The 901 is your morning blend of Memphis news and commentary
Good Monday morning from Memphis, where the Levitt Shell is launching a new Saturday series of virtual concerts. But first …
This year, Detroit is receiving $35.2 million in Community Development Block Grant funds; Baltimore, $22.3 million; Cleveland, $21.7 million; Louisville, $11.5 million.
And Memphis? Memphis is receiving just $6.8 million, our Sam Hardiman reports.
That’s a glaring disparity, and city of Memphis officials say it’s due to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development using an outdated funding formulas. If you want to get into the weeds, read Sam’s story — but HUD’s formulas basically mean the cities with the biggest population dips since 1940 take the lion’s share of funding.
The city isn’t arguing that population loss shouldn’t be a factor — just that population loss shouldn’t be the main factor, giving Detroit five times the funding of Memphis. In a resolution last week, Memphis City Council sponsor Chase Carlisle called out the unfairness of the HUD formulas and said changing them could be “catalytic” for the city:
“It’s kind of outrageous that a city like Louisville gets twice as much as the city of Memphis,” Councilman Chase Carlisle, who sponsored the resolution, said.
Of course, Memphis’ calls for HUD to change its funding formulas aren’t happening in a vacuum: No surprises here, but the pandemic has taken a hefty toll on the city’s finances, pushing the issue of HUD funding reform up on the city’s list of priorities. Recognizing the importance of securing more funding, Congressman Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, told Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland that he’ll be seeking reforms soon.
But the problem with HUD formulas isn’t a new problem, as pointed out by Roshun Austin, president and CEO of community development corporation The Works Inc., who was quoted in the latest column from our Tonyaa Weathersbee. Austin said the city has an affordable housing problem and needs 30,000 more housing units to fix it.
“The city just had an aha moment [about the meager CDBG funding], but we’ve been screaming about not having the resources we need for over 20 years,” Austin said.
Austin goes on to argue that better housing could mean not only a higher quality of life for Memphians but less crime — an argument that’s backed up by reams of research. Perhaps that will mean the city won’t need to hire more police officers, Tonyaa adds.
Either way, HUD’s funding formulas need an update. If Memphis is receiving tens of millions of dollars less in federal funding than its peers, the formulas are broken. What cities were like 80 years ago shouldn’t have more weight than what cities are like now.
Shelby County to keep public in dark
Last week, the Shelby County Health Department defended a decision to not publicly disclose when a school has reported a case of COVID-19, our Laura Testino reports.
Here’s SCHD Director Alisa Haushalter’s reasoning:
“At the current time, we will follow the guidance of the state, which is to do what we would normally do in the event of a case in a school,” Haushalter said.
She described that as working with the school to identify everyone who is a close contact, those who would be at risk, and communicate directly with those individuals, she said.
“That’s the highest priority and that’s where we’ll focus our communication,” she said.
If a “significant” outbreak occurs within a school, the department might decide to publicly report it, Haushalter said.
As far as transparency and accountability go, that’s a significant step backward — one that follows in the state’s footsteps — for a department that has struggled to live up to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris’ commitments to a transparent and accountable government. Instead of sunshine, the department is choosing darkness, secreting from public view the information parents need to make informed decisions about whether to keep their child in school, even though the department’s purpose is to serve the public. The department did the same thing about nursing home outbreaks, only loosening its grip on public information when the outbreaks and outcries became too great to ignore.
In short, the Health Department has a responsibility to be transparent with the public at all times — not just when a “significant” outbreak occurs. I’ve argued this before, but what the department needs is better and earlier communication, not less of it.
In any case, until the department has a change of heart, The CA is stepping up to fill the void: Laura explains how The CA is compiling a database for cases at local schools.
Speaking of schools: Ironically, the YMCA is trying to bring some students together in what sounds a lot like a classroom…to take virtual classes, Laura also reports.
Levitt Shell to launch ShellStream
After “going dark” due to the pandemic, the Levitt Shell in Midtown Memphis is gearing up for ShellStream, a Saturday series of new virtual concerts, our Bob Mehr reports.
The Shell will still dig into its archives for a Friday concert series, but the Saturday series marks the return of new music, even if the Shell itself remains dark. Bob has all of the details, but here’s the new schedule of archived concerts, followed by the new ones:
Orion Virtual Concert Series
Sept. 4: Stax Music Academy (from 2018)
Sept. 11: Ruthie Foster (from 2019)
Sept. 18: OSOG (from 2019)
Sept. 25: River Whyless (from 2019)ShellStream Concert Series
Sept. 5: John Németh & the Blue Dreamers
Sept. 12: Mighty Souls Brass Band
Sept. 19: Daz Rinko
Sept. 26: Carolyn Wonderland
What else is happening in the 901
- For subscribers: FedEx founder and CEO Fred Smith has advocated for reforming the U.S. Postal Service for years, our Max Garland reports. Also for subscribers: Our Jennifer Chandler profiles 20 women who have changed the face of the Memphis restaurant industry by stuffing ours (Not a subscriber? Please consider becoming one.)
- After The Commercial Appeal (rightly) pushed back against its subpoena, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has dropped an attempt to collect our videos and photos from a July 4 protest outside of the house of Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich, our Sam Hardiman reports.
- It’s one defeat after another for the Memphis Police Department in its fight with the American Civil Liberties Union. Our Daniel Connolly reports on the latest loss, which requires MPD to turn over officers’ on-the-job social media search histories.
- In an encouraging sign for the Memphis economy, employers added jobs for the third straight month, our Ted Evanoff reports.
- Memphis-based chain Tops Bar-B-Q is selling its properties and then leasing them back to give it more money for an expansion, our Jennifer Chandler reports. In other food news, Restaurant Iris will become a “Catalonia pop-up” for a couple of weeks starting Thursday, Jennifer also reports.
- From the Sports Desk: Memphis 901 FC came close to beating the Birmingham Legion but had to settle for the tie, our Corinne Kennedy reports. Meanwhile, our Evan Barnes gives his takeaways from the third week of Memphis Tigers football practice.
- Our editor, Mark Russell, wrote about The CA‘s commitment to diversity here.
The Fadeout: Evvie McKinney’s latest
Back in January, seemingly a lifetime ago, Memphian Evvie McKinney signed with Motown’s Gospel label after winning the first season of Fox’s talent competition “The Four: Battle for Stardom” in 2018. Now, more than half a year later, her new song, “Just Like God,” includes a timely lyric: “The world is changing, but your love holds me steady. / And I’m thinking ain’t that just like God?” Here’s the song to fade us out…
Like The Fadeout? Check out The 901’s Spotify playlist. Want to submit a recommendation of your own? Reach me by email, address below.
Columnist Ryan Poe writes The 901, a running commentary on all things Memphis. Reach him at [email protected] and on Twitter @ryanpoe.
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