral-monday-protests">650 have been arrested </a>since the demonstrations began in late April. <br />
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The demonstrations continued today, and this <a href="http://fayobserver.com/articles/2013/06/23/1264726">editorial</a> makes plain the reason North Carolinians have chosen to go to jail these past three months:<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"...when the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People organized the Moral Mondays protests, we were happy to answer the call.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It wasn't an easy decision. Neither of us had ever been arrested. We obey the law and teach our children to obey it, too.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But we've also been activists on behalf of what we think is right for our state and our country, going back as far as the civil rights movement. And we remember when Dr. Martin Luther King said that </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">'there comes a time when silence is betrayal.'</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This spring, the irresponsible North Carolina legislature has created one of those times. We had been in legal protests before.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But they didn't seem to make a dent.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So last Monday, we stepped up and took our stand." </span></blockquote>
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"The south is the crucible where freedom has been hammered out," said historian Tim Tyson. "This is the struggle," he continued, "its always about what happens here. So goes the south, so goes the nation, so goes the world. See, this fusion movement that's going on - black and brown and white, gay and straight- this is a very important historical moment. Not just in North Carolina, but I think what happens here is gonna be very important in the history of this country."<br />
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What happened in <a href="http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/commentary/299/entry">Greensboro, North Carolina</a> in 1960 was certainly key to our nation's inexorable move towards becoming a more just place - and Tyson is likely correct: our aspiration to form a "more perfect union" has so often been tempered and tested in the red clay and humidity of the U.S. South. <br />
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In Durham and Memphis, Atlanta and Itta Benna, Shreveport and Columbia, the coming years may prove critical to the our nation's ability to understand the continually evolving notions of freedom and democracy. <br />
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<br />Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-45382095926034211732013-07-07T16:16:00.002-05:002013-07-07T20:12:01.552-05:00Ronnie and Neil<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I've been in Seattle for the past five days spending time with friends from the South. They're ex-pats of a sort, but even amidst the coniferous forest and white firs, these boys are southern. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Still, understanding what it means to be from the South is a tricky thing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We have to contend with the ideas that people outside the South have about the South. Then there are the experiences we as southerners have had with other southern people; and perhaps most paradoxically, there's us: race and rebellion and DIY culture all knotted up in our ontology, kindness and gentility flanked by a deep spirit of independence and self-determination that is tempered, seemingly, only by the grace of God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.thisisthenewyear.com/">Sasha</a> has been spinning a lot of Neil Young and Skynrd this week. We've also discussed endlessly the new <a href="http://www.jasonisbell.com/news/">Jason Isbell record</a>, which is markedly more introverted than his previous releases. And all these guys have some remarkable musical connections. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Isbell has a knack for writing well about <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqOCOEdZ0uo">what it means</a> to live in the South. Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, Isbell's former bandmates in The Drive By Truckers, are also particularly poignant in their musical accounting of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmUvMCPvCdQ">life in northern Alabama</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Just before Isbell joined the Truckers in late 2001, the band issued a landmark 20-song release: <i><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/southern-rock-opera/id330864">The Southern Rock Opera</a>. </i>The album's lead track, <i><a href="http://www.americansongwriter.com/2013/04/drive-by-truckers-ronnie-and-neil/">Ronnie and Neil</a>,</i> instantly challenges the listener to understand the tension between the lived experience of the South and the perceptions of the South by those who don't live there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In <i>Ronnie and Neil</i>, Patterson Hood used the public rift between Ronnie Van Zant and Canadian Singer-Songwriter Neil Young to illustrate the point. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"Church blew up in Birmingham</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">four little black girls killed</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">For no goddamn good reason</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">All this hate and violence can’t come to no good end</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A stain on the good name </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A whole lot of good people dragged through the blood and glass</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Blood stains on their good names and all of us take the blame...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And out in California, a rock star from Canada writes a couple of great songs about the Bad shit that went down...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">...Meanwhile in North Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd came to town</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To record with Jimmy Johnson at Muscle Shoals Sound</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And they met some real good people, not racist pieces of shit</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And they wrote a song about it and that song became a hit."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This musical sparring between Skynard and Neil Young began in 1970 when Young released <i><a href="http://www.lyricsfreak.com/n/neil+young/southern+man_20099024.html">Southern Man</a>. </i> The song immediately struck resonant emotional chords - chords which both told a truth about life in the south and obscured much of what it meant to be southern. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"I saw cotton</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /> <br />And I saw black<br /> <br />Tall white mansions<br /> <br />And little shacks.<br /> <br />Southern man<br /> <br />When will you Pay them back?<br /> <br />I heard screamin' And bullwhips cracking<br /> <br />How long? How long?"</span><br />
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Van Zant challenged Neil Young's didactic simplification of the South in Skynrd's 1974 top ten hit, <a href="http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/lynyrd+skynyrd/sweet+home+alabama_20086081.html">Sweet Home Alabama</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"<span style="line-height: 23px;">Well I heard mister Young sing about her</span><span style="line-height: 23px;"> (Alabama)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 23px;">Well, I heard ole Neil put her down </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 23px;">Well, I hope Neil Young will remember </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 23px;">A Southern man don't need him around anyhow."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">For Van Zant and Skynrd, the south was about family and music, natural beauty and kinship; but was it possible to love the south without subscribing its more sordid parts? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">The Truckers certainly think so. In <a href="http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/truckers-drive-by/the-southern-thing-1238.html">The Southern Thing</a>," Patterson Hood proclaimed: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><br />"(The South) Ain't about no hatred - better raise a glass<br />It's a little about some rebels but it ain't about the past<br />Ain't about no foolish pride, Ain't about no flag<br />Hate's the only thing that my truck would want to drag<br /><br /> ...Proud of the glory, stare down the shame<br />(The) Duality of the southern thing."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Perhaps, then, at the center of today's Southern Man and Woman there lives a paradox. A love of one's own culture and family mixed with an openness and welcome; a spirit of rebellion washed over with a sense of collective responsibility; In the South, a firm grasp on a difficult history helps us focus on the future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In typical fashion, Isbell seemed to sum up well this tension in a recent Facebook post about Paula Deen. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ronnie and Neil nurtured a positive relationship through to Ronnie's early death in October of 1977, although <a href="http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2010/02/ronnie-and-neil-laying-to-rest-feud.html">Thrasher's Wheat contends</a> that Young didn't actually serve as a Pall Bearer in Young's funeral. Still, Hood sang about the duality of Ronnie and Neil, an emblem of the duality of the South: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"Now Ronnie and Neil became good friends their feud was just in song</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Skynyrd was a bunch of Neil Young fans and Neil he loved that song</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So he wrote ‘Powder Finger’ for Skynyrd to record</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But Ronnie ended up singing “Sweet home Alabama” to the Lord</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Neil helped carry Ronnie in his casket to the ground</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And to my way of thinking, us southern men need both of them around." </span></div>
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Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-1651904208902029512013-06-21T16:15:00.002-05:002013-06-21T16:15:17.324-05:00Marshall Taylor: The Black Cyclone and the Color Line<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Marshall Taylor was the fastest man in the world in 1900. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Taylor broke dozens of world records before he was 30, and competed regularly - also winning regularly - across the United States and Europe. As a black man in America in the early 20th century, Taylor's accomplishments were especially remarkable. Taylor won a world cycling championship more than a decade before before the legendary Jack Johnson, "The Black Bomber," won his world boxing title. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Taylor dominated the track, whether in short races or in the infamous "six-day races" popular in the early 20th century. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The <a href="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2012/09/the-unknown-story-of-the-black-cyclone-the-cycling-champion-who-broke-the-color-barrier/">Smithsonian reported</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"...</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">in 1896, he finished eighth in his first six-day race at New York’s Madison Square Garden, even though the hallucinations got to him; at one point he said, 'I cannot go on with safety, for there is a man chasing me around the ring with a knife in his hand.'”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Despite Taylor's success - he had seven world records to his name before he was 20, winning 29 or the 49 races he entered - he was banned from riding in the American South. In 1902, Taylor traveled to Europe where he would continue to dominate the track.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Taylor would retire at 32 in Chicago, IL, where he would write and publish his autobiography, T<i>he Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World</i>. </span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“I felt I had my day,” he wrote, “and a wonderful day it was too.” </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The financial collapse of 1929 and bad investments would leave Taylor penniless by the time of his death at 53 in 1932. His body would lay unclaimed in a morgue, and he was buried in a modest grave at Mount Glenwood Cemetery in Chicago.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Frank Schwinn, head of the Schwinn Bicycle Company, would later pay to have Taylor's body exhumed and relocated to Mount Glenwood's Memorial Garden of the Good Shepard. Schwinn also commissioned a plaque for Taylor's grave, which despite it's pejorative commentary on "his race," is touching nonetheless:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">"</span><span style="background-color: white;">Worlds champion bicycle racer who came up the hard way—Without hatred in his heart—An honest, courageous and God-fearing, clean-living gentlemanly athlete. A credit to his race who always gave out his best—Gone but not forgotten.”</span></span><br />
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</span>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-15791147076966226902013-06-11T11:12:00.004-05:002013-06-11T11:14:26.618-05:00Photos from the Memphis Sanitation Strike of 1968As part of their <a href="http://catalogquicksearch.memphis.edu/iii/cpro/CommunityViewPage.external?lang=eng&sp=1000001&suite=def">Digital Photo Repository</a>, The University of Memphis has a fantastic collection of photos from the <a href="http://catalogquicksearch.memphis.edu/iii/cpro/CollectionViewPage.external?lang=eng&sp=1000002&suite=def">Memphis Sanitation Strike of 1968</a>. Jim Lawson, chair of the strike's leadership committee, was a key leader in the Memphis campaign. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uwNltx8Gg7I/UbdKaaj9nTI/AAAAAAAAA-c/GcKG-24BxgA/s1600/Lawson+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="321" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uwNltx8Gg7I/UbdKaaj9nTI/AAAAAAAAA-c/GcKG-24BxgA/s400/Lawson+2.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr. marching with strike supporters during one of the twice daily marches held in downtown Memphis throughout the campaign.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pcsoSRqX02Q/UbdKdFYzkDI/AAAAAAAAA-k/wocI35i-Rpc/s1600/Lawson+at+Crump+Stadium.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="291" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pcsoSRqX02Q/UbdKdFYzkDI/AAAAAAAAA-k/wocI35i-Rpc/s400/Lawson+at+Crump+Stadium.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rev. Lawson addresses the crowd at the Memphis Cares event held just days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Crump Stadium in Midtown Memphis</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g01G9-SwxQo/UbdLYFal4NI/AAAAAAAAA-0/RWROzpmHpw8/s1600/Lawson+City+Council.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g01G9-SwxQo/UbdLYFal4NI/AAAAAAAAA-0/RWROzpmHpw8/s400/Lawson+City+Council.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rev. Lawson addresses the City Council in February of 1968 after the council rejected the workers' call for union recognition </td></tr>
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The University of Memphis' digital archive has a host of excellent photos from Memphis' past, and the photos in the Sanitation Strike are just a sampling of the overall collection available in the archive. Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-64226604963144054072013-05-30T10:50:00.000-05:002013-05-30T10:51:04.220-05:00Shelby Foote on William Faulkner and the American South in the 1920s and 1930s<a href="http://www.rhodes.edu/barret/about.asp">The Paul Barret Library</a> at <a href="http://www.rhodes.edu/">Rhodes College</a> recently acquired <a href="http://www.rhodes.edu/magazine/22892.asp">Shelby Foote's paper collection</a>, including the personal journal's he kept as he wrote his epic tome, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Narrative-Vol-Set/dp/0394749138"><i>The Civil War</i></a>. <br />
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I stumbled onto this C-SPAN interview this morning while doing some research, and it provides an interesting window into Foote's perspective on racial paternalism in the south. Scroll to 10 minutes from a particularly interesting discussion of the white southern mentality. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zhjkOEzaKLs" width="420"></iframe> Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-66818761477059000932013-05-29T16:02:00.000-05:002014-03-03T18:11:50.159-06:00Being Memphis: Martin King, W. W. Herenton, Al Kapone and the Memphis Grizzlies<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Between games 2 and 3 of the Western Conference Finals, with the Grizz down 2 - 0 to the San Antonio Spurs, Geoff Calkins wrote a column as the best of 7 match-up prepared to shift to Memphis. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">"Memphis was once a city of pessimists," <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/may/24/geoff-calkins-for-memphis-a-blue-letter-day/">Calkins wrote</a>. "Memphis was once a city that expected the worst.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R8U48xcmNjI/UaZdoehE4sI/AAAAAAAAA9g/O6yJ_7IaDts/s1600/we+dont+bluff.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R8U48xcmNjI/UaZdoehE4sI/AAAAAAAAA9g/O6yJ_7IaDts/s320/we+dont+bluff.JPG" height="219" width="320" /></a> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">"Much of this is because of what happened on April 4, 1968. Walk over
to the Lorraine Motel, stand before it, look on that wreath, and you can
almost feel the sadness descend. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Memphis was a city of sadness, and of conflict and of flight.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Memphis was yellow fever and the sanitation workers strike. Memphis was an unruly river and ungodly heat. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This spilled into everything, into politics, even into sports. Have
you ever heard of a city trying to fight off the arrival of a
major-league team? A whole bunch of Memphians fought against the
Grizzlies because they said -- this was the actual logic -- that the
team would inevitably fail and leave.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Now those same Memphians have painted their faces and their toenails and possibly even their houses blue. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">They have turned growl towels into neckties and have worn them to church. They are naming their dogs Z-Bo and Big Spain.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Memphians are calling the Greenline the Grindline until future
notice. They have stuck a headband on Le Bonheur’s giant heart logo.
Midtown Skate Shop can’t keep enough 'Grind City' T-shirts in stock. St.
Jude Children’s Research Hospital hung a giant growl towel that says, 'St. Jude believes.'"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Calkins concluded: "Memphis is no longer a city of pessimists. Memphis is a city of newfound faith."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But how did the Memphis Grizzlies, a professional basketball team, so effectively help our city roll back the tide of grief and guilt spanning more than a generation to make such a profound civic attitude adjustment? What was it about these guys, this team, and their work together that was so special? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">***</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">On April 7, 1968 – Palm Sunday – the Reverend James M.
Lawson, Jr. spoke to a crowd of 9,000 people gathered at E. H. Crump Stadium in
Midtown Memphis. Lawson had been a critical leader in the Memphis Sanitation Strike of 1968, and as he stared at the audience from a platform on the fifty yard line at Crump
Stadium, Lawson’s voice rose with indignation.
He called the assassination of Martin Luther King “God’s judgment on you
and me and upon our city,” and issued what turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy for the City of Good
Abode: “How can anyone have a good
feeling about Memphis when one of the finest sons of this world of ours was
shot down in her streets...And no matter how much we try, from now until there is no longer any written history, Memphis will be known as the place where
Martin Luther King was crucified.” </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rYwibgRTQTs/UaYrExUUZBI/AAAAAAAAA8w/KHK7enuPbVg/s1600/Memphis+cares.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rYwibgRTQTs/UaYrExUUZBI/AAAAAAAAA8w/KHK7enuPbVg/s320/Memphis+cares.JPG" height="237" width="320" /></a></span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>John T. Fisher, the tallest man pictured center, was a key organizer of the Memphis Cares event in 1968 </i></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Lawson had known King for years before inviting him to Memphis in the spring of 1968. The two men had met in <a href="http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol4/3-Nov-1958_FromLawson.pdf">1957</a> when King spoke at Oberlin College where Lawson was a student of divinity. Lawson and King sat beside one another at dinner that night, and they discovered they both had a deep interest in Mohandas Gandhi and, in particular, Gandhi's notion of <i>satyagraha</i>. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xIPPBjW_yrs/UaYraPpombI/AAAAAAAAA88/otqdmkYa3Z4/s1600/Lawson+and+King.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xIPPBjW_yrs/UaYraPpombI/AAAAAAAAA88/otqdmkYa3Z4/s320/Lawson+and+King.JPG" height="258" width="320" /></a></span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Lawson and King appear together at a press conference in Memphis
following the unravelling of a nonviolent march in late March 1968</i></span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JqezRTHr5zo/UaYraOb-3NI/AAAAAAAAA84/OzAPy4K_QBU/s1600/Dr+Hooks+memphis+cares.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JqezRTHr5zo/UaYraOb-3NI/AAAAAAAAA84/OzAPy4K_QBU/s320/Dr+Hooks+memphis+cares.JPG" height="320" width="252" /></a></span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Rev. Ben Hooks openly weeps during the Memphis Cares event in early April 1968</i></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">David Halberstam tells us that Lawson's wife, Dorothy, knew despite her husband's best efforts to publicly conceal his emotion, Lawson's grief over King's death was tremendous. "He would not be able to sleep," Halberstam writes, "and he would get up in the middle of the night and read in the Bible about the prophets, or do some writing. There were times after King's murder when his grief was so great he wondered whether he could go on - there had been so much killing: John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin King and Malcolm X."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In the years following the assassination, Lawson often visited the man convicted of killing King, James Early Ray. Lawson actually developed a relationship with both Ray and his fiance, Anna. Lawson was long a staunch believer in the power of love and forgiveness, and despite the pain he felt over his friend's death, his relationship with Ray deepened over time. One evening years after the assassination, just as the Lawson family was sitting down for dinner, Ray called James Lawson with a request: Ray asked Lawson to conduct the marriage ceremony between he and his fiance Anna. Lawson was confounded by the request, and at dinner he asked his family what to do. Lawson's son, John Lawson, told his father that if he truly believed in the all that nonviolence and redemption he had preached his whole life, he would marry Ray and Anna. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Indeed, John concluded, Martin King would have married the couple. </span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">***</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The civil rights icon Lawson would leave Memphis in 1974 for a church in Los Angeles, and it would be nearly 20 before Memphis elected its first black mayor. In 1991, Willie W. Herenton became the first black mayor of Memphis, and the city became the last city among the top 50 US metro areas with a majority black population to elect a black mayor. W. W. Herenton defeated incumbent Dick Hackett by 142 votes. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In October 2007, after being elected to his fifth term after a campaign centered on "Shake Them Haters Off," W. W. Herenton <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/oct/06/herenton-defiant-in-his-victory-address/">delivered victory remarks</a> to a raucous crowd of supporters. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">"...I want you, I just want you to be just a little
quiet just for a couple of minutes, just for a couple of minutes. A good
man obtaineth favor of the Lord. Wait a minute. I want y'all to hear
me. I'm in a very serious mood. I'm happy, but I want y'all to hear me."</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TmxmDsSR3UY/UaZRkjPeVDI/AAAAAAAAA9Q/OweYFkBTw14/s1600/Herenton+following+2007+election.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TmxmDsSR3UY/UaZRkjPeVDI/AAAAAAAAA9Q/OweYFkBTw14/s320/Herenton+following+2007+election.JPG" height="320" width="230" /></a></span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>W.W. Herenton following his election to the office of Memphis Mayor for a fifth consecutive term, October 2007</i></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Herenton spent the first half of his speech thanking his supporters - both those conditional and un-conditional supporters - but he then turned his focus to the onslaught of criticism he'd faced. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/oct/06/editorial-a-crossroads-for-mayor-herenton/">Commercial Appeal reported </a>the second half of Herenton's speech this way: "'There are some mean people in Memphis,' Herenton said in a speech
punctuated with hoots of approval from his supporters. 'They some
haters. ... But I know about haters and I know about shaking 'em off.' ... 'But what they (white people) want to say is, "How can Willie Herenton
bring us together?"... I didn't separate us ... I don't
have a problem. They've got the problem.'"</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Columnist Wendi Thomas, non-plussed by "Shake Them Haters Off," <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/aug/09/herentons-haters-slogan-gives-readers-willies/">called for alternative slogans</a> for Herenton's campaign. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Cordova's Millie Askew contributed this one: "Herenton for Memphis, Home
of the Movers and the Shakers. I'll shake while they move."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A funny slogan on the surface - except move they did. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Askew's slogan was a reference to Mayor Herenton's previous directive to Memphians who were critical of his leadership. If you don't like Memphis, Herenton told his supporters, <a href="http://smartcitymemphis.blogspot.com/2009/08/hero-and-anti-hero-that-is-mayor.html">you can leave</a>. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AV8aiI-NIIA" width="420"></iframe></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Hearing this as a college student in my early 20s, having grown up in a place recently described as the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/2013/5/28/4366232/memphis-grizzlies-beale-street-nba-playoffs-2013">dirtiest city in the dirty-dirty south</a>, it meant that I watched as many of my friends took Herenton's advice and left Memphis. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Memphis Magazine affirmed the flight of the young <a href="http://www.memphismagazine.com/Memphis-Magazine/March-2013/Talent-Scout/"> in 2013</a>:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
The Memphis region toppled from #37 to #49 in the percentage of the
population older than 25 with college degrees. It was 26.3 percent in
2006 and 25.1 percent in 2012.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Memphis has fallen four spots to dead last in the ranking of percentage
of creative professionals — from #47 to #51 with a decrease from 5.2
percent to 2.4 percent.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Memphis has fallen from #36 to #46 in the percentage of 25- to
34-year-olds with college degrees — from 3.8 percent to 3.6 percent.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Memphis is #43 in the number of foreign-born residents with college
degrees. In the 2006 report, Memphis was #40 with 7.5 percent and fell
three spots to 7.7 percent in 2012. </span></span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Now, as the Atlantic <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/20/richard-florida-concedes-the-limits-of-the-creative-class.html">points out</a>, the struggle to capture the best and brightest is not always a race to the top. And yet talent still matters. At the very least, you don't want to encourage the talent you have to get the heck out. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">***</span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7fA_t0sXc54/UaZd_eqjgBI/AAAAAAAAA9o/41d2GmgPO8Q/s1600/Z-bo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7fA_t0sXc54/UaZd_eqjgBI/AAAAAAAAA9o/41d2GmgPO8Q/s320/Z-bo.JPG" height="182" width="320" /></a></span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Zach Randolph, Getty Images, courtesy of Grantland.com </i></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">On January 31, 2013, the Memphis Grizzlies traded "franchise player" Rudy Gay to another country. The six-man swing-trade shipped Gay and his $82 million dollar contract to Toronto in exchange for Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye from Detroit and Ed Davis from the Toronto. The most scrutinized NBA trade of 2012-2013, the shift helped Memphis become<a href="http://nba.si.com/2013/05/13/memphis-grizzlies-rudy-gay-oklahoma-city-thunder-nba-playoffs-2013/"> a better team</a>. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Gay was long and had capable of sexy dunks. But as the <i>New York Times</i> <a href="http://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/keeping-score-how-a-top-scorers-departure-can-improve-the-offense/">reported</a>, "...Gay was one of the most
inefficient volume shooters in the N.B.A. this season. Among players
with at least 1,000 field goal attempts, Gay’s .449 effective field goal
percentage was the third worst in the league."</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In plain terms, Gay took a ton of shots and few of them fell through the hoop. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Gay's departure allowed Memphis to open up its offense, spreading Gay's touches out across Mike Conley, Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. Conley ended up with a banner year following the trade, while Mike and Marc regularly went for 15 or 20 a night.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So Memphis, despite intense criticism, defied the superstar model in favor of a team based effort - an old school approach for an old school Coach in Lionel Hollins who put team over self. This team-first message was regularly reiterated by the Grizzlies in their post-game press conferences and locker room interviews. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Grizzlies, ultimately, decided to be the Grizzlies - not the team the critics and pundits wanted them to be. And that means we didn't have a great offense; in fact, in the recently completed series against the Spurs, the team collectively <a href="http://stats.nba.com/teamStats.html?TeamID=1610612763&Season=2012-13&SeasonType=Playoffs&groupFeedtype=lastN">shot below 39% </a>from the field. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But even in their final losing games, the Grizzlies worked as a team. And that's what makes this crew so special. They embraced their faults - an inefficient offense and a spotty bench - but they also embraced their strengths night-in and night-out: a tenacious, league best defense; a slow and grinding half-court offense, and a tough - and I mean tough - set of players who were willing to bang inside all night long. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When the Grizzlies embraced their identity, the City of Memphis fell in love with the team. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wfvuO1sC5Go/UaZiVkWazMI/AAAAAAAAA94/ct1-lww4_fw/s1600/Noise.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wfvuO1sC5Go/UaZiVkWazMI/AAAAAAAAA94/ct1-lww4_fw/s320/Noise.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">See, Memphis (both the Grizzlies and the city) did something especially significant this year. It was an accomplishment with its roots sunk into years, flooded with muddy Mississippi River water and saturated by stifling heat and humidity. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It was an achievement that spans basketball and civil rights, that includes A C and W.W., and smells like a beer-soaked goat on a historic slice of street known for gambling, black-owned business, and ruffians.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">To elaborate on Geoff Calkins point, the reason Memphis became a place of "newfound hope" these past couple years is because we finally decided to be us. We decided to be Memphis. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7J-3xeP993w" width="560"></iframe></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">We decided to embrace an inefficient offense, replete with Tony Allen jump shots; we also decided to accept our past rather than fight it - something we did in the living by gathering just a mile from where King was killed for regular civic celebrations at the grindhouse.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">"I don't know if making it to the Western Conference Finals and
having the best season in the history of the franchise is inspiration
or a rallying cry for a city with fearsome problems," <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/2013/5/28/4366232/memphis-grizzlies-beale-street-nba-playoffs-2013">wrote Spencer Hall </a>at SB Nation. "I never know how
much that means to a city, particularly one I don't call home. I don't
know if the Saints really did help New Orleans accomplish anything by
winning the Super Bowl, or if New York felt any better after 9/11
because of baseball, or if any storyline about a city and the very real
business of professional sport helping it cope with life actually exists
for the purposes of anything but well-edited inspirational ESPN
montages. I'm skeptical about it because it's so easy to say, and easy
things and Memphis don't really match up a lot."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This editorial resonates because we all know Memphis isn't easy. And maybe that's why we Memphians resisted "doing us" for so long - because it wasn't easy. But I think we're becoming more comfortable being known for "Whoop that Trick," the reinvention of <a href="http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8636572/the-controversial-life-career-memphis-grizzlies-zach-randolph">once admonished players</a>, and for the fact that "We don't Bluff." </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Memphis is real. It's got real problems, real promise, and real people. We don't have time for bluffing, and we certainly don't have time for backsliding. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">"My children are being raised in a new Memphis," <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/may/22/because-i-said-so/">wrote Richard Alley</a>, "one with possibilities
imagined from the uppermost reaches of government down to the teacher in
the classroom, from the 7-foot-1 defensive player of the year to the
CEO to the waitress serving sweet tea."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Maybe it's a new Memphis. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Or, maybe it's the same old Memphis, just happy - for the first time in decades - to be who we are. </span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-21913482112126175642013-01-01T14:40:00.001-06:002013-01-01T14:44:21.893-06:00A New Memphis<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first law of thermodynamics states that within a closed
system, energy can be neither created nor destroyed. I learned this from <a href="http://www.rhodes.edu/news/25866.asp">Professor Rosanna Cappellato</a>, a friend and colleague who left us this year after courageously battling cancer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Nsw3isl-70/UOM4dIPl2XI/AAAAAAAAA6k/P-J_Gp90wMs/s1600/cappellato_450px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Nsw3isl-70/UOM4dIPl2XI/AAAAAAAAA6k/P-J_Gp90wMs/s320/cappellato_450px.jpg" width="293" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I look back at 2012, a year filled with achievement and
loss, deep sadness and profound joy, I see this law at
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In late November, one of my senior students in the <a href="http://rhodes.edu/1695.asp">Bonner Scholar Program at Rhodes College</a> was asked to reflect on a person who made a
difference in his life during his first three years at Rhodes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That person was Professor Cappellato.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had traveled with her to Namibia this year
to conduct research, taken classes on environmental science with her, and confided in her with matters
that went beyond biology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wjLzqYUbKrE/UOM3vVcwh7I/AAAAAAAAA6Y/8hhrPU8QovQ/s1600/Bonner_Scholars2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wjLzqYUbKrE/UOM3vVcwh7I/AAAAAAAAA6Y/8hhrPU8QovQ/s320/Bonner_Scholars2011.jpg" width="258" /></span></a></div>
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<o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rosanna’s life, the force of energy that she brought to her
teaching, her engagement in Memphis, and every relationship she forged, persists
today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her energy lives on in my senior
Bonner and the cadre of students she taught at Rhodes; it lives on in the
arboretum she worked to establish at the College, and in the animals and trees and
critters and plants that will continue to thrive as a result of the
sustainable practices Rosanna taught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Energy can be neither created nor destroyed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of my friends had babies in the past year or so: Alma
and Ethan, Luka and Ramona.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These little
ones will grow and develop as their parents and teachers and friends invest
energy in them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’ll be leaders and
brothers and bosses and maybe one day, parents and grandparents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Memphis is teeming with such transformed energy these days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Old school systems being
made new; old mentalities giving way to new
realities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We’re even turning an old car bridge into a new bike bridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TnM7zXaxai8/UOM5bLtld-I/AAAAAAAAA6w/oVol4YSb9ok/s1600/harahan-bridge-memphis-tn-04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="91" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TnM7zXaxai8/UOM5bLtld-I/AAAAAAAAA6w/oVol4YSb9ok/s320/harahan-bridge-memphis-tn-04.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even old labels are fading…like Marty McFly and his cousins
in that Polaroid from Back to the Future, the worst city for bikes is now the most
improved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A decaying southern backwater now
has an innovation team at City Hall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Energy can be neither created nor destroyed…rather, it can
only change forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NetiYZRVmnU/UOM5rz-igxI/AAAAAAAAA68/8DhkKwefl7M/s1600/400px-Memphis_airview_1870.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="209" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NetiYZRVmnU/UOM5rz-igxI/AAAAAAAAA68/8DhkKwefl7M/s320/400px-Memphis_airview_1870.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think a lot about the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Though I </span>was trained this way, I
have a seemingly insatiable and inexplicable curiosity about things that happened way
back when.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> And usually when I think about the past I think about Memphis, this wholly southern American city built by cotton.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jv_It_dsAgI/UOM54jxz75I/AAAAAAAAA7E/_ftbF_Nxf5Q/s1600/memphiscottonboat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="207" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jv_It_dsAgI/UOM54jxz75I/AAAAAAAAA7E/_ftbF_Nxf5Q/s320/memphiscottonboat.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 19<sup>th</sup> century America, cotton – of course –
meant slavery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure, Memphis was a
regional distributor for hardwoods, too, handling more than 500 million feet of
hardwood each year at the turn of the 20th century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the economy of
this place was built on cotton: Memphis remained one of the largest inland
cotton markets in the world by 1900, handling more than 1 million bales (<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">500
million pounds</i></b>) of cotton a year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As an urban island in an agrarian sea, Memphis made its way as a
distribution center for these rural wares - which were then shipped to homes and factories across the western
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And though the practice of owning
slaves was made illegal by the thirteenth amendment in 1865, sharecropping continued to make use of black labor in the late 19th and early 20th century, a system that kept African Americans tied to the land and greatly resembled its not so distant cousin, slavery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cAzm5j_j6ZU/UOM6W2lJldI/AAAAAAAAA7M/XIvLsR0bH6A/s1600/Yellow+Fever.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cAzm5j_j6ZU/UOM6W2lJldI/AAAAAAAAA7M/XIvLsR0bH6A/s1600/Yellow+Fever.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the turn of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, Memphis was a
city that was quite literally struggling to survive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Yellow
Fever Epidemic of 1878 pushed the city to the brink of extinction: nearly two
thirds of Memphis’ population was killed or fled during that epidemic in the
spring and summer of 1878, and Memphis lost its city charter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> In 1893 the city regained its municipal status, surviving in part because of the heroic Memphis Martyrs, those who stayed behind to tend the sick and dying - often paying with their lives. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The people who moved back to Memphis near the turn of the 20th century were not the Irish
and German immigrants who had settled here before the plague; rather, many were
poor anglo farmers and black sharecroppers seeking a better life in an emerging southern
city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Among these immigrants was a man
named Edward Hull Crump, a saddle boy from Holly Springs, Mississippi who moved to
Memphis at 19 years old and got his first job with – of course – a cotton
company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Crump would effectively rule
Memphis with patronage politics throughout the first half of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States
ruled that the notion of “separate but equal” institutions for blacks and
whites, the legal architecture created in 1896 that led to the
establishment and enforcement of Jim Crow segregation throughout
the American south, was unconstitutional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On October 16, 1954, just five months later, E.H. Crump would pass from
this world with a heart ailment at the age of eighty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Within a closed system, energy can be neither created nor
destroyed. Rather, it can only change forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YKr7R9zUn9U/UOM7-fkTnwI/AAAAAAAAA7k/XMxAkUQtfhk/s1600/Church+Jr.+with+Illinois+Congressman.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YKr7R9zUn9U/UOM7-fkTnwI/AAAAAAAAA7k/XMxAkUQtfhk/s320/Church+Jr.+with+Illinois+Congressman.png" width="251" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Crump tacitly allowed Lieutenant George W. Lee, Robert
Church, Jr. and Dr. J.E. Walker to register thousands of African American Memphians to vote in the inter-war period, a time during which African Americans across the south were routinely killed for attempting to register to vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Memphis’ black political power base has strong roots in
the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, and this base of power would grow during and after the
modern civil rights era.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Memphis
NAACP branch would be named the best in nation by 1966, and Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. would travel to Memphis to ally with striking sanitation workers
during his final campaign in the winter of 1968. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rev. King’s death in Memphis, as perhaps the
most influential American in the 20<sup>th</sup> century, reshaped the city’s future.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bh-ggLoe7-I/UOM8SNSoIaI/AAAAAAAAA7s/rAnn8vzC2o8/s1600/King+Memphis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bh-ggLoe7-I/UOM8SNSoIaI/AAAAAAAAA7s/rAnn8vzC2o8/s320/King+Memphis.jpg" width="233" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I came home to Memphis two and a half years ago, I'd –
literally – just completed a year-long journey around the globe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Memphis was known for many things in 2010; long labeled <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/sep/23/census-calls-city-poorest-in-nation/">a poor city</a>, Memphis
was labeled <a href="http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2010/11/memphis_has_the.php">a dumb city, an ugly city</a>, <a href="http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/06/14/the-ten-dirtiest-cities-in-america-new-orleans-tops-the-list/">a dirty city</a>, and a bad city for
biking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <a href="http://greenlaneproject.org/blog/view/175">worst city</a> in the nation for
biking, in fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I arrived in Memphis in July of 2010, I believed that within a couple of years we might become the best city for biking in the American South. Beyond bikes, I thought that making simple changes to our roads might lead to a new civic reality for Memphis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Working from this premise led me to new friendships –
Kerry, Wesley, Elizabeth and Matt – and it served to strengthen old ones: Kyle,
Marvin, John Paul and Sarah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two and half years later, on December 27, 2012, The Memphis
Commercial Appeal called 2012 “<a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=memphis%20year%20of%20the%20bicycle&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.commercialappeal.com%2Fnews%2F2012%2Fdec%2F27%2Fyear-of-the-bicycle-sees-major-change-in-culture%2F&ei=6j7jUNTLL5SI9ASu-ICYDA&usg=AFQjCNGWbraADKGiE-9PTTpaTZu-meO_LQ&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.eWU">The Year of the Bicycle</a>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The paper cited the bicycle as a primary
driver in changing Memphis’ culture, and the recognition followed<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Memphis designation as the most improved city for bicycling in the nation. Bikes Belong, seeing the possibilities in this southern town, invited Memphis to participate with six other cities in developing European style
protected bike lanes in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NRIOXOkNIkE/UOM9rLVO50I/AAAAAAAAA78/VCJSvYf1rZM/s1600/GLP.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NRIOXOkNIkE/UOM9rLVO50I/AAAAAAAAA78/VCJSvYf1rZM/s320/GLP.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The City of Memphis received a $15 million grant to complete
a bike and pedestrian bridge across the Mississippi River, and Germantown connected
the Wolf River Greenway in eastern Shelby County to Memphis – a 1 mile stretch
of pavement that connected two municipalities and more than 30 miles of protected bike paths in
our region.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just two days after The Commercial Appeal’s “Year of the
Bike” article, the New York Times ran an article about Memphis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t about a federal take over of Shelby
County’s juvenile court system; it wasn’t about the Memphis and Shelby County
School merger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t about an
increase in obesity or the number of food deserts in Memphis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e56WpDmQs9E/UOM-OMCdzJI/AAAAAAAAA8E/u2Ruo3OwzNM/s1600/NYT+MEM+BIKE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e56WpDmQs9E/UOM-OMCdzJI/AAAAAAAAA8E/u2Ruo3OwzNM/s320/NYT+MEM+BIKE.jpg" width="290" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instead, the New York Times <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=new%20york%20times%20memphis%20bicycle&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2012%2F12%2F29%2Fus%2Fmemphis-aims-to-be-a-friendlier-place-for-cyclists.html&ei=0j7jUI_gN5L-8ATukIDgDA&usg=AFQjCNGqFwLJzl_5P-o_J0d7o9Gdqk1sRA&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.eWU">wrote</a> “Sprawling Memphis Aims to
Be a Friendlier Place for Bicycles.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Energy is neither created nor destroyed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The week before Christmas, my closest friends in the world
traveled back to the Bluff City to visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They live in Seattle and Nashville, Cincinnati and San Francisco, and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> b</span>efore they left Memphis in 2009 we rode
bikes every Thursday night – regardless of the weather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A flask tucked into a back jean pocket made
those 25-degree rides all the more exhilarating.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each of my amigos told me how much Memphis had changed
since they left four years ago. As with the national economy, 2008 – 2009 was a
turning point in Memphis: we elected an amazing new Mayor – A C Wharton, but nearly a dozen of my friends uprooted and moved to new jobs or new
schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I left the city to begin a year of
travel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> But t</span>his year, when many of them visited
my home in midtown Memphis, they remarked “If I could do what I do in
Memphis, I’d probably live here.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Greek word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Metanoia
</i>is used in the New Testament to signify the enigmatic process of
repentance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More precisely, the greek
word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meta </i>can mean “after” of beyond,
while the noun <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nous </i>means “mind” or
“understanding.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Metanoia</i>, then, can
imply that one has a new mind or a new mentality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As my friend and mentor Cheryl Cornish describes the process of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">metanoia</i>, it can be used to capture the
notion that one is seeing with new eyes – a confrontation of old realities by new realities that fundamentally alters one's perception of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2012, its loss and its joy, has showed me how old energies are taking new forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Memphis is growing and changing right before our eyes, and its influencing both the way Memphians and people living outside of Memphis see this place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s igniting possibilities, influencing
regeneration, and changing the deep well of energy in this place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In short, 2012 has provided us with a new mind.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Strange as it may sound to say so, thankfully, we cannot escape our past. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything that has happened here remains present
in a very real, physical way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the
profound amount of energy in this place – energy that was oft channeled into
misery and despair – has immense possibility in our new age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> As Memphians, we </span>serve as the instruments of
transformation for these historical forces, for this old energy seeking new forms. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So here's to you, Memphis, for a great 2012. And to an even better 2013. </span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-2537636179162113402012-09-14T16:28:00.000-05:002012-09-14T16:30:47.437-05:00Building the Missing Link - The Green Lane Project <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 26px;"></span><br />
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Memphis built its first traditional on-street bike lane in the <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/jul/14/editorials-sharing-the-road-should-get-easier/" style="color: #a0b118; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px; text-decoration: none;">fall of 2008</a>. Just four years later, the city is finalizing plans to build and fund its first protected bike lanes along Tillman Street and Broad Avenue. This dramatic shift in the city’s focus was driven largely by the efforts of Memphians - business leaders and citizen advocates with the vision and courage to work together to build a better city, one street at a time.</div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;">Creating the Missing Link</strong><br />
The idea for a protected bike lane, or Green Lane, along Broad and Tillman grew from the need to build a missing link. On its eastern end, The Shelby Farms Greenline connects to the majestic 4,500 acre Shelby Farms Park. On the western end, Livable Memphis program coordinator Sarah Newstok saw an opportunity. “The greenline attracts such a diverse group of riders,” <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/dec/01/essential-link/" style="color: #a0b118; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px; text-decoration: none;">Newstok said</a> in December of last year. “We wanted to get those riders all the way to Overton Park on the western side.”</div>
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For the the full-story, follow the Green Lane Blog <a href="http://greenlaneproject.org/news/view/181">here</a>. </div>
Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-12701514561069640622012-08-22T15:03:00.004-05:002012-08-22T15:40:45.153-05:00Memphis on the MoveIn the spring of 2012, Memphis, Tennessee was
honored to be named one of 6 cities participating in the Green Lane
Project, a national effort to engineer, plan and implement protected
bicycle lanes across the United States. Many of the Green
Lane Project Cities have been and remain dedicated to the development of
innovative bicycle infrastructure; San Francisco was among the first
cities to develop <a href="http://sf.streetsblog.org/2010/05/10/san-francisco-gets-its-first-green-bike-lanes-on-market-street/"><span style="color: #0031e0;">green bike lanes</span></a>
- literally bike lanes painted green to draw attention to treacherous
junctures within their bike lane network. Washington D.C.’s <a href="http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/library/details.cfm?id=4663"><span style="color: #0031e0;">15th Street cycle track</span></a>, a
two-way bike path separated from automobile traffic by a buffer of
flexible bollards, was one of the first protected bike lanes opened in
the United States. Last year, the city of Chicago developed one of the
finest lengths of protected bike lanes in the United States along <a href="http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdot/provdrs/bike/news/2011/jul/kinzie_protectedbikelanecompleted.html"><span style="color: #0031e0;">Kinzie St.</span></a>, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has committed to the construction of <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/24/us-chicago-bike-expansion-idUSTRE78N25520110924"><span style="color: #0031e0;">100 miles of protected bike lanes</span></a> within the next four years. In the next three years, Mayor Emmanuel wants every Chicagoan to be <a href="http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdot/provdrs/bike/news/2012/aug/mayor_emanuel_announcescityinstalling34milesofnewprotectedbikela.html"><span style="color: #0031e0;">within a half mile </span></a>of a bike lane.
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But in some ways, the city of Memphis is very unique when seen beside the other five Green Lane cities. Check out the <a href="http://greenlaneproject.org/news/view/175">Project Green Lane Blog</a> to for the full story on Memphis.</div>
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<br />Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-41247131963441982442012-04-13T17:15:00.000-05:002012-04-13T17:15:42.003-05:00Moving the Needle in MemphisEarlier this week, Memphis was one of six U.S. cities honored by the <a href="http://www.bikesbelong.org/">Bikes Belong</a> Foundation as participants in the “<a href="http://www.bikesbelong.org/news/bikes-belongs-green-lane-project-selects-six-focus-cities/">Green Lane Project</a>.” The six cities were chosen from more than 42 metro-areas applicants for their commitment to developing protected bicycle lanes, or on-street bicycle lanes protected from automobile traffic by a physical buffer. Protected, on-street bikeways have – for decades – defined cities large and small in <a href="http://www.copenhagenize.com/2011/08/case-for-bicycle-infrastructure.html">Denmark</a> and the Netherlands. But in America, where traffic engineers are bound largely to the auto-centric design standards outlined in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), there is little technical guidance for and few domestic examples of protected bikeways.<br />
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That is, until now. For the cities selected to participate in the Green Lane Project, engineers and city officials will work as a national leadership team to develop best practices for protected bikeway design in America. This work of patenting new street design will provide a notable degree of comfort for traffic engineers and city officials across the country, due in part to a subsidized fact finding trip for city engineers, Mayors and other officials that will allow them to analyze protected bikeways in Denmark and the Netherlands. The Green Lane Project is, for this reason, an initiative with tremendous national significance for progress towards complete streets, livable communities, and sustainable development.<br />
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So yes: the Green Lane Project is a big deal. But for the City of Memphis, being named among this elite cohort of cities is especially significant.<br />
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<a href="http://www.smartcitymemphis.com/2012/04/moving-from-nowhere-to-a-bikable-memphis/">Read More at SmartCity Memphis...</a>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-20190923429353374512011-04-11T10:52:00.002-05:002011-04-11T10:52:32.520-05:00PARC Patrols in Shelby Farms!<div id="container"> <div id="header"> <img alt="Memphis Commercial Appeal - Printer-friendly story" src="http://media.commercialappeal.com/corp_assets/asphalt/_sites/mca/img/header_print.gif" /> </div><!-- End header --> <div id="story_meta"> <h1>Anthony Siracusa: Volunteer patrols keep eyes, ears on Shelby Farms</h1><div id="bylines"> By Anthony Siracusa </div><!-- End .byline --> <div id="dates"> Monday, April 11, 2011 </div><!-- End dates --> </div><!-- End story_meta --> <div id="story_content"> When Shelby Farms Park got longer with the Shelby Farms Greenline in October, the park staff became responsible for the upkeep, maintenance and security of the 7-mile stretch of trail.<br />
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But following the lead of trail groups like the International Mountain Bike Association, Shelby Farms Park staffers enlisted park users in the ongoing care of the park by creating Park and Recreation Committee Patrols.<br />
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Shelby Farms Park director of communications Jen Andrews describes them as "highly trained volunteers" with training in the basics of CPR and first aid. PARC Patrollers are also instructed in the basics of public relations and park history. Armed with these skills, patrol members serve as ambassadors of the park while they walk, bike or run.<br />
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"They serve the park by being our eyes and ears and by serving as resources for park users," Andrews says.<br />
Lisa Overall, a local attorney and vice president of the Memphis Runners Track Club, describes her volunteer service to the patrol as "a meaningful experience. I have provided some basic first aid for a little boy who fell off of his bike, reminded users of park rules with regard to dogs running off leash outside of off-leash areas, and have offered general information and directions to park users."<br />
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Andrews says the diversity of PARC Patrollers is an asset. PARC Patrollers are on- and off-road bicyclists, runners, triathletes, dog walkers and kayakers. "The goal" says Andrews, "is for these volunteers to represent the diverse users of the park."<br />
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Whenever Overall goes out for a run in the park, for example, she calls the park and lets staff know.<br />
"Because we have such a diverse team," Andrews says, "we always have someone in all parts of the park patrolling."<br />
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Patrollers are nominated to serve as stewards of the park by their peers in park-user groups. The Mid-South Trails Association, Mid-South Whitewater and the Mid South Frisbee Society have nominated individuals to serve on PARC Patrols. Volunteer patrollers commit a monthly minimum of five hours' service to the park, which Andrews says is easily met and often exceeded.<br />
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In the past six months, the park has trained nearly 40 patrollers with plans to launch another training course next fall.<br />
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For Overall, the patrol is "the perfect way to give back to the park for all of the pleasure it brings me."<br />
In PARC Patrols, Shelby Farms Park has discovered a way to combine park maintenance and meaningful volunteer opportunities with a positive impact on communities surrounding the park.<br />
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"It's been really fun to get park users together," says Andrews. "The park is so big that folks in the off-leash dog park might not meet bicycle riders using the Wolf River trail, so to get these users in the same room has been very valuable for us."<br />
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This community building is the foundation for the user-based volunteer group caring for one of Memphis' greatest assets.<br />
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"Who can't be happy knowing they have so much space to run, walk, bike and skate without interference from vehicle traffic -- especially when that space also comes with information resources carrying first aid kits," Overall said.<br />
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For more information on the PARC Patrol send an e-mail to Sandee Daniels, volunteer coordinator, at <a href="mailto:sdaniels@shelbyfarmspark.org">sdaniels@shelbyfarmspark.org</a>.<br />
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Anthony Siracusa, a native Memphian, is the community service coordinator at Rhodes College in Memphis. He serves on the board of the Memphis Hightailers, the Greater Memphis Greenline and Bike Walk Tennessee. He is a daily cycling commuter. Contact him through his blog at anthonysiracusa.blogspot.com.<br />
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</div><!-- End footer --> </div><!-- End container -->Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-79885102326644665532010-12-27T11:01:00.000-06:002010-12-27T11:01:25.455-06:00Riding bike around world -- how's that for challenge?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_u4z0kovL9M4/TRjFr9yStqI/AAAAAAAAA3s/ZeWbS7GiVuY/s1600/a27bike1_t607.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_u4z0kovL9M4/TRjFr9yStqI/AAAAAAAAA3s/ZeWbS7GiVuY/s320/a27bike1_t607.jpeg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Like Forrest Gump's run across the United States, once Robert Hirsch began riding his bike, he just couldn't stop. "When I started in British Columbia, I had no idea how far I would go."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now 5 1/2 years, 60 countries, and 3 Kona bicycle frames later -- Hirsch has returned to his hometown of Memphis to be with his mother for Christmas.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"When I finished college, I said maybe I should go to med school or law school. Not that those things aren't challenging, but I knew I could do them all."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Drawn to bigger, self-propelled challenges, Hirsch walked the entirety of the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">While walking the Pacific Crest trail, he received word that he'd been accepted into the Peace Corps to serve in Vanuatu in the South Pacific.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">During his service in Vanuatu, Hirsch sent an e-mail to the Kona Bicycle Co. "I said I was a kid with a dream to ride my bike around the world, and they said, 'If you can get to Vancouver, we'll get you a bike and a trailer and a waterproof bag."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Immediately after he completed his Peace Corps commitment, Hirsch set out for Vancouver.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/27/riding-bike-around-world----hows-that-for/">Read the Entire Story...</a></span></div>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-53242421320388065622010-12-20T09:53:00.000-06:002010-12-20T09:53:55.590-06:00Bike to work: Two-wheeled commuters boast of lifestyle's benefits to themselves, community<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_u4z0kovL9M4/TQ97o4I5MLI/AAAAAAAAA3k/Pi6iCiT56X8/s1600/a20bike1_t607.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_u4z0kovL9M4/TQ97o4I5MLI/AAAAAAAAA3k/Pi6iCiT56X8/s320/a20bike1_t607.jpeg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>By Brent Manley - Special to the Commercial Appeal </i></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Four years ago, Brent Barrett moved from Harbor Town to Germantown, increasing the distance from his home to work from about 6 miles to 20.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 45-year-old owner of Bluff City Sports on South Cooper quickly discovered that getting to work by car was a tough job. The heavy traffic he encountered was a major annoyance.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Fortunately, Barrett is fit and healthy and, as a veteran triathlete, owns a good bicycle. Nowadays, he makes the 20-mile trip to work on two wheels just about every day.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/20/bike-to-work/">Check out the entire story... </a></span></div>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-65911775425014000872010-12-15T13:11:00.000-06:002010-12-15T13:11:11.437-06:00Memphis Stagnant? Hardly.<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Is Memphis really <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/15/census-sums-up-stagnant-metro-area/%EF%BB%BF" target="_blank">a stagnant urban area</a>? </span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="gmail_quote" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This Commercial Appeal headline is dubious at best. Case in point? The very first article linked to this "stagnancy" article is a piece about the <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/14/memphis-hits-jobs-jackpot-after-secretly-recruitin/" target="_blank">new Electrolux plant headed to Memphis</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Memphis is far from stagnant, especially when it comes to quality of life issues and culture. The recent opening of the Shelby Farms Greenline, the opening of the new Wolf River Pedestrian Bridge, pledges of bicycle lanes most recently installed on Southern Avenue, and headlines for amazing local dance and art programs in the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/09/AR2010120905886.html?sid=ST2010120907397" target="_blank"><i>Washington Post </i></a>and the <a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/the-nutcracker-chronicles-booker-t-meets-tchaikovsky/" target="_blank"><i>New York Times</i></a> prove that Memphis is far from "stagnant." Memphis Mayor AC Wharton's efforts to hold property owners presiding over blighted and neglected properties accountable for the negative impacts of such properties on our communities demonstrate that even amidst serious problems the response is far from "stagnant." </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This headline is an excellent example of how many reporters have been reporting bad news for so long that they've lost their ability to provide nuance to their arguments to help Memphians understand why this era is so special in Memphis' history. They just assume they can report that Memphis is "stagnant" alongside some numbers from the past ten years and provide an accurate appraisal of the city's state of being. And that is just patently false. Not to mention this kind of press is headlong in the opposite direction from where we need to move with press coverage about the city. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">With the exception of the building boom in the first 20 years of the 20th century, or maybe the post-war era, Memphis has never been further from stagnant than it is right now. </span><br />
</div><span style="font-size: large;">In addition to the great national press we've received and the local efforts to promote livability, Auto Zone recently <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/07/memphis-based-autozone-profit-jumps-20-percent/" target="_blank">reported big profits</a>, <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/nov/09/revenues-profits-down-memphis-based-pinnacle-airli/" target="_blank">we landed Pinnacle downtown</a>, the Electorlux factory is coming, and economists boast that 2011 is expected to be <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/08/economist-2011-shaping-be-excellent-year-memphis/" target="_blank">an excellent year</a><i>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Stagnant? Hardly. Flood the Commercial Appeal with the "good news" about all the wonderful things happening in our city. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/letter-to-editor/" target="_blank">http://www.commercialappeal.<wbr></wbr>com/letter-to-editor/</a></span><br />
</div>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-6127660959194672352010-12-13T09:07:00.000-06:002010-12-13T09:07:06.656-06:00<div id="container"> <div id="footer" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
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</div><div id="header"> <img alt="Memphis Commercial Appeal - Printer-friendly story" src="http://media.commercialappeal.com/corp_assets/asphalt/_sites/mca/img/header_print.gif" /> </div><!-- End header --> <div id="story_meta"> <h1>Bicycle-shop owner sees momentum for lifestyle</h1><div id="bylines"> <b>By Anthony Siracusa </b></div><!-- End .byline --> <div id="dates"><b> </b><i>Monday, December 13, 2010 </i></div><!-- End dates --> </div><!-- End story_meta --> <div id="story_content"> <br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Memphian Hal Mabray's inspiration for a lifetime of bicycling was unexpected.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"My deranged friend, Jess, came screamin' up to the end of my driveway one afternoon wearing blue-jean cutoffs with a bandana around his head, and was spouting something about having just rolled about 10 feet on his front wheel trying to stop because a Memphis motorist had just cut him off. That seemed exciting and like something I wanted to do, so I asked my parents for a Sears road bike."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mabray, now co-owner of the Peddler Bicycle Shop, grew up in the Oakhaven neighborhood near Memphis International Airport. He bought his second bike, a purple Gitane French racing bike, brand new from the Peddler Bike Shop on Southern Avenue. "I treated it with kid gloves," he remembers, "and did most of the work myself."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">After a "truly horrible" day on the job at a plumbing supply warehouse here, Mabray reconsidered his life's work.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"I was picking up my Torpado racing bike from the Peddler one afternoon, and I asked, 'Are y'all hiring?' Within a week, I was sweeping floors and building new bikes for Dan Lamontagne (former owner of the Peddler). I told him I was going to be one of his managers within a year."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mabray approached LaMontagne about buying the business in November 1990. "Dan was looking for a change when (my partner) John McCombs and I approached him about buying the business.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"I was fortunate to work side by side with Dan for the time leading up to the buyout, while John was growing the Germantown store. I learned a lot during that time."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mabray has observed a number of changes for bicyclists in Memphis since that first driveway encounter.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The OPEC crisis of the 1970s generated what bicycle historians have called the "Bicycle Boom," a time when national bike sales skyrocketed from 5.5 million in 1970 to 14 million in 1972. Mabray recalls the gas shortage created such a demand for bicycles in the United States that "bike manufacturers couldn't keep up."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Street conditions have also changed as the Memphis region has expanded. "Historically," Mabray remembers, "you could leave Christian Brothers High School and see very few cars while riding out through Fayette County. Now with all the growth ... you have to go farther out or get up really early to get in a safe ride."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In business terms, Mabray notes that bikes now compete with "the XBox, golf clubs and jet skis. As a bike shop owner, I know we need to create more excitement and events for bike riding to get the novice out and on a bike."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And for the Peddler and others, the recent openings of the Shelby Farms Greenline and the Wolf River Greenway have been just the catalyst required for an increased interest in bicycling.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"These trails have been the best thing for our business since $4-per-gallon gas. People see how easy it is to access the bike paths using on-street bike lanes, and thanks to the efforts of A C Wharton, Memphis is becoming a destination for young people looking to start a new family or move with their company."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mabray likened the grand opening of the new Wolf River Pedestrian Bridge to "the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The Greenline has had a direct influence on our bottom line."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And while Mabray says "it looks like a better world for bicyclists" in Memphis, he is also quick to point out that "cyclists have been riding the streets the whole time. You have good days and bad with motorists. Texting has created a new dilemma," he says, an observation confirmed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's data that shows distracted driving was responsible for more than 6,000 traffic deaths in 2008.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But Mabray believes the recent increase in trails and bike lanes will only continue to improve our city's quality of life. "If people decide to use the bicycle as alternative transportation, still the world's most efficient machine, this city will be a better place to live. People will not only want to stay here; they will choose Memphis over Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville or Little Rock.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Bike parking racks in front of every large building and public facility would be a necessity, and it would take more cars off the streets and make it easier to park for the cars that are out there."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mabray's dream for Memphis? "In a perfect world, I hope for medians that separate the cyclists from the automobiles." While Mabray is quick to concede that such protected bike lanes seem unlikely, the new separated bicycle lanes on Broad Avenue are a beacon of hope for others who share Mabray's dream.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ultimately, for Mabray, the bicycle is more than a business venture. "I couldn't think of anything I would rather be doing. Making a livelihood out of something you love is taking a chance on heartbreak. But you still take the chance."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Anthony Siracusa, a native Memphian, is the community service coordinator at Rhodes College. He serves on the board of the Greater Memphis Greenline and is a daily cycling commuter. Contact Anthony through his blog at anthonysiracusa.blogspot.com</i></span></div></div><!-- End story_content --> <div id="footer"> </div><!-- End footer --> </div><!-- End container -->Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-52849742857487401822010-11-08T11:47:00.000-06:002010-11-08T11:47:49.274-06:00Anthony Siracusa: Broad Avenue facelift puts possibilities into reality<div id="header"> <img alt="Memphis Commercial Appeal - Printer-friendly story" src="http://media.commercialappeal.com/corp_assets/asphalt/_sites/mca/img/header_print.gif" /><div id="bylines"> By Anthony Siracusa </div><div id="dates"> Monday, November 8, 2010 </div></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You've probably seen the old water tower from East Parkway. Or maybe you've had a cocktail at The Cove after enjoying a slice at Broadway Pizza.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But have you heard about the protected bike lanes, the on-street landscaping or the art-centric pedestrian walk?</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Broad Avenue, once known as home to the Beer Joint and a handful of building supply companies, is experiencing a rebirth. With the UrbanArt Commission and more than a dozen art studios, galleries and businesses now calling this old urban thoroughfare home, the Broad Avenue of today bears little resemblance to past incarnations -- unless you count the roadway itself.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">On Nov. 19 and 20, the street itself will be transformed.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/nov/08/broad-ave-facelift-puts-possibilities-into/">Read More....</a> </span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-73707160235927358892010-10-19T15:09:00.003-05:002010-10-19T15:28:17.376-05:00Walk Bike Memphis<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Livable Memphis has begun to beef up it's Walk Bike Memphis program. Part of that work includes a blog to cover bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure developments, policy improvements, and ongoing educational outreach into the greater Memphis community. Their latest post is about the new bike lanes on Southern Avenue. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">********************************************</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you've been on Southern Avenue between Perkins and Cooper in the past month you probably had a bumpy ride. But soon enough Memphis bicyclists will enjoy some smooth sailing. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="350" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=35.112607,-89.95657&spn=0.073722,0.152435&msid=112543852481371414480.000492e5c3d8707b51bf4&output=embed" width="425"></iframe></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">View <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=35.112607,-89.95657&spn=0.073722,0.152435&msid=112543852481371414480.000492e5c3d8707b51bf4&source=embed" style="color: blue; text-align: left;">Southern Avenue Bike Facility</a> in a larger map</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://walkbikememphis.blogspot.com/2010/10/southern-avenue-set-for-bike-lanes.html">Read More...</a> </span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-4819422322857581692010-09-27T14:49:00.000-05:002010-09-27T14:49:33.101-05:00LiveStrong Helps Hightailers Help LeBonheur<div id="container"> <div id="header"> <img alt="Memphis Commercial Appeal - Printer-friendly story" src="http://media.commercialappeal.com/corp_assets/asphalt/_sites/mca/img/header_print.gif" /> </div><div id="story_meta"> <h1>Life Cycles: Livestrong gives boost to 100-mile bicycle ride</h1><div id="bylines" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> By Anthony Siracusa </span></div><div id="dates" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Monday, September 27, 2010 </span></div></div><div id="story_content" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For nearly 15 years, the Memphis Hightailers have hosted an autumnal bicycle ride offering participants the chance to complete 100 miles in one day. Called a "century ride," the Bluff City Blues 100 is a staple for many recreational cyclists.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">When plans for this year's event were announced in July, Memphis Hightailers president Paul Rubin received an unexpected phone call: "We planned the ride for Oct. 2, which by coincidence was the day Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer in 1996. Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation called and essentially asked if they could sponsor the event."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Rubin said, "Livestrong simply wanted to promote a ride that raises awareness of healthy living. So we were happy to accept their sponsorship."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Livestrong is sponsoring 462 events in 375 cities across 50 countries on Saturday. In Memphis, Livestrong will provide a support vehicle for riders and 100 onsite volunteers at the event.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Healthy living is the recurring theme of the Bluff City Blues 100.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Since 2007, Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center has been the beneficiary of the event. The Le Bonheur Club, originally a ladies sewing circle that created clothes for orphaned children in the 1920s, began tending to orphaned children's medical needs in the 1930s. In 1944, the Pediatric Society approached the women's club about raising money to build a children's hospital. Le Bonheur officially opened its doors in 1952, and has provided medical services to children since then.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"We've made the Bluff City Blues 100 our premier event of the year," Rubin said. While the club hosts two other major rides annually -- the Red, White and Blue 4th of July ride and the Charles Finney Fundraiser Ride for the Church Health Center -- the Bluff City Blues 100 is the cycling club's largest event, with an expected participation of 500 riders.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Finishing a century ride is a significant accomplishment. The Hightailers want the Bluff City Blues 100 to be a celebration for those who accomplish such a tremendous personal feat. At the conclusion of the event, we'll recognize by name those who finish their first century and provide medals for each rider."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Rubin says interest in the long-distance cycling event is growing. Forty riders, most of whom had never ridden a century, signed up for the Le Bonheur 100 Team. Since July, Susan Struminger and Mitchell Lansky have led the team on training rides that increased in distance from 30 to 80 miles. Cycling coach Clark Butcher provided participants with tips on nutrition, stretching, endurance training and basic bicycle maintenance.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In addition to the 100-mile ride, a 20-mile ride, a 40-mile ride and a metric century event -- a 62-mile ride -- will be available to participants.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The club has asked a few special guests to kick things off. Grizz, the Memphis Grizzlies mascot, will start one of the shorter rides, while Memphis Mayor A C Wharton will launch one of the longer.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"We've never had a mayor come out and support a bike event," Rubin said. "Conditions for bicycling in Memphis seem to be improving."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Anthony Siracusa, a native Memphian and graduate of Rhodes College, has just completed a 12-month study of bicycle policy, advocacy and infrastructure across four continents. You can read about his travels at <a href="http://www.anthonysiracusa.blogspot.com/">anthonysiracusa.blogspot.com</a> and <a href="http://www.communitypoweredcycling.com/">communitypoweredcycling.com</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Ride details</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>What:</strong> The Bluff City Blues 100, to encourage bicycle riding in Memphis and raise money for Le Bonheur Children's Hospital</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Who:</strong> The Memphis Hightailers Bicycle Club</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>When:</strong> Saturday; 100-mile ride, 8 a.m.; 62-mile ride, 8:15 a.m.; 40-mile ride, 8:30 a.m; 20-mile ride, 8:45 a.m.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Where:</strong> All rides leave from Mud Island River Park at the Old Memphis Belle Pavilion, 101 Island Drive</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Cost:</strong> $45 for non-Hightailers members, $35 for members; $10 T-shirt fee (in addition to registration)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Register:</strong> <a href="http://www.memphishightailers.com/">memphishightailers.com</a>. Advance registration recommended, but participants can register day of event.</span><br />
</div><div id="footer" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Scripps Lighthouse" height="53" src="http://media.commercialappeal.com/corp_assets/asphalt/img/sing_logo.gif" width="53" /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> © 2010 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online </span><br />
</div></div>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-32366749785198288412010-09-27T14:43:00.000-05:002010-09-27T14:43:05.066-05:00Mayor Wharton Speaking at Otherlands on September 20, 2010<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eTdTuGBrf_4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eTdTuGBrf_4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-7696504828110396102010-09-22T10:53:00.000-05:002010-09-22T10:53:55.553-05:00Wharton pedals better health as a life cycle<div id="container"> <div id="header"> <img alt="Memphis Commercial Appeal - Printer-friendly story" src="http://media.commercialappeal.com/corp_assets/asphalt/_sites/mca/img/header_print.gif" /> </div><div id="story_meta"> <h1>Wharton pedals better health as a life cycle</h1><h2>Bike-friendly plan praised for greater access and appeal</h2><div id="bylines"> <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">By Tom Bailey, Tom Bailey Jr. </span></div><div id="dates" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Wednesday, September 22, 2010 </span></div></div><div id="story_content" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mayor A C Wharton this week gave some political advice to dozens of cyclists who overfilled Otherland's coffee shop to thank him for his recent actions and pledges to make Memphis more bike friendly. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> A member of the Memphis Hightailers bicycle club asked what cyclists can do to help Wharton make the streets more accessible for bikers. Wharton urged them to couch their advocacy in terms of wanting better health for themselves and the city instead of simply demanding more bike lanes. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Livable Memphis hosted the meeting to thank the mayor, who has just hired the city's first bicycle/pedestrian coordinator and pledged to add 55 miles of bike lanes over the next two years. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But Wharton said his ears were still ringing from criticism he received earlier Monday from city labor leaders for his hiring of a "high-priced" bike coordinator at a time when Wharton has ordered budget reductions. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Other constituents, he said, criticize him for caring "more for folks riding bikes than people getting a job." </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Bicycle retailer Joe Royer of Outdoor Inc. told Wharton that bike-friendly streets are a critical piece for the city's growth "so we can pay union employees more. This is good for business." </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Wharton agreed, saying safe, appealing streets for bikes and walkers make Memphis more appealing for the lifestyle choices they offer. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Besides, the city needs the exercise, he said. The economic and human costs of the city's obesity rate should pull at "your purse strings if it doesn't pull your heartstrings." </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The city will focus on creating logical bicycle and pedestrian connections instead of just "chalking up" miles of striped bicycle lanes that may or may not be meaningful, Wharton said. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For example, cyclists should have good routes from Cooper-Young, through Overton Square, to Overton Park, he said. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The route from the University of Memphis to Tiger Lane west of Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium should offer a bike connection, Wharton said. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But don't expect him to create a bike lane down congested Union Avenue. "We're going to use common sense," he said. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Livable Memphis, the coalition for sustainable neighborhoods, gave Wharton some requests as well as support. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Program manager Sarah Newstok told Wharton the coalition would like to see police training on the new bike laws passed this year. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It also wants the city of Memphis to adopt a plan for providing better access for cyclists and pedestrians. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">And the coalition wants more enforcement directed for the safety of pedestrians. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">-- Tom Bailey Jr.: 529-2388 </span><br />
</div><div id="footer" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Scripps Lighthouse" height="53" src="http://media.commercialappeal.com/corp_assets/asphalt/img/sing_logo.gif" width="53" /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> © 2010 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online </span><br />
</div></div>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-54610578750792976682010-09-13T13:28:00.000-05:002010-09-13T13:28:04.622-05:00Victory Bicycle Studio Built on Founder's Passion for Bicycling<div id="container"> <div id="header"> <img alt="Memphis Commercial Appeal - Printer-friendly story" src="http://media.commercialappeal.com/corp_assets/asphalt/_sites/mca/img/header_print.gif" /> </div><div id="story_meta"> <h1>Victory built on founder's passion for bicycling</h1><div id="bylines"> <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">By Anthony Siracusa </span></div><div id="dates" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Monday, September 13, 2010 </span></div><div id="dates" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div></div><div id="story_content"> <div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">For Clark Butcher, a love of cycling started with hamburgers and hot dogs.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"I was a Boy Scout as a kid, and one weekend, I volunteered to serve food at a mountain bike race at Arkabutla Lake," he said.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">After the inspiring event, Butcher began saving money for his first mountain bike.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Butcher, who completed his first triathlon at age 7, has been racing bicycles for 12 years. He is the city's only Category 1 racer, a class reserved for semi-pro riders, and he has coached cyclists of all skill levels across Memphis. He serves as a consultant for bicycle team training camps and organizes a handful of local races annually.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When Butcher's part-time interest in bicycle coaching began to blossom into a full-time commitment, he called his friend Robert Taylor -- a real estate agent with Raspberry CRE -- to ask about acquiring office space. Taylor, who had spent his 20s and 30s as the general manager and head buyer for a local outdoor retailer, was also looking to move his continued client base back into a brick-and-mortar </span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">location.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"We started brainstorming and decided that, since I needed a space and Robert's maintenance and fittings needed to move from his house, it just made sense to get a little storefront."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The duo tapped professional bicycle mechanic Michael Crum, acquired a 500-square-foot storefront on Young Avenue near East Parkway, and decided to open a small shop in the heart of Midtown. They decided to call it Victory Bicycle Studio.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Victory Bicycle Studio is a specialty retail store with a focus on cycling enthusiasts, weekend warriors and racers," says Butcher. "Our goal is to provide exceptional service, support and expedited maintenance time. Between Robert, Michael and myself, there is 30 years of experience in the bicycle industry. Our goal is to over-service people."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Beginning a bike-based business in the midst of difficult financial times may appear risky. According to the National Bicycle Dealers Association, total bike sales declined from 18.5 million in 2008 to 14.9 million in 2009. But specialty bike stores catering to a particular niche -- such as elite racers or daily commuters -- experienced a slight growth in market share during 2009. This is largely because specialty bike dealers provide a high volume of parts and accessories, a market niche not filled by big box retailers.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Still, the lifeblood of a locally owned bike shop is its service and maintenance commitment. This, Butcher says, is Victory Cycle Studio's No. 1 priority.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"We're doing so many fitness assessments and seeing folks not riding the right bikes. At Victory, we don't want to sell you a bike that we have on the floor. We want to see you on the absolute right bike. We want to be a sort of liaison for finding the best possible bicycle. If someone says, 'Hey, so and so online has the best bike for the best deal,' we'll sit down with them, take measurements and make sure that they have the best stem, the best handlebar and the best bike fit."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Butcher believes bicycling is growing in Memphis. "The opening of the Shelby Farms Park Greenline, the creation of designated bike lanes, the growing number of charity rides and races in town, the weekly group rides with as many as 80 people showing up ... there is just so much going that can cater to any level of cyclist in Memphis. I was the only kid racing in high school, but now there are all sorts of individuals riding bicycles in the same group. There is a student with two part-time jobs riding next to an orthopedic surgeon."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Butcher is particularly excited about the opening of the Shelby Farms Park Greenline on Oct. 9. "The greenline is what is attracting people who haven't ridden bikes before. They're dusting off their bikes and checking this out. The growing number of group rides keep people engaged. It's fun, it's a low-impact sport, it's social. It's cool."</span></div><br />
<em>Victory Bicycle Studio, 2294 Young Ave., 729-2229, victorybicyclestudio.com.</em><br />
<em>Anthony Siracusa, a native Memphian and graduate of Rhodes College, has just completed a 12-month study of bicycle policy, advocacy and infrastructure across four continents. You can read about his travels at anthonysiracusa.blogspot.com and communitypoweredcycling.com.</em><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><div id="footer"> </div><div id="footer"><img alt="Scripps Lighthouse" height="53" src="http://media.commercialappeal.com/corp_assets/asphalt/img/sing_logo.gif" width="53" /> © 2010 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online <br />
</div></div>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758237813251556266.post-34549097426368811392010-08-22T14:30:00.006-05:002010-09-13T13:34:10.282-05:00A City that Achieves<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">This morning, I heard one of my friends was working at a Steak and Shake in New York City. He has taught Spanish at Rice College in Houston and, most recently, took a break in earning his Ph.D. at U. Penn. Now, he’s working at the Steak and Shake. He’s brilliant, charming, funny and ambitious. But I guess the real question is how good is he at making malts. </span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile, here in Memphis it’s hot as Hades. The ambiance is thick--day after day—and only rarely in the last two months have we seen a break in the daytime heat. And by break I mean a drop from triple digits to lower nineties. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s amazing how unrelenting difficulty can enhance one’s appreciation for brief moments of ease. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s also an exciting time here in Memphis. This city appears to be on the verge of making sustainable infrastructure development a priority, and NGOS, non-profits, and the municipalities all appear to be falling in line—offering their political support and often financial support for the creation of bike facilities, sidewalks, and greenlines. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The City of Memphis will announce it’s new bike and pedestrian coordinator in the coming week; The Shelby Farms Greenline will open in October; Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton has committed to creating 60 miles of bike facilities within the next 18-24 months, and Walk Bike Memphis is working to fund bike paths through Overton Park, along Broad St., and on into the Shelby Farms Park Greenline. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Greater Memphis Greenline will begin work on acquiring and developing three new greenlines while maintaining a long-term focus on the acquisition of right of way for more than 400 miles of MLGW utility easements. And The Wolf River Greenline is progressively heading west: the connector from Shady Grove to Walnut Grove is currently under construction. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A new bicycle shop, Victory Bicycle Studio, is set to open on Young Avenue September 1<sup>st</sup>. The Peddler Bicycle Shop has become an exclusively Trek store while Outdoors Inc. and Midtown Bicycle Company continue to serve bicyclists between Highland and the River. Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop is continually growing in it’s ability to work with community partners: its latest project—in addition to its ongoing effort to help Memphians construct their own affordable bicycles—is a partnership with Leadership Memphis that will afford students in the leadership class the chance to work with youth to build a bike. Revolutions continues to inspire with its ability to build bicycles while building community. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s an exciting time to be a Memphian. And, considering the last 10 years spent working on these issues, it’s thrilling to see a very different city being built before our eyes. Southern Avenue has become my own personal symbol for this progress: I spent hundreds of hours speeding up and down Southern Ave. on my bicycle, navigating the narrow stretches of roadway with experience and caution. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But within the month Southern will have bicycle lanes. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s unclear just how much of the street will have bike lanes—we’re hoping the entire stretch from Cooper to Goodlett will receive lanes this month—but to have a dedicated bicycle facility on this critical corridor of connectivity between Midtown and the University lifts my heart. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Memphis is on the Move. And it reminds me of a speech the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered on the steps of the Alabama capital in 1965. Marchers had just trod from Selma to Montgomery to demonstrate support for the federal Voting Rights Bill that would be passed in August of that year. King could clearly see a break in the heat—it was that ebb of days in the low 90s amidst the sweltering oppression of ongoing racial injustice. And King knew that the freedom struggle was at its height; most importantly, he knew no-one could turn the movement around. He said: </span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>We’ve come a long way since that travesty of justice was perpetrated upon the American mind. James Weldon Johnson put it eloquently. He said: <o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">We have come over a way </span></i></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>That with tears hath been watered.<br />
<br />
We have come treading our paths<br />
<br />
Through the blood of the slaughtered. <br />
<br />
Out of the gloomy past, <br />
Till now we stand at last<br />
<br />
Where the white gleam<br />
Of our bright star is cast.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Today I want to tell the city of Selma, today I want to say to the state of Alabama, today I want to say to the people of America and the nations of the world, that we are not about to turn around. We are on the move now. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Yes, we are on the move...Like an idea whose time has come, not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. We are moving to the land of freedom.</i></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The stakes were higher in the Civil Rights movement than they are in the movement to make our streets safe for bicycles and pedestrians. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But the stakes are equally as high for Memphis generally. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And maybe, even when seen in this broad way, our city is indeed on the move. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But questions persist: will we stave off poverty for a third of our population, end the brain drain, improve education, work with our homeless brothers and sisters, end the bloodshed in the streets, and build a sustainable city—a city that has a sense of destination in 10 years, a city that enjoys a reputation for being a forward thinking place that learns from the past and forges a bright future?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I think so. But, as with King, I’m a “prisoner of hope,” one bound to a commitment for a city that succeeds. So maybe I’m not the best judge. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">An editorial in the Memphis Commercial Appeal last month boasted Memphis’ ability to effectively strive towards positive development, noting the inherent good resulting from this striving. King may have agreed. He claimed “unearned suffering is redemptive,” assuring freedom fighters enduring physical and emotional beatings that none of their efforts were in vain. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But Memphis ought to move from a city that strives to a city that achieves. It’s my contention that we’ll know we’re on our way—not just on the move, but on our way—when Memphis becomes a city of achievement.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As it is, I think I’m due to call my friend in New York. We need to catch up about our lives, sure. But as I seek to find my place in this forward movement for a city that still struggles to offer opportunities, I’m interested in what it’s like to work at the Steak and Shake. <o:p></o:p></span></div>Anthony C. Siracusahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619769469849846781noreply@blogger.com2