The following is an excerpt from our October issue. Subscribe now.

By: J. Ward Moorehouse

These days, the changes along the I-240 Poplar Loop are a study in constant change. Driving down Poplar one week might yield an open dirt field with slow moving machinery. The following week, that same piece of land is a bank with an Opening Soon sign blowing in the wind.

This past spring, Belz Enterprises was finally able to convert the prize piece of land just west of the I-240 Loop, luring a restaurant, a bank, and even a Starbucks onto an odd shaped tight fit piece of land. They even found room for an electronic billboard which has remained consistently occupied.

Now the attention of developers has shifted from the west side of the Loop to the east.

Gone are the Ridgeway Trace Apartments, once a fixture along the I-240 Loop. Sprawling buildings that looked more suited for the 1970s. Almost overnight, Ridgeway Trace was gutted and bulldozed, making way for construction this fall on a brand new commercial development.

The Ridgeway Trace Shopping Center, a series of free standing and joined commercial buildings, will begin to rise just west of the dark glassed and slightly curved Crescent Building over the next year. The plan is to take an area long known for high dollar business and add a high profile commercial element. It is a marriage long overdue.

The commercial complex, already leasing, aims for completion by fall of next year, or as retailers call it, the precipice of the Christmas Season.

Ridgeway Trace already has two anchor stores on board – Target and Best Buy. They also have a growing list of secondary stores, or Junior Anchors – Barnes & Noble, the Cheesecake Factory, Smoothie King, and Maggiano’s, an Italian restaurant. The aim is to not only cater to the steady daytime traffic, but to also create an elevated flow of nighttime traffic with retailers and restaurants open late into the night.

Filling the commercial space seems to be gravy, with new tenants already being added monthly. Poplar, along the I-240 Loop, generates over 60,000 vehicles per day. Over 70,000 people live within a three-mile radius of the land where the Ridgeway Trace Shopping Center is being built.

As development along the Loop continues to grow, traffic becomes a major obstacle to achieving success. With 1,700 parking spaces and an estimated five to ten thousand extra vehicles thrown out onto Poplar Avenue every day, one has to hope that the problems that have plagued the Walnut Grove exit just one mile north (read: congestion and gridlock) are unable to find root in the Poplar Loop.

The following is an excerpt from our October issue. Subscribe now.

by: Chuck Bates

Most of us have held the belief that the US Dollar is exempt from any real problems in the marketplace. After all, the Dollar currently maintains the title of the reserve currency for the central banks of the World right? Unfortunately this very belief is likely what will prohibit the majority in the US from protecting themselves from the difficult times for the dollar that seem to be on the horizon. However you do not have to be a victim as there are some very simple yet practical steps you can take to protect your hard-earned assets from the forthcoming economic storms.

The US Dollar has been the currency of currencies but this was not simply by chance nor due to wartime victories. The dollar was promoted to this esteemed category simply due to the fact that he who holds the gold makes the rules. You see in 1944 there was a conference in Bretton Woods, NH where the economic minds of the day decided that since gold was indeed the reserve currency choice of the ages and there seemed to be constant instability when it came to paper currencies then there was need for a currency that was backed by such a standard as gold and redeemable in said yellow metal upon demand. Thus the US made the largest conscription of gold to the deal and foreign governments could use the US Dollar as their reserve currency knowing they could redeem these paper IOU’s for real money at anytime.
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The following is an excerpt from our October issue. Subscribe now.

By: Jonathan Lindberg

In July 1940, the Democratic Convention in Chicago nominated Franklin Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term. The United States was facing great peril, split over the prospect of war with both Germany and Japan and still shaking the dust of the depression from its shoes. Roosevelt, ambitious to be sure, had kept his third term aspirations close to his heart, much like he would do over his fourth term. But with the nomination secure, Roosevelt turned his attention to the vice presidency, an office which was still voted upon by the delegates. Roosevelt indicated his choice was Henry A. Wallace, then Secretary of Agriculture. The convention was less than pleased. From the White House, Roosevelt followed the proceedings with unusual interest. What is clear is that at some point before the vote, Roosevelt drafted a letter declining the nomination for president, to be delivered to the delegates if Wallace was not the nominee. Like so many fights Roosevelt initiated, this battle had little to do with the vice presidency, an office still held in low regard. The battle was over Roosevelt himself, who had learned to amass power better than any president up to his time. The battle was won. Wallace was nominated. Roosevelt was elected. And four years later Wallace, no longer necessary, was replaced on the ticket by Senator Harry Truman.

Such is the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a man who from an early age, learned how to use his name and influence to get what he wanted.

Roosevelt grew up in New York City among the gilded age, when wealth and power was held firm among the ruling elite, and the middle class was only a concept being fashioned on paper. The fact that Franklin was the nephew of President Theodore Roosevelt only strengthened his hand, helping to guide his career well into the 1920s. It was only after serving as President for three consecutive terms, along with the death of his influential and dominant mother Sara that Roosevelt managed to emerge from the tall shadows of his family and become their patron saint.
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The following is an excerpt from our October issue. Subscribe now.

By: Senator Mark Norris

As Senate Majority Leader, it was recently my privilege to introduce the Governor in Memphis for a speech to the National Federation of Independent Business. During his remarks, he identified me as “his harshest critic anywhere in the State of Tennessee.” At the same time, he acknowledged that we work well together.

The Governor’s remark heralds a recent, and historical, turn of events. For the first time in nearly 140 years, the General Assembly is no longer controlled exclusively by one political party. The Senate is numerically Republican, and the Speaker of the Senate is a Republican. The House of Representatives is just the opposite.

For the first time since taking office in 2002, the Governor, a Democrat who had grown accustomed to having his way when both Senate and House were dominated by his party, found it necessary to accede to the will of the legislature on a number of important issues. This is what our founding fathers intended. It arises out of the separation of powers prescribed by our Constitution. There are three separate, but equal, branches of government which should work in concert with, not domination over, one another.

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