On July 23, 2009, Jeff Sanford, the president of the Center City Commission, gave an address to their annual luncheon. The following is the text of that address, provided by the Center City Commission. [Note: The text has been re-formatted and lightly edited from the original transcript.]

Jeff Sanford: “As I See It”

Thank you very much, Jennifer, for your kind introduction, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am now in my 12th year as president of the Center City Commission and the past eleven years have been some of the most rewarding of my career. I honestly do not have the words to express the gratitude I feel for the opportunity to serve our community as the president of the Center City Commission. It has been, and continues to be, an honor and a privilege for me just to be on the team, to play a role during this remarkable period in the rebirth of downtown. It has taken a partnership of city builders – from the private and public sectors – now fortunately too many in number to name, all united in the belief that we cannot have a vibrant city without a vibrant downtown. All pledged to building back what the decades took away.

I can also say that by any measure there is much work left to be done. I know some of you have heard my estimate before: that when all of the current downtown projects are completed – nearly $3 billion worth – and by the way we are lucky that many of these projects were financed before the economic crisis – that when all of the current projects are completed, we will have only finished about 40% of what needs to be done. That (one) is still never more than a few feet or a few yards away from something else in downtown that needs fixing.

The great recession will end one of these days, and when it does, all signs point to the next wave of development. Development that I hope will continue to respect our rich inventory of historic properties so that in the end downtown Memphis will look like Memphis, not like Nashville or Charlotte or Atlanta but like Memphis, this very special place nestled up along the banks of the mightiest river in America.

In a word, I am very optimistic about the future of this downtown.

However, I must warn you about something that could become the greatest threat we have faced on the road to its recovery. a problem that if not addressed – and with the full force of our community’s resources – could in the coming years undo much of what we’ve done.

I believe that the difference between good downtowns and great downtowns does not lie in the built environment alone. That the most significant difference between good and great lies in what a person sees, how a person feels walking to and from, in and around, a downtown. The experience one has on the outside, in what is commonly called the public realm.
Think about other downtowns you have visited. Have you been to downtown Portland or Philadelphia? Denver or Boulder or Des Moines? Charlotte, Chattanooga, or Charleston? I know many of you have been to New York, Chicago, and Boston. Chances are that if your memories of those visits are good memories it is not only because of where you went and what you did, but also the quality of the experience you had in just being there. Feeling safe. Walking along well-lit sidewalks and streets. Streets and sidewalks and alleyways that were clean and in good repair. Passing through carefully tended and landscaped parks and public spaces, interesting and well-maintained building facades and storefronts in your view.

The managers of great downtowns know that life and commerce thrive when people have pleasant experiences, when they feel comfortable, even uplifted in moving in and about the open spaces.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am concerned about our ability to deliver a great downtown experience in the future. I fear that as Downtown continues to grow – we now have some 27,000 residents, 65,000 daytime employees, and millions of visitors every year – as Downtown grows, I am afraid our current level of services will fall woefully short of insuring a clean, safe, and pleasing public environment.

I don’t need to consult the experts. People avoid – they don’t come back to – downtowns that they find unpleasant, public places where they feel uncomfortable.

So unless we are willing today to set a higher standard for tomorrow – and to commit the additional resources to reach and maintain it – I predict that downtown Memphis could lose its luster in the future, and its customers. And that, my friends, is much more than a matter of quality of life. It is potentially a severe economic problem as well.

With a higher density of buildings and people, greater numbers of attractions and special events all packed into confined areas, downtowns are unique year-round gathering places for residents, workers, and visitors, very different from other sections of cities. A difference that translates into special needs, and the need for a higher, more detailed level of service to keep them clean, safe, comfortable, and attractive, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Now I know some will say we can’t afford to raise the bar to provide downtown Memphis with higher levels of service. I say we can’t afford not to. And others will warn me that my expectations are unrealistic, that after all this is not New York or even Nashville. And they may remind me – in those dreadful words that have historically symbolized the attitude of too many in our community too quick to accept second-best – they will remind me not to forget that, after all, this is just Memphis! I don’t buy that kind of thinking and neither do you!

But, the good news is that nothing has been lost in downtown Memphis – not yet. The Center City Commission is taking the lead in this crucial discussion, and I am confident the community will meet the challenge and do whatever it takes to preserve and enhance the quality of Downtown’s public realm.
We will do so:

* Because we are smart enough to do what we have to do to protect the billions of dollars that have already been invested in Downtown.

* Because we know the important role Downtown is playing once again in our regional economy and in our county’s economic development efforts.

* And, if these reasons are not reasons enough, we know that Downtown is where many first and lasting impressions of Memphis are made. For millions of visitors, Downtown becomes the image of Memphis. We must make sure that when visitors leave our downtown their memories will be good memories, not only because of where they went and what they did but because of the experience they had in just being here.

Downtown is a special place. But from another perspective, Downtown is but one neighborhood in the larger community. And so it can be said that as Memphis and Shelby County go, so goes Downtown. It is in that fact I take a special liberty today: to share some personal thoughts on the future of Memphis. But first, a very clear disclaimer. I will be sharing my thoughts and opinions, not necessarily those of the Center City Commission, its board members or staff.

I moved to Memphis 40 years ago. It was 1969, a year after the assassination of Dr. King. To say that Memphis was still in a state of civic shock would be an understatement.

But even under the clouds that lingered, I encountered some very positive and hopeful people. Though small in number, people who were determined to unite their historically divided community and people who were convinced that Memphis was nearing the dawn of a new day. That Memphis, they said in 1969, was on the edge of greatness, and ready to earn its rightful place among the greatest cities in America

It is now 40 years later, and I can say without hesitation that in so many ways Memphis is a better place than it was in 1969. A much better place. But, 40 years later I’m hearing many of you say that Memphis is still on the edge of greatness. Need I point out that some of our peer cities from back in the Sixties and Seventies — cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, and Indianapolis — have already made the crossing. And do I dare add Nashville to this list?

But Memphis is, it is now said — just as it was said when I arrived here years ago — still in the process of realizing its full and, some say, boundless potential.

What is the problem?

We know only too well that the real problem is actually a series of complex and interrelated problems, many with roots deep in the history and socio-economic soil of the community. In my mind, under-education may be the tap root from which many of our chronic ills continue and, in their sum total, perpetuate what we used to call the “cycle of poverty.” But, you don’t need me to cite the chapter and verse of what ails us.

Let it suffice for me to say that to this day, while progress has been and is being made, the community’s efforts to conquer its most persistent and difficult problems have fallen short. Not for lack of trying. Over the years I’ve seen some good, well-meaning efforts on the road to a better Memphis I can remember back in the Seventies an organization of leading businessmen called Future Memphis. Then there was the Governor’s Jobs Conference in the early Eighties – I was on the board of that one – the Chamber’s various programs over the years and, just several years ago, the Memphis 2005 Economic Development Initiative. And I’m sure I’ve left out some other worthy efforts from earlier times.

But I say nothing in the last 40 years compares to the collective power of the campaign you are now waging to attack our problems and nurture our potential.

So many have signed onto the cause that I am hesitant to name names for fear of leaving some out. But I would be remiss if I didn’t at least try to give credit where credit is due. Under the banners of Memphis Fast Forward and Memphis ED and banners of their own, organizations like Memphis and Shelby County governments have joined with the Memphis Regional Chamber and Memphis Tomorrow, the CVB, Memphis Music Foundation, Memphis Music Commission, Black Business Association, artsmemphis, MMBC, Operation Safe Community, MPACT Memphis, RDC, the Bioworks Foundation, America’s Aerotropolis, urban/art, the Urban League, Live from Memphis, the Memphis Film Commission, Leadership Memphis, the CCC, the Leadership Academy and its several good-works offshoots, neighborhood and educational and faith-based organizations, cultural and civic organizations across the community.

Take my word for it. I’ve been here a long time. I’ve never seen anything quite like this. Great work is being done. However, in my opinion there are some very unfortunate, unnecessary obstacles – old and new – that are standing in your way, slowing you down.

As if our deeply rooted, chronic problems aren’t challenging enough, we’ve been struck in recent years with an outbreak of political corruption and shocking expressions of entitlement in high and low places. Though the number of offenders is thankfully small, the few seem to have given rise to a subculture of official misconduct that is frankly an absolute embarrassment. It not only continues to give our city and county a bad name, but it makes the job of community building needlessly more difficult.

What can we do? We have little choice but to continue to have faith in our judicial system to root out the most flagrant offenders. And, we should not forget the power of the ballot box to help us say “no” to those who violate our trust in any way and at any level. We must let those in public office, and those who aspire to it, know that we will not tolerate abuses of power – large or small – that cast a dark shadow over the good things, the so many good things that are going on in Memphis.

But I believe that nothing is more counter to the community’s good intentions than the politics of race. It is the enemy within, an old adversary of progress in Memphis, still powerful enough to seriously undermine our most earnest efforts, and to hold us back from achieving our goals.

And, I can tell you first hand that race-card politics – with practitioners from across the racial and political spectrum – continues to spoil the image of Memphis from coast to coast, and among some who would otherwise do business here, some who would otherwise live here, but all of whom turn thumbs down on Memphis in part because of it. I know it, and you know it.

And though we often speak of it obliquely in polite circles, I don’t need to tell anyone in this hall today that the dangerous mixture of race and politics is still poisoning our civic discourse.

The unfortunate fact is that racial politics – a throwback to the bad old days if there ever was one – still sells around here. Its top-of-the-line product is divisiveness, and sadly the modern day race-mongers in our town still find plenty of buyers.

The forces of good – your historic initiatives to confront the real barriers to our greatness and the lingering forces of evil working to degrade us, the politics of race – seem to be endlessly locked at cross-purposes. So, what is our destiny? Will we still be saying, in 5 years, 20 years, or 40 years, that Memphis is on the edge of greatness?

Ladies and gentlemen, something unexpected has happened. Fate may be presenting us with a special moment in time, an opportunity to begin turning the history that has divided us into a future that will finally unite us.

If we are truly on the eve of new elections, then let us seize the moment to break with the past and usher in a new generation of leadership sensitive to our history but not trapped in it. Leadership that understands the value of trading the old politics of race and confrontation for the new politics of unity and cooperation.

I urge all of you who are so deeply committed to the greatness of this community to stand together in the months ahead and demand leadership – black or white, young or old – bold enough to ask not what is in the best interest of the white community or the black community, but to ask what is in the best interest of Memphis this just may be the time!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the way I see it. Thank you very much.